Overview

Ken recently attended a great convention and we discuss why authors should attend conventions and conferences. There are things that an author should do before going to one and there are things you should be aware of while attending. We discuss all of this and Ken gives us some information about the police writer's academy.

https://writerspoliceacademy.com

His Book

https://www.amazon.com/Hero-Haters-Ken-MacQueen-ebook/dp/B0B6T12613?crid=1FSSNMCC0HXNJ&keywords=hero+haters+ken+mcqueen&qid=1668109710&sprefix=hero+haters+ken+mcqueen%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-1-fkmr1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=55dcadc6127b3688d4a32bc47e54a828&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il

YouTube

Transcript

Okay, so let's talk some author stuff and we're gonna talk about conferences and going to conferences, which you just went to one recently, which. I find interesting because it's in a different country which I haven't been to.

I've been to Canada, but not a conference up there, is what I mean. All right. But before we do that let me ask you a couple other questions. So you have been writing for a very long time. And you've done journalism and now you're doing fiction. So what are some things that you've learned through the years that you're doing differently now than you would've.

Ken: Certainly the technology would be key. When I started, I didn't even have a cell phone. They weren't available. I had a pager, which was a bit of a pain in the butt at times. But and then there was a whole business of filing a story. It used to be I remember the first semi computer that I could take on the road was about the size of a big briefcase.

It had a capital gray tube. And you pretty much had to coat it in Vaseline to get it under the seat on an airplane. And it was a very delicate operation. Then you had to use acoustic couplers to stick it on a phone behind

Stephen: modem. Oh my gosh.

Ken: It was a real, it was a real challenge so that the technology became ridiculously easy.

Now, I remember I went to the museum in Washington DC. The news museum there, and they had one of these satellite trucks with the antenna that went out and so forth, and the TV reporters would be reporting from there. And I realize now my little phone has all that technology in this

That satellite truck, I'm sure cost a half a million dollars back in the day. Yeah, that, that part was definitely different. The actual hunting and gathering of quotes and the reporting, of course, it was made much easier with with the cell phones and so forth. But when I look back at some of the things I covered before, before I had that technology, I know earthquake in San Francisco or a murder on the Mexican border or the Exxon Valdese Oil spill.

Those were all things that I covered with pretty primitive technology and no cell

Stephen: phones. Wow. So do you feel if you would've done fiction writing back then that you would've enjoyed it or been as successful? Or do you feel that now that you've gone through your years of journalism, you can relax more with the fiction and it comes across?

Just how do you feel about that

Ken: after? Oh I agree that I think I can relax now, for one thing I've this may surprise you that fiction writing doesn't come with a dental plan or a pension .

Stephen: So yes, if nobody understood that fact, ,

Ken: imagine my surprise. But no, I, so that's why I wanted to make sure I was financially secure for before I turned to fiction, because as you.

It's not always the ticket to I, I feel I've written an 80,000 word lottery ticket, but who knows what the odds are of ever cashing in on that. But yeah. Anyway I felt that I needed the security of not having to wrestle with, Where the next paycheck would come from. So that until the kids were grown, that my two sons and they left home, and my wife and I retired, then we figured, okay, now we can relax and breathe and use a different part of our brains. ...