Upcoming events by Patricia V. Davis

On February 12-14, the San Francisco Writers Conference will be held at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in SF, and I will be speaking on Sunday, February 14, at 11-11:45 p.m. in a session titled, Bestseller! What You Need to Know for a Knock-Out Writing Career.

Lots of important information will be covered in this session, including working with retail booksellers, getting attendance at your events, how to blog to raise book sales, bad agents vs. good agents, behind the scenes facts about the industry that you must keep up with in order to make decisions about your career, and more.

Then in April, I will be teaching two separate courses for Marin Adult Education (www.marinlearn.com) They are:

I. Descriptive Writing That Your Readers Can ‘Taste’, ‘Smell’, ‘Feel’, and ‘Hear’ “Cerulean blue water and halcyon days”. “Eyes that sparkle like stars.” Yuck. No one can a picture a location or a character through these clichéd, meaningless phrases. A good writer helps readers truly visualize the setting and the characters they are describing. But portraying the place where our action happens, and depicting people in our story, all without falling into the “been here-done-that-and-it’s-all-so-boring”, is one of the most challenging components of writing. In this workshop, participants will read samples of descriptive writing that overcome the formulaic, and discuss what it is about them that creates a mind image for the reader. Then, with some simple but effective writing exercises, the class will leave armed with new techniques for crafting vivid word visuals of their own. Time and Place: April 6 and April 8, Tuesday and Thursday evening from 7-9 p.m. at Sir Francis drake High School (in classroom 308) Cost: $45.00 II. A Platform and a Blog: What, Why, Where, When, and How? New writers who are looking to publish their first work are told that they need a 'platform', and that an easy way to build one is to create a 'blog'. In this seminar for both aspiring and experienced writers we will discuss what exactly a ‘platform’ is, what a ‘blog’ is and why blogs are so valuable to writers who are seeking to either gain and/or widen their audience. You will learn where the best spots to blog are, when a writer should blog, and most importantly, HOW each individual writer’s blog should vary, meaning what the topics, lengths, frequency, etc., should be. Participants will leave this workshop with a working online blog in place, and concrete knowledge of how, in as little as two hours per week, we can build our platform and readership to help our book sales. Place and Time: April 20 and 22, Tuesday and Thursday 1 p.m.- 3 p.m. at Redwood High School Cost: $45 Hope to see some Redwood Writers at these events! Warm regards, Patricia

Patricia V. Davis
Editor-in-chief, HS Radio e-magazine
"Writing the Sauce of Life"

podcast: www.harlotssauce.com
website: www.patriciaVdavis.com