Linda Hebert Todd

Author - Westlake, Louisiana

  • Home
  • About
  • Books
  • Blog
  • Contact

A Killer of a Conference

September 4, 2016 By Linda H. Todd 1 Comment

I spent the weekend of August 18 through the 21st in Tennessee attending the Killer Nashville Writer’s Conference. When I say there was wall-to-wall mayhem and murder I’m not exaggerating. I rubbed elbows with upwards of 200 mystery writers plus A-Listers Anne Perry, Janet Evanovich, Robert Randisi, Kevin O’Brien, and William Kent Krueger. Many thanks to Clay Stafford and his team for another unforgettable weekend.

In the bookstore tables lined three long walls. Every table had a place for about four authors to sign books. Competition was fierce. I did manage to sell one book, but I don’t know who bought it because no one approached me for a signature.

Linda Todd, Author - KillerNashville Conference swagMultiple sessions went on at the same time, so sometimes the choices were hard to make. The first full day (August 19) I attended two that were the most helpful: Creating Dynamic Characters and Writing Strong Female Characters. The first one was about any character in general-male or female. The second was the one I really needed since all my protagonists are female and have to be strong with all the grief I throw at them. For anyone who read Wild Justice you know Keeley had to be strong with all the mayhem she had to contend with.

The character in my work-in-progress is a retired Army veteran, a helicopter pilot, who served in the first Gulf War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She has to be strong because the guy I created to come up against her is smart, charming, and bad to the bone. It’ll take everything she’s got to outwit him.

There were other informative sessions such as scene structuring and plotting that I found helpful. I attended a total of eleven sessions over the three days. For every one of those, four other ones were going on that I was unable to make. Like I said, some hard choices. For anyone interested in writing in the mystery genre, this is the conference, for you.

My friend and mentor Jess and her husband Jim were there, so I hung out with them most of the time. Sometimes we were in the same session.

I spent my days at the conference hotel and my nights at my brother’s lovely home out in the country between Spring Hill and Columbia. They even gave me a birthday party the day we got there—August 18, my big day.

The trip back home was not as uneventful as the one going. We had a blowout in Ardmore, Alabama, and ended up having to buy three new tires, since two others looked like they were ready to blow, also. We spent the night in Jackson, Mississippi, and yours truly here, aka Miss Graceful of 2016, fell flat on her face coming out of the hotel. It was early, so not many travelers were out and about. The only things that got hurt were my dignity and a skinned elbow. Three days after we got back I discovered that my computer power cord is probably still in Jackson. Unlike Johnny Cash and June Carter, I’m not going to Jackson.

Filed Under: blog

Subscribe by email

* indicates required

Comments

  1. Chris B says

    September 6, 2016 at 11:37 am

    Great article, but your photo reminds me of a mugshot, Killer!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

About Linda

Linda Hebert ToddLinda has completed her novel—Wild Justice, a crime story with a revenge theme, and has started another one set in Labrador and Louisiana. She writes all her stories in longhand, bringing to life the beautiful bayous of south Louisiana. Read more...

Email Subscribe

Want to receive my blog posts, info on book releases and other news? Click here to subscribe!

Buy Now!

Linda Hebert Todd, Author, Westlake, LA - Mystery Novel
Mystery Novel

Wild Justice

By Linda Hebert Todd

Keeley Chesson, a crime reporter for a city newspaper, is orphaned at age fourteen, courtesy of a sheriff's deputy who killed her parents and got away with it. Now, fourteen years later, the deaths of her parents still a mystery and the deputy now her town's police chief, tragedy again rocks her…

View Book

Now Available!

Short Stories

Sidonie and the Loup-Garou and Other Stories from the Bayou

By Linda Hebert Todd

The short fiction in this book introduces the reader to an interesting assortment of characters. The lead story—Sidonie and the Loup-Garou—features a high school girl who learns it is a good idea to heed the warnings of her Cajun grandparents. The final tale—The Ghost and Sadie Stackpoole– solves…

View Book

Featured Posts

IT’S HERE AT LAST!

September 27, 2019 By Web Admin Leave a Comment

From The Bayou To The Big League: The Odyssey Of … [Read More...]

Hebert Gives Padres Split

November 19, 2018 By Linda H. Todd Leave a Comment

Update Update on From the Bayou to the Big … [Read More...]

Wally Hebert Shuts Out Seraphs, 5-0

October 22, 2018 By Linda H. Todd Leave a Comment

A quick update on my dad's book. I'm nearly … [Read More...]

The Missing Angel

October 1, 2018 By Linda H. Todd Leave a Comment

I'm coming along on schedule with From the Bayou … [Read More...]

Copyright © 2023 Linda Hebert Todd · Log in · Privacy Policy · An Oxblaze Media Website