In this episode, we’re talking with Lara Bernhardt, a novelist and publisher and co-host of WriterCon writers' conference in Oklahoma City. This year’s WriterCon has a special event—ReaderCon on September 4. We learn what it is and why every reader and author in the Oklahoma City area should want to be there.

LINKS:

• ReaderCon: https://www.writercon.com
• Lara’s book, Red Rain: https://amzn.to/3KhfzjX
• Liz Wilcox's Email Marketing Membership at https://writing.fyi/liz
• Get your FREE Move the Needle goal-setting for authors ebook at https://www.writingmomentum.com
• Write with us! Join Chris, Gena, and Rene each Wednesday at noon Central and let's get our writing DONE! https://www.writingmoments.com

Hello and welcome to the Writing Momentum Podcast.

I'm Christopher Maselli.

I'm here with my wife Gena.

How you doing Gena?

I'm doing great today.

It's gonna be a fun day.

This is gonna be good.

We have with us Lara Bernhardt and she's the Pushcart nominated writer,

editor, and audiobook narrator.

She's the founder and acquiring editor for Admission Press, which

publishes a wide variety of books, and she's written the Wantland Files.

It is a supernatural suspense novels and two standalone women's novels

including her latest, which is Red Rain.

How are you doing today, Lara?

Yes.

I'm so excited to be here.

Thank you guys for inviting me.

I love it.

We recently talked to Bill, your husband about Writer Con, but we

want to talk about Reader Con today.

Because it's a whole nother new part of Writer Con that's happening

actually like in conjunction with, but right after the Writer Con

conference in Oklahoma City, right?

Yes, that's exactly right.

You summed it up perfectly.

I am excited to have Lara here with us today because I have been

to Lara's classes at Writer Con.

I'm a big fan of Writer Con.

We've talked about this, but I've been to Lara's classes and I love, she's got

some great insight coming in just from a lot of different perspectives, a lot

of different experience that she brings.

And so when she speaks, you can tell she's speaking from not only from the writing

side, but she has definitely some business aspects and she's got business information

that she brings to the table too.

So I always love that when I get to hear her speak.

So I also am so excited you're here, Lara.

So tell us about Reader Con.

What is it?

This is new, so what is it?

It's brand new.

This is our inaugural year and it is just going to be a

celebration of books is what it is.

This is going to be a book convention where book lovers can come and network

and meet with authors and browse books and get author signatures.

Just generally bask in the happy glow of spending time around

books and other book lovers.

We're gonna have bookish merch.

There's gonna be a book character.

Costume contest.

We're gonna give a go.

There'll be a whodunit mystery.

Oh, I just got confirmation we're gonna be partnering with Safe Haven, which is

an animal rescue group here in Oklahoma City, the hotel has confirmed it's okay.

So they're gonna bring some friendly, furry friends for us to get to enjoy.

And we're gonna set up a space where we can have reading to animals and

we're gonna have a silent auction to support that wonderful cause because

they are donation and volunteer supported and we love animals.

I love animals and I'm so happy to try to support them.

I love that.

So I could be dressed up as my favorite book character.

Yes.

I know.

Holding one of these precious animals and reading a book to them.

And reading a book to them.

How often?

I always need a good excuse to dress up.

My undergraduate degree was in musical theater, and I like to say you can take

the actress out of the theater, but you can't make her quit wearing costumes.

And I love a good excuse to get to dress up and as a book character.

Honestly, that's what my kids would often go as on Halloween.

And the sad thing is a lot of the adults would just look really confused

and ask what they were supposed to be.

And I guess that's what happens when you come from a literary family.

That's true.

So Writer Con is September 1st through fourth, but this is actually

what's happening on the fourth right?

On Labor Day itself, which is the fourth.

Same location there at the Renaissance Waterford, and we'll have it running

from nine o'clock in the morning to five o'clock in the afternoon.

And my understanding is there's no cost to be a part of Reader Con

to come in to enjoy all the books, to get books signed and all that.

It's a completely free event that you can come to.

That absolutely is right open to the public free event.

You've already referenced Writer Con, which we've been hosting for,

I don't know, I think over a decade.

At this point.

I can't even keep track anymore.

I'm getting old.

But this year we are adding on the actual reader con to that as well.

Yes.

And tell me how did this come about?

'cause I love this idea and the one thing that I also just love about

coming to Oklahoma is the thriving literary community that Oklahoma has.

And it's always.

It's shocking, isn't it?

I know it's shouldn't be.

It shouldn't be, but it is.

There are just a lot of great authors that come out.

We have so much talent here.

Yes.

So how did it come about?

What gave you the idea for this or, and I say you, I don't know.

I think you were, I get the feeling like you were definitely

in the mix of coming up with it.

Definitely in the mix.

So yeah, we've established, we've been running writer con already,

that's for authors and of course aspiring and established both.

We all come together.

We learn from each other.

We share little nuggets, whatever we've learned, so we can all stay up to date

on what's going on, what the industry trends are, what's been happening.

We keep each other informed.

This is a group of people who just really support each other and want

success for everyone involved.

So I love it.

But Bill and I love going to conventions in general.

Like we like gaming conventions and we like comic book conventions.

He's a little more of the comic book nerd, but there's

something for everyone at these.

But last year we went for the first time to GenCon in Indianapolis and it's

a huge game convention board games.

Not necessarily video games, although there may have been a little bit of

that, but it's almost overwhelming.

There's so much.

But what I really liked was not just the great big giant producers with the

big names, the stuff that you'll see everywhere online and on the shelves

in Target or wherever you buy games.

You could also go into some of the rooms there where they had little

smaller tables and meet with people who had indie developed some games

and maybe with a little publisher, but just as nice, just as fun.

And I remember a moment where I was drawn to a small little card game

because the artwork was so beautiful.

Kind of forest and animal based plants and animals.

I'm very nature centric.

I love it.

And I got to meet the guy who developed it and he signed my box.

And that's something really special, a nice memory.

And we enjoy that game.

I think the very last day we went into the library for some quiet time

and it was just shelf after shelf of games and you could check them

out and try things before you buy.

And it just, at one point we were just looking around and taking a

deep breath and Bill said, we need something like this, but for books.

And that was the inception of the idea.

We started thinking and talking about that because a book convention just seems

like a no brainer for us, and it took a lot to pull together, but I'm super

excited and it's gonna be the same thing.

There's gonna be lots of ways for you to interact with authors, get to

listen to them, maybe meet some people that you wouldn't have otherwise,

and maybe find a new favorite read.

I think it's exciting and we'll have some merch and just lots of

opportunities to hang around it.

I can't wait.

I'd love to add that's what I love about this moment in time for us as authors

and writers, is that, even if you want to self-publish a book and you're not

getting published through one of the, big New York publishers, that sort of

thing, you can still get noticed by being a part of something like this, right?

And people can find you and yeah you can make that connection, right?

Where it's it's not just that you're you have some nameless person

out there on a book, but like you can make a real life connection

with someone over their material.

We talk a lot, I think, as writers where you don't just

want readers, you want fans.

And I think.

Yes, absolutely.

When you can connect with someone on that emotional level and really have

that special moment with them and create those memories, you will create, you

will find fans, and you will find as fans, you will find new favorite authors.

I love that too.

And then fans of course wanna tell everybody they know about you.

When someone is exactly a really a true fan of your work, they

can't wait for the next one.

But they also wanna tell their friends about it and spread the word and that

can be the hard part when you're, especially with the debut book it's tough

to make those first few connections.

The marketing is the hard part.

After writing the book, which is a hard part.

Yeah.

That's the hard part too.

So if you're a reader, of course you can show up on September 4th and you can

just start, you can join in, come on.

Have fun.

What if you're an author and you want to be there to sign

your book or promote your book?

Do you have to sign up beforehand or do you just show up or what?

Yes.

Yes.

If you want to come, if you want a table and you wanna come and be

part of Book Expo, you would wanna arrange for that ahead of time.

Book expo's going to span Sunday, I think it starts Sunday afternoon on writer Con.

It could be all day.

I might be getting that wrong, but it's on Sunday of Writer Con.

But then it also continues on the full day of Reader Con.

So you'll get to have it all set up and ready to go Sunday and then still be there

when all the readers come flooding in.

'cause we're just gonna go ahead and assume that's

what's gonna happen on Monday.

And there is a it's $79 for both dates for authors who want

to participate in that, which.

Oh, that's really not bad, huh?

Is really not that much if you compare that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Those of us in the know, know that's a great deal.

So Yeah, that is definitely, yeah.

Especially because people are showing up to see your books.

It's a built-in audience there.

So that's the idea.

Exactly.

So now in addition to you, 'cause I know that you're gonna be there,

but who else is gonna be there?

Who can people look forward to meeting?

Spoilers!?

Gena, of course I'll be there.

Our featured authors this year will be Lisa Gardner and Tosca Lee, both fabulous.

I've already seen and heard an interview with Lisa and she is delightful.

I cannot wait to get to interact with her in person and I'll be

sitting and listening to her.

She sounds like a lot of fun and likewise for Tosca, and I know some people

are excited to come just to see them.

Who else?

We'll also have bestselling author, William Bernhardt.

I know that'll come as a shock.

I honestly, I think there will be something like 60 authors so far.

There will be a lot of people there.

60.

That's a lot of people!

A lot of local, but also a lot of people coming in from out of state.

So we'll have panels where you can come and hear about women's fiction, thrillers,

mystery writers will be talking with us, just probably just by anything you might

wanna talk about we will be able to cover.

Yes.

I love that.

I love the different genres too, that you're hitting a

lot of the different genres.

So that's really, that's fabulous.

Like this would be a good way just to make a connection

with other authors too, right?

Whether you're in the Oklahoma City area or outside it, this is to a good

way to find others in your genre.

Yes.

You can talk about exchanging promotion, being on each other's email list,

all that sort of thing, and really.

Exactly right.

Making connections.

Yeah, exactly right.

We are so excited and I'm going to ask you like, what's on the horizon for you?

What's new for you coming up before we sign off for the day.

So what am I working on?

I'm working on too much.

I like being busy though.

I'd rather be busy than bored.

I'm working on my next women's fiction.

Which I am super excited about.

I had hoped to have it to my agent by now, but I did have a little bit of a

medical snag that slowed me down by, I hate to say it, but about six months.

That was not fun, but but I'm good now.

I'm over it.

I said no thank you to cancer and sent it on its way.

I'm over that, I'm just regaining that strength still,

but I'm healthy no worries.

So glad to hear that.

But it did slow me down, so I'm working on women's fiction next.

That is very personal and meaningful to me, so I'm excited to bring that one out.

I wish that it was done, but next year, I think this time.

And then I'm working on the next, in my series, and we haven't made like a

full, major announcement, but Bill and I are actually writing a book together.

Oh, wow.

Because, 'cause it's something we haven't done yet and I needed more to write.

Exactly.

And that's gonna be a fun process.

Working together with a partner is always an interesting process,

but working with your spouse.

Yes.

We think it's really fun to get to work together.

And we've gotten to work together on some books together.

We really like to enjoy that.

We read each other's stuff.

We read each other's books and we've been involved I hate to say edit.

It's really more like a proofread and just stand in touch with each other.

So we have a good feel for the other ones Writing and what it

sounds like and feels like and, yes.

So it's fun.

We haven't had any, we haven't had any problems yet.

We enjoy it when we sit down.

That's, and start talking about it and working on the next bit.

We're enjoying it.

That's good.

And it is really fun.

It is, when it works, it's really, it really is fun, I think.

We hadn't done it.

We thought what else can we do?

We've already both been three times I've been a finalist for the Oklahoma

Book Award for best fiction, and I wanna say all three times he was one too.

So we came, we keeping up against each other and we're like maybe

we can just be on there together.

I dunno, this just seemed like a new thing that we could try.

I love it.

So your latest novel is Red Rain, and you wanna just tell us, give a brief

plug for that before we close out.

Yeah, this is a story of female empowerment and friendship and working

through the hard things that life throws at you, and finding meaning in

them and moving beyond reclaiming that joy even when you've had struggles.

So it is, it's poignant, but it's, I think, very uplifting.

In the end, it was a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award, and I don't think

it's been, I don't think they've made a press release yet, but it's been nominated

by the Oklahoma Center for the book, for the Dublin International literary Award.

Oh, congratulations.

That's awesome.

I was very pleased to hear that.

We'll have a direct link for that in the show notes.

I'm sure you can find it on Amazon, wherever good books are sold.

Everywhere and anywhere.

Excellent.

Alright.

We'll also put a link to Reader Con in the show notes.

And we hope everyone can join us that'll be september 4th, and Writer

Con is September 1st through fourth.

You can, sign up to still get tickets today at writercon.com.

As well as you can find all of reader con.

Be sure to put that on your calendar because it's free.

You don't have to have tickets in advance, so you just want to be sure you show up.

So put that on your calendar today.

It's on September 4th in Oklahoma City.

You'll find out more at the writer con website.

Yes.

Thank you so much, Lara, for being with us today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

If people have questions, they can just send some messages, reach out.

Glad to answer them.

Oh, that's great.

Thank you.

Yes.

And if you have enjoyed this podcast, we just ask that you would rate, review,

subscribe, and share it with your friends.

Let other people know about Readercon that's coming up as well as about

Lara and about her book Red Rain.

And I would just invite you to check out all her books

'cause she's a fabulous writer.

And so check it out.

Thank you for joining us.

Remember, we're not doing all this alone.

This is something that we do together, right?

Yes.

And together we have writing momentum.

That's right.

See y'all later.