the muse & the marketplace 2010

sunday "hour of power"

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010, from 4:15pm to 5:15pm

Note: There is no need to pre-register for these large-group seminars, which are first-come, first-served. You can decide which seminar you’d like to attend the day of the conference. Descriptions will be included in the program as a reminder. Feel free to attend more than one, but please be courteous when entering and exiting the rooms when sessions are already in progress.

Option 1: Where Do I Go From Here?
Leader: Michelle Hoover
You have gotten excellent advice this weekend, but some seems daunting, some dizzying, and some downright contradictory. You don’t know which direction to choose or you do but don’t know what resources and opportunities are available to help you make the choice a success. Come with your questions, comments, and confusions and we will try to make sense of opposing opinions, offer ideas for finding time, funds, and workspace, and streamline the work ahead.

Option 2: Judges Table
Panelists: Charles Coe (MA Cultural Council), Elinor Lipman (National Book Awards), Tara Masih (Rose Metal Press) and Heidi Pitlor (Best American Short Stories). Moderated by Lisa Borders (MA Book Awards).
Ever wonder what really goes on when judges decide who wins certain book prizes or fellowships or residencies or contests? Grub Street has gathered a panel of authors who’ve recently judged such competitions, and we’ve asked them to talk about the qualities that make both full-length works of fiction and non-fiction and other sorts of applications stand out positively or negatively.

Option 3: The Art and Skill of Spiritual Writing: How To Write From the Depth Dimension and Not Bludgeon Readers With Religious Agenda
Leader: Rev. Lyn G. Brakeman
This workshop will explore the difference between religion and spirituality and the even more delicate topic of how to disentangle the two, put them back together and still preserve the best of both in your work. If you have faith in transcendence, have had spiritual experience with Mystery, have experienced the Divine by whatever name, and dare to want to write about it this is the workshop for you.

Option 4: The Art of the Query Letter
Leader: Sorche Fairbank
Most agencies receive at least a hundred query letters each week, yet respond positively to a very select few. Do you know the secrets to writing a winning query? Do you want to know the most common reasons for rejection? Join agent Sorche Fairbank of Fairbank Literary Representation for lessons on the basics of a powerful query, a laundry list of Dos and Don’ts, and as time allows, some individual feedback.

Option 5: Jumpstart Your Writing
Leader: Jon Papernick
What better way to end the day than by producing new work to take home with you? The session leader will provide unique and inspiring prompts that get you brainstorming ideas for new stories and writing new scenes. The focus will be on creating memorable characters and settings, inventing plots and improving dialogue. Open to fiction and non-fiction writers.

Option 6: Taxes and Accounting for Writers: A Primer
Leader: Peter Jason Riley, CPA
Taxes and administrating the business of writing are often last on the list of concerns for the professional writer. The artistic temperament simply does not interface well with the exacting rule-filled world of federal and state taxation. Writers tend to avoid the whole matter and consequently leave themselves vulnerable to bad advice and to overpaying taxes. The secret to overcoming this phobia is to develop an understanding of the mechanisms of the tax code and some simple, effective ways of complying with this onerous task. In this informative session, CPA Peter Jason Riley, who has twenty years experience in the business working with writers, will give writers a primer on such exciting topics as deductions, audits, and other tax-related issues that writers face. He will also take your questions.

Option 7: Guided Open Mic
Leader: Sebastian Stuart
Your chance to show off your skills by reading five minutes of your work (usually about 600 words of prose) to your fellow participants and any guest authors, editors or agents who drop by. At this event, one of our instructors will be on hand to talk about what makes a good reading – from how to pick the right excerpt to how to perform that excerpt like a professional.

Option 8: Write the Great Beginning
Leader: Michael Lowenthal, Scott Heim and Kim McLarin. Sponsored by PEN/New England
What makes a great beginning to a work of fiction? What are some of the strategies writers use to set a story in motion from the first page? Three writers from PEN New England will read some of their favorite openings and discuss how and why they work. Each will speak about their own practice of crafting an opening using examples from their own work.

More options and details on current sessions will be added as “The Muse and the Marketplace” approaches. All descriptions above will be reprinted in the conference program for easy reference.