Long
Island
Romance
Writers
Upcoming Workshops
Join LIRW for monthly classes and workshops via Zoom! Most classes are free for members. Non-members may sign-up for classes for a fee by clicking REGISTER below
or emailing longislandromancewriters@gmail.com
Asynchronous Class
Runs the Full Month of October
Linnea Sinclair Presents: Pitches, Blurbs, and Taglines, Oh My!
$25 for Non-LIRW Members, $10 for Members
You’ve written your novel. Now, how are you going to grab the attention of the agent or editor to sell it—or the book blogger to promote it? You’re going to construct and practice your pitch, beat your blurb to death and tickle everyone’s interest with your tag lines, that’s how. Bantam Spectra author Linnea Sinclair explains the importance of pitches and tag line and guide students through the fun and imaginative procedure to develop the best pitch for their book. Plus, students will have hands-on lessons in creating those pithy advertising tag lines that, yes, will help not only sell their book to a publisher and create a book buzz from a blogger, but help the publisher and blogger sell it—with sizzle!—to readers.
Winner of the prestigious national book award, the RITA®, science fiction romance author Linnea Sinclair is a name synonymous with high-action, emotionally intense, character-driven novels. Her books have claimed spots in the Locus Top Ten and received starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly. Romantic Times BOOKreviews magazine consistently gives Sinclair’s books 4-1/2 stars (their highest rating). Starlog magazine calls Sinclair “one of the reigning queens of science fiction romance.”
Her previous careers include news reporting and private investigation. Since 2000, she’s taught seminars in the craft of writing for all levels of writers via on-line writing sites and at writing conventions nationwide.
Sinclair resides in Pensacola, Florida with her husband, Robert Bernadino, and their thoroughly spoiled cats. Readers can find her perched on the third barstool from the left in her Intergalactic Bar and Grille at www.linneasinclair.com
Website: www.linneasinclair.com
Email: linnea@linneasinclair.com
Represented by: The Nelson Literary Agency
October 17, 2026
11:30 AM- 1:00 PM
Wild Cards: Dealing Deeper Characters with Lyla Bellatas
$10 for Non-LIRW Members, Free for Members
Part craft workshop, part creative experiment, and part play, Wild Cards: Dealing Deeper Characters –gives writers a visual, intuitive way to break through predictable choices and discover characters—and stories—they might never have consciously invented.
No knowledge of Lenormand or card reading is required. Come ready to shuffle, deal, and discover what happens when you let the cards show you something you weren't already looking for.
What happens when your story goes quiet?
Instead of staring at the page waiting for inspiration, you have a tool at your disposal that you probably never considered. The Lenormand deck. You can shuffle the cards and ask a different question: What do I need to see?
In this interactive edutainment workshop, author Lyla Bellatas introduces writers to Lenormand—a 36-card system of concrete, evocative images—and demonstrates how unexpected combinations can disrupt familiar thinking, spark lateral connections, and uncover possibilities hiding inside a story.
Using her CAST method—Blend → Flow → Map, Lyla takes writers beyond simply assigning traits to characters. Participants will learn to BLEND two cards into a single image and translate that image into a Driving Verb: the action a character habitually performs upon the world. Because characters don't merely represent something. Characters do something. And when their verbs collide, story begins.
Lyla has created a free, completely optional, app for her Lenormand cards. If participants would like to download it, they can do so here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lyla-lenormand/id6788846756?
Lyla Bellatas pens spicy contemporary romances full of humor, heat, and heart. Born Armenian American in the NYC suburbs her books embody the diversity and rich culture she couldn’t live without. With a BS in Engineering, an MBA in Marketing and having read tarot and Lenormand professionally for over thirty years her writing is inspired by magic and anchored in practicality.
She’s published two books in her Real Fling Series, a few short stories included in erotic romance anthologies and is on schedule to publish a paranormal series this year.
Swept off her feet by a handsome Greek, she met racing, Lyla found her happily ever after as a wife, mother of a spirited daughter, and writer. With their cat and puppy, they live in the NYC suburbs, loving the fast-paced, brutal, honesty, and energy that define NYC.
November 14, 2026
11:30AM-12:30PM
Mariah Ankenman Presents: Social Media for Authors without Overwhelm
$10 for Non-LIRW Members, Free for Members
Love it or hate it, social media is a necessary tool for today’s author. For a lot of authors it can be overwhelming: what do I post? when do I post? where do I post? In this one hour workshop bestselling Author Mariah Ankenman will teach you how to make your social media work for you so you save your creative energy for your manuscript.
Bestselling author Mariah Ankenman lives in the beautiful Rocky Mountains with her two rambunctious children and loving spouse who is her own personal spell checker when her dyslexia gets the best of her. Mariah loves to lose herself in a world of words. Her favorite thing about writing is when she can make someone’s day a little brighter with one of her books. She loves to write about queer, disabled, neurodivergent characters falling in love (someone told her write what you know and she went with it). To learn more about Mariah and her books, visit her website http://mariahankenman.com/ follow her on social media, or sign up for her newsletter.