Sunday Salutations: Recap From Superstars Writing Seminar 2026
Our annual author-centric post! But we've got plenty of critter pictures for everyone else!
Well, it is has been a while since I have posted a Sunday Salutation (life update), as we are trying to post more fiction, dog lessons, and recipes this year. Tod is editing something for me, so I decided to be nice and not make him handle the blog too. ;-)
Tod and I went to a business of writing conference in Colorado Springs (Superstars Writing Seminar Series) again this year. We got lots of great tips and made some connections. It was so packed that in some ways it is hard to keep everything straight. But I wanted to provide some highlights.
It is about a week late… but not a dollar short, I hope. I blame it on being super tired from all the networking and learning. My brain was full and needed time to digest.
Our critters thrived without us. Dante had fun misbehaving at Tod’s brother’s house.
But Dante was also delighted to be reunited with his other big brother.
Aki didn’t understand why we didn’t wait on her more completely.
But this weekend, the dogs were back in class.
And we leave you with the cover of The Road Dogs’ first single “Bad Trainer”.
Anna’s Top Three
I am not even sure where to start. The week flew by. Except for missing my puppies and kitties, it was wonderful. Looking up at the mountains, breathing in the cool air, and talking about fiction, writing and art just makes anything feel doable.
Almost every lecture had me reconsidering my favorites. But Tod forced me to pick a top three: Ray Porter, Chris Mandeville, and Jim Butcher.
Ray Porter, I could listen to him read a phone book. He gave two wonderful talks on narration and read the first page of two of our works (as well as anyone else who brought them). It is amazing to see him cold read a page and just feel like you fell into a story. He is also one of Tod’s favorites, and not just because of his voice, but because he says what he thinks and does it with style.
Chris Mandeville, she is a really wonderful teacher. I went to two of her seminars this time. The one on setting up your author bios really stuck with me. She even looked over our bios and said it was fun and on point for a website (squee). Although she did give me suggestions for what to do when we have it on a book jacket. She also has an amazing service dog, Ollie, who is wonderful and helps her keep her balance.
Then there was Jim Butcher’s Beautiful Flaws seminar. I think it was my favorite for craft advice. It made me look at how I write, trying to make sure each character is multifaceted but not in the crisp, clean, and shiny way. The beautiful mess that is humanity needs more than that. We are not perfect, and that is what makes us interesting. We have flaws, and we try to correct them or embrace them, and that is what makes us cool.
There were tons of other wonderful teachers: agents, editors, and writers. I don’t think I could even name them all. Overall, Superstars was a delightful experience.
Tod’s Top Three
As for Tod, except for Ray Porter’s talks, we more or less divided and conquered (although not possible with 2 people and 8 different tracks) the seminars. Still, his two other favorite people (since we both chose Ray) were Michael La Ronn and Seth Norris CPA. I guess he was going for death and taxes. Naw, I jest.
Michael La Ronn has an amazing talk and introduction to helping teach authors (especially those short on time, or that can’t type for long periods of time) how to dictate and transcribe. He even has specific suggestions if you want to dictate while driving. (I am slightly disturbed by this but, hey, I don’t drive.) Michael recommends the Plantronics Voyager as being best at ignoring road noise - maybe our trucker-writer friends out there can tell us if it helps. Overall, he is fun, interesting, and useful - a hat trick! As for his actually writing, well, Tod put the first three books on his phone, and then before his normal time, upped it to rest of the series. I guess that tells you Tod is a fan.
Tod’s other favorite is Seth Norris for info on taxes. Yes, Tod went to a writing seminar and learned about taxes. I can’t make this up. Actually, it was very useful, because writing income is different from other income streams (at least for us W2 workers), and learning the differences is helpful. (I am glad Tod is taking a crack at it.) Tod said, in one of Seth’s presentations, they discovered CPAs have feelings. Who knew? Seth also pointed out some ways commercial software can do self-employed writer taxes incorrectly, even when questions are answered correctly, because of the oddity of self-employment and writing income. Tod was thrilled to learn about the difference between Schedule A (personal deductions) versus Schedule C (self-employed business deductions). I am going to have to leave it at because I usually just try to hide from doing taxes.
I think that about wraps it up. We are back home now. Crokell and Dante are curled to my right, and Aki and Beleth are wandering around giving me suspicious looks.
Chaos Tip of the Week
Waking up to your puppy trying to do CPR on you is the next best thing to sleep.
Chaos Question of the Week
What is the oddest seminar or class you found and liked, that you never thought you would like?
I mean, Tod selected learning about taxes. Me… I think listening to agents talk about how trad pub works interested me a heck of a lot more than I thought it would.