Where I’ll be Next Month

I will be visiting Our Nation’s Twin Cradles of Liberty! Yay!

First stop, August 4-6: I’ll be at The Catholic Marketing Network Hoo Hah in Valley Forge, PA! While I’m there, I will be hanging at the National Catholic Register table and also doing a little yak session on writing for the Catholic Writers’ Conference. Here’s their press release:

Catholic Writers to Hold Conference in Valley Forge, PA

World Wide Web–The second annual Catholic Writers’ Conference LIVE will be held August 4-6, 2010, at the Scanticon Hotel Valley Forge in King of Prussia, PA. Sponsored by the Catholic Writer’s Guild and the Catholic Marketing Network (CMN), and held in conjunction with CMN’s annual retailer trade show, the Catholic Writers Conference LIVE provides Catholic authors with a prime opportunity to meet and share their faith with editors, publishers, fellow writers, and bookstore owners from across the globe.

This year’s conference will feature presentations on such topics as market tips and time management for busy writers, poetry, creating evil characters, working with an editor, creating winning proposals, journaling and much more. Speakers include Catholic publishing representatives Mark Brumley – CEO of Ignatius Press, Claudia Volkman – General Manager of Circle Press, Regina Doman – acquisitions editor for Sophia Institute Press, and Tom Wehner – Managing Editor of the National Catholic Register, all of whom will also hear pitches from writers.

Among the other speakers are Mark Shea (Mary, Mother of the Son), Michelle Buckman (My Beautiful Disaster), Donna-Marie Cooper-O’Boyle (Mother Teresa and Me), Susie Lloyd (Please Don’t Drink the Holy Water), and Publicist Lisa Wheeler from the Maximus Group.

“Attending this conference has been the best thing I have done for myself professionally,” Carol Bannon, author of the children’s book Handshake from Heaven, said of the 2009 conference. Her fellow writer Melanie Cameron agreed, saying she left the last conference re-energized. “I recommend [this] conference as a resource for any author (or wannabe) at any stage. You will walk away empowered!”

The Catholic Writers Guild, a religious non-profit organization, sponsors both this live conference in August and an online conference in February to further its mission of promoting Catholic literature. “Our conferences are totally focused on encouraging faithful Catholics to share genuine Catholic culture and faith in their writing no matter what genre,” says CWG President Ann Margaret Lewis. “These events are integral to our mission of ‘creating a rebirth of Catholic arts and letters.”
Registration costs $85 for CWG members, $95 for non-members and $42 for students. There’s also a discounted combined membership. To register or for more information, go to http://www.catholicwritersconference.com.

That will be fun because I get to see some old friends, as well as meet folks whose work I have admired, as well as connect with those whom I have heard of with the hearing of the ear, but never met.

After that, it’s off to Boston for a visit with the sundry wizards behind Catholic New Media who will be gathering for the Catholic New Media Conference August 7. I’m told the joint is sold out, so it should be fun. I have fond memories, not only of meeting Amy Welborn for the first time at one of those soirees (what? you haven’t checked out her fine work?), but also of meeting Jeff Miller, the Curt Jester, who *greatly* impressed me with his humble good humor. And many other fine folk besides (you know who you are!) Plus, I got to see a screamingly funny short film by Mac and Katherine Barron of Catholics in a Small Town. I hope they YouTube it someday.

Then, there will be the fun of seeing Greg and Jennifer Willits again, whose “That Catholic Show” remains a fine work of viral catechesis over the web. Not only are they fun people, but they had the moxie to inform me that I apparently resemble Philip Seymour Hoffman, which fills me with a nameless dread.

All this will be big fun. Then I fly home on Sunday, August 8. Oh! And I’m still hoping to figure out a way to meet Mike Flynn, author of Eifelheim (which you badly need to read), who lives about 60 miles out side Philly. Dunno if that one’s gonna pan out.

Oh! And I’ll see Jimmy Akin, who I’m also told I resemble. And maybe Stephen Greydanus, who I don’t resemble at all, but who does live in Jersey and who I’m hoping to pressure into making the haj.

Anyway, if you are Catholic and living in the Northeast Corridor somewhere, please stop by one or both of these events. I’d love to meet you!