Workshops:
--Your Hero’s
Journey: Why are some
stories timeless? All great novels, movies, myths, fairy tales and folklore
have common threads. Bestselling author Ron Franscell can teach you how to weave these threads into your
own writing to create powerful narratives and characters that resonate with
readers of both fiction and narrative
nonfiction. Learn the patterns that can transform your book from
ordinary to extraordinary. When
you know the essential steps, you’ll never have writer’s block again.
--So you want to write
a memoir? New York Times
bestselling author Caitlin Rother
will discuss how to identify the key moments in your real life story and the
relevant universal themes that will make it resonate with more readers than
just your immediate family. She will examine how to weave these into scenes
that come alive on the page and move your story forward, and also discuss how
to deal with sensitive material such as violence, trauma, illness or abuse so
as not to overload the reader.
--The Art of
Interviewing and Research for Narrative Nonfiction: When interviewing
subjects for a compelling book, the author must get beyond “just the facts” and
delve into motivations and emotions. But that takes a whole new level of skill,
technique and expertise, from setting up the interview to easing the subject
into the tough questions, what Steve Jackson calls “planting the seed” and then
following up. Jackson
will offer tips on how he turned his stories into New York Times bestsellers, and discuss the important similarities
and differences of researching fiction and non-fiction books.
--How to Keep Your
Story From Bogging Down in the Middle: What do you do when your story loses
its “oomphf” somewhere along the way? You resuscitate it and bring it back to
life. By maximizing the dynamics of your story, the energy between the
characters and how they interact with each other, Matthew J. Pallamary will help you achieve the supreme dramatic
impact of your story arc. He will show
you how to strengthen the pacing and delivery of key narrative elements,
rescuing your fiction or non-fiction manuscript from the doldrums so it can
reach a fulfilling climax and resolution.
--Starting a Novel
From Scratch: Novelist Tammy
Greenwood will discuss strategies to determine the necessary key components
of the novel you want to write and how to proceed to your first draft. Topics
will include developing and evaluating your premise to determining who your
protagonist and antagonist will be, your characters’ motivations, internal
desires and external objectives, the five Cs, and the primary conflicts of your
story.
--The salon will be at a house in the Crown
Point neighborhood of San Diego on Mission Bay,
at 3712 Riviera,
92109.
--Check-in begins at 8:45 a.m., one-on-one critiques at 9,
workshops at 9:30, panel discussion at 5:30, and party from 6 to 7:30.
(Attendees will have 30 minutes for lunch on their own, on the beach if they
choose.)
--Parking is available in the surrounding neighborhood
although, depending on when you arrive, you may have to walk a few blocks.
Cost:
--Sign up until Oct. 1 for just $160, until Oct. 10 for
$175, and $200 for late registration walk-ins. This price includes entry to
workshops, panel, party (we will supply hors d’oeuvres, but attendees need to
BYOB whatever alcohol they want to drink) and book signing.
--Critiques are additional: a 20-minute session, with the
author of choice, to discuss 10 typed double-spaced pages, submitted by Oct. 4,
for $50; or feedback on a verbal pitch for $40. ----Critique appointments will
be made with specific authors on a first-come, first-served basis.
-- Payment will be accepted by money order or check by mail,
and credit card by phone.
Bonus prize:
The first five attendees to sign up for the salon and a
critique will receive a set of free
books from the authors.
To sign up:
Please contact Caitlin
Rother, crother@flash.net to make a payment, or ask about registration and critiques. Attendance
will be limited. Payment must be sent to reserve a seat.
Bios of faculty:
After 13 books, Ron Franscell has proven to be one of
the most versatile writers working today, traversing the open range of
journalism, fiction and nonfiction with extraordinary success. He is the
bestselling author of the modern true-crime classic THE DARKEST NIGHT and the USA
Today bestselling literary novel ANGEL
FIRE, listed by the San Francisco
Chronicle among the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century West. He
lives in San Antonio, Texas. www.ronfranscell.com
With the WildBlue Press indie release of his
latest true crime, BOGEYMAN, in August 2014, New York Times bestselling author and journalist Steve Jackson has
authored nine nonfiction books—true crime, history and biography—and
collaborated with former New York assistant district attorney Robert K.
Tanenbaum to write eleven crime thrillers in the Butch Karp fiction series.
Publisher of WildBlue Press, Jackson has taught writing and journalism as an
adjunct instructor at Oregon State University
in Corvallis, and at Metropolitan
State University
in Denver. Jackson is based in Colorado.
Award winning author Matthew J. Pallamary has six books in print, including a historical
novel, a memoir, two short story collections, a nonfiction book, and a science
fiction novel. His historical novel titled, LAND WITHOUT EVIL, received rave
reviews and a San Diego Book Award and has been adapted into a full-length
stage and sky show and is the subject of a PBS series, Arts in Context, which garnered an EMMY nomination. He has taught
fiction workshops at the Santa Barbara Writers' Conference for twenty five
years and also at the Southern California Writers' Conference. He lives in San Diego. www.mattpallamary.com.
New York Times bestselling author Caitlin
Rother has written or co-authored nine books of narrative non-fiction and
fiction, mostly involving crime stories. Her latest, I’LL TAKE CARE OF YOU, was
released in 2014. The most recent of her several memoirs (all of which are
about her co-authors), MY LIFE, DELETED, hit the NYT bestseller list in 2011.
Rother, who is now writing books #10 and #11, also works as a book doctor,
writing/research coach/consultant, and teaches narrative non-fiction and
journalism at UCSD Extension and San Diego Writers, Ink. She has done dozens of
national TV/radio appearances on Investigation Discovery, E!, Oxygen Network,
FOX and HLN, C-SPAN and PBS affiliates. http://caitlinrother.com.
To sign up and make a
payment, or ask about registration and critiques, please contact Caitlin
Rother, crother@flash.net. Attendance
will be limited. Payment must be sent to reserve a seat.
