All workshops last a calendar month. You can register to take any workshop, whether themed or designed by you, during any month of the year. Contact me first to verify that the month works for both our schedules.
WORKSHOPS:
FINDING YOUR MEMOIR
WRITING THE PERSONAL ESSAY
MYSTERY WRITING 1.0
BUILDING YOUR STORY
MINING YOUR MEMORIES
IS YOUR WRITING VIVID & DYNAMIC?
SPECIAL PROJECTS:
DESIGN YOUR OWN WORKSHOP
FINDING YOUR MEMOIR
Each of us has many stories to tell. Memoir offers you the chance to deepen and share those stories, focusing on a specific time in your life or a particular theme that organizes your experience.
One of the most exciting aspects of writing memoir is deciding where and how your unique story or stories begin. That’ll be the focus of “Finding Your Memoir.” Together, we’ll engage in guided weekly writing exercises and you’ll end the workshop with a piece that can become the doorway to your larger project. That project can be a full-length memoir or a series of memoir essays. Think of this workshop as doing an independent study: I’ll work with each participant individually via email. You’ll send me your writing as a Microsoft Word file attached to your email; I’ll comment using Track Changes on what you send, as well as do close editing and return it to you. Before the workshop begins, we’ll speak on the phone about your goals for the workshop.
I’ve published three books of memoirs. The best known is My Germany, which explores what Germany, real and imagined, has meant to me as a writer who’s the son of Holocaust survivors. I did over fifty invited talks and readings for that book across the U.S. and Germany.
Enrollment is limited to ten participants. To enroll you need to register and pay the workshop fee of $260 (including the PayPal handling charge). Fees are not refundable, but if you need to re-schedule, we can find another month that works for both of us.
Please note: You must be 18 or over to register for this workshop.
Register for “Finding Your Memoir”
WRITING THE PERSONAL ESSAY
Personal essays are a unique way of reaching an audience: they’ve been rightly called “letters to strangers.” You get to contemplate and process an experience in your own unique way and share what you learned with readers. Personal essays are direct, conversational, and subjective. The range of topics you can explore is vast; the tone, style, length and structure of the essay are completely up to you.
Think of this month-long workshop as doing an independent study: I’ll work with you individually via email as you get a series of assignments to guide you in your personal essay journey.
You’ll send me your writing as a Microsoft Word file attached to your email; I’ll comment using Track Changes on what you send, as well as do close editing and return it to you. Before the workshop begins, we’ll speak on the phone about your goals for the workshop and we’ll also talk abut the experience at the end of the month.
To enroll you need to register and pay the workshop fee of $260 (this includes the PayPal handling charge). Fees are not refundable, but if you need to re-schedule, we can find another month that works for both of us.
Please note: You must be 18 or over to register for this workshop.
Register for “Writing the Personal Essay”
MYSTERY WRITING 1.0
The most important part of any mystery is the opening. Whether you’ve already begun writing a mystery or you’re thinking about it, this introductory workshop is designed to help you grab your readers in those opening pages and not let them go.
You’ll begin by reading and analyzing openings of superb crime fiction of all kinds. You’ll have a series of writing exercises whose goal is producing an opening chapter or scene you can be proud of by the end of the month. Think of this workshop as doing an independent study: I’ll work with each participant individually via email. You’ll send me your writing as a Microsoft Word file attached to your email; I’ll comment using Track Changes on what you send, as well as do close editing and return it to you. Before the workshop begins, we’ll speak on the phone about your goals for the workshop.
I reviewed crime fiction for over a decade at the Detroit Free Press. My best-selling mystery series has been acclaimed in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and a whole host of newspapers and magazines. I’ve taught crime fiction courses at Michigan State University and mystery workshops across Michigan.
Enrollment is limited to ten participants. To enroll you need to register and pay the workshop fee of $260 (including the PayPal handling charge). Fees are not refundable, but if you need to re-schedule, we can find another month that works for both of us.
Please note: You must be 18 or over to register for this workshop.
Register for “Mystery Writing 1.0”
BUILDING YOUR STORY
How to do you take an idea for a short story and develop it into something that’s complete, satisfying, and makes your readers feel like they’ve truly experienced another world? It can feel magical when it’s done, but there’s actually nothing mysterious about writing a short story.
With writing exercises in fundamental elements like characterization, dialogue, setting, and scene building, you’ll move from an idea to a completed draft. The goal of these weekly exercises is producing a short story you can be proud of. Think of this workshop as doing an independent study: I’ll work with each participant individually via email. You’ll send me your writing as a Microsoft Word file attached to your email; I’ll comment using Track Changes on what you send, as well as do close editing and return it to you. Before the workshop begins, we’ll speak on the phone about your goals for the workshop.
My writing career started with a prize-winning short story that was published in Redbook Magazine whose audience was 4.5 million readers at the time, and I’ve always had a special fondness for this genre. I’ve published dozens of stories in a wide range of magazines and newspapers, and many have been chosen for anthologies in the U.S. and Britain, with my first solo collection of short stories winning a prize.
Enrollment is limited to ten participants. To enroll you need to register and pay the workshop fee of $260 (including the PayPal handling charge). Fees are not refundable, but if you need to re-schedule, we can find another month that works for both of us.
Please note: You must be 18 or over to register for this workshop.
Register for “Building Your Story”
MINING YOUR MEMORIES
An Advanced Workshop
Did you take “Finding Your Memoir” and now you want to continue forward the work you started? Do you want to develop something new? Have you begun a book-length memoir, finished one, been working on memoir essays, or taken other memoir workshops? Then this advanced, intensive workshop is for you. Over the course of the month I’ll mentor you with your new work or your work-in-progress to make sure that it’s focused, vivid, and compelling. If you’re not grabbing your readers quickly and sustaining their interest, then you’re likely to lose them since there’s just so much competition for their attention. I will do it all with you, from analyzing content, structure, and style down to proofing and copy editing, so that you’re well on your way to producing something polished and unforgettable, whether it’s a full-length memoir or memoir essays.
Think of this workshop as doing an independent study: I’ll work with each participant individually via email. You’ll send me your writing as a Microsoft Word file attached to your email; I’ll comment using Track Changes on what you send, as well as do close editing and return it to you. Before the workshop begins, we’ll speak on the phone about your goals for the workshop.
I’ve published three books of memoirs. The best known is My Germany, which explores what Germany, real and imagined, has meant to me as a writer as the son of Holocaust survivors. I toured with the book twice all across Germany as well as in the U.S. and Canada, doing over fifty talks and readings, some of them in German.
Enrollment is limited to ten participants. To enroll you need to register and pay the workshop fee of $260 (including the PayPal handling charge). Fees are not refundable, but if you need to re-schedule, we can find another month that works for both of us.
Please note: You must be 18 or over to register for this workshop.
Register for “Mining Your Memories”
IS YOUR WRITING VIVID & DYNAMIC?
No matter what genre you’re working in, you want your book to grab readers and not let them go. You want it to be so memorable that they recommend it to friends and family, and think about it long after the book is closed.
A good story and intriguing characters aren’t enough. The key is making your readers feel like they’re right there in each and every scene.
The focus of this workshop will be learning to appeal to all the senses so that your writing is as vivid and dramatic as possible. You’ll do weekly exercises and examine masters of evocative, dramatic writing as models for your own writing. Think of this workshop as doing an independent study: I’ll work with each participant individually via email. You’ll send me your writing as a Microsoft Word file attached to your email; I’ll comment using Track Changes on what you send, as well as do close editing and return it to you. Before the workshop begins, we’ll speak on the phone about your goals for the workshop.
Enrollment is limited to ten participants. To enroll you need to register and pay the workshop fee of $260 (including the PayPal handling charge). Fees are not refundable, but if you need to re-schedule, we can find another month that works for both of us.
Please note: You must be 18 or over to register for this workshop.
Register for “Is Your Writing Vivid & Dynamic?”
DESIGN YOUR OWN WORKSHOP
Do you have a novel, short story, essay, or memoir that’s in progress? Is there a genre not listed that you’d like to work on with me?
We can work together on suspense/thriller, personal essays, horror, short stories, fantasy, science fiction, romance, supernatural, or historical fiction. You choose the genre, you choose the schedule.
If you’d like to work with me on a project of your choice, you don’t need to enroll in one of the themed workshops, just email me via this contact link. We’ll discuss your project and make the arrangements.
Please note: You must be over 18 to register for a special project.