SPRING CONFERENCE 2011
All events at:
Mahoney State Park, Main Lodge, Upper Level Meeting Rooms
Note: Nebraska State Park Entry Permit
or $4.00 Daily Pass is required at the gate.
Friday Events, April 8
5:00 PM - 9:00 PM Reception, Member readings (Sign up at door),
Free hors d'oeuvres, Wine and Soft Drinks
Saturday Events, April 9
8:00 AM - Registration
8:30 AM - Welcome and Announcements
8:45 AM – Mary Colgan, Editor, Chronicle Books
"Publishers, Editors & Industry Overview"
9:45 AM - Break
10:00 AM – Terry Burns, Literary Agent, Hartline Agency
“Surviving Your Way to Publication” – Q & A format
11:00 AM – Alex Kava, best-selling Mystery Author
“Getting Published, Staying Published, Still Loving It”
12:00 PM - Lunch on Own (Lodge restaurant available)
1:30 PM - Business Meeting
2:15 PM – Break
2:30 PM - Choose a Hands-On Workshop
Professional: "Synopsis Writing” Sally Walker
Fiction: “Brainstorming YOUR Career” Alex Kava
General: “How Good Critiquing Works” Ann Pullum
Editor-Agent Appointments: NWG members only
Pre-registration for appointments REQUIRED. Send to
Connie by April 1 for a spot & prepatory material.
4:00 PM - Evaluations, Door Prize Drawing, Closing
Saturday Evening Gathering, 7pm-10pm, in same Lodge meeting
rooms for socializing with the speakers and one another.
Sunday Morning Displays, 9am-noon, in same Lodge meeting rooms.
Besides several genre tables there will be American Pen Women,
Screenwriters, Poetry Gathering, law enforcement history, Civil War
re-enactors, a professional costumer, a forensics specialist & a genealogist.
Members $55
Students $25
Non-Members $65
All after April $65
Checks to : Nebraska Writers Guild
Mail to: Connie Crow
3823 Coffey Ave.
Bellevue, NE 68123
Spring 2011 SPEAKERS
Terry Burns - Terry is an agent with Hartline Literary http://www.hartlineliterary.com as well as writing inspirational fiction. As a writer he has over 40 books in print including 10 novels. He has a new series from Port Yonder Press entitled “The Sagebrush Collection” of his collected short works and the first released March 2010 entitled “On the Road Home.” A Young Adult entitled Beyond the Smoke won the Will Rogers Medallion and a new book “A Writer’s Survival Guide to Publication” also from Port Yonder Press was developed out of the month long course he held for ACFW. A popular speaker at workshops across the country, a bookstore of his available works as well as a regular blog can be found at www.terryburns.net. As an agent Terry says “I'm looking for a good book, well written in a unique voice, aimed at a market that looks promising, and where I feel I have the contacts appropriate to be able to sell the book in that market. I’m pretty open as to genre but I don’t do children’s books, sci fi or fantasy.” He’s a member of the Association of Author’s Representatives (AAR).
Mary Colgan – Mary is an editor in the children's division of Chronicle Books. She acquires projects for all ages, from picture books to teen novels, and has a particular interest in helping to grow Chronicle's middle grade and young adult fiction list. Her recent and upcoming projects include a guided journal for tween girls and their moms, titled JUST BETWEEN US; the picture book GOODNIGHT, GOODNIGHT, CONSTRUCTION SITE; and the YA novel HOW I STOLE JOHNNY DEPP’S ALIEN GIRLFRIEND. Mary is a native Californian with a Masters from Mills College who is a YA author herself and into yoga, travel and scary movies.
Alex Kava – Alex Kava is the New York Times and international bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Maggie O’Dell series. Her stand-alone novel, One False Move, was chosen for the 2006 One Book One Nebraska and her political thriller, Whitewash, made January Magazine’s best thriller of the year list for 2007. She is the recipient of the Mari Sandoz Award.
Published in twenty-four countries, Kava’s novels have made the bestseller lists in the UK, Australia, Germany, Italy and Poland. She is one of the featured writers in the anthology Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up All Night, edited by James Patterson and has short stories in First Thrills, edited by Lee Child and Florida Heat Wave, edited by Michael Lister. Her ninth Maggie O’Dell novel, Hotwire, will be published by Doubleday July 12th.
Kava divides her time between Omaha, Nebraska and Pensacola, Florida. She’s a member of International Thrillers Writers.
Ann Pullum – When Ann Stephens entered her first serious attempt at a romance novel in a writing contest, she expected nothing more than some useful feedback on it. To her amazement, it won its category and earned her a publishing contract with Kensington Publishing. Her first book, To be Seduced, was released in February 2010. Her second, Her Scottish Groom, hit bookstores in March 2011. Ann writes romance, currently focusing on another historical. She hopes to eventually include contemporary and fantasy in her works, however. Ann is a member of the Nebraska Writers Workshop, the Nebraska Writers Guild, and the Heartland Writers Group, a local chapter of the Romance Writers of America.
Sally Walker – In her 25 year career as a professional writer,Sally has accumulated published credits of novels, stage plays, poetry, and many magazine articles on the craft of writing, including staff contributions to two international film magazines. 2011 will see the release of a collection of 365 mini-essays on the writing life, A WRITER’S YEAR, and four novels. With more than 27screenplays written, she has a WGA-signatory agent marketing those and her fiction Aside from long time active memberships in RWA, WWA and SCBWI, she is presiding President of the Nebraska Writers Guild, and still has time to work as Editorial Director for a small press,The Fiction Works, and facilitate the weekly Nebraska Writers Workshop in Ralston. Sally has regularly taught writing seminars, both on-site and on-line, for many years.