Tuesday, May 20
7 to 9 p.m.

Kirt Hickman

Perfect Your Plot: The Hero's Journey and Beyond

Kirt will briefly cover the hero's journey, a series of twelve checkpoints through which your plot should progress, but there's more to plot than these checkpoints. As a writer, you've got to fill in the gaps. You've got to get your characters from each checkpoint to the next. At the same time, you must make your book exciting to keep your reader engaged. Learn how to hook your reader; how to maintain suspense through the muddle… um, middle, of your story; how to keep your reader guessing; and how to satisfy him in the end.

Kirt Hickman earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in electrical engineering from the University of New Mexico. He has worked with high-energy laser optics, microelectronics, micro-machines, and other technologies relevant to the science fiction genre, and leverages his knowledge and experience to enrich his stories. He was a technical writer for fourteen years before branching into fiction, in 2003. Worlds Asunder is his first novel. He has the sequel, Venus Rain, a how-to titled Revising Fiction, and a fantasy trilogy in progress.

Saturday, June 7
10:00 a.m. to noon

Ron Chapman

From Obstacle to Opportunity
Breaking Through Barriers and Taking Action for Success

From Obstacle to Opportunity is a unique approach to the challenges and common misperceptions authors encounter in seeking publication, promotion and success. From Obstacle to Opportunity engages the audience in an interactive exploration of their resistance and perceived limitations including such common problems as the failure to understand that the content of the book is not necessarily enough to ensure success, reticence to add value with improved interviewing and speaking skills, fear of both failure and success, and that counter-productive inner critic that keeps us from trusting ourselves.

Ronald Chapman is an award-winning radio commentator and interviewer and the author of Seeing True: Ninety Contemplations in Ninety Days (March 2008), What a Wonderful World, and CDS Seeing True: The Way of Spirit and Seeing True: The Way of Success in Leadership. He is also the founder and principal of Magnetic North LLC, specializes in fostering organization development, strategic planning, and personal and professional growth.

Saturday, June 7
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
$20 for members
$30 for non members
No registration. Pay at the door.

Lisa Lenard-Cook

SWW Workshop
The Mind of Your Story

Learning how to create a fiction with a mind of its own involves a basic rethinking of the writing process. We begin by exploring fictional seeds—those things writers can’t get out of their heads—and how these seeds are translated into fiction through the writers’ experiences and imagination. Next, we explore time, pacing, and tense and tension, moving far beyond the basics into the realm of fiction that makes that mysterious connection with readers. And in the third hour, we’ll discuss the all-important and too often neglected process of revision and rewriting.

Lisa Lenard-Cook’s first novel, Dissonance (UNM Press, 2003), was awarded the Jim Sagel Prize for the Novel, short-listed for the PEN Southwest Book Award, and was a selection of Durango-LaPlata Reads and NPR Performance Today’s Summer Reading Series. Her second novel, Coyote Morning (UNM Press, 2004), was short-listed for the New Mexico Press Women’s Zia Award and was, like Dissonance, a Southwest Book of the Year. Her book about writing fiction, The Mind of Your Story, has just been published by Writer’s Digest Books, and will be their book club’s main selection in June.

Tuesday, June 17
7 to 9 p.m.

Keith Pyeatt

Novel by Novel: Learning as You Write

How do you improve a novel? Ask Keith Pyeatt, and he'll tell you he makes it the best he can, writes another novel, makes it the best he can, and then digs back into the previous novel(s). Keith tends to do things the hard way. He does, however, have five novels to show for his efforts, and he's working on number six. June 17th he'll discuss a learning curve that's spanned five novels -- so far. Benefit from his experiences and shorten your learning curve for that novel you're editing, writing, or preparing to write.

Keith Pyeatt is a mechanical engineer turned novelist and freelance editor. He's serving on the SWW board for the third year. The first year he was the conference coordinator, and he became the treasurer and financial officer in 2007. Keith writes paranormal, psychological thrillers. You can sample his work at his website: http://www.keithpyeatt.com.

Saturday, July 5
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
$20 for members
$30 for non members
No registration. Pay at the door.

Johnny D. Boggs

SWW Workshop
THE PLOT THICKENS

Plotting can be one of the toughest obstacles in creating a novel. How do you move the story, keep the reader interested (and guessing)? It's like cooking. You have to find the right ingredients. Not too thick. Not too watery. With just enough spice.

Johnny D. Boggs has been praised by Booklist magazine as "among the best western writers at work today�" and is one of the few authors to have won both the Western Heritage Wrangler Award and Spur Award for his fiction. True West magazine has named him the Best Living Fiction Writer in its 2008 Best of the West Awards.

Boggs has three Spur Awards from Western Writers of America, winning for Best Juvenile Western Novel in 2008 for Doubtful Canon, Best Western Novel in 2006 for Camp Ford and for Best Short Fiction in 2002 for "A Piano at Dead Man's Crossing." He won the Western Heritage Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum for Outstanding Western Novel of 2003 for Spark on the Prairie: The Trial of the Kiowa Chiefs. His novels Northfield, The Hart Brand and Ten and Me and his short story "The Cody War" were Spur finalists.

The author of more than 30 books and several short stories, Boggs is also a prolific writer of short nonfiction whose works have appeared in 50 magazines and newspapers. He is a frequent contributor to True West, New Mexico Magazine, Persimmon Hill, Wild West and Boys' Life. His website is www.johnnydboggs.com.

Tuesday, July 15
7 to 9 p.m.

Chris Eboch

Conference Networking: Getting the Most from a Writing Conference

Attending writing conferences is a great way to meet other writers, learn new skills, get tips about industry trends -- and maybe even connect with an editor or agent. But to get the most from the experience, you need to be prepared and go in with the right attitude. This workshop will show you how!

Chris Eboch is the New Mexico Regional Advisor for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. As such, she has coordinated five conferences and attended many others. She has published over 100 articles for children and adults, including “How to Succeed at a Conference” in Writer’s Digest.

Chris is the author of The Well of Sacrifice (Clarion Books), a middle grade historical adventure set in ninth century Guatemala. Kirkus Reviews called The Well of Sacrifice, “[An] engrossing first novel….[with] a brave, likable and determined heroine.”

Chris’s latest books are dramatic and inspirational biographies, Jesse Owens: Young Record Breaker and Milton Hershey: Young Chocolatier, both with Simon & Schuster's Childhood of Famous Americans series.

See her website at www.chriseboch.com.

Saturday, August 2
10:00 a.m. to noon

Mark David Gerson

Living Your Creativity:
Secrets to Effortless & Powerful Writing

Living your passion for writing and writing your passion for a living involve pretty much the same principles and precepts. And the secrets to effortless and powerful writing are not really secrets at all. Join Mark David as he explores with you his "Thirteen Rules for Writing" and reveals to you the secrets you knew all along.

Mark David Gerson has taught writing as a creative and spiritual pursuit for more than 15 years in the U.S. and Canada. Through classes, workshops, coaching and consulting, Mark David has guided groups and individuals to connect with their innate wisdom, open to their creative power and express themselves with ease. Poets and playwrights, novelists and educators, amateurs and professionals, people who don't believe they can write and people with a compelling call to write — have all benefited from working with him, as have nonwriters seeking to move through life's challenges and awaken to their highest potential.

Mark David is the award-winning author of The MoonQuest: A True Fantasy and of The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write, a book of writing instruction, inspiration and practice. He has also recorded The Voice of the Muse Companion, a 2-CD set of guided meditations for writers. Mark David's free inspirational newsletter is read in more than two dozen countries.