Outliner or Pantser?

Some people plan ahead, some just dive in and wait to see where the story leads them. Jennifer Provenza will guide us through the process of planning but will also discuss the options available for those who don’t plan quite so much.

Jennifer Provenza is an actor, writer, and professor of theater. Her book “Life is But a Dream” tells the story of Angela, a narcoleptic. Or at least, that’s what she tells people. The truth is somewhat more complicated. Angela has two lives, existing in parallel universes. When she sleeps in one life, she is awake in her other life. In one reality, she is single and successful in New York City. In her other reality, she is a loving wife and mother in suburban Sacramento. But which life is real? And can she be happy in both of them?

Read more about her at her website www.jenniferprovenza.com

Ever get to the end of a book and can’t remember the characters?

Come listen to Vincent M. Wales as he explains how to create memorable characters. Writers often struggle with character creation, and he certainly knows about that crucial part of writing fiction. “Good characters need to be fully developed, not flat and simple things. Part of this development is to give your characters memorable traits.” Wales advises writers to be people watchers. “Study the people around you, not just your friends, but strangers, too. You might end up finding characters in the real world. . . Being a good writer means being a good observer.”

“How believable are your characters? If you have made them so real, so credible that your ideas seem to come to you from them, rather than your own conscience decision-making, “…it’s usually worth a serious look.”

“For any budding authors out there, I do hope you get to meet your characters, someday,” but you won’t if they are unmemorable.

Following this enlightening presentation on avoiding unmemorable characters, Wales has offered to “answer questions from the group on whatever aspects of writing that they want.” His field of expertise is wide. This will be your chance to learn from him. For example, do you ever get caught up in the domino clout of cause and effect? Can scientific ignorance at times affect the plot? Do you have difficulty writing some of your scenes? Is it important to read a lot? Is it possible for a fictional character to be drawn heavily from our own lives and problems? Does memory mining really allow for a richer storytelling as well as a deeper appreciation of an author’s own life? Are there are a lot of reasons for self-publishing, since the advent of print-on-demand (POD) technology has made it easier than ever to do?

You can read more at his website www.vincentmwales.com

How tense can you get?
Building tension in fiction

Donna Hatch will be speaking on how to build tension in fiction. Make certain you’re there to learn how to apply it to your own writing.

Best-selling author Donna Hatch is a hopeless romantic and adventurer at heart, the force that drove her to write and publish more than twenty historical romance titles, including the award-winning “Rogue Hearts Series.”  She is a multi-award winner, a sought-after workshop presenter, and a jugglers of multiple volunteer positions as well as her six (yes, that is 6) children. Also a music lover, she sings and plays the harp and loves to ballroom dance. Donna and her husband of over twenty years are living proof that there really is a happily ever after.

True Crime and Crime Fiction

Why has James L’Etoile used Sacramento as a setting in his crime fiction series? Come to the meeting and find out.

His experience in true crime is based on his work in prisons and jails for twenty-nine years. He draws upon his experience to bring his crime fiction to life. When he isn’t writing, he and his wife, Ann-Marie participate in therapy dog programs for seniors in memory care and Read to A Dog children’s reading programs.

When is enough too much?

Find out when you meet Michele Drier, who will also be speaking on Dialogue, Adjectives/adverbs, Story arcs, Plot points, and Things that make you go “huh?”

During Michele Drier’s career in journalism—as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers—she won awards for producing investigative series. She is the president of Capitol Crimes, co-chair for Bouchercon 2020, and the past president of the international online chapter of Sisters in Crime.

Read more about her at her site: www.MicheleDrier.com

Pantser or Outliner? Where do you belong?

Peggy Dulle will be talking about the great question: To outline or not to outline. The essential question to all writers is whether to outline or not. Some of us are outliners, those who make a roadmap of their book before they ever begin to weave the story. Then there are the non-outliners who are often called a “pantser.” Come listen as Peggy Dulle explains the pros and cons of both, then discover how she’s managed to cross genre boundaries and write in multiple categories.

Writing for the School & Library Market

Connie Goldsmith will be talking to us about how to approach the School and Library Markets. She will discuss these topics

• Define markets: trade, mass, school & library
• Her second career: Moving from nursing, to writing for healthcare professionals, to writing for the teen S&L market
• How she worked with an editor to move from idea to proposal to book
• The upside of the S&L market
• And the downside
• Breaking in – work for hire vs advance/royalty and  contract vs book packagers
• Where to be: nonfiction is the place to be today

Connie Goldsmith writes nonfiction books about history, health, and science for ages twelve and up. Counting her fall 2017 book about addiction and overdose, she has written twenty children’s books (with two more in progress). Her five most recent works are, “Dogs at War: Military Canine Heroes,” “Suicide: a National Epidemic,” The Ebola Epidemic: The Fight. The Future,” “Dietary Supplements: Harmless, Helpful, or Hurtful,” and “Bombs Over Bikini: The World’s First Nuclear Disaster,” about the US nuclear testing program in the Marshall Islands after WWII. Her books consistently receive excellent reviews, including starred reviews from Kirkus, and two are Junior Library Guild selections.

She has reviewed hundreds of children’s books for a regional parenting publication and currently reviews teen fiction for the New York Journal of Books. She has written for a number of children’s and adult magazines. She is also a recently-retired RN with a Master’s Degree in Health Care and has written more than sixty continuing education articles for registered nurses on health and professional issues for nursing journals, as well as journals for dental hygienists and physical therapists. She belongs to the Authors Guild and is very active in the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).

Visit Connie’s websites at www.bombsoverbikini.com and www.conniegoldsmith.com

Confessions of a Hybrid Author

Constance Hale, the author of five books, including the best-selling Sin and Syntax, talks about the ups and downs of her surprising career as a writer. She tells us how ironic it is that someone who grew up on the beach in Hawaii became known as a “language maven” and how that success ended up frustrating her—by making her feel pigeon-holed. She tells the unvarnished truth about the difficulties of making it as a professional writer but also the satisfactions of staying creatively engaged and reinventing yourself with each new book. (She’ll also define “hybrid author.”)

Constance Hale is a San Francisco-based journalist and the author of three books on language and literary style, including Sin and Syntax. She has been called “Marion the Librarian on a Harley” or “E. B. White on acid.” Her profiles, essays, and articles have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Afar, and Honolulu. She has also edited two dozen books for other authors. In 2016, she published a book on the evolution of hula, The Natives Are Restless, and a children’s book, ‘Iwalani‘s Tree.

Inside the Mind of a Blueberry

Finding your Silly Gene

Peter Blueberry is a poet, author, illustrator, songwriter, retired architect, and a two-time cancer survivor. He is also a veteran, Vietnam Era. He lives in Citrus Heights, CA, with his wife and soul mate of 49 years. Much of his time is devoted to writing and illustrating poetry and enjoying his 4 grandchildren. He has authored 21 self-published books and, in the past 7 years, has read to over 20,000 people around Northern California. Other than that, he’s not admitting to anything.

Children’s Author Kathy Boyd Fellure

Kathy Boyd Fellure is a hybrid author of children’s books, a novelist, and a photographer. She began her writing career in journalism and in the non-fiction genres.

Wendy Lawton of Books & Such Literary Management Agency represents Kathy’s novels ~ On The Water’s Edge Lake Tahoe Trilogy. The first novel, The Language of the Lake, releases June 1st of 2017. This contemporary women’s story has a literary and historical bent. Lawton is shopping Fellure’s fourth completed novel, Across the Pond, at NYC Kensington Publishing this month.

All four of Kathy’s children’s storybooks are indie published through Lulu. The four books are set between 1959 and 1969 at Lake Tahoe, California. Kathleen Kresa and Donna Plant are the gifted illustrators for this series. Kathy founded Amador Fiction Writer Group in 2007, and hosts an annual literary read in the Gold Country.

Boyd Fellure hosted ~ Authors, Writers, Books, and Beyond Show, for TSPN TV from 2012 – 2015, until the station closed.

A Sacramento native, transplanted many times with her USAF and Cal Fire husband Joe, Kathy currently lives with two stand-up comedian rescue dogs, and writes in the rural Sierra Nevada foothills.