Off to Mount Hermon Writers' Conference

This afternoon I'm driving down to Mt. Hermon Writers' Conference, which is only an hour away. I'll be teaching one of the morning fiction clinics, designed for intermediate writers. Participants must sign up for these clinics in advance, and each maxes out at 10 students. They submit the first 20 pages of a novel in progress and a synopsis of the book. I will critique each one in the clinic.

Every year I read the submissions in advance and decide on the order of presentation in class. Each manuscript tends to be weak in a certain area or two. I teach indepth concepts of fiction based on these weaknesses, building one concept upon another and applying them to the individual manuscripts.

Mount Hermon runs three to four of these morning clinics for fiction. In addition there are twelve major morning tracks to choose from, whether you're writing fiction, nonfiction, magazine articles, etc. One-hour workshops run in the afternoons--seventy in all. The conference starts Friday noon and ends Tuesday noon. (Staff and faculty must go one day early.) See more of the schedule here.

You never know what will happen at Mt. Hermon. There's just no predicting when you gather that many novelists and their editors/agents in one place. The nonfiction folk help keep things sane. Well, some of them do anyway.

I am not forgetting my camera this time. I'll try to post snippets when I can.

In the meantime, check below to read about Bill Myers' new supernatural suspense novel. And tomorrow we have a fun picture for Photo Friday. Write the best caption--win a book.