Unleaded – Fuel for Writers

The 3rd annual Dying to Write conference has been cancelled due to lack of interest.

Mystery Writers of America (MWA) Mid-Atlantic Chapter President Laura Durham put up this notice last Friday: Dying to Write Cancelled!
For those of you that don’t know, Dying to Write is a mystery writers conference held in Maryland and put on by MWA Mid-Atlantic. It is a small but talent laden conference that was held (in its first year) in a funeral home.

It’s a sad comment on the atmosphere among today’s writers that such an amazing conference had to be cancelled. With scheduled speakers such as, the ex-CIA head of the spy museum as well as too many authors to count it’s a shame that no one will be able to enjoy it.

Then again, is it all the fault of the economy? Summer vacations? Or was it something else? Could it have been the lack of advertising (on the part of the sponsors and invited guests both) about this conference? Or is it partly the fault of the organizers for not making this conference available to those wanting to attend it?

Wouldn’t this conference be more visible by purchasing dyingtowrite.com? And why aren’t the members of the MWA’s MD chapter handing out flyers, posting blog posts, and encouraging attending authors to put up alerts to their fans? And if they are, why isn’t it reaching the audience it’s striving for???

I personally would never have found out about it if I hadn’t been on their announcements list…and having attended the first I think that is a damn shame! This conference, while small, is intense and worth your time and attention as an author or author-to-be. The people are kind AND accommodating. The location (Bethesda) is nice. The authors in attendance are approachable and available.

I know I will be pounding the drum about this conference next year, and I’m not even part of MWA! And let me encourage you to help keep Dying to Write alive as well! Take a day out of your busy schedule and sign up…I’m sure you’ll be happy you did!

In the meantime, any ideas on how to spread the word would help. Just plop them in the comments.

Welcome back to “Unleaded – Fuel for Writers!” We’re pretty excited to get this site back up and running. With its new look and the promise of some great new talent, we hope to share with you our daily thoughts and ruminations on the art and craft of writing.

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Unleaded has been off the air as we have been in the midst of deciding exactly what it is that we envision for this site. The result of all of this discussion and soul-searching has been the decision to scrap Unleaded in its current incarnation and plan a complete revamp and reopening of the site/podcast.

So stand by! The relaunch is scheduled for July 1st. Look for some exciting new tips and information by authors, publishers and of course yours truly…and the rest of us struggling writers-yet-to-be.

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