Writers Conference
This hands-on workshop will guide you through the novel-planning process and help you find the plot and story within your idea. By the end of the day, you’ll have a solid novel outline or guide for your story.
Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of The Healing Wars trilogy, the Grace Harper series, and multiple books on writing. She’s also the founder of Fiction University, a site dedicated to helping writers improve their craft.
$80 includes lunch and Plotting Your Novel Workbook
September 14, 2018 – 9:00 – 5:30 – Renaissance World Golf Village Resort
We're excited to announce seven presenters for 2018.
8:30 – 9:00 — Friday, September 14
Coffee & Registration
9:00 – 9:15 — Friday, September 14
Welcome
9:15 – 10:15 — Friday, September 14
Laura Lee Smith Story, Story, Story: Creating Compelling Narrative Structure
10:30 – 11:55 — Friday, September 14
Janice Hardy It’s Showtime! Show, Don’t Tell
12:00 – 1:30 — Friday, September 14
Lunch with Keynote Speaker, Robert Macomber Enjoying the Ride: How to Stay Organized & Productive Without Forgetting the Fun Factor
1:30 – 2:30 — Friday, September 14
Rod Martinez Dialogue: It Isn’t Just About Talk
2:45 – 3:45 — Friday, September 14
James O. Born Agents, Editors & Publishers: What You Can Do To Increase Your Chances
4:00 – 5:00 — Friday, September 14
Mary Custureri Ten Important Things Writers Need To Know About Writing, Being Noticed And Marketing
4:00 – 5:00 — Friday, September 14
Allan Marcil Adaptation: From Book to Screenplay
5:00 – 5:30 — Friday, September 14
Book Signings
2018 Registration
$235 Complete Package: 2-day Writers Conference, with lunches and Literary Legend Reception
$180 2-Day Writers Conference (Thurs & Fri) with lunches
$80 Thursday Writers Workshop, includes lunch
$160 All Day Friday: Conference, luncheon, Legend Reception
$105 ($120.00 at the door) Friday Writers Conference, includes Keynote luncheon
$100 Friday Luncheon with Robert Macomber and Legend Reception
$35 ($240 Table for 8) Friday Luncheon with Robert Macomber
Laura Lee Smith
Laura Lee Smith is the author of the novels The Ice House (Grove Press 2017) and Heart of Palm (Grove Press 2013). Her short fiction has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories (2015) and New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best (2010). Smith’s recent work has appeared in The New York Times, and her second novel was recently awarded the Gold Medal for Fiction in the 2017 Florida Book Awards. A writer who’s been praised for her “intelligence, heart, and wit” (Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls), Smith’s work has been translated into German and French. She lives in Florida, where she writes fiction and works as an advertising copywriter. www.lauraleesmith.com
Robert Macomber
Robert N. Macomber is an award-winning writer, internationally acclaimed lecturer, and an accomplished seaman. Macomber is a Florida success story, and his work is admired across the globe. He tantalizes audiences with historical facts and literary lore.
When he's not writing, researching or on one of his extensive journeys, Mr. Macomber lives on Pine Island, on the same SW Florida coast where he grew up. For relaxation, he enjoys sailing among the more remote islands near his home and cooking the exotic cuisines from his novels.
Robert N. Macomber’s popular maritime thrillers describe the life and career of a U.S. naval officer, from the Civil War in Florida to the years beyond the Spanish-American War in 1898.
Through this Honor Series, Mr. Macomber illuminates significant events of world history, which have served as the foundation for the world as we know it today.
An Honorable War is the 13th installment. It and the earlier books convey the real stories and complex qualities of human nature, cloaked in the nuances of the late 19th century. The suspense, romance and compelling strategies reflect not only the trials and triumphs civilians face during wartime, but also the harrowing decisions and sacrifices of those in the military who wrestle with life’s everyday challenges.
Inspired by actual events, these page-turners help us live history and remember truths which should never be forgotten. Each reader feels the powerful, you-are-there impact. In April of 2018, Macomber won the Silver Medal in Popular Fiction from the Florida Book Awards for An Honorable War.
Over the years, Macomber has been the recipient of the Patrick D. Smith Literary Award and the American Library Association’s W.Y. Boyd Literary Award, to name a few.
The next, long-awaited novel is due to release in March of 2019, titled Honoring The Enemy.
James O. Born
James O. Born is a former U.S. Drug agent and State Law Enforcement agent. He has had more than 15 novels published. His third novel, Escape Clause, won the inaugural Florida Book Award for Best Novel.
He was introduced to writing by Elmore Leonard, whom Born gave technical advice for 20 years. He has shared an editor with Tom Clancy and WEB Griffin, two of his favorite authors. The past few years, Born has worked with James Patterson on a number of different projects. Their novel Haunted spent 7 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list.
Born has made appearances on a numerous TV shows, offering insights on crime, investigations as well as writing.
He continues to work full time as a writer and contributor on books, TV shows and movies.
Mary Custuereri
Dr. Mary Cusutureri has been in the communications field as a professor of literature and creative and technical writing, as a teacher trainer for teaching and learning strategies, and as a speaker on various cultural, writing and academic themes in the U.S. and Canada. As president of Taylor and Seale Publishing and of ScholarEd (a new subsidiary of Taylor and Seale Education), she enjoys speaking to writers, finding them, as well as musicians and artists, to be the most interesting people. For this reason, she often sponsors events in which the three arts are combined. She also enjoys collecting art.
Allan Marcil
Allan Marcil launched his Film and TV career in the graduate film program at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, where Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese’s agent discovered him and signed him.
Subsequently, Marcil developed a producing and writing career in both film and television, where he has produced, executive produced and created over 100 hours of award winning and/or nominated television. Marcil, with his then partner in Stonehenge Productions, Richard Berg, pioneered the mini-series format with productions that included A Rumor of War, the first Television drama to examine the Vietnam War, based on Philip Caputo’s celebrated memoir, James Michener’s SPACE, and Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story. Marcil has also produced a number of provocative and award winning movies-for television and has worked extensively with literary artists such as Elmore Leonard, Philip Caputo, James Grady, Israel Horovitz, and Peter Benchley in developing material for the medium.
He is currently adapting, with the author, Sohrab Homi Fracis’ celebrated novel Go Home and, with director Christopher Leitch, Allan is developing for Television best-selling author Nancy Bush’s mystery series of books that feature her Portland based, millennial detective, Jane Kelly.
Sohrab Homi Fracis
Sohrab Homi Fracis is the first Asian American to win the Iowa Short Fiction Award, for his first book, Ticket to Minto: Stories of India and America. He received the Florida Individual Artist Fellowship. He was Visiting Writer in Residence at Augsburg College and Artist in Residence at Yaddo. His recent novel, Go Home, was shortlisted by Stanford University Libraries for the 2018 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and brought him the SALA (South Asian Literary Association) Distinguished Achievement Award.
Rod Martinez
Rod Martinez writes middle grade & young adult speculative action/adventure mysteries. Growing up on Marvel Comics and Twilight Zone, the inspiration was inevitable. After a challenge by his son to write a story about him and his friends “like the Goonies’ but based in Tampa”, his first novel “The Juniors” was picked up by a publisher – and the rest as they say – is history.
Janice Hardy
Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. She also writes the Grace Harper series for adults under the name, J.T. Hardy. When she's not writing fiction, she runs the popular writing site Fiction University, and has written multiple books on writing, including Understanding Show, Don't Tell (And Really Getting It), Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, and the Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft series.
