Shortcon by KM Rockwood

Writer’s conferences are great places.

We see old friends (often including “online friends,” who somehow never look like we expect them to), meet new authors, drool over the announcements of successful book launches, attend discussions, panels, and workshops to hear about ideas we can incorporate in our own writing.

Many mystery and crime fiction conferences are held each year. It’s hard to decide which ones to attend. We can’t possibly go to all the ones we’d like to.

Each conference usually has a few panels or discussions on short stories.

This year, I saw a notice for a first. A one-day conference for the short story fiction writer, presented by East Coast Crime.

I love short stories. I love to read them. I also love to write them. Most of my recent writing has been short stories, often in response to a submission call for a themed anthology.

People used to make a living selling short crime stories, back when many mainstream magazines carried a story or two in each issue. That’s rare now, and I don’t think people can depend upon sales of short stories to support them. The conference was appropriately billed as “The Short and Short of it: Writing Short Stories for Fun and Occasional Profit.”

When I thought about going, I was faced with a few dilemmas. First, the conference was held in Alexandria, VA. Not that far for me, in Elizabethtown, PA, but not right next door, either. I have gotten to the point where I don’t drive much anymore, and Alexandria is a suburb of Washington, D.C. With all the traffic that brings.

I live close to an Amtrak station, and I do like travelling by train. But that would be into Philadelphia, change to go to DC, then catch a commuter train to Alexandria. (Do they even run on the weekend?) Then a hike to Elaine’s, the restaurant in which the conference is being held. I don’t walk well, especially in the heat.

Since I live in Amish country, and most of the Amish are super busy on their farms at this time of year, I contacted someone who drives for the Amish about driving me down. It’s not inexpensive, but Ester doesn’t charge for wait time, and I would be at the conference from 9 am to after 5. She was delighted to have a relaxed day to explore a new area.

As it turns out, she would have been busy all day on short runs if she weren’t providing my transportation. It was a very hot day, and her husband fielded numerous requests since many of her regular customers felt it was too hot to take a horse out and were looking for rides.

The next hurdle was the venue. Elaine’s is a bar/restaurant that the features frequent events for the writing community, like weekly Noir at the Bar. It was a logical choice for the conference, but it is housed in several connected charming old buildings. The conference was held on the second floor. No elevator.

I can do stairs, as long as everyone is willing to be patient with me as I climb, and a staff member was willing to carry my walker up the stairs. When I asked, I was told there was no restroom on the second floor, which might have been a deal-breaker, but I decided I could just spend a good hunk of my time clambering up and down those stairs.

Turns out my info was wrong. There was a restroom on the second floor.

The conference itself was great (so was the food.) I reconnected with people I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic.

Brendan DuBois, a NYT best-selling author who writes novels and short stories, gave us some helpful background.

Several people discussed how they organized their short story records, often with spreadsheets. I had to keep my head down when they talked disparagingly about authors who lose track of their stories to the point where they have to ask, “Which story was that?” when they get an acceptance notice. I’ve always been able to figure it out, although it can take me a few false starts. Michael Bracken, who has had over 1300 short stories published, makes a paper file for each one with all the relevant information, kept in chronological order.

I also learned that I approach my stories in an entirely different manner than those authors. They start with a plot. I start with a character, often inspired by a submission call, who appears in my head and insists that s/he has a story that needs to be told, and I need to tell it.

Could be one reason why they are so much more successful than I am, but I’m solidly in that “writing short stories for fun” category.

Having a story accepted by Ellery Queen or Alfred Hitchcock is the pinnacle of success for today’s crime short story writers. (I have a small pile of rejections from them.) Jackie Sherbow, the managing editor of both, gave us some insight into the selection process. And it turns out that my rejections that state, “this isn’t a good fit, but I’d like to see more” aren’t standard responses. She really does want to see more!

Stacy Woodson pulled the whole thing together and coordinated active participation by everyone.

Planning for a conference next year is already in the works. I don’t know if they can hold it at Elaine’s again. People were good-natured about it, but the venue was so crowded it was hard to move around to reach the buffet lines or talk to people who were not sitting close together.

I enjoyed the conference, and I’d like to go next year.