Schedule for the Yosemite Writers Conference
In a recent interview with Bonnie Hearn Hill about the Yosemite Writers Conference, she stated:

“We have four workshops an hour geared for everyone at every stage of her/his career; however, we encourage writers to follow their passion. If a beginning writer wants to attend a workshop on how to sell books to film, that’s fine. I should add that we have a talented sound professional from Hawaii recording all of the workshops, so if you miss one you think you might like, you can purchase a CD.”

Wow! That’s a lot of workshops! And there are a lot of great topics being covered! There are a couple of timeslots where I wish I could clone myself and sit in two workshops at the same time. I just might have to purchase a CD of the workshops so I don’t miss anything.

Take a look at the schedule of workshops for next week’s Yosemite Writers Conference:

Friday August 24:

9:15 – 10:15 AM –
Sharpen Your Hooks – Fiction
Writing For Social Change
Writing and Publishing Your Memoir
Writing Anthologies For the Soul

10:45 – 11:45 AM –
Ghosting Where the Money is: A Guide to Co-authoring
How to Stand Out in the Nonfiction Market
Selling to Chronicle Books
Editing Poetry: Entering the process whole and coming out humming

1:45 – 2:45 PM –
All About Platform: If You Build It, They Will Come
Spiritual Writing in the Age of The Secret
Selling to Tor Books
Chick Lit is Dead, and Other Myths About Women's Fiction

3:00 – 4:00 PM –
How to Pitch an Editor
Rates, rights and rules of engagement: What you need to know about magazine freelancing
Selling to Weiser Books
Take Your Book to the Movies

Saturday August 25:

9:15 – 10:15 AM –
He, She and the Dreaded Omniscient: Point of View at Close Range
Confessions of a Contest Judge
Picture Book Manuscript Critique
Beyond the Basics - What Every Author Needs to Know Before, During and After Publication

10:45 – 11: 45 AM –
Sharpen your Hooks – Nonfiction
Blogging Your Way to Fame

1:45 – 2:45 PM –
How to Pitch an Agent
Murder, They Wrote: A Guide to Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers
Writing for Guideposts

3:00 – 4:00 PM –
Tapping the Hot YA Market
Invisible Genius: Ghostwriting for The Penn Group
Twisting the Mystery Plot

*****************
www.noveltown.net
www.yosemitewriters.com

Labels: Bonnie Hearn Hill, editors, Fiction, literary agents, Mystery, non-fiction, Noveltown, women's fiction, workshops, Writing, Yosemite Writers Conference

  posted by Matildakay at 1:25 PM 0 comments

The Great Fountain Mystery
I’m not a yard person. Meaning I don’t like yard work. In fact I don’t do it. I have a gardener. The house I live in now, the gardener is provided by the property management company and included in my rent. The gardener comes on Thursday afternoon. Because the gardener works for the property management company instead of me, we don’t have conversations. We don’t talk about the dead looking banana trees that they never trim. We don’t talk about the flowering tree that hangs over the back fence and gate and is so overgrown that it feels like a jungle. In fact other than the occasional sound of the lawnmower in the backyard when I go home for lunch, or the tell tale sign of the back gate being left open, I’d never even know the gardener had been there. They mow the grass and that’s about it.

I like my house better than any house I’ve lived in as an ‘adult’. It’s got a big front yard that wraps around the house and a nice size back yard. If it wasn’t for my neighbor’s annoying cats camping out in my yard it would be idyllic. The front yard even came with a good size fountain near the front door in what I guess would be the flower bed if it had flowers instead of shrubs.



I never gave the fountain much thought. It was pretty to look at but wasn’t a working fountain with water and all. My friend’s little girl once filled it with wild flowers she pulled from the grass. But to me it was just a yard ornament. That was until recently.

“What happened to the fountain in your yard?” My dad asked.

“I don’t know. What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s missing.” Dad stated.

“Missing!”

“Yeah its gone. Didn’t you notice?”

I rarely use my front door. I always enter my house through the side door after parking the car in the garage. So I hadn’t noticed the fountain was gone.

Now there is a pipe sticking up out of a slab of cement where the fountain used to be.



It looks strange.

I have to ask. Who in their right mind would steal a fountain? And how does someone steal a fountain?

Do a bunch of guys sitting around drinking beer decide to steal a fountain on a drunken dare and pull up in front of my house in the middle of the night with tools and strong arm the fountain into a truck?

It has to be the oddest thing to steal.

I have to admit; my first thought was to suspect the gardener. But since we don’t talk about the yard, I didn’t think I could accuse him of stealing the fountain.

And then there is the dilemma of telling the property management company that someone stole the fountain from the front yard. Would they make me pay for it? I wondered.

I still don’t know the answer to that one.

The other day a friend and I were driving past Las Palmas Nursery on Coffee Road and we both noticed all the fountains and fancy garden ornaments.

“There’s your fountain.” My friend joked.

I laughed. But I couldn’t help but wonder… Is there a black market for yard fountains?

It’s a mystery.

Labels: annoying cats, Bakersfield, flowers, Fountain, gardening, Mystery, yard work

  posted by Matildakay at 9:39 PM 8 comments