By Linda C Butler
The Surrey International Writers Conference was held on Oct 24-26, 2008 in Surrey British Columbia (near Vancouver) and it was a great learning experience for writers of all genres. There were 80 different workshops, with many agents, authors and publishers.

Some of the highlights for romance writers were workshops and panels that discussed the specific concerns of the romance writer. There were also 10 minute pitch sessions where you could discuss a manuscript with an editor, agent meetings and sessions to get advice from published authors.

This is a highlight of some of the workshops that focused on the romance genre.

Diamonds and Pearls - Hints from the experts about how to be the best in romance writing. The panel consisted of:
Mary Jo Putney, a best selling author of historical romance
Valerie Gray, an Executive Editor with Harlequin Enterprises in Toronto
Anna DeStefano a successful writer and president of the Georgia Chapter Romance Writers of America.

Sleight of Hand & How to make Readers Look Where You Want Them To -presented by Diana Gabaldon writer of the Outlander novels, described as historical sci-fi adventure-romance. Diana explained her technique for writing about one thing, while including snippits of information that seem to be unimportant, but would later draw the reader in another direction.

A Stroll Through the Garden -presented by Mary Jo Putney and Anna DeStefano. They discussed an overview of contemporary, paranormal, historical and traditional romances within romance writing today.

Check out these speakers' websites:

Mary Jo Putney's site at:and the Word Wenches Blog (she is one of seven contributors)
Anna DeStefano's site. Look under Workshop Outlines for conference handouts.
Diana Gabaldon's site
Sarah Lovett's website and blog (Her blog contains her handouts at the conference)
Elizabeth Lyon's site (info on editing your book)

Mark your calendar for next year's conference scheduled on 23-25 October 2009.

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