SEMWA hosts Skill Build in Southeastern Georgia

“Polish to Publish” is the title of the October 1-3, 2010 Skill Build hosted by the Southeast Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. This event will be helpful for authors who want to learn how to get their book published. The Skill Build will be held at Honey Creek in Waverly, Georgia, just 26 miles north of the Georgia-Florida line, and 5 miles east of I-95.

Skill Builds are usually one-day, low-cost alternatives to annual conferences, focusing primarily on writer education.  Due to the retreat-like feel of Honey Creek’s one-hundred wooded acres on a deepwater tidal creek, programming has been added for Friday night and Sunday morning for writers who want to make a weekend of it.

Saturday presentations include polishing a manuscript to publication standards, marketing your work and yourself, building a web presence, marketing overview by industry insiders, and exploring different publishing models. Friday evening will be a special presentation by our Guest of Honor, multi-published, award-winning science fiction author Jack McDevitt, and Sunday will feature a session on what to do when all else fails. Click here for the complete program.

Doors open at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 2 for those on a one-day track, with presentations starting at 9, lunch at noon (included with registration), with programming resuming from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. The Saturday-only advance registration fee is $60; onsite registration is an additional $10.

For the entire weekend track, registration is open from 3 to 5 p.m. on Friday, October 1, with a presentation after dinner. Sunday morning will offer another presentation. The weekend Skill Build rate with advance registration is $90; onsite registration is an additional $10.

Lodging is available onsite with double occupancy motel-type rooms, dormitories, and a few cottages. Along with lodging, dining hall meals can be purchased through the center. Call Honey Creek at (912) 265-9218 to make lodging and meal reservations. Alternately, hotels in St. Marys, Ga. and Brunswick, Ga. are nearby.

For a registration form, email maggietoussaint@darientel.net and put SKILL BUILD in the subject line or click here to download the form.

 

---

 

A Deadly Dinner

An event for crime fiction fans

Do you love to read whodunnits? Do you tense up as the villain gets closer and closer to the victim? Do you smile with satisfaction when the bad guys get their comeuppance?

Then you should sign up for A Deadly Dinner, to be held at the Harris Arts Center in Calhoun, Georgia, on October 23, 2010 from 6:00 PM until 9:30 PM.

This is Calhoun’s first event of this nature, a round-robin dinner with eight published crime fiction authors. Every author will spend time at each table during the evening, chatting with guests and talking about their books, writing, character development, and just getting to know one another.

Afterward, the authors’ books will be for sale, and the authors will be available to sign books as well as answer other questions that might have arisen.

Click here for more information.

 

---