The monthly meeting of the New York Chapter is routinely held on the first Wednesday of the month at the National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South in Manhattan. The brownstone generates an atmosphere of yesteryear, and gentleman’s club with cigar smoke and a private bar. Art works and sculptures grace the corridors that are lined with plush couches and red velvet covered club chairs. But the real reason to partake is the information a neophyte author can gain from the people attending.
The meeting’s topic Authors & Agents: The Search For a Meaningful Relationship. The subtitle: They meet. Fall in Love. Tie the Knot. Publish happily ever after.
I arrived early because it was the first meeting in New York City that I attended – I attended one that was held in New Brunswick last November, before I was a member. I explored the brownstone, while the board members met in the dinning room. I found a second floor sitting room and chatted with an author, who had published a thriller some years ago, and presently wished to sell a mystery novel. We commiserated on the difficulty in cutting down your story to the acceptable lengths of our genre. It always seems the really good stuff has to go. Yet in retrospect, we write that good stuff for ourselves, and cutting it out, makes the book more directed towards our audience. We also batted around several theories on story development thriller versus mystery.
At 6 PM the cocktail party started. I was lucky enough to spend time talking to S.J. Rozan whose latest novel Shanghai Moon had received excellent reviews. Her agent Steven Axelrod was with her. During our discussion, Judith Kelman another well received and successful author, who third husband is a physician on staff at Cornell Weill Medical Center, joined us. As you can imagine, listening to experience is an education for a neophyte writer. S. J. Rozan and Mr. Axelrod offered words of kind advice. It’s nice meeting good people.
In the past, I have spoken with Jeffery Cohen, who is a friend of Mr. Art. He is the regional vice president and in charge of new membership. He has several published mysteries with one to be released in April. I took the opportunity to ask about manuscript length and he was more than happy to volunteer help in that area. His agent, Christina Hogrebe, spoke during the presentation as well.
About 40 people attended the meeting and during dinner we sat around in tables of ten or less. I renewed an acquaintance with Mr. Paradise who is a mystery author from New Jersey. I met him while attending the Backspace Writer’s Conference last summer. We chatted during dinner. There were other interesting people at my table including: One was a former south New Jersey police detective; another was an author who had a piece rejected by Atlantic Monthly but was asked by the editor of that magazine to submit more of her work, and several others who tagged along with friends to the meeting. You have to keep your ears open, because you’ll learn things that you would never think about.
As dessert started, Chris Grabenstein, the regional President, transformed into the panel moderator. He has a sharp wit, and always is entertaining. The two agents and both authors described how they met and formed a partnership, using a format ala Hiroshima Amour. The agent’s and the client’s versions meshed closely, so no one was embarrassed. They exposed the unique working relationships between each successful authors and agents.
Questions and answers followed with no shocking inquiries or comments.
The meeting was adjourned and I rode the NJ Transit train home to Matawan. I certainly received my money’s worth from the meeting.
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