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The scene is the foundational element of story construction. Learn how to take it to greater heights with book editor and award-winning author, Lorin Oberweger, who has over 25 years of experience in the industry. In this class, we’ll examine the ways in which every aspect of the scene can perform multiple functions, creating richer and more dynamic moments that lead to a much more satisfying work. We'll look at different approaches to scene structure and those elements of scene and story that are essential to creating reader investment. Come with a couple of scenes from your work-in-progress and a willingness to dig in!
Details:
LORIN OBERWEGER is a highly sought-after independent book editor, ghostwriter, and award-winning author with more than twenty-five years of experience in publishing. In addition to the workshops produced by her company, Free Expressions, Lorin is a popular instructor at writing conferences around the country. She also has eight traditionally published books (five fiction, three nonfiction), including BOOMERANG, REBOUND, and BOUNCE, co-written with Veronica Rossi and published by Harper Collins. Her work has received glowing reviews from the New York Times, USA Today, Kirkus Reviews, and others. Most recently, she co-authored THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK with Chris Anderson, director of the renowned TED organization.
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
You can register at anytime even if a session has passed.
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.
Studio Lead: Mary Sloat [email protected]
If you've never written, need to let go of your critical or "editor" voice, or just need some new energy to get the words flowing, this four week series is for you! A safe and fun environment is created giving writers of all levels and genres an opportunity to generate new writing. Enrollment is limited to eight writers.
Prompts will be provided for timed writing, followed by an opportunity to read and receive responses to fresh written material. Reading your work is optional.
"My very best writing emerges out of your groups' creative cauldrons...your comments were spot on, very insightful and helpful." --from a participant
Instructor Bio:
Julie Gardner, an Amherst Writers & Artists Affiliate, has led WritersGathering groups, workshops and retreats in Seattle since 2011. At BARN, she has offered a quarterly series since 2019. Participants say they learn more about their strengths, discover new ones, develop their repertoire of craft elements, take risks, generate writing, and have fun writing and learning from 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.
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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.
**This event will be live streamed via Zoom. Event time is Pacific Time**
BARN’s annual Dark and Stormy Night is creeping up on us again! Please join us from the comfort and safety of your own place to see and hear some star local authors reading original spooky stories.
Get ready for terrifying tales written and read by:
Lynn Brunelle
Megan Chance
Jamie Ford
Dinah Manoff
Maureen McQuerry
Kevin O'Brien
Warren Read
New this year: For added excitement (and to support the youth scholarship fund), you can also bid on having a name of your choice used in one of the stories. You can even bid to name a character in next year's thriller by best selling author Kevin O'Brien! The online auction will run from October 15 to 25. Register to bid here.
Author Bios:
Lynn Brunelle is a four-time Emmy Award-winning writer for "Bill Nye the Science Guy," Lynn Brunelle has over 25 years of experience writing for people of all ages, across all manner of media. Previously a classroom science, English and art teacher for kids K-12, she is an award-winning author of over 45 titles. A regular contributor to National Geographic, NPR and NBC, she has spoken at the UN about girls and STEM education and thrown out a first pitch at a Mariners/Yankees game to honor our native bees for BEEballday. She was recently named a Bainbridge Island Treasure.
Megan Chance is the bestselling, critically acclaimed, award-winning author of several novels. Her work has been chosen for Amazon Book of the Month, IndiNext, and the Historical Novel Society Editor's Choice. Booklist calls her writing "provocative and haunting". Her books include A Splendid Ruin, A Drop of Ink, and The Visitant.
Megan lives in the Pacific Northwest.
Jamie Ford is the great-grandson of Nevada mining pioneer, Min Chung, who emigrated from Hoiping, China to San Francisco in 1865, where he adopted the western name Ford, thus confusing countless generations.
His debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, spent two years on the New York Times bestseller list, went on to win the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and has been optioned for film and stage. His second book, Songs of Willow Frost, was also a national bestseller. His work has been translated into 35 languages. (He’s still holding out for Klingon, because that’s when you know you’ve made it).
His latest novel, The Many Daughters of Afong Moy will be published May 2022.
When not writing or daydreaming, he can be found tweeting @jamieford and posting on Instagram @jamiefordofficial.
Dinah Manoff is an award-winning actress who was born in New York City to actress Lee Grant and writer Arnold Manoff. Her credits include numerous theater roles including a Tony Award-winning performance in “I Ought to Be in Pictures”, in which she starred with Walter Matthau. Her film roles include Grease and Ordinary People
Dinah has also worked as a television director, helming episodes of “Sabrina,” “Movie Stars,” “Brothers,” and numerous episodes of “Empty Nest”. She resides with her family on Bainbridge where she writes, directs theater and teaches acting. Recently she published her first novel The Real True Hollywood Story of Jackie Gold.
Maureen McQuerry is the author of four novels, 2 board book series, and 2 nonfiction books, including: The Peculiars, Beyond The Door, The Telling Stone, Between, Before And After, Big Ideas For Little Philosophers and the forthcoming Big Ideas For Little Environmentalists
Her books have been selected for YALSA best fiction, ALA best book, Bank Street Best Books, and sold in 5 languages. Publisher’s Weekly calls her YA and MG work “evocative of The Dark is Rising and Neil Gaimen.”
Maureen taught for 20 years, specializing in gifted education, and was the McAuliffe fellow for WA state in 2000. She currently lives on an island near Seattle with her husband, a hive full of bees, and four chicken sisters.
Kevin O’BrienBefore his thrillers landed him on the USA Today and New York Times Bestseller lists, Kevin O’Brien was a railroad inspector. The author of 21 internationally-published thrillers, he won the Spotted Owl Award for Best Pacific Northwest Mystery. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages. Press & Guide said: “If Alfred Hitchcock were alive today and writing novels, his name would be Kevin O’Brien.” Kevin’s latest nail-biter is The Night She Disappeared. He is one of 13 bestselling, award-winning thriller authors contributing to the anthology, Nothing Good Happens After Midnight, edited by Jeffery Deaver. He lives in Seattle, where he is hard at work on his next thriller.
Warren Read juggles his day job as a high school associate principal with his writing life. He is the award-winning author of the novels Ash Falls and the New York Times notable mention One Simple Thing. His short fiction has been published in Hot Metal Bridge, Mud Season Review, Sliver of Stone, Inklette, Switchback Magazine and East Bay Review. In addition, he has had two short plays directed and produced by Tony winner Dinah Manoff. He and his husband live in the middle of a wonderfully exotic garden in Kingston, WA. Learn more about Warren at www.warren-read.com
First chapters of novels serve a variety of functions—hooking and reeling the reader in, establishing character, previewing what’s to come, and pushing the reader to stay engaged. For the writer, that opening chapter can be both frustrating and terrifying. At best, the opening is a springboard for the rest of the novel, and it’s easy to get mired in the quest to make it “perfect” before moving on.
In this workshop, we’ll look closely at several “first chapters” of novels (provided ahead of time), both well-known and, perhaps, less so. How does the author “open the curtain” for the rest of the novel in a way that sets up what is to follow? What elements exist to engage the reader and make them want to continue on the journey? The class is open to readers and writers of all levels of experience.
Warren Read is the author of the novels, One Simple Thing (2021, Ig Publishing), and Ash Falls (2017, Ig Publishing). In 2009 his memoir, The Lyncher in Me was released by Borealis Books. His fiction has appeared in Hot Metal Bridge, Mud Season Review, Sliver of Stone, Inklette, Switchback Magazine and the Christmas issue of East Bay Review. He is an assistant principal in Bainbridge Island, WA; in 2015 he received his MFA in from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. Learn more about Warren at www.warren-read.com.
**This workshop will be live streamed via Zoom.**
Your life is a story, and if told correctly, a very interesting one. There is an art to taking the sprawling events of your life and reducing them down to a personal essay or memoir. Using Bill Kenower’s unique inside-out approach to writing, we will look at how to tell the fine difference between telling a story about your life, and using your life to tell a story. It doesn’t matter if you want to tell the story of how you’ve climbed Mount Everest, or falling in love for the first time, all stories are worth telling when you find their heart.
Students taking this class can expect to learn:
William Kenower is the author of Fearless Writing: How to Create Boldly and Write With Confidence, Write Within Yourself: An Author’s Companion, the forthcoming Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt, and the Editor-in-Chief of Author magazine. In addition to his books he’s been published in The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, Edible Seattle, Parent Map, and has been a featured blogger for the Huffington Post.
Garth Stein, internationally best-selling author of the Art of Racing in the Rain, is hosted by four-time Emmy Award-winning writer Lynn Brunelle in a conversation where everything is on the table from Garth’s approach to craft to his feelings about Zoom.
Presenter bios:
Garth Stein is the internationally bestselling author of the contemporary classic, The Art of Racing in the Rain, the story of a beloved philosopher dog named Enzo who teaches us everything we need to know about being human. The book was adapted into a major motion picture starring Kevin Costner, Milo Ventimiglia, and Amanda Seyfried. The Art of Racing in the Rain has sold more than 6 million copies world-wide, been translated into 36 languages, and spent more than three years on the New York Times bestseller list, topping out at #1. The novel inspired a Young Reader edition as well as four children’s picture books, and a stage adaptation by Book-It Repertory Theatre in Seattle.
For his latest project, Garth has collaborated with illustrator Matthew Southworth (Stumptown) on The Cloven, a graphic novel trilogy set in the near-future that explores the themes of genetic engineering, disinformation, income inequality, homelessness, diversity, and belonging. Find out more about Garth at https://www.garthstein.com/.
Lynn Brunelle is a four-time Emmy Award-winning writer for Bill Nye the Science Guy with over 25 years’ experience writing for people of all ages, across all manner of media. Previously a classroom science, English, and art teacher for kids K-12, an editor, illustrator, and award-winning author of over 45 titles, Lynn has created, developed, and written projects for Chronicle, Workman, National Geographic, Scholastic, Random House, Penguin, A&E, Discovery Channel, Disney, ABC TV, NBC, NPR, the Annenburg Foundation, World Almanac, Cranium, and PBS.
A regular contributor to NBC’s New Day Northwest as a family science guru, Martha Stewart Radio as a family activity consultant, and a contributor to NPR’s Science Friday, she is the creator of the Mama Gone Geek blog and Tabletop Science (videos that make science fun and accessible). Lynn won five Telly Awards and two CINE awards for her music videos, which range in topics from bullying prevention, child protection, and the adolescent brain for international curriculums through Committee for Children, to independent projects encouraging science literacy and STEAM. Find out more about Lynn at https://lynnbrunelle.com/.
Culture is defined by our record of creative endeavors. All forms of governance, language, commerce, art, and celebration are born from the imaginative mind. As a community, mankind can do amazing things, but it is often challenging to harness the courage to set our ideas loose into our external communities. In the first of this series, Raffi will discuss the nature of our creative drives, the systems and processes that have been perpetuated to inhibit our creative energies, methods to allow more creative confidence into our lives, and how to release ourselves from the burden of creativity.
This live conversation will conclude with a Q&A.
Presenter:
Raffi Minasian is a designer, educator, innovation specialist, and start-up mentor. He holds degrees in Product Development and Transportation Design. His impressive thirty-year career includes projects with Boeing aircraft, Mattel toys, car designs for multiple automobile manufacturers, and work with numerous start-up companies.
A founding professor of innovation for the California College of the Arts DMBA program, Raffi also teaches industrial design and is a noted speaker at museums and corporate events on the subject of future industries, new ventures, and creative methodologies.
Raffi devotes much of his professional energy to educational programs for young people interested in design professions, including his Board of Directors position with the Collectors Foundation, Former Chairman of the Board for Zoolabs artist-based entrepreneurial training, and ongoing work as a graduate mentor and creative career strategist.
This course provides the hands-on writing of an “artist’s statement.” During the class, students examine samples of working artists’ biographies, and determine the essential elements in an effective statement. Various styles are discussed, and a list of key words and sentence starters are reviewed.
A template is provided and all participants will begin to outline their biography with some easy and fun creative exercises that are sure to bring out their personal style. Participant’s work will be reviewed, with direct feedback from the instructor and others. We’ll discuss how to make minor variations in order to address specific audiences like a fine art gallery or small gift shop.
And finally, we’ll develop a polished statement to effectively generate interest in the artist and their work. Helpful marketing hints are interjected throughout this course, including writing a press release.
This workshop is appropriate for all types of artists from visual artists to writers and performing artists.
Handouts are provided. Students should bring paper and pen, and (optionally) electronic writing devices they are familiar with.
Dinah Satterwhite is an active artist living on Bainbridge Island, Washington. She manages the regional Studio Tour and coaches artists. She is a professional photographer and specializes in photographing artists’ work. Her work is displayed in art galleries and stores. She is experienced in marketing, copywriting, design & layout.
This is a BARN holiday. Doors will be locked to members and non-members.
How can poetry help us process and express the challenges of modern life? In this workshop, we will attempt to answer this question through exploring contemporary poems on relationships, mental health, and other topics from young poets such as Sarah Kay, Fatimah Asghar, and Tommy Pico to understand what it means to write poetry in today’s complicated world.
In each class, students will chat about the week’s poems and will be offered prompts to experiment writing in various free verse forms, inspired by the week’s readings. Students will also read and comment on each other’s poems in a welcoming, relaxed workshop space. The workshop’s three sessions will culminate in students creating and sharing mini collections of original poems.
Ansley Clark is a poet and teacher with ten years of experience teaching creative writing and literature to students of all ages. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado and is currently earning her MEd in Curriculum & Design, specializing in Literacy, Language, & Culture, from the University of Washington. Her poems and essays have appeared in Poetry Northwest, Crazyhorse, Hobart, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere. In addition to teaching creative writing and language arts to all ages, she also edits the online literary arts journal 'The Thought Erotic' and designs and teaches arts-based antiracism and body positivity workshops.
How do you write a stand out first page? This is your chance to have the first 400 words (double spaced, 12 pt font) of your novel critiqued by three authors, Lynn Brunelle, Megan Chance and Maureen McQuerry in a First Pages workshop. Submit your first pages before the workshop and the trio of authors will give you live feedback during the workshop from the perspective of agents and editors. Don’t worry, you can remain anonymous when we critique! At the end of the session we’ll discuss what makes a stand out first page for any genre.
Submit your first 400 words by Thursday, November 18 to [email protected]. Register soon as there will only be time to consider 13 first-page submissions.
Instructors' Bios:
A regular contributor to NBC’s New Day Northwest as a family science guru, Martha Stewart Radio as a family activity consultant, and a contributor to NPR’s Science Friday, she is the creator of the Mama Gone Geek blog and Tabletop Science (videos that make science fun and accessible). Lynn won five Telly Awards and two CINE awards for her music videos, which range in topics from bullying prevention, child protection, and the adolescent brain for international curriculums through Committee for Children, to independent projects encouraging science literacy and STEAM.
Maureen McQuerry is an award winning poet, novelist and teacher. Her YA novel, The Peculiars is an ALA Best Book for Young Adult Readers 2013 and winner of the Westchester Award. Her other novels include the Celtic Mythology duo Beyond the Door and The Telling Stone, and most recently Between Before and After, one of Barnes and Nobles most anticipated historical fictions for 2019. Big Ideas for Little Philosophers, a 4 book series featuring Socrates, Descartes, Aristotle and DeBeauvior, for preschoolers, releases in July 2020 to be followed by Big Ideas for Little Environmentalists.
Megan Chance is the best-selling, critically acclaimed author of several novels. Her novel Bone River was an Amazon Book of the Month, A Drop of Ink was an Editors' Choice of the Historical Novel Society, and An Inconvenient Wife was an IndieNext pick. In addition to her historical fiction novels, Chance is the author of the young adult Fianna Trilogy, short stories, and eight historical romance novels. Her novels have been translated into several different languages. She is also a popular workshop speaker whose speaking credits include the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference, Romance Writers of America National Conference, Edmonds Write on the Sound Conference, the Seattle Assistance League, Timberland Regional Libraries, and many others.
Erin L. McCoy holds an MFA in creative writing and an MA in Hispanic studies from the University of Washington She won second place in the 2019-2020 Rougarou Poetry Contest, judged by CAConrad and her poem, "Futures," was selected by Natalie Diaz for inclusion in Best New Poets 2017. Her poetry and fiction have been published or are forthcoming in Narrative, Bennington Review, Conjunctions, Pleiades, DIAGRAM, Nimrod International Journal, and other publications. She is acquisitions editor for Seattle-based independent publisher Entre Rios Books. She is from Louisville, Kentucky. Her website is erinlmccoy.com.
We’re excited to offer another salon via Zoom for writers of ALL levels of experience to read their work to an appreciative audience. All of this takes place from the comfort of your own home. All you need is a computer with a microphone. This is a great opportunity to practice reading for your own book signings and a wonderful chance to reach new readers and meet people who love words as much as you do. We will have slots for 12 readers to read five-minute selections. Keeping to a prescribed time limit is a skill and a courtesy all writers need to learn. (Of course you don’t have to use the entire five minutes if you have something very short.) Please register for "Reader" soon in order to snag one of these spots. We will also have plenty of room in cyberspace for members of the audience to enjoy some great readings. Format:
Martha Kay Salinas writes young adult fiction and spends way too much time writing for Facebook instead of working on her blog. In an earlier life she worked as a marriage and family therapist. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing in 2015, and she’s currently writing a young adult novel set in 1968.
A good critique group can take your writing to the next level by providing valuable feedback, a reliable routine, and much-needed support. Finding a group on your own can be daunting, though, and it can be difficult to know where to begin. Attendees will be invited, but not required, to share their work (a 1-2 minute excerpt), genre, expectations, and contact information, and from there will be given the opportunity to connect and organize their own critique groups. Those seeking critique groups who are unable to attend are invited to send their contact information to the host at [email protected] to be included in the contact handout.
Amelia Ramsey is the author of Lomax Coyote and the Fir Fiddle, as well as dozens of independently published romance novels and novellas. She is a graduate of The Evergreen State College.
*Class will be held in BARN's Great Room.
Whether this is your first full manuscript or your tenth, you’re committed to completing a full, polished work of fiction. Michele Bacon is here to support you on that journey. From finding your voice to finding your story to character development to plotting to doing the work of writing, we’ll hammer out the details individually and as a group. Students will share work with the class and critique classmates’ work to make us all better readers and better writers. This course includes ten three-hour classes and two one-on-one consults with the instructor.
Within this course, students will create:
Michele to hold 1-on-1 Zoom conversations with each student at an agreed time between March 19 and April 2.
Michele to hold 1-on-1 Zoom conversations with each student at an agreed time between April 30 and May 14.
Bio:
Michele Bacon is the author of contemporary young adult novels Antipodes and Life Before. Michele was drawn to people’s stories from a young age, and she remains eager to hear how you met your best friend, got that scar, or fell in love. Michele writes about friends, families, and fooling around (in both senses of that phrase). When she’s not writing, Michele skis, blows glass, plays tabletop games, plays roller derby, travels, and dreams of travel. She’s visited all 50 states and dozens of countries, always eager to hear people’s stories and immerse herself in other cultures. Wherever she goes, Michele enjoys helping writers find their voices and tell their stories. And she loves coming home to Seattle, where she lives with her partner and three young children.
Writing groups can provide support, feedback, networking opportunities, and a crucial learning environment. But what makes a successful writing group? And how can you create your own? This three-hour class will go over the basics, as well as provide time and opportunities to take those theoretical concepts out for a practical test drive. What works best for you? And how can you make it part of your writing practice?
Erica Bauermeister is the NYT bestselling author of four novels including The School of Essential Ingredients and The Scent Keeper (a Reese’s Book Club pick). Her most recent work is a memoir entitled House Lessons: Renovating a Life. She earned a PhD in literature from the U.W. and is the co-author of two readers’ guides: 500 Great Books By Women, and Let’s Hear It For the Girls. She currently lives in Port Townsend, WA.
Enjoy an afternoon of creative hands-on activities in BARN's 10 artisan studios. It's free, and open to all ages.
Many activities are planned in all 10 of our studios for this very special day. More information will be posted in March 2022.
Park: At BARN, or the adjacent Christmas tree lot. Parking also available at the First Baptist Church on North Madison, with a free Sweet Deal Mobile shuttle.
Festival of Trees Fundraiser!
More information will be posted in 2022
