Put it on your calendar now! Click here to reserve your spot! Details below.

SCHEDULE

9:00: Check in

9:15: MICHAEL A. VENTRELLA: Introductions

9:30: CAROL GYZANDER:“Best Practices for Handling Submissions and Working with Your Editor”: You’ve finished your story or novel­—congratulations! Let’s talk about submitting your work for publication and best practices for the process, including final preparation, format, and working with the editor once it is accepted. This session is for newer authors as well as more experienced ones. We’ll talk about how to develop a good relationship with a publication so that they will be delighted to have you back again.

10:45: MATTHEW BIRKBECK: “Research”: Whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction, it is important to do your research. How much to do? Where to find it? And how do you work it into your writing so that it fits without being intrusive?

11:45: Lunch (not provided, but there are lots of places nearby or you can bring your own)

12:45: RUSS COLCHAMIRO: “Mystery Writing: Not for Mysteries Only”: In this presentation, we will delve into the writing structure of revealing and concealing, building tension, pulling readers into the narrative whether you’re writing a traditional mystery or not, all to leave readers wanting more until the very last word.

2:00: VAUGHNE HANSEN: “Diamonds May be Forever but Copyright is for the Author’s Lifetime Plus 70 Years”: It is not on how to planfor what happens to your work after you die. But rather it is about what actually happens to your work after you die and why everyone should have a plan in place..

3:15: MICHAEL A. VENTRELLA: Panel Discussion and Question and Answer session with all panelists

Admission is free but seating is limited. Please only sign up if you are sure you will be attending. If you later discover you cannot attend, please delete your reservation so there will be enough room for everyone. Do not reserve space for anyone other than yourself — if there is more than one reservation under your name, the extra ones will be deleted.

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WORKSHOPS

Each of the participants are holding smaller sessions during the presentations where you can get individual critiques and comments.

These sessions are $20 each. You can sign up for as many as you want but you must pre-register because space is limited. Please note that by signing up for these personal sessions, you will miss some of the other presentations.

The panelists will contact you by email prior to the session to discuss writing samples and other requirements.

9:30: Russ Colchamiro

10:45: Carol Gyzander

12:45: Matthew Birkbeck

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ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

MATTHEW BIRKBECK is an award-winning investigative journalist and critically acclaimed author. He’s written many bestselling nonfiction books, including ones that were adapted by Netflix for the 2022 film Girl in the Picture, which he served as executive producer. His book on real estate heir and serial killer Robert Durst, A Deadly Secret, was also adapted by Lifetime TV for its 2017 movie The Lost Wife of Robert Durst. Other work includes the 2023 bestselling book The Life We Chose, The Quiet Don, The Bookie, and his debut work of fiction, The Wicked. His feature articles have appeared in Playboy, The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Philadelphia Inquirer, Rolling Stone and Boston Magazine, and he was a correspondent for People magazine from 1998 to 2006.He has appeared on numerous news programs, including NBC’s Dateline and ABC’s 20/20, as well as on CNN, FOX, MSNBC, Investigation ID and other programs. www.mattbirkbeck.com

RUSS COCHLAMIRO is an award-winning author of more than 35 novels, novellas, and short stories including the Sci-Fi thrillers Crackle and Fire, Fractured Lives, Hot Ash, Blunt Force Rising, and Trigger Point, the ongoing series featuring hardboiled private eye Angela Hardwicke. Russ is also the author of the rollicking time travel/space adventure, Crossline, the Y/A monster-themed espionage horror-thriller Hyde and Seek: Fury of the White Mask, is the co-author and -editor of the noir anthology Murder in Montague Falls and has contributed to numerous anthologies. A member of the Horror Writers Association and author collective Crazy 8 Press, Russ also hosts his Russ’s Rockin’ Rollercoaster podcast, where he interviews best-selling and up-and-coming Sci-Fi, mystery, crime, thriller, and horror authors. www.russcolchamiro.com

CAROL GYZANDER is a Bram Stoker Award® winner, World Fantasy Award nominee, and Rhysling Award nominee who writes and edits horror, weird fiction, science fiction, and suspense—with strong women in twisted tales that touch your heart. She has stories in Weird Tales 367, Weird House Magazine, Under Twin Suns, and numerous other publications. Carol co-edited and contributed to the stabby feminist horror anthology Discontinue If Death Ensues: Tales from the Tipping Point and many others. She lives in the New Jersey suburbs of New York City, and is Co-Chair of the HWA NY Chapter and co-host of their online reading series, Galactic Terrors.

VAUGHNE HANSEN was an early reader, reading her first books before attending pre-school. Fantasy and science fiction were always what she felt constituted “real books.” After receiving her BA in Classical Language and Literature from Hiram College, she enjoyed exploring different avenues before going to work for Virginia Kidd in 1989. Over the years the VKA has worked with some of the most interesting authors in the field including Alan Dean Foster, Anne McCaffrey, Gene Wolfe, Chuck Gannon, & Lawrence C. Connolly. She is delighted to be able to be working with Christine Cohen and Will Reeve on the ongoing preservation of Virginia Kidd’s legacy of the Virginia Kidd Agency, continuing the tradition of representing quality fiction. The VKA is located at “Arrowhead,” the house in which Virginia Kidd and James Blish lived and worked in Milford PA. Arrowhead is supported by the Arrowhead Science Fiction Foundation and the Virginia Kidd Agency.

MICHAEL A. VENTRELLA is a Stroudsburg writer with half a dozen novels, including Big Stick and Bloodsuckers: A Vampire Runs for President. He’s edited more than a dozen anthologies, including the Baker Street Irregularsanthologies (co-edited with New York Times Bestselling author Jonathan Maberry); Three Time Travelers Walk Into…, and Release the Virgins. His short stories have appeared in other anthologies and magazines. He’s also written nonfiction books about the US Constitution, The Beatles, and the Monkees. At his web page (MichaelAVentrella.com), he interviews authors and editors and gives advice for the starting writer. In his spare time, he is a lawyer.

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Since we have limited space, PLEASE do not reserve a spot unless you are absolutely planning on attending.

The members of The Pocono Liars are committed to making this workshop one where every person in attendance feels supported and respected for their endeavors, and a place where all writers feel welcome and are treated with courtesy, patience and respect. While we as individuals might not share the same world views, we in The Pocono Liars believe it is imperative to develop a safe environment for creatives from all backgrounds and beliefs to gather in support of one another. It is our collective wish to provide such a venue in support of the intellectual integrity of all those who attend and wish to participate.

Additionally, as writers, we feel it is especially important that we respect the boundaries of each individual. Therefore, while proactive critiques are most certainly welcome and appreciated, we especially request that those in attendance refrain from putting fellow writers in a position of validating their choice of genre, lifestyle or story. Thank you.