Winter 2012 Creative Writing Workshops Now Registering

Creative Writing workshops in Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Screenwriting, Memoir and Poetry begin next week! However, a few spaces still remain. Find details at http://www.westportwritersworkshop.com/creative-writing-workshops.asp or call (203) 227-3250.

The Westport Writers' Workshop offers friendly, supportive writing workshops designed to encourage, inspire, and spark your imagination. We focus always on the positive to help you discover and develop your own unique writing talent and voice. "Assignments" are always optional, designed to inspire your writing. If you have a project in mind or a work in progress, it always takes precedence over "assignments". You will be guided and encouraged along the way.

While sharing your work with others, and in brief, instructive presentations by workshop leaders, you will learn writing techniques and develop writing skills to make your work interesting and enjoyable. Workshops are limited to 8 or fewer participants to ensure that you receive personal attention and extensive feedback at each session.

Whether your goal is to become a published author or simply to record your life for posterity, you will become part of a community of writers who share a passion for writing and a desire to master the craft.

Invitation to Be a Guest on Karen's Blog

What stirs your writer's soul? Answer this question in 250 words or less and Karen M. Rider will upload it as a guest post on her blog "Soul of a Writer."

Karen invites writing colleagues of all genres to submit about any of the following topics related to "what stirs the soul of a writer?"

• Why did you write your most recent story?
• What made you stick with a character that gave you more trouble than fun to write about?
• What compelled you to share details of your life in a personal essay or work of creative nonfiction?
• What made you want to tackle historical fiction and why did you choose the time period your most recent work is set in?
• Why do you write?
• How do you feed your muse?
• What made you choose the setting for your current work-in-progress or most recent published work?
• Where do you find inspiration for your stories?
• Write about what the topic "stirs a writer's soul" means to you!

Karen's blog receives 250-600 hits a month, depending on time of year, content and frequency of posts. Her website receives 300 hits per month (since February 2011) with more than 100 return visitors each month. 12% stay on site to read from 2-10min. 5% read for an hour or more. She will post the content that has the best match for her blog audience. Submit your post with a 60 word bio on or before September 25.

Subscribe to Karen's newsletter to find out if your post will be uploaded and the date. You'll also find out when other CAPA member's posts are going up.

Questions? Contact Karen by replying to this email.

All the best,

Karen M. Rider

Discover Metaphysical Fiction

Blog: Soul of a Writer

Journaling Workshop: 5 Ways to Journal Your Best Life

This is the flyer for the upcoming program at Cromwell Belden Library

Dec 14 2011

6:30 pm

A Westport Writers Workshop

SPECIAL EVENT

"Where Do You Get Your Ideas?"
Children's Authors Share Invention Strategies

At the Westport Writers' Workshop
3 Sylvan Road South, Westport

TONIGHT!
December 8
7:30-9 pm

Discovery of a mysterious diamond reveals a girls’s connection to Shakespeare...a boy cast out of his Amazon tribe finds new life with an American adoptive family but needs to return to prove himself...a group of kids with wacky but limited powers put their heads together to solve a crime...

Do you ever wonder where best-selling children’s authors get their ideas?

Anyone who writes or loves middle grade fiction will enjoy this evening with successful authors of middle grade fiction. The panel, which includes the surprise guest NY Times tech columnist David Pogue along with authors Elise Broach, Tony Abbott and N.A. Nelson, will address questions such as:

• How do you repeatedly come up with fresh, inventive ideas?
• How do you know that the idea is right for your target age range – in this case, middle grade fiction?
• What strategies are useful when you get stuck working on a story?
• How do you decide when it's time to abandon an idea and move on to something else?

Panelists will include:

Tony Abbott: Firegirl (Little, Brown & Co.); Lunchbox Dream (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); Secrets of Droon (Scholastic); Cracked Classics Series (Hyperion); award-winner The Secret (Little, Brown & Co.)

Elise Broach: Missing on Superstition Mountain (Henry Holt & Company); New York Times Bestseller Masterpiece (Henry Holt & Company); Shakespeare's Secret (Henry Holt & Company); Desert Crossing (Henry Holt & Company)

Nina Nelson: Bringing the Boy Home (Harper Collins);

David Pogue: Abby Carnelia's One and Only Magical Power (Roaring Brook Press)

The presentation will include time for Q&A. Copies of the authors’ books will be available for purchase and book signing.

Registration $25, bring a child for free. Space is limited. Pre-registration is required.

REGISTER NOW

Karen Rider's News

I have a feature fiction piece coming out in Om Times digital magazine in the DEC 15 and JAN 1 issues. The story is "The Parade" It is a visionary short story:

"I really enjoyed The Parade. There are spiritual instructions on how to achieve wellbeing, happiness and success. Your writing is very descriptive, it captured my imagination and pulled me into the story. In your writing, you use your metaphysical knowledge in a creative and enlightening way."

Ingride Elguleta, Canada

Visitors to my website who sign-up for my e-newsletter will receive a personal copy of the story and the interpretation of the symbolic imagery— spiritual, angelic and metaphysical— depicted in the story.

Also, recently published in Om Times is an article, "Menopausal Madness". In the Cromwell Chronicle in December 2011 issue: "2012: Beginning of the End or Just the Beginning"

My website: www.karenmrider.com