News And Announcements

In-person, fervent interaction is not replicated online by Zoom. What makes the difference for writers in the wild? Eyeballs and earwells on their work. Up close, with accomplished professionals providing keen, kind, yet critical feedback in effort to elevate quality and settle only for exceptional execution. Finding that one potential, passionate advocate; that one somebody who understands the ever-changing realities of breaking through present publishing industry intersects, not irrelevant modalities of yesteryear, with the aim of getting you where you want to be with your work. Somebody who gets you. The SCWC focuses on where we’re at, collectively, today and what your writing requires to prevail successfully tomorrow and beyond. Regardless of genre.

Literary agents are a small pleat in the greater fold. Authors, editors, even other aspiring writers with crucial connects, those who are willing to make necessary introductions, remain the fuel of this industry. It’s what built the SCWC. It’s our foundation. Absent celebrity, notoriety, or so-called “influencer” exploitation, story, voice and skill is still what it takes to establish meaningful, memorable legacy in print. (And, hopefully, book sales!)

Our 20th annual fall conference in Irvine is shaping up to be a special one. There’s still plenty of room to join us. Get your words the attention they deserve. Be there.

And for those planning way ahead, our 38th annual winter event will again take place on Presidents’ Day Weekend, February 16-18, 2024. Discounted pre-registration is now open. Full details here.

–Michael Steven Gregory
Executive Director, SCWC

As much business gets done at the bar, over a drink, as in any given SCWC workshop. Over some 37 years it’s been that way. It’s sort of how I view email. While many respond to email in declaritive statements seemingly intent on fending off further engagement, I’ve always felt email an ongoing discussion, often intermittent, disjointed. One thread of email that may last months or years, regardless how disparate the subjects, questions, heads-ups, mere updates on well-being, remains, at least in my mind, all merely one prolonged conversation. Really not any different than a quality late-night confab over drinks at the bar. You just never know where the gab’s gonna getcha by the end of the eve. And while not everybody drinks, everybody should have a bar one can call home. A place to go on safari with no game in mind. Only the prospect of a trophy to be had.

That’s where the SCWC fits in. Writing unites us, yes, but it’s the passion and personal interactions that prevent us from splaying asunder our individual journeys beyond any given conference weekend. Contacts are made. New friendships flourish. Opportunities and support arise with rabid abandon and curious ferocity. As a result of the SCWC, books have been published and careers have erupted. Hell, even marriages have launched atop the buoyant tide that remains SCWC.

I recently discovered in the way-way-back a conferee who declared SCWC, “The most most positively disruptive weekend of my life!” I like that. And while a friend recently coined me as the spine of the conference, what’s essential that all understand is that you–the staff and conferees–remain the muscle. The sinew. Without you actively participating in our community, we’d be unfit. We’d be a conference like too many others: about the people behind the podium, not first and foremost the writers in the room. Just wanted to take a moment to thank you, all. It remains a privilege to run this show. We have so many more miles to travel.

The bulk of the schedule is now posted, with still a few tweaks to be made, and all advance submission readers are now available for selection. The Novel Boot Camp has a few seats available. And discounted hotel lodging and advance submission deadlines are fast approaching. It’s going to be a fantastic “weekend for words.” I look forward to seeing you there.

Now onto what most matters…

Good Muse

In the thick of summer (and weeks-long, suffusive wild fire smoke) we have many SCWCers with new books available to all those grateful readers we adore and aspire to please.

The first in his debut action thriller series, Conor Black’s In the Wind introduces audiences to rogue justice fighter Nate Vigil … From Jennifer Silva Redmond, the long-awaited memoir Honeymoon at Sea chronicles her hippie California lifestyle childhood to the at-sea honeymoon adventure on a twenty-six foot sailboad that redefined her life … Mary Vensel White’s Things to See in Arizona is a “[S]atisfying blend of travelogue, romance, mystery, and teen coming-of-age,” lauds Indie Reader…

Crime Under the Sun: A Sister in Crime Aanthology, edited by our own Matt Coyle, includes short stories by SCWCers Michelle Rodenborn and John Edward Mullen … Russ Thompson’s latest in his Fnding Forward series, geared for troubled youth, Blue Wall tackles teenage depression … Danielle Harrington’s The Pure Ones, third in the Hollis Timewire series, continues the adventures of her vigilent heroine in a dystopian hellscape…

Finally, a big CONGRATULATIONS! to Michelle Rodenborn. She nabbed the win in one of our favorite SCWC workshop leader/guest speaker’s generous offer of manuscript review and consult, Joe Ide (the IQ series).

Awesome stuff, folks. Best of success to all!

Finally, for those planning ahead, our 38th annual San Diego event will take place Presidents’ Day Weekend, February 16-18, 2024. Save a whopping $175 off Full Conference participation and register by September 1st here.

–Michael Steven Gregory
Executive Director, SCWC

In a recent survey, The Authors Guild reported that 69 percent of authors believe their careers are threatened by generative AI. Another 70 percent believe that publishers will use AI to generate books in whole, or at least in part, in effort to replace meat writers (human authors). Thing is, Artificial Intelligence is not Emotional Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence is not impending Y2K. Artificial Intelligence is a tool. Efficiently utilized, possibly one of the most powerfully useful tools available to writers.

While, yes, generative AI will impact the publishing world significantly – already has – with nefarious players releasing crap AI-produced ebooks that will further confuse readers and suppress sales of legitimate meat-made books, opportunities abound for the literary creative who understands what makes meat irreplaceable: Passion. Voice. And a fervent sense of settling only for exceptional with one’s work.

To better learn what this technology can do, and cannot, for writers, we’ve been developing a hands-on workshop with an AI programmer (and writer himself). Tentatively titled, “AI, The Writer: Pitfalls, Potential & Practices,” will debut in Irvine.

Plenty of other new sessions will be presented, as usual, gleaned largely from what issues and concerns emerged at our recent San Diego event, as well as larger industry challenges that seem to evolve at an ever-daunting pace. In fact, an entire new 8-workshop track will premiere in September. Going It Alone: Publishing Yourself addresses the multitudinous facets of “self” publication, with each workshop conducted by someone who excels at that one vital step of the pipeline. Very few authors who self-publish successfully either can, or do so, entirely on their own. It’s takes a hamlet. Do you know what you don’t know?

Also coming to Irvine for the first time, novelist Janis Thomas will conduct her popular Novel Boot Camp. An SCWC-exclusive, the 8-part track is limited to 10 participants and has sold out each time she’s run it in San Diego. »Details

We’ll start rolling out the LA20 staff shortly. Along with some of our regular top workshop leaders, many others are joining the SCWC for the first time. Literary agents already confirmed include Cathie Hedrick-Armstrong (The Purcell Agency); Steve Hutson (Wordwise Media), Annie Bomke (Annie Bomke Literary Agency); and Carlisle Webber (Fuse Literary). All will be available for advances submissions, followed by one-on-one consultation conference weekend.

Register by no later than June 1 and save $125 on Full Conference participation. For those planning far ahead, discounted hotel lodging is now open.

–Michael Steven Gregory
Executive Director, SCWC

In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls it “[An] ambitious and poignant debut.” Booklist affirms, “It is a strong testament to her writing that the threads of the story are clear, the characters fleshed out, and the history seamlessly tied into what is otherwise a deeply affecting story … This should have wide appeal to readers of character-driven stories, family dramas, and historical fiction.” And from internationally bestselling author Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai (The Mountains Sing and Dust Child): “Majestic, powerful, mysterious, and captivating … Hula is a magnificent achievement … I cannot wait for readers everywhere to celebrate Jasmin Iolani Hakes’ talent.” Book’s out May. Jasmin herself will be our Saturday evening Special Guest Speaker in September to discuss its excruciating journey to publication after Outstanding Fiction recognition at LA16. Can’t wait.

Sunday afternoon our Special Guest Speaker will be Cristina LePort. Of her novel, Dissection, none other than Lee Child (Jack Reacher series and 2020 Booker Prize judge) declared, “High stakes, breathless suspense, and real insider authenticity―a terrific debut.” While Tess Gerritsen (another repeated international bestseller) hails, “With a terrifying premise and riveting medical details, Dissection moves at a frantic pace.” “LePort uses her own experience as a cardiovascular specialist to enhance an already engaging actioner,” concluded Kirkus. Still a practicing cardiologist, Cristina will discuss her author’s journey with us.

All that and a whole lot more await our community come Irvine, September 15-17, 2023. Be the (published) writer you aspire to be and be there or be … ware!

–Michael Steven Gregory
Executive Director, SCWC

Viewed as a young adult novel that’ll be all the rage with fans of J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, Ryan Steck (author of Fields of Fire & Editor-in-Chief of The Real Book Spy) calls it, “A blistering, high-stakes, fast-paced supernatural thriller that’s impossible to put down.” Kirkus lauds, “Fast-paced action and a rich setting boost the beginning of a promising paranormal saga.” Deftly tackling such themes as addiction, revenge, faith, and friendship, the book is Hunt For Eden’s Star, the first in a planned “Beacon Hill” series, and the debut effort of author Derek “D.J.” Williams. He’ll be joining us in September as our Friday evening Special Guest Speaker to share how it came to be, and what media skill sets he brought to the table to make it so widely anticipated.

On the SCWC Facebook Group, we recently had a hearty discussion about “writing joy.” How do you do that? I’m not talking about adjectives and what not. What I meant, as with fear, grief, or any other some such, is not just telling readers, but forcing strangers across the page to feel an emotion with mere words. It’s one thing to state s/he’s happy or elated, another to convey that sense of inflated being to the bone, if not its marrow. As a result, author/workshop leader Judy Reeves has jumped in to develop a new workshop that will address the subject, and what tools to apply to do so effectively. The whole thing arose from this post on our blog a couple of days before: The Why of Writing.

Good Muse Galore

Been a while since we caught up with all the SCWCers with books recently released, or soon to be. It’s a lot to track, but here’s some of the latest:

There’s Books 5, 6 and 7 in Russ Thompson’s popular teen & young adult Finding Forward Series, Overspray, Knocked Down, and Torn.

From Jennifer Herrera, literary agent and longtime friend of the conference, The Hunter, her debut psychological thriller … Book 10 in David Putnam’s Bruno Johnson thriller series, The Scorned … Laura Perkins (writing as Mercy Hollow) has a new story in the anthology Wicked Ever After from Grim House Publishing.

Bipolar, A Gift of Thorns, a memoir, is now out from Dale Zurawski … Dennis K. Crosby’s third installment in Reaper of Souls Kassidy Simmons’ paranormal adventure, Death’s Despair drops in June … and Carl Vonderau’s latest, Saving Myles, a financial thriller, will be published in August. So much reading to catch up on from our ever-expanding writer’s community.

Best of success to all!

Discounted pre-registration is now open and we’ll begin announcing workshop staff, additional speakers, agents and editors next month. We’re pretty much fully back to successful, regular in-person status for the fourth time since the pandemic. And speaking of success, if you haven’t already binged it on Netflix, The Night Agent is based on a thriller written by novelist Matthew Quirk. He just informed me the show’s been picked up for a second season. Here’s some of Matt’s stellar advice presented to the SCWC in Irvine…

–Michael Steven Gregory
Executive Director, SCWC