Novellas and How to Knock ‘Em Out Fast
April 18, 2021 by marianne h donley in category Ages 2 Perfection Online Class, Online Classes tagged as A2P, A2P Online Class, fast drafting, Ivy Quinn, Novellas
Novellas and How to Knock ‘Em Out Fast
Presented by: Ivy Quinn
Date: May 1 – 31, 2021
Pricing: A2P Member fee: $15
Non-A2P Member fee: $30
About the Workshop:
This month-long workshop will show you how to quickly write the first draft of novellas — 30-40K word stories in 7-10 days.
Learn how to understand your writing schedule and the best times for writing, tricks for concentrating, how to outline, and strategies for getting it done and making sure you get through a novella when other things are pressing on you and responsibilities clash with your writing.
About the Presenter:
Ivy Quinn has written the novel Frozen Ashes and Smoldering Shards with her co-writer, Midnight Voss. The book was part of the USA Today bestselling Sirens and Scales boxset in 2018 and is currently being revamped and expanded into a longer work.
She also co-wrote the novella, The Golden Stag, the first in her Jaeger Detective Agency paranormal noir books with Megan Hussey. That novella was published in the limited edition and also USA Today Bestselling Once Upon a Rebel Fairy Tale anthology set last summer. She worked as a ghostwriter for four years on over sixty novellas and a dozen novels, some Amazon bestsellers.
She’s also taught workshops, including one on novella writing and one on adapting fanfiction ethically into original works, for a variety of RWA chapters, including the Maryland Romance Writers, the Central Pennsylvania Romance Writers, the Young Adult Romance Writers, and the Yosemite Chapter of the RWA.
Currently, she (usually) balances her graduate schoolwork in psychology with her writing schedule, which includes the Fanged Fairy Tales series, the Vegas Shifters series, and more of the Jaeger Detective Agency novellas currently in development for Sapphic Alliance Fiction.
0 0 Read moreIdentifying and Breaking Bad Writing Habits
March 18, 2021 by marianne h donley in category Ages 2 Perfection Online Class, Online Classes tagged as A2P, A2P Online Class, bad habits
Presented by: Jeffe Kennedy
Date: April 17, 2021, 10AM PT
Pricing: A2P Member fee: FREE
Non-A2P Member fee: $10
About the Workshop:
Learn to identify your bad habits as a writer to improve the quantity and quality of your work.
Jeffe will share some of her approaches, such as Own Your Process, Kick Excuses to the Curb, Listen to Your Editors–and Learn, Study Successful Authors and Keep a List of Recurring Tics. She’ll also help participants discover their own process and what might be getting in the way of more and better writing.
About the Presenter:
Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author whose works include novels, non-fiction, poetry, and short fiction. She has won the prestigious RITA® Award from Romance Writers of America (RWA), has been a finalist twice, been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) as a Director at Large.
Her award-winning fantasy romance trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms hit the shelves starting in May 2014. Book 1, The Mark of the Tala, received a starred Library Journal review and was nominated for the RT Book of the Year while the sequel, The Tears of the Rose received a Top Pick Gold and was nominated for the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2014. The third book, The Talon of the Hawk, won the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2015.
Two more books followed in this world, beginning the spin-off series The Uncharted Realms. Book one in that series, The Pages of the Mind, was nominated for the RT Reviewer’s Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2016 and won RWA’s 2017 RITA Award. The second book, The Edge of the Blade, released December 27, 2016, and was a PRISM finalist, along with The Pages of the Mind. The final novel in the series, The Fate of the Tala, released in February 2020, along with a short novel epilogue, The Lost Princess Returns. A high fantasy trilogy, The Chronicles of Dasnaria, taking place in The Twelve Kingdoms world began releasing from Rebel Base books in 2018. The novella, The Dragons of Summer, first appearing in the Seasons of Sorcery anthology, finaled for the 2019 RITA Award.
Kennedy also introduced a new fantasy romance series, Sorcerous Moons, which includes Lonen’s War, Oria’s Gambit, The Tides of Bàra, The Forests of Dru, Oria’s Enchantment, and Lonen’s Reign. And she released a contemporary erotic romance series, Missed Connections, which started with Last Dance and continues in With a Prince and Since Last Christmas.
In September 2019, St. Martins Press released The Orchid Throne, the first book in a new romantic fantasy series, The Forgotten Empires. The sequel, The Fiery Crown, followed in May 2020, and culminates in The Promised Queen in 2021.
Kennedy’s other works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion; an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera; and the erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, which includes Going Under, Under His Touch and Under Contract.
She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.
Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular SFF Seven blog, on Facebook, on Goodreads and pretty much constantly on Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Sarah Younger of Nancy Yost Literary Agency.
http://jeffekennedy.com
https://www.facebook.com/Author.Jeffe.Kennedy
https://twitter.com/jeffekennedy
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1014374.Jeffe_Kennedy
Where the Heck Do I Start (Self-Publishing)
March 18, 2021 by marianne h donley in category Online Classes tagged as A2P Online Class, Kathryn Jane, Se3lf-Publishing
Presented by: Kathryn Jane
Date: April 1 – 30, 2021
Pricing: A2P Member fee: $15
Non-A2P Member fee: $30
About the Workshop:
Thinking about self-publishing? Feeling overwhelmed at the thought of taking on what some call a monumental task?
Then you definitely need this workshop which will introduce you to self-pub in a non-frightening way, give you a basic understanding of what to expect during the process, and help you be prepared to navigate the steps.
About the Presenter:
Kathryn Jane, author, artist, and coach, loves to share her knowledge and experience in workshops designed to assist others in every stage of their publishing adventure. Her own career has included everything from short stories and novels, to multi-book series. Whether romantic suspense or the escapades of feral cats, Kathryn’s unique voice will take you on a journey rich with pitfalls on the way to the always promised happy ending.
0 0 Read moreWriting the Private Investigator
March 17, 2021 by marianne h donley in category Ages 2 Perfection Online Class, Online Classes tagged as A2P Online Class, PIs, Private Investigator, writing research
Presented by: Steve Pease
Date: April 1 – 30, 2021
Pricing: A2P Member fee: $15
Non-A2P Member fee: $30
About the Workshop:
Television and movies do not reflect real life. Surprised? The Private Eye’s image in the mind of most Americans (and elsewhere) was formed on the screen and in pulpy mystery novels, and it’s mostly wrong. We don’t pull guns, beat up thugs, drink whiskey with a straw or take dirty photos thru motel Venetian blinds. We’re in a tough business, and we need insurance, permits, equipment and coffee. Oh, and good shoes and a comfy chair.
This 12 Lesson course will present a very practical view of the single-person PI business based on my experience as a licensed PI2 in Colorado. I’ll cover the main duties of the investigator, the effort needed to run a sustaining business and a few anecdotes to illustrate points. I’ll recommend resources, steer you away from a few, and suggest a couple things you can do to experience the PI life, AND, get some real-life details into your stories.
So your Hero is over 35, and maybe over 55. And they want to make a career change? What the hell do they bring to this? EXPERIENCE. And maturity from those hard lessons earned and learned during a working life. The punk kid hasn’t learned yet. You have. Most PIs aren’t life-long PIs, but they have been curious forever. Most have done something else, reporter, librarian, civil servant, cop, military, nurses. Their minds have discipline. They’ve been people watchers. They know an opportunity when they see it, so here they go. And they will succeed at THE core PI task: Find Out About. My Lessons aren’t simple Conference handouts. They’re writing resources. You can lurk. And you can imagine and ask. My two main mystery characters are late life PIs. Let’s see how this works.
About the Presenter:
Steve Pease is a licensed Private Investigator in Colorado. He is retired from a career in Intelligence and space engineering. He also teaches a course in writing against the intelligence cliché. He has published military history and SF/mystery/horror fiction as Michael Chandos. He is working on a romantic-suspense novel featuring an elegant lady who runs a lacey tea shop – and who knocked off her abusive husband with some lethal tea and put him in the rose bed.
0 0 Read moreFreedom and Framework: Story Planning for Pantsers
February 18, 2021 by marianne h donley in category Online Classes tagged as A2PSRWA, Aged to Perfection, Catherine Chant, Online Class, Online Classes, pantsers
Presented by: Catherine Chant
Date: March 1 – 31, 2021
Pricing: A2P Member fee: $15
Non-A2P Member fee: $30
About the Workshop:
Flying by the seat of your pants to write the first draft for your book feels so freeing. It’s a time to play, to experiment, to try out new ideas. What fun!
But diving into a project as big as a novel without any plan at all often means a lot of extra work after the draft is completed as you scramble to revise hundreds of pages that might have no cohesion, inconsistent characters, or a wandering plot.
One way to lessen that extra work is to go into the rough draft phase of your book with a better idea of where the story’s headed. That doesn’t mean knowing everything about your story (how boring would that be?), but it does mean knowing something to give your story direction. “Outline” is a scary word for most pantsers. It sounds restrictive, it sounds tedious, it sounds boring. So, there will be no “outlines” here. Nope. None. Instead, you’re going to build yourself a “framework” for your story that’s open and flexible, with plenty of room for playing, experimenting, and checking out new ideas off the beaten path whenever the inspiration strikes you.
Story Planning for Pantsers: Keep your freedom, but keep on track, too.
About the Presenter:
Award-winning author Catherine Chant is a Romance Writers of America (RWA) Golden Heart® finalist. She writes rock ‘n’ roll romantic fiction and stories with paranormal twists for young adults as well as books on creative writing topics.
Catherine worked for 15 years as an IT computing & communication consultant at her alma mater Boston College before becoming a full-time writer. She teaches several online workshops for writers throughout the year and provides instructional articles on computing, gaming and crafts to different websites.
You can find out more about Catherine at her website.
