2017 - 01/2017 Meeting

Page Created: 10/05/16. Last Updated: 02/16/17.

SALLY SLATER

Novels:

..........Paladin

..........Uriel (Forthcoming)

Social Media:

..........FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/sallyslaterauthor/

..........Twitter: https://twitter.com/sallyroseslater

..........WattPad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/SallySlater

MEETING SUMMARY

Meeting Date: January 14, 2017.

Meeting Site: Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 16.

Meeting Program: Talk by YA Fantasy Writer.

NEWSLETTER ACCOUNT

The January 14, 2017 meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was held at our normal meeting site, the Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. The early buzz suggested that this was going to be a lightly attended meeting. The start of a light snow shortly before the meeting also helped to push some undecided members into the "I'll skip this one" category.

Things went surprisingly well despite the low turnout. The Writers' Space Salon held its first gathering without Patricia Nash and was attended by three people making the event for the first time. This led to more of a let's-get-acquainted session than usual. Carol talked about the books she has edited. A J spoke about her food blog and online comic strip. William informed the group of his music podcast. There was also time to critique Gregor's story, How the Sky Stole our Children. I spent less time listening in at the Ice Nine discussion, but caught talk about the television series LUCIFER and TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE and the Resident Evil and Underworld movies.

Our evening's speaker was writer Sally Slater, author of the Young Adult Fantasy novel PALADIN and its forthcoming sequel, URIAL. Ms Slater loved the heroines of fantasy writers like Anne McCaffrey, Tamora Pierce and Patricia Wrede and was appalled at the success of the Twilight series and its heroine, Bella ("she has no redeeming qualities"). Our speaker did not consider herself a writer, but wanted to offer a different role model for the younger set. She discovered the One Page Per Day platform and began posting, without much of a long-term plan. Despite her lack of training, readers told her that her work was strong and urged her to make the move to the much larger WattPad platform.

Sally Slater posted a few chapters of an early version of PALADIN on WattPad and found herself with seven thousand instant readers. She responded to every comment made about the work (this required her to go without sleep on occasion). More posts led to more readers. The feedback loop helped keep our guest motivated to write. When she fell behind her posting schedule, she heard about it from an irate readership. About fourteen chapters into the book, she realized she had no idea where she was going with it and told everyone that she had to take a month off to work out a synopsis. When she resumed, she had a much surer hand on the work. Her popularity continued to soar, eventually growing to a readership of 14 million. This exposure intrigued a small start up press, Perfect Analogy. They tested the market with a signed, limited edition before issuing standard hardcover / trade paperback / ebook editions. There is also an audio book version issued by Trantor.

To be continued on the 2017 - 01/2017 Meeting Page at www.sfabc.org.