- May 17 - Laurie Schnebly Campbell - Q is for Query AND Mix and Match Motivation
- June 28 - Kay Kostopoulos - Getting into character - learn how to do it!
- October 25 - Mary Buckham - All day workshop - Sex on the Page AND He Said/She Said
2008
May 17: Laurie Schnebly Campbell - Q is for Query AND Mix and Match Motivation
Q Is For Query, A Is For Aaaack!
No writer can get far without the most fundamental tool of selling their work: an effective query letter. Yet it’s frequently a source of dread for writers who create lyrical fiction, yet panic at the idea of creating a sales pitch. Laurie Schnebly Campbell brings 25 years of advertising experience to identifying what makes people want a product — any product — and how to convince them YOURS is the one they want.
Mix & Match Motivation
The heart of GMC is motivation, and all too often it’s underrated. The deeper you go for a character’s motivation, the more interesting the character becomes. So what’ll make your characters do plausible, interesting things that keep the story moving? That’s what this class is about — developing a hero & heroine who’ll create a plot from WHATEVER happens, because their motivation is built in right from the start.
Bio:
Laurie Schnebly Campbell loves speaking to writers about issues that draw on her background as a counseling therapist, advertising copywriter, and romance novelist who beat out Nora Roberts for “Best Special Edition of the Year.” 
Along with how-to books for authors, Laurie writes scripts for commercials (some featuring her voice) at a Phoenix ad agency. She also enjoys teaching a catechism class, playing with her husband and son, and counseling at a mental health center. “People ask how I find time to do all that,” Laurie says, “and I tell them it’s easy. I never clean my house!”
June 28: Kay Kostopoulos - getting into character - learning how to do it!
Have you ever had trouble getting “into your character” so that you could write a more realistic hero/heroine? I sure have. It’s easy to picture your character from a distance like watching actors on a movie screen, but that doesn’t take us into deep POV and can often lead to the problem of making all your characters sound the same—like you. I’ve often wondered how actors “get into character”. For example, how does Johnny Depp become Captain Jack Sparrow ?
On June 28th, Kay Kostopoulos Amarotico, a drama instructor at Stanford University will give take us into the world of acting.
In this workshop, writers will examine and participate in the actors’ process in creation of a role for the theatre, and learn how acting techniques may be applied for the writer.
We will work on character exploration, with a focus on objective, obstacle and action; becoming familiar with such acting terms as: Given Circumstances, Personalization, Empathy, Secondary Activity, and Specificity. In-class activities will include acting games and exercises, some of which are designed to prepare the voice, the body, and the mind to take unfamiliar forms.
Bio:
Please see Kay’s bio here!
October 25: Mary Buckham - All day workshop - Sex on the Page AND He Said/She Said
SEX ON THE PAGE - Understanding and Crafting Sexual Tension
How do you write great sexual tension whether you write Regencies or Erotica or somewhere in between? Why is it some authors can make you cheer and commiserate and ache as their characters take their perilous journeys toward intimacy and others leave you feeling ho hum? Mary Buckham combines examples from outstanding Romance authors with an in depth analysis of the 12 stages of intimacy, findings in behavioral science and the power of biology to better understand and incorporate sexual tension in your own writing.
Instructor Mary Buckham interviewed authors such as Linda Howard, Stella Cameron, Susan Anderson and Lori Foster to learn how to write sexual tension from sweet to spicy hot for her SEX ON THE PAGE workshop.
He Said, She Said - Grasping Gender to Achieve Deep POV and Stronger Sexual Tension
Any writer who’s delved into deep POV knows that writing a character of the opposite sex is not easy. You must think, see and say things differently. Short of a degree in gender studies, learn what are the real differences between men and women and how to apply them to your prose to make sure your characters are gender correct, and realistic, in this informative, eye opening and often humorous workshop.
Join with Mary Buckham as she walks you through what the real differences are between men and women abd how to translate these differences into three dimensional characters on the page.
Bio:
Mary Buckham’s latest release, INVISIBLE RECRUIT, was a May 2006 Silhouette Bombshell, that earned reviews such as “sizzling”, “page-turning tension” and “Can’t put it down”. Currently Mary is working on a Thriller series set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. She has hundreds of free-lance articles to her credit, a non-fiction book and is a former Magazine Editor. Mary offers a one-on-one synopsis service to help writers, both published and unpublished creating selling synopses and query letters. She is also a national writer workshop presenter both on-line and at workshops around the country. In her spare time Mary is one of the co-founders and driving force behind www.WriterUniv.com, an online workshop venue offering aspiring writers courses taught by authors and industry professionals. Mary encourages you to visit her website at www.MaryBuckham.com for more information about her, her appearances and workshops and her current writing projects.