Hampton Roads Writers 2010-2011 TRAVELING PEN Series of Workshops
Each 2-hour workshop costs $13 for HRW members and $15 for non-members. Please send your name, address, email, and phone number along with payment (check or money order) to:
P.O. Box 7607
Norfolk, VA 23509-0607
or pay with PAYPAL
Making Prose Pop—Seven Simple Steps to Bring Your Words to Life -- Working with one to two page scenes (either brought in by the writers or those provided by the instructor), participants of this interactive workshop will learn and review seven key areas of craft that will elevate their writing and heighten its impact for the reader.
Instructor--Valerie Wilkinson, co-author of Whispers from Our Soul: The Voice of Tahkamenon and quarterly contributor to Moondance Magazine, will facilitate this workshop. Ms Wilkinson has written speeches for state and national politicians and has ghostwritten communications for business leaders, regional and international charities, and political leaders.
Creating Memorable Characters, an interactive workshop, will help writers create unforgettable characters that will leave readers wanting more. Workshop participants should come prepared to write.
Instructor--Author of 17 published novels, Judi McCoy also teaches the two-day aspiring author course each year at the Romantic Times Booklovers’ convention. Though her first 14 books were romances, her newest series is shelved in the mystery section of your bookstore. The dog walker mysteries feature Ellie Engleman, a dog walker on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, who speaks to her dogs and understands what they say to her. The series has made her a national best-selling author, while the first book, Hounding the Pavement, received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. To learn more about Judi and her novels visit her website at: http://www.judimccoy.com.
Plotting the Mystery--Discussion and exercises in pacing, creating tension, weaving sub-plots, and creating high points. Ms. Hudgins will show examples of her own story boards and plot outlines. Attendees will get advice on five-minute hooks, handling backstory, and building conflict.
Instructor--Author of the Dotsy Lamb Travel Mysteries, Maria Hudgins
Our Voices, Our Time: An Introductory Poetry Workshop, designed to educate, entertain, and excite students of diverse age groups, focuses on poets critically engaging with poems, their own writing processes, and their experiences, in order to establish their own literary methods to crafting the poem. Listening to one's own drum, to one's own sense of purpose and mission, and to one's own truth has become increasingly difficult in these unpredictable and volatile times. How does the poet engage with these times? A more fundamental question, how does the young poet understand these times? How does he/she creatively engage with a world that constantly shifts and transforms? In this workshop, students will learn the power of the individual voice, and will learn how a distinctively original voice is the driving force behind crafting great poems. Participants will be exposed to the general mechanics and devices used in poetry, such as diction, tone, voice, line breaks, imagery, and sound, and this exposure will teach them how to identify the dynamic parts of poems and critically engage with the poetry.
Instructor--Synnika Lofton is a poet/recording artist who has recorded more than thirty albums of poetry, including his highly praised debut, The New Breed. His poems have been published in Experience Reality Magazine, Quay: A Journal of the Arts, and UpStreet: A Literary Magazine. He wrote the poem, "Sacred Drum," for the Goddard College Presidential Inauguration of President Mark Schulman. Through his Global Poetry Project, his poetry has been heard in France, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, Haiti, Venezuela, and Israel. His poems, "Guerrilla Ignition" and "Love's Outlaw" appeared in the documentary, Super-Size Me, Too. Lofton received a B.A. and M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College.
Five Must-Do Steps to Self-Editing—You’ve finished your manuscript. You’ve had your critique partners read it, your best friend read it, even your old high school or college English professor read it . . . but is it ready to send to an agent or editor? Don’t submit that manuscript until you take this workshop. You’ll be amazed at what you will learn regarding self-editing. In fact, you may never edit your old way again.
Instructor--Author of 17 published novels, Judi McCoy also teaches the two-day aspiring author course each year at the Romantic Times Booklovers’ convention. Though her first 14 books were romances, her newest series is shelved in the mystery section of your bookstore. The dog walker mysteries feature Ellie Engleman, a dog walker on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, who speaks to her dogs and understands what they say to her. The series has made her a national best-selling author, while the first book, Hounding the Pavement, received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. To learn more about Judi and her novels visit her website at: http://www.judimccoy.com.
ADDITIONAL WORKSHOPS ARE UNDER DEVELOPMENT AND WILL BE ANNOUNCED ASAP