I think I'm done with this story. I could keep poking at it, but three rounds of beta are enough for me.

Now I haven't a clue where to send it. It's too newbie for an outdoors-oriented magazine like Outside or Climbing. It's not really a travel story, and since it's fiction it doesn't feel appropriate for a travel magazine. It's not really "literary" enough for one of the regional literary magazines. And it's second person present tense.

What the hell do I do with this?

A sample, if you will:

This part of the pitch is straightforward. Big ledges, lots of holds: it's like climbing a ladder. You're not bored, though; you're over 100 feet from the ground. You keep moving, and the concentration pushes the fear, the exposure, to the back of your mind. If you fall now, your partner will catch you. You trust the rope, your harness, your hands, your partner. When you look straight down, you see only rock and treetops, and the spare rope dangling behind you. You don't look down for long and instead keep climbing.

Your partner is reliable: there is no slack in the rope, the protection is placed in locations that are easy to manage, and suddenly you're there. "Hey," he says as you come over the ledge to find yourself at the belay station at the top of the pitch. It's a big ledge, at least 30 inches deep, and about twelve feet long. Your partner is seated comfortably on his jacket, and the excess rope dips below the ledge in lazy loops. You're sweating, and before you even sit down you pull out a water bottle and drink heavily. The wind cools the sweat on your face.

"Nice lead," you say, and he smiles behind his sunglasses.

You look up the wall as your partner clips you into the anchor. The grey/green/brown face soars above you. Below you the multi-colored treetops sway gently, and above you two turkey vultures make lazy circles in the sunlight. Your partner cracks an old joke about how the vultures are waiting for climbers to fall. A pair of climbers a few routes over exchange belay commands. Past them a pair of ropes hang free on the wall, and a woman in a green jacket descends swiftly, rappelling down the face it took her so long to ascend.

The Fig Newtons taste fabulous, if a little chalky, and there are two pitches to go. You can't wait.

Help?

'Suela, I'd send it everywhere. Really. Redbook, The Sun, Lit journals looking for first person nonfiction/memoir (I know it isn't strictly truthfully accurate, but it can qualify as memor, anyway). Any high profile women's mag that has fiction and first-person experience stories. Oprah. Send it out. Let them sort it.

What Bev said. Womens' magazines (a la Vogue and Ms and Elle, the kind with intelligent articles about intelligent women doing intelligent things).

Hey, Susan. First of all, breathe.

I've been to one RWA-sponsored conference. It was fun. But I was very very tired of the sound of women's voices by the end of it!

Dress as you would for a job interview or visiting a Methodist Sunday service. Shoot for elegant-but-comfortable. This is not a good place for jeans. (Sorry, Deb, RWA is a different world from SF cons.) I wore two of my most travelable skirt outfits; one is a rayon broomstick skirt with matching blouse, the other a knit skirt with my Chinese brocade jacket, and I fit right in. Funky is fine.

You don't have to actually sell your book at this conference. What you do need to do is network. Talk to people, but just be yourself. A friend of mine got a serious nibble from an agent because they were sitting together talking about cats while waiting for the hotel shuttle. H had no idea she was talking to an agent until the woman handed her a card and said "Send me a synopsis." Be the person we know, funny and intelligent, and you'll be fine.

Treat the talk with the editor as a practice interview. It would be better if the editor worked for a house you want to sell to, but even if she doesn't, it's practice in pitching. And whether or not the person you're talking to wants your sort of book, she may well suggest somebody at the same house who would.

Don't carry your synopsis in hand. Agents do NOT want to spend the conference with people shoving paper at them. Have it available if it's asked for, but the likeliest event is that somebody will ask you to mail it to them.

Betsy, any synopsis I'd take would be in an elegant little briefcase. But unless RWA events are totally otherworld from other genre conferences? The best thing to carry is a business card and a card case.

And yup - always treat the interview as a practice pitch. After all, it's what you're doing: pitching.

The best thing to carry is a business card and a card case.

Absolutely. Susan, you'll also want a tote bag of some sort -- many, many books and tchotchkes are given away. You can keep the synopsis in a folder in the tote bag.

Hmm. Could I get by with khakis or something similar in the trouser genre for part of the time? Three days in a row of skirts feels like a lot for tomboy me, and for that time of year and the likely state of my waistline would likely require shopping, which would require money.

Well, I don't know if Betsy would agree, but I can't see why not.

BTW, just to clarify - Humongous difference between conventions and conferences. WorldCon is a convention, put on by the fans, and there are thirty thousand people who all seem to be dressed in Spock ears or as some character from Lord of the Whatever. World Fantasy (last year was in Minneapolis, I went and stayed with juliana, and I wore leather because that's what I wear and am comfortable wearing) is a conference, which is what I assume the RWA thing is. Everyone was wearing clothes, as opposed to assumed costumes; I wouldn't have worn jeans, but then, I enjoy dressing to do large public meetings. That's just me.

I could poke Marlene and ask her if she has any recs; she's a former romance writer and now an agent. She just came back from RWA, and could tell me the best moves, I imagine.

That'd be cool. I asked about clothes because when poking around on the RWA site, I was a bit intimidated by how formidably groomed some of those women looked. I mean, I have the Very Serious Black Suit that I wore last time I was interviewing for jobs, and it'll probably still fit, since I lost ten pounds between buying it and getting pregnant, and so far haven't gained anything back. But otherwise my idea of dressy clothes runs to the gypsyish.

Khakis and a pretty shirt would be fine, Susan. But I went for gypsyish myself; you haven't seen the Chinese jacket in question, but it's bright purple brocade lined with black velvet.

The thing is, at SF conventions and conferences (I've been to both), you're surrounded by fellow geeks. At RWA conferences, you're surrounded by fellow ladies. Middle-aged white ladies, to be specific. You do NOT have to dress the way people dress on the cover pictures of their novels, but you shouldn't look scruffy either. Artsy bohemian is fine.