Shock, Happiness and a Huge Thank You

For those of you who didn’t know… a few friends and I hosted a little writer’s conference this week.

Three months ago, I got an email asking me if I wanted to help build a free online conference for kidlit writers.

I figured–Why the heck not? It sounds like fun.

Elana Johnson, Casey McCormick, Lisa and Laura Roecker, Shannon Messenger, and I set up our meeting in a virtual chat room… because most of us haven’t met one another in person. We brought on Jen Stayrook later for her awesome technical skills and MAD web design abilities.

Let me say that again–I have never met any of these ladies in real life. We hosted this entire thing via the internet.

There were hundreds thousands of emails exchanged back and forth, several late night chats– and then there was a writer’s conference.

When we emailed the first editors and agents, we didn’t even have a website. But, they trusted us to do something awesome and signed on, adding their name to our product on good faith. To them, I have to say a huge thank you for their trust, support and amazing generosity.

And, to all the people we reached! (All 11,000 of you!)… to the over 360,000 unique page views! To everyone for putting up with the 403, and just being awesome– THANK YOU!

And now, I give you the final #writeoncon video for the 2010 conference:

jamiec Shock, Happiness and a Huge Thank You
Have a Nice Day and Watch out for the Big Yellow Chicken.

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Posted in: Writing

27 Responses to “Shock, Happiness and a Huge Thank You”

Katie Anderson August 13th, 2010 at 6:52 am

Jamie, thank you so much!!!!! It was simply fantastic :)

And I have to tell you that I LOVE your haircut! I have no idea how new it is, but it is adorable! No, make that, hot.

Thanks again!

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Jamie Harrington Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 6:05 pm

@Katie Anderson, aw thanks! I want to grow it out all long style now… because that’s what I do–cut it off SUPER short, and then GROW :)
Jamie Harrington´s last [type] ..Shock- Happiness and a Huge Thank You

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Stina Lindenblatt August 13th, 2010 at 6:53 am

Thanks girls for the awesome conference. You totally rock!

Now get some sleep! ;)
Stina Lindenblatt´s last [type] ..Cool Links Friday

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Jamie Harrington Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 6:05 pm

@Stina Lindenblatt, oh man TOTALLY agree– I need like five days of sleep!
Jamie Harrington´s last [type] ..Shock- Happiness and a Huge Thank You

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storyqueen August 13th, 2010 at 8:14 am

Jamie, if it hadn’t been for your blog, I’d have never seen the live chats the first day! Thank you so much for all of your hard work.

Write On Con Rocked!

shelley

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Jamie Harrington Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 6:06 pm

@storyqueen, I am so glad we were able to put the content elsewhere! And, I am so GLAD it only crashed the once :)
Jamie Harrington´s last [type] ..Shock- Happiness and a Huge Thank You

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Patricia J. O'Brien August 13th, 2010 at 9:34 am

Thank you! I really have run out of ways to say thanks to you guys for this amazing conference. I never imagined it would be so comprehensive, fun and enlightening. Really. It was all that and more.
Patricia J. O’Brien´s last [type] ..Reflect and reflect some more

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Jamie Harrington Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 6:06 pm

@Patricia J. O’Brien, haha we only imagined it in our WILDEST DREAMS– and then it did nothing but exceed expectations! You’re WELCOME–because it was the most fun EVER for us!
Jamie Harrington´s last [type] ..Shock- Happiness and a Huge Thank You

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Elana Johnson August 13th, 2010 at 11:05 am

Holy crap. I just got chills reading this. When you put it like that — that we’ve never met, and that we didn’t have a website or anything, well, it sounds like it’s something that shouldn’t have been done. But we did it!

Amazing.

Thanks, Jamie!!
Elana Johnson´s last [type] ..Holy Mother of Pearl

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Jamie Harrington Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 6:07 pm

@Elana Johnson, haha exactly! We were just like uhhhh so writer’s conference… that’d be cool.
Jamie Harrington´s last [type] ..Shock- Happiness and a Huge Thank You

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Renae Mercado August 13th, 2010 at 12:11 pm

Jamie-
Thanks for the fantastic conference! You ladies are amazing!

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Jamie Harrington Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 6:07 pm

@Renae Mercado, you are SO WELCOME! We had so much fun planning, running, and even participating!

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Marissa Miranda August 13th, 2010 at 2:41 pm

Wow! 11,000! I had no idea that many people were watching/reading/attending! I was still going by the ~2,000 registered on the forum.

You girls did an AMAZING job. I was completely blown away by all the work that you put into this conference and all the amazing industry pros you wrangled into attending. Thank you so much for everything!

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Shannon Messenger August 13th, 2010 at 6:05 pm

Okay, your post was MUCH more eloquent than mine, and it’s such a brilliant reminder of how amazing WriteOnCon really was. That something like this could be done, by 7 people who really didn’t know what they were doing, and in so short of time. Well…wow. Just wow.

Can’t wait to keep going with all the awesome we have in store. :)
Shannon Messenger´s last [type] ..A WriteOnCon Farewell

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Jamie Harrington Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 6:08 pm

@Shannon Messenger, ahhh but you know– I only blogged this one time all week, I had to make it good, right?!? :)

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Paul August 13th, 2010 at 6:06 pm

Jamie, WriteOnCon was Totally the Bomb!!
Paul´s last [type] ..Friday Photos- WriteOnCon and Weasels

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Jamie Harrington Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 6:09 pm

@Paul, AW THANKS! We had a pretty good time, didn’t we?

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Paul Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 6:41 pm

@Jamie Harrington, Great time :-) :-) You guys were like wizards behind the curtain making it all happen.
Paul´s last [type] ..Friday Photos- WriteOnCon and Weasels

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Carolyn V August 13th, 2010 at 6:07 pm

You did such a fantastic job! It was a great conference. Thanks so much. =D
Carolyn V´s last [type] ..Words of Wisdomsort of

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Jamie Harrington Reply:
August 13th, 2010 at 6:09 pm

@Carolyn V, you are SO welcome! We couldn’t have been such a big success without all you guys spreading the words of awesomeness!

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kelcrocker August 13th, 2010 at 6:10 pm

I’m still shaking my head in amazement. It was incredible, and I so appreciate all your hard work and your humor and graciousness! So wonderful to get to know you a bit!
Best,
Kellye

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Catherine A. Winn August 14th, 2010 at 7:06 am

Thank you, Jamie, and the others for all the hard work you put into bringing us this conference. All we had to do was attend!
Catherine A. Winn´s last [type] ..What I Learned from WriteOnCon about Queries

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Tara McClendon August 14th, 2010 at 11:24 am

I am blown away by the generosity of the YA community from the time you put into organizing the event to the agents who gave and gave and to the writers who participated. This truly was epic.

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Kelly Dexter August 14th, 2010 at 10:51 pm

I don’t know how the writing community can thank you ladies for all your hard work! I learned things that are so beneficial to my process, I don’t know how I made it without them.
Kelly Dexter´s last [type] ..In which I talk of meteors- birthdays- WriteOnCon- and my beloved Red Sox

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HeatherM August 15th, 2010 at 5:37 pm

Thanks for being part of bringing us such a fabulous conference! LOVED it!

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Jamie Burch August 16th, 2010 at 11:31 am

Thank you SO much for everything! WriteOnCon rocked and you totally are the bomb!!!

:)

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Laura Pauling August 16th, 2010 at 12:36 pm

You deserve like a month long writing retreat! Thanks for Writeoncon and all your hard work!

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