This month: "Secrets of writing a page-turner," "How to write a bestseller" with Kelley Armstrong, and "How to Get published" with literary agent Martha Webb, plus weekly writing classes

Secrets of Writing a Page-turner

Saturday, June 6, 2015

10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
St. Alban's Church, 537 Main Street, Georgetown, Ontario (In the village of Glen Williams. Map here.)

Ever stayed up all night reading a book? In this workshop, you’ll learn you how to build that kind of tension.  And we'll help you put into practice the techniques professionals use – on every page and in every kind of story – to create drama and tension.

Fee:  46 paid in advance or 43.36 + 13% hst = 49 if you wait to pay at the door
To reserve a spot now, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

How to Write a Bestseller

 With book editor Brian Henry

   & New York Times #1 bestselling author

     Kelley Armstrong 

Saturday, June 13, 2015
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Glenview Presbyterian Church, 1 Glenview Ave, Toronto, Ontario (Map here.)

This workshop will give you the inside scoop on what gives a novel best-selling potential. You’ll learn how to get readers emotionally involved in your story, how to raise tension, control your pacing and keep your readers turning the pages. But you won't just hear about some of the best secrets of the trade; you'll learn how to apply them to give your own writing a sharp new edge.

Kelley Armstrong lives in Aylmer, south of London, Ontario, with her husband and three children. She used to program computers and attend Brian Henry workshops. Now she writes international bestsellers. Kelley has hit the New York Time’s bestseller list with both her supernatural thrillers for adults and her urban fantasy for teens. Kelley's principal publishers are Random House Canada, Dutton and HarperCollins in the U.S. and Doubleday in Britain. 

To date, she's published more than two dozen books, most recently Sea of Shadows a fantasy novel for teens, Visions, a contemporary Gothic for adults, and Otherworld Nights, a collection of short supernatural stories for adults. Bitten, A TV series based on Kelley’s first 13 novels, started broadcasting last year.

Kelley is preparing an entirely new talk for this workshop to give you her best insights into writing a gripping novel and will answer all your questions about her insights into the writing process and her experience becoming a successful author.

Fee:  46 paid in advance or 43.36 + 13% hst = 49 if you wait to pay at the door
To reserve a spot now, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Martha Magor Webb

How to Get Published

An editor & an agent tell all

Saturday, June 20, 2015

10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Unity Church, Unit 8, 3075 Ridgeway Drive, Mississauga, 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.

Guest speaker, Martha Magor Webb, is a literary agent, director and full partner at Anne McDermid and Associates. The McDermid agency represents literary novelists and commercial novelists of high quality and writers of nonfiction in the areas of memoir, biography, history, literary travel, popular science, investigative journalism and true crime. The agency also represents a certain number of children's and YA writers and writers in the fields of science fiction and fantasy.

Sweetland by Michael Crummey,
one of Martha's clients

Martha represents a growing list of writers, focusing on literary fiction, narrative nonfiction (including memoir and true crime) and ideas-driven nonfiction. Her clients include Michael Crummey (award-winning author of Sweetland), Alison Pick (long-listed for the Booker Prize), Robyn Doolittle (bestselling author of Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story) Pasha Malla (winner) of the Danuta Gleed and the Trillium awards).

Also, Damian Tarnopolsky (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Amazon.ca award), Russell Smith, Jessica Grant, (winner of the Amazon.ca First Novel and the Winterset awards), Grace O'Connell, Matt Lennox, Andrew Westoll, and Karen Le Billon, whose first book French Kids Eat Everything sold into thirteen countries and translated into ten languages.

Fee:  46 paid in advance or 43.36 + 13% hst = 49 if you wait to pay at the door
To reserve a spot now, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Weekly writing classes:

“Welcome to Creative Writing,” Thursday evenings, and “Intensive Creative Writing,” available either Tuesday afternoons or Thursday afternoons. Details of all three classes here.

Workshop leader Brian Henry…

has been a book editor and creative writing teacher for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada's most popular blog for writers, teaches creative writing at Ryerson University and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Moncton. He has helped many of his students get published, including Kelley Armstrong, guest speaker at the "How to Write a Bestseller" workshop.

Read reviews of Brian’s classes and workshops here. 

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, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.