24 Friday Mar 2017
7:00 a.m. Check-In table opens
Pick up registration materials at the check-in table
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Seminar Syllabus for Saturday, March 25
23 Thursday Mar 2017
7:00 a.m. Check-In table opens
Pick up registration materials at the check-in table
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Seminar Syllabus for Friday, March 24
22 Wednesday Mar 2017
Includes “Lunch with the Experts,” and Writers Café
Thursday Overview
| 8:30 12:00 |
Full day Michael Hauge seminar |
| 12-12:45 |
Lunch with the Experts (included) |
| 1:00 – 4:30 |
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| 7:00 9:00 |
Writers Cafe: Informal Read and Critique (Included with ALL registrations) |
21 Tuesday Mar 2017
It’s Here!
Greater Lehigh Valley Writer’s Group – Write Stuff™ Conference
Starts Thursday, March 23.
Here’s the lineup of seminars for three days of awesome writer knowledge. Come early to learn, stay late to rub elbows with the presenters, agents, authors, and fellow writers.
Thursday March 23 :
16 Thursday Mar 2017
Posted in Agent Interviews, Write Stuff™ Conference
Mohamed Shalabi, of the Talcott Notch Literary Agency, will be attending the GLVWG Write Stuff™ Conference on March 25, 2017. Mohamed took a few minutes to describe what he’ll be looking for during Saturday’s agent pitch sessions.
Interview by GLVWG’s Charles Kiernan.
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CK: Can you share with us a bit about your journey to all things literary?
MS: As a schoolteacher, my mother encouraged me to be inquisitive and curious all the time even if it meant I would be the annoying kid in class, which I was. She used to say in accented English that “There are millions of answers to a single question, and millions of questions to a single answer” and she was right.
After ten years in Palestine, I returned to the United States to start college. I earned my B.S. and M.S. from the University of Texas at Dallas and was on a Pre-med track before realizing that medicine was not my calling. So, I taught science for three years while interning at three fine literary agencies, Veritas, Folio, and Talcott Notch where I picked up the skills to become an efficient literary agent.
09 Thursday Mar 2017
GLVWG’s Donna Sooy recently interviewed Amy Deardon, who will be at the GLVWG Write Stuff Conference™, Friday and Saturday, March 24 & 25, 2017.
On Friday, Amy will give conferees tips on Insider Self-Publishing: Separating the Amateurs from the Pros. Saturday, she’ll conduct two sessions, What’s the Right Type of Publishing for My Book?, and Does My Book Have What it Takes?
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DS: I read you are an award-winning author, publisher, and budding online entrepreneur. Congratulations. What is a budding online entrepreneur?
AD: Writing/Publishing is a wide-open field, with more options now for people to create and sell information than ever before. I am constantly looking for methods to deliver helpful products that will allow others to reach their goals… and hopefully allow me to help support our family in the process. A win-win!
DS: There are times when people relax at home, they read, crochet and color in the Mandela pattern books. What is your favorite pastime when relaxing?
AD: I tend toward the crafty side with sewing and needlework, although don’t do nearly as much as I used to. It seems I’m always working on a writing project and the computer is never too far away.
I’m fortunate enough to be able to do a lot of work from home, and since it’s not healthy to be too closed in I get out to exercise, or to meet with friends for coffee, or go to Bible study. Evenings are nice when my husband and kids and I cook dinner together as we talk.
06 Monday Mar 2017
Posted in Agent Interviews, Write Stuff™ Conference
Charles Kiernan spoke with Megan Close Zavala, literary agent at Keller Media. Megan will be at the the Write Stuff Conference™ on Saturday, March 25, to take pitches from conference attendees (advance registration is required). Her passion lies not only in getting great books published, but in working closely with the authors who write them. Nothing is more exciting than a great new idea or story!
Megan is interested in working with both debut and previously published authors and enjoys forming long-lasting collaborations with them.
She looks forward to meeting talented writers who are offering something new and exciting and/or fresh takes on pre-existing subject matter. While she represents books in all genres, she is currently most interested in the following genres: Self-Help, Relationships, Pop Culture, Pop Psychology, Parenting, Management, Career, Entrepreneurship, Business, Personal Finance, and Fiction (especially Crime, Mystery/Suspense, and Literary).
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CK: As an agent, you work with writers, hopefully long-term, but who are strangers to you at first. Do you look at more than the work submitted to determine that relationship?
MCZ: Yes. Obviously a great book projects gets us the most excited, but we want to be able to have positive working relationships with our authors as well. Hopefully we will have gotten to know them a little via their query letters or book proposals, but it’s important that we work with people who are ready to do as much work for their book as we are. If it seems that an author is not ready to go the extra mile with their book (be open to revisions, continue to grow their platform, etc.), that may make us reconsider whether or not we take them on as clients. I think authors forget sometimes (or perhaps are not aware) that when we sell their books we are also selling them. Just as agents want to have successful long-term relationships with the authors they represent, so do editors.
02 Thursday Mar 2017
Once again, GLVWG’s intrepid Dawn Sooy took the time to interview award winning poet, writer, teacher, and photographer, Therése Halscheid, who will present Writing From The Inside Out, at The Write Stuff Conference™ on Saturday, March 25, 2017.
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DS – It sounds like you have a busy schedule and have traveled extensively. Do you have a family? If so, what kind of reaction do you get when you are ready to leave home?”
Therése – I do not have a traditional family. My comings and goings reflect my writing process, which is to say that I am nomadic. I live on the road to write — largely by way of house-sitting or artist colonies or teaching opportunities. It is a contemplative lifestyle though I often feel those I house-sit for are my extended family. There is a sense of oneness when our lives join for periods of time. Over the years there have been occasions where a partner has joined me, which made the house-sit very enjoyable. It is a lifestyle that requires no home though, for me, home is wherever I am on Earth.
Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group 