Michael A. Ventrella

I started the Pocono Writers Conference quite a few years ago, and though we shut down a few years for COVID, we’re back! There are still open slots as I write this!

We’re back! You can now sign up for the 2023 Conference at this link.

SCHEDULE

9:00: Check in

9:30: MICHAEL A. VENTRELLA: Introductions

9:45: HILDY SILVERMAN: “What Editors Look For”: With so many submissions to sift through, what can a writer do to elevate their work above the rest? Surprisingly, including a few simple things can leapfrog your tale ahead of half your competition immediately. Hildy will share what these are, and provide additional tips to help improve the likelihood of your story making the cut.

11:00: MARIE LAMBA: “How to Revise Your Novel for Submission: Self-Editing Techniques that Work”: Finishing the first draft of a novel is a major accomplishment, but that’s just the beginning of a writer’s work. The next step is to do a thorough revision, shaping that novel into its very best form. Top-notch revision skills are an important part of a writer’s toolkit, especially now that agents and editors expect manuscripts to be well-polished. But revising a long work of fiction can be daunting. Where do you begin? How do you decide what’s working and what isn’t? And how, exactly, should you go about fixing things?

12:00: Lunch (not provided, but there are lots of places nearby or you can bring your own)

1:00: LAQUETTE: “GMC 360º”: Fiction writers are often trained to use goal, motivation, and conflict to build three-dimensional characters. While this is a great use of GMC that should be encouraged, it’s not the only way to use it. We’ll explore how understanding your characters’ GMC, and strategically using it at key points within the manuscript, can help you create profound emotional arcs full of compelling full-circle moments that heighten tension and increase chemistry between your characters.

2:15: TEEL JAMES GLENN: “Character and Conflict, or How to build a better beating”: Since the first storyteller sat around a campfire spinning tales of gods and heroes, it has been a given that a little action makes a mildly interesting story into a real grabber. Since the fight has to serve the purpose of the story you have to use the same criteria as any journalistic or dramatic story. Ask yourself, ‘is this fight necessary?’ Who, why, how and when to add action to your story. This session will offer insight into when it is the right choice to have a violent scene and what and how the participants would fight. And more importantly—how those choices reveal character to the reader.

3:30: MICHAEL A. VENTRELLA: Panel Discussion and Question and Answer session with all panelists

Admission is free but seating is limited. Please only sign up if you are sure you will be attending. If you later discover you cannot attend, please delete your reservation so there will be enough room for everyone. Do not reserve space for anyone other than yourself — if there is more than one reservation under your name, the extra ones will be deleted.

….

WORKSHOPS

Each of the participants are holding smaller sessions during the presentations where you can get individual critiques and comments.

These sessions are $20 each. You can sign up for as many as you want but you must pre-register because space is limited. Please note that by signing up for these personal sessions, you will miss some of the other presentations.

The panelists will contact you by email prior to the session to discuss writing samples and other requirements.

9:45: Laquette

11:00: Teel James Glenn

1:00: Hildy Silverman

2:15: Marie Lamba

….

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Teel James Glenn has traveled the world as a stuntman, fight choreographer, swordmaster, illustrator, storyteller, bodyguard, and actor and puts all of that life experience in his fiction writing. He’s taught writing, acting, art and stage combat for several decades in the states and abroad in Canada and Germany. He has also presented seminars on writing action, weapons and historical combat at Deadly Ink, C3 Conference, Liberty State Fiction Writers, Stoker Con, and dozens of writer and media conventions. His writing has been in over two hundred magazines including Weird Tales, Mad, Space & Time, Black Belt, Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Silver Blade Quarterly, Mystery Weekly and Cirsova. His novel “Cowboy in Carapathia: a Bob Howard Adventure was the winner of the 2021 Pulp Ark Award for Best Novel, and its sequel “The Cowboy and the Conqueror,” is a finalist for the 2023 award. He is also the recipient of the 2013 Pulp Ark Award for Best Author and a Derringer mystery finalist. Website: TheUrbanSwashbuckler.com

Marie Lamba is author of the young adult novels What I Meant… (Random House), Over My Head and Drawn, and of the picture books Green, Green (Farrar Straus Giroux) and A Day So Gray (Clarion). Her articles appear in more than 100 publications and is a frequent contributor to Writer’s Digest. She has worked as an editor, an award-winning public relations writer, and a book publicist, and has taught classes on novel writing and on author promotion. As an agent with The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency in New York, Marie is currently looking for young adult and middle grade fiction, along with general and women’s fiction and some memoir. She is also open to submissions from picture book authors or illustrators who are already established, or whose work she has requested through conferences. Marie is also open to non-fiction submissions for all age categories. For more details and her submission guidelines, please visit: https://www.jdlit.com/marie-lamba

LaQuette writes sexy, stylish, and sensational romance. That means she writes sentimental and steamy stories (like Hallmark movies, but with lots of sex) featuring at least one main character who always keeps it cute. This Brooklyn native writes unapologetically bold, character-driven stories. Her novels feature diverse ensemble casts who are confident in their right to appear on the page. If she’s not writing, she’s probably trying on or looking for her next great makeup find. Contact her at https://dot.cards/laquette.

Hildy Silverman  writes in multiple genres, including science fiction, fantasy, horror and blends thereof. In 2020, she joined the Crazy 8 Press authors collective (https://www.crazy8press.com/), which publishes novels and anthologies by its membership. In 2013, her short story, The Six Million Dollar Mermaid, which appeared in the anthology “Mermaids 13: Tales from the Sea” (French, ed.), was a finalist for the WSFA Small Press Award. In 2005, she became the publisher and editor-in-chief of Space and Time Magazine (www.spaceandtimemagazine.com), one of the oldest small press genre magazines still in production, and ran it until 2018. She is a past president of the Garden State Speculative Fiction Writers and a frequent panelist on the science fiction convention circuit. For more information about Hildy, including a complete list of her published work, please visit www.hildysilverman.com. 

Michael A. Ventrella is a Stroudsburg writer with five novels so far, including Big Stick and Bloodsuckers: A Vampire Runs for President. He’s edited a dozen anthologies, including the Baker Street Irregulars anthologies (co-edited with New York Times Bestselling author Jonathan Maberry); Three Time Travelers Walk Into…, and Release the Virgins. His short stories have appeared in other anthologies and magazines. He’s also written nonfiction books about the US Constitution, The Beatles, and the Monkees. At his web page (MichaelAVentrella.com), he interviews authors and editors and gives advice for the starting writer. In his spare time, he is a lawyer.

Filed under: writing |