I just got back from being a special guest at the SuperStars Writing Seminar in Las Vegas. (Pictures in the post below.) It’s a great workshop with wonderful people attending. Thanks, Kevin and Rebecca, for inviting me. It was great fun.

Here on the Oregon Coast, we have a few workshops left this spring and early summer and then three brand new workshops for the fall.

Starting next week is the Cliffhanger workshop followed by Genre Structure workshop. Both are closed and are going to be great fun.

In the middle of June, Kristine Kathryn Rusch is teaching a Short Story Workshop. It’s a week long and since someone just dropped out yesterday, there is now one spot open again. Since there is a reading list, it would be some work to jump in with only just over a month to go, but possible. Anyone interested or need more information, e-mail me. Basic information on all these are under the “Workshop” tab above.

In July there are two critical workshops to indie publishers.  Together they cover one week. First is Pitches and Blurbs. That workshop will be taught by me and you will learn how to write pitches and blurbs for cover letters to editors in New York and for ad copy and back cover copy of your own books. With everything selling through electronic stores, having a great story blurb these days is far more critical than it used to be. If you are wondering why your books don’t sell, maybe it’s because your blurbs are bad or dull.

The second part of the week in July is a workshop called “Think Like a Publisher.”  Scott William Carter and I run you through every detail of how to be an indie publisher and help you learn how to format your work, do covers, understand POD and web sites, and how to sell your work effectively. If you are afraid of the indie publishing process and starting your own publishing company, you won’t be when these four days are finished.

We have room in both July workshops still, so check out the information under the “Workshop” tab above and write me if you have questions or are interested.

NEW WORKSHOPS

We are doing three brand new workshops this fall with some great guest instructors. All three workshops are one week long, starting at 7PM on a Saturday and going until late the following Saturday night. All three are $650.00 workshop fee. Again, details under the “Workshop” tab above. But let me outlines what these workshops are. There is room to sign up in all three.

SEPTEMBER 29-OCTOBER 6, 2012
POD Workshop. 

Everything you need to know about doing printed books in your indie press. We will teach you how to lay them out, do wrap-around covers, interior design, and how to sell them into bookstores and other sales outlets.

Taught by Dean Wesley Smith and Allyson Longueira. Allyson has a masters degree in graphic design and has been an editor and publisher in the past. She is now the publisher of WMG Publishing and will have well over a hundred books laid out and designed before the workshop. Dean Wesley Smith is the former publisher of Pulphouse Publishing, one of the largest publishers in science fiction and fantasy in the 1990s.

Workshop fee is $650.00 and room rate is $50.00 per night. (This will be limited so sign up as soon as you decide.)

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OCTOBER 20-27, 2012
The Sexy Side of Writing. 

Everything you need to know about how to write hot, sexy fiction in any genre. Taught by three of the top writers in three different genres, this will be an intense and fun writing workshop. Instructors are Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Phaedra Wheldon, and Dayle Dermatis.

If you want a writing and craft workshop, this is one I wouldn’t miss.

I’ll put instructor bios here in the next week and under the workshop tab.

Workshop fee is $650.00 and room rate is $50.00 per night. (This will be limited so sign up as soon as you decide.)

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November 10-17, 2012
Beyond the Page. Audio. 

Everything you need to know about how to read your own work, how to do audio books cheaply with your own computer, and how to sell them as well through your indie press, your web site, and other places.

Instructors are Kristine Kathryn Rusch and J. Daniel Sawyer, with help on the sales side by Dean Wesley Smith and Allyson Longueira.

Kris used to train new radio announcers how to read and speak and that’s what she will be doing for writers in this workshop. Reading your own work in an effective and entertaining way is a skill and Kris can teach you how to do it. Dan is a sound professional as well as a professional fiction writer and he will teach you how to do the audio books in the WMG Publishing sound room.

You will leave this workshop knowing how to read your own work, record it if you want, and sell the recordings.

(I’ll put instructor bios here and under the workshop tab in the next week.)

Workshop fee is $650.00 and room rate is $40.00 per night. (This will be limited so sign up as soon as you decide.)