Instructor: Beth Barany
Dates: August 1-31 2011
Course Description: You may think that social networking as an author is only for published authors. But actually authors at all stages of their career can use the tools of Twitter, Facebook and blogging (and more!) If you only discover and implement a few important strategies, you will find that social networking can fit into your busy life, and help grow your career, and, yes, it’s true, sell more books!
Instructor: Don McNair
Dates: August 1-31 2011
Course Description: Publishers and agents reject 99 percent of received manuscripts after simply glancing at their first chapters. This class shows why your own manuscript was rejected . . . and how to fix it!
Instructor: Suzanne Rock
Dates: August 1-28 2011
Course Description: Digital books are becoming more and more popular. Devices such as the Kindle, iPAD and Nook have brought ebooks into the limelight and provided many new and exciting publishing opportunities for writers. Despite this, many are still confused about the epublishing process. This course is for beginners who want to learn more about digital publishing and determine if it’s a good fit for them. We will touch on big vs.small epress, self-publishing, vanity publishing, contracts, promotions and dealing with epirates. By the end of class, the student should have a good understanding of the options available and have the tools they need if they wish to move toward digital publication.
Instructor: Carolyn Cooper
Dates: August 1-26 2011
Course Description: Stop guessing if your marketing is effective and what your readers want. Avoiding wasting your time and money. Learn how to use your free website visitor information (aka metrics) to determine a) where are the best places to spend your time and money to build your audience, b) what’s working (and what’s not) on your website and your marketing efforts, and c) how to get measurable improvements on your marketing ROI (Return On Investment) quickly & efficiently.
Instructor: Kelle Z. Riley
Dates: August 1-26 2011
Course Description: Today’s corporate managers function as mentors to their teams. To achieve this they study a range of techniques designed to help them identify and meet the needs of their employees at all stages during a career. Writers, on the other hand, don’t have managers to turn to and often feel alone in their struggles. By studying the same techniques as corporate managers, however, they can learn to recognize the developmental stages within themselves and seek out the specific guidance/mentoring they need at all stages in their career development.
Instructor: Susan Meier
Dates: August 1-26 2011
Course Description: Ever wonder what you’re supposed to “put” in between those four or five turning points of your story? Susan Meier’s Journey Steps, Taking the Train to Somewhere provides quick, easy solutions for any author who has ever wondered “now what?”
CHANGING GENRES
Instructor: Beth Daniels
Dates: August 5-26 2011
Course Description: This workshop runs four weeks and sets challenges twice a week. These challenges (or homework, if you will) address things like:
• The marketplace
• Evaluating the elements required
• Making note of how many of them are already part of the writer’s style
• Deciding what needs to be learned/adapted/changed, and even confessing – or realizing – the reason a writer is considering leaping into a new field. In other words, “what’s it going to take and can I follow though?”
Instructor: Clair Ashgrove
Dates: August 5-26 2011
Course Description: Digital Publishing — How did we get here, and is it right for me? Join Claire Ashgrove for an in depth look on:
• The origins of digital publishing
• The differences and similarities between digital and standard print presses
• An analysis of benefits and drawbacks to signing with an electronic house
WRITING REGENCY SET NOVELS WORKSHOP
Instructor: Shannon Donnelly
Dates: August 5-26 2011
Course Description: This workshop covers:
• What makes the Regency a fascinating era
• Key research resources
• Brief overview of the history of the Regency era, with its great contrast, and therefore great conflicts, and rich background.
Instructor: Kit Fraizer
Dates: August 5-26 2011
Course Description: The class includes:
• Signals of the spark of sexual attraction
• Why the attraction works or doesn’t work
• The body language of deceit
• Signals of anger or betrayal
• The signs of growing affection, and eventually love
Instructor: Carol Hughes
Dates: August 5-26 2011
Course Description: What does Nora Roberts, Stephen King, George Lucas (STAR WARS), Stephen Spielberg (E.T.), Terry Russo (SHREK/PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN), James Cameron (TITANIC/AVATAR) know about writing that makes them the mega stars that they are?
• Do you know what the 18 scenes are that every story contains, no matter its length or genre?
• Do you know what impact your character’s mental gender has upon readers?
• Do you even know what your character’s mental gender is?
• Do you know how your character’s arc drives your story?
• Or how your story drives your character’s arc?
• Do you know the quick and easy way to create heart-stopping dilemmas for your characters that drive your readers wild?
• Do you know what the 4 throughlines of every story is?
• Do you know how to weave them together?
CREATING CHARACTERS THAT BREATHE (OUT OF THIN AIR)
Instructor: Diana Rowe
Dates: August 8-19 2011
Course Description: How does a writer create realistic, memorable characters - fictional people so "real" they become intimate friends to readers? This six-lesson workshop examines some of the tools you will need to create realistic characters who seem to jump off the page into your readers' lives, to create "people who breathe" out of thin air.
Instructor: Marcia King-Gamble
Dates: August 8-22 2011
Course Description: Do you have an idea percolating (or maybe you don't?) This workshop will get you writing. It covers how to generate ideas when the idea well has dried up. Then once you get a firm grip around your plot you'll put together the dreaded synopsis. By the time you're through you will have written a query and a synopsis.
COWBOYS & BIKERS: GIDDY UP & GOOD VIBRATIONS
Instructor: Diana Rowe
Dates: August 10-31 2011
Course Description: Coming soon
Instructor: Sascha Illyvich
Dates: August 15-28 2011
Course Description: What you’ll learn from this class
• Male Archetypes and how they affect our characters
• How (il)logical men think and why they act the way they do
• How to take any male character from any movie/story and modify him to fit your story
• How to get your man to express his true “self”
• What men REALLY care about and how to work with that for your characters*
• A man’s self view*
• The GAY MALE Viewpoint*
• The Male Cycle of Emotions and how it compares to the female cycle of emotions
• A man’s journey in life
• What men really think
Instructor: The Grammar Divas
Dates: August 17-31 2011
Course Description: Do ever-shrinking word counts and dwindling editor reading time have you thinking you need to put your prose on a diet? Wordy sentences and unnecessary phrases clutter writing, turning an otherwise good manuscript into an overweight tome. Cut the fat and enhance your chances of garnering an editor's attention. The Grammar Divas demonstrate techniques to identify and correct common author mistakes. Discover how to identify which words add meaning to a sentence and which just take up space. Learn alternatives to wordy, verbose, overstated, or pompous phrases. Devise strategies to help you write precisely what you mean every time.
Happy writing!