Tuesday, June 25, 2013

HNS 2013: the witchcraft panel

From left: me, Kathleen, Mary, Suzy, before the panel

Just got back from the Historical Novels Society conference (held this year in St. Petersburg, Florida), and just can't stop thinking about how much fun it was. Surrounded by people who get what I'm fascinated by, who are kind and supportive and part of a great community of writers and readers (and editors/agents too!)...people who don't mind shaking a little booty  to the DJ in the bar after hours...ha!

I'll be doing many wrap-up posts, but this one is about the witchcraft panel I participated in with three wonderful, wonderful women: Kathleen Kent, Mary Sharratt and Suzy Witten.

Since we all live in different areas of the country, we decided to meet at the conference to plan our panel the day before the presentation.We'd previously agreed on the tenor of the discussion and even come up with a few questions to talk about, but we wanted to chat and plan further. Kathleen was a champ: her flight had been delayed, so she showed up to our get-together fresh off the hotel shuttle!

Immediately we began to see that this was a lovely meeting of the minds, that we'd have no trouble talking about this topic to fill our allotted time. We then continued on to dinner together and continued discussion there.

From left: Suzy, Mary, me, Kathleen
The next day, our panel went really well. We had some great audience questions and acquitted ourselves well, I think. :)  We raffled off copies of our books, and that's the paper bag you see in front of me on the table (no, it wasn't Thunderbird!)

I've got nothing but warm fuzzies for these ladies. I'm hopeful we'll all meet again at HNS 2015 if not earlier!



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5 comments:

Susan Spann said...

Great post - and it was a fantastic panel from the audience's perspective too! I had to miss the very start because of a phone call from home, but I absolutely loved it. You were all poised, informative, and entertaining, and you walked a really nice line between humor and serious topics.

Thank you for presenting it!!

Mary Sharratt said...

It was so great being part of your panel, Erika!!

Unknown said...

. . .and we managed not to make it storm the morning of the panel. KK

Erika M said...

Thanks for coming, Susan...I was so happy to see you walk in. Mary and Kathleen: you are the awesome weather bringers! :)

Venetta said...

This is cool!