Dee Savoy

ABOUT THE CLASS:

Pitch Perfect: Getting to the Heart of your Romance Novel or Women¹s
Fiction Story (for pitching and for querying)

Everyone needs to learn how to pitch. Okay, maybe everyone except those
few heavy hitters who have the luxury of only having to share a vague idea
about a story with their editors because their stuff always sells well (we hate
them, but let’s move on…).

So, the rest of us need to be able to present our story ideas within query letters, synopses, and during frightening agent and editor appointments at writing conferences!

• Can you use a 3-word phrase to describe your story? How about in one sentence?
• Can you capture the essence of your tale in 25 words or less?
• When your listener wants to know more about your story, do you know what to say and, more importantly, what NOT to say?
• Do you know the biggest benefit of having an agent or editor appointment at a national or regional writing conference?

The main goal of this class is to help you understand the different types (and lengths) of pitches you need to prepare, and for you to learnseveral ways and styles of organizing your pitch (that you can utilize in query letters as well as agent/editor appointments).

What do you get? If you read and comprehend all the lectures plus complete all the assignments, you will create your very own pitch that you can utilize for query letters, synopsis blurbs, and/or as a verbal pitch to agents and/or editors at conference appointments. Or, this process will clearly point out where you need to do some more work on your story. It
might be a painful awakening that you have some serious revising to do, but it will be time well spent.

Either way, you’ll have gotten to the heart of your story.

About the Instructor:

After much hard work and the help of many other published and unpublished writers, Janet Wellington sold her first romance manuscript in 1998. Now, in addition to her own writing, she also teaches writing workshops at conferences and online. And she believes in giving back to the writing community and coaches other writers on craft and how to navigate the
publishing maze through her business called Wellington Word, where she offers line-editing and manuscript critiquing.

Her favorite mantra is: If you’re going to dream, dream big…and do it! And she adds, “Getting published is a miracle achieved by four things: (1)Courage, (2) Perseverance, (3) Luck, and (4) Talent…usually in that order!”

PITCH PERFECT with Janet Wellington
January 14 – February 10, 2008

Enrollment Information: http://www.occrwa.com/classes_January.htm
<http://www.occrwa.com/classes_January.htm>

COST: $20 for OCC members, $30 for non-members
Enrollment deadline: January 12, 2008

For more information, please see the website
http://www.occrwa.com/classes_January.htm
<http://www.occrwa.com/classes_January.htm> or email moderator Kitty
Bucholtz
at kittyrosebucholtz@yahoo.com

Heart of Dixie Online Workshop:

Inside the Minds of Serial Killers and Those Who Track Them Down
Instructor: Greg Moffatt

Date: March 13-17, 2008

Cost: $20

Register at <http://www.heartofdixie.org/> www.heartofdixie.org

Questions? Email online@heartofdixie.org online@heartofdixie.org

CLASS DESCRIPTION:

Want to write the spine-tingling mystery that has been in the back of your
mind? Need to learn more before digging in? Then this course will give you
the much-needed look behind the scenes, so you can add key elements to your
book.

This course will address the process of homicide/violent crime profiling.
It will cover how serial killers think, what motivates them, how to identify
signature, and it will address the specifics of how profiling works. Among
topics to be addressed will be crime scene analysis (i.e. photos, blood
patterns, staging), assessment of autopsy information, witness statements,
and police reports and how these aid profiling and cold case study.
Finally, the class will address the many mistakes that crime scene
investigators make that create problems for profilers and cold case
investigators.

INSTRUCTOR BIO:
Gregory K. Moffatt, Ph.D., LPC is a counselor, college professor, and public
speaker.

Dr. Moffatt has been in private clinical practice for nearly twenty years.
During that time he has worked with individuals, families, couples,
adolescents, and children. For over a decade he has been a regular lecturer
at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia and he has consulted with
Delta Airlines, U.S. Airways, Westinghouse Corporation, Johns Manville, law
enforcement agencies, and numerous other businesses and schools. He has
assisted law enforcement in the investigation of unsolved homicide cases and
specializes in the assessment and prevention of homicidal and violent
behavior. He currently is a regular consultant and profiler with the Atlanta
Cold Case Squad.

Dr. Moffatt is the author of three books on aggression and violence.
Blind-Sided: Homicide Where it is Least Expected (Praeger Publishing, 2000)
and A Violent Heart (Praeger Publishing, 2002) both address violent
behavior, the development of aggression, homicide, and homicidal profiling.
His book entitled Wounded Innocents and Fallen Angels (Praeger Publishing,
2003) addresses child abuse, sexual abuse, child abduction and child
neglect. It also addresses aggression committed by children – homicide,
sexual assault, vandalism/arson, and paricide. Find out more at
http://gregmoffatt.com/ <http://gregmoffatt.com/>