Susanna here, still settling back to life in the workaday world after a wonderful time at the HNS North American Conference, held this year at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center at National Harbor in Maryland—a beautiful setting, although I have to admit the whole sensation of being in a community enclosed within a glass dome where everything was aiming to look old yet had a futuristic edge felt so surreal at times it had me thinking "Logan's Run" on more than one occasion :) But with so much natural light, it was all but impossible to get the usual hotel fatigue that comes with conferences. The hotel staff was wonderful, the food was superb, and the booksellers friendly. On top of which, the conference committee did an outstanding job of organizing everything, so those of us attending only had to worry about which of the many interesting sessions to choose.
Writer M.K. Tod has written good summary posts on two of these sessions so far: one on the agents and editors panel discussion on The State of Historical Fiction, and another on Tips on Writing a Series, and she'll probably do more if you keep an eye on her blog.
Even the luncheon keynote speeches had me scrambling for paper and pen to take notes—they were as packed with information and inspiration as any of the regular sessions. I especially enjoyed the keynote given by one of the guests of honor, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Wench and Balm, who encouraged us to remember that, although our research is an important part of what we do, "we mustn't forget that we are storytellers. We are weavers of tales that cause people to forget that they have to eat dinner...The same kind of spell we find ourselves in when we're writing is the kind of spell we want our readers to be in when they're reading." The only thing that can give them that, she told us, is the imagination. "If it was just the research they wanted," she said, "they would read historians. They read us for the wondrous."
In between getting informed and inspired, I took part in the really fun costume competition, held as a way to get all of us introverted writerly types to break the ice and get to know one another at the beginning of the conference. It also gave me a good excuse to wear my favourite 18th century gown and hat, made by April C. Thomas of Fashions Revisited (she even made the shift and stays I've got on underneath!) and my red shoes, sadly out of frame, from American Duchess. And I even got to meet your first President, George Washington himself (as portrayed by Vern Frykholm, Jr., one of the presenters at the conference).I saw old friends, and met new ones, and had a marvellous time.
And of course one of the nicest things was, I finally got to meet fellow Wench Andrea for the first time, face to face! Because although we "talk" nearly every day by email, and our wenchly group is warm and close and lovingly supportive, so it FEELS as though I've met them all in person, there were still a couple whom I hadn't, yet.
And now, at long last, I can cross Andrea off that list, as we got to spend some lovely hours together through the weekend (and it was very prescient of her to pack a sweater that matched my hair!)
Do you have friends that you've never met, but who you feel you know? Or friends you rarely get to see, but feel connected to?