»Nanowrimo Kickoff, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2-5pm—Hosted by the Charlottesville official Municipal Liasons, Rachel and Sophia. Get to know the other area Wrimos, get stoked, and then get writing! We’ll probably meet and greet for an hour or so and then settle in for some serious writing. If you have leftover Halloween candy, bring it along and swap candies you hate for candies you love. We’ll also have soda and a bag or two of chips — if you feel like contributing, please do! Drop Sophia a note so she can keep track. If you haven’t already signed up, make it official!

»Literary Journals from Both Sides of the Transom, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2:30-4:30pm—Editors and writers enjoy a symbiotic relationship. How do they find each other? What can writers do to facilitate a “good match”? Linda Fritz, editor of The Delmarva Review, Thom Didato, Publisher and Founding Editor of Failbetter.com and Barbara Esstman, an accomplished writer/teacher and a contributor to The Delmarva Review in 2008, will compare and contrast their experiences in literary publishing, share their insights, and answer questions about how to get your work published. More info…

»Save the date:

• 01-05-2010, 7:00 Launch Party for member Laura Bynum’s book Veracity

Complete Public Event Details…

Half-Day Seminars (Registration Required)

If you’ve wanted to take a class, but can’t commit to an eight-week schedule, our Saturday Seminar Series is for you.

• 11-14-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00PM Publishing Your Poetry
• 11-21-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00 PM Elements of Fiction: Dialogue
• 12-5-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00 PM Spiritual Essay—Writing into the Questions

As for Elliott’s The Adderall Diaries, it’s popping up all over the place. He was most recently interviewed on Gawker by none other than James Frey — very meta, as we say in the writing business (scroll down to the comments). The Rumpus is keeping a running list of Stephen’s appearances and reviews.

Both books are now available for purchase at WriterHouse and will also be available for signing at the events. We’ve had some awesome author events — if you haven’t already, go to our web site and sign up for email announcements so you don’t miss a thing.

»NaNoPrepMo, 10-10-2009, 10-18-2009 and 10-25-2009, 2:00 PM—Come to meet the other local Wrimos (people participating in National Novel Writing Month) and get a jump on November. The rules allow outlines, character sketches, and any kind of planning that doesn’t involve actually writing your novel. Be ready to hit the ground running on November 1.

»Save these dates:

• 10-23-2009, 7:00 PM Ayn Rand Biographer Jennifer Burns

• 10-24-2009, 7:00 PM Stephen Elliott & The Adderall Diaries

• 11-07-2009, 2:30-4:30 Literary Journals: Both Sides of the Transom

More Public Event Details…

Half-Day Seminars (Registration Required)

If you’ve wanted to take a class, but can’t commit to an eight-week schedule, our Saturday Seminar Series is for you.

• 10-17-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00PM Elements of Fiction: Plot

• 10-24-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00PM Writing about Food—Turning Appetite into Art and Articles

• 11-21-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00 PM Elements of Fiction: Dialogue

• 12-5-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00 PM Spiritual Essay—Writing into the Questions

Not a member? Join today and be sure you won’t miss another great member event!

As I planned my book tour for my first book Posed for Murder, a wiser and more experienced author gave me a great piece of advice: Go where the people are.

Although it’s great idea to go to book stores on your book tour, unfortunately debut authors often end up sitting alone in the back feeling ignored. I definitely did my share of bookstore events, and have had some great experiences meeting booksellers and readers. But I also had great results doing events with other authors at libraries and book festivals. Book festivals happen all over the country, and attract huge crowds. Although most are there to see a famous or familiar author, others are willing to venture out to make a new discovery — you.

This Labor Day Weekend, I was one of 300 authors selected to be at the Decatur Book Festival in Georgia. It calls itself the largest book festival in the country, or “Bookzilla.” It’s a giant three-day festival with hundreds of volunteers, vendors, and about 65,000 attendees who love books. The festival did not pay for my transportation, but they put me up in a hotel, and ferried me to and from the airport. They also put on a party for all the authors, and provided us with vouchers for free food and drink at local restaurants. All the events (and the hotel) were around a square in downtown Decatur, so it was easy to get around.

I appeared with another mystery author, Megan Abbott, at Eddie’s Attic (a bar that launched the Indigo Girls’ career, as well as many other local bands). Megan and I each read for about five minutes, perched on stools like an acoustic act, and then answered questions. The crowd had some great ones (asking how we used secondary characters, how screenwriting was different from writing novels, how we created atmosphere, etc.), so we had a lively discussion.

We had a respectable crowd, and I sold a good number of books. Independent bookstores from Atlanta handled all the sales and signings, and I was glad to meet a new bookseller. They had me sign the rest of the books as stock for their store, and I imagine they’ll highlight them as “signed by the author” in their store.

Not everyone buys books at the festival, so it’s difficult to measure the true impact of an event. But beyond the sales, I met local librarians, talked to readers, and was advertised on their website and in their publication. My publishing house likes that I’m getting out there and doing my best to sell the book, and I’m sure that all my efforts effected their decision to buy my second book in my series this summer. So in a few weeks, I’ll be at Fall for the Book in DC, and in October I’ll be at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville. The tour continues!

»Sign up for fall classes and seminars now for an early registration discount. Full details…

»An Evening of Student Readings, Monday, Aug. 31, 7-9pm. WriterHouse Summer Session students from all classes will present brief samples of their work.

»Fall Open House and Instructor Reading, Sunday, Sept. 13, 7-9pm. Meet the instructors for the fall session, meet other writers, and listen to readings by the fall instructors.

»The Renegade Form: The Case for the Novella in Contemporary Fiction with Josh Weil, Thursday, Sept. 24, 7-9pm. This award-winning young author’s debut collection of novellas entitled The New Valley is set in the hill country between West Virginia and Virginia and “written in strong, masterful language laced with tenderness.” It received a rave review in The New York Times Sunday Book Review. We have copies of the book for sale–get yours now during open hours.

More Public Events…

»The Online Writer: a Two-Part Workshop on Web site Design, Blogging, and Web-based Work for Writers—Our most requested seminar has just been scheduled, this time in a two-part format. This is a soup-to-nuts picture of what it means to be a writer in the digital world, led by copywriter and communications consultant Kristen King. The first part is an introduction and the second part is a hands-on follow up. Part 1: Saturday, August 15, 9am – 4:30 pm, Part 2: Saturday September 12, 9am-4:30pm. More info…

Community Events

»WordSmith’s 6th Poetry Jam, Wednesday, August 26, 7-10pm, IS Venue, 709 W. Main St.—Expect a wide variety of artistic voices including poets, spoken word performers, open mic enthusiasts, musicians and singers. Proclaim your right to be heard through performance. $5 admission, IS and Si Tapas menu available for purchase. Open mic sign up starts at 7pm.

Many thanks to Andrew, Ben, Brandon, Christy, Dan, Jennifer, Jared, Kris, Mary-Patricia, Rachel, and Sean, for putting a friendly face on WriterHouse for the Pavilion crowd and making some money for our coffers. We’ll be doing it again Friday, September 4. If you want to help out and have some fun, take a minute or two to fill our our volunteer form on the main website.

2. We still need volunteers to work at “Fridays After Five” at the downtown Pavilion on Friday, July 31. We need people to dispense beverages. WriterHouse earns a donation from the Pavilion for your participation. Anyone over the age of 18 welcome. Sign up on our website.

3. The fall class schedule will be available mid-August. In addition to fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, we’re planning a class on mystery writing and a general class on creative writing for those who are just getting their feet wet. There will also be a number of one-day seminars on elements of fiction writing, food writing, and more. Watch these emails and our website for details and registration information.

Ask a writer what she values most in her creative life, and she is likely to respond, “Time to write.” Not many of us have the luxury of writing full-time; we have spouses, families, day jobs. To the people closest to the writer, “writing time” may seem like so much self-indulgence: Why should we get to sit around thinking all day? Normal people don’t require hour after continuous hour of solitude and silence. Normal people can be flexible.

And yet, we writers tell our friends and children, there is nothing more sacrosanct, more vital to our intellectual and emotional well-being, than writing time. But we writers have a secret.

We don’t spend much time writing.

There. It’s out. For more about our dirty little secret, click on over.