Events and Meetings

August 5-30, 2020

Blast off Beginnings with Angela Knight

$30 ($25 for HCRW members)

Register for this workshop

Writing Opening Chapters That Take Readers along for the Ride In this month-long online class, New York Times best-selling author Angela Knight discusses how to write a beginning that will have readers clicking the BUY button. Knight examines the elements that engage the reader’s curiosity and make her care about your characters. She will explain how to design and execute a fantastic story that will land you on your readers’ auto-buy lists. Lessons in this month-long online class will be posted on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, students may email scenes to Angela for a critique and suggestions. This won’t be shared with the class. Introduction — why the first chapter matters 10 First Chapter Tips Building your book’s conflict launchpad Internal conflict without navel-gazing Romantic conflict for smart characters External conflict without wimps Make me care Brainstorming the perfect scene to introduce your hero or heroine First lines and first pages The heroic couple’s first scene together The villain’s first scene Plotting your course

About the instructor: Angela Knight is the New York Times bestselling author of books for Berkley, Red Sage, Changeling Press, and Loose Id. Her first book was written in pencil and illustrated in crayon; she was nine years old at the time. A few years later, she read The Wolf and the Dove and fell in love with romance. Besides her fiction work, Angela's publishing career includes a stint as a comic book writer and ten years as a newspaper reporter. Several of her stories won South Carolina Press Association awards under her real name.

September 2-27, 2020

Writing Romantic Scifi, Fantasy and Horror with Rebekah R. Ganiere

$30 ($25 for HCRW members)

Register for this workshop

Love is Universal - Even for Monsters! Have you ever wanted to write in the Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, or Horror genre but you just aren’t sure how to meld romance and the other elements necessary to satisfy the readers of those speculative genres? Have you ever wanted to know what is hot, what is overdone and where to begin? Ever agonized over figuring out what genre you are really writing in? Are these genres dead or are they still heating up? What happens if a werewolf marries a vampire? What if your heroine is a cyborg? How can anyone love a serial killer? Paranormal, Sci-fi, Horror, Gothic and Fantasy readers are rabid fans, but they have serious expectations. From Tolkien to Herbert to Shelley these fans have been programmed to see their genres in certain ways and they expect nothing less. Syllabus In this class, you will learn how to create love and romance in any world setting. Learn what readers are looking for in speculative genres How to balance horror or technology with love scenes and romance. Find out the tropes necessary to write Gothic Horror, Horror, Sci-fi, Paranormal, and Fantasy. Learn what to avoid, what works and what is overdone. Learn where and when and how to market. Learn what you need to look for in a cover. And more!

About the instructor: Rebekah is an Award Winning Bestselling Author and Screenwriter. Her debut novel Dead Awakenings, hit the bestseller list on release day. She has won several awards in both writing and screenwriting. Books in her popular fairytale retelling series Fairelle have won many awards including the Golden Palm and was a finalist for Rone Award as well as won Best Fantasy Series of 2014 from the Paranormal Romance Guild. Her trilogy The Society was released by Kensington and her new series Wolf River released in 2016. Rebekah is a prolific author releasing upwards of five books a year and is currently working on six different series. Rebekah’s screenplay No More Goodbyes has finalled in the Screencraft Family Film contest, Cinequest, and was awarded Best Screenplay by the New Hope Film Festival and Family in Film Festival. Rebekah is the former President of the Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal Chapter of RWA as well as a member of several local and online chapters. In her spare time when she isn’t writing you can find her teaching on SavvyAuthors.com or at RWA. Rebekah is also known for her elaborate cosplays with her family and has been a guest speaker and panelist at San Diego Comic Con, Wondercon, Salt Lake Comic Con, Long Beach Comic Con, Comikaze, Fyrecon and several other Comic Cons on the west coast as well as LTUE, Romantic Times Convention, RWA, InD’Scribe, Genre LA and Authors After Dark and Book Lovers Con.

October 7-25, 2020

How to Write a Successful Holiday Romance with Rebekah R. Ganiere

$30 ($25 for HCRW members)

Register for this workshop

What is the hype with Holiday Romances? Have you ever wondered why so many people write them Holiday Romances? Or why there are so many people that read them? This year alone Hallmark will come out with over One hundred and twenty new Holiday Romance Movies! So what does it take to write a Holiday Romance? When do you publish it? When do Publishers even send out calls for them? Come find the answers. Join the thousands of writers who are publishing Holiday Romance short stories, novellas and novels to move their careers forward. Learn what you need to incorporate into your story. How to write a sci-fi, fantasy or paranormal holiday story and more. Come learn what it takes to write in one of the hottest selling sub-genre of Romance!

About the instructor: Rebekah is an Award Winning Bestselling Author and Screenwriter. Her debut novel Dead Awakenings, hit the bestseller list on release day. She has won several awards in both writing and screenwriting. Books in her popular fairytale retelling series Fairelle have won many awards including the Golden Palm and was a finalist for Rone Award as well as won Best Fantasy Series of 2014 from the Paranormal Romance Guild. Her trilogy The Society was released by Kensington and her new series Wolf River released in 2016. Rebekah is a prolific author releasing upwards of five books a year and is currently working on six different series. Rebekah’s screenplay No More Goodbyes has finalled in the Screencraft Family Film contest, Cinequest, and was awarded Best Screenplay by the New Hope Film Festival and Family in Film Festival. Rebekah is the former President of the Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal Chapter of RWA as well as a member of several local and online chapters. In her spare time when she isn’t writing you can find her teaching on SavvyAuthors.com or at RWA. Rebekah is also known for her elaborate cosplays with her family and has been a guest speaker and panelist at San Diego Comic Con, Wondercon, Salt Lake Comic Con, Long Beach Comic Con, Comikaze, Fyrecon and several other Comic Cons on the west coast as well as LTUE, Romantic Times Convention, RWA, InD’Scribe, Genre LA and Authors After Dark and Book Lovers Con.

November 4-26, 2020

Hearts & Handcuffs with Angela Knight

$30 ($25 for HCRW members)

Register for this workshop

Readers love cops, but writing believable police and sheriff’s officers can be difficult if you don’t know the procedures cops use to defend themselves and investigate crimes. In this workshop, New York Times bestselling author Angela Knight and her husband Michael Woodcock, a veteran officer of more than twenty years, will cover everything from felony car-stops to murder investigations and hostage negotiations. Many cops have offered classes on aspects of police work, but since they’re not writers, they often don’t know what writers really need to know. As a result, they tell a lot of war stories, but may not cover the details essential to believability. Knight and Woodcock plan to give that information.

Topics include:

• Introduction
• Interview with Master Deputy Mike Clevenger on why people become cops, and how officers deal with psychological aspects of policing and balancing the needs of the job and family life.
• SWAT commander Lt. Mark Gaddy discusses officer training and how television gets it wrong. What makes a good officer?
• Weapons Use, with Lt. Gaddy: What are some of the weapons, lethal and otherwise, police use, and what are their limitations?
• SWAT Teams: How the teams are trained and organized
• An Interview with Lt. Diane Lestage —Why do women become cops? What are some of the advantages that women bring to the job? How do they deal with people that are generally larger and stronger than they are? How do they handle hand to hand? Since women are often the chief caregivers in the family, what are the techniques they use to juggle those demands and policing?
• Investigating Sex Crimes with Lt. Lestage and Detective Mike Woodcock -- This lesson deals with both adult and child sexual assaults, and how you go about dealing with victims.
• Mike Woodcock on Investigating violent crimes; What are the steps a detective follows in investigating a homicide? What is the psychological effects on the officer?
• Interrogating witnesses, suspects and informants with Detective Mike Woodcock -- How do detectives go about questioning witnesses, informants, and suspects, and how do they tell who's lying?
• Crime Scene Investigation with Sgt. David Hogsed-- what are the techniques officers use to collect evidence and document crime scenes?
• Hostage Negotiation with Detective Mike Woodcock: How do crisis negotiators handle confrontations with armed suspects?
• Interview with Lt. Ashely Harris on bombs and drug testing — Lt. Ashely Harris, now retired, discusses being a forensic chemist and bomb tech. He discusses methods for testing different kinds of drugs, including marijuana, meth and cocaine. He also discusses how to dismantle explosives, bombs and grenades, as well as the use of bomb robots.

Students are encouraged to ask questions and post scenes for critique.

About the instructor: Angela Knight is the New York Times bestselling author of books for Berkley, Red Sage, Changeling Press, and Loose Id. Her first book was written in pencil and illustrated in crayon; she was nine years old at the time. A few years later, she read The Wolf and the Dove and fell in love with romance. Besides her fiction work, Angela's publishing career includes a stint as a comic book writer and ten years as a newspaper reporter. Several of her stories won South Carolina Press Association awards under her real name. About the instructor: Detective Michael Woodcock began his 30-year career as a cop with the city of Spartanburg, SC, doing everything from high speed pursuits to searching for pipe bombs and investigating murders. In 1997, he became the department’s polygraph examiner, interrogating accused pedophiles, thieves and murderers, as well as screening potential police employees. In 2001, he was hired by the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office as its polygrapher. Over the next 17 years, he led the county’s hostage negotiation unit, and conducted a number of negotiations with barricaded subjects. He’s now back with the City of Spartanburg as a detective.

2021 Classes

January 2-29, 2021

New Beginnings and Left Turn with Kathryn Jayne

$30 ($25 for HCRW members)
Tips and tricks for handling plot twists you never saw coming, finding a way out of a corner you’ve written yourself into, breathing life into an old manuscript, or getting started on a new project.

About the Instructor: Kathryn Jane takes readers to places they’d like to live and introduces them to characters they learn to love, by writing page-turning, Women’s Fiction, and Romantic Suspense, as well as Heartwarming Short Stories about feral cats. Fulfilling her passion for education Kathryn presents a broad spectrum of workshops for both aspiring and accomplished writers. In her spare time (she says laughing), Kat loves painting tiny rocks and spreading kindness and joy to family, friends, and strangers alike.

February 1-26, 2021

Writer’s Wellness, A Writer's Path to Health and Creativity with Joy E. Held

$30 ($25 for HCRW members)

Good self-care is the new multi-vitamin! Writers should still take a multi-vitamin, and Writer Wellness is a complimentary plan to help you stay on target for writing and life. WW is a lifestyle technique for anyone who loves to create with activities to stimulate creativity and health by encouraging regular journal writing, exercise, relaxation, good nutrition, and creative play. Regardless of style, genre, or writing goals, Writer Wellness is the perfect writer's companion. The workshop will offer three activities per key area (journaling, fitness, relaxation, nutrition, and creative play) for participants to try then respond to discussion prompts posted in the course. This interactive workshop will present ideas any writer can put into practice, tweak, and maintain throughout a writing career with the goal of better health and expanded creativity for many years. Discover the Writer Wellness Warrior in you and be well, write well.

About the Instructor:  JOY E. HELD, A.A.S., B.A., M.F.A. is an author, freelance editor, educator, Yoga Alliance Registered yoga and meditation teacher, college English professor, certified Journal to the Self facilitator, and workshop presenter with over 500 articles published in trade magazines, newspapers, and literary journals. Her historical romance novel Message to Love was published in 2010 by The Wild Rose Press. Her nonfiction book Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity will be released from Headline Books, Inc. in spring 2020. Joy is a member of Romance Writers of America, Hearts Through History Romance Writers, Northeast Ohio RWA, and the Author's Guild. She holds degrees in education, journalism, and an M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. http://www.joyeheld.com

March 1-31, 2021
Quilting 101/Plotting with Suzanne Johnson
$30 ($25 for HCRW members)

Do storyboards, sticky notes, spreadsheets and index cards give you hives? Does your manuscript wander in circles – yet you’re afraid a detailed outline will suck the heart and soul out of your writing?

All you need is a simple word-processing program to stitch together the perfect quilt of a plot to keep your novel on track and moving in the right direction – while still giving your muse room to play. We’ll use a step-by-step technique to plot a novel from start to finish and give you a huge head-start on your first draft (and the dreaded synopsis).

This will be a working course! Bring your best idea (the one that’s been bubbling in your brain for six months) or a manuscript that’s wandering in the desert, and we’ll shape it up and get it moving. We’ll also be deconstructing one of my own novels as part of this class as well as using examples from a variety of books in different genres.

About the Instructor: Suzanne Johnson was happily ensconced in New Orleans as a university magazine editor and veteran copyeditor when Hurricane Katrina sent her adopted hometown underwater. She took her Katrina experiences, added wizards and magic (and the sexy undead pirate Jean Lafitte), and began what has become the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series published by Tor Books. Writing under the name Susannah Sandlin, she also writes award-winning paranormal romance, including the popular Penton Legacy series for Montlake Romance, and romantic suspense and thrillers, including two series, The Collectors and Wilds of the Bayou, also for Montlake. She was the founding copyeditor for Entangled Publishing, leaving when her own writing career needed more TLC. Suzanne grew up in Alabama halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis’s birthplace and lived in New Orleans for fifteen years, so she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of college football and fried gator on a stick. She currently lives in Auburn, Alabama, where she is a full-time author and does copyediting work for other authors both as a freelancer and on Reedsy.com