Please
note that all course descriptions are in blurb form. There’s often more information at the
official websites. The April writing
workshops are listed in order of start date and length.
Instructor: Victoria Martinez
Dates: April, 2012
Course Description: Whether you want to write historical fiction or nonfiction, you need
to make sure your research skills are top-notch and your historical context is
consistent. Historical research and writing can seem daunting at first, but can
be a rewarding experience with the right tools and knowledge. This course will
teach you: where to find the right historical resources; how to cull essential
facts and details; the most effective ways to organize information; and how to
accurately weave history into your writing.
Instructor: Bob Mayer & Jen Talty
Dates: April, 2012
Course Description: Published author considering publishing your backlist? Unpublished
author considering self-publishing? This workshop will look closely at
self-publishing distribution channels from what kind of file you will need to
upload your eBook to various options you have in creating the files. We will
also discuss all the various platforms such as Kindle, Nook, iBooks and
Smashwords and what are the best strategies to getting your book up for sale.
We will discuss doing it yourself, outsourcing and team-building options.
Authors have more options today than ever before, but the process can be
overwhelming. While this is not a step-by-step technical class, the workshop is
designed to give you enough information to make informed decisions on how to
get your eBook on all formats possible.
Instructor: Catherine Chant
Dates: April 1-13, 2012
Course Description: At
the end of this workshop you will have a better understanding of what goes into
making your author website more appealing and inviting to a visitor and thus
more effective for promoting you and your work. …
Instructor: Margie Lawson
Dates: April 1-27, 2012
Course Description: Learn how to write body language and dialogue cues from a kinesics
specialist. No more clichéd, trite, and overused facial expressions.
Instructor: Frank Ahearn
Dates: April 1-30, 2012
Course Description: People disappear for many reasons, some to avoid government
intrusion, better tax structures, to leave a past behind or avoid danger –
obviously there is a common thread to find independence from a situation. Frank
Ahearn, an expert on the fine art of disappearance, offers fiction writers his
tricks and tips on creating credible characters and scenarios that disappear or
how to find them. …
Instructor: Linnea Sinclair
Dates: April 1-30, 2012
Course Description: Pow! Bam! Thud! Fun stuff for comic strips but potentially
cartoonish when it comes to commercial genre fiction. Yet today‘s
readers—raised on explosive movies and violent video games—often crave the same
kind of excitement in a book. So how can a writer deliver action that feels
real? Learn how to perfect your techniques with former private detective (yeah,
she really did carry a badge and a gun for ten years) and award-winning science
fiction romance author Linnea Sinclair…
Instructor: Beth Daniels
Dates: April 2-8, 2012
Course Description: … we’ll concentrate on
building whatever community you need, be it a neighborhood or precinct in a
metropolis or a cozy, comfy small town in the middle of next-to-no-where. There
will be one CHALLENGE – and that’s to create the place where your characters
live, work, love…and, oh yeah, solve crimes in.
Instructor: Tracy Wolff
Dates: April 2-15, 2012
Course Description: Are You A Writer or A Storyteller? starts with a quiz to help determine
which one is your strong suit. Then we
move on to a discussion strengths and weaknesses of writing and story telling,
along with strategies to exploit your own strengths and bolster your weaknesses
to help make you the best writer and storyteller you can be.
Instructor: Lois Winston
Dates: April 2-16, 2012
Course Description: … Lois will discuss the various types of writing contests and how to
determine which contests are best to enter, based on the writer’s goals and
expectations. She will cover everything from the financial to the emotional.
From the need for a dynamic opening sentence to the chapter ending hook. From
scores and feedback (or lack of it) to staying organized. From contest
complaints to contest etiquette. From volunteering to judge as a way to advance
your career to constructing a voodoo doll of that clueless judge who kept you
from finaling…Is she kidding? You’ll have to sign up for the workshop to find
out.)
Instructor: Virna DePaul
Dates: April 2-22, 2012
Course Description: Theme is the underlying message or meaning of your story. Story question is the driving force that
unveils the message to your reader. Both
act not only as a jumping off point for your story but as a tether and
sometimes a lifeline. They provide the
answer for “why” things happen in the story, but sometimes they can also
provide the “how.” In other words,
knowing your theme and story question can actually help you brainstorm scenes
when your muse decides to take a nap. ...
Instructor: Deborah Blake
Dates: April 2-27, 2012
Course Description: Want to write a paranormal romance or urban fantasy, but don’t want to
be just another Vamp in the crowd? Yearning to create a completely original
paranormal character, but don’t know where to start? Author Deborah Blake moves
beyond Vampires to delve into a wide range of paranormal folk who don’t need to
hide from the sun. From Witches to Weres, Fae to Phantasms, this class will
explore the alternatives to over-used supernatural stereotypes and help you to
create your own unique paranormal character. The class will include a
discussion of current trends, suggested reading, hints for character building,
and an overview of authors who have successfully gone beyond the traditional.
Instructor: Virginia Kantra
Dates: April 2-27, 2012
Course Description: The casting director's responsibility is to
find actors who are right for the roles of a particular production. What
characters does your story require? What traits do they need? How do you
describe them, reveal them, create chemistry between them? Award-winning author
Virginia Kantra discusses how to use the requirements of different character
roles--heroes, heroines, antagonists and secondary characters--to build a
strong, appealing cast and focus your story.
Instructor: Margie Lawson
Dates: April 2-27, 2012
Course Description: Three prerequisites. Do you want to dig deep into deep editing? Do you want to take an advanced class with all Margie Grads? Do you want Margie's Deep Edit Analysis for any 30 pages of your WIP? If so, this squeal-it's-a-deal class is for you!
Instructor: Alexa Bourne
Dates: April 2-27, 2012
Course Description: Many people browse through a book store, pull a book
of the shelf and read the first page. They decide right then, based on the 1st
line, 1st paragraphs and 1st page, whether or not they'll buy the book. Killer
Openings dissects those all-important elements. Students study good and bad openings
and discuss why they do or don't work. they can also submit their own opening
lines/paragraphs/pages and receive a critique.
Instructor: Susan Meier
Dates: April 2-27, 2012
Course Description: Good
books are about people. Great books are about people in trouble. Not just
external trouble, but real, gut wrenching, soul hurting trouble. Most of us can
give our characters believable external struggles and even get them beyond
those struggles, but what about that internal struggle? Can a leopard really
change his or her spots? And if so how? What do editors and agents mean when
they say your character has to grow? Learn the basis for ever internal struggle
and how to achieve believable character growth that can carry your whole story
and give your characters a real happy ending.
Instructor: Lisa Miller
Dates: April 2-27, 2012
Course Description: Beautiful words and exciting scenes aren’t enough to propel the
reader through a novel. Stories need structure, a plan, a focus from beginning
to end. Story Structure Safari will guide you through the dense jungle of
information about story. Our trek will include excursions into the lands of
Story Structure and Transformational Character Arcs and Plot.
Instructor: Megan Applegate
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: … This four-week course will
delve deep into Austen’s methods of
characterization and how to apply them to your own writing—the many
tiers of a heroine, the depths and drive
behind heroes. It will explore crisis and
conflict as a character and the methods behind successfully pitting
your characters against the “setting”
for maximum conflict and goal realization.
Instructor: Jaye Roycraft
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: Romantic suspense, mysteries, urban fantasies – these are just a few of
the genres that might require an author to use a cop or an ex-cop as either the
protagonist or an important secondary character. Learning the inner workings of a police department
can be a challenge for any writer. As
both an author and a female who spent eight years with a big-city police
department, I can share an insider’s look into the world of a cop – the
emotions and attitudes of a typical street cop as well as procedures, training,
guns and ammo, and “copspeak” – that mysterious language comprised of codes and
cop slang...
Instructor: Kat Duncan
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: Learn exactly how to use active voice to maximize the impact of your
writing style. Kat will show you how to identify and fix passive sentences and
explain when you should leave them alone and why. Kat will provide plenty of
well-explained examples of how to develop an engaging active voice and use it
to build tension and control pacing. Bonus: Learn simple techniques to design
figurative language and action-emotion word combinations that will liven up
your manuscript. Includes optional exercises.
Instructor: Suzanne Rock
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
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...
Instructor: Beth Daniels
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: Are you spinning tales about members of the Skywalker-Solo family, or
the crew as on the Starship Enterprise, or something featuring a brilliant
alien who travels the universe and time in a blue box? Are you telling tales in
a TV series’ world that went off the air decades ago? If so, these stories can
be edited, recreated, and turned into something that is clearly of your own
creation, not spun off from another’s, and morphed into something that can snag
an editor’s interest. ...
Instructor: Misa Ramirez
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: Finding your voice is perhaps one of the most difficult things a writer
must do. It’s not as if you’ve lost it
and it’s hiding under the bed, waiting to be rediscovered. And you can’t copy someone else’s. ...
Instructor: Anna Bowling
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: Learn to use fan fiction techniques to create original stories and
characters without having to look over your shoulder for copyright lawyers. Let
favorite movies, television or music inspire your own creativity, put your own
spin on archetypes and themes we all know and love and avoid the dreaded Mary
Sue along the way. The name of the game
is inspiration, not imitation. ...
Instructor: Karina Fabian
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: We'll examine four basic marketing areas: Online relationships, Off-line
relationships, Press, and Platform. In week five, we'll put it together into a
marketing plan you can offer to publishers in a proposal or use for yourself on
your contracted book.
Instructor: June Diehl
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: This workshop will cover the following: the unique characteristics of
the short story, craft elements, writing scenes, story beginnings, middle, and
ending, writing the draft, making plans for your revision, markets for your
short story, and how to submit. At the end of 30 days you will have a drafted
story with feedback and a plan for making your revisions.
Instructor: Mary O’Gara
Dates: April 2-29, 2012
Course Description: Multi-tasking is your strength-when it doesn't overwhelm you. So how
many goals can you handle without stressing out? And how do you know what to do
next and what not to do at all? ...
Instructor: Tiffany Lawson Inman
Dates: April 2-30, 2012
Course Description: No matter where you are in the writing process – this class will
crack open your psyche to reveal dynamic character, motivation, and reaction,
showing you how to activate emotion you never knew you had.
Instructor: Beth Daniels
Dates: April 2- May 1, 2012
Course Description: …This 4-Week workshop tells how by guiding participants through the doors
of history and on an excursion into the world of clockwork mechanics as well as
highlighting the various elements that make up Steampunk.
Instructor: Nancy Mayer
Dates: April 4-29, 2012
Course Description: The Regency woman. She was a woman of stern morals and little laughter. A governess who didn't feel oppressed and a governess who did. She owned her own business. She was an author, a poet, a scientist, a runaway. She lived a discreet and quiet life and she was notorious. She was the faithful wife and the mother of many children, or a divorced woman who had to give up her children to escape her husband. ...
Instructor: Tamela Buhrke
Dates: April 5-30, 2012
Course Description: A publisher will expect you to have a blog, but you shudder at the very
idea. Who are you to blog? Maybe you don’t even have a book out yet. What value
could you offer? Where can you find the time? And what will you write that will
make even the slightest difference in the sales of your book or the process of
being published?
Instructor: Teresa Bodwell
Dates: April 9-14, 2012
Course Description: This workshop will give you a head start on the critiquing process. It's designed for beginning critiquers and
will lead into the full workshop beginning March 5th. Participants in this workshop will receive a
critique on their first 15 pages from the instructor.
Instructor: Jaye Roycraft
Dates: April 9-15, 2012
Course Description: Many people go through life thinking of conflict as a bad thing. But not only is conflict unavoidable, it’s a
necessary part of life. It’s what
challenges us and keeps us going.
Conflict isn’t easy, but in the end, it can help us grow and become
better people. How we deal with the
conflicts in our lives is what defines us.
Are we strong individuals who are able to overcome obstacles and grow, or
do we fall short and fail? In real life,
it’s usually a case of a little of both.
The same is true of our fictional characters. ...
Instructor: Devon Ellington
Dates: April 9-29, 2012
Course Description: The purpose of this workshop is to learn how to work with a base story,
and, using the elements of different genres, rework it from genre to genre. ...
Instructor: Raquel Rodriguez
Dates: April 9-May 6, 2012
Course Description: You've heard it for writers, businesses and homes, now you can Feng Shui
your characters! Learn traditional
concepts and the basis of Feng Shui and utilize techniques I have developed to
give added depth and dimension. Solve
character problems and gain new insight into what makes them tick. This workshop teaches all about color
psychology, item placement, and how to translate a Feng Shui "fix" to
improve your characters. Add action,
adventure, intrigue or desire into your story with easy remedies, and put your
protagonist (or antagonist) on the proper path to their goal.
Instructor: LD Madison
Dates: April 9-May 7, 2012
Course Description: The four-week workshop is for authors at all levels of writing
experience. There are no specific ‘prerequisites’ other than an open-mind, and
a desire to create spine-chilling, believable predators. The workshop is meant
to be an overview of criminals and predators – not just killers. It will
include the psychology of rapists, arsonists, cult leaders and pedophiles – as
well as a strategy for the hero/heroine to find and catch the villain. ...
Instructor: LD Madison
Dates: April 9-October 18, 2012
Course Description: This is a six month long class and at the end the participants should
have a book finished or close to being finished. It will also include lectures
on the current state of the publishing industry and how to look for an agent or
pursue a contract with a publishing house.
Instructor: Pat Hauldren
Dates: April 16-May 6, 2012
Course Description: Fantasy, and especially Urban Fantasy, are hot genres on today's market.
In this class, we'll define Urban Fantasy, explore genre expectations and
tropes, the markets available and how each market expects different aspects of
the same genre. We'll also study the current publications in the genre,
including adult, YA, romance, and children's subgenres, and compare our own
manuscripts to these. Throughout the class, we'll work on improving our
manuscripts to meet market needs.
Instructor: Marcy Weydemuller
Dates: April 16-May 6, 2012
Course Description: The reality of our world, its emotional resonance and unique atmosphere,
will be found in the details. Either we see it though the familiarity and
ordinariness of our main character, or we see its strangeness through her
confusion or entrancement. So it’s important for us to know the details
ourselves. Just as we can walk around our homes in the dark, knowing exactly
where we are, so must our characters. What is real to them needs to be real to
us. This provides authentic atmosphere, tone and mood. But it doesn’t mean we
need to invent everything. In this four-week workshop we’ll break ground to
create our unique setting.
Instructor: Christine Amsden
Dates: April 16-May 13, 2012
Course Description: Before there was a story, there was a beginning, and that beginning had
to shine or there would be no story, or at least, no one to read it. We draw
people in with characters, intrigue, drama, humor, and above all, competent
writing. In this workshop, we will discuss where to begin a story and how to
reel the reader in with tantalizing details and an implicit promise of things
to come. There will be weekly writing assignments and peer review is expected.
This workshop is designed with beginners and intermediates in mind, but a grasp
of spelling and grammar is necessary.
Instructor: Kat Duncan
Dates: April 16-May 13, 2012
Course Description: This workshop explores the elements needed to show a character's
emotional arc from opening page to ending scene. You will learn techniques that
enable you to tug at a reader's heartstrings. How and when to launch into emotional
introspection and when not to. Blend emotion and story conflict and learn when
and how to emphasize each. Manage your characters' emotions by learning how to
manipulate your readers' emotions. Entice your readers to follow your
characters' emotional upheavals and revelations without giving readers a reason
to toss the book aside out of boredom or toss it in the trash out of anger. ...
Instructor: Tricia Ballad
Dates: April 16-May 13, 2012
Course Description: addresses one of the most common complaints among writers of all levels:
the inability to find the time to sit down and write. This workshop will help
students address four areas of time management that are most relevant to
writers: setting concrete goals and breaking them down into discrete tasks,
finding time to accomplish those tasks, avoiding burnout, and how to get back
on track when things do not go as planned.
Instructor: Deborah Holland
Dates: April 16-May 13, 2012
Course Description: Curious
about self-publishing? Do you want to become part of the recent wave of
self-published authors? Do you want to have more control over your books and
your career?
Instructor: Stacey O’Neale
Dates: April 16-May 13, 2012
Course Description: Social media can be an aspiring authors best friend. If you know how to
use it - it can be helpful in attracting literary agents, publishers, and
readers to your work. But with all the available outlets out there, it's hard
to know where to concentrate. In this course, we're going to get down and dirty
with what's working, how much time to invest, what to do, and especially, what
not to do. This course is designed for aspiring authors as well as published
authors looking to connect with a larger audience. ...
Instructor: Todd Stone
Dates: April 16-May 13, 2012
Course Description: Writing not working? Not happy
with your progress? Internal editor,
rejection letters, or writers block making you need a little help with your self-esteem
right now? How about some hugs? You ain't gettin' 'em here. Toss the tissues and put on your
grown-up-person clothes, 'cause it's time you got some no-nonsense, "this
is the way it is, now deal" advice from a professional communicator who
has seen the words for money game change over two decades. What's hot in genres will change, what you
need to know to write the best novel and have the best writing career won't.
...
Instructor: Connie Cox
Dates: April 23-May 20, 2012
Course Description: Connie writes because she's curious.
She always wants to know 'and then what happened.' A natural seat-of-her-pants writer, Connie
knows first hand that lack of structure leads to illogical, unbelievable and
meandering storylines that have readers scratching their heads and looking for
the No-Doze. Pantsers tend to write themselves
in the corner and end up scrapping pages and pages of work, or even the whole
manuscript. ...
Instructor: Kat Duncan
Dates: April 23-May 20, 2012
Course Description: You've heard the old adage "write what you know". But what if
you're a housewife with no work experience and your most recent hobby is
folding laundry? You know more than you think. You may know how to solve tricky
problems, soothe ruffled feathers, keep law and order, monitor sick kids, sympathize
over the loss of a pet, or organize a mob of unruly kids at a party. You have
goals and aspirations, even if they are just to get through the next holiday
dinner. Kat will help you dig deep into your personal skills and pull out every
tool you have that can be used in your writing. Not only that, but Kat will
help you see how those skills could be applied to every fiction genre from
sweet inspirationals to erotic sci-fi. Published examples, plus short exercises
and templates support your writing goals for the future.
Instructor: Kathy Cottrell
Dates: April 30-May 13, 2012
Course Description: Do you want to know what an editor really wants? Join Kathy Cottrell, Senior Editor for the
Wild Rose Press, as she shares her years of experience working in the trenches
with both fledgling and experienced authors and explains how to turn an
ordinary submission into something that brings an editor up out of her chair.
Instructor: Karina Fabian
Dates: April 30-May 13, 2012
Course Description: Some of the most successful article writers understand how to use their
ideas and research time effectively.
Using her own experience as a freelance writer and her research, Karina
Fabian will present suggestions on how to make the most of the background work
you do.
Instructor: Devon Ellington
Dates: April 30-May 27, 2012
Course Description: How do you create a convincing setting?
Whether you’re setting your story in a real location or a fantastical
one, it’s the same on the page as in life:
Location, location, location!
Spend a month with Devon Ellington learning how to craft believable
settings as compelling as your characters in both naturalistic and fantastic
ways. There will be short term
assignments and long-term assignments over the term of the course, so be
prepared to work on more than one project at a time.
Instructor: Misa Ramirez
Dates: April 30-May 27, 2012
Course Description: Who can resist the dark hero? He is brooding, with a dark soul, is
impossibly damaged, struggles, and often teeters on the edge of being a
villain. How do we write this attractive character without making him
insensitive and cold? It’s a tall order,
but when done well, the dark hero is irresistible. ...
Instructor: Alice Osborn
Dates: April 30-May 27, 2012
Course Description: Have you been told you have a story that needs to be told? We all have a
life story inside of us, but we may feel that what we’ve experienced is not
relevant or important. Nonsense! Everyone has a voice and everyone has a story
that needs to be shared with others. In this four week workshop, you’ll learn
how to harness the power of your stories for future generations, and that what
you’ve learned over a lifetime is a treasure. We will discuss the ingredients
of a great memoir, dialogue, summary, scene and also publication.
Are you studying this month? Happy writing!
1 comment:
Thanks Lacey for spending so much time looking for all this! Much appreciated :o)
Oh, I tagged you on my blog (don't feel you have to reply if you don't have time, I know you're busy!)
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