The Submissions Project, a new online class from MEWsie Lisa Romeo, begins February 27, and participants will focus on the many activities that go into developing a sensible, customized, sustainable submission strategy.

Because many writers avoid submitting their work due to fear, lethargy, anxiety, confusion, apathy, or resignation (plus, it’s time-consuming and tedious!), that too often means nothing gets sent out, nothing gets published, and good work remains in drawers or computer files, while months go by. Meanwhile the writer keeps thinking, “I should be submitting!” but doesn’t take any real steps toward moving their work out into the world.

The class, which runs for 10 weeks, will focus on: identifying sensible submission goals, creating a practical submission plan, recognizing market opportunities, preparing and sending off work, tracking progress, handling rejections (and acceptances!), and what to do when things go off course.

It will cover print and online venues, how to decipher submission guidelines, as well as cover letters, editor responses, follow-up tips, and more. Weekly to-do lists, a private online discussion group, and other tools. This is a self-paced class, with materials available 24/7, and participants do NOT need to be online at any particular day or time.

The Project will be capped at 15 writers. MEWS members also get one in-person or telephone consult. More information and registration details can be found at Lisa’s blog (www.LisaRomeo.blogspot.com) or http://bit.ly/tLyM6k . Questions can be directed to Lisa: 973-857-4383 or LisaRomeoWrites@gmail.com.

With authors Deborah Siegel and Christina Baker Kline

March 24, 2012, 9:30am – 3:30pm, Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society, Park Slope (a 30-minute subway ride from Penn Station)

What do you need to make your book a reality?

Maybe you’ve started a memoir but lost the oomph to complete it. Maybe you keep a draft of your nonfiction manuscript in your nightstand drawer. Chances are, if you have an idea for a book, then a road map, accountability, and a plan for completion are the missing ingredients that will make it stick. In keeping with our “make it doable/keep it real” approach to writing in the midst of already busy lives, this mini-retreat intensive focuses on the book proposal not merely as a sales tool but as a writer’s tool for getting the job–meaning, the book–done.

Christina and Deborah are two professional writing mamas who, between us, have written 10 books and dozens of book proposals for ourselves and others. We believe that writing is vital—even when it has to happen in the crevices of our lives. In this daylong “staycation” we’ll combine strategies for fitting book-length writing projects into your everyday life with concrete exercises and feedback designed to demystify the key elements of a book proposal. We’ll share the secrets of writing a book proposal that sells and will provide a stimulating and pampering combination of workshopping, group conversations with other creative women, inspiring writing prompts, Q&A, a frank discussion of what it’s like to sell a book in the current publishing climate, and a discussion of alternatives to traditional publishing as well. You’ll leave at the end of the day with a fresh approach to the book proposal as a writer’s best friend, sections of your proposal sketched out, concrete goals for your current writing life – and a sense of community, something no writing woman should be without.

This day-long gift-to-self includes a delicious lunch, healthy snacks, caffeine (and caffeine-free) drinks … and of course – chocolate! Cost: $225 ($250 after March 1). Space is limited. Register early to save a spot! Contact Deborah at deborahsiege@gmail.com.

Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop is thrilled to offer a creative writing course in Montclair, taught by writer and Montclair resident, Jill Rosenberg. This 8-week Creative Writing Workshop will meet on Wednesday evenings from 7:30 to 9:30 at the instructor’s home on Walnut Street, beginning February 15th.

For additional information, visit www.sackettworkshop.com or email julia@sackettworkshop.com.

Course Description: This is a wonderful opportunity to join a small community of writers who can provide you with perspective on your work, helping you to jump-start a new writing project and/ or invigorate your work-in-progress.

Critiques will focus the choices a writer has made concerning things like structure, character, point-of-view, pacing, language, etc. Together we will identify and analyze the successes and non-successes of these choices. In the process, you will learn to read with “a writer’s perspective,” developing a better sense of the way in which the writer’s choices contribute to the psychological, emotional and intellectual experience of the reader.

Students will have their work critiqued in class twice during the 8-week session. You will receive typed feedback from both the instructor and your classmates. Workshop guidelines have been carefully designed to help students approach each others’ work with this “writer’s perspective.” This means that you will receive concrete and constructive feedback from you classmates, as opposed to the vague opinions (this is good; this is bad) that make many writing workshops so frustrating and unhelpful.

Writers leave Sackett Street (or return, as many writers do) with a developed awareness of craft and a new confidence in their ability to read, analyze and revise their own work. Once this ability to reader with a writer’s perspective is developed, your potential for growth as a writer is limitless.

The $475 fee includes a private conference with the instructor.

Visit www.sackettworkshop.com or email julia@sackettworkshop.com to register.

Spring Creative Writing Workshops: February 21-April 29

http://www.writerscircleworkshops.com

Workshops for Adults:
-Adult Writers Circles
-Beginning Your Novel
-Writing & Selling Your Memoir
-Crafting a Fictional Thrill Ride – NEW!

Workshops for Children:
-Storytellers Circle (K-2nd grade)
-Story Magic (3rd-5th grade)
-Story Magic II (4th-6th grade)
-FOR BOYS ONLY! (3rd-6th grade)
-Teen Writers Circle
-The Young Storymakers

plus Monthly Speaker Series and Special Events:

Next Up: Using Your Senses in Writing with Judith Lindbergh & Michelle Cameron, February 5, 2:00-4:00 PM at Sparkhouse, South Orange, NJ

Classes fill up quickly — Register now to reserve a place:

http://www.writerscircleworkshops.com

973-900-0415
info@writerscircleworkshops.com

Friday, January 27th at 7:00 o’clock pm

Where do ideas come from, and how does a writer enter the state of flow that is conducive to producing great work? How do you switch between the left and right brain work of creativity and editing? What blocks you and how do you get past obstacles in sticking to a writing schedule? These and other questions about the writing life will be discussed by four authors and teachers of the craft. There will be a focus on how freely children write and how we can return to that liberated state ourselves.

Please join our panelists for a lively, meaningful discussion, refreshments, and beautiful books to browse and discover.

· Judith Lindbergh
author of “The Thrall’s Tale”
www.judithlindbergh.com

· Michelle Cameron
author of “The Fruit of Her Hands” and “In the Shadow of the Globe”

http://www.michelle-cameron.com/

· Stuart Lutz
author of “The Last Leaf: Voices of History’s Last-Known Survivors”

http://www.thelastleaf.com/

· Paula Balzer
author of “Writing & Selling Your Memoir”

http://saturdaymorningmemoir.wordpress.com/

Additional information about the event and panelists can be found at:

Writing Matters

http://www.watchungbooksellers.com/writing-matters

and

The Writers Circle

http://www.writerscircleworkshops.com

Tel: 973-900-0415

The Write Group is a Montclair-based group of writers who hold regular workshops, readings, and events.  Among their upcoming and regularly-scheduled get-togethers are:

– “Critiques for Novelists” Group – EVERY THURSDAY MORNING: 10 am -1 pm, Montclair Library Conf. Room.  Critiques for novelists and would-be novelists.  To add your name to the waiting list, please contact Eveline Speedie at espeedie@msn.com.

The Bloomfield Public Library is pleased to announce the formation of a writing club, which will meet at the library on the first and third Monday of each month at 10am. All writers or aspiring writers are invited to attend these meetings and share their work, their knowledge of writing and the business of writing with their fellow authors.

The Bloomfield Public Library would like to thank a local volunteer, Quinita Good for generously donating her time to lead this club twice a month. Quinita is an award-winning journalist and business & creative writer living in New Jersey. The recipient of first- and second-place awards from the New Jersey Press Association in 2005, She holds a B.A. in Journalism and Public Relations and has studied at the Master’s level in Writing Studies. She also held positions as writer, editorial assistant, and editor. Her writing spans the spectrum–from business & technical to creative.

The Bloomfield Public Library is located at 90 Broad Street in Bloomfield. For more information on this event or upcoming programs please call (973) 566-6200 x 502. To be notified of upcoming programs, visit our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter. Visit our website, www.bplnj.org, and join our google group to receive notices of upcoming events directly in your email inbox.

MEWSies Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry have done Pitchapaloozas from Miami to Hollywood, Cape Cod to Santa Cruz. They’ve done workshops from Stanford University to the Texas Book Festival. But they’ve never done them together. Until now. Their workshop gives you the nuts & bolts to launch your book successfully, from platform, to pitch, to publication. Pitchapalooza is American Idol for books (only without Simon). Writers gets one minute—and only one minute, to pitch their books! In the last month, three writers have gotten publishing deals as a result of participating in Pitchapalooza. The workshop lasts an hour. Pitchapalooza ninety minutes.

LIMITED TO 25 WRITERS!

Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry are co-founders of The Book Doctors, a company dedicated to helping authors get their books published. They are also co-authors of The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published: How To Write It, Sell It, and Market It… Successfully (Workman, 2010). Arielle Eckstut has been a literary agent for 18 years at The Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. She is also the author of seven books and the co-founder of the iconic brand, LittleMissMatched. David Henry Sterry is the best-selling author of 12 books, on a wide variety of subject including memoir, sports, YA fiction and reference. They have taught their workshop on how to get published everywhere from Stanford University to Smith College. They have appeared everywhere from The New York Times to NPR’s Morning Edition to USA Today.

PRICE OF ADMISSION: $50, plus the purchase of The Essential Guide To Getting Your Book Published.

A few days remain to sign up for Lisa Romeo’s *I Should Be Writing!* Boot Camp for Procrastinators and Busy People, the popular get-it-done, no-B.S.-class that has already helped many MEWSies to get out of writing (or not-writing!) ruts, stuck writers moving again, new writers going, blocked writers producing, and returning writers back into gear.

This class will help you: create time to write, adopt a writer’s mindset, develop and maintain regular writing routines, deal with your individual obstacles, set and work toward writing goals that are specific and measurable — and enjoy the process. Included are: email exchanges, instructional materials, productivity and accountability tools, online discussion group, (private) telephone conversations, and opportunities for feedback on your writing.

*I Should Be Writig!* is self-paced; no need to be online at specific times. Writers of any genre are welcome. Class size limited to 12. Begins Monday, January 9. Runs for 6 weeks. Three participation/fee levels: Full Service Option, Repeat Rate, and Audit-Only. Questions? Email LisaRomeoWrites@gmail.com or call 973-857-4383. Full details and registration are at Lisa’s blog (LisaRomeo.blogspot.com) or use this link: http://bit.ly/tpypgW

Brooklyn’s much acclaimed Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop is thrilled to offer a creative writing course in Montclair, taught by writer and Montclair resident, Jill Rosenberg. This 8-week Creative Writing Studio will begin in February and meet one evening a week at the instructor’s home on Walnut Street. The Creative Writing Studio is open to both fiction writers and nonfiction writers. Students will develop their understanding of craft and their ability to read with a writer’s perspective through the use of in and out of class writing exercises/prompts, as well as class discussion of published work and student work. Each writer will have the opportunity to have their own work critiqued in class and will receive typed feedback from both the instructor and their classmates.

The $475 fee includes a private conference with the instructor.

Visit www.sackettworkshop.com or email julia@sackettworkshop.com to register.