A sweet video, kind of lyrical, called to my attention by my friend Don Gagne. Take a break and watch….

In case you didn’t see this in Sunday’s New York Times….

Marrie Stone interviews Janice Y.K. Lee, author of The Piano Teacher and Sylvia Sellers-Garcia, author of When the Ground Turns in Its Sleep.

Download audio.

(Broadcast date: January 14, 2009)

Here’s a writers conference in June, taking place in Pasadena. (I’ll be on a panel talking about getting writing done in 15 minute blips.) Should be good!
…….

Best-selling authors Robert Crais and Laurie King will be the keynote speakers for the inaugural California Crime Writers Conference, cosponsored by the Los Angeles chapter of Sisters in Crime and the Southern California chapter of MWA on June 13-14, 2009 at The Hilton Pasadena.

The two-day event will include an agents reception, forensics track, craft workshops, query and synopsis seminars, manuscript consultations, and classes for established authors on book contracts, e-publishing, presentation tips, online marketing information, and film/television opportunities.

Confirmed agents include Jill Marsal of Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, Irene Webb of Irene Webb Literary, and Timothy Wager of Davis Wager Agency. Faculty members include award-winning and best-selling authors such as Gayle Lynds, Jerrilyn Farmer, Jan Burke and Christopher Rice, while other experts featured are LAPD detectives, intellectual property attorney Jonathan Kirsch, and publicist Kim-from-L.A.

Early registration is $265 through February 28. For more information, click here.

Jeff said a lot of great things the other night (we’ll broadcast and also podcast the show very soon), but the one thing I remember is he said: “I believe in velocity.” I had asked him how he kept track of The Renegades, a mulitlayered, complex book. Novels, in general, are very messy. So many pages, so many characters, so many things to keep track of.

Jeff said he keeps his chapters in one big file, so if he has to do a search, it’s all there, in one file. He also said he wrote five pages a day, 25 pages a week and in six months he has a book-length manuscript, so there isn’t enough time to really forget what he wrote.

Such a simple tip and yet invaluable–for me, anyway, who has been known to take, well, years to work on a project.

My new mantra: I believe in velocity.

UC-Irvine covered our event the other night. Here you go.