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**This event will be live streamed via Zoom.**
Hosted by Membership Coordinator Carla Mackey.
An open forum of discussion for BARN Members to gather and chat every second Wednesday of the month. Carla may bring topics of conversation to the meeting.
Members, please register here to receive the Zoom link right away. It will be sent to the email address you used to register. A reminder email will also be sent one day prior to the event.
This event will be conducted via Zoom. For a great video on how to use Zoom, watch this tutorial. Please make sure you have the most current version of the Zoom software.
The BARN Member newsletter is emailed the fourth Wednesday of the month. The link to join is also provided in that monthly newsletter about a week prior to the event.
If you have questions, please contact Carla at Membership@bainbridgebarn.org.
The Writers Studio is happy to announce the revival of Word Sprint-- a weekly time to write in the company of others. Using Zoom to come together, we'll write for twenty-five minutes, take a break, repeat. There is no sharing or critique of your writing, only fast-paced, supportive productivity in the company of other writers. It will be fun, exciting, and might be the thing to help you finish (or start...) your manuscript. These virtual sessions will help participants set aside time to write and be with other writers in an informal setting.
The sessions will be led by a rotating team of hosts including Jen Scheiderman, Amelia Ramsey, Kassia Sing, Genevieve Douglass, and Steve Bice
Details:
This class will be conducted via Zoom. For a great video on how to use Zoom, watch this tutorial. Please make sure you have the most current version of the Zoom software.
Studio Lead: Sallie Maron Writers.Lead@bainbridgebarn.org
A Zoom link will be sent one day prior to each session to the email you registered with. Please watch for this email. Signing up does not mean you have to commit to all the sessions.
We’re thrilled to have Jon Mooallem as our guest for our first Third Thursday event of 2021. Join us to hear Jon share engaging stories and insights about his writing journey. Be prepared to be inspired!
Jon Mooallem is the author of THIS IS CHANCE! and WILD ONES, a longtime writer at large for The New York Times Magazine, and a contributor to numerous other magazines and radio shows, including This American Life, Radiolab and Wired. He has spoken at TED and collaborated with members of the Decemberists on musical storytelling projects.
**This workshop will be live streamed via Zoom.**
Do your dreams and creative visions tend to stay in your head? Are you perpetually task-oriented and future-focused? Looking for more fulfillment in the moment and a creativity routine and life practices that will stick? In this two-part class, you’ll join others in a habit-forming journey to a more intentional place that will open up space to be your best self and do your best creative work (not just while doing your craft, but while doing everything
In addition, there will be a limited number of class spots, so you must commit to showing up and participating for both 90 minute Zoom sessions. You will also be asked to sign a document that sets rules of engagement for a strong and supportive group experience, set a daily practice routine that you follow for the three months between classes, and join a Facebook group that will be active during the class (and beyond if it continues to be useful to people). This document will be found as you register for the class. You will have to check the box "I have read and understand" to complete registration.
Optional: Course materials will include the following: Daily Rituals by Mason Curry; On Writing by Stephen King; Bliss More by Light Watkins; and, Monk Manual--either purchase the fancy book here https://tinyurl.com/y58lmfhx or purchase pages to be done online or printed out for a binder: https://monkmanual.com/products/monk-manual-pdf
Instructor Bio:
A professional writer, Alice Skipton has collaborated in the social change sector for nearly 20 years. A few of her current and recent clients and initiatives include the Rethink Outside story bank, editing for the Climate Justice Resilience Fund, as well as storytelling for the University of Washington's College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Nursing. After earning her MFA in creative nonfiction writing at Penn State, Alice went to work for Casey Family Programs as a communications specialist. Later, she started her consulting firm focused on creating strategic and engaging content for purpose-driven companies, foundations and nonprofits.
This class is a follow up class for those students that attended "Truth Matters: Finding the Courage to Write Your Story Part I" held in November.
In these troubled times, the news reminds us daily that the difficult history we share is with us still and we all suffer as a result. The often unexamined legacies of the attempted genocide of indigenous people and the enslavement of Africans, in particular, continue to haunt our land. Through writing fiction, poetry or memoir, we can chart a path to help us move forward together.
This follow up class invites writers from all cultural lineages to bring their stories to the table. Lessons and assignments are designed to fit each individual’s skill level and project—beginner, intermediate, or advanced; fiction, poetry or creative non-fiction. Each session focuses on a different aspect of story craft—narrative arc, sensory detail, dialogue, mature narrator. Participants also learn to critique in ways that are supportive, honest and helpful by practicing deep listening.
Writing can be a spiritual practice that teaches us to be fully present and alive to ourselves and the world. Take a journey inward, tap into your imagination, and find the deep truths and visions. In witnessing one another’s stories, let’s combine our energies to form a creative community of inspiration and compassion.
Laura Bowers Foreman and Ann Holmes Redding met 14 years ago and have been partners in teaching writing for nearly a decade. Their friendship began with sharing their personal stories and discovering common commitments both to writing and healing from ancestral and national historical harms. Together, Laura and Ann embody African, European, and indigenous heritages. Over the years they have jointly participated in a number of circles dedicated to healing and restorative justice.
Dubbed “the story doulas” by one student, Ann and Laura consciously support and coach each writer on the journey from inception to delivery of their work. They are experienced fellow travelers, helping students negotiate the sometimes unsettling information and emotions that may surface en route. They also confer with their students as they discern what vehicle—fiction, poetry, nonfiction, or some combination—best suits the task at hand.
Laura Bowers Foreman offers her students all that she has gleaned from her twenty-five years as a writer. Her writing is informed by a passion for both the environment and social justice at every level, from the personal to the global. Her work has appeared in such publications as The Whitefish Review, About Place Journal, Nature in Legend and Story, Wildlife Conservation Magazine, and The Christian Science Monitor. She also has contributed to the anthologies Memoirs in the Light of Day and The Sweet Breathing of Plants (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), among others.
Ann Holmes Redding brings 40+-years of teaching experience, wisdom, and compassion to her students. Creative expression as a medium for transformation stands at the center of her life work as a spiritual guide, speaker, and instructor. Her essays and articles have been published in the Fairacres Chronicle and The Living Pulpit, as well as in scholarly works. She is co-author Out of Darkness into Light: Spiritual Guidance in the Qur’an with Reflections from Jewish and Christian Sources.
Does your book need a love scene? Will readers want and expect it? How do you write a believable love scene that makes readers fall even more in love with your characters? Are love scenes only for romance novels or is there room for love and lust on the pages of mystery novels, sci-fi novels, and fantasy novels?
In this class, RITA-winning and USA Today bestselling erotic romance author Tiffany Reisz will instruct explore the art of writing love scenes in novels by reading some of the best (and worst) love scenes in modern fiction and analyzing what works, what doesn’t, and what we can learn from them as authors of adult fiction. This class is for ages 18 and up only.
Tiffany Reisz is the USA Today-bestselling author of the Romance Writers of America RITA®-winning Original Sinners series from Harlequin's Mira Books.
Born in Owensboro, Kentucky, Tiffany graduated from Centre College with a B.A. in English. She began her writing career while a student at Wilmore, Kentucky's Asbury Theological Seminary. After leaving seminary to focus on her fiction, she wrote The Siren, which has sold more than half a million copies worldwide.
Tiffany also writes mainstream women's suspense fiction, including The Bourbon Thief (winner of the RT Book Reviews Seal of Excellence Award) and the RITA®-nominated The Night Mark.
Her erotic fantasy The Red—self-published under the banner 8th Circle Press—was named an NPR Best Book of the Year and a Goodreads Best Romance of the Month. It also received a coveted starred review from Library Journal.
Tiffany lives in Louisville, Kentucky with her husband, author Andrew Shaffer, and two cats. The cats are not writers.
In this 4 session class, you’ll find a safe environment that invites writers of all levels and genres an opportunity to generate new writing. Enrollment is limited to eight writers.
Two prompts will be provided for timed writing, followed by an opportunity to read and receive responses to this fresh written material. Reading your work is optional. Responses can only begin with: what is strong, what I like and what stays with me. An additional prompt will be given for optional homework.
Julie Gardner, an Amherst Writers & Artists Affiliate, has led WritersGathering writing groups, workshops and retreats in Seattle for nearly a decade. At BARN, for over a year, she has offered a series every quarter. Participants say they learn more about their strengths, discover new ones, develop their repertoire of craft elements, take risks, generate writing, and have fun learning from and writing with others.
Julie is the editor of Original Voices: Homeless and Formerly Homeless Women's Writings. Recent works have been featured in Passager's Pandemic Diaries, Persimmon Tree, and in Alone Together: Love, Grief and Comfort in the Time of Covid-19.
Indie-publishing is an increasingly viable option for writers to get their books into the world, but many new authors experience frustration when their books don't sell as well as they'd hoped. In this workshop, A.C. Fuller will talk through marketing techniques for indie writers, including: *Release strategies *Book covers and genres *Email lists *Book promotion websites *Social media *Advertising platforms such as Facebook and Amazon
This workshop is an introductory class. A.C. Fuller last taught this popular class on February 16, 2019. If you have already taken this Part 1 class, then you are ready for Part 2 (Advanced Marketing for Indie Authors) on Saturday, February 27th.
Instructor Bio: Once a journalist in New York, A.C. Fuller now writes stories at the intersection of media, politics, and technology. He’s the author of eight novels in two series: The Alex Vane Media Thrillers and Ameritocracy. Before he began writing full time, he was an adjunct professor of journalism at NYU and an English teacher at Northwest Indian College. He lives with his wife, two children, and two dogs near Seattle.
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In this second marketing workshop, A.C. Fuller will cover all the advanced marketing techniques you need to launch your indie publishing career, expanding on strategies covered in Part I, including mailing lists, promotional websites, ads, and more. We will also workshop the marketing plans, book covers, and websites of brave volunteers from Part I of the course who wish to fine tune their marketing. Please sign up for this course only if you’ve signed up for or have taken Marketing for Indie Writers Part I.
English language is full of rules! We were exposed to them once upon a time. Some rules we got, but others we never quite figured out. Those rules we feel ignorant of or uncertain about undermine our confidence as writers. Have you ever launched a sentence, only to stop because you’re not sure how to complete it correctly? When do I use “whom”? Dang--is it “lay” or “lie”?
Which rules still stump you? Join us for this painless 4-week course on Wednesday nights. We’ll confirm the rules you know and correct the rules you don’t. Homework will be assigned each week—including some prior to our first class. At each session we’ll review homework together, explore a new topic, and work on a new exercise.
So come beef up those grammar muscles! Become a more confident writer, and let's have fun with language.
Jenn Hager partners with authors on stories that capture something deeply true about human experience. As a developmental editor, she does manuscript assessments on book-length projects: analyzing a work's internal structure, assessing its strengths and weaknesses, and providing insight for revision. Her editing strengths result in cohesive story-building, increased texture, and good reader engagement. Jenn likes people as much as she loves story, so she brings good skills to collaborative work. Partnering with individuals as a writing coach, Jenn supports clients’ progress with a writing project, offering useful editorial skills as needed.
Experience: literary fiction, speculative fiction, science fiction, historical fiction, young adult fiction, middle grade fiction, narrative nonfiction, memoir, self-help, spirituality. Graduate of the University of Washington Editing Certificate program; studied developmental editing under mentorship with the Author-Editor Clinic. Member of the Northwest Editors Guild.
Mark your calendars!
Stay tuned for more information on our exciting event! Watch for more information in our BARN newsletters and the front page of our website.
This four session course will walk students through the process of creating their own comics and graphic novels from idea to finished product. Topics covered included elements of story telling, creating narrative, creating characters, drawing, inking, and coloring comics.
Billy Simms is an award winning artist and educator. He holds a BA from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in theatrical scenic and lighting design, an MS from The Johns Hopkins University in special education, and an MFA in studio art from Miami University. He lives in Hamilton, OH with his wife and four cats.
Age Level: Youth Class, Ages 12-18.