Fernie Writers Conference 2008
Monday July 14 to Sunday July 27

In 2008 the Fernie Writers Conference expands to two weeks and matures. The first week offers a workshop in screenwriting. The second week begins the literary sessions with novel workshops (including ”Jump Starting your Novel” with Angie Abdou), a short story workshop and a poetry workshop.

For a wonderful running commentary on the 2007 Fernie Writers Conference, visit Brenda Schmidt’s blog. As the poetry instructor her take is marvelous.
http://birdschmidt.blogspot.com
She has a link a bit down her front page or click on the July 2007 archive (left side, down a bit)

Week One—Screenwriting

Monday July 14 to Saturday July 19— The mornings will be spent in workshop and critique sessions with the afternoons spent working on new material. One or two evenings will offer panel discussions on the film industry and aspects of the industry.

There will be a screening of Raul Inglis’ most recent movie Vice released May 9, 2008 starring Darryl Hannah and Michael Madsen. Raul both directed and wrote Vice.

The workshop ends with a scramble randomly pairing screenwriters with film shooters. The teams will have 24 hours to produce a short film on a directed theme. The scramble films will be shown Saturday night at the Week One Conference dinner.

Raul Inglis—Screenwriting

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0408885

Vice, Director and screenplay
Starring Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, released May 9, 2008
www.vicethemovie.com

For a full list of credits, please visit www.imbd.com

Limited to 8-10 in each session.

Tuition: $700.00 ($770 after June 15) includes breakfast each morning, dinner on Saturday night. Attendees responsible for lodging. Fernie Getaways offers substantially reduced rates to Conference participants.

Week Two—Literary Sessions

Readings all week

Monday July 21 to Sunday July 27—3 novel sessions, 1 short story session, 1 poetry session. Mss review or prior Conference attendance required to register in Novel B. Novel A, Novel C, Short Story and Poetry are open registration.

The Novel in Progress

The Novel A and B sessions are one-week long with the group returning for a second session one year later. See Novel section for a complete description.

Novel A, Peter Oliva www.peteroliva.com

Novel B, John Keeble www.johnkeeble.net

Novel C–Two Sections, Angie Abdou www.abdou.ca and Jon Turk www.jonturk.net

The Novel C workshop is for writers just starting or planning a novel. This workshop will run Monday through Thursday allowing participants to attend the short story or poetry sessions.

Tuition: Novel A and B $800.00 ($880 after June 15) includes breakfast each morning, dinner on Saturday night. Attendees responsible for lodging. Fernie Getaways offers substantially reduced rates to Conference participants.

Tuition: Novel C $500.00 ($550 after June 15) includes breakfast each morning, dinner on Saturday night. Attendees responsible for lodging. Fernie Getaways offers substantially reduced rates to Conference participants.

Short Story and Poetry Workshops–Fri/Sat/Sun. July 25-27.

Short Story and Poetry sessions limited to 10. Both are open registration

Short Story, Luanne Armstrong

Poetry, Brenda Schmidt http://birdschmidt.blogspot.com

Tuition: $330.00 ($365 after June 15) includes breakfast each morning, dinner on Saturday night. Attendees responsible for lodging. Fernie Getaways offers substantially reduced rates to Conference participants.

www.ferniewriters.org

Keith Liggett, Director
keith@ferniewriters.org
250-423-6132

The Novel Workshop 2008

Novel A and B–A two-year critical examination of a novel-in-progress
Novel C–Starting the novel

By both listening and working, workshops create the opportunity and environment to build the writer’s craft. The workshop sessions will be a mixture of critique, re-writing, editing and writing exercises at the instructor’s discretion.

The Novel in Progress
Monday July 21 through Sunday July 27, 2008

Novel A–Year One
Prior to the Conference, each novel participant submits two to three chapters (30-40 pages, no more than 15,000 words) “representative of the work as a whole” and a synopsis or treatment of the work. The synopsis should be a prose narrative, not a chapter outline, and no longer than two pages.
Peter Oliva, workshop leader

The material to be critiqued will be distributed in advance of the workshop week. The participants should read the work prior to arriving at the Conference.

With the first critique, suggestions (or assignments) for revision will be tailored to the individual writer’s work. The writer will then be able to revise, and re-work portions to the group for further critique.

Novel B–Year Two—4 positions are filled by 2007 participants. Two remaining positions filled by manuscript submission and approval of Keith Liggett, Conference Director, and John Keeble, workshop leader.

The 2007 conference group is returning for the 2008 session. They have taken the 2007 work on their 40 pages and re-written the novel in light of the critique. Completed revised novels will be exchanged no later than April 15, 2008. Each individual will present 20-30 pages to the gropp to be ciritiqued in light of the novel at as a whole.

In 2009, the 2008 group will follow the same critical path becoming Novel B.

Novel C- -Jump Starting the Novel.
Monday July 21 through Thursday July 24, 2008

A small group workshop moving the idea of a novel forward and creating the first pages. How to work. How to structure the beginning. How to effectively move your novel idea forward and get the words on the page.

Workshop Leaders– Angie Abdou or Jon Turk

All participants in the novel groups will be expected to read two modern novels prior to the Conference to provide a common reference for critique within the groups. The chosen novels will be announced early in 2008.