Friday, March 18, 2011

Schedule of Events


April 8-10, 2011
Sheraton Westport Plaza Hotel
St. Louis, Missouri

Friday, April 8

Noon                                      Registration opens

1:30 PM                                 Book room opens

1:15 PM                                 Welcome/Announcements

1:30 PM – 3:00 PM               Early-Arrival Seminar with Funds for Writers’ C. Hope Clark
                                                Funding Streams for Your Writing Career                                            

3:15 PM – 4:00 PM               Missouri Writers’ Guild Business Meeting

4:00 PM – 4:45 PM               Missouri Writers’ Guild Members’ and Non-Members’ Book signing Event

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM               Agent/Editor Panel

6:00 PM – 7:30 PM               Dinner Break           Superb selection of restaurants at Westport Plaza!

7:30 PM – 8:30 PM               Other Than Books:  Publishing in Places You Can’t Afford to Miss
                                                         Panel I:  Literary Fiction and Literary Journals                      
                                                         Panel II:  Periodicals, Newsletters, Ezines and More

8:30 PM – 10:00 PM                Nightcaps Buzz Sessions & Open Mic

Saturday, April 9

7:30 AM – 9:00 AM               Registration opens

8:30 AM                                  Faculty Introductions/Announcements

9:00 AM – Noon                     Pitch Sessions

9:00 AM – 9:50 AM               Breakout Sessions – I
                                                 How Grants Work for a Children’s Author – C. Hope Clark
                                                 Writing the Personal Essay – Regina Williams
                                                 Dialect:  The Poetry of Place – Joanna Beth Tweedy
                                                 Signing with a Literary Agent: 
                                                       Facts and Myth – Sandra Carrington-Smith                                        

10:00 AM – 10:50 AM           Breakout Sessions – II
                                                 Jump-Starting Your Short Story – Elaine Viets
                                                 Using Feedback and Critiques – Catherine Rankovic
                                                 Selling the Hard Sell – Jeannie Lin

11:00 – 11:50 AM                  Breakout Sessions – III
                                                Creating an Attention-Getting Platform – Krista Goering
                                                Writing the Short Script – p. b. smith
                                                Writing True Crime with Humor:  An Oxymoron? – Morley Swingle
                                                “Get Your Facts First…” – Cindy Lovell 

Noon – 1:15 PM                     Lunch      Keynote:  Mary Troy

1:30 PM – 5:00 PM                Pitch Sessions

1:30 PM – 2:20 PM                Breakout Sessions – IV
                                                 Rewriting to Make Every Scene Come Alive – Nancy Pickard
                                                 Writers, Get Ready for April 15th! – Faye Adams
                                                 The Rarest Kind of Best:  
                                                     Writing for Children with Cricket Magazine Group – Margaret Mincks
                                                 An Agent Reads the Slush Pile -- Kristin Nelson

2:30 PM – 3:20 PM               Breakout Sessions – V
                                                My Recipe for Chicken Soup for the Soul – Linda Apple
                                                As Seen Through the Eyes of an Editor – Regina Williams
                                                How to Use Blogging and Social Networking to Sell a Book and 
                                                    Increase Your Book Sales – p. b. smith
                                                How One Book Morphed into Four:  
                                                    Writing Pictorial Histories – Don and Dianna Graveman

3:30 PM – 4:20 PM                Breakout Sessions – VI
                                                What Should I Write and When:  
                                                    Finding Subjects that Sell and the Time to Pursue Them – Margo Dill
                                                Have Laptop Will Travel:  
                                                    Secrets to Getting Your Travel Stories Published – Deborah Reinhardt
                                                Riding the Firebird:  Exploring the Vertical Image – Kelli Allen

4:30 PM – 6:00 PM               Speakers’ Book signing Event

6:00 PM                                  Doors open for Banquet

6:30 PM – 10:00 PM              Show-Me Spotlight Awards Banquet      
                                                Keynote:  Elaine Viets                            

Sunday, April 10

9 AM – NOON                      Master Classes

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

EXTRA!! EXTRA!!

We have a limited number of tickets available to the general public for the "Show-Me Showcase" Banquet with keynote speaker Elaine Viets on Saturday evening, April 9th at the Westport Plaza Sheraton Hotel in St. Louis.

These $45 tickets entitle the ticket holder to attend not only the awards banquet, but also to attend the book signing with all our speakers beginning at 4:30 p.m. that day.  Doors for the banquet open at 6 p.m., with dinner beginning at 6:30 p.m.

All speakers can be found on the conference page on the Missouri Writers' Guild website.

Ticket requests may be made by emailing Conference Chair Debbie Marshall.