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PEN IN HAND-MINI-CONFERENCE

Saturday, March 21, 2009

 Location

Midwest Writing Center

Bucktown Center (3rd floor)

225 E. 2nd St.

Davenport, Iowa  52801

563-324-1410  

Schedule

Doors open at 8 a.m. Light refreshments provided.

8:30 – 10:15 a.m.                    "The Road to Non-Fiction"

                                                   with Dr. Roald Tweet

10:15 – 10:30 a.m.                  BREAK

10:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.          "How to Break into Print (and Get Paid, Too!)" A Panel of Authors

                                                  Mike McCarty, Mark McLaughlin, and Leslie Langtry  

12:15 – 1:15 p.m.                    LUNCH (on your own)

1:15 – 3:00 p.m.                      "Writing Through Parenthood"

                                                with Leslie Klipsch

1:15 – 3:00                                 "The Playful Pen" for writers between the ages of 8 and 13

                                                  with Sarah Gardner    

3:00 – 3:15 p.m.                      BREAK

3:15 – 5:00 p.m.                     "Blah, blah, blah, Blog, blog, blog"

                                                 with Sean Leary

 Descriptions

 "The Road to Non-Fiction"

 Discover how to craft creative non-fiction in a responsible way.

You'll explore the research process of turning an idea into a published work.

 "How to Break into Print (and Get Paid, Too!)"

 All aspiring writers look forward to the day when they can see their work in print.

Some wonder if self-publishing is their best--or only--option.  During this informative

discussion panel, attendees will learn how professionally published authors broke into print.

They will learn the pros and cons of self-publishing, and discover how to present proposals

and projects to editors who pay writers for their work.

 "Writing Through Parenthood"

If you have children or grandchildren, nieces, nephews or neighbors, then you have stories to tell.

Children are a master muse and this workshop will help you put pen to paper, encouraging

participants to capture in words the images, stories, pleasures and challenges of parenting with

written results that are perhaps more precise, focused, and telling than a photograph.

"The Playful Pen"

 Using our imaginations, we'll explore secret rooms, super powers, and take turns on the

authors chair.  Fun for kids who don't like writing as well as those who do.

"Blah, blah, blah, Blog, blog, blog"

What is a blog? How can it help you as a writer? How can it help your writing career?

Sean Leary, an experienced and prolific blogger, as well as the author of almost 20 books,

will detail how to set up your own blog and how to use it for creative inspiration, marketing your work and more. To see Mr. Leary's blogs,

go to www.seanleary.com and click on his blog links.

Cost

Early bird registration (until March 15): $20 per workshop; $60 for all four workshops After March 14: $25 per workshop; $75 for all four workshops

Extra goodies

With your registration, you'll receive light refreshments, free parking and a great learning experience.

To register

Call 563-324-1410 or email mwc@midwestwritingcenter.org

Click here for registration form.

Conference is sponsored by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

Dr. Roald Tweet  is Professor Emeritus of English at Augustana College in Rock Island,

where he served as the Conrad Bergendoff Professor in the Humanities, and he has written

and lectured extensively about the Upper Mississippi and its past. His publications include

A History of the Rock Island District Corps of Engineers, 1866-1893 and The Quad Cities: An

American Mosaic. His first published work on the river went to print in 1975 and resulted from

research conducted while camping along the Mississippi with his family. The project, supported

by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, led to the commission from the

Corps of Engineers to document the history of its Rock Island District. Says Mayor Mark Schweibert

of Mr. Tweet, "from the visual and performing arts to Mississippi River historian, his long and

distinguished service has enriched our entire area." 

Mike McCarty is a former stand-up comedian, coffeehouse musician, and managing

editor for a music magazine. His work has appeared in Midnight Premiere, Science Fiction Chronicle,

Starlog, Gallery, The Brutarian, Scifiweekly.com, the latest edition of

the HWA's on Writing Horror, Horror Garage, Writer's Block, Dark Testament,

The Zone (U.K.), Dead of Night, Horror, Hellnotes Delirium Magazine,

Excitable Boys and other magazines, anthologies, newspapers and websites.

 Mark McLaughlin

Mark McLaughlin's fiction, nonfiction and poetry have appeared in hundreds of magazines, anthologies, newspapers and websites. His books of short stories include Hell Is Where The Heart Is, Motivational Shrieker, Slime After Slime, Pickman's Motel, and a three-way collection with Shane Ryan Staley and Brian Knight entitled At The Foothills Of Frenzy. He is the Poet Laureate of the Davenport, IA newspaper, The Leader, and his poetry collections include The Spiderweb Tree, Professor LaGungo's Exotic Artifacts & Assorted Mystic Collectibles, and Men Are From Hell, Women Are From The Galaxy Of Death. He is the co-author, with Rain Graves and David Niall Wilson, of the poetry collection The Gossamer Eye, which won a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Poetry. In 2007, Sarob Press in England will release Monster Behind The Wheel, a horror/adventure novel written by Mark with collaborator Michael McCarty. Visit Mark and Michael online at http://www.myspace.com/monsterbook

Leslie Langtry

Leslie Langtry is the author of a trio of thriller/romance novels, 'Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy,

Guns Will Keep Us Together, and Stand By Your Hitman, all published by Dorchester Publishing.

Langtry's books follow the lives of a family of assassins, The Bombays. Leslie Langtry is, in fact, a

mom and a Girl Scout leader, and has never assassinated anyone, either professionally or for recreation.

Okay, she knits, but she almost never garrotes anyone with the circular needles. Instead, she lives with

her husband, Tom, and two children, Margaret and Jack, in the Quad Cities - with no immediate plans to

train either child as an assassin. She wants to make that perfectly clear.

Leslie Klipsch

Leslie Klipsch contributes a bi-weekly parenting column to Pregnancy.org and has written on the subject

in Chicago Parent Magazine, Chicago Baby Magazine, Literary Mama, and ePregnancy Magazine. Her

essays, articles, and poems appear regularly in local, regional, and national publications including the Chicago

Tribune, Radish, Radiant, and Quad Cities Magazine, where she is the associate editor.

Sarah Gardner

Author of "How To Study Birds," a chapbook collection in its second run from Dancing Girl Press, Sarah Gardner is a poet and teacher whose workhas appeared in many distinguished journals. She has received fellowships for her writing from Blue Mountain Center as well as the Vermont StudioCenter. Her recognitions include an International Merit Award from The Atlanta Review and second place honors from the Juniper Creek poetry contest. She has been proudly affiliated with Houston's Writers in the Schools, a program the brings creative writing instruction to at-risk youth. Currently she lives in Iowa and teaches for St. Ambrose University. Sarah holds an MFA from Syracuse. Her work has appeared in many national journals including The North American Review, The Cortland Review, Calyx, and Cranky.

Her honors include an International Merit Award from The Atlanta Review. The Calculus of Owls, her second collection of poems, is due out from Dancing Girl Press in August 2009. Currently she lives in Iowa and teaches for St. Ambrose University. www.sarahjgardner.net

Sean Leary

Sean Leary began his professional arts career at age 10, writing articles and drawing cartoons for the national newspaper

The Comics Buyers Guide. Throughout his teens, twenties and thirties he continued to write and illustrate for various newspapers

and magazines, and played in ahandful of punk and new wave bands, collaborating with such future luminaries as Erik Larsen

(``Savage Dragon'') and Jimmy Chamberlain (Smashing Pumpkins). Sean is the publisher of The Dingo, a humor anthology

featuring stand-up comics and humor writers from across North America. Sean has been published and been involved in the

publishing of 18 books, including eight solo works: Sean Leary's Greatest Hits Volumes One and Two (collections of pop

culture columns), Exorcising Ghosts (graphic novel), Your Favorite Band and Dingo Boogaloo (screenplays), Every Number

Is Lucky To Someone (collection of short stories), The Girl Of Dreams And Magick (collection of poetry) and My Life As

A Freak Magnet (humorous memoir). He is currently working on three books -- Sean Leary's Greatest Hits, volume three

(a collection of pop culture columns); Animal Magnetism (a sci-fi novel); and Toiley, The Hungry Toilet  (children's book) --

and two screenplays, Time Changes and Notorious Jerks. For more information about him and his various works, see www.seanleary.com.