Cost: $20 for HCRW
and CRW Members, $25 for All Others
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September 2010 Workshop
Register for Class
Bringing Pirates to Life
Instructor: Cindy Vallar
When: September 1-30, 2010
Cost: $20 for HCRW and Carolina Romance Writers Members, $25 for All Others
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION
Peter Blood in Captain Blood, Long John Silver in Treasure Island, and Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean conjure up images of buried treasure, black schooners, wooden legs, eye patches, vibrant parrots, walking the plank, and swashbuckling swordsmen. Are these accurate portrayals of pirates? Some are, some aren’t.
This workshop explores the differences between the reality and mythology of Caribbean piracy during the mid-seventeenth through the early eighteenth centuries, and how writers can create believable characters that fit within historical parameters. We look at why individuals became pirates, who’s who on a pirate ship, the rules governing pirates, individuals who interacted with or encountered pirates, and other aspects of maritime life an author needs to know to write a pirate romance. Cindy enhances the workshop with writing assignments, a timeline, and resource bibliographies. At the end of the workshop, Cindy offers to provide a free edit of a chapter from participants’ manuscripts involving pirates.
Past Workshop Participants’ Comments:
Your course presented what I as a writer wanted to know about the times—not just straight history. – Judith Hanes
Your course has been extraordinary to say the least. Thank you for the extensive information and feedback you’ve offered. – Kathleen Kirwood, His Fair Lady (Signet)
Your ability to put a lot of information in a succinct and entertaining fashion is truly amazing. – Elizabeth Bryant
I use a lot of what I learned in your class in pirate history presentations that I give for groups of seniors and at public libraries. – Claire Britton-Warren, Tales of the Seven Seas Pirate Reenactors
This has been one of the most awesome and informative courses I’ve ever taken. I feel like I could be a pirate. – Judy Soifer
INSTRUCTOR BIO
A retired librarian, Cindy Vallar began researching pirates in college while working on The Rebel and the Spy, a historical novel centered around Jean Laffite and the Battle of New Orleans. She is the Editor of Pirates and Privateers, a monthly column on the history of maritime piracy. She also reviews piratical and maritime fiction and non-fiction books, and maintains an annotated list of the best piracy and maritime sites on the web. She is a content editor for Pyrates Way Magazine and the Associate Editor of Industry for Solander, the magazine of the Historical Novel Society, where she writes the “Red Pencil” column that profiles authors and compares pieces from their published novels with early drafts of those works. She also reviews for Historical Novels Review and is a freelance editor. She belongs to the Historical Novel Society, the Texas Coalition of Authors, the Laffite Society, the Louisiana Historical Society, the National Maritime Historical Society, and the Red River Branch of Clan Cameron. She is the author of The Scottish Thistle, her debut historical novel about Scotland’s Rising of 1745, and Odin’s Stone, a romantic short story of how the Lord of the Isles settled the medieval feud between the MacKinnons and MacLeans on the Isle of Skye. She invites you to visit her award-winning web site, Thistles & Pirates (http://www.cindyvallar.com/), to learn more.
October 2010 Workshop
Register for Class
Muse Therapy
Instructor: D. D. Scott
When: October 1-31, 2010
Cost: $20 for HCRW and Carolina Romance Writers Members, $25 for All Others
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION
D. D. Scott style - is all about injecting life into tired and/or stressed out muses. She will give writers fun and fabulous tools to analyze their muses' funks, reign in their creative divas and up their page counts.
Discover what makes muses tick. What ticks them off. And what makes them dance like nobody's watching.
She will name your muses and host a very special meet-and-greet just for them, then dig deep into their psyches by examining "muse disorders" such as:
** Unleashing You Inner Sybil
** Writing Bi-Polar: I Suck vs. I'm a Genius
** What Do You Mean I'm Neurotic? No, I'm Not. Well, Not Exactly. But Okay...There Are Times When. Like You Need to Know That. Anyway, I Was Thinking, My Jeep Is Red
** Rorschach For Writers: I See Dead Lines
** Stimulants: When Coffee, Chocolate and Martinis Aren't Enough
Once you recognize, acknowledge and accept your muses' afflictions, you'll find terrific tricks and "trips" to treat your word witches.
INSTRUCTOR BIO
D. D. Scott's romantic comedies are all about sexy, sassy, smart, career-driven women and the men who complete them. They're a bit chick lit with a gone-country twist. Her series BOOTSCOOTIN' BLAHNIKS - think Sex and The City meets Urban Cowboy - is under consideration by several NY publishers.
She writes stories with big hearts and a bunch of sass. Once a small town newspaper crime reporter and now a HarperCollins Publishing Returns Center Executive Assistant, she's learned great fiction comes from the street as well as which jacket covers meet early deaths.
She's a member of Indiana RWA as well as RWA's Chick Lit Writers of the World Chapter and ScriptScene RWA. She's been featured in both Indiana RWA's and ScriptScene's chapter newsletters and been a guest blogger on Romance Writers on the Journey. She also has an active blog of her own on her website at http://www.DDScott.com and is linked to on Romancing the Blog.
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