No conferring please?

Morning. I’m not much of a cook at breakfast, but I have just got back from the Champagne region, so help yourself to some fizz if you’re feeling decadent! I think my liver would rather I stuck to the coffee this morning…

I’ve spent the last few days disassembling and fighting my first two chapters, to send to the agents I have appointments with at the Winchester writers’ conference at the end of June. I’ve been going to this for the last five years, though only summoned the courage to make appointments for the last two! The advice I’ve received has varied, but some of it has been incredibly useful. Although the agents there don’t tend to be looking for science fiction I can usually find some that don’t refuse it completely, and it’s always terrifying good to hear what they think. I’m still mulling the advice from an editor there last year, who told me I had a much better chance of publication with a crime book…

Places like Winchester are also a great opportunity to meet other writers, but I wonder if going to lets of events becomes a displacement activity to avoid writing? I’ve attended a few different ones in the past, and now tend to only go to Winchester.

So my question is - have you attended courses, conferences, masterclasses etc and what did you think of them?