Monster Revision and Deep Point of View

Instructor:  Suzanne Johnson

Click HERE to register.

Course Description: Pull out that WIP, ready-to-revise manuscript, or even a chapter from an already-published book, and get ready to dive into “Monster Revision,” an intensive one-pass revision system that’ll take you from Draft Zero to Done.

In this 30-day workshop, we’ll cover a one-week overview series of lessons, followed by three weeks of techniques that will leave you with a lot of tools in your revision toolbox. You’ll get individual feedback on your posted homework (yes, homework!).

We’ll be covering:

• Methodology and color-coding, and why deep POV is an important part of revision.
• The color wheel.
• Setting and description, including timeline, continuity, and backstory quicksand.
• What’s important to show, and what is better told.
• Dialogue as Action, and isolating character voice.
• Internal dialogue: pace, voice.
• Emotion: raw, ugly, visceral, internal.
• Read to the dog.
• DIY Toolbox: manual and online.

Instructor Bio: Suzanne Johnson was happily ensconced in New Orleans as a university magazine editor when Hurricane Katrina sent her adopted hometown underwater. She took her Katrina experiences, added wizards and magic (and the sexy undead pirate Jean Lafitte), and began what has become the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series published by Tor Books. Writing under the name Susannah Sandlin, she also writes award-winning paranormal romance, including the popular Penton Legacy series for Montlake Romance, and romantic suspense and thrillers, including two series, The Collectors and Wilds of the Bayou, also for Montlake. Suzanne grew up in Alabama halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis’s birthplace and lived in New Orleans for fifteen years, so she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of college football and fried gator on a stick. She currently lives in Auburn, Alabama, where she is a full-time author and does copyediting work for other authors.

Cinderella Goes to the Prom: How to Write a Retelling     

Instructor: JoSelle Vanderhooft

Click HERE to register.

Course Description: From Gregory McGuire’s beloved Wicked to Anne Rice’s Sleeping Beauty Quartet to countless reimaginings of Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella, retellings are a perennial hot subject for writers. In this class, editor JoSelle Vanderhooft (also an author of numerous fairy tale retellings in prose and poetry) will teach you why readers and writers crave reimagining these stories again and again, what kinds of stories make the best retellings, and how to make your favorite classic story uniquely your own. The goal of this course is to give students a rough outline for a retelling of their own.

Instructor Bio: JoSelle Vanderhooft has been editing since 2004. Her clients include publishers such as Dreamspinner Press, Siren/Bookstrand, and Bella Books and individual authors who have been nominated for numerous awards or reached Amazon bestseller status. As an author, anthologist, and poet, her own work has been a finalist for the Rainbow Reader Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. She lives in Utah with her family and a marvelous orange kitty cat. Josellevanderhooft@gmail.com

The Well-Tempered Sentence: Line Editing for Authors  

Instructor: JoSelle Vanderhooft

Click HERE to register.

Course Description: Taming sentence structure can be one of the most difficult tasks for writers of all skill levels. In this class, veteran editor JoSelle Vanderhooft will go over the basics of sentence construction, how to build rhythm into paragraphs, the similarities between sentence flow and music, and the benefits (and perils) of breaking grammar rules, and more.

Instructor BIO: JoSelle Vanderhooft has been editing since 2004. Her clients include publishers such as Dreamspinner Press, Siren/Bookstrand, and Bella Books and individual authors who have been nominated for numerous awards or reached Amazon bestseller status. As an author, anthologist, and poet, her own work has been a finalist for the Rainbow Reader Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. She lives in Utah with her family and a marvelous orange kitty cat. Josellevanderhooft@gmail.com

Three Copyeditors Walk into a Bar…

Instructor: Suzanne Johnson

Click HERE to register.

Course Description: Three copyeditors* walk into a bar. One says: What’s the difference between “your dinner” and “you’re dinner”? The other says: “One means you have a meal; the other means you’re dead.” The third one chokes on her drink because that was so funny.

Yes, you have to be a bit on the OCD side to be a copyeditor. Who else could argue for an hour about the merits (or lack thereof) of the Oxford comma, or whether AP Style or CMOS should be the gold standard?

*Copyeditors is one word in CMOS, which is used by most fiction publishers. Copy editors (two words) is preferred in AP Style, which is used by most newspapers and magazines.

In this two-week workshop, you’ll learn from a veteran copyeditor some of the most common pitfalls we see in manuscripts—and ways to avoid them, as well as what to look for in a copyeditor and some of the problems authors have with their CEs. After all, we just want to get along….

*NOTE:  She will also offer anyone who takes the copyediting workshop a 25-page copyedit as part of their workshop fee, if they want one.

Instructor Bio: Suzanne Johnson was happily ensconced in New Orleans as a university magazine editor and veteran copyeditor when Hurricane Katrina sent her adopted hometown underwater. She took her Katrina experiences, added wizards and magic (and the sexy undead pirate Jean Lafitte), and began what has become the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series published by Tor Books. Writing under the name Susannah Sandlin, she also writes award-winning paranormal romance, including the popular Penton Legacy series for Montlake Romance, and romantic suspense and thrillers, including two series, The Collectors and Wilds of the Bayou, also for Montlake. She was the founding copyeditor for Entangled Publishing, leaving when her own writing career needed more TLC. Suzanne grew up in Alabama halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis’s birthplace and lived in New Orleans for fifteen years, so she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of college football and fried gator on a stick. She currently lives in Auburn, Alabama, where she is a full-time author and does copyediting work for other authors both as a freelancer and on Reedsy.com.

Description:
Once you embark on a career as an independent author, you are no longer just a writer. You are now officially a publisher and business-owner! With that comes all the responsibilities of a publishing company, including editing, formatting, cover art design, distribution decisions, pricing and promotion. New York Times bestselling author Marie Force will review the ultimate to-do list for your self-publishing business.
Instructor Bio:  Marie Force is the New York Times bestselling author of contemporary romance, including the indie-published Gansett Island Series and the Fatal Series from Harlequin Books. In addition, she is the author of the Butler, Vermont Series, the Green Mountain Series and the erotic romance Quantum Series. In 2019, her new historical Gilded series from Kensington Books will debut with Duchess By Deception.

Her books have sold 6.5 million copies worldwide, have been translated into more than a dozen languages and have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list many times. She is also a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller, a Speigel bestseller in Germany, a frequent speaker as well as a publisher through her Jack’s House Publishing romance imprint. She is a two-time nominee for the Romance Writers of America’s RITA® award.

Her goals in life are simple—to finish raising two happy, healthy, productive young adults, to keep writing books for as long as she possibly can and to never be on a flight that makes the news.

Description:  
You’ve written the books, now what? New York Times bestselling author Marie Force will discuss some of the basics of marketing your books to expose them to readers. This workshop will include an introductory look at Facebook ads, Amazon Marketing ads and BookBub ads as well as other promotion and marketing strategies used by authors to grow their readership. Topics include:

• What’s the difference between publicity and marketing?
• Affiliate links
• Newsletters/growing lists
• Websites
• Advertising basics
• Blogs and blog tours
• Reviews, ARCs, safe sending
• Free books
• Launch strategy

Instructor Bio:  Marie Force is the New York Times bestselling author of contemporary romance, including the indie-published Gansett Island Series and the Fatal Series from Harlequin Books. In addition, she is the author of the Butler, Vermont Series, the Green Mountain Series and the erotic romance Quantum Series. In 2019, her new historical Gilded series from Kensington Books will debut with Duchess By Deception.

Her books have sold 6.5 million copies worldwide, have been translated into more than a dozen languages and have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list many times. She is also a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller, a Speigel bestseller in Germany, a frequent speaker as well as a publisher through her Jack’s House Publishing romance imprint. She is a two-time nominee for the Romance Writers of America’s RITA® award.

Her goals in life are simple—to finish raising two happy, healthy, productive young adults, to keep writing books for as long as she possibly can and to never be on a flight that makes the news.

Description: This class is for writers who either don’t want to or can’t afford to hire an accountant to keep track of their business finances. The class will deal will accounting practices, basic instructions in Quicken& Excel, how to set up your books, and includes useful tax tips for writers in the US and Canada.

Are you co-mingling your money for writing expenses and personal ones? Did you know that the way you are handling your income and expenses can affect whether all your writing expenses are tax deductible instead of just part of them? Did you know there are legal tax tricks that can save you money on income taxes? Do you know how deal with things like getting a tax ID number? Do you know how to avoid a random audit on your business and/or personal income taxes and how to keep red flags off your tax returns? The class will handle all this and more.

About the Instructor: Pepper O’Neal has a paralegal degree from the University Of San Diego Law School and a doctorate in education from the University of Mexico. She has over twelve years’ experience working with business attorneys in California, Washington, and Oregon. Though she’s self-employed as a full-time researcher, non-fiction and fiction writer, she still freelances for attorneys throughout the US, doing research and preparing legal documents. She’s also worked a number of years with tax attorneys and consultants in helping business clients reduce their tax liabilities. She has also been involved in the initial setup of a number of education-related small businesses from daycare facilities to community educational centers. Over the years, she has taught a great number of adult education classes on many different subjects.  http://www.pepperoneal.com/

Description: “I could get this writing done…if only life would calm down enough to let me!” Life is far from perfect. Curveballs, and even sucker-punches will be a part of every writer’s life. When adversity hits, creativity can feel like it’s under siege. Take the time NOW to learn how to protect and preserve your embattled muse so you’re ready when a crisis hits. Multi published author and the creator of The Chunky Method of time management for writers, Allie Pleiter has met deadlines in the midst of some imposing traumas. With humor and insight, she shares practical and inventive strategies for staying afloat and staying creative in life’s stormiest seas.

Topics include:

– Survival tips for getting your creative self out alive

– Strategies for calm and gratitude

– Private, professional, and public communication

– Tactics for public speaking

– Writing about it: how, when, and if

Instructor Bio:  : Allie Pleiter is the author of over 40 published novels, two parenting books, and is the creator of the popular Chunky Method of time management for writers. To date, Allie has sold 1.4 million books in 7 countries and 4 languages. Her seventeen-year writing career has included the challenges of keeping the words coming during not one, but four life-threatening illnesses for her son (he’s fine now!). Meeting these obstacles has given her a passion for helping creatives and other high-energy workers survive and thrive in tough times. In addition to writing, Allie maintains an active writing productivity coaching practice and speaks regularly on faith, the creative process, women’s issues. Visit her website at www.alliepleiter.com to learn more.

Description: Writing Conflict Hurts — not just because it makes your characters suffer, but also because it’s painful to create and carry through on a page. However, conflict drives story and holds an editor’s attention, which means it sells books. Conflict also entices readers to turn the page, which helps create a satisfying experience (plus repeat purchases). Bring a story idea to this interactive course and learn how to build, refine or edit your stories by creating compelling conflict and stronger plots, one element at a time. Takeaways include:
* Developing story goals that are hindered by conflict
* How to deepen character and create emotionally satisfying reads
* Better understanding of internal and external conflict
* The “bumpers” that keep your characters acting consistently
* Conflict that catches the attention of editors and agents
* Summarizing and presenting your finished or developing story

Instructor Bio:  Melinda Curtis, an award-winning USA Today bestseller of over 35 romances, is a writing craft geek. Before turning to writing as a career, she worked with a cultural anthropologist and a marketing psychologist on how to create more compelling packaging at the shelf. One class short of a psychology minor, Melinda believes that “knowing more about what makes people tick can add depth to your writing.”

Description:   Embarrassment Prevention skills. 

Do not send your manuscript to an agent, editor, contest, or retailer until you have worked it over, backwards, forwards and sideways. Show off your writing chops by sending out clean pages.

Let me arm you with all the tips I wish someone had given me, and save you from the embarrassment of the kind of mistakes I’ve made. Sit down with me for an hour, or sign up for a month-long online class, and learn how to easily spot crutch words, spelling weaknesses, inconsistencies, overused words, passive words, repetitious words, slow pacing, redundancies, clichés, poor/incorrect word use, sentence and paragraph structure, punctuation typos, dialogue rhythms and flow, and Point of View issues.

Do not follow in my footsteps! Learn from my mistakes instead and you’ll find yourself leaps and bounds ahead of your competition. Contact Kathryn for more information

Instructor Bio:  Author of page-turning, Romantic Suspense, Women’s Fiction, and Short Stories about feral cats, Kathryn Jane takes readers to places they’d like to live and introduces them to characters they will end up loving.

Fulfilling her passion for education Kathryn presents workshops for both aspiring and accomplished writers and covers a broad spectrum of subjects.  In her spare time (she says laughing), Kat loves spreading kindness and joy to family, friends, and strangers alike.

Description: Your 24/7 Assistant – How to build a website that looks good, is smart and grows your author business. Walk through the step-by-step process to build a beautiful, intentional and effective website with or without coding. This will be a working workshop. We’ll audit our websites and make updates as we go. Don’t have a website yet? No problem, we’ll walk through the steps to create a great one from scratch.

Instructor Bio:  Tivi Jones has been a professional marketer since 2004. She currently serves as a marketing, branding and communications consultant with clients like PBS, Cisco, Carolina Parent magazine, Forward Cities and more. She loves the brand and community building opportunities marketing presents. While she loves working with big brands, she also loves helping entrepreneurs and “solopreneurs” use effective media, awesome marketing and contagious moxie to create sustainable lifestyle businesses.

Description:       What do you do when a horse shows up in your story? Do you panic? Hit the brakes? Inform her she can’t have a horse?  Not if you take this course filled with basic horsemanship, in-depth equine knowledge, critical terminology and a bonus list of don’ts to save you from looking like a rooky and making readers toss your book at a wall.

Presenter KATHRYN JANE has extensive experience riding in the show ring, on the racetrack, over jumps, cross-country chasing cattle, training horses and assisting veterinarians.

Instructor Bio:  Author of page-turning, Romantic Suspense, Women’s Fiction, and Short Stories about feral cats, Kathryn Jane takes readers to places they’d like to live and introduces them to characters they will end up loving.

Fulfilling her passion for education Kathryn presents workshops for both aspiring and accomplished writers and covers a broad spectrum of subjects.  In her spare time (she says laughing), Kat loves spreading kindness and joy to family, friends, and strangers alike.