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“Break Free From the Slush Pile ” with CJ Lyons

Online Class

July 12 – July 24, 2010

Enrollment Information at http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclassJuly10.html

This is only a 2-week class.

COST: $10 for OCC members, $15 for non-members

If you have specific questions, email occrwaonlineclass@yahoo.com

ABOUT THE CLASS:

Join award-winning medical suspense author CJ Lyons as she explains the secrets to successful pitching, tips to engage an editor or agent through your query letter, and reveals the creation of a high concept.

CJ has received requests for manuscripts every time she pitched. She’ll help you feel more comfortable during your pitch session and more confident with your pitch. This workshop will help you polish your query letter, create a pitch, and prepare you for meeting an agent or editor.

About the Instructor:

As a pediatric ER doctor, CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about. In addition to being an award-winning medical suspense author, CJ is a nationally known presenter and keynote speaker. She has been invited all over the country to present her workshops and speak to audiences ranging from physicians to first responders to romance and thriller authors including: Colorado Fiction Writers, Oklahoma Writers Federation, the University of South Carolina at Beaufort, RWA National, MWA’s Sleuthfest, Lowcountry RWA’s Master Class, Left Coast Crime, and PennWriters, among others.

CJ’s award-winning, critically acclaimed Angels of Mercy series (LIFELINES, WARNING SIGNS, and URGENT CARE) is available in stores now with the fourth, CRITICAL CONDITION, due out December, 2010. Her newest project is as co-author of a new suspense series with Erin Brockovich. To learn more about CJ and her work, go to http://www.cjlyons.net/

Enrollment Information at http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclassJuly10.html

COST: $15 for OCC members, $20 for non-members

Coming in August 2010–
“Understanding Men”with Dr. Debra Holland

Do you wish you had a better understanding of men? Now is your chance to improve your real-life relationships with men and enhance your male characters all through taking the same course. This will be a five-week session with new material that this award-wining romance writer, who also is a noted psychotherapist and consultant, has developed on how male sexuality affects responses, attitudes and behaviors.

http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclasses.html.

 Check out our full list of workshops.

Want to be notified personally two weeks before each class? Be sure you’re signed up for our Online Class Notices Yahoo Group! Sign up at the bottom of http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclasses.html  or send a blank email to OCCRWAOnlineClassNotices-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

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Impotence by Monica Stoner, Member at (very) large

Impotence – a word to strike fear in the hearts and minds of men. For women, an opportunity to be understanding and supportive. Maybe. What about for a writer?

Could the dreaded writer’s block, though proclaimed by some writers to be non existent, at best a crutch for non-productive writers, be our own form of impotence? The thought came to me as I was putting fingers to keys on a new project. My basic method has always been to start with a scene and keep writing until I get stuck, making up names along the way. Generally I know where the story is set and why these people are in the story. Sometimes I write more than I might need for that specific story but it all comes together in the end.

Then I was told about plotting, and how important it is for efficient story telling. Always eager to learn new ideas, I thought ‘Why not?’ and proceeded to lay out the story prior to writing. Then found out once I’d done that, I wasn’t as driven to write the story – hadn’t I already done so? Okay, so maybe I was using the wrong method. Enter years (no kidding) of books and seminars and on line studies. No writing, mind you, but tons of theory.

Then someone introduced me to data bases for writers. Where you can treat the computer like a succession of yellow pads, plus sticky notes. Now how cool was that??? I downloaded the one that looked best to me, started in on the book that had been beating at my skull from the inside. Here we go, I thought. On the way to . . . nowhere. Mental impotence. The dreaded, perhaps non existent, writer’s block.

Drat.
It looks like the answer, for me at least, is to go back to those Halcyon days when I knew nothing about planning a book, about plotting, about scene beats, story arcs, defining moments, and just write. Then after the story is out of my mind, and there’s room up there for more technical stuff, I can apply those principles necessary to a publishable book. Coming in from the back door, I suppose, but there is always more than one door into the keep.

Once I can convince my creative self I won’t be imposing any more limits and rules, I’m thinking the ideas will start up again. Or hope, since I don’t think the drug companies are going to make any great strides toward developing some sort of mental Viagra.
Monica Stoner

tsent@ix.netcom.com

We’re only given a little spark of madness; we mustn’t lose it

Orange Rose Contest

April is just around the corner, and a few days later, the April 10th Contest Deadline.

If you are planning to enter and have your writing reviewed by the many fabulous published author volunteers, please ensure that you allow for sufficient mailing time.

Thank you to those contestants who have already submitted their entr(ies).

This is shaping up to be a fantastic contest year,

Lynn Nissen
2010 Orange Rose Contest Coordinator

* * * PERMISSION TO FORWARD * * *

Twenty-Seventh Annual Orange Rose Contest for Unpublished Writers

NEW! Electronic Entries for RWA Members who reside outside the continental
United States

Deadline: April 10, 2010 – Limited to the first 150 entries

Enter: Synopsis and beginning of unpublished manuscript (first 55 pages maximum)

Categories:

* Contemporary Category Romance

* Erotic Romance

* Historical & Regency

* Inspirational

* Mainstream with Romantic Elements

* Paranormal/Time Travel/Fantasy

* Romantic Suspense

* Single Title Romance (over 70,000 words)

Fees: OCCRWA Members: $25.00, Other RWA Members: $35.00

First Round Judges: 3 published authors

Top ten finalists will be announced July 10, 2010 and are chosen by their

overall score, NOT by category.

Finalist manuscripts are judged by two editors who acquire in the appropriate category for the finalist entry(ies) and are selected AFTER the finalists are determined.

The final round editor/judges in 2009 were:

* Beth Adams, Guidepost Books

* Alicia Condon, Dorchester

* Selina McLemore, Grand Central

* Talia Platz, NAL

* Danielle Poiesz, Pocket Books

* Emily Rodmell, Steeple Hill

* Diana Ventimiglia, Harlequin

* Deb Werksman, Sourcebooks

* Adam Wilson, MIRA/HQN

Cash prizes: 1st – $100, 2nd – $75, 3rd – $50, 4th – $25

Rules/Entry Form and Sample Score Sheet: http://www.occrwa.org/orangerose.html
Questions: Contest Coordinator: Lynn Nissen. Email: orangerose@occrwa.org