Monday, July 27, 2009

YA Workshop Recap!

The event in Monterey, CA with the Central Coast Writers was awesome!

CCW: YA Workshop,the room


The meetings are held at a lovely hotel, where Shelley Adina (All About US Series) and I were provided dinner and dessert. We chatted with many of the members, who were all very gracious and wonderful.

After the CCW business concluded, I opened up the workshop by thanking everyone for inviting us. This was my second workshop on the topic of multicultural YA. I was a little calmer this time around! (haha!) But I still need some experience here!

CCW: YA Workshop


Shelley is an absolute pro! She knows her stuff and went through her Inspirational topic like a breeze!

CCW: YA Workshop


Here are the points we basically covered:

~ The Dos and Don'ts of Multicultural YA
~ The Inspirational Market
~ How to reach your target audience
~ How to reach readers through the Internet

With various questions from the audience, such as how do we pick our character's names, are personally diaries marketable, would specific ideas or age groups sell for YAs, etc. We had a steady Q&A going, which was very nice!

I also had a pleasant surprise visit by one of our blogger friends, Kelsey from Reading Keeps you Sane! She was visiting family in California, and this summer she'd met Sarah Dessen too! It was so awesome of her to attend our workshop!

CCW: YA Workshop with blogger


I think a few hundred more of these events and I might just actually feel like I know what I'm doing. *wink*

5 fresh comments:

Leigh Purtill said...

This sounds like it was a fantastic workshop! And I'm sure you were wonderful and everyone loved you! The topic of MC YA is so hot right now and so very important for us to be discussing. Wish I had been there to hear your words of wisdom. :)

TinaFerraro said...

I'm sorry I missed this, but I'm sure both you and Shelley were great! And a wave hello from me to Kelsey!

Kelly (Lynn) Parra said...

Thanks so much, Leigh! It really was a great time!! I appreciate your kind words!

One day will do an event together, Tina!!

WordVore Prod said...

This must've been great! MC YA is really a hot topc right now...especially with this recent book cover debaclt taking place. I'm sure you guys had loads of fun:)

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