Friday, September 9, 2022
8:30 to 9 a.m. Registration and light refreshments
9 to 11:15 a.m. Worldbuilding 505: Stop Living in Your Head and Start Writing the First Chapter—Master Class with Jeff Wheeler
Stop Living in Your Head and Start Writing the First Chapter,” will focus on how to develop settings that become characters in the story using ingredients such as magic, politics, culture, geography, economics, and religion. He’ll teach writers how to exploit the tension opportunities each brings to the table.
11:30 to 12:30 p.m. Lunch
12:45 to 1:45 p.m. The How of Creativity with Jeff Wheeler plus Q &A
Jeff will discuss how creativity is like a muscle writers can practice and develop. He will share creativity tips from Collins, Stephen King, Pixar Studios, Carnegie, and a famous fighter pilot.
Jeff, who worked at Intel and wrote one evening a week for years, self-published his first novel, “The Wretched of Muirwood,” in 2011. The success of his Legends of Muirwood trilogy prompted Amazon Publishing’s sci-fi/fantasy arm 47North to offer him a contract to publish his next trilogy in 2012. With two trilogies published by 47North and another contract in hand, he quit his job at Intel in 2014 to devote full time to writing.
2:00 to 3:30 p.m. Panel: Bringing Your Stories to Life: The Ins and Outs of Publishing with Christopher Werner of Amazon Publishing and authors Lindsay Schopfer, Kyle Pratt, and Debby Lee.
The panel will provide a clear understanding of the publishing landscape, the author/editor relationship, and how to approach getting published and stand out in the marketplace. Learn about the publishing process and how editors and authors work together. Discover marketplace trends, editorial hallmarks that make a bestseller, how fiction is defined (genre, commercial, upmarket, and literary), and how authors should position themselves. The moderated presentation will conclude with time for questions and answers.
Christopher, an award-winning executive editor with Amazon Publishing in Seattle with more than 13 years’ experience in books and media, has acquired and edited commercial and upmarket fiction across many genres since 2015. Prior to joining Amazon Publishing, he worked on the Kindle Books team in a role focused on engaging readers. For five years, he also served as senior editor for Seattle Met, a publication of SagaCity Media, where he led an online editorial in addition to writing and editing all things connected to food and arts.
After serving in the Navy for 20 years, Kyle taught in the Alaskan Eskimo village of Eek for seven years and, during the long nights, wrote his first novel, “Titan Encounter,” a science fiction space adventure released in July 2012. The award-winning author of “Through Many Fires” and “Seekers of the Earth” has published many other novels, novellas, and short stories. His most recent post-apocalyptic thriller, “Through the Storm,” is an Amazon bestseller. Kyle, who lives near Napavine, also writes opinion pieces on politics and culture.
Debby, a Centralia romance writer, has written novellas included in six collections from Barbour Publishing, a traditional publisher. Other novellas she has written have been included in four independently published collections. Two of her indie-published short stories were contest finalists. Two of the traditional collections made the ECPA Bestsellers List. She’s working on a full-length World War II novel for release next year. She belongs to American Christian Fiction Writers and Romance Writers of America. She’s represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Literary Agency.
Lindsay is the award-winning author of four novels, including The Adventures of Keltin Moore, a series of steampunk-flavored fantasy novels about a professional monster hunter. His second Keltin Moore novel, “Into the North,” won the OZMA Award for Fantasy as part of the Chanticleer International Book Awards. Lindsay, a creative writing teacher at South Puget Sound Community College, also will teach two workshops at Saturday’s conference: “From Body Language to Brawls” and “Investing in Your Writing Career.”
The early registration fee for the Friday Master Class, which includes a scrumptious boxed lunch from Dawn’s Delectables, is $75, or $125 for both Friday’s Master Class and Saturday’s conference. Stay tuned for registration details.
