In celebrating its 9th year, Killer Nashville is expanding its Thursday lineup and has announced the addition of a new half-day Sisters in Crime directed workshop “Doing Time with Sisters in Crime: Great Beginnings.”
“Doing Time with Sisters in Crime: Great Beginnings” is a half-day writing event on Thursday, August 21, 2014, the opening day of the 9th annual Killer Nashville International Writer’s Conference.
“Sisters and Crime has been a supporter of Killer Nashville from the very beginning and this event is just part of our ever-expanding mission to help and assist authors,” said Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville.
Participants will work with four Sisters in Crime experts – Laura DiSilverio, Catriona McPherson, Cathy Pickens and Hank Phillippi Ryan – all multi-published authors with decades of writing, publishing, and teaching experience between them. Because of the intimate setting, seating is limited.
At the event, these four bestselling authors will analyze effective opening paragraphs from crime fiction novels to see what makes them reader-snaring and awe-inspiring. The panelists will then, in turn, teach attendees their specific techniques and tips to craft great novel beginnings by critiquing attendees’ anonymously submitted first paragraphs, offering key suggestions for making them more compelling and virtually un-put-downable. They will then lay out specific strategies for beginning a series that will have “legs,” that will have room to grow and expand to six, ten, or twenty-six books. And, finally, they’ll put it all on the table and discuss “Our Beginnings,” the varied ways they got their start in the biz, and answer (with complete candor!) any questions attendees might have. Additionally, four names will be drawn at random during the afternoon and the winners will have their first three chapters critiqued by the instructors.
Now in its ninth year, Killer Nashville has become one of the nation’s most prestigious book events. Last summer, Publishers Weekly named Killer Nashville and founder Clay Stafford as one of the top 10 Nashville literary leaders playing “an essential role in defining which books become bestsellers” not only in middle-Tennessee, but also extending “beyond the city limits and into the nation’s book culture.” (06/10/13).
The Killer Nashville International Thriller, Mystery, and Crime Literature Writers’ Conference, held annually on the fourth full weekend in August, was created in 2006 by author/filmmaker Clay Stafford to bring together forensic experts, writers, and fans of crime and thriller literature. The conference draws attendees from as far away as Portmahomack, Scotland; Rome, Italy; and Hadano, Kanagawa, Japan. For more information: www.KillerNashville.com, contact@KillerNashville.com, 615-599-4032.
