Upcoming:

March 6: “Putting the Heart Back in the Heart of Your Writing” Helen Sears, writer and teacher, uses the successful Amhurst Writers and Artists hands-on approach (developed by Pat Schneider) to finding deep truth in experience and writing about it. 10 am-4pm, Windermere in Freeland.

SEE BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS ON HELEN SEARS WORKSHOP

March 20 and 27: “Word for Writers” Computer guru Bobbi Sandberg will teach management skills and Word features that make the writers’ lives easier and their submissions and  their submissions and communications with professionals more polished. The class will take place over two Saturday afternoons to give students time to absorb material between classes.  1pm-4pm Specific site information given upon registration.

April 17: “Fiction Fire for 7^th - 12^th Graders and Adults” co-sponsored by NILA/WIWA, the Langley Library, and The Commons under the hands-on mentorship of Deb Lund, teacher and published author of children’s literature.

Whether you write (or want to write) adult, middle grade, or young adult fiction (or most genres for that matter), these hands-on activities will provide the kindling you need to ignite new stories. Create characters with unique voices, sizzling settings, and plots that keep readers blazing through your pages. 10 am-4pm, Island Coffeehouse and Books, Langley.

May 1: “Building the Blog” Blogging expert and author, Tom Masters, takes the potential blogger through all the steps necessary to design and launch a blog; useful for writers with publishing goals and non-writers as well. 10am-5pm Windermere in Freeland

June 12: “Chat House Saturday” Patterned after the popular Chat House feature of the Whidbey Island Writers Conference, participants will be able to attend two chat house sessions (9:30-noon, 2:30-5:00) on poetry, fiction, nonfiction, memoir, children and young adult literature, and publishing. Held in private homes, the Chat House experience gives participants an opportunity to meet writing and publishing professionals “close up” and learn from them. Private homes to be announced.

THE AMHERST WRITERS AND ARTISTS METHOD:
PUTTING THE HEART BACK INTO THE HEART
OF YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS

+The act of creating is all about trying to get to the deep places where the truth can be told. The deeper the place, the deeper the truth. This AWA Workshop invites you to join the treasure-filled archeological dig that happens whenever writers and artists come together in a safe, benevolently guided circle. And to renew belief in the freshness, vitality, and importance of your own experience and imagination.
+For the creative person, fear arises in exact proportion to the treasure that lies shimmering between the dragon’s feet. If you are greatly afraid, there is something great to fear. But it is already there, in the unconscious. Writing and drawing do not create it. Writing, drawing, sculpting, and other forms of expression are Adam’s tasks -  they give names and images to what was wild.
+Skill is a wonderful thing, but skill is not the same thing as art. Skill is the knowledge of how to mix blue with yellow on a palette, but art is the courage to dip the brush into the paint and lay it on the canvas in your own way. Art is the depth, the passion, the desire, the courage to be yourself and yourself alone. In this AWA Workshop we will:
             - honor the sacred first draft or sketches for the soul blood they are.
             - examine, tickle, and cavort with filters and their insidious destruction of vividness.
             - re-visit the emotional impact of experience – It’s not the words or images, it’s the shared humanity of the felt experience.
             - celebrate truth without pain – craft above internal finger-pointing.
Time and Location:    Saturday, March 6, 2010 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
                                    Windermere Conference Room, Freeland
Cost: $90 member, $110 non member includes writing and sketching materials (or bring your own),
munchies, fruit, brownies or cookies, beverages. Bring a sack lunch, or purchase lunch
at cafes a block away. (Wifi available.)
For Information and Registration, call:        Whidbey Island Writers Association
                                                                        360-331-6714
                                                                        e-mail: wiwa@whidbey.com

Helen Sears holds an MFA in fiction
Writer, former journalist, credentialed teacher,
and certified facilitator of Amherst Writers and Artists workshopS