So this past weekend I was able to attend the LDS Storymakers writers conference. It was really good. I attended some interesting classes and met a lot of great people. Here were a few of my favorite people to hear: James Dashner, Jeff Savage, Sara Megibow, and Dave Wolverton. They all had great things to share. James and Jeff talked about the “hook.” It was really interesting, especially since James read his query for “The Maze Runner.” Sara talked about the process of publishing and it was very insightful, albeit a little overwhelming when she mentioned how many rejection letters they sent out last year. And Dave did a class on resonance. It was fascinating and I learned a lot from his discussion.
On a completely different note, I had a beta reader who read my book who came up with the best comparison. She said HEIR was like Shannon Hale meets Prince Caspian. I couldn’t have said it better!!!
And finally, I think I’ve had a great idea for what I’m going to write next. It’s a concept that’s been floating around for a while in my head, but I didn’t quite know how to add that something that would make it unique. I hope I’ve found the answer. It takes a dystopian theme of the characters’ reality not actually being reality and inserts magic instead of technology. We’ll see how it turns out. 🙂
Shari Lambert 