A Talk with Maria V. Snyder

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GLVWG "Write Stuff", Writing Conference, Writing Conferences

Maria V. Snyder is a fantasy and science fiction author best known for her New York Times best-selling Study Series. She’s written five other series, including the Glass Series, the Healer Series. Her books have won numerous awards.

Maria will be the Keynote Speaker at this years Write Stuff Writers Conference. She will also be presenting half-day seminars on Thursday and Friday afternoon, and two one-hour sessions on Saturday. GLVWG member Donna Brennan asked Maria a few questions about the sessions and seminars she will be presenting at the conference.

Donna: One of the sessions you will be teaching will be on serial writing. I noticed that characters in one of your series often show up in another. Is this typical when writing a series?

Maria: That happened with in my Study and Glass series. They are both set in the same world. The Glass books are a spin-off from the Study books. After I wrote the first three Study books, I was burned out with writing about those characters and wanted to start something new. My editor really loved the world I created, and she liked the one minor character, Opal, the glass magician. I was in the middle of telling her why I couldn’t write about Opal when an idea for a story popped into my head! From that one idea, I wrote three Glass books.

That frequently happens with long series of books. Authors will switch to other characters in the same world in order to bring in a fresh perspective. After several books, it becomes harder and harder to find new problems for your characters and for them to continue to change and grow over the course of so many books! Plus, there’s always the danger of going into the “realm of the ridiculous,” also known as “jumping the shark.” 

Donna: When you wrote your first book (which won the 2006 Compton Crook Award for Best First Fantasy Novel), did you plan it as series or did the characters just not want to leave you alone after the book was completed?

Maria: Poison Study was supposed to be a stand-alone fantasy novel. When I finally found a publisher for the book, they wanted a sequel. It was easy to change the ending and write a second book. When I finished that one, I knew there was still another book to complete Yelena’s story.

Donna: Another of your Saturday sessions is about how an independent bookstore works. Why is this kind of information useful to an author, and how can we use that knowledge to help sell our books?

Maria: Independent bookstores can be a wonderful resource to authors. They have loyal customers, and some host book clubs and events. It’s important to know how they operate so when an author has a new book out (or even with their backlist), they can approach a bookstore about getting their books on the shelves and perhaps doing an event at the store. Booksellers appreciate when authors understand how difficult it is to be a small business and are willing to accommodate them. 

Donna: On Thursday your seminar is about creating believable villains. Is there a trick to giving our villains depth? How different is that from giving our heroes depth? 

Maria: It’s not much different than giving your protagonist depth. Villains need goals, motivation, and conflict. But you also need to look at what set them on their path and other factors so your villains are well-rounded characters.

Donna: Your Friday session is about audio books. Is the audio book market different than the print or ebook market?

Maria: Yes, it is much different. Audio book listeners are frequently multi-tasking while listening. The narrator is just as important as the author so finding the prefect narrator is key. It’s also quite a process to produce your own audiobook. I’ll also be discussing the pros and cons of keeping your audio rights or selling them to your publisher.

Donna: If the target audience is different, how does that affect the way we market our books?

Maria: Knowing your target audience is the most important aspect of marketing. You need to know where your readers are in order to reach them. For example, if you’re writing YA, then your readers are on their phones, watching TikTok videos. For middle grade readers, school visits and library programs are important.

Donna: I know you will be giving the keynote address on Saturday, but the conference website doesn’t tell us the topic. Can you give us a hint of what you’ll be talking about?

Maria: The title of my address is “Navigating This So-Called Writer’s Life.” I talk about how expectations and perceptions about a writing career don’t always match up to what actually happens. That there are surprises waiting around every corner, and writers need to be flexible in order to preserver. 

Donna: Thank you very much, Maria, for your time. I look forward to all I can learn from you at the conference.

Maria: You’re welcome! I’m looking forward to the conference. It’s always inspiring and motivating when I spend time with other writers talking shop!

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This year’s Write Stuff Conference runs March 23-25 at the Best Western Lehigh Valley Hotel. Registration is still open! 

Interview with Michelle Lazurek

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GLVWG "Write Stuff", Literary Agent, Writing Conferences, Writing Craft

Author, agent, and speaker Michelle Lazurek is one of the presenters at the 2023 Write Stuff Conference

Interview by Sara Karnish

Michelle Lazurek

Michelle S. Lazurek is a multi-genre award winning author, speaker, pastor’s wife and mother. She is a regular contributor for ibelieve.com and crosswalk.com and is a literary agent for Wordwise Media Services and a certified writing coach. When not working, she enjoys sipping a Starbucks latte, collecting ‘80s memorabilia and spending time with her family and her crazy dog. For more info, please visit her website. 

Michelle will be holding a half-day workshop on Thursday—“The Ins and Outs of Self-Publishing”—as well as breakout sessions on Saturday. 

SK: You are also an agent. How do you think this informs your writing?

ML: I’m an agent but I started out as an author. I’ve been an author for 13 years. I’ve sat where authors have sat, and I’ve been in the same publisher appointments and meetings just like other authors.  I understand the unique challenges the author faces when it comes to getting that book contract. I think that’s what I bring to the agent space. Not every agent is an author, and because I was an author first, I understand what a publisher is looking for. This helps me to shape the author’s writing and marketing and work together to polish the proposal and get it in the best shape possible so we can get that book deal. 

SK: What is your best advice for writers seeking an agent?

ML: As an agent, I look for three things: 

Unique idea: I’m looking for a unique spin on an old idea. For example, there are many books on prayer. What I am looking for in an author is their unique perspective on the topic of prayer. Publishers don’t want ideas that have never been sold before. On the contrary, they want a unique spin on a concept that has sold well and so they know they can guarantee their sales if they do offer a contract with an advance. 

Writing: The writing must be good. Authors must invest in their own writing skills, whether that is by taking courses, hiring professionals, etc. Agents are not editors, so we don’t do much editing.

Platform: In my mind, platform is king. If you don’t know what platform means, think of it in terms of someone building a stage. They build it plank by plank and give it a firm foundation so that the person who’s on stage can deliver their message in the best way possible. It’s the same for writers. Their platform is the literal place that they stand where they can get their book in the hands of as many readers as possible. The bigger the numbers the better. If their platform is small, I may encourage them to wait before we submit to publishers because I know they are expecting either large numbers of previous sales or large numbers of places where they engage regularly. This guarantees not only they will make the advance back, but they’ll also make the publishing company a profit. 

SK: One of your Write Stuff sessions focuses on writing for children. What is one big mistake new children’s writers commonly make?

ML: The biggest mistake I’ve seen authors make is not placing the tension or conflict earlier in the book. I do a lot with picture books, so they only have about 24 pages to really tell a story. Therefore, the book’s tension or conflict, which every picture book should have in some form, should appear in the first couple of pages. It can’t be halfway through the story, because the author will run out of room to be able to resolve it effectively. Kids today have a short attention span. Therefore, a children’s writer’s additional job is to keep the child turning the pages from the first page to the last. Therefore, their tension or conflict must begin very quickly to keep the child’s attention. 

SK: Another session focuses on self-editing. Why is this step so important in the writing process?

ML: Every author must learn how to be a good editor. If you want to attract the attention of an agent or a publisher, your work must be in the best shape possible. At the very least, authors need to know the basics of English and grammar so that they can fix the very common typos and syntax errors that the first draft of their work presents. If they have difficulty beyond that, I encourage them to hire an editor so when an agent or publisher looks at it they know this author has a good grasp of the basic rules regarding literature.

SK: Why do so many writers think they don’t need to edit?

ML: Some writers make the mistake of thinking that agents will edit for them or that the publisher will edit for them. While this is true, your work needs to have gone through not only your hands at least a couple of times but also passed on to someone whom you trust who knows the basic mechanics of the English language. At minimum, I encourage writers to write the first draft. Put it away for a couple of days, then with fresh eyes look at it again. Look at it several times before you pass it on to someone else. By the time a professional editor has gotten to it, your work will have been passed through at least five to seven times. 

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This year’s Write Stuff Conference runs March 23-25 at the Best Western Lehigh Valley Hotel. Registration is open!

Interview with Maria Snyder

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GLVWG "Write Stuff", Writing, Writing Conference, Writing Conferences, Writing Craft

Maria Snyder is the Keynote speaker at this year’s Write Stuff conference. She’s also doing two half-day workshops at the conference. Here is an interview with Maria by GLVWG member Donna Brennan. Register for the conference here.

Q&A with Jon Gibbs

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GLVWG "Write Stuff", Writing Advice, Writing Conferences, Writing Craft

By Sara Karnish

A longtime friend of GLVWG, Job Gibbs will be presenting three sessions at the 2023 Write Stuff Conference: “The Three C’s of Conflict: Part 1,” “The Three C’s of Conflict: Part 2,” and “The Funny Pages.” Here is a complete conference schedule.

Writer bio:

Born in England, Jon Gibbs now lives in New Jersey, where he was Author-in-Residence at Georgian Court University from 2012 to 2017.

Jon is the founder of:

• The New Jersey Authors’ Network (www.njauthorsnetwork.com)
• NJ Writing Groups.com (www.njwritinggroups.com)
• The I are a writer! (and more) store (www.iareawriter.net).

His middle grade fantasy, Fur-Face, was nominated for a Crystal Kite Award. Originally published by Echelon Press in 2010, the second edition was released in November 2022. The sequel, Barnum’s Revenge, was published by Echelon Press in 2013. The second edition is due out this year.

Jon’s latest book, Abraham Lincoln Stole My Homework, is due out this year.

When he’s not chasing around after his children, Jon can usually be found hunched over the computer in his basement office. One day he hopes to figure out how to switch it on.

Contact him at admin@jongibbs.org.

Q: One of your sessions is called ‘The Funny Pages.’ What will we learn during this session?

JG: We’ll be looking at how humor comes in many forms, and how we can use it in lots of different ways, whether it’s to lighten the mood after a shocking or stressful scene, or show us a little backstory, or even to make us like a character we aren’t supposed to – Think the Sherriff of Nottingham in Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. 

Q: Humor is difficult to achieve in writing. What are a few key elements to ‘writing funny’?

JG: I think we all have slightly different ideas as to what counts as funny, but when it comes to using it in a book or story, I’d say the most important thing is that whoever’s writing it finds it funny. Also, consistency is important. Humor is part of our personality. If a story character switches between self-deprecating humor and one-liners to snarky jokes and sarcasm without any obvious reason, it can be jarring (at least, it is for me as a reader).   

Q: Can you give us a sneak preview of your ‘3 Cs of Conflict’ 2-part sessions?

JG: Using examples from books and movies, we’ll be looking at some of the many ways to insert conflict in a story, and how we can use it to do more than just provide an obstacle for our characters to overcome. We’ll also be looking at examples from attendees’ current works-in-progress to see how we can ramp up the conflict while also helping to move the character/story arc along. 

Q: What does conflict add to a piece of fiction?

JG: Conflict certainly isn’t everything, but without it, any story (and most of real life) would be pretty boring. It doesn’t all have to be car chases and brawling; in fact, most conflict is pretty subtle, but if it’s not there, readers soon start flipping ahead a few pages, or worse, simply put the book down.  

Q: You write middle-grade fiction. What are some must-haves for writing middle-grade?

JG: Usually, the main character has to be middle-grade age. Adults can help solve the story problem, but they can’t be the driving force behind it. Aside from that, I’d say the must-haves are the same as any other fiction. Characters the reader cares about, good story, etc. 

Q: How is writing middle-grade different than writing for adults?

JG: There are some basic differences, most of which are common sense. The official age range for middle-grade readers is between 8 and 12, so there’s an awful lot of scope for the type of story you can tell (as well as in how you tell it). Across the board, though, really bad language, sex, etc., are definite no-nos. 

Book-length tends to be a lot shorter – usually between 20K and 50k words. If there is a romantic interest, it’s subtle – think Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger in the first few Harry Potter books.

Interview with Kathryn Craft

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GLVWG "Write Stuff", Writing Advice, Writing Conference, Writing Craft

Author and developmental editor Kathryn Craft is one of the presenters at the 2023 Write Stuff Conference

Interview by Sara Karnish

Long a leader in the southeastern Pennsylvania writing scene, Kathryn served for more than a decade in a variety of positions on the boards of the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group and the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference, and was named the 2020 Guiding Scribe for the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. Kathryn leads the Your Novel Year small-group mentorship program, has served as adjunct faculty for Drexel University’s low-residency MFA in Creative Writing program, hosts writing retreats for women, and speaks often about writing. She writes a monthly series, “Mad Skills,” at the award-winning blog, Writer Unboxed.

Her debut novel, The Art of Falling, set in the Philadelphia dance world, a harsh microcosm of our society’s celebrity-driven expectations of women’s bodies, is available from Sourcebooks. Her follow up novel, The Far End of Happy, is based on true events surrounding the 1997 suicide standoff that resulted in her husband’s death. Originally meant to be a memoir, she decided to novelize. 

Learn more about Kathryn at kathryncraft.com or writingpartner.com. 

Kathryn will be facilitating a half-day workshop focused on dialogue, “Say That and More”, on Thursday, March 23. I sat down with Kathryn to talk about the importance of dialogue and so much more.

Q: Can you give us a sneak preview of your half-day workshop “Say That and More” at the Write Stuff Conference?

KC: Dialogue, if used well, can be an incredible multi-tasker. It can build characterization, deliver information, enhance conflict, further the plot, reveal the motivations of non-point-of-view characters, expose hidden loyalties and secrets, and more. In fact, if it’s only doing any one of these things, it’s not doing enough! By analyzing powerful excerpts of dialogue from bestselling novels, we’ll figure out what these authors have done so well, and then give each technique a shot with either prompts or characters from our own works in progress. It will be both fun and eye-opening!

Q: Why is strong dialogue so critical to a novel?

KC: We humans communicate with each other primarily through speech. Imagine speed-dating without it! The first “I love you” will change a relationship, for better or worse. A baby’s first word is joyfully celebrated. Asking for what we truly need can be nerve-wracking. Losing our voice before a speech or performance can be a tragic loss of opportunity. One’s dying words can carry a lifetime of meaning. We can feel lost when someone is desperately trying to communicate with us in a language we don’t know. Since such situations are common to all humans, well-written dialogue can gain immediate emotional investment from your reader.

But equally important to dialogue is what isn’t said. If that first “I love you” is met with silence, we know things aren’t going so well. Same if the baby’s first word is “Da-da” and the mom whisks the baby from “Da-da’s” arms to go down for a nap. By tapping into these universal human emotions through a rich tapestry of actions, memories, and setting, we can invite the reader to add up what’s on the page for themselves. After all, they’ve been reading signals during conversations their whole lives.

Q: Authenticity is key to capturing how characters speak, and sometimes this means writing regional dialect. How should a writer handle dialect, colloquialisms, and “folksy expressions” in a novel? 

KC: This has changed a lot over the years as the publishing industry has gotten twitchier. There’s the fear that today’s busy readers will no longer put up with phonetic spelling and dropped syllables, even though doing so brought the series characters of middle grade authors like J.K. Rowling and Brian Jacques to vibrant life. A more recent concern is the fear that trying to write dialect will come off as prejudicial, racist, homophobic, xenophobic—if there’s even a whiff of political incorrectness in the way you’ve presented a character as “other than,”, there’s a possibility you’ll cross a line and lose readers. 

One solution is to evoke the sound of the language without full-out transcription. If a young woman says she could listen to her daddy all night long, his dropped syllables making his stories roll like waves, a periodic transcription of his language won’t cause a problem. If you need to convey the speech of a foreigner with minimal English, study the syntax of his native language (lack of articles in Russian, adjectives following many nouns in French) and mimic it.

Q: You’ve drawn on your personal experiences for your novels The Art of Falling and The Far End of Happy. What are some tips for writers to capture personal experiences—events, even interesting dialogue—and possibly use them later?

KC: I give a separate workshop on this, which was a direct result of all I learned while obtaining my PhD in self from the School of Hard Knocks. Since our emphasis here is dialogue, I’ll share one pertinent story from The Far End of Happy.

After I’d already filed for divorce from my first husband, and within a month of his suicide, he said to me, “I guess you don’t like me very much.”

This line of dialogue was seared into my memory to the point that I wanted to include it in my novel. But when my editor read that line of dialogue, floating as it was within the fictionalized version of real events, it made less sense. “The scene reads fine without it,” she commented. “Just delete it.” 

That I couldn’t do. To me it had the feel of an important turning point in this couple’s awareness of what was (or wasn’t) happening between them. So instead of deleting, I went back several chapters to better set up this important moment.

My takeaways: 1) while listening to your editor is important, you don’t have to solve problems in the way they suggest, and 2) just because it was spoken in real life doesn’t confer power to a line of dialogue, and setting it up might be a long game.

Q: Dialogue aside for a second—you are a developmental editor through your business, Writing Partner. How do we maintain the tension throughout a novel and keep readers’ interest?

KC: This isn’t just a whole other workshop; I’m writing a craft book on the topic! Just about all fiction craft can be geared toward sustaining the reader’s interest. The most important foundational concept is what I call psychological tension—the relationship an author builds between the protagonist and the reader. A reader is hooked when a protagonist’s deeply desired goal raises a related question in the reader’s mind that she wants answered (“Can this character achieve his goal, given all the obstacles ahead?”). Now you have the reader looking around every corner to see how it’s going for the protagonist. It’s only once this relationship is created that the author can raise, dash, and reward reader expectation, which is the very definition of a satisfying read.

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This year’s Write Stuff Conference runs March 23-25 at the Best Western Lehigh Valley Hotel. Registration is open! www.glvwg.org

Interview with Michael Ventrella

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GLVWG "Write Stuff"

Author and attorney Michael Ventrella is one of the presenters at the 2023 Write Stuff Conference

Interview by Sara Karnish

Outside of writing, Mike worked primarily as a public defender; however, he also was a lobbyist for the liberal group Americans for Democratic Action (and later served as the Massachusetts chapter President for a year), taught political science courses at Bunker Hill Community College, and was a campaign manager for a state representative. Mike also wrote songs and performed in two prominent bands, Agent 99 and Big House, which played the major clubs in the Boston area and received airplay on local college radio.

Mike also started a magazine about animated films called Animato in the mid-80s which grew to be quite prominent. He was quoted in many publications as an animation expert, including Entertainment Weekly and in the book THE DREAM TEAM: THE RISE AND FALL OF DREAMWORKS by Daniel M. Kimmel.

In 1997, Mike and his wife, Heidi, moved to the beautiful Poconos, where Mike now works as an attorney. Heidi is a Niche award-winning artist whose work can be seen in galleries around the country and in Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museums all over the world, as well as on ABC TV’s To Tell the Truth. They love the pitter patter of little feet (they have five cats:  McGonigal, Mrs. Premise, Mrs. Conclusion, Doctor Who and River Song).

Michael writes humorous adventure stories. He has five novels published so far as well as a collection of short stories. He’s edited about a dozen anthologies, including Release the Virgins!, Baker Street Irregulars (with NY Times Bestselling Author Jonathan Maberry) and Three Time Travelers Walk Into…  He’s also had four nonfiction books published, including one about The Beatles, two about The Monkees, and “How to Argue the Constitution with a Conservative.”

Mike is a regular fixture at science fiction conventions on the East Coast, where he appears on panels to discuss fiction, animation, and gaming. However, to many people, he’s known primarily as the Guy Who Predicted The Hodor Plot Twist.

I sat down with Mike to discuss his work as an attorney, a writer, and how they (may or may not) overlap, and so much more.

Q: You are a lawyer as well as a writer. How do your careers inform each other?

MV: Morse code.

The advantage of having a writing skill as an attorney is that most attorneys don’t. We’re taught how to do legal research and organize a brief, but not necessarily how to make it interesting to read. 

I always teach that the only real rule in writing is “Don’t be boring,” and that applies to nonfiction and legal writing as well as fiction. I’ve won quite a few cases and appeals because I understand how to write well. Judges get lots of boring briefs to read, so if you can keep their attention, you’re way ahead of other lawyers. 

Q: One of your sessions for the Write Stuff Conference is called “How the Law Really Works”. I think many writers know it’s important to have a copyright for their work. Can you explain what a copyright is, and just why it’s so important?

MV: It isn’t as important as you think. If you create something, you have the copyright. You don’t need to register it. Just keep your records. I email drafts of what I am writing to myself. That way, if my computer crashes, there’s a backup in the cloud. And if anyone tries to claim my work as their own, I have dated proof that it’s mine. Once you publish it, it is automatically copyrighted. 

Seriously, no one is going to steal your stuff. Even if they steal your idea, the way they present it will be completely different than how you would write it. Whether you put “copyright” on the bottom of every page won’t make a difference. It’s not like that guarantees you will win a lawsuit. Evidence that you wrote it first is more important. 

If you’re sending stories off, you don’t need to say “This is copyright by me! Don’t steal it!”  If an editor likes your work, they’re not going to steal it and deal with a lawsuit; they’re going to say, “This is great! Let’s buy it and get this person to write even more great stuff for us.”

However, to be clear, my lecture won’t be about copyright law, but instead will be about criminal law. So many writers will have their characters arrested or break the law, and then get the procedure completely wrong. I’ll talk about how the detectives do their job in real cases, how the lawyers get involved, and how the system works (and doesn’t work). This particular lecture will provide lots of time for questions so come prepared!

Q: You’re doing another session called “How to Impress an Editor for a Themed Anthology”. What is one of the biggest mistakes an author makes when submitting a piece for an anthology?

MV: Not reading the guidelines and sending something to the editor that the editor doesn’t want. I often get stories that are not what I’m looking for, and all that does is make me mad at you for wasting my time. No editor is going to go, “I know this anthology is for stories about wizards, but golly, this story about baseball is just so good I have to put it in the book!” 

I’ll have many more examples in my presentation. 

Q: Your third session is “The Biggest Mistakes Made by New Authors”. Without giving too much of your presentation away, what is the single biggest mistake made by new authors?

MV: I don’t think I can narrow it down to one. That session will be a rapid listing of many mistakes (I know, because I made lots of them myself) with the idea that most people will go “Duh, of course, I’d never do that,” but then there will be one or two points that will make them go, “Ah, I never realized that. Good point.”

The problem is that those one or two points won’t be the same for everyone.

Okay, actually, I think I will list the biggest mistake:  Not reading. I can’t believe there are so many people who aspire to be writers yet don’t read a lot. You’re not going to improve your work without reading any more than a musician who never listens to music will write better songs. You will learn more about how to write by reading good books and paying attention to how the author accomplishes their goals than by any other method. 

Q: What is your best advice for writers at any level?

Force yourself to write even if you’re not in the mood. You’re not going to get better without practice (and this applies to any skill) so even if what you write later gets thrown away, it’s still going to make you better in the long run. 

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This year’s Write Stuff Conference runs March 23-25 at the Best Western Lehigh Valley Hotel. Registration is open! www.glvwg.org

Meet Janeen Ippolito — Presenter for the GLVWG Write Stuff Conference™ 2019

Tags

Book Marketing, Writing, Writing Coach, Writing Conferences, Writing Fiction, Writing Romance

 

“I’m Janeen Ippolito, and I’m determined to see the world filled with amazing books and endless to-be-read piles. I write speculative fiction and creative writing and marketing resources. I’m also an experienced entrepreneur, author coach, editor, teacher, and the president of Uncommon Universes Press. Whether brainstorming a plot twist, developing a course, or analyzing marketing angles, I’m happiest when creating solutions that get your books polished and noticed in the ever-changing publishing industry.”

Article by Dawn Sooy

In her spare time, Janeen enjoys sword-fighting, reading, pyrography, and eating brownie batter. Two of her goals are eating fried tarantulas (Hmm- do they shave the hair first? Janeen: sometimes! They didn’t when I ate some freeze dried tarantulas. Had an interesting texture.) and traveling to Antarctica.

Janeen is an Air Force kid raised all over the East Coast. She went to college in 2005 to study cross-cultural communication, writing, and teaching English as a second language.

Janeen lives in Berwick, PA across the street from the town’s prettiest cemetery, which she often walks around to clear her mind. Her favorite writing beverage is water (room temperature, no ice), her favorite color is dark red, and she has been known to write tragic scenes to fluffy pop songs. She also tends to solve problems while cleaning her house. She’s slightly addicted to buying book swag, especially when it involves dragons.

Plan to attend her Friday Afternoon Class – Book to Market: Tips to Package, Promote, and Publish Your Book. Should you aim for a traditional publisher or try to publish yourself? Is there a way to make selling books easier? And what social media should you really be using? Get clarity on your publishing and marketing options from publishing industry pro and marketing coach Janeen Ippolito. These three sessions take out the “overwhelm” and enable you to make decisions with confidence about your manuscript’s future.

Saturday, Janeen continues presenting at the GLVWG Write Stuff Conference™ on March 22 & 23, 2019 with topics including:

Fundamentals of Fiction – Inside Out. Have an idea for your story, but nowhere to start? Have the start of a draft, but unsure of how to finish it? Heard a lot of writing terms, but unsure where they fit into the big picture? This workshop is for you! It starts by targeting your core motivations with key questions, then breaks down the big task of writing a story into manageable chunks and simplifies the myriad of story-telling concepts into action-items that you can use in your work right now. Come away with a solid foundation for tackling your fiction writing project.

 How to Write Romantic Subplots. Think romance is just for romance novelists? Think again! Romantic subplots can enhance all kinds of fiction and broaden your reader base. Learn how to use romance to push plots effectively so that romance-fans AND non-romance fans will pick up your books!

To read more on Janeen, visit:

·         Author Website: http://www.janeenippolito.com

·         Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/janeenippolitollc/

·         Twitter: https://twitter.com/JaneenIppolito

·         Instagram: @janeen_ippolito

·         Interview – World Building with Janeen Ippolito

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Dawn Sooy, GLVWG’s Conference Chairman, is a native of Eastern Pennsylvania, with plenty of experience the four seasons have to offer. Armed with a Computer Science degree, she worked in the tech industry until 2012. As an animal lover, she volunteers at the local animal shelter, sneaking in treats for the four-legged residents.

 

An Interview with DT “Dan” Krippene

Tags

Blogger, Panstser, Pinterest, Writing, Writing Conferences

A native of Wisconsin and Connecticut, DT deserted aspirations of being a biologist to live the corporate dream and raise a family.  After six homes, a ten-year stint in Singapore and Taiwan, and an imagination that never slept, his muse refused to be hobbled as a mere dream. Now a full-time writer, DT writes science fiction, dystopian fiction, alternate-world fantasy, and blogs on Searching for Light in the Darkness.

Social Media Chairman for GLVWG, Dan created and maintains this WordPress blog page, and revamped the group’s Facebook Page.

Sandra Almonte had an opportunity to speak with Dan about what he writes, his blog site, and his on-going struggles as a hard-core pantser extraordinaire when he writes.

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Sandra:  You write science fiction and alternate-world fantasy. What drew you to these genres?

Dan:  I was the middle child of seven and more at home with a book and my chemistry set in the basement when growing up.  Robert Heinlein’s “Tunnel in the Sky” was my introduction to sci-fi when I was eight. I cut my fantasy teeth with the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, all before I reached puberty. As for alternate-world fantasy, my first taste likely came from the Stephen King/Peter Straub collaboration “The Talisman” (though I give Dean Koontz’s “Lightning” high marks for solidifying the genre for me).

I dropped sci-fi/fantasy for many years after I started raising a family and labored in the real world. I credit my older daughter for reintroducing me to it and haven’t looked back since.

Sandra: Is there a strategy you use for your blog page?  Do you blog everyday? Are there days you write two (or more) blogs and post them in the future?

Dan:  I started my blogging chops with a wonderful group of romance writers in 2008 and came up with the name “Blame it on the Muse” (which is no longer running). These ladies played a large role in fine tuning the craft for me. I tended more toward humor as the ‘lone Y chromosome in a sea of double-x’s, but wasn’t really into the social media thing. It was my agent, Victoria Lea of Aponte Literary, who insisted I must establish a presence, and well, let’s just say I was dragged kicking and screaming into the social media arena. Who’d a thunk I’d end up as the social media guy for GLVWG?

Maintaining a brand and presence requires a degree of discipline and consistency, which I suck at. I prefer writing stories. I set up ‘Searching for Light in the Darkness’ as a subtle riff on characters who end up in their darkest moment and must find a ‘light’ to overcome it. Lucky me, I received permission from photographic artist, Lori Nix, to use her diorama of a tree stretching to a hole in the roof of a deserted library as my cover graphic.  Started with bi-monthly posts, meandered on the subject matter (I had this thing about not wanting to be yet another writer talking about writing), dates slipped, and ended up doing a monthly post. Some will say it’s not enough, but I will kick up posting frequency when I finally publish one of the half-dozen books I’ve written.

Meet Ben Sobieck

Tags

Crime Fiction, Wattpad, Weapons in Fiction, Writing, Writing Conferences

Benjamin Sobieck is best known as the author of The Writer’s Guide to Weapons: A Practical Reference for Writing Firearms and Knives in Fiction (Writer’s Digest Books). He also writes crime and thriller fiction, in addition to blogging about weapons in fiction on his popular website, CrimeFictionBook.com.

He is also the editor of “The Writer’s Guide to Wattpad,” forthcoming from Writer’s Digest Books. On the fiction side, he is a Wattpad Star, with more than 1 million reads on Wattpad on titles such as “When the Black-Eyed Children Knock.” In 2016, he won the world’s largest online fiction contest, the Wattys, for “Black Eye: Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective #2.” He’s also collaborated with TV and movie studios through Wattpad and is the creator of The Writer’s Glove® http://www.thewritersglove.com)

GLVWG’s Mitzi Flyte interviewed Ben on the following questions.

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Mitzi: Who are your favorite thriller writers and did they inspire you?

Ben:   I enjoy writing thrillers because they offer flexibility that other genres can’t, which calls into question what a thriller is in the first place. Its fences are less defined, allowing me to meander and borrow. I’ve written horror, mystery, and adventure, but I could stick them all comfortably into the thriller box. The elements of surprise, action and high stakes are all present. It’s more of an attitude than a set of rules.

I admire David Morrell’s take on the thriller (he’s the godfather of the genre, after all), and I pull from him for the character-driven elements. He knows how to make action happen without reducing the characters to props.

However, most of what informs my writing comes from non-fiction. You’ll find all the surprise, action and high stakes you could ever need in news media and long-form journalism. The writing is more clinical, but there is no less a narrative component than there is in any piece of fiction. I could read the newspaper all day. This keeps my fiction from going off the rails because the inspiration is grounded in the human instead of the fantastic. My best stories didn’t lose sight of their humanity.

As for my worst stories…well…let’s just say they weren’t only lacking humanity.

Meet Richard White

Tags

Fantasy, Science Fiction, SFWA, World Building, Writer Beware, Writing, Writing Conferences

Richard White is a science fiction/fantasy author, but he has also been known to do dark fantasy, new pulp, historical adventure, fantasy noir, and non-fiction. As a media tie-in writer, he’s written for Star Trek, Doctor Who, and The Incredible Hulk.

Rich made his first professional sale in 1975 when he sold a sports article to the Hallsville (MO) Top. Over the next several years, he became the sports editor and wrote articles and editorials for the paper. He was a sports reporter at the University of Central Missouri’s radio station where he wrote/edited on-air copy and did interviews with local schools sports teams.

Rich is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers. He also serves on SFWA’s “Writer Beware” committee.

When not writing, he shows an inordinate amount of interest in sharp pointy things. Rich picked up fencing in college, learning the foil. Also, while attending the University of Central Missouri, he was introduced to the Society for Creative Anachronism, where he learned the art of sword fighting using both broadsword and shield, great sword, and pole arms. He also was an apprentice armorer, learning how to make both leather and steel armor pieces for other members. Additionally, he was a herald for the West Kingdom, doing both field and court heraldry as well as designing over 40 coats of arms and badges for members of the Barony of the Dark Woods. Rich’s current sword-related vice is Kendo, where he has achieved the rank of Nidan and is studying both Itto (single-sword) and Nito (two-sword) styles of Kendo.

The 2018 GLVWG Write Stuff Conference™ is using Richard’s skills to present sessions on:

• Enter the Hobbit (Writing Realistic Fight Scenes)
• World Building 101
• Writer Beware

To read more on Richard, click on the following links:

• Home – http://www.richardcwhite.com/rcwwp/
• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/AuthorRichardCWhite/
• Simon and Schuster Page – http://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Richard-C-White/22681378
• youtube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2OkR0P1_UM
• Miscellaneous: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Richard_C._White

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       Article by Dawn Sooy

A native of Eastern Pennsylvania, Dawn has plenty of experience with the best and worst four seasons have to offer. Armed with a Computer Science degree, she worked in the tech industry until 2012. She’s married to a great guy and between them, have four children, two grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. As an animal lover, she volunteers at the local animal shelter, sneaking in treats for the four-legged residents.

Too full of energy to even consider a rocking chair, with an insatiable itch to write, Dawn published six short stories, the most recent, “Love Knows No Boundaries,” featured in the GLVWG anthology, Write Here – Write Now. She is currently working on a full-length novel titled, “From The Darkness,” scheduled for publication in early 2018, with plans to publish a horror anthology later in the year.