HEART OF DIXIE ONLINE WORKSHOP: PROSE & CONTESTS: EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT CONTESTS BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK

HEART OF DIXIE ONLINE WORKSHOP FOR MAY, 2011

Workshop Title: Prose and Contests: Everything You Wanted to Know about Contests But Were Afraid to Ask

Instructor: Amy Atwell

Date: May 2-22, 2011

Cost: $20

More Information: www.heartofdixie.org

Overwhelmed by the number of writing contests out there? Unsure whether to enter? Unclear about why you should enter? This class is geared for unpublished writers seeking feedback and/or a chance to final in the hundreds of writing contests offered through RWA® chapters. Contests offer opportunities for feedback from published authors, agents and editors. But contests cost money and valuable writing time. This interactive lecture format will include handouts, examples and open Q&A to help writers understand what they can expect to gain from entering a contest. The class will provide an overview of the contest process, sources for researching contests, help writers identify their motives for entering a contest, and even give tips on preparing your contest entry.

Presenter Bio: 2008 Golden Heart® finalist Amy Atwell has experienced every aspect of writing contests.  Having entered over 60 contests over the past ten years, her manuscripts have won the Winter Rose, Great Expectations, Beacon, Golden Gateway, Heart of Outreach contests and Award of Excellence.  She has over 25 contest finals to her credit, including The Maggie, The Sheila and The Daphne du Maurier contests.  Amy's also judged numerous contests and she coordinated the 2009 Golden Pen Contest. Amy runs the WritingGIAM community of loops to help goal-oriented writers improve their productivity.  http://www.amyatwell.com

****Permission to Forward Granted and Encouraged****

To Be or Not To Be & Other Editing Quandaries: Heart of Dixie Online Workshop

I'm shamelessly plugging the Heart of Dixie's online workshops because I am the online workshop coordinator. The line up for 2011 is on my HOD Online Workshop Page and you can get to it by clicking the link at the top of the page. I love online workshops because I can control when I do the work and when I contribute my work to the group as a whole. So I don't just coordinate the workshops for my writing chapter, I also take online courses with them (as the coordinator) and with other organizations. If you have time constraints and other obligations, it is so easy to save the files and look at them later, too. Not everyone posts their issues, problems, "homework" answers which is fine. However, I've discovered that the more I post, the greater benefits there are to me as a writer. 

Please join me and my HOD writing chapter for January's online workshop:

To Be or Not to Be & Other Editing Quandaries

Instructor: Cindy VallarFreelance editor and Associate Editor of Industry for Solander magazine and a historical novelist (http://www.cindyvallar.com/)

DEADLINE EXTENDED!!!
January 7-February 7, 2011

Cost: $20

Workshop Description: Authors are told to write the best book we can, but in today’s competitive market that’s not always enough. We could follow Mark Twain’s advice: Substitute damn every time you’re inclined to write very; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. In reality, though, the writer has to make the changes. While not all of us are adept at putting on an editor's hat, there are some simple steps to take to tighten the writing and polish the manuscript.

This workshop provides tips on what an author can look for to improve your chances at getting past the initial query. We'll cover passive vs. active sentence construction, redundancy, weak vs. strong verbs, stating the obvious, synonyms, cause and effect, dangling modifiers, clarity of pronouns, author intrusion, speaker identification tags, adverbs and adjectives, head hopping, and more. The list may seem daunting, but if you know what to look for, you can easily make corrections that may increase your chances of getting a request to see your entire manuscript.

Presenter Bio: A retired librarian, Cindy Vallar is a freelance editor and the Associate Editor of Industry for Solander, the magazine of the Historical Novel Society. She writes “The Red Pencil,” a column that compares a selection from author’s published historical novel with an early draft of that work. She is also the Editor of Pirates and Privateers, and a content editor for Pyrates Way magazine. Aside from presenting workshops, Cindy writes historical novels and articles on maritime piracy, reviews books, and maintains her award-winning web site, Thistles & Pirates (http://www.cindyvallar.com/), which she invites you to visit.

As a special bonus, if you mention this blog as your reason for attending the workshop, I will put your name into a drawing for a special prize to be announced at the time of the class.

See you in the virtual classroom!

HEART OF DIXIE'S ONLINE WORKSHOP SIZZLE 101

Instructor: Jennifer LaBrecque

Dates: August 9 – 23, 2010

Cost: $20

Registration Deadline Extension: August 8, 2010

More Information: Heart of Dixie

Class Description:

Join award-winning, veteran Blaze author Jennifer LaBrecque and learn how to notch up your writing’s sensuality level from so-so to sizzling. The two-week course will cover sensuality vs. sexuality, creating sexual tension, awareness, steps to intimacy, the emotional component, engaging all five senses, and moving beyond tab a into slob b. Join Jennifer as she shares her secrets for writing which have earned her reviews such as, “Nobody writes a hotter novel better than Jennifer LaBrecque.” – CataRomance Reviews and “This one is hotter than hot!” – Romantic Times Book Review.

Instructor Bio:

Despite a journalism scholarship award, Jennifer LaBrecque graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in business and marketing.  However, she has now come full circle and writes short contemporary romance with a unique blend of humor and sensuality.To date, Jennifer has penned 20+ novels and novellas, along with teaching workshops at national and regional conferences.  Her work has finaled in such prestigious contests as the RWA RITA ® Award of Excellence and Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Awards. A Georgia native, she lives in metro Atlanta where the hot temps serve as inspiration for her steamy scenarios.

__,_._,___

OnLine Workshop Plug -- Airing Dirty Laundry

One of my new volunteer positions with my writing chapter, RWA's Heart of Dixie, is to be their online workshop moderator. I'm getting ready to moderate the next class on June 7. AIRING DIRTY LAUNDRY (description follows). In the spirit of fun, I'm offering a PRIZE to the first person who signs up for this class and mentions that they read about it on DIGGING OUT OF DISTRACTION.

In addition to receiving a prize, this person, along with all the other class participants, will have the opportunity to send in the first few pages of their manuscripts for critique by PUBLISHED authors and TWO of these will be selected for FULL CRITIQUES!

How cool is that? Very cool.

So come on and join in the fun. I can't wait to see who signs up first!

Airing Dirty Laundry – Use Family Stories, Eavesdropping and Cable TV to Create Writing Income

Instructor: Marilyn Puett

Online Workshop Through Heart of Dixie, RWA, www.heartofdixie.org

June 7 – 21, 2010

Cost: $20, Deadline for Registration June 5^th.

Course Description:

Airing Dirty Laundry offers information and tips on how to create a source of outside income by writing short stories for the confessions and romance magazines.  This two-week workshop is geared for writers who want extra income while waiting to sell their first book, are between royalty checks or simply want an extra income stream.

This course takes students step by step through writing a confession.  It begins with learning the market, developing hooks and compelling story lines and structuring a story properly.  By the end of the course, students should have a story ready for submission.

Additionally, participants will be given the opportunity to submit the first few pages of a story they start during the class and have the pages critiqued by published writers.  Two stories will be selected toward the end of the class to receive a full critique.

OnLine Workshop Plug--Join in the Fun!!

One of my new volunteer positions with my writing chapter, RWA's Heart of Dixie, is to be their online workshop moderator. I'm new at this game, but just finished my first workshop and enjoyed meeting more virtual peeps in the classroom. The class is officially finished, but soon another workshop is available for online learning. I've included the information in this blog for three reasons:

1) Participants will learn a new way to create writing income even if you're not published in full length fiction.

2) Participants will have the opportunity to send in the first few pages of their manuscripts for critique by PUBLISHED authors and TWO of these will be selected for FULL CRITIQUES! How cool is that? Very cool.

3) I am offering a PRIZE to the first person who signs up for this class and mentions that they read about it on DIGGING OUT OF DISTRACTION. The prize is an autographed copy of Kira Sinclair's book, AFTERBURN.  I have a copy. It's fantastic.

So come on and join in the fun. I can't wait to see who signs up first!

Airing Dirty Laundry – Use Family Stories, Eavesdropping and Cable TV to Create Writing Income

Instructor: Marilyn Puett

Online Workshop Through Heart of Dixie, RWA, www.heartofdixie.org

June 7 – 21, 2010

Cost: $20, Deadline for Registration June 5^th.

Course Description:

Airing Dirty Laundry offers information and tips on how to create a source of outside income by writing short stories for the confessions and romance magazines.  This two-week workshop is geared for writers who want extra income while waiting to sell their first book, are between royalty checks or simply want an extra income stream.

This course takes students step by step through writing a confession.  It begins with learning the market, developing hooks and compelling story lines and structuring a story properly.  By the end of the course, students should have a story ready for submission.

Additionally, participants will be given the opportunity to submit the first few pages of a story they start during the class and have the pages critiqued by published writers.  Two stories will be selected toward the end of the class to receive a full critique.

Instructor Bio:

Marilyn Puett has sold over thirty stories and a half-dozen short feature articles to the confessions and romance magazines.  She has also sold to an e-zine called Chick Lit Review and an anthology titled, appropriately enough, I Confess.  She appears in both the 2008 and 2009 Bylines Writers’ Desk Calendar and her article “Short Shorts – Not Just a Fashion Statement” was featured on the Writing for Dollars website.  Marilyn is a member of Heart of Dixie RWA and serves RWA on both the local and national levels.  A founding member of The Writing Playground, a website for aspiring writers (www.writingplayground.com), she lives in her empty nest in north Alabama and dotes on her granddaughter.

Heart of Dixie: Online Workshop & Why I'm Plugging It

I'm shamelessly plugging my Heart of Dixie's online workshop on this blog because I am the new online coordinator and I would love some of my writing friends to be my guinea pigs as I learn the ropes. I would also love some more classmates to share the journey with me. If you want to beef up your writing, check out this workshop and head to the Heart of Dixie Website to join in the fun!

May 3 – 17, 2010

Snakebite Scenes and Hollywood Plots:

Enhancing Action and Emotion in Romance

Instructor: Carrie Lofty

Class Description:

You have the beginning. You know how it should end. But what to do with those hundreds of pages in the middle? Carrie Lofty, author of sexy, adventurous historical romances for Kensington, will demonstrate how action can make your novel more exciting and more emotional. Use Carrie’s so-called “snakebite scenes” to help characters acknowledge their deeper passions and bond over moments of danger or everyday drama, and analyze films and novels to see how Hollywood tells rip-roaring, action-packed stories. For plotters, pantsers, and everyone in between, this course can unblock your creativity and help you power through that draft, adding action and heart to every page.

Born in California and raised in the Midwest, Carrie Lofty found the love of her life in England . She earned her MA in history from Ohio State University with a thesis on Old West legends in post-Civil War society. Now she writes, raises two precocious elementary-aged daughters, and manages Unusual Historicals (http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com), a blog she founded in 2006 to celebrate romances set in unusual times and places. Carrie's debut, WHAT A SCOUNDREL WANTS (Zebra: 12/2008), is the hot, adventurous tale of Will Scarlet and his dangerous lady love. Romantic Times gave it four stars: “Lofty writes adventure romance like a born bard of old.” The sequel, SCOUNDREL’S KISS (Zebra: 01/2010), pits a Spanish warrior monk against the woman he’s sworn to protect.

• Cost: $20 - Submit the payment via Paypal below or mail to the address listed.
• All payments for a workshop must be received by the registration deadline – May1st.

Sponsored by : Heart of Dixie, RWA

Cost:  $20


And best of all, the price is right!