Long
Island
Romance
Writers
Olivia Gaines
World Building
An interactive hour-long workshop on pulling your reader into the world where your characters will love. A candid conversation on meaningful names and story themes which tie the plot together.
Learn to develop characters and add in subtle cultural information, lay out your world’s timeline, and map out your world.
Olivia is a USA Today Best Selling, and Emma award-winning author who loves a good laugh coupled with some steam, mixed in with a man and woman finding their way past the words of "I love you." An author of contemporary romances, she writes heartwarming stories of blossoming relationships filled with heart and humor. The Technicians, The Blakemore Files, and the Modern Mail Order Brides, are one clicks for thousands of readers.
When Olivia is not writing, she enjoys quilting, playing Scrabble online against other word lovers and spending time with her family. She is an avid world traveler who writes many of the locations into her stories. Most of the time she can be found sitting quietly with pen and paper plotting more adventures in love.
Olivia lives in Hephzibah, Georgia with her husband, son, grandson and snotty evil cat, Katness Evermean.
More about Olivia at https://www.ogaines.com/
Jeannie Lin
Writing Description for People Who Hate Description...or Who Love it Too Much
Whether a story is spare with details or filled with lush imagery – description is a choice that does so much more than just set the scene. This workshop discusses a cinematic approach to writing description that lends itself to character, pacing and voice as well as setting and mood. Historical author Jeannie Lin leaves “layering in the five senses” on the cutting room floor to explore an alternative framework for creating vivid and memorable scenes.
JEANNIE LIN grew up fascinated with stories of Western epic fantasy as well as Eastern martial arts adventures. When her best friend introduced her to romance novels in middle school, the stage was set. Jeannie started writing her first romance while working as a high school science teacher in South Central Los Angeles. After four years of trying to break into publishing with an Asian-set historical, her 2009 Golden Heart® Award–winning manuscript, Butterfly Swords, sold to Harlequin Mills & Boon. With two releases and four more upcoming titles all set in the Tang Dynasty, she's keeping her fingers crossed that this hard-sell genre will one day be hard to resist. As a technical consultant, backpacker and vacation junkie, she's traveled all over the United States as well as Europe, South Korea, Japan, China and Vietnam. She's now happily settled in St. Louis with her wonderfully supportive husband, and she continues to journey to exotic locations in her stories. Visit Jeannie Lin online at http://www.jeannielin.com
Katie McCoach is a Los Angeles based developmental editor and book coach who's been helping authors grow their best stories since 2012. Many of her writers have gone on to land publishing deals, and several of her indie authors have won awards. She is a founding editor of Revise & Resub (RevPit), an annual contest for emerging writers.
Website: http://www.katiemccoach.com
Facebook: Katie McCoach Editorial + Writing with Coach McCoach
Twitter: @katiemccoach
Instagram: @kmeditorial
Katie McCoach
Validate Your Book Idea (Before You Start Writing or Pitching)
Many of us draft our book and then try to craft a pitch/blurb that makes the story sound as fabulous as we believe it to be. But have you ever found yourself trying so hard to make the elements of your book sound sellable and you just wish the agent/editor could read your entire book first? Then they would know how great it is.
Except, that’s not how publishing works. And whether your plan is to pitch agents/editors or self-publish, having a book that screams “READ ME” is the key to selling and capturing readers. And yes, you can always craft a strong blurb, but a good blurb doesn’t account for a book that fails to connect to your reader once they dive in. A good blurb doesn’t help if it’s misleading, or once an agent sees the synopsis proves the story fizzles out.
Plus, wouldn’t it be great if you had a way to validate your book idea BEFORE you started writing (or at least before revising without knowing why or what you are revising)?
In this workshop, developmental editor and book coach, Katie McCoach, leads writers through systems that will validate your book idea so you aren’t wandering around with a complete manuscript realizing it’s not attracting agents or readers and you need to rewrite the entire darn thing again.