SATURDAY BREAKOUT SESSION 3
A: SCREENWRITING TRICKS FOR AUTHORS (and SCREENWRITERS!)
Alexandra Sokoloff
For: All writers, especially delegates who were unable to attend the Friday Workshop
Part Two
Alexandra Sokoloff, Author of Screenwriting Tips for Authors and Writing Love, continues her two-part presentation (breakout session two and three) delivering highlights from Friday’s interactive workshop.
To derive the full benefit, it is recommended you do both Part 1 and Part 2.
Alexandra Sokoloff is the author of the supernatural thrillers and paranormal tales. As a screenwriter she sold original horror and thriller scripts and adapted novels for numerous Hollywood studios.
She is the author of SCREENWRITING TRICKS FOR AUTHORS (AND SCREENWRITERS!), and WRITING LOVE, workbooks based on her internationally acclaimed blog and workshops.
See the March issue of Hearts Talk for an interview with Alexandra.
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THIS SESSION HAS SOLD OUT!
B: PUTTING SIZZLE INTO EVERY SCENE
Fiona Lowe
For: All writers
From sweet romance to sex on a stick, it’s the emotion in romance novels that knocks readers’ socks off and has them wanting more. Using film clips, excerpts and her sexual health counselling experience, Fiona Lowe will show you how to ramp up your book so the emotion and tension is on every page and your love scenes sizzle.
Fiona Lowe is a multi published author with eighteen Mills & Boon Medical Romance novels to her name as well as a single title novel with Carina Press, and plans for more to come. A previous R*BY, RT and ARRA finalist, no matter whether her books are set in outback Australia or in the Midwest of the USA, they all feature small towns with big hearts, and warm, likeable characters that make you fall in love. When she’s not writing stories, she’s a weekend wife, mother of two ‘ginger’ teenage boys, the servant of a ginger cat who thinks she owns the house, guardian of 80 rose bushes and she’s often found collapsed on the couch.
She hangs out at her website, Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.
For Fiona's Conference Spotlight on the blog, follow this link (28th February).
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C: IN IT TO WIN IT: HOW TO SHINE IN WRITING CONTESTS & SUBMISSIONS
Valerie Parv
For: Unpublished writers
Writing contests are a great way to short-cut the lengthy submission process and have your work read by senior editors, agents and established authors. This workshop shows how to recognise and overcome these challenges in your own work so it stands out in any writing contest or when submitted to an agent or editor. What you put in - or leave out - makes a difference. Learn how to read your writing like a contest judge and never look back.
International best-selling author Valerie Parv has sold more than twenty-nine million copies of her books which have been widely translated. Many of her backlist are now out as ebooks. She holds a master of arts from Queensland University of Technology and is the first Australian author to receive a Pioneer of Romance Award for her contributions to the field of romance writing, presented by RT Book Reviews Magazine New York in 2011. The State Library of NSW archives Valerie’s literary papers and she mentors new writers through the Valerie Parv Award created in her honour by Romance Writers of Australia.
Valerie will be the Established Writer in Residence for 2012 at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in Western Australia. More information can be found at: http://www.valerieparv.com
For Valerie's Conference Spotlight on the blog, follow this link (21st February).
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D: PANEL: LOVE IN THE FACE OF DANGER: ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Helene Young interrogates: Bronwyn Parry, Sandy Curtis, Karlene Blakemore-Mowle and Shannon Curtis
For: All writers, esp. romantic suspense.
Find out how far these writers have gone in pursuit of their stories, their tips on finding unusual sources and methods of research, and what publishing avenues exist in Australia for Romantic Suspense stories. Learn what makes Romantic Suspense different to Crime novels with love stories, and how to balance romance with suspense. Uncover which careers work best for the heroes and heroines and if there’s room for ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Helene Young started reading mysteries and adventure stories as a child. Her favourites were Enid Blyton novels. She has moved on from the Five Find-Outers and Dog, but hasn’t lost her love of suspense and intrigue. Twenty-two years later she’s a Captain with Australia’s largest regional airline and writes action-packed Australian romantic suspense stories.
Her first book, Wings of Fear, won the prestigious 2011 R*BY award, and Favourite Romantic Suspense Novel, 2010. Shattered Sky, the second book in her Border Watch Series, won Favourite Romantic Suspense Novel, 2011.
Her third book, Burning Lies, will be released in July, 2012.
Bronwyn Parry writes gritty romantic suspense inspired by the dramatic landscapes and resilient people of rural and outback Australia. Bronwyn grew up surrounded by books, with a fascination for places, people and their stories, and she’s now an occasional academic, passionate about the richness, diversity, and value of popular fiction. Despite writing about murder and crime and putting her characters through daunting experiences, she lives peacefully on 100 acres of beautiful bushland with her husband and two energetic border collies and loves to travel in Australia’s wild places.
Sandy Curtis lives on Queensland’s Central Coast, close to the beach where she loves walking and thinking about the complex plots, hunky heroes and gutsy heroines in her novels. Her novels have been nominees in the Ned Kelly Crime Awards and two were finalists in the mainstream section of the Romantic Book of the Year Award. Her latest book, Fatal Flaw, is published by Clan Destine Press, and all her novels are available as ebooks from Amazon Kindle and Clan Destine Press. Sandy also organises WriteFest, the Bundaberg writers festival. You can find out more about Sandy’s books at http://sandycurtis.com/blog/
Karlene Blakemore-Mowle writes romantic suspense for American publishers, Whiskey Creek Press, and Eternal Press, with three titles released this year.
Having lived in Mt Isa, Townsville and central NSW, Karlene now calls a small town on the mid-north coast, home.
In between cleaning up after her husband and children, wishing she had a housekeeper, and stupidly volunteering for tuckshop duties, she’s happiest when left to think up exciting stories with a distinctive Australian flavour but set in locations around the world.
Karlene has an ongoing rivalry with alter ego Karly Lane who writes rural fiction for Allen & Unwin.
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Shannon Curtis has worked in diverse roles such as office admin manager, customer service rep, logistics supervisor, distribution coordinator, dangerous goods handler, event planner, switch bitch and betting agent, and decided to try writing a story like those she loves to read when she found herself at home after the birth of her first child. Now she spends entirely too much time daydreaming about hunky heroes and malicious murders – for her books, of course! She loves reading, loves writing, and loves hearing from her readers, so visit her at www.shannoncurtis.com and say hi!
For the Conference Spotlight on this panel, on the blog, please follow this link (10th April).
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