Tag: BWA

Write Now

Join us for Write Now: First Draft, an online program coming Wednesday, July 22nd!

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One part conference test, one part peek behind the curtain, we welcome you to join us Wednesday, July 22nd at 7 p.m. for Write Now: First Draft. Featuring writers working on the Broadleaf Board of Directors and the Broadleaf Writers Conference Committee, we’ll tackle taking on a first draft, offer thoughts on how to push through, and discuss the importance of finding a writing community!

As well, we’ll use this opportunity to test our online approach to the 5th Annual Broadleaf Writers Conference! So, join us to see what we have planned, help us with the Q&A process, test out the chat features, and be a part of a conversation on writing a first draft!

To join us, just click this link. No registration is required. The webinar room will open a few minutes after 7 on July 22nd, and then we’ll get started!

Benjamin Carr is a writer and storyteller and serves as the President of the Board of Directors for Broadleaf Writers. His work has appeared in The Guardian, Loose Change Magazine, The Five Hundred and Pembroke Magazine. He has performed regularly onstage at Atlanta-area literary events, including Write Club Atlanta, Carapace, Naked City, Stories on the Square, Stories on the Edge of Night and Listen to Your Mother. His work has also appeared at the Center for Puppetry Arts. He is a member of WonderRoot, the Southern Order of Storytellers and Working Title Playwrights. He is the co-founder of Gutwrench, available at http://gutwrenchjournal.com.

Even though she majored in English at Florida State University, Maryann Lozano didn’t start writing until later in life. After spending many years noodling around with NaNoWriMo, books about writing, and writing prompts, she decided to get serious and enrolled in the Masters of Professional Writing program at Kennesaw State University. She graduated with honors in December 2019.

Maryann is an executive assistant at 22squared, a mid-sized advertising agency in Atlanta, and is also the director of the Handbell Choir at St. Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church. When she’s not assisting her bosses or waving her hands at her ringers, she is simultaneously revising her WIP for the 1,000th time and trying to keep her cat off the computer keyboard. Maryann serves as Vice-Chair for the Broadleaf Writers Conference Committee.

Jessica Nettles is a writer of short fiction, plays, and, most recently, novels. Her short fiction has appeared in Oh, Georgia!, Thirteen Stories til’ Halloween, and The Five Hundred. She has performed her works at venues such as Naked City, A Novel Idea, and the Write Room. Her play, Around the Bend, was one of three plays featured in a staged reading show sponsored by Process Theater. When she’s not writing, she teaches English at Chattahoochee Technical College. In her spare time, she knits, crochets, reads, bakes, enjoys long walks, and has a fascination with B horror movies. Jessica serves as Secretary on the Broadleaf Writers Board of Directors.

5th Annual Broadleaf Writers Conference

The Schedule for the 5th Annual Broadleaf Writers Conference is Now Available!

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The time is here and open registration for the 5th Annual Broadleaf Writers Conference is upon us. Though the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed our event online, we still plan to offer the same great lineup, complete with plenty of informative and inspirational panels and workshops, one-on-one pitch sessions with agents, as well as our brand new one-on-one mentoring sessions with authors and agents, and a one-on-one first page critique with New York Times bestselling author David L. Robbins! All for a lower price! We’re confident you will get all you expect from us, and as much more as we can possibly offer!

The 5th Annual Broadleaf Writers Conference Schedule is now available for you to review! From open Q&A sessions, to storytelling, to getting your outline and story structure in place, we’ve put together a schedule of sessions we know will give you the tools and inspiration you need to grow as an artist, and to pursue your dreams of publication.

On Saturday, October 17th, we’ll kick things off with an open Q&A session with a legend of the comic book and gaming industries (You can’t say Wolverine without mentioning him!), Paul Jenkins! We can think of no greater source of encouragement and information to get your weekend started than Paul, and this is your opportunity to hear his story, pick his brain, and learn from one of the best around.

Consisting of 7 more panels and 1 workshop, our Saturday schedule digs its heels into the hard work of creating a dynamic story, memorable characters, and, of course, nailing that first page. An annual favorite, the First Page Critique returns to close out the day, giving you the opportunity to have the first page of your manuscript critiqued by our panel of literary agents. The submissions are anonymous and highly recommended. Not ready to submit? No problem! You can still attend and gain invaluable tips from agents to assist you in perfecting your first page!

We return on Sunday with a brand-new session! Our literary agents will sit once more, this time to listen to your query letters! A daunting undertaking for any writer, this will be your chance to hear what agents have to say about the query letters our attendees have submitted! Much like First Pages, if you are not up for submitting, no worries! You can still gain from their insights and use all you learn to get yours right! But we do recommend you submit! After all, your submissions remain anonymous!

With 6 additional panels and 2 more workshops, Sunday is another busy day full of opportunities to learn! And it includes another new session we’re beyond excited to present. Hosted by the dynamic duo of YATL, Kimberly Jones and Vania Stoyanova, the YATL Pitch Match is your chance to present your story to an agent in a whole new way! Covering four categories—Young Adult, Fiction, Romance, and Nonfiction—we will select four attendees for each (you will submit your name on Saturday) and Kimberly and Vania will lead our contestants through a series of fun and entertaining questions and scenarios for a literary agent that represents that category. At the end, our agent will select a winner and meet with them in a private breakout room for 15 minutes to discuss the story further! Not only will it be fun, but you’ll have the opportunity to learn more about pitching your work and give an agent even more reason to consider reading your manuscript!

We’re working hard to add more elements to this quite different way of presenting a conference. From social rooms to chat with other attendees and our speakers, to a storytelling reception to celebrate our fifth year of existence, we plan on giving you all the elements of our conference from the cozy confines of your home. Additionally, you no longer have to decide between which session to attend. Every attendee of the 5th Annual Broadleaf Writers Conference will receive access to the recordings of every session! Watch it all again or catch the ones you missed!

Register early to ensure your place in our one-on-one sessions! With your registration you receive one pitch and one mentoring session, but for an extra $25 for each you can add more if you wish! With a lower cost, yet as much or more of what we normally offer, this is an incredible opportunity to attend a conference and grow as a writer! We hope to see you there!

BWA Conference

Announcing the 2019 Broadleaf Writers Sweepstakes!

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We’re nearing one month until the 4th Annual Broadleaf Writers Conference is here, and we’re adding a new wrinkle! In addition to New York Times bestselling and award-winning authors, representatives from literary agencies and publishing houses, sessions and workshops packed with information to help improve your writing, and a growing community of writers like you, there’s one more reason to register!

We’re pleased to announce that every attendee for our 4th Annual conference will be entered into a drawing to win a free (FREE IS GOOD!) copy of either Scrivener or Final Draft 11! SIX lucky winners will be chosen during this year’s conference and will receive one of three copies of Scrivener or one of three copies of Final Draft 11! Both are excellent programs designed to simplify and assist in the writing process, whether you’re writing a manuscript or a screenplay! And with your registration, you could have one for free!

That’s right! Not only can you chat with our speakers, hobnob with agents, learn from professional writers, and make new friends who absolutely understand your struggle, but you could leave with a free writing program!

So, register today for your chance to win!

To read through our rules and regulations, Click here.

Programming, Self-Publishing Seminar, Zach's Corner

Ramblings From Zach’s Corner: Who Knew?

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This is new. I have a corner.

I just thought you should know.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Recently, I encountered a writer who informed me that, before finally coming to one our programs, they thought we were a scam. Not a malicious, out-to-ruin-all-things, kind of scam, but rather one of those nonprofits that seek to prey on people in need. It stumped me, to be honest. I’d never even considered that perception a possibility, as my brain doesn’t work that way. I’m more “free the spider to the outside world” than the “crush it into a thousand pieces and embrace the darkness of pain” type.

Yet, in review, I get it. The world can be a nasty, spiteful, self-absorbed place and one must be vigilant. There are nonprofits taking advantage of people trying to find their way. Offer a hand for help and people might pull you up so they can better pick your pocket. But that’s not who I am. That’s not what Broadleaf is.

Broadleaf is, and ever will be, a dream. An opportunity. An idea of community, education, inspiration, and connection. I’m a writer myself, after all. I have needs. I long to talk writing, to share work, to be J.K. Rowling or Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett (wait, why do I not live in the U.K. again?). I want to spin a web of writers and proclaim them Terrific and Radiant. And it would be absolutely good and well if I found others who could do the same for me.

Being a writer is a lonely, solitary, profession. We need to remember there’s a world outside our head, even if we don’t like it nearly as much.

Hence, Broadleaf.

Hence, programs like Write Now or the annual conference.

Or, coming very soon to a Ballroom (B) near you (specifically at the Cobb Galleria, whether near or far from you I’d rather not guess), our Self-Publishing Seminar. I don’t personally want to self-publish, nor is it “learning the craft of writing” per se, but it’s important to a large segment of writers and I want to make sure they have the tools to do it right. After all, we can all do this no problem. What we can’t all do, is do it right. So, if you’re in the camp of “should I self-publish”, keeping warm by the fire of indecision and doubt (with every single one of us crowded around), then invest in yourself and your work, register today, and come learn with us. Our speakers have done it, had success, made mistakes they can’t wait to share, and want—as I do as well—to ensure you do this right.

Like every program we put together, this one is for you. For the community of writers we seek to build. And if you want to find me and let me know what you need as a writer, what you’d like to see us as an organization do to better serve your needs, I promise we will take your hand, lift you up, and do our best to pad your pockets rather than pick them.

Programming

Join us for a Poetry Workshop at The Arts Exchange!

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In celebration of National Poetry Month, The Arts Exchange and Broadleaf Writers Association are pleased to present a one-day Poetry Workshop, to be held Saturday, April 6th from 10-4 at the Arts Exchange! With three workshops and a Q&A panel to address your questions, poets Theresa Davis, Andrea Jurjević and Collin Kelley will guide you through various styles and techniques! Be ready to write, ready to take notes, and ready to review poems you’ve brought with you! This program is free and open to the public, so don’t miss this opportunity to learn the art of poetry from three talented and prolific poets.

Workshops will include:
Giving Voice, led by Collin Kelley: This generative workshop will explore persona and ekphrastic poems. You’ll be giving voice to a narrator other than yourself, or perhaps a different version of yourself, and providing context or backstory to a work of art. Bring your pen and notebook and write poems to be shared with the group.

Andrea Jurjević will lead a workshop that explores passion and authenticity in poetry. Bring two of your strongest poems of 40 lines or less, paper, pen, and a sense of humor.

Random Facts and Musing, led by Theresa Davis, will incorporate random facts about the writer, random facts about a favorite subject or topic, and a the answers to a few questions. Mix it all together and a poem will be born. This is experimental poetry. Be brave.

We’ll conclude the day with a panel discussion, answering questions you may have about the craft, or the process of putting your work into a collection for publication!

Find the poems you’d like to share, bring a pen and paper or a latop to write, and join us for day devoted to poetry!

Programming, Write Now

Join us for our first Write Now program of 2019!

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In the beginning, you stared at a blank screen. This may have lasted a while. You may or may not have deleted your first line a few times. You made some coffee. You came back. The dog stared at you. You typed away, determined to keep the cat off the keyboard this time. Eventually you found a groove. You wrote some lines, which became paragraphs, which became a page.

Then a story happened. The pages flew by. You really like it (except when you hate it). You’ve developed feelings about it.

But the first page continues to call to you. After all, it’s what will get you in the door with an agent or editor. It’s what a potential reader may use to decide whether to buy your book. You think it needs something. But what? What if it’s okay to adequate already? What if you change something you shouldn’t change? How do you even know when it’s right?

First, take a breath. It’ll be all right.

We have a program just for you.

For our first Write Now program of 2019, we’re going to talk you through your first page. With the help of authors Emily Carpenter and Roger Johns, we’ll gather and chat, hold an informal discussion on the craft of writing a first page, then chat some more. Bring your page with you if you’d like. Time permitting, you may be able to read it aloud and we’ll offer our thoughts. We want you to leave feeling confident about writing the first page. Not only for your work-in-progress, but for all the first pages in your future.

Join us at Fox Tale Book Shoppe on Saturday, February 16th, 2019 at 2:00 p.m.!

Emily Carpenter is the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of suspense novels, Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, The Weight of Lies, and Every Single Secret. After graduating from Auburn with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication, she moved to New York City. She’s worked as an actor, producer, screenwriter, and behind-the-scenes soap opera assistant for the CBS shows, As the World Turns and Guiding Light. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, she now lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her family. You can visit Emily at emilycarpenterauthor.com and on Facebook and Twitter.

ROGER JOHNS is a former corporate lawyer and retired college professor, and the author of the Wallace Hartman Mysteries from St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books: Dark River Rising (2017) and River of Secrets (2018). He is the 2018 Georgia Author of the Year (Detective ▪ Mystery Category), a 2018 Killer Nashville Readers’ Choice Award nominee, and a finalist for the 2018 Silver Falchion Award for best police procedural. His articles and interviews on writing and the writing life have appeared in Career Author, Criminal Element, Killer Nashville Articles, and the Southern Literary Review. Roger belongs to the Atlanta Writers Club, Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers, where he is one of The Fearless Bloggers, and a mentor in the Big Writer program. Along with four other crime fiction writers, he co-authors the MurderBooks blog at www.murder-books.com. Visit him at www.rogerjohnsbooks.com and you can find him on Twitter at @rogerjohns10.

 

Programming, Writer's Night

Writer’s Night: Act Two coming March 31st!

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Writer’s Night is coming to Eagle Eye Book Shop for Act Two!

Join featured authors and 2018 Townsend Prize for Fiction Finalists, Stacia Pelletier and Daren Wang for an informal discussion on the craft of writing Act Two of your manuscript!

Spend some real-world time with writers like you, browse Eagle Eye’s great selection of books (Stacia and Daren’s books will be available for purchase!) have some food and drink, and chat with our featured authors! Find your inspiration! Join us!

This program is free and open to the public!

Stacia Pelletier is the author of Accidents of Providence and The Half-Wives, both short-listed for the Townsend Prize in Fiction. She earned graduate degrees in religion and historical theology from Emory University in Atlanta. A two-time fellow of the Hambidge Center, located in the mountains of North Georgia, she currently lives in Decatur, Georgia, and works at Emory University’s School of Medicine.

 

Daren Wang is the Founding Executive Director of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival, the largest independent book festival in the country. Before launching the festival, he had a twenty-year career in public radio, both national and local, with a particular focus on books and authors. Wang has written for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Paste magazine, and Five Points magazine, among others. The Hidden Light of Northern Fires is his first novel.

Programming

Join Us for a Screenwriting Seminar December 2nd!

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The film industry in Georgia is producing movies, shows and commercials at an increasing rate, creating a need for writers and fresh material for future projects. Yet, the opportunities to learn the craft of writing screenplays, and the process of selling a script, are few and far between.

But that’s about to change.

The Broadleaf Writers Association, in partnership with the DeKalb Entertainment Commission, is pleased to offer a seminar on the craft of writing screenplays, and the business of selling a screenplay, featuring two industry professionals.

In separate sessions, screenwriter Mike Buchanan, and producer Mickey Dunbrow, will conduct workshops on the craft, offer a presentation on current industry expectations and methods to improve your script, and answer any questions you may have. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to improve your writing and your script, and further your understanding of a rising industry in Georgia.

This program is free and open to the public. No reservation or ticket is required.

Mickey Dubrow has been an award winning television promotions and marketing writer/producer for major cable networks for over twenty-five years. His clients have included Cartoon Network, Cartoon Network Latin America, TNT Latin America, HGTV, CNN, and McGraw Hill. His essays have appeared in Full Grown People, The Good Man Project, Prime Number Magazine, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. For more information, visit http://mickeydubrow.com.

Michael Buchanan is the creator of the award winning feature The Fat Boy Chronicles which has been seen by millions on Netflix, at REDBOX, and used in schools nationwide; Last Bullet and Boxes, award winning shorts; feature-length documentary Spiral Bound; and feature documentary Nature Matters.

Fundraiser

The 2017 Fundraiser has begun!

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Hello friends! Fundraiser time is upon us again and we need your assistance to help us grow in 2017!

Now entering our second year, Broadleaf Writers is looking for the resources to secure office space, technology and supplies that will aid in our educational efforts, and the resources to fund our operation as we build toward future goals. With every dollar pledged, we gain a greater opportunity to teach the craft of writing to those looking to improve a skill they may use in both their personal and professional lives!

Any amount helps! Whether $10, $20 or more, every dollar will help us accomplish our goals of assisting individuals in their attempts to learn the craft!

We want to offer what we can in return for your generosity, and have therefore created the following levels:

With any donation of $50 or more, you will instantly receive an annual membership into Broadleaf Writers (a $40 value), and be listed as a donor on our website and in our Annual Conference Program! For a list of membership benefits, please visit our membership page.

With any donation of $100 or more, you will receive a membership, donation listing, and a critique on the first ten pages of your manuscript by one of our Conference speakers!

With any donation of $250 or more, you will receive a membership into Broadleaf Writers, you will be listed as a Sponsor of our organization or conference (your choice!), receive a ten page critique on your manuscript, AND you will be invited to all 2017 conference functions as our guest!

With any donation of $500 or more, you will receive a lifetime membership into Broadleaf Writers, invitations to future private and public functions and the opportunity to join us in an advisory capacity, as well as everything else in the above groups!

In addition to helping our educational organization grow, all donations are tax-deductible!

Thank you and we appreciate your time and attention!

Partners

Featured Partner: The Southern Collective Experience

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One of the fundamental tenets of the Broadleaf Writers Association is that through community, writers gain not only in talent but in strength and confidence. As a unit, we can achieve more, we can assist one another in the dreams birthed the first day we created worlds. Our region is deep in organizations dedicated to writers, and we believe it is necessary to partner with and promote them all. The broader the community, the greater we can assist our writers. So, today we launch a feature promoting each of our partners. Please, follow the links, see what these groups are doing. Perhaps they speak to you. Perhaps they speak to a writer you know. Perhaps you will share the word, help us in our efforts to build the biggest, most diverse community of writers in existence.

Today, we begin with the Southern Collective Experience.

Southern Collective Experience

The Southern Collective Experience is an organization of the arts founded in 2010.   After its founder, Clifford Brooks’ first book of poetry, The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, was published, he saw a need for increased professionalism and tight-knit feel of a family within, and around, those who shared a similar vision.  The Southern Collective Experience is a group of men and women who not only dream of being an artist, but have gained success in that endeavor.  They promote and provide personal support within their ranks to show through doing that not all of the Creative Ilk are incapable of sharing a stage.

The cardinal virtue of the Collective is to promote the arts, in all its forms, proving that integrity, high standards, and classical understanding of the past, present, and future of expression do exist.  Not only that, but they are thriving.  Innovative minds are able to balance their dreamscapes as well as their check books.

Every member holds their own responsibilities within the organization, while gaining enormous promotion for their own endeavors through social media, a magazine (The Blue Mountain Review), and an NPR radio show called Dante’s Old South.  You can find all of this and more by visiting their website, www.southerncollectiveexperince.com.

Of course, the presence of the word “Southern” isn’t meant to exclude any part of America, or the world for that matter.  Everyone is south of somewhere.  This has more to do with the couth, tact, and honor.  This is about laughter, relaxation, and mutual success while retaining absolute independence.  This is not a Utopian hope.  This is not a haughty construction of vowel and consonance sounds more akin to prayers than statements of facts.  It is what it is, and the SCE welcomes you to submit, inquire, and learn.