All Passionate Ink workshops are held on our writers’ forums. Non-members are given access to the workshop sections, and all messages are archived on site and can be forwarded to the attendees email if they choose.

Passionate Ink 2010 Upcoming Online Workshops

Special workshop to fund the Passionate Ink Perseverance Fund* – WRITING EROTIC ROMANCE with Angela Knight May 3, 2010 – May 31, 2010 $25
In this class, New York Times bestselling author Angela Knight will discuss the techniques of writing erotic romance she used to make the leap to New York publication. She’ll cover creating heroes heroines and villains for erotic romance, as well as how to structure a plot that combines sexuality, sensuality and conflict to create a story readers can’t put down. She will discuss creating intense internal, external and romantic plots for erotic romance, as well as how to write multiple love scenes in such a way that each one is different and advances the plot.

About the presenter : Angela Knight is the New York Times bestselling author of books for Berkley, Red Sage, Changeling Press, and Loose Id. Her first book was written in pencil and illustrated in crayon; she was nine years old at the time. A few years later, she read The Wolf and the Dove and fell in love with romance. Besides her fiction work, Angela’s publishing career includes a stint as a comic book writer and ten years as a newspaper reporter. Several of her stories won South Carolina Press Association awards under her real name.

In 1996, she discovered the small press publisher Red Sage, and realized her dream of romance publication in the company’s Secrets 2 anthology. She went on to publish several more novellas in Secrets before editor Cindy Hwang discovered her work there and asked her if she’d be interested in writing for Berkley. Not being an idiot, Angela said yes.

Whatever success she has enjoyed, she attributes to the marvelous editors she’s had over the years. David Anthony Kraft and Dwight Zimmerman at Comics Interview taught her the nuts and bolts of fiction writing. Alexandria Kendall of Red Sage discovered her talent for romance writing and encouraged her to believe in herself. And she will be forever grateful to Berkley editor Cindy Hwang, who has been unfailingly supportive.

Angela lives in South Carolina with her husband, Michael, a polygraph examiner and hostage negotiator for the county’s Sheriff’s Office. The couple have a grown son, Anthony.

You can find out more about Angela at her website – http://www.angelasknights.com/

For more information: workshopchair@passionateink.org

To Pay Online : Using PayPal (PayPal), send payment to perseverance@passionateink.org with “WORKSHOP – Perseverance” as the subject. In the “message” section, include Your Name and Email Address.
Cost: $25 To pay by check, print this page and send with a check to Passionate Ink Workshops – Perseverance c/o Robin L. Rotham P.O. Box 2412 Norfolk, NE 68701

*100% of all entry fees from this workshop will go to fund the Passionate Ink Perseverance Fund. The purpose of the fund is to assist those RWA members who may be facing difficulties paying their Passionate Ink chapter dues. Payments from the fund will be governed by the chapter’s bylaws, and policies and procedures manual. All funding will come from directed donations.

Sex & Violence (Without the Sex) and Alpha Male Warriors with Bob Mayer

April 4, 2010 – April 18, 2010
$15 for PI Members; $20 for Non-members

Writing action scenes requires being in real time and real people. This presentation will focus both on how to write action scenes effectively, but also understanding the subtext to the scene in terms of reality, personalities, and effect on plot and character. Tactics, weapons, hand-to-hand, etc. will be covered. The mindset of a warrior (and the coward) approaching and involved in action scenes will be discussed. Lessons will be presentations with questions to be asked afterward and answered in next lesson.

Six lessons:
1: Character: Who are these people and why are they fighting?
2: Plot, Setting and Point of View in Action scenes.
3: Writing Action
4: Weapons, tactics, martial arts, and how to kill with your pinkie.
5: The mind of the Warrior.
6: Wrap up and final questions answered.

NY Times bestselling author Bob Mayer has 40 books published. He has over three million books in print and is in demand as a team-building, life-change, and leadership speaker and consultant. Bob graduated from West Point and served in the military as a Special Forces A-Team leader and a teacher at the JFK Special Warfare Center & School. He earned a black belt in martial arts while living in the Orient. His latest book is Who Dares Wins: The Green Beret Way to Conquer Fear & Succeed. He teaches novel writing and improving the author via his Warrior-Writer program. For more information see his website.

To Pay Online : Using PayPal (PayPal), send payment to workshops@passionateink.org with “WORKSHOP – Sex and Violence” as the subject. In the “message” section, include Your Name and Email Address.

For more information: workshopchair@passionateink.org

Cost: $15 for Passionate Ink Members, $20 for non-members

To pay by check, print this page and send with a check to
Passionate Ink Workshops
c/o Robin L. Rotham
P.O. Box 2412
Norfolk, NE 68701

Understanding Men
Title : Understanding Men
Date : March 1, 2010 – March 31, 2010
Presenter: Dr. Debra Holland

Do you wish you had a better understanding of men? Now is your chance to improve your real-life relationships with men and enhance your male characters all through taking the same course.

In the five week online class, you will learn how the male brain and hormones makes a man think, feel, and behave, especially in relationships. We will also discuss how men are portrayed in romance novels versus how men are in real life.

For the first time, Dr. Holland will also add a segment covering the anatomy and physiology of male sexuality, as well as male sexual responses, attitudes, and behavior.

Dr. Debra Holland
Debra Holland, Ph.D is a popular psychotherapist, consultant, and speaker on the topics of communication skills, relationships, stress and trauma, and dealing with difficult people. In this class, Dr. Debra will considerably expand on the workshop she has given at the 2001 National RWA Conference and around the country to various RWA chapters and conferences. Although this class is geared to writers, non-writers will also find the class helpful in improving their relationships with men.

For more information about Dr. Holland, see her website http://www.drdebraholland.com/

To Pay Online : Using PayPal (PayPal), send payment to workshops@passionateink.org with “WORKSHOP – Understanding Men” as the subject. In the “message” section, include Your Name and Email Address.

Cost: $15 for Passionate Ink Members, $25 for non-members

To pay by check, print this page and send with a check to
Passionate Ink Workshops
c/o Robin L. Rotham
P.O. Box 2412
Norfolk, NE 68701

Past Workshops

The Art of a 3-Line Pitch
Title : The Art of a 3-Line Pitch
Date : February 15, 2010 – February 20, 2010
Presenter: Cindy Carroll
Cost: Free for Passionate Ink Members; $5 for Non-members

What’s your three line pitch?

If someone asks you need to be able to tell them what your story is about. For queries or agent/editor appointments the three line pitch works well to get your story across. This workshop will help you hone your three line pitch so you can grab the interest of readers, editors and agents.

Topics covered:
What is a three line pitch? – what it is and what it isn’t
Parts of the pitch (assignment) – what it should include
Staying on track – how using a three line pitch can keep you on track

Feedback provided for student assignments

Cindy Carroll
Cindy Carroll joined RWA in 1992 and started out writing novels but turned to scripts when an idea for one of her favorite television shows wouldn’t leave her alone. That first attempt, and her second teleplay for the same show, garnered her honorable mention in the Writer’s Digest 76th Annual Writing Competition in the screenplay category. She graduated from Hal Croasmun’s screenwriting ProSeries intensive in June of 2008. Her interview with David Rambo, writer/producer for CSI appeared in the summer special edition of The Rewrit, the newsletter for Scriptscene, Romance Writers of America’s screenwriting chapter. Currently working on the rewrite of her second feature, Cindy is also developing two new television pilots. Visit her at: http://www.cindycarroll.com/.

Power Promotion
Title : Power Promotion
Date : February 1, 2010 – February 5, 2010
Presenter: Robie Madison

When you know everything there is to know about your story, it’s hard to stay focused on the big picture.

This intense, hands-on 5 day workshop teaches you how to convert your creative concept into bite size promotional chunks that will allow you to effectively market your manuscript.

Learn: 4 pre-writing exercises to presenting character
3 pre-writing exercises to synthesizing your plot
and 2 key issues that help you identify the unique features of your story.

Robie Madison
Award winning author Robie Madison holds an honors specialist degree in Classical Civilization and English and a Master of Education. She’s taught numerous courses at college, overseas and more recently online courses on writing. One of Robie’s greatest passions is traveling. In addition to their home base, she and her family have also lived in South East Asia and South Africa. Visit her at http://www.robiemadison.com.

Story Sense/ Story Logic
Title : Story Sense/ Story Logic
Date : January 4, 2010 – January 31, 2010
Presented by : Beth Daniels, aka Beth Henderson, J.B. Dane

As described by Beth Daniels :
It doesn’t seem to matter whether the story I’m reading is someone’s manuscript or a published book, the element that is very irksome to find missing is a sense of Story Logic, or Story Sense.

I define Story Sense as the actions of the characters remaining true to how they are being portrayed. Story Logic is much the same thing, but has more to do with the way the plot plays out.

For instance, if a hero is going to take on a terrorist or a mugger, he needs to have a background that included any martial arts he now unveils to save the day…and the writer should have alluded to his expertise early on, not waited to spring it on readers.

Or perhaps the author is spinning a tale where characters are either older or younger than she is. In that case the twenty-something heroine can’t prefer listening to Cole Porter or Gershwin tunes or talk about Cary Grant movies, not even if she was brought up by her grandmother who enjoyed these things. She has to be a contemporary woman. Likewise, if a character is a decade or more older than the writer, it isn’t likely that they will head to a modern dance club, or suddenly go goth.

Story sense and story logic go hand in hand, but they can easily be lost or overlooked. And they are far more subtle than the above obvious examples. The trick is to catch, recognize, and repair things before they leave home to nest on an editor’s desk.

Because it is far easier to spot things in other people’s work, students will be urged to post their synopsis, or post a free-write in which they spin the elements, or steps, that they plan to take along the way.

Beth Daniels currently writes as Beth Henderson and J.B. Dane, though she answered to Lisa Dane and Beth Cruise in the past as well. She has worked with editors at Berkley, Zebra, Leisure, Harlequin/Silhouette, and Simon and Schuster’s Aladdin Paperbacks, done e-books for a now defunct company (not her fault, she says), and began her writing life with hardcover books slated for library use with a publisher that got out of the romance business (again, not her fault). More recently she’s had a number of articles about writing picked up by e-zines, saw a short story published in a mystery and suspense magazine that turned up its toes the next year (really, really not her fault), and has a story in the MOTHER GOOSE IS DEAD anthology slated for publication by Dragon Moon Press sometimes in 2010.

For over a dozen years Beth taught college level composition, both in the classroom and online, and a credit course on Novel Writing. Five of her former Novel class students are now published.

Twenty-six of Beth’s manuscripts have appeared in print or e-book format. These have been historical romantic adventures (6), romantic comedies (10), romantic-suspense (3), and young adult romantic comedy (7). Her titles have appeared in 12 different languages in over 20 countries. At the moment she is working on various manuscripts and attempting a collaboration with another RWA member on a contemporary/fantasy/romantic adventure. She also ventured into self-publishing to keep her out-of-print backlist in print, but previous e-books in print, and in frustration, to move beyond a manuscript she’d been reworking for editors for a decade with no bites, released a previously unpublished historical romantic adventure set in the American West.

She is currently/or has been a member of/or about to renew membership in Romance Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Novelist Inc., and Historical Novelist Society.

He lost the woman he loved once. Now he’s determined to win her back. No matter what it takes.” MR FAR FROM PERFECT by Beth Henderson has been described as “Outstanding! The characters are witty without going over the top and the situations between the two are funny… A great read!” Coffee Time Romance

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