We welcomed several new members at this month’s Rendezvous, some in person and some online. As usual, we had questions (and answers!) about events, publishing, and getting back to writing. Here are some upcoming events for writers in Connecticut.
The Woodbury Public Library (CT) is hosting a Local Authors’ Day this Saturday, September 24. Member Richard Seltzer and I will be among the thirty-plus authors there to talk about books and meet readers and other writers. NYT best-selling author Nan Rossiter (A Good Measure) gives the keynote speech at 11:00 am, followed by author panels during the day. Topics include Researching to Write, Books That Inspire, and So You Want to Be Published: Now What?. Come for a chance to talk with the authors about their books, current and soon to be published.
The Fairfield County Writers Studio has a great list of classes this fall. Among them is a seven-week Writing for Television class starting Thursday, September 29. It will be taught by veteran TV writer Gigi Rios New, live on Zoom, or in person if you’re fully vaccinated. Participants will learn what elements are essential for developing a strong comedy, drama or dramedy script. As well as ways of pitching it to the right company. $395. (Limited to six students.) Register here. Other classes covering children’s books, fiction writing, and memoir, among others, are available.
Meet me and over forty authors from all over the state at the Connecticut Book Festival on October 1 at the West Hartford Conference Center! Organized by the Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association, you’ll find all kinds of fiction, romance, mystery, crime, memoir, and nonfiction – there’s something for everyone! Join us October 1 from 10am-5pm for live readings, to chat with your favorite authors, or sit and relax in our book nook area. Free admission and free parking.
If you’ve found yourself stuck with your writing, and need something to get you going again, try National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo will be here before you know it. This annual event takes place in November, during which the aim is to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. Why the founders chose a month with so few days and Thanksgiving in the middle is a mystery – evidently they weren’t the ones preparing the Turkey Day meal… Still, it’s a wonderful opportunity to get some really bad writing on the page – something you can fine tune afterwards.
To help you get ready, member Libby Waterford continues her series of useful one-off workshops with an online NaNoWriMo Prep class on Saturday, October 15 at 4pm EST for the Contemporary Romance Writers Assn. The class is open to non-members and will be helpful for writers in any genre hoping to write a 50,000-word novel in November. $30
And if you can’t make that one, Libby is teaching another NaNoWriMo Prep workshop for the Westport Writers Workshop on October 22, 10-12, in-person and on Zoom. $70
Susan Shapiro Barash, author of sixteen fiction and nonfiction books, joins Westport Writers’ Workshop’s team of instructors to teach two one-night-only workshops on Zoom: Gendered Behavior in Fiction: Defying Prescribed Roles on October 18, and 25 The Moral Dilemma in Fiction & Nonfiction. on October 25. Space is limited.
From October 24-28 join Pro Writing Aid, the editing software, online for a free week of romance writing workshops with expert authors, publishers, and marketers. Speakers include bestselling authors Taylor Jenkins Reid (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and Carrie Soto Is Back.), Sarah MacLean (Heartbreaker), and Lizzie Damilola Blackburn (Yinka, Where is Your Husband?). Register here. Romace novels are tightly plotted, so even those of you not writing in that genre might find this useful. Replays available after the event.
Twitter hosts regular one-day pitch events, where you can submit the pitch for your novel and hope to raise interests from the agents and small publishers who pay attention. It can work – I had requests for the manuscript of my novel from two agents. #MoodPitch is Twitter’s latest version of their pitch contest for authors of completed, polished, query-ready manuscripts. What makes it nusual is that this contest includes moodboards. Happening on Twitter November 3. More info here.
CATCHING UP
If you’re looking for ways to get pulished, and think that maybe finding an agent and having them sell your book to a publisher might take too long, there are other options. One of these is hybrid publishing, and I wrote an article for Publishers Weekly – Seven Questions for Finding the Right Hybrid Publisher to give people some tips.
And Authors Publish came up with a list of 12 Places That Publish Writing about Writing and Publishing. For more helpful suggestions from them, join their email list.
If you missed StoryFest at the Westport Library last weekend, you can catch up by watching the various author panels on the Library’s YouTube channel here.
There’s more to come on Monday, including information about Indie Author Day (November 5) and ways you can be part of it… And if you’d like to join my write-in on Monday morning to work on your project, click here or email me at Gabi@gabicoatsworth.com.
