Writer’s Digest - The 7 Tools of Dialogue

Writer’s Digest - The 7 Tools of Dialogue

Writers events in Las Vegas for February

The Las Vegas Ever-Elusive Book Group will hold a special weeknight Meetup:

Tue February 1st at 6:00 PM

Location: Sambalatte 

750 S. Rampart Blvd

Boca Park/Rampart & Charleston

Las Vegas, NV 89145

702-272-2333

They'll be discussing A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick.

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February Meeting for The Las Vegas Writers Group  

Thursday, February 17^th at 7:00 PM

Location:Tap House 

5589 W Charleston Blvd

Las Vegas, NV 89146

702 870-2111

~Join us for an evening with local author Tami Cowden

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Just Write is a new group meeting at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf 

February 5^th at 6:00 PM

Location: Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf 

4550 S Maryland Pkwy

Las Vegas, NV 89119

This Meetup repeats every week on Saturday.

• First 5 Minutes - Introductions
• First hour and a half - Write, write, write!
• Last 25 minutes - Share, discuss

~If you arrive late, don't worry! Just pull up a chair and sit and start writing. Once the hour is finished, we'll introduce you to everyone.

Steve Friess reviews books from Las Vegas writers

"I also nervously took on Lax’s Vegas memoir Fool Me Once, always suspicious of writers who move to Vegas to write The Vegas Book. But Lax succeeds at taking readers into the Vegas singles/club world in a way that is funny, illuminating and self-effacing. He also delves into something I’ve never read much about: the Vegas magician universe."  Steve Friess of Las Vegas Weekly

A short story to review.

The intro to a dective novel that is under contruction.  A first draft so it may be rough around the edges.

http://jenjersnotes.blogspot.com/2011/01/lost-puppy.html

Creative Writing Sunday.

On Sunday January 9th, 2011 Maxwell Alexander Drake presented a creative writing class on plotting.  His focus was structure, timelines and the organization of ideas to build a solid framework for a story.

One point I appreciated during the discussion was that you cannot sell an incomplete work.  Writing is a business.  For many of us beginning writers who are yet unpublished and who write simply for the love of writing, we often have a fanciful view of the organic development of plots and charters.  We feel it is only right to let them create themselves, to allow them unfold from our imagination and enjoy watching them grow.  This may be beneficial as an exercise and during the character development stage of fiction writing, however if we do not take a strong character through a cohesive journey to some discernible point of conclusion we do not have a finished sellable product.

This may sound elementary to some seasoned writers but for me it was an ‘ah-ha!’ moment.  I knew there was something missing that was hindering me from getting to the finish line on my novel.  I have strong characters developed, I have an outline and I know where I want to take the story but Mr. Drake offered some tools to build a better structure to support all of the above.  Now I have some work to do.

Also this past weekend the Sisters in Crime group that gathers at the Barnes & Noble Booksellers on

Maryland Parkway held their monthly meeting.  Did you attend?  What else did I miss in the Las Vegas writing arena?  Please let us know what’s going on around town.

Jennifer Lightfoot

Writers conferences in Las Vegas

This upcoming year Las Vegas will be host to at least a couple of writers’ conferences.  A few of these are:  Telling Your Story: The Craft and Business of Memoir Writing., presented by Writers of Southern Nevada, the Las Vegas Writers Conference presented by The Henderson Writers Group, and PSWA’s annual conference. Each looks intriguing.  

The first will be held on March 5^th 2011 and will focus on Memoirs with topics such as ‘Truth or Lie: Writing on the Cusp of Memoir & Fiction’, ‘Selling the Truth: The Reality of Publishing a Memoir or Biography’, ’Keeping Important Details and Letting Go of the Rest’. http://www.nevadawriters.org/content.php

The second, and the longest running, by The Henderson Writers Group will be three days, April 14-16.  The panel and speakers are still to be determined.  http://shop.lasvegaswritersconference.com/

            Another conference new to me but also the most appealing to me personally is the PSWA’s (Public Safety Writers Association) annual conference. It will be held July 14-17, 2011 at the Orleans Hotel and Casino.  Originally the title of the conference seemed very industry specific and targeting more technical writing however the conference is open to anyone writing crime and mystery fiction or non-fiction, as well as technical writing for public safety magazines. http://www.policewriter.com/Conference/conference2011.htm

Will I run into you there?

Which one are you most likely to attend?

Have you attended either before and what can you tell me about them?

Please leave a comment.  Thanks!

A Poets corner in Las Vegas

Just wanted to shine some light on this ongoing event. 
The Poets’ Corner
Friday, Jan 21st 2011 at 7:00 p.m.
Free and open to the public.
West Las Vegas Arts Center, 947 W. Lake Mead Blvd., (702) 229-4800. 
Keith Brantley hosts a forum for established poets and open-microphone participants.
For mature audiences.

(adults)

Write on the Mob

You may have not heard that every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in January 2011, the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District will be featuring special guests and authors who've researched and written about organized crime, along with ex-mobsters from different syndicates across America who will share stories about their lives in and out of the Mob.  How Vegas is that?!?!  All these events are free admission & open to the public.

This Tuesday, Jan 4th, there will be five guest speakers:
Retired FBI special agent Dennis Arnoldy led the team that arrested the infamous Hole In The Wall Gang; former mafia street soldier-turned-author/filmmaker Andrew DiDonato (Surviving The Mob) worked for the Gambino & Genovese crime families;  ex-sheriff/ Internet talk show host Dennis Griffin is an author of 10 bestsellers including The Battle For Las Vegas-- The Law vs. The Mob, Vegas Vixen, and Cullotta ; ex-mobster/active government witness Salvatore 'Fat Sal' Mangiavillano whose testimony against mob instigators Peter Gotti & Huck Carbonaro resulted in their convictions; and Robert Allen of the Vegas Mob Tour.

At the Clark County Library in the Main Theatre.

Local insight on writers groups.

I ran across some comments on the writers groups in the Las Vegas area.  Just wanted to share it because I could not have said it better. Check out Whole lotta critiquin goin on by Mike Dennis .