COWC1 Workshops, Schedule & Staff

The COWC provides multi-tiered workshop tracks. Advance sign-up is not required for most sessions, so conferees are free to go to any they choose. Should you find that a particular one is not for you, simply tap into another. Workshop summaries can be found here (when available).

Dates for our inaugural event in the destination city of Bend, Oregon are October 18-19, 2025.

• Authors & Industry Experts
• Workshops
• Weekend Schedule

Special Guest Speakers

Authors & Industry Experts

MICHAEL STEVEN GREGORY, Executive Director of both the Central Oregon Writers’ Conference and Southern California Writers’ Conference, is an award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter. He has scripted network series, directed television and features, and been involved as a writer, producer or director in over 150 short films. His longform projects include the doculogues We, The Writer and We, The Screenwriter, the romantic-comedy A Valentine Carol, and groundbreaking Don King Presents: Prizefighter, for 2K Games. His books include Disc Golf: All You Need to Know about the Game You Want to Play, which remained a periodic bestseller well over a decade after publication. Michael is also the owner of AuthorEdge, a transmedia content producer for publishers.

• SESSIONS: No-Host Mixer, Introductions
  
• ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE: Screenplays, TV and short-form scripts; first 15 pages in proper format, cover letter

JANIS THOMAS  is the bestselling author of such domestic suspense novels as All That’s Left of Me and What Remains True, both with Lake Union, and three critically acclaimed humorous works of women’s fiction—Something New, Sweet Nothings, and Say Never—as well as the mystery Murder in A-Minor. She has written more than fifty songs and two children’s books, which she created with her dad, is a passionate writing advocate, a popular workshop leader, speaker, and editor.  Her latest is the paranormal thriller Finding Grace, which Kirkus Reviews calls “An authentically creepy tale.” Janis is also Director of the Southern California Writers’ Conference.

• SESSIONS: TBA
• ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE: Women’s fiction, suspense, mystery; first 10 pages double-spaced; cover letter

JENNIFER SILVA REDMOND spent more than a decade as editor-in-chief/acquisitions editor at Sunbelt Publications before becoming a freelance publishing consultant and editor. On the staff of the Southern California Writers Conference and San Diego Writers, Ink, she was also prose editor for A Year in Ink Vol 3, and co-founder of the Sea of Cortez Review. Her essays, articles, and short fiction have been published in various anthologies, such as Latinos in Lotusland, and national magazines. She is always looking for “great new stuff” and has a wide circle of agents, editors, and publishers with whom to share marketable fiction and nonfiction. Her memoir Honeymoon at Sea: How I Found Myself Living on a Small Boat is now out.

• SESSIONS: TBA
• ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE: Fiction, nonfiction, memoir, short stories; first 10 pages double-spaced, cover letter

PATRICIA WILKINSON, Director of the Central Oregon Writers’ Conference, is a writing coach, freelance editor, novelist, and coauthor of Amazon bestselling and Readers’ Choice winner Brain Stages: How to Raise Smart, Confident Kids and Have Fun Doing It. A credentialed, mentor teacher of 23 years, Trish has helped numerous writers find their voices, hone their craft and move on to publication. Her clients include David Crow, whose memoir The Pale Face Lie: A True Story sold more than 100,000 copies, Captain Jack Molan (You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: My Thirty Years as Captain in the Bering Sea), Linda Berry (The Killing Woods), and Howard Shulman (Running from the Mirror: A Memoir).

• SESSIONS: TBA
• ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE:
  Adult and YA fiction; Memoir, narrative and practical nonfiction; nonfiction book proposals, first 10 pages double-spaced; cover letter

Workshops: Read & Critique

• All-Genre
• Commercial/Women’s/Memoir/Romance/Narrative
• Literary/Alternative/Narrative Nonfiction
• Mystery/Suspense/Thriller/Crime
• Paranormal/Horror/Transcendental
• Young Adult/New Adult

Workshops: Craft & Execution

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Workshops: Memoir/Creative Nonfiction

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Workshops: Path to Publication

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Daily Schedule

Panels, Appointments and Events

• Advance Submission One-on-One Consultations
• No-host Mixer
• Page One Cage Match
• Saturday Evening Special Guest Speaker: TBA
• Sunday Afternoon Special Guest Speaker: TBA