sally apokedak » Retreats

Founders’ Whole Novel Workshop

sally apokedak — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:19:43 +0000

The folks at the Highlights Foundation sent me the flyer below, advertising their upcoming Founders’ Workshop.

Oh, if I could go, I’d be there. I went to a Founders’ Workshop a year ago and it was one of the most enjoyable weeks of my life. I think that’s because we women are always serving others and for that week I was being served the whole time. It was incredible. They think of everything—you will want for nothing. You will be given good food, good sleep, good conversation, good instruction, and good friends. I’m not kidding. If you can go, you should go. Take with you a desire to be refreshed and go.

Nine more days to sign up—the application period ends March 25.

You’ve written a novel, something that everyone seems to talk about doing but almost no one manages. But you . . . you have done it. What an accomplishment!

Now what? Once your book lands on an editor’s desk, it has about three seconds to grab the editor and hold his or her attention. Three seconds. After all of your work, your struggle, the heart and soul you have put into those pages. Three seconds. Your next step is crucial: you must be certain—before you send the book out—that it is ready for editorial review.

The Highlights Foundation, along with Newbery-honor author Carolyn Coman, created the Whole Novel Workshop for writers like you. This workshop does what an MFA program does—without the added time and expense. It provides the writer with an accomplished mentor. That mentor will read and critique your entire novel before the workshop begins and then work with you for a full week, guiding you as you polish your book so that an editor will pick it up and not want to put it down until the last page has been turned.

During the Whole Novel Workshop, you will enjoy
• focused one-on-one response to your entire novel in progress from
acclaimed author Carolyn Coman or accomplished editor Joy Neaves;
• group critiques;
• seminars on technique and craft; and
• ample time to write and revise in a private, rustic cabin.

Give your work its best chance to pass the three-second test. Devote a week of your summer (June 5–12, 2011) to polishing your novel at the Whole Novel Workshop.

ABOUT THE FACULTY
Carolyn Coman’s most recent book for children, The Memory Bank, is a graphic story book created in collaboration with artist Rob Shepperson.

Other books for children and young adults include What Jamie Saw (National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honor book), Many Stones (National Book Award finalist and Printz Honor book), The Big House, and Sneaking Suspicions. She has taught fiction writing at Harvard Extension, and been on the faculty of Vermont College and Hamline University, in their MFA programs for Writing for Children and Young Adults.

Joy Neaves has ten years of experience as an editor of children’s picture books, poetry, and middle-grade and young-adult fiction. She has overseen the publication of several internationally acclaimed authors, including the Australian writers Judith Clarke and Steven Herrick, and the Swedish writer Per Nilsson. She is currently the Assistant Director of the University Writing Center at UNC Asheville and a freelance editor at namelos.com.

Applications for the Whole Novel Workshop are being accepted through March 25, 2011. You will be notified of acceptance status by April 8, 2011. Only eight students will be accepted, to ensure that each novel receives the close attention it deserves. To apply, contact Jo Lloyd at 570-253-1192, e-mail jo.lloyd@highlightsfoundation.org, or request an application online.

Highlights Foundation Founders Workshops take place near Honesdale, Pennsylvania. You’ll stay in your own cozy cabin, surrounded by 1,300 wooded acres and hiking trails. Workshop fee includes individual cabins; all meals (provided by a top-notch chef); airport pickup service, if needed; and an intimate teaching setting at the homeplace of the Founders of Highlights for Children.

Your email:

Chautauqua

sally apokedak — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:20:55 +0000

Back from The Writers Workshop at Chautauqua! Yowsers, what a conference! If you ever have a chance to go, take it. You will not regret it.

No pictures right now—the dog ate the cord I need to upload from my camera.

But…I learned so much about beautiful language that I’m tempted to think, “Who needs pictures when a thousand words can build a world and populate it with wonders.”

So I hope to take a several days and go over my notes and post what I learned at [wikipop]Chautauqua[/wikipop].

I will kick things off today with some thoughts on the flavor of this conference as opposed to all the other conferences I’ve been to.

Chautauqua is about:

making friends (not networking).
learning to write great books and articles (not just learning to sell them).
encouragement (not competition).
talking to authors and editors (not pitching to them).

Chautauqua offers:

food for the body. (I have never eaten so well in my life, except for when I went to the Founders Workshop last fall. If you attend any Highlights Foundation conference or workshop, you can rest assured that you will be fed well.)
food for the soul. (The lovely lake, the opera, the art, the old houses, the flowers, the absence of cars—all these work together to invite you to slow down and breathe and connect with God.)
food for the mind. (A trip to a museum, plenty of programs at the Chautauqua Institution, some great speeches by conference speakers.)

Chautauqua staff members:

are interested in you (rather than talking endlessly about themselves).
give you two half-hour, one-on-one sessions where they talk about your writing (rather than talking endlessly about their own writing ¹).
love to talk about good literature (rather than talking endlessly about the latest blockbuster ²).
act like normal people (rather than acting like rock stars).

OK, I’m laying it on a little thick. Other conferences are good, too. I love SCBWI conferences and I really love the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. At some conferences you’ll find good food, at others you’ll find refreshment for your soul, and at every conference you’re sure to find some people who don’t think they’re rock stars. Still Chautauqua is unique. Kent Brown must be the world’s best host. He seems bent on making sure everyone is having a good time. The Writers Workshop at Chautauqua is a wonderful way to spend a week and change your life.

~~~~

Not that I have a great need to talk about myself and my work to strangers. I mean, I do have a blog wherein I can blab about myself all day long. It’s just that sometimes when you pay authors, agents, or editors to critique your work, it’s a little disappointing when they talk more about their work than yours, is all. ↩

Though I did overhear several people wishing that Mockingjay would come early. ↩

Founders Workshop

sally apokedak — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:21:55 +0000

Wow! The only thing that could make the Founders Workshops better would be a massage and a facial.

I went to the Editing for Writers workshop taught by Stephen Roxburgh.

I’ll be posting some of what I learned over the next couple of weeks. For today, I just want to sing the praises of these wonderful workshops.

I can’t remember ever being so pampered. From the time David picked me up at the airport, to the time he dropped me back off five days later, I was served by people who acted as if there was nothing they wanted more than to give me an enjoyable retreat. Actually, it started before I even got there with Jo taking care of all the details and getting everything scheduled. Once there, I was wined and dined in first-class fashion. A Highlights editor took us to dinner one night. Marcia, the cook who fed us the other nights, has one of the most beautiful smiles I’ve ever seen—the woman glows—and it is heavenly to be fed by someone who seems so genuinely happy to fill you with good food.

Any of you who know me, know I wouldn’t use the word heavenly lightly. I am dead serious when I say it is heavenly to be served. God serves us at great expense to himself. He wants us to serve one another. This loving, giving, serving stuff is very much a part of the business of heaven.

So, yes, I thought sitting before a meal Marcia made and seeing the smile on her face that said she enjoyed serving people good food, was a foretaste of heaven.

There was more to love than eating and drinking, though. You all know I’m a conference junkie. I love mixing it up with writers. And I will always love big conferences with plenty of talented speakers to make me laugh and lots of agents and editors to meet. But if I had to pick, I’d have to say the Founder’s Workshops are much more my speed. In such a small group you are treated as if you’re a real writer (as opposed to writing conferences where the poor editors and agents are stalked and so they have to throw up protective barriers to keep the unwashed masses off their backs and out of their bathroom stalls). You also meet other real writers–intelligent, creative people–and you have plenty of time to talk to them.

Besides that, you have a lot of one on one time with the instructor–he’s looking at your writing and that is so beneficial. So often I’ve read some bit of advice, but I’ve not known how to apply it to my own work. This opportunity to work with an editor who has read your work and sees the blemishes–like characters who churn in place with endless rhetorical questions–is hugely helpful. Sitting around listening to some of Stephen Roxburgh’s publishing stories was a lot of fun, too.

Stephen is a smart man and a good editor. I highly recommend his workshops, but I’m pretty sure that all the instructors at these workshops are great. Two out of our group of five were on their third workshop and they both said they got a lot out of each one.

I’d like to give a balanced review. I’m sorry…I just can’t think of one negative thing to say about this experience.

Founders Workshops

sally apokedak — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:31:23 +0000

So after I posted that last bit about Kent Brown, I moseyed on over to the Founders Workshops web page and drooled all over my keyboard for a bit. I came across this one with Stephen Roxburgh and couldn’t resist.

So I’m going. I’ll blog about it when I get back. I am so excited.

September in the Poconos. Six writers. One editor. Private cabin. Meals in the big house. Together time. One on one time. It all just sounds so flippin’ perfect!

I feel like the most spoiled person alive right now.