Mark your calendars for Saturday, September 7, 2019!
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That’s the day of the sixth Annual Southwest Washington Writers Conference at Centralia College.
Proceeds go toward scholarships with the Centralia College foundation and toward the continuation of the conference. Sign up early for the best rate!
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Scroll down to find the workshop schedule. Presenter Bio with pictures and class descriptions are also below.
This year, along with a few of the perennial favorites, we have many new presenters and a separate master class. Scroll down on this page to read the presenter bios and about their workshops.
Conference Workshop Schedule
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Our schedule has changed from years’ past to give you more options and more workshops to attend. There are four sessions and each has four tracks to choose from: Business/Publication, Craft, Genre, and Misc.
During lunch, two panels will run concurrently. Choose either craft or marketing and enjoy your meal while listening to best-selling authors discuss important aspects of writing and publishing.
We hope to see you there!
Click on the link for a Detailed Schedule
Click on the link for a map of the Centralia College campus
Speakers for the 2019 conference
Hallie Ephron
This year our keynote speaker is, New York Times bestselling author Hallie Ephron, Edgar Award finalist and a five-time finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award, writes books she hopes readers can’t put down.
Her forthcoming suspense novel, Careful What You Wish For (August 2019), was inspired by the Marie Kondo life-changing decluttering tips. It explores the relationships built by professional organizers and their clients—showing just how easily the lines between professional and personal can be blurred. In it, Emily Harlow is a professional organizer who helps people declutter their lives; she’s married to a man who can’t drive past a yard sale without stopping. Sometimes she finds herself wondering if he sparks joy.
Hallie teaches writing at workshops and writing conferences across the country and abroad. A REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION of her Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel (Writers Digest Books), is widely available. It was nominated for Edgar and Anthony awards. Lee Child called it “the best how-to guide I have ever seen — I just wish I could have read it twenty years ago.”
Hallie will be presenting the workshops: “Viewpoint—What’s the Big Deal?” and “Rookie Fiction Writing Mistakes.”
She is also leading a Master Class on Friday, September 6th. This session on character-driven plots is FULL, but you can still meet, hear and learn from Hallie Ephron during the conference on Saturday. Register above for that oppurtunity.
You can learn more about our keynote speaker at http://hallieephron.com/
Jordan Hart
Jordan is a reader, writer, writing teacher, and community and event’s organizer. A collection of narrative poems, “Leap,” came out in July 2015. His work has appeared in about 30 different literary magazines and journals, including Another Chicago Magazine, Crab Creek Review, and Prose Poem. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Idaho and has taught literature and creative writing at Peninsula College for the past eight years. Hartt also runs the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, which annually brings writers together in community for a week of intense focus on the craft of writing.
Jordan will be presenting the workshop: “Consequences of Memory.”
To learn more about Jordan Hartt visit his website at, http://www.kahini.org/jordan-hartt/.
Traci Hilton
Traci is the author of The Plain Jane Mysteries, The Mitzy Neuhaus Mysteries, and the Tillgiven Romantic Mysteries. She has been indie publishing since 2010, and though she’s had offers from small and large presses, she hasn’t gone hybrid yet. She was the mystery/Suspense Category winner for the 2012 Christian Writers of the West Phoenix Rattler Contest, a finalist for Speculative Fiction in the same contest, and has a Drammy from the Portland Civic Theatre Guild. Traci is an active member of the ACFW and currently serves as secretary of the local ACFW chapter. She blogs at http://thewriteconversation.blogspot.com/
Traci will be presenting the workshop: “How to Grow and Engage with a Newsletter.”
Claudia Castro Luna
Claudia Castro Luna
Claudia Castro Luna is Washington State Poet Laureate. She served as Seattle’s Civic Poet, from 2015-2017 and is the author of the Pushcart nominated and Killing Marías (Two Sylvias Press) also shortlisted for WA State 2018 Book Award in poetry and This City, (Floating Bridge Press). She is also the creator of the acclaimed Seattle Poetic Grid.
Castro Luna is a Hedgebrook and VONA alumna, a 2014 Jack Straw fellow, the recipient of individual artist grants from King County 4Culture and Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture. Born in El Salvador she came to the United States in 1981. She has an MA in Urban Planning, a teaching certificate and an MFA in poetry.
Her poems have appeared in Poetry Northwest, La Bloga, Dialogo and Psychological Perspectives among others. Her non-fiction work can be read in several anthologies, among them This Is The Place: Women Writing About Home, (Seal Press) Claudia is currently working on a memoir, Like Water to Drink, about her experience escaping the civil war in El Salvador.
She writes and teaches in Seattle where she gardens and keeps chickens with her husband and their three children. Since 2009, Claudia maintains Cipota bajo la Luna, a blog with reflections, writing and reviews.
Learn more about Castro Luna at http://www.castroluna.com/
Veronika (Ronnie), known professionally as The Marketing Coach, has taught at every Southwest Washington Writers Conference because people want to attend her workshops.
Veronica Noize
Veronika (Ronnie), known professionally as The Marketing Coach, is the author of three books: “How to Create a Killer Elevator Speech,” “The 30-Minute Networking Secret Toolkit,” and “Marketing Strategies that Really Work.” A contributing columnist for local publications including the Vancouver Business Journal, she has also written more than 100 articles for The Home Business Journal, The CEO Refresher, and The Home Business Report, among other business and trade publications. She holds a BA in Communications from PSU and is a graduate of Coach U. She was an instructor for three years at the International Coach Academy, and frequently speaks and teaches for many domestic and international organizations.
Veronica will be presenting the workshops: “New Social Media Marketing Blueprint” and “How to Sell 50 to 100 Books in a Week or Less.”
You can learn more about Veronica Noize at her website, http://www.veronikanoize.com/
Tiffany Pitts
We have a new presenter. This is Tiffany’s first time presenting at our conference and she is a great addition.
Tiffany Pitts is the author of Double Blind and Wizzy Wig, both humorous speculative fiction novels. She is also a freelance writer focusing on parenting in the PNW with emphasis on family travel and entertainment. You can find her on http://tiffanypitts.com/wp/, on Facebook (Tiffany Pitts, Author) and on Twitter @snickerpants
Tiffany will be presenting the workshop: “Sharpen Your Wit: Using Humor to Enhance Storytelling”
Midge Raymond
Midge Raymond
Midge is the author of the novel “My Last Continent” and the award-winning short-story collection “Forgetting English.” Her writing has appeared in TriQuarterly, American Literary Review, Bellevue Literary Review, the Los Angeles Times magazine, Poets & Writers, and many other publications. Midge worked in publishing in New York before moving to Boston, where she taught communication writing at Boston University for six years. She has taught creative writing at Boston’s Grub Street Writers, Seattle’s Richard Hugo House, and San Diego Writers, Ink. She has also published two books for writers, Everyday Writing, and Everyday Book Marketing. Midge lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she is co-founder of the boutique publisher Ashland Creek Press. Learn more about Midge at https://www.midgeraymond.com/
Midge will be the workshops: “Everyday Book Marketing,” “Create an Authentic Sense of Place,” and “Say Anything—Great Dialogue.”
Jill Williamson
Jill Williamson
Jill Williamson writes fantasy and science fiction for teens and adults. She is the author of over twenty books, including her debut novel, By Darkness Hid, which won several awards and was named a Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror novel of 2009 by VOYA magazine. She also has written several books on the craft of writing fiction and teaches writing in person and online at www.StoryworldFirst.com and at www.GoTeenWriters.com, the latter of which has been named as one of Writer’s Digest’s “101 Best Websites for Writers.”
She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two children. To learn more about her novels, visit her online at www.jillwilliamson.com.
Jill will be presenting the workshop: “How to Launch Your Book.”
Julie Zander
Julie Zander
Julie Zander worked as an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor for 20 years before launching her personal history business, Chapters of Life, in 1999.
She has published more than four dozen personal, company, and community histories, including histories of Centralia College, Bucoda, Chehalis, the Hemphill-O’Neill Company, and the Lewis County Courthouse. Since May 2007, she has written a column once a week for The Chronicle.
Julie also works as a freelance editor. She and her husband, Larry, have two children. She will be presenting the workshop: “Writing for Newspapers.”
You can learn more about Julie Zander at http://www.chaptersoflife.com/
