Classes

If your local writing group or RWA Chapter (Romance Writers of America) is looking for incredible, thought provoking, and entertaining programs, you’ve clicked on a winner! I currently teach three classes – all different – and work with several other speakers to put on full day workshops.

 

Mauled Men, Drowned Dames and Crispy Critters; a Body Disposal Primer for Writers

Teaching the Crispy Critters Class,
RWA National 2007You’ve axed, shot or otherwise knocked off a key character in your latest book, now what? You have to do SOMETHING with the body! Even if the forensics, murder, or death aren’t central to the story, there is that annoying dead guy to dispose of. So, decisions, decisions. Is an autopsy necessary? A funeral and burial? Lots of plot possibilities, but the details! Can you bury a body in Maine in February? Most states require “two containers” for burial, do you know what they are? And what about timing? If a body’s found on Friday, can you bury them on Sunday? Do you know the difference between a coffin and a casket? And then there’s cremation… Find out everything you ever wanted to know about the pernicious particulars of body disposal and how to use minutiae of death to throw your characters together or drive them apart. Learn about embalming, vaults, cremation, reconstructive cosmetics, coroner’s reports, death certificates and more at this get-the-basics research track seminar.

 

Surviving Almost There – With multi-published, award winning Historical Bestseller Madeline Hunter

Are you an RWA Pro Member who’s still waiting, waiting, waiting to get The Call? You’ve finished the manuscript. You’ve queried agents, editors, and everyone you can think of to sell your story. Now what? How do you stay excited about writing the next manuscript, the next story, the next idea when you haven’t yet sold the first one? Or the fifth? Join us for a laugh-filled, entertaining and useful class on how to stay motivated when you’re in limbo. Learn secrets to blast the blues, when all feels bleak. With a great deal of humor, Jeanne and Madeline walk you through establishing personal milestones and show how to use those to keep writing. Working together, we’ll craft a Feel Good Plan for handling rejection. Most importantly, we’ll share tips and tricks for keeping your bum in the chair and essential strategies for thriving, not just surviving, unpublished limbo.

 

The Write Environment; Making Your Writing Space Work for You

The writing environment is one of the most important tools writers can have, yet its influence is often overlooked. Join an RWA decorating diva in looking at author’s environments and get tips, tricks, and advice on making your writing space right for you.

Have you ever evaluated your writing environment? Do you know if you write more when there’s silence or background noise? Are you more likely to stay focused at home alone or sitting in a coffee shop surrounded by strangers? Does your office area make you feel like writing?

Through a special written assessment, we’ll explore your writing and environmental preferences and determine if your environment is enhancing or inhibiting your style. Then, we’ll show you how to incorporate your unique preferences into your creative space.

A slide show will illustrate a variety of working writer’s creative spaces as we discuss the importance of elements such as light and temperature as well as the impact of your style, including concepts such as organization and ambience. See examples from beginning to bestselling authors and hear how they have met the challenge of creating a place to nurture their muse.

Come discover what you need to do your best work. Take away tips, tricks and techniques for surrounding yourself with the things that enhance your creativity, increase your productivity and help you to enjoy your writing more.

 

Full Day Workshop:

If your chapter or organization is looking for an outstanding full-day program for your mystery or suspense writers, this set of authors is ready to wow your group with this outstanding, day-long research-track program.

Gunfire, GSR, and Six Feet Under - With Former Maryland CSI Dana Kollmann and Gun Specialists Steve Doyle and Cassondra Murray


Every Gun is NOT a Glock – What to know before you put a gun in your book

What weapon would your heroine carry, based on needs and personality? If your heroine is a petite 5'4" and wearing a sleek evening gown, she's not going to be able to hide a Glock on her body. Do you copy TV to arm heroes? Beware! If you want to run with the big dogs of romantic suspense, a cliché won’t cut it. The weapon you choose for your character should be an outgrowth of who she is--as much as the clothes she wears, the car she drives, or the music that runs through her head. This award-winning romance writer and her former Special Forces husband let you “touch and feel” the real thing in their interactive workshop, and show you how to handle weapons in person and on the page. (NOTE:The availability of certain weapons, to handle and see, will be subject to whether the laws in the State chosen for the Retreat are amenable!)

 

CSI – Been There, Done That; Or…Never Suck a Dead Man’s Hand

In her entertaining and in-depth presentation, Dana Kollmann details her rather unusual “you won’t see this on CSI” experiences in the field of forensics. Dana's workshop brings real world CSI experience to the table; you’ll learn from someone who REALLY knows what goes on behind the crime scene tape. Dana discusses how to REALLY process scenes using Luminol, and talks about what urine and other substances look like under a UV light. She’ll help you learn the inside lingo and gallows humor that occurs on crime scenes, in order to get a more realistic viewpoint in your work. Dana even knows how to open a hand clenched in rigor mortis to roll fingerprints....after all, she's been there - done that! After all, only people that have really worked in forensics know that CSI's really refer to shooting victims as having succumbed to the effects of lead poisoning and that Elmer's School Glue Gel is an integral part of fingerprint kits! With a decade of experience investigating everything from thefts of Weed Whackers to whodunit murders - and much, much more! - Dana also has international forensic experience gained serving on three forensic anthropological teams conducting mass grave exhumations in the former Yugoslavia.

 

Mauled Men, Drowned Dames and Crispy Critters; A Body Disposal Primer for Writers

You’ve axed, shot or otherwise knocked off a key character in your latest book, now what? You have to do SOMETHING with the body! Even if the forensics, murder, or death aren’t central to the story, there is that annoying dead guy to dispose of. So, decisions, decisions. Is an autopsy necessary? A funeral and burial? Lots of plot possibilities, but the details! Can you bury a body in Maine in February? Most states require “two containers” for burial, do you know what they are? And what about timing? If a body’s found on Friday, can you bury them on Sunday? Do you know the difference between a coffin and a casket? And then there’s cremation… Find out everything you ever wanted to know about the pernicious particulars of body disposal and how to use minutiae of death to throw your characters together or drive them apart. Learn about embalming, vaults, cremation, reconstructive cosmetics, coroner’s reports, death certificates and more at this get-the-basics research track seminar.