December Professional Series Meeting reminder!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010
SPU's Demaray Hall 150

COME EARLY! Why?

* Eat some festive and yummy cookies and desserts!
* Bring books for the book swap, then hunt for new treasures to take back home!
* Do some holiday shopping at the Secret Garden bookstore!
* Last chance to enter the free conference tuition raffle!
* Visit with friends and network with kidlit colleagues!
* Enjoy loads of good cheer!

• So, if you're hoping to win a fabulous hand-made cookie trophy or medal, don't forget to bring something delicious with you to share.
• If you could stand to clear out your bookshelves (or nightstand, or car, or random piles around the house), remember to bring new or gently used books for the book swap. You can take home as many as you bring with you. Any extras left at the end of the night will be donated to charity.
• And don't forget our program for the evening:

Mini-Session: EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT WRITING I'VE LEARNED FROM MY GRANDKIDS with Peggy King Anderson. Ten juicy writing tips, inspired by Peggy’s nine (yes NINE) grandkids. Peggy will share true-life incidents, along with the Aha! writing insights she gained. From fairies and sharks to Jesus with swimming goggles, Peggy’s grandkid stories will make you chuckle. You’ll come away listening in a new way to the kids in your life, all just bursting with new writing insights for you.

Main Program: FIRST YOU CHOOSE A SKELETON: BUILDING A STORY FROM THE INSIDE OUT with Bruce Holland Rogers. What is the best germ from which to begin a story? Does character come first? Action? Plot? Should we write from a premise or a theme? One way to keep writing challenging is to try basic approaches we’ve never tried before. This talk will examine an approach to story-making that most prose writers don’t consider: beginning with structure and only then looking for the right kind of story to hang on that structure. Bruce will demonstrate places where math intersects with writing and ways in which arbitrary decisions can make the writer bolder and more free. While useful for beginners, this talk is aimed at more experienced writers who already know a lot of conventional approaches to writing. Bruce is an award-winning adult science fiction and fantasy author and a faculty member for the Whidbey Island Writers Association MFA program.