Alexander Patten

June 17, 2024

This past week I had the privilege of attending the annual Write To Publish conference, in Wheaten Illinois, June 9-14.

Not only was this my first writer’s conference, but it was also the first time in 220 years that both broods of cicadas decided to pop out of the ground at the same time.

Needles to say, as I trod through the suburbs to get to a my train station, there was hardly a single tree not rhythmically buzzing with the things and hardly a sidewalk tile without a dead or dying one hobbling around.

The conference gave us some nice goodies, including a thorough guide to the Christian writing market, in addition to letting us meet people of note of which there were many.

Not long after arriving, I got a chance to speak with Steve Laube who’s both a top-tier literary agent, (the one I submitted my book proposal to) and admits to having ties to the mafia, true story. He was very gracious and easy to talk to in all our interactions, and has just as soothing of a baritone voice in person as in audio.

The first night keynote speech by Brett Harrison (author of Do Hard Things and co-founder of The Author’s Conservatory) did an excellent job setting the whole tone for the week.

Rather than turning the thing into a mad dash to scratch and claw our way to the top of the heap, Brett challenged us to live out what Jesus spoke to his disciples in Matthew 20:25-27. Even though it’s like that among non-Christians, it should not be so among us.

I met and had great times with more people than I can list here. Everyone I met indeed seemed geared towards all of us pulling each other up, which is exactly what these kinds of events should be about.

I also met Sam (SD) Smith who just so happened to be in the area and joined us for a Q&A with Steve and Brett. Sam has sold hundreds of thousands of books for his series on sentient rabbits with swords. It was all I could do to ask a question other than why sentient rodents are such a draw.

I also got to speak a lot with Megan Brown of Write To Publish, and an non-fiction literary agent, who carries around markers and large writing pads for the innumerable artistic diagrams and charts she drew for authors in need.

I also with a great fellow named Caleb, whose contact info I should have got. Caleb, please respond if you’re reading this. He’s a very promising speculative fiction author whose biggest influences include Anne of the Green Gables.

Caleb’s currently working on a steampunk novel about two brothers who live in an airship and investigating the death of their father.

I also got to visit the nearby museum containing JRR Tolkein’s desk upon which the Hobbit was written in its entirety, as well as much of another popular fantasy series that he wrote.

They also had C.S. Lewis’s wardrobe, so…

Overall, I learned there are quite a few other people out there no so dissimilar from me, with completed books of there own I’d like to read. I got a chance to see people at all different stages of a similar creative process, and got a better feel for what it’s like to really be an author.

One last tidbit, beyond merely writing one successful book, the way to make a living as an author is to generate a back catalog of works which steadily make money over time. My chief focus for now will probably be on creating my next novel, more on that another time. Caleb said it sounded pretty cool.

There’s much more I could say, but suffice it to say, I had a blast there, and hope to go again next year.

Peace!