Great workshops coming soon ~ How to Build Your Story, How to Make Yours Stories Sizzle, and How to Get Published

How to Build Your Story
Plotting novels and Writing short stories
Offered in two locales this month:

Saturday, February 7, 2015
10:00 a.m.– 3:30 p.m.
Council Chamber, Stouffville Town Hall, 111 Sandiford Drive, Stouffville, Ontario. (Map here.)

And

Saturday, February 28, 2015

10:30 a.m.– 4:00 p.m.
Collingwood Public Library, 55 Marie Street, Collingwood, Ontario (Map here)

This workshop will show you how writers plot a novel and will give you the best tips on writing short stories. We’ll also look at where to get your stories published and how to win contests. Best yet, you’ll see how to apply the story-building techniques you’ve learned to your own writing. 

Fee:  46 paid in advance or 49 if you wait to pay at the door

To register, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

How to Make Your Stories Sizzle

This is a new workshop full of great insights and tips for all writers.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

10 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Unity Church, Unit 8, 3075 Ridgeway Drive, Mississauga, Ontario (Map here.)

This workshop is geared to both beginners and more experienced writers and focuses on the most important part of all stories whether fictional or true: the fully dramatized scene. You'll learn some of the most successful tricks of the trade so that you can be sure that you'll never write a lifeless scene again.  

We’ll look at both talky scenes and action scenes. We'll show you how to write great dialogue and how to mix it with your narrative so that the interaction between your characters comes alive. Moreover, we'll tackle the most difficult scenes of all ~ climactic action scenes; such as love scenes, chase scenes and fight scenes. Primarily using fight scenes as our examples, you’ll learn how to ramp up the tension you need for one of these high-octane performances. 

Fee:  46 paid in advance or 49 if you wait to pay at the door

To register, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Literary agent Olga Filina

How to Get Published

An editor & an agent tell all

Saturday, March 7, 2015

10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Niagara on the Lake Public Library, 10 Anderson Lane, NOTL, Ontario (Map here.) 

If you've ever dreamed of becoming a published author, this workshop is for you. We’ll cover everything from getting started to getting an agent, from getting your short pieces published to finding a book publisher, from writing a query letter to writing what the publishers want. Bring your questions. Come and get ready to be published!

Special Option: Participants are invited to bring a draft of a query letter you might use to interest an agent or publisher in your book. You don’t need to bring anything, but if you do, 3 copies could be helpful.

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. But his proudest boast is that he has helped many of his students get their first book published and launch their careers as authors.

Guest speaker Olga Filina is a literary agent with The Rights Factory. A graduate of Humber’s Creative Book Publishing Program, Olga spent over a decade as a sales manager and book buyer for both national and independent book store chains and two years as a literary assistant at The Cooke Agency. 

While Olga will read anything that may set her book clubs on fire, she gravitates towards commercial and historical fiction, great genre fiction in the area of romance and mystery, nonfiction in the field of business, wellness, lifestyle and memoir and young adult and middle grade novels with memorable characters. In her spare time, Olga sits on library boards, organizes literary festivals and runs more book clubs than she can count.

Fee:  46 paid in advance or 49 if you wait to pay at the door

To register, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See Brian's full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.