Workshops

Novel in a Nutshell: The Nuts & Bolts of Writing Romance

A two-hour interactive workshop. Bring your first chapter and review the elements necessary to make a story work in today’s market and give it that extra something. Don’t know what POV is? Head-hopping? Voice? A hook? You will by the end of this workshop given by award-winning author of paranormal romantic comedies, Judi Fennell. *can be modified for 1 hour, or half day

An Editor’s Red Pen: Don’t Make Me Murder Your Manuscript

Let “Bloody Judi” show you how to fix common mistakes that can kill a manuscript’s first read, as well as how to save money (and blood, sweat, and tears) by knowing what you can expect from an editor and what an editor can expect from you.

Books That Get Looks – Branding & Mareketing

You’ve written your first book! Yay! Or… maybe it’s your fifth. Another yay! How can you get readers to email you about when the next one’s coming out? How can you get the word out about your books?

Build your brand, spread the word… Learn tips and tricks to get looks for your books!

“(Judi) did an excellent job clarifying information about how an author needs to move forward after the book is written if they expect those books to sell. We benefitted from having (her) shed light on the important and complex topic of marketing and branding. Excellent!” ~ Dalia Dupris

Ultimate Submission: Create the Perfect Package

Five questions. Answer those and you’ve got all you need to create the ultimate query. But don’t stop there. Six questions will lead you to synopsis nirvana. Think that perfect submission is out of reach? Judi Fennell and Stephanie Julian will show you how to achieve query and synopsis domination in this interactive workshop.

The Art of Cover Art

Covers are one of the most important and effective marketing tools you’ll have for your book. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by under-utilizing the impact of your cover. Make your book jump off the digital marketplace page! Award-winning author, cover artist, and book designer, Judi Fennell will discuss tips and tricks of cover design.

In the Know-How; A Guide to Self-Publishing

Thinking of self publishing? What do you need to know? What do you need to do? Who do you hire? What do you do yourself? Should you still try to publish with traditional publishers and how does that work?

There are a lot of considerations when going the self-publish route and it can seem overwhelming. Author/owner of www.formatting4U.com, Judi Fennell, has been helping authors bring their work to readers independently for five years and has probably heard all your questions and is here to share the answers. Come learn how to navigate the new frontier of self-publishing.

Whaddya Say?

Dialogue vs. Conversation. Action Tags vs. Dialogue Tags. Point of View. Head-hopping. “Saidisms.” “As you know, Bob.”

If any of these have been said about your work—or you don’t know what any of these are—check out the Whaddya Say workshop to learn what to do, how to do it, as well as what not to do, to make your story-telling stronger.

Look Who’s Talking

Characterization and Point of View go together like peanut butter and chocolate—bet you thought I was going to say peanut butter and jelly, but chocolate is better than jelly any day. It’s sharing those little details about your characters that bring them to life for your readers, as is the way they think and speak and act.

In this workshop, we’ll explore how well you know your characters and how much you should share with your readers, as well as how you share it. We’ll talk about point of view and deep point of view. We’ll talk about what they should and shouldn’t narrate—and how they should and shouldn’t narrate it. We’ll talk about what they can and can’t know. We’ll talk about how to build conflict from personality types and we’ll talk about when to info-dump and when not to.

Basically, we’ll talk. Just like your characters will then be able to, to each other and to your readers.

The Deep End of the Swimming Pool: Sinking or Swimming with POV

Point of View is the way your characters tell the story, but when so many of them are talking in your head, how do you know which one to pick and make it the most effective way to tell the story? Dive in to the pool of rules and techniques to learn how to swim with the POV fishes.