(Registration for this event is required and limited to 75 participants.  More Registration Information is with the day’s schedule below.)

Morning: CONTESTS: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly with Sarah Andre and Lark Howard

With all the contests out there, ever wonder if they’re really worth entering? What can you get out of contests? How do you choose the best ones for you? What does it take to final? Why volunteer to judge? Sarah Andre and Lark Howard have entered a whole lot of contests over the years and will share the lessons and war stories of winning, losing and judging the best, the worst and everything in between.

Sarah Andre began writing contemporary romantic suspense novels in 2005 and joined WH in 2006.  She has been a finalist in multiple contests including Lone Star, Fab Five, Sheila, Finally a Bride and  2011 Golden Heart. In 2009 Sarah signed with a NY Literary Agent who is currently shopping her  manuscript “Locked, Loaded and Lying.”

Lark Howard’s love of reading, writing and travel led her to a degree in English, a string of colorful jobs and a well-worn passport. For years she’s written for a living—marketing financial services by day and writing novel length fiction at night. Her current project, a paranormal romance set in Paris, is out on submission which is both exciting and nerve-wracking.

Afternoon: The Marathoner’s Guide to Writing: Staying in it for the Long-Haul without Losing Your Perspective, your Patience, or your Mind with Colleen Thompson and New York Times Best Seller Kerrelyn Sparks

The race to get published can be pure hell, but as someone who’s spent more than twelve years and twenty books in the trenches, COLLEEN THOMPSON will tell you it’s a leisurely Sunday stroll compared to the Herculean effort of staying published–and staying sane and healthy while doing so. Of the scores of romance writers she started out within 1999, very few remain but there are survivors still out there kicking tail and taking names. So what are the distinguishing qualities that enable some to keep working through the ups and downs common to every career? What lessons can those of us who aspire to be marathoners take from their stories? Colleen will share the traits she’s noticed as well as what she’s learned talking to other writers. Come hear an insider’s observations on what it takes to have a long-haul career as a writer.

From the historical novels that began her writing career to the riveting romantic suspense that has become her trademark, Colleen Thompson writes stories that show us that sometimes, love can kill. Her first romantic thriller, Fatal Error was nominated for the RITA for Best Romantic Suspense and won the Texas Gold for Best Mainstream fiction, and awards and honors have been showered on her books ever since. These include a RITA nomination for Triple Exposure, starred review from Publishers Weekly, Top Pick, KISS awards, reviewers’ choice award nomination from Romantic Times Book Club.

A resident of the Houston area and member of WHRWA, Colleen is a sought-after speaker locally and nationally.

Kerrelyn Sparks is the bestselling author of the Love at Stake series, paranormal romantic comedies published by HarperCollins.  When the fourth book in the series, The Undead Next Door, debuted at # 14 on the New York Times list, even the Undead sat up and took notice.  Kerrelyn lives in the Greater Houston area with her husband, children, and a house full of garlic. At this time, there are no vampires in her family. Werewolves are another matter entirely.  For more information, visit her website at www.kerrelynsparks.com.

Agents taking appointments

AGENT APPOINTMENTS will be from 10:15-11:30 and from 1:20 to 3. The appointments will last five minutes. Those desiring a one-on-one agent appointment MUST have a complete manuscript. First priority will be given to PRO and PAN members. You may request which of the agents you wish to meet with, but we make no guarantees.

Laura Bradford established the Bradford Literary Agency in 2001. Her recent sales include books placed with Berkley, Grand Central, Harlequin, Kensington, Simon and Schuster, HarperCollins, Sourcebooks, Hyperion, Flux, Macmillan, Adams Media, Egmont USA, John Wiley and Sons and Mira Books. She continues to actively build her client list and is currently seeking work in the following genres: Romance (historical, romantic suspense, paranormal, category, contemporary, erotic), urban fantasy, women’s fiction, mystery, thrillers and young adult as well as some select non-fiction. She is a member of the Association of Authors’ Representatives (AAR) and Romance Writers of America, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and she is an RWA-recognized agent. Twitter: @bradfordlit

After eight years at Berkley Publishing, Kim Lionetti left her position as Senior Editor to join BookEnds in March 2004. A member of AAR, Kim is currently focused on growing her young adult, women’s fiction, and romance lists and is only accepting submissions in those categories. Most important, she is looking for fresh voices and compelling storytelling. Given her extensive editorial background, she enjoys helping authors shape their work into more marketable products and seeing their writing as part of the “bigger picture.” You can contact Kim directly at klionetti @ bookends-inc.com or follow her at Twitter: @BookEndsKim

Registration Information

Workshop Fee:
2012 Emily Finalists: FREE!
WHRWA Members – $15
other RWA Members – $40
Everyone else – $55

Lunch will be provided.  If you have special dietary needs, you may wish to bring your own

Registration is required, and is limited to 75 participants.

The deadline to register is February 7th, 2012.

>>Registration now open.  Click Here.<<

Location:  Memorial Drive Christian Church (Our usual meeting location)

Joan Reeves has written SlingWords, her personal blog, since 2005. Along the way, she wrote a “commercial” blog daily and became a ghost blogger for corporate executives, business owners, and bookstores. (Due to Non-Disclosure Agreements that remain in effect, she can’t name names, so don’t ask!) When she began publishing ebooks in March 2011, her sales immediately soared. She credits much of her ebook success to her blog SlingWords. Since she knows a thing or two about blogs, she’s happy to share her knowledge with other writers.

Since Joan loves to talk, she’ll also offer an Informal Q&A about her Ebook Success which she reveals in her soon to be published book, EBOOK SUCCESS: JOAN SELLS & TELLS ALL.

Joan Reeves is a bestselling Kindle author of Romance. In her spare time, she’s a mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet who–no, wait, that’s some other writer. Seriously? Okay, if we must be serious. Joan Reeves is a multi-published print and ebook author. She’s published all over the web under her own name, various pseudonyms, and as a ghost, and she’s the writer and publisher of the long-running blog SlingWords.

Joan believes: “Although we are all different on the outside, on the inside, we all share the same human desires and emotions. My job as a writer is to appeal to those human emotions. I sometimes think professional writers do this well because, as F. Scott Fitzgerald pointed out, “A writer isn’t just one person. He (she) is a whole lot of people trying to be one person.”

During this special all-day seminar, Hollywood script and story consultant Michael Hauge will present his unique approach to creating compelling fiction and eliciting emotion in your readers through story concept, plot structure, character development and theme. Michael will then reveal his proven method for getting the people in power to read your manuscript or screenplay. Selected participants will also get direct feedback on their story concepts and pitches.

Topics covered will include:

• The primary goal of all story
• The power of desire, need, longing and destiny
• The essential conflict all characters must face
• Turning plot structure from a complicated concept into a simple, powerful tool you can easily apply to every story
• The single key to creating character arc and theme
• Creating unique, believable and fulfilling love stories
• The unique rules of romantic comedy: fantasy, duality, deceit
• Adapting your novel to film
• The single biggest mistake writers make in pitching their work
• The eight steps to a powerful pitch
• Query letters, phone calls, conferences and pitch fests
• Uniting your own passion with the demands of the market

If you want to elevate your fiction writing to the highest possible level, this event is a must.

Schedule:

8:00 Doors Open
8:30 Chapter Business Meeting
9:00-11:45 Hauge speaks
11:45-1:00 Lunch and Author Signings (not Hauge)
1:00-3:00 Hauge speaks
3:00-3:30 Afternoon break and Hauge Signing
3:30-5:30 Hauge speaks
5:30-6:00 Hauge Signing

Registration is required, and is limited to 100 participants.  Please fill out our registration form located here.

Registration Fee:

WHRWA member – $15
Emily Judges (2011 and 2012) – $40
RWA member (Not WHRWA member) – $55
Not a member of RWA or WHRWA – $100

MICHAEL HAUGE is a story consultant, author and lecturer who works with screenwriters, novelists, filmmakers and executives. Michael has presented seminars and lectures to more than 40,000 participants around the world, and has coached writers, producers, stars and directors on projects for Will Smith, Julia Roberts, Robert Downey, Jr., and Morgan Freeman, as well as for every major studio and network. He is currently on retainer with Will Smith’s company, Overbrook Entertainment, where he was involved in the development of I AM LEGEND, HANCOCK and THE KARATE KID.

Michael is the best selling author of Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds: The Guaranteed Way to Get Your Screenplay or Novel Read, as well as the brand new 20th Anniversary Edition of Writing Screenplays That Sell.

Remember high school? The friends, the drama, the parties, the… sex? Fashion and technology change, but teen angst remains the same. On Saturday, October 8, authors Lara Chapman, Dotti Enderle and Mary Lindsey will help you tap into your inner teen. Learn the do’s, don’ts, tips, trends and taboos of writing for the young adult and middle-grade markets.

The Panel

Prior to attending law school at The University of Houston, Mary Lindsey received a B.A. in English Literature with a minor in Drama from U of H. She has taught drama and playwriting in a large public high school and English in a private school.

Mary lives in Houston with her husband, three kids, two dogs, her daughter’s pet rats, an Australian Bearded Dragon, and dozens of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.

Her YA paranormal romance, SHATTERED SOULS (Philomel/Penguin), will be released December 8, 2011. Her second novel, ANNABEL (Philomel/Penguin), is a modern Gothic YA based on Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee,” and has a tentative release date of Summer 2013.

For more, visit: http://www.marylindsey.com

Lara Chapman, author of FLAWLESS, grew up loving school, especially new school supplies (who doesn’t love the smell of new crayons?). She loved school so much, in fact, she tried to make a career out of it. But after an extended stay in college prompted her father to announce she couldn’t be a professional student, she finally declared a major and graduated with her teaching certificate, reluctantly leaping into the scary waters of adulthood. Since then, she’s been teaching various subjects at the intermediate school level and loving every second of it. Lara lives with her family in Dime Box, Texas (it’s as small as it sounds), where she reads and writes daily. She’s rarely – if ever – found without her laptop and iPhone. For more, visit Lara online at www.larachapman.com.

Award-winning author Dotti Enderle began her writing career in 1995 when she got tired of her husband coming home at night, looking around, and saying, “What the hell did you do all day?”  Inspired by her two daughters, Nancy Drew, and hatred for housework, she has published 39 books for children and tweens. Her work includes middle-grade novels, CROSSWIRE, MAN IN THE MOON, and the FORTUNE TELLERS CLUB series.

Jo Anne Banker and Kay Hudson team up to present the very helpful judge’s training workshop. It’s got something for everyone, newer writers who are thinking about judging for the first time, but want to feel confident in their ability to handle the overall job, as well as experienced judges who want a reminder of all the different aspects of judging. This workshop is for anyone interested in giving fair, consistent evaluations, or in learning the criteria RWA contest judges use for contest entry placements.

Jo Anne Banker is the 2011 Golden Heart winner in Contemporary Series with her manuscript, Lost and Found. After a successful career as owner of a bookkeeping service, she’s traded her calculator for a laptop, and hopes to touch the lives of others with her stories. She’s been a member of RWA since 1993, studying her craft. She has also served for a combined twelve years on two local chapter Boards, including two years as president of West Houston RWA.

Kay Hudson used to answer to “contest slut,” but now she prefers “Golden Heart Finalist.” Sounds a shade more dignified, doesn’t it? She joined RWA in the mid 90s and has served on the boards of the Houston Bay Area and West Houston Chapters. She’s still entering contests, and tries to return the effort by judging for at least four of her favorites every year. When she’s not working, commuting, or writing paranormal romantic comedy, she blogs at  kayhudson.com.

Main Program: Expecting the Unexpected in the World of Publishing: Surprises to Prepare For

Sandra Worth has degrees in political science and economics which have nothing whatever to do with what she writes about—the Tudors and the Plantagenets. She worked briefly as a research assistant at the University of Toronto before giving it up to follow her husband around the world and raise her family. Writing is her second career. She is the prize-winning author of six historical novels, five of which have each garnered multiple awards, including three Reviewers’ Choice Awards, among them the Romantic Times “Best Historical Biography.” For more information, visit her website at www.sandraworth.com.

Best selling authors Nina Bangs and Gerry Bartlett met at an RWA chapter meeting almost twenty years ago and have been critiquing together ever since. Nina has hit the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists with her paranormal romances, and Gerry’s Real Vampires series continues to hit the Barnes and Nobles and Borders top 10 trade paperback list with every release. They will share with us the good, the bad and truly frightening of what they’ve learned in the trenches about the publishing business and writing in general.

Rita finalist Linda Castillo may be writing thrillers now, but her roots are in romance, and those roots run deep.  She wrote 23 romantic suspense novels for two publishing houses before breaking out in 2009 with her debut thriller Sworn to Silence.  If you’re writing any type of suspense, whether it’s a straight thriller, an inspirational romantic suspense or something in-between, and you’d like to learn more about his exciting genre, this workshop is a do not miss!

Linda Castillo wrote for 11 years before making that first sale to Silhouette Intimate Moments in 1999.  Since, she’s sold 27 books to three New York publishing houses.

She’s won numerous industry awards.  In 1999, she was a triple Golden Heart Finalist, winning the romantic suspense division with what would later become her first release.  She’s also won such prestigious awards as the Daphne du Maurier, the Holt Medallion, and a nomination for the prestigious Rita.

Her debut thriller, Sworn to Silence, garnered starred reviews from Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, and Booklist—and spent four weeks on the extended New York Times bestseller list.  The second book in the series, Pray for Silence, also hit the NYT list.

In her spare time, Linda enjoys trail riding, and dabbles in barrel racing. She resides in the Texas Panhandle with her husband, three dogs, a barn cat, and two Appaloosa horses.  She’s currently at work on her next novel, a thriller set in Amish Country and featuring Chief of Police Kate Burkholder and John Tomasetti.

Award-winning author Julia Justiss will talk about the importance of the major story elements (GMC,) and how she uses a synopsis as a writing outline to stay on track. She will also show the chart system she has developed for keeping track of POV, chapter breaks, and plot and romance developments as she writes.

Once she has explained the idea, the group will brainstorm a story and put together a chart, so everyone can see how it works as they progress through the book.

A former Golden Heart winner, Julia Justiss has published 15 Regency-set historical novels and three novellas for HQN and Harlequin Historical. Her books have won The Golden Quill, a Favorite Category Book of the Year from All About Romance and finaled for awards ranging from Romantic Times’s Best First Book to the Daphne Du Maurier to a Reader’s Choice for Best Historic Novella.  An admitted historical research nerd, Julia balances a day job as a high school French teacher with her first love, creating deeply emotional, character-driven historical romance fiction.

Make your readers laugh, and they will love you for it! Join Kerrelyn Sparks as she takes a serious look at humor,  though be warned Kerrelyn can only remain serious for short intervals, each lasting approximately sixty seconds. During those brief flashes of coherency, she will present ten ways to incorporate humor into your writing and explain how humor can be used to help you achieve multiple goals while crafting your story.

Kerrelyn Sparks is the bestselling author of the Love at Stake series, paranormal romantic comedies published by HarperCollins. When the fourth book in the series, The Undead Next Door, debuted at # 14 on the New York Times list, even the Undead sat up and took notice. Her most recent book, Vampire Mine, debuted at # 9 on the NY Times, # 7 on Publishers Weekly, and # 22 on the USA Today bestseller lists. Kerrelyn lives in the Greater Houston area with her husband, children, and a house full of garlic. At this time, there are no vampires in her family. Werewolves are another matter entirely. For more information, please visit her website at www.kerrelynsparks.com.

Do you have a day job and write romance novels before you go to work, at lunch, and late into the evening? Have you considered chucking the day job and writing full time? If you have, there are a few things to consider before you give your boss that resignation letter. And, your lack of a steady paycheck isn’t the only consideration.

Karen Burns has worked as an accountant/CPA her entire adult life. She’s traveled to Rio de Janeiro, London and Oslo, audited glass molds for wine bottles in California, taken a helicopter to a drillship off the Gulf Coast—all in the name of accounting. For the last 15 years she’s been controller at the University of St. Thomas. She’s in charge of the financial statements, the annual audit, and preparing IRS Form 990. Quitting her day job isn’t an option, but writing romance novels is her passion.

Main Program: Making Sense of Scenes with Kimberly Frost

Scenes are considered the building blocks of a novel. Join WHRWA author Kimber Frost for a presentation on the important elements found in scenes, how to make them sparkle, and using scenes to create a compelling story.

Kimberly Frost is the award-winning, national bestselling author of the humorous paranormal Southern Witch series. Her new paranormal romantic suspense series launches this year in a multi-author Christmas anthology that will be released in November 2011. You can learn more about Kimber and her books at: http://frostfiction.com/