As it happens... Pitchapalooza...

I just slipped into Pitchapalooza. I was late, but it was impossible to leave Thomas Cahill early when he was saying stuff like this:

• "Francis of Assisi, the world’s first hippy."


• "Petrarch is one of the gigantic bores of world literature."


• "I’m pretty sure I’m the only person at this festival that will sing to you in Medieval Latin." After singing a hymn in Latin and English. Awesome.

I've got to get into his stuff with a quickness.

Now back to Pitchapalooza. Three of the authors on this panel, Will Clarke, Arielle Eckstut, and David Sterry, I met while I was doing events at BookPeople. Since I'm late, I've gleaned that this discussion involves authors pitching their projects to the panel and receiving constructive criticism from the panelists. The fourth panelist, Amanda Eyre Ward, I'm not familiar with.

This is kind of like American Idol tryouts without venom or prizes. Seriously though, these people and their experiences are indispensible resources for folks trying to break into publishing.