Stroudsburg | Michael A. Ventrella

The 3rd Pocono Writers Conference

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Michael A. Ventrella

I’m pleased to announce that the 3rd Pocono Writers Conference is now accepting reservations.

I’m thrilled that this has been successful, and I’ve invited some great guests for this one.

The Conference is on January 10, 2016, held at the Hughes Library in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and is free — but space is limited. And this year, we’re trying something new: individual critiques!

Here’s the schedule:

9:00: Introductions

9:15: VERONICA PARK: “All Hook and No Plot”: How to tell if you’ve got a good story, or just a great idea and a so-so story

10:30: JON McGORAN: “Economy and Exposition”: Turn boring info dumps into highly anticipated answers to compelling mysteries by integrating it into your narrative so it adds nuance, depth and tension to your story, instead of interrupting it.

11:45: Lunch

1:00: MEGAN ERICKSON: “Start at the Right Place”: How to grab readers from page one with the right scene and how to pace from there.

2:15: KEITH DECANDIDO: “The Business of Writing”: The parts of your writing career that don’t involve actually writing.

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

Critiques:

Each of the participants are holding smaller sessions (10 maximum) during the presentations where you can have your work critiqued.

These sessions are $20 each. You can sign up for as many as you want but you must pre-register because space is limited. Instructions on how to email your writing sample will be sent to you prior to the Conference.

9:15: Megan Erickson
10:30: Keith DeCandido
1:00: Veronica Park
2:15: Jon McGoran

How to Reserve a Spot:

This conference is free but you must reserve a spot because space is limited. Please do not reserve a spot if you are not certain whether you can attend because you may be blocking someone else from attending if all the spots are filled. Go here to make your reservation.

Participant bios:

Keith R.A. DeCandido is mostly known as a best-selling, award-winning author, with dozens of media tie-in novels (most recently the Star Trek coffee-table book The Klingon Art of War, the Heroes Reborn novella Save the Cheerleader, Destroy the World, the Sleepy Hollow novel Children of the Revolution, the Stargate SG-1 novel Kali’s Wrath, and the Tales of Asgard trilogy featuring Marvel’s Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three) and original fiction (the “Precinct” series of fantasy police procedurals) to his credit. He’s also an editor of more than 25 years’ standing, working for Byron Preiss, Library Journal magazine, Simon & Schuster, Dark Quest Books, the Society of American Baseball Research, and many more, as well as private clients via his KRADitorial service. In 2009, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, which means he never need to achieve anything ever again. His cheerfully retro web site is DeCandido.net.

Megan Erickson is a multi-published romance author with Avon, Berkley and Entangled. A former journalist, she switched to fiction when she decided she liked writing her own endings better. She lives in south central Pennsylvania with her own romance hero, their two kids and two cats. For more, visit meganerickson.org

Jon McGoran is the author of six novels including the biotech thrillers Drift and Deadout, as well as their forthcoming sequel, Dust Up (April 2016), all from Tor/Forge Books, as well as the novella “After Effects,” from Amazon StoryFront. Writing as D. H. Dublin, he is also author of the forensic thrillers Body Trace, Blood Poison and Freezer Burn, from Penguin Books. His short fiction and nonfiction can be found in a variety of anthologies, and his short story Bad Debt received an honorable mention in Best American Mystery Stories, 2014. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers, the Mystery Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, and a founding member of the Philadelphia Liars Club, a group of published authors dedicated to writers helping writers. His website is http://www.jonmcgoran.com/

Veronica Park is an agent, author, journalist and marketing consultant with more than seven years of experience writing and editing for publication. She graduated with a BA in print journalism with an emphasis in linguistics and business marketing from Brigham Young University and went on to expand her writing skills as a broadcast journalist and independent film producer, before running away with her husband to work on cruise ships in the Caribbean as a port lecturer and luxury goods marketing specialist. In publishing, she has finally found an arena that requires her entire assortment of professional skills, while allowing her to read and write every single day. Her web page is http://www.corvisieroagency.com/veronica-park.html

Michael A. Ventrella is a Stroudsburg writer and editor with three novels and three anthologies under his belt, with more coming. At his web page (www.MichaelAVentrella.com), he interviews writers and editors and gives advice for the starting writer. This is his third year organizing these conferences.