#i have such big social anxiety for WHAAAT AHHHHH

[kalashtars]

how are you supposed to know. when it's okay to join a discord.

[ch21con]

2019 Blog Tour: Interview with Julia Byers and ON THE COME UP Giveaway!

Hello, readers! Today we’re participating in the Ch1Con & Ch21Con 2019 Blog Tour, an annual tour in preparation for this year’s conferences, which brings original content from the Chapter One Events team to a number of fantastic, writing-related blogs. This is the 2019 blog tour’s FIRST STOP! Yay!

And: along with it comes a GIVEAWAY for a signed copy of ON THE COME UP by Angie Thomas! In order to qualify, you must:

tweet about the giveaway

follow one of our Twitter accounts (@Ch1Con or @Ch21Con on Twitter)

register for the conference

love Angie Thomas (which every human should anyway)

(Rafflecopter link for this giveaway here)

That is all pretty thrilling, but you know what else is thrilling? A nonprofit conference both for and by young writers, with lots of online events! If you are or know a writer between the ages of 11 and 29 who’s in need of a strong community, well, you’ve come to the right place.

What’s Chapter One Events, you ask?

Chapter One Events is a nonprofit organization that brings writing information and publishing opportunities to young writers—culminating in the annual Chapter One Young Writers Conference (Ch1Con, ages 11-20) and the brand new Chapter Twenty-One Conference (Ch21Con, ages 21-29). The Chapter One Events team is composed of a mix of middle school, high school, college, and twenty-something writers, who work together to create a unique, inclusive experience for young attendees.

The two conferences bring tweens, teens, and young adults together to hear from accomplished authors their own age, participate in professional workshops, and celebrate the influence young writers have on the world. With an atmosphere that combines the professional aspects of writing conferences with the awesomeness of hanging out with fellow young book nerds, Ch1Con and Ch21Con are truly can’t-miss events!

OK, so what is this post about?

To be clear, this post is NOT an advertisement, promoted post, etc. We (the Chapter One Events team) are just way too excited about this conference, and really want the right audience to know about it! That’s what the blog tour is all about: getting the info out so that young writers in need of community can find us.

This year we’re opening up the Ch21Con Tumblr to start off our 2019 blog tour, to let you know all about this year’s conference. (Don’t worry, if you fear you can’t make it, you totally can keep up with us through online events and live-streams!)

We’ve got an interview from the FOUNDER of Chapter One Events, Julia Byers, below. Even if you’ve never heard of us before, I would recommend reading through her interview! She’s got tons of awesome thoughts on the world of being a young writer.

(She’s also being interviewed by Ariel Kalati, a member of the Ch21Con team, who is a large fan of Panera Bread and complaining.)

READ MORE:

1. Can you tell us a brief history of how the conference came to be?

So, our original conference, the Chapter One Young Writers Conference, for younger writers ages 11-20, came about thanks to two things. First, there were these old writing forums for teens called Write It. A group of us on there had become close friends over the years but, being the internet (and us being minors), had never had a chance to actually meet one another. So, we lay the scene with that. Then, when I was sixteen, I began attending big writer's conferences in NYC--and I was pretty intimidated by the scale of the events and the fact that I was one of very few non-adults attending them, and also was frustrated because all of the advice shared didn't quite apply to me (because the speakers were talking about fitting in writing around taking your kid to theatre rehearsal, not, well, being the kid going to theatre rehearsal). So somehow, between these two things, I got it into my head that WE, the teens of Write It, should put on our own writer's conference--something small and fun and tailored explicitly to teenagers. And so, Ch1Con was born. As for our second conference, the Chapter Twenty-One Conference, for writers ages 21-29: fast forward to 2016, and I was graduating from college and moving to NYC to work in publishing, and I wasn't quite the awkward teen writer I used to be. (No, now I was an awkward *twenty-something* writer.) A number of our volunteers and attendees were also aging out of the target age group for Ch1Con. We all really loved the conference, though, and none of us wanted to give it up. So, we thought, "Why not make a similar conference, just targeting slightly older writers? And hey, while we're at it, we're all of age and full of existential dread now, so why not add alcohol?" And so the Chapter Twenty-One Conference was born as well. We officially launched Ch21Con in 2018 and I'm SO excited to see where both conferences go in the future! 2. What are some difficulties that face the average twentysomething writer, and how does Ch21Con help with these?

I think one of the biggest issues my twenty-something writer friends and I face is finding the time and energy to write. It's so easy to get over-scheduled, between work and/or school, chores, working out, cooking, errands, attempting to maintain some semblance of a social life--basically, it turns out life is very good at getting in the way. So, Ch21Con works to help carve out a space in everyone's busy schedules throughout the year, by hosting monthly online events such as Twitter chats on various writing-related topics and virtual write-ins where we all discuss our current projects and motivate one another to get in some words. Basically, we strive to give writers the opportunity to carve out the space in their lives they need in order to tell their stories. 3. What are you most excited about for this year's conference?

Ahhhhh this is such a hard one! I'm excited for everything??! That said, probably what I'm most excited about is hearing debut author Joan He speak. I've been lucky enough to know Joan for years now, and I've had her name tucked away to lead a workshop at the conferences pretty much since the beginning, just waiting for her to get a book published. Joan is such a talented, smart, hardworking young writer, it's going to be truly special to finally hear her speak at the conferences. (And I recently found out that we'll be the first conferences she'll be leading workshops at, which is super cool in itself!) 4. Tell us about your favorite book or publishing-related memories from the past year.

Oof another hard one. My day job is in the industry, most of my friends work in the industry, and I run Chapter One Events and write in my free time--so basically my entire life is favorite book or publishing-related memories. But hmmm. You know, a really, REALLY cool moment was, actually, walking into my hometown Barnes & Noble in Michigan a couple weeks back and seeing so many friends' books on the shelves. Being so immersed in publishing, it's easy to forget that the books we work on are the Real Published Books that go out in the world. But seeing them in my childhood bookstore so far away from NYC--the place where I met my first authors and dragged my parents every chance I got growing up--was surreal. It reminded me of the reality of what we're all doing, that we're MAKING BOOKS, like BOOKS BOOKS, that ACTUAL PEOPLE READ, and I full-on broke down crying in the middle of the YA section. Like a lunatic. 5. Accessibility is necessary in the publishing community. What are different ways that Chapter One Events makes our content accessible?

Our goal always as an organization has been to make information about the writing and publishing processes more accessible to the young people coming up in the industry, whether they're already aiming for publication or only just starting to figure out how to write their first novel. One way we do this, obviously, is through the conferences. We keep the price as low as possible (subsidizing the events as much as we can out of our own pockets) in order to make it as affordable as we can for young writers. We want them to be able to come meet the authors and publishing professionals who are speaking, build a network with their fellow up-and-coming young writers, and learn about craft. Along this same vein, we keep the conferences small and casual, with equal focuses on learning and fun, because we know how anxiety-inducing big professional events can be and we want this to be a safe space for those just starting out. Additionally, we put on free online events throughout the year, such as the aforementioned monthly Twitter chats and virtual write-ins, as well as events such as our annual Yule Ball, which is a live-streamed panel of young authors talking all things writing and publishing. (We like to think of it as a mini, free, online writer's conference.) We're also constantly working to come up with new ways to share information with the young writers of the world, such as the autumn mentorship program we've put on in the past. 6. Finally: if you had to describe the conference using only Panera Bread-related metaphors, how would you do it?

You know, you'd think I'd be prepared for this one after so many years of answering Panera-related questions for this org, yet this is STILL SOMEHOW THROWING ME (much like that time Panera added Parmesan crisps to their Caesar salad and I was like, "Whaaat?")

But okay. I've got this, I've got this. Ch1Con and Ch21Con are all the comfort food items on the Panera menu: the mac and cheese, the tomato soup, the toasted bagels smothered in melty honey walnut cream cheese. Even if it's your first time eating one of these items, they taste like coming home, much in the same way attending the conferences feels like coming home. (It's been a wonder to me over the years to hear new attendees say again and again that attending our conferences feels like finally finding the community with whom they belong.)

That said, the conferences are also kind of like all the "healthier" items on the Panera menu, the salads and smoothies, in that they seem like the "healthy" choice (networking! career development!), but they also taste really good at the same time (new friendships! meeting authors! free books! pizza!). Finally, Ch1Con and Ch21Con are also like Panera's excellent, super salty kettle chips, because we too are a salty bunch when it comes to discussing favorite book characters and least favorite series endings. (I'm looking at you, Ariel, haha.)

If that made you thrilled to go to this year’s conference, yay! (If not, that’s fine. We’re a nonprofit organization and we’re just happy to reach out to young writers at all! But also, please consider coming.)

Here’s all the info you’ll need about the 2019 conference:

This year, Ch1Con (ages 11-20) is bigger and brighter than ever, with more opportunities, cooler giveaways, and a new roundup of fantastic speakers headlining the conference. And the inaugural Ch21Con (ages 21-29) will feature the same speakers and opportunities—just tailored to a slightly older audience. Both conferences will take place Saturday, June 29th at the Hilton Garden Inn – Chicago O’Hare in Des Plaines, IL (a suburb of Chicago). Registration is currently open on the conferences’ respective websites for $99.99. (This price includes a complimentary pizza party lunch during the conferences, with alternate options available for those with dietary restrictions.)

The speaker lineup features Joan He (author of Descendant of the Crane – Albert Whitman & Co.), Riley Redgate (author of several books, including Final Draft – Abrams/Amulet), and more! Between the awesome presentations and workshops, attendees will have the chance to participate in literary trivia games and giveaways, with prizes including professional critiques, signed books, and advance readers copies (ARCs). There will also be an author panel open to any and all questions at the end of the conferences, followed by a book signing by participating speakers.

During downtime, all participants are free to explore Chicago, relax at the beautiful hotel (where a discounted block of rooms is available for attendees), and network with one another, establishing the sort of vital connections that can jumpstart careers and create lifelong friendships.

The conference weekend will kick off with parties on Friday evening. For the Ch1Con crowd, this will be a gathering in the hotel lobby, where lemonade and assorted snacks will be provided. For the Ch21Con crowd, the Friday night party will be an informal cocktail hour hosted at the hotel bar, the Garden Grille & Bar.

More information on transportation and lodging can be found on the Ch1Con and Ch21Con websites. Early bird registration is currently available here for Ch1Con (ages 11-20) and here for Ch21Con (ages 21-29). Those under 18 need a parent or guardian’s consent in order to register.

So, if you’re a young writer and you’re interested in these conferences, register ASAP! With a growing number of tweens, teens, and young adults discovering the magic of Chapter One Events, seats are sure to sell out fast. The last day to register before the higher late rate registration price begins is June 14th. For more information and to join the Ch1Con and Ch21Con communities online, check out the following links:

Chapter One Young Writers Conference (Ages 11-20)

Website: Chapter One Young Writers Conference

Twitter: @Ch1Con

Tumblr: Ch1Con

Instagram: @Ch1Con

YouTube: Chapter One Conference

Facebook: Chapter One Conference

 Chapter Twenty-One Conference (Ages 21-29)

Website: Chapter Twenty-One Conference

Twitter: @Ch21Con

Tumblr: Ch21Con

Instagram: @Ch21Con

Facebook: Chapter 21 Conference

And, of course, you can follow the rest of the Ch1Con & Ch21Con 2019 Blog Tour at: www.chapteroneconference.org or www.chapter21conference.org.