Director’s Notes
Introducing Online Conversations
Each month, we’ll feature an author, editor, agent or other industry expert in our Online Conversation series. The conversations will be held in our new Virtual Salon chat room and Professional Members will be able to interact with our featured guests and ask them their most pressing writing and publishing questions.
We’ll kick things off at 11 a.m., Saturday, March 31, with a Q & A with Writing Coach Lori DeBoer, who will answer your questions about writer’s block, writing book proposals, revising and more.
Author Kevin Hearne (www.kevinhearne.com), author of the acclaimed and successful Iron Druid Series, is our guest for Online Conversations at 6:30 p.m. Colorado time on Tuesday, April 17. He is the author of four urban fantasy novels, including Tricked, which will be released on April 24, and has been compared to Jim Butcher and Neil Gaiman. Hearne has a lot to say about writing and is honest and insightful about his own road to publication, including his struggles to write his first novel. During our hour-long exclusive chat, you can ask him your most pressing writing and publishing questions as well as his insight into just what it takes to write a novel. Or two. Or four. And then get them published. Whether you write genre (or not), you’ll have a great time hanging out with us in our Virtual Salon, talking about writing with Kevin. We don’t care what you wear or drink during the session. But be warned, if you are not careful, you might learn something.
We’ve had great response from nationally-known authors and industry experts and will be bringing in some more folks for our Online Conversations in the next few months, including:
Betsy Lerner, literary agent, editor and author of the bestselling The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers, has agreed to join us for a 1 1/2 hour long conversation. Currently a literary agent with Dunow, Carlson & Lerner, she worked as an editor for 16 years at major trade publishers including Simon & Schuster, Houghton Mifflin and Executive Editor at Doubleday. She mostly works with non-fiction writers in the areas of science, psychology, history, cultural studies, biography, current events, memoir and the hard to categorize. Lerner was the recipient of the Tony Godwin Publishing Prize.
Les Edgerton, author of Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go, as well the author of seven other fiction and writing craft books, has agreed to join us in the next few months. He published three novels and a short story collection in 2011 alone: Just Like That and The Perfect Crime with StoneGate Ink, The Bitch and The Rapist from Bare Knuckles Press and Gumbo Ya-Ya, a short story collection from Snubnose Press. He is editor-at-large for Noir Nation International Crime Magazine and his work has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize, an O’Henry Award, The Edgar Allan Poe Award for short stories, a Pen/Faulkner Award and others. He holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College and a Certificate in Barbering from Pendleton Reformatory. Les draws inspiration from his colorful life, from serving in the Navy to being sentenced to time in Pendleton Reformatory to winning hairstyling completions in 16 states. He’s done it all and used his life experiences to write, write, write—with much success! Getting to know this author and learning from his experiences will be the opportunity of a lifetime.
Betty Webb, former journalist and now the author of the bestselling Lena Jones mystery series: Desert Cut, Desert Run, Desert Shadows, Desert Wives, and Desert Noir. Her stories are greatly influenced by her various and numerous interviews—everyone from astronauts who have walked the moon to the homeless, from Nobel Prize winners and Presidents to individuals talking their last breaths. Betty has since taken a lighter (and more humorous) turn with her latest book, The Anteater of Death, is in the Gunn Zoo series. This author has much to share in our Online Conversation. Date to be announced.
Our Online Conversation series is offered exclusively to Professional Members and registration is limited. Please sign visit our Events page for more details.
Local Authors Read and Sign at the Boulder Book Store
The Boulder Book Store, a valuable resource for writers and readers, is hosting its “Local Authors Afternoon” on Sunday, March 18, at 2 p.m. Featured authors will be speaking about and signing their books.
Emily Kemme’s book, In Search of Sushi Tora, caught my eye not only because of its beguiling title and cover, but because it explores the breakdown of a family through a fictional story based on the myth of King Minos and the Minotaur. Midwest Review called it “a choice and much recommended read, not to be overlooked.” To learn more, visit www.emilykemme.com.
Paul Kendel will share his memoir, Walking the Tiger’s Path, about his spiritual awakening as a soldier in Iraq. When his internal conflict about his loyalties to his fellow soldiers and his concern for the Iraqi people deepened, he turned to Buddhism and Shambahla International in Boulder, for assistance. His book was a Best Books Award Winner from USA Book Awards and received an honorable mention from the 2011 Holywood Book Festival. Visit his website at www.walkingthetigerspath.com.
Fans of speculative fiction and young adult literature will enjoy hearing Ian T. Healy share his most recent book, Just Cause. The book features a third-generation superhero, Mustang Sally—the fastest girl in the world–who must avenge her father. Ian claims to steal his ideas from different versions of himself in alternate universes. He adds: “If any of those guys figure me out, I’m toast.” For more wit, visit www.ianthealy.com.
Rounding out the bunch is J. Tamar Stone, author of Selves in a Box, a card deck and guidebook that features collaged, detailed portraits of 52 selves, useful for self exploration. Stone says that these “inner peeps” compete for our attention; her boxed set promises to help us understand them and, by doing so, allows us to live outside the box. For more info, visit www.selvesinabox.com.
For more news about writing and publishing events in Colorado, sign up for the Colorado Writing Newsletter by becoming a Professional Member of the Boulder Writers’ Workshop.
