2018 Conference Speakers
Keynote Speaker & Workshop INtensive INstructor
JAden Terrell
2018 Keynote Topic
Publishing Facts and Fallacies While not everything in this crazy business is under our control, much of it is, if we know what it is we really want and educate ourselves about how to get it. What does success mean to you, and what kind of commitment does it take to get there? Jaden Terrell will explore things we know – and things we think we know – about publishing. 2018 Workshop Intensive Topic Mastering the Point of View Monster Few skills are as important in writing as mastering point of view. This intensive workshop will show you how to use it deeply and well to increase the impact and power of your work. Learn how to see through your character’s eyes and add authenticity to your writing with every description and detail. |
Shamus Award nominee Jaden Terrell is the internationally published author of the Jared McKean Mysteries and a contributor to Now Write! Mysteries, a collection of exercises for writers of crime fiction published by Tarcher/Penguin for writers of crime fiction. Her short stories have been included in Killer Nashville Noir: Coldblooded and Eight Mystery Writers You Should be Reading Now. Terrell is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Private Eye Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, and Sisters in Crime. The former special education teacher is also a Magnolia Award recipient for service to the Southeastern Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.
While researching the Jared McKean series, Terrell attended the Citizen Police Academy, FBI Citizen Academy, and the TBI Citizen Academy, took the medical examiner to lunch, and became a certified Equine Sports Massage Therapist (the perfect pastime for a nervous rider with a passion for horses). Terrell is a compassionate developmental and line editor who also does ghostwriting and teaches workshops for writers. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee and is available to speak at libraries and book clubs in person or by phone. For more information, contact jaden@jadenterrell.com. |
Lorin Oberweger Lorin Oberweger is an agent with Adams Literary Agency, which represents authors of books for children and young adults. Before joining Adams, she served as a highly sought-after independent book editor and ghostwriter for more than two decades, helping to shepherd hundreds of books—including many bestsellers—to publishing success. She is particularly known for her one-on-one story development and workshops for writers of all genres of fiction and creative non-fiction.
Lorin is a popular speaker at conferences around the country, including many appearances at SCBWI events. An award-winning author, Lorin has written for a wide variety of periodicals, and her ghostwritten books, commissioned by major publishers, have received glowing notices from the New York Times and Kirkus Reviews. Lorin is the co-author of BOOMERANG, REBOUND, and BOUNCE, under the pen name Noelle August. |
Session Topics
*What Makes an Unforgettable Children's Book Learn the elements that set certain works apart in the world of children's literature - creating books that agents will notice and readers will remember long past childhood. *Narrative NonFiction That Works Learn techniques and methods you can use to write readable, compelling creative nonfiction, memoirs, and essays. |
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Session Topics
Write Tight Save your writing from the rejection trash bin. Learn how to write tight. In this session, attendees will learn how to tighten and tweak their manuscripts by eliminating unnecessary words and phrases, strengthen the remaining text and improve the pace of both fiction and nonfiction. The Agent Author Relationship Do I need an agent? If so, when do I need one? What does an agent do? And…what should I do that an agent won’t? Understanding the relationship between the author and agent is paramount to a successful career. In this class, you will learn what to expect and what is expected of you as an author. A question and answer time will end the workshop and a writer’s resource list will be offered. |
Diana Flegal has been an agent with Hartline Literary Agency for eleven years. She represents mainstream and inspirational titles, fiction and nonfiction, but nothing that conflicts with the Christian Worldview. She is currently looking for nonfiction authors with a substantial platform, as well as outstanding contemporary women’s fiction, issue fiction, and formula romance.
When she is not reading submissions or stealing away with a recreational read, she is hiking in the mountains, or kayaking the many lakes of her home state, North Carolina. |
Michael Diebert is the author of Life Outside the Set (Sweatshoppe, 2013) and a recent president of Georgia Poetry Society. He is poetry editor for The Chattahoochee Review and teaches writing and literature at Perimeter College, Georgia State University. Recent poems have appeared in Pembroke Magazine, Muse/ A, and The Tusculum Review. A two-time cancer survivor, Michael lives in Avondale Estates, Georgia with his wife and his two dogs.
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Session Topics
Craft talk: Poetry and Pace: Speeding, Slowing, Changing Up If you feel like you're writing the same old thing, or if you simply want to try something different, this session is for you. We'll examine how poems by Walt Whitman, Lucille Clifton, Mark Halliday, and others vary pace, mood, and structure to create tension and keep us reading. Then we will build a new poem draft from a prompt and then break it, playing with various poetic techniques to create work that not only looks different on the page but sounds different to the ear. Publishing talk: “Please Send More”: One Editor's Thoughts on Acceptance and Rejection As poetry editor for The Chattahoochee Review, a semi-annual literary journal, and as an active, publishing writer, I've been on both sides of the perplexing publication business. This talk will examine the language of TCR's “decline” letter from both an editor's and a writer's perspective, will detail some of my experiences getting published, and will discuss staying motivated in the midst of a sea of rejection slips. |
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Session Topic
Leverage Your Acceptance Odds with Online Tools Think you are not “techy” enough to manage contemporary submission requirements? Get help in this practical workshop. Louise McKinney will discuss the technical aspects of poetry submission, and Ron Gauthier will do the same for short stories. |
Ronald M. Gauthier co-authored Killing Time: an 18-Year Odyssey from Death Row to Freedom, a nonfiction title chronicling the odyssey of John Thompson, a man wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Louisiana. He was a library branch manager in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina forced him to relocate to Atlanta. In addition to working at the library, he has served as an adult literacy instructor for the prison system in Louisiana and a social services counselor. He is currently a manager in the Gwinnett County library system in Georgia.
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In 2013 Guernica Editions published Louise McKinney’s first volume of poetry, The Woman Who Drank Her Own Reflection, which was originally shortlisted for the Texas Review’s annual poetry prize. Currently, she is at work on her second book of verse, entitled KATABASIS. McKinney is a Canadian expat-author originally from Toronto. Her book of creative nonfiction, Cities of the Imagination: New Orleans (Oxford University Press USA, 2006), chronicles the decade she spent living in that city. At present, she’s a member of the English faculty at Perimeter College of Georgia State U., where she’s also a Faculty Editor at The Chattahoochee Review. McKinney’s poetry, essays and reviews have appeared in Canadian and U.S. magazines and literary journals, such as Poetry Canada Review, Grain, Wind, The Hurricane Review, Wild Goose Review, and Kindred. As well, her work is anthologized in Maple Leaf Rag III & V (Portals Press) and Louisiana in Words (Pelican).
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Kathy Thompson spent thirty-seven years as a teacher and free-lance writer, and has published in more than a hundred state and national magazines. In the past ten years she has researched and written five books about regional history, folklore, and places, as well as editing another volume. While she continues to write for magazines like Georgia Backroads (check the spring and summer issues), her love is books. Thompson has published one book on a traditional press and three using print-on-demand. She helps other authors publish and assisted a historical society in publishing a 560-page volume. Recently she researched and wrote the history of the Tate House mansion in north Georgia.
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Session Topic
Self-Publishing and Writing Local This workshop will provide guidance and tips for writers interested in self-publishing their books, from choosing a book manufacturer to finding your readers. It will also include information about mining the history and traditions of the place you live to create memorable, marketable books. |
