Okay, so this is me, totally shilling for an event, but it’s going to be very fun so I hope you’ll bear with me here. I’m doing a weekend mystery-writing workshop at the really cool and historic Claremont Resort & Spa in Berkeley, California, the weekend before Thanksgiving (November 21 & 22) with an extremely great group of people, and if anyone reading this is working on a crime novel and wondering about the business, I hope you’ll consider joining us.
The Claremont is gorgeous and awesome, and has a great bar. It was built in 1915, and is a AAA Four Diamond kind of place:
(and did I mention spa? There’s a spa.
And tennis. And amazing views of San Francisco Bay. And really, really good food.)
They’re giving us a special discount on rooms for anyone who wants to stay over for the weekend, too. Which is immensely wonderful of them.
We’re flying in two special guest type people from New York to join the presenters: Peter Riegert, actor/director/screenwriter extraordinaire,
and astonishingly awesome literary agent Barbara Poelle, from the Irene Goodman Agency.
Writers on the faculty include Juliet Blackwell (AKA Hailey Lind–www.julietblackwell.net),
Tony Broadbent, www.tonybroadbent.com.
Sophie Littlefield, www.sophielittlefield.com
Tim Maleeny, www.timmaleeny.com
and, well, me.
I’m not sure what I look like on stage, but I can tell you that the rest of these guys are smart and funny and wonderful and will give you all kinds of groovy inspiration and insider dirt and food for thought and all that good stuff. We are also going to have a kickass gang of law enforcement pros for even MORE insider dirt on the procedural angles of our writing lives of crime (representatives of both SFPD Homicide and the SF District Attorney’s office.)
Seriously, what’s not to like? You should totally come hang with us. It’s going to be most excellent.
For more info, downloadable brochure, and registration coordinates, please visit http://www.berkeleymysteryworkshop.com.
(Space is limited to 35 people.)
Hope to see you there, and thanks for reading this!
Oh, man, the Claremont!! Love that place!
Why do I always have to be on the OTHER side of the country when these things happen?
No, I have a great other thing going on, but I so wish I could be there. Jealous!
Sounds wonderful… if it wasn’t Big Game weekend I’d be there!
I hope you plan another one, the Claremont is a great spot and the line up looks great! I could certainly use the "Finish that Book" session as well as the rest! Not to mention a massage at the Spa.
My suggestion for your next iteration would be a really practical plotting session, with crime writers that consider themselves plotters, showing the way with techniques and examples. Having a couple of views on the plotting process would be great, surely some of it would stick if you had a couple of different approaches to choose from. It seems from the comments on your last post that there are a lot of folks who’d be lining up for that one!.
Wish I could be there! Have fun…
Alex and Dusty, maybe if we get to do this again, you guys could join the faculty?
Leslie, I’ll try to plan the next one with no big games co-scheduled. And the plotting panel sounds like a great idea–I could use that myself as plotting is my biggest weakness.
[insert incoherent envious noises and maybe some polite drooling]
Oh, how I wish…
Have a fantastic time!
Hi Cornelia… I thought you might like that idea! Anything to keep you in the genre 😉 That seems to be my weakest link also.
And there is only one Big Game, so you’re safe until next November, schedule away with impunity!
I wish I had the $$$ to go… sounds sooo wonderful and I’ve really missed being able to attend writing workshops.
Mailing list. For the next one. Early warning. Put me on it.
The mailing list is a great idea… you may have some pent up demand for a second weekend!
Mailing list. Awesome.
Prices will fall in line, we’ll all be SSD’ing within 24 months! HDD’s will go the way of Atari!