Tales to Tide You Over - Margaret McGaffey Fisk

While I can be found on the Internet at Forward Motion and Online Writing Workshop, I also go to conventions where you might run across me in person. Upcoming events are listed in the News section.

Below, you will find the conventions I have gone to and/or participated in. BayCon and Muse Online have become an annual tradition that I intend to maintain as long as it is possible.

World Fantasy

World Fantasy 2010 will be in Ohio next year, and I'm hoping to attend. I went to my first World Fantasy in 2009 in San Jose, California, and found it a wonderful experience worthy of repeating.

BayCon

BayCon is an annual Bay Area convention that I have been going to for more years than I can recall. I have participated in the associated writing workshop both as a writer and as a critiquer in the past, as well as being on panels since 2008. In 2009, I agreed to moderate panels for the first time, an experience made delightful by panelists who were interesting as well as being willing to share the stage and discussion. I've gotten good feedback from both panelists and audience members, a fact that makes me quite willing to moderate again.

Thanks to Rick Hipps, Tony Todaro, Deborah J. Ross, Juliette Wade, Deirdre Saoirse Moen, Adrienne Gormley, and Valerie Frankel for making my live moderation debut a success.

The Muse Online Conference

Muse Online is the brainchild of Lea Schizas and Carolyn Howard Johnson and provides a way for those who are unable to attend in-person conferences to experience some of the chaos and influx of information along with the ability to meet interesting people who are also writers.

I first discovered the conference in its inaugural year when it was run as a yahoo listserv and a series of chats (it's now a forum and chats). I learned a ton and experienced the same overwhelm of an in-person conference as I struggled to keep up with as many chats and listserv presentations as I could.

When one of the presenters, Sara Reinke, asked me to join her in offering a forum class the next year, my survival instinct failed and I said yes. We split the days of the week and my pieces were quite rough, mainly because I couldn't figure out how much to ask of people. (One of the days I presented was later expanded into a 4-week workshop on Forward Motion.)

However, I've since improved significantly, and people seemed to enjoy my workshop last year a lot. I've already had 79 signups for my 2009 workshop, so I must be doing something right.

Muse Online is one-week in early October every year. Go ahead and check it out. You won't be disappointed. Signups are available right after the convention and continue usually until September 1st.

For 2007, I taught a workshop with Sara Reinke on editing.
For 2008, I taught a workshop on effective description.
For 2009, I taught a workshop on non-verbal communication.