SPEAKER CONNECTION: REGION SIX (California)

Patti Berg
E-mail address: patti@pattiberg.com
Website Address: www.pattiberg.com
Location: Northern California

Adventures in Rule--and Myth--Breaking
Craft
Length of Workshop:  1-1/2 to 2 hours
A humorous yet thought-provoking look at the so-called "rules" of writing that--when obeyed to the letter of the law--can stifle your creativity and make you a neurotic wreck.  (PowerPoint presentation with cartoons and quotes by many NYT bestselling authors.)

Motivation Is Magic
Craft
Length of Workshop:  1-1/2 to 4 hours
An interactive workshop on developing character motivation. Learn how to make your hero, heroine and secondary characters come alive and make them so memorable that readers will want to pick up your story and read it over and over and over again. (PowerPoint presentation. Longer presentation gives participants the opportunity to act out character roles to show motivation. Also includes break-out sessions for participants.)

The Amazing Power of… PASSION
Keynote/Motivation Speech
Length:  45 minutes  (Can be expanded into a 1-1/2 hour PowerPoint presentation workshop)
Keynote/motivation speech on infusing your words, your characters and your plot with intense emotion that stirs you and your readers--so much passion that your readers will cry, laugh and/or sigh; their spines will tingle; and maybe, just maybe, they'll drag their lover to the bedroom where they can further explore the passion your words have just made them feel.

When Your Muse "Desserts" You--Eat Chocolate
Craft/Motivation
Length of Workshop:  1-1/2 to 3  hours
A humorous yet inspiring look at ways to free your creativity when fears, bad habits and excuses stifle your creativity, as well as ways to write more and better than you ever thought you could. (PowerPoint presentation as well as chocolate for each participant.)

No Plotters Allowed
Craft/Motivation
Length of Workshop:  1 to 3 hours
An exciting journey through the world of non-plotting. Learn what causes writer's block and what you can do to kick a gigantic hole in that wall and step into a creative wonderland. USA Today bestselling author Patti Berg and New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan talk about the power of imagination, developing knock-your-socks-off characters, and giving them free reign to explore, to take chances and to step off the beaten path on their voyage (and yours) to Happily Ever After. (PowerPoint presentation.)

Confessions of a Contest Judge
Craft/Business.
Length: 1 to 1 ½ hours
Have you ever wondered why a contest judge judges?  And what are they looking for anyway?  Ever wondered how they judge?  What turns a judge on, or how to score big?  What turns them off, or errors to avoid?  Workshop will also cover how to choose your contests and what to do when you final (or not).  Workshop will also cover ‘how to’ and ‘why’ to contest, or choosing your contest wisely.  Contest judging junkie, Terry Irene Blain has been judging RWA contests for over 15 years, and now she’s ready to confess why and how she judges your contest entries.  Questions and comment from participants will be encouraged throughout the workshop. 

Terry Irene Blain www.terryblain.com

Another Time, Another Place
Craft.
Length: 1½ to 2 hours
Historical romances should transport the reader to another time and another place.  Workshop will cover a discussion of all the elements that make a historical romance historical.  Items covered will include aspects of research, such as where to look for information, how accurate should you be and keeping records of your research.   The second half will cover how to integrate your information in to the frame work of you story through the craft of writing.  Topics covered will be settings and costume, attitudes and social mores, dialogue (to use dialect or not), and, of course, sex scenes.  Hand outs.  A long time reader of historical novel, Terry Irene Blain followed her love of history in college, earning a BA and MA in History, eventually teaching at the college level.  Her first published novel, KENTUCKY DREAM, finaled in the Golden Quill contest in both the Best Historical and Best First Book, winning Best First Book.  Terry has taught workshops for her local chapter, as well as teaching the Basics of Writing the Romance at the local community college.  Terry Irene Blain, www.terryblain.com

How Not To Look Like A Newbie
Business.
Length: 1hour
Learn the basics necessary to keep you and your work from looking like a newbie. Topics covered will include 1) the mysterious ‘word count’, what is it and how to figure your word count; 2) correct way to format you ms., when it counts, and when it might not.; 3) the query; 4) the synopsis, 5) the proposal, 6) what line you are (or aren’t) writing; or the guidelines for series; 7) contests, yes or no; 8) how to submit, and to whom; 9) the  meaning of a rejection letter.  Questions and comment from participants will be encouraged throughout the workshop.  A teacher by vocation and inclination, Terry will share from her experiences as a beginning writer to form rejections to ‘good’ rejections to publication.  Learning the ‘ropes’ will help the new/beginning writer look professional.  Terry Irene Blain, www.terryblain.com

Breaking Rules to Break In or Break Out
Industry/Craft
Length of workshop:  2 hours
How knowing--and breaking--the rules can help you achieve your writing goals.

No Plotters Allowed
Craft.
Length of workshop:  90 minutes to 3 hours
Solutions to writers block for those who can't, won't or don't plot -- with Patti Berg, USA Today Bestselling Author.  Whether you plot or not, this workshop is designed to help all writers at all levels of their career identify their fear and break through writer's block.  The extended workshop includes writing motivation and character development.

Visit www.allisonbrennan.com/writers_workshops.html

Making Characters Count
Craft
Length: 1 hour
Character is everything. Regardless of what genre you’re writing the characters you are writing about are the substance of your book. All too often as writers we become focused on “getting the story down.” We walk our characters through the mechanics we’ve set up for them without exploring the reasons they’re walking. If you want your characters to come alive, to walk off the page and maybe even tell you what they are doing on that page, you need to know them. This workshop will show you how to get up close and personal!

Novel to Script or Script to Novel - Making the
Printed Page into a Screenplay
Craft
Length: 1 hour to 2 hours depending on writing exercises included

The biggest difference between a novel and a screenplay is that in a screenplay  - all action has to be immediate - even if it’s in the past, a flashback and the entire story has to be told visually. Your characters in a screenplay cannot feel, think, or remember. You have to SHOW them feeling, thinking, and remembering. And what you show has to happen in present time.

Unlike writing a screenplay (or a novel) from scratch, moving to another form from a completed work allows you to keep your story alive and growing. Taking a novel to a screenplay you need to carefully prune only the most essential elements - it’s a shorter, more tightly structured form; it’s visual poetry in an action setting. I’ve written 25 screenplays, sold 7, had one produced; and I’ve written extensively for TV.

Workshop: From Idea to Completion
Craft; Muse/Writer’s Life
1 hour

Coming up with a viable and sustainable idea for a book can be a project in itself. And then presenting/pitching/selling the proposal to your editor or agent or someone you want to be your editor or agent - that’s another project. Last, but certainly not least you need to write the book. And feel just as excited about it as when you first came up with the idea.

How do you stay fresh, follow through, and write on a deadline, whether its a contract deadline or a personal deadline? How do you know if an idea is a living, breathing entity capable of sustaining the life of your project or something best thought of and put aside?

Visit www.geniedavis.com or www.nikkialton.com

Workshops given on:

- Show & Tell: An Interactive Workshop

- Short and Snappy--What's in Your Synopsis?

- Online Reserach

- Horses in History

Past speaker at: RWA National Conference;The Beau Monde Conference; Historical Novel Society; OCC, RWA Chapter; LARA, RWA Chapter; Romantic Times Convention; Local libraries and book stores

Experience includes online workshops, UCLA classes; plus a background with computer games, horses, and YA horror.

TACKLING REVISIONS:  With or Without a Quarterback in the Huddle
Craft.
Length of workshop:  1 Hour
In the writing process, every writer faces revision. And it is often the dreaded rejection letter that leads the way.  Multi-published author, Judy Duarte, will discuss how to decipher an editor's letter and how to tackle revisions like a professional. 
 
MATCHMAKING 101:  A Yenta’s Guide to Creating, Sustaining, and Overcoming Conflict in a Romance
Craft.
Length of workshop:  1 Hour
Are you choosing the "right" two people for your story?  Are you generating enough friction to last through the entire plot?  Judy Duarte, award winning author of 17 books, will share her unshakable method of creating characters and backstory, how to craft the beginning of a solid synopsis, and present a hands-on exercise designed to jumpstart a plot.

Taking the Contest Route to Publication
Length of workshop:  1 Hour
Double-Golden Heart finalist and award winning author, Judy Duarte, snagged an agent and made her first sale through the use of RWA-sponsored contests. Have you tried contests and been disappointed?  Are they worth the investment?  In this workshop, learn how to determine which contests are best for your particular manuscript.  Judy will also offer hints on how to utilize a judge’s comments, whether they’re positive or negative, to make your manuscript stronger and more marketable.

Riveting Revisions - The Key to Getting Published

Craft: 1 hour

Target - PRO and beginner level
The revision portion of your manuscript request can make or break that publishing deal.  Based on her RWR article of the same name, this workshop will teach the author to be flexible, focused, and fearless when approaching editor or agent revision requests.   Multi-published category romance author Lynne Marshall, will give tips on how to approach and decipher a revision letter, give actual examples of her own revision letters and how she made the necessary changes, walk the author through the five stages of the revision process, share other authors' outrageous revision requests, and above all, offer encouragement to the author facing her first revision letter. 

How To De-Latinize Your Latino Characters
Craft/characterization.
Length: @ one hour
Learn how NOT to resort to stereotypes and still write believable Latino characters that publishers are willing to buy.  By understanding exactly what makes Latinos "different", writers can use stereotypes intelligently or not at all and still depict other cultures realistically.  Lara Rios will define the target market and what publishers are looking for in Latino characters.

Sowing the Seeds Of Success
Motivational/publishing.
Length: @ one hour
Success doesn't just happen, it requires daily care and tending. Lara Rios goes over the ten steps to success -- from defining your goals to visualization to evaluating your success or lack of success (what are those rejections saying?) to learning from experts and mentors.  You can't wait for success to happen, you have to create it, you have to have a plan, and this workshop will help motivate you to kick-start that plan.

Talking Back to Your Brain: The Art of Asking Questions
Craft.
Length:  One hour version and two hour version
Recent discoveries in the physiology of the brain explain how we can get stuck in unproductive ruts. Learning how to let one part of your brain talk to the other can get you moving on a project without triggering the fear response that can freeze any of us into inaction. The "secret technique" is ultimately simple: ask yourself the right questions. The cortex of the human brain was designed for just this task. We¹ll show how successful people ask themselves better and more productive questions. We'll illustrate what questions are most useful in solving common writing problems and which can stimulate creativity and get us over rough spots. This approach can transform every aspect of a book: character, plot, setting, and every scene you write. And finally, we'll show how you can change your approach to writing by using a simple, non-threatening technique to develop the abilities we¹ve already covered. And the beauty of all of this is that it requires no upheavals in your life, no major changes, no homework. Let us show you how five minutes a day can change your writing.

Also visit www.hrknight.com.