Carrollton League of Writers Summer Conference
Four Incredible Speakers!
Come join us on July 13, 2019 from 9:00am – 5:00pm
1529 E. Hebron Parkway
Carrollton, Texas 75007
Cost for the day: $35.00 (Includes lunch)
Query Letters and Pitching Drawing from query letters submitted by CLW members, Literary Agent Ann Rose of the Prospect Agency will be walking us through the components of an effective query letter. She will also devote part of the class to providing advice from an agent’s perspective specifically for the conference pitch.
Ann describes herself, “My degree is in Communication from San Diego State University, and my resume holds a gamut of jobs from Life Guard to Business Systems Analyst/Portfolio Manager, but books have always been my passion. I'm excited to finally merge my love of literature with my past professional experiences as a literary agent with Prospect. It is my honor to help authors build successful, sustainable careers.”
Scenes, Stories and Lego Bricks Stories are made of scenes; the scene is the fundamental unit of drama, and a story is only as good as the design of the scenes that make it up. We’ll look at the shape of a good scene, and how a well-designed scene fits together with all the others to build a dramatic story that keeps readers hooked from beginning to end.
Keith F. Goodnight, science fiction author of The Child, is a native Texan, born and raised in Dallas. Keith is currently an instructor for the Writer’s Path at SMU. Keith enjoys cooking, working on his model railroad, and being an obsessive fan of Doctor Who.
Creative Characterization Through letter-writing, photo prompts and point of view exercises, Jan Morrill will demonstrate methods to develop characters who will better drive a story. Her workshop includes several exercises.
Jan’s award-winning historical fiction, The Red Kimono, and her other short stories and memoir essays, reflect growing up in a multicultural, multi-religious, multi-political background. While working on the sequel to The Red Kimono, Jan teaches writing workshops and speaks about the history of the Japanese American internment.
Synthesizing Your Research Research is the why, that leads to the how, that becomes the cause, that triggers the effect, that builds the feedback loop, that escalates from Call to Adventure to The End. Done well, research is the lifeblood of your story. You’ll never have to worry about not having enough plot (or the wrong plot) or lack of character depth, again.
J. Suzanne Frank, Program Director and instructor, the Writer’s Path at SMU, is a newspaper and magazine journalist who has traveled extensively in Egypt, Greece, and Israel. Her four novels Reflections in the Nile, Shadows on the Aegean, Sunrise on the Mediterranean, and Twilight in Babylon are a linked series of time-travel fantasy that take a woman from the 1990s to ancient Egypt, Atlantis, and Biblical Israel. She draws heavily on history, myth and especially the Judeo-Christian Bible.