Most meetings are held at the North York Central Library, Meeting Room 1 or 2/3. For location changes, please see individual listings.

JANUARY 2008 FEBRUARY 2008 MARCH 2008 APRIL 2008
MAY 2008 JUNE 2008 JULY 2008 AUGUST 2008 SEPTEMBER 2008 OCTOBER 2008
NOVEMBER 2008 DECEMBER 2008

JANUARY 12, 2008

ROMANCE 101 - 9 A.M. to Noon
Barbara Kyle: Story Structure - Seven Essentials of a Great Plot
If you’ve ever thought of writing your own romance novel, here’s a great place to start. Aimed at beginner to experienced (but unpublished) writers, this craft-oriented workshop shows you how to build a powerful story by mastering these seven crucial elements:

• Inciting incident
• Reversals and revelations
• Turning points
• Overarching dramatic question
• Controlling idea
• Escalating conflict
• Story climax

Cost is just $10 for non-TRW members and $5 for members. Location is North York Central Library, downstairs in Memorial Hall.. Following Romance 101, participants are invited to attend the Toronto Romance Writers' regular meeting from 1-4 PM upstairs in the same location - see details below. Everyone is welcome and no pre-registration is required.

Barbara Kyle is the author of five novels published by Penguin Books USA and Warner Books, New York, the last three under the pen name Stephen Kyle. Her novel BEYOND RECALL was a Literary Guild Selection. Her latest, THE EXPERIMENT, was praised by Publishers Weekly as a “haunting thriller.” In 2008, Kensington Publishing, New York, will publish her historical novel, THE QUEEN’S LADY. 

1-4 P.M. - MICHELLE ROWEN : Schmooze, Don't Snooze! Marketing Resolutions for 2008
Resolve to sharpen up your marketing skills for the new year. Join Michelle Rowen and her bubbly sidekick Bonnie Staring as they take you on a fun-filled tour through the do's and don'ts of marketing for both pre-pubbed and published authors.
Topics include websites, "to blog or not to blog," developing your 30-second "elevator speech," and much more! Audience participation may be required—but don't worry, there will be prizes. At the end of the workshop participants will have a list of resolutions to help kick off the new year with a marketing action plan geared to their needs.

Michelle Rowen's titles for Grand Central Publishing (formerly Warner Books) include the Waldenbooks bestseller BITTEN & SMITTEN (Winner of the 2007 Holt Medallion for Best First Book), its sequel FANGED & FABULOUS, LADY & THE VAMP (April '08) and ANGEL WITH ATTITUDE. Under the pseudonym Michelle Maddox, she has written COUNTDOWN for Dorchester Publishing's new SHOMI line of speculative romance novels. Aside from being a writer, Michelle has worked in advertising as a graphic designer for over twelve years and knows what it takes to market a product—even if that product is yourself! 

NOTE: This meeting will take place at North York Central Library upstairs in meeting room 2/3.

FEBRUARY 9, 2008

WANDA OTTEWELL : A Day in the Life of a Harlquin Senior Editor
What happens to a manuscript once it enters the Harlequin door?
What can a writer do to increase their chance of getting the oh-so-sought-after "call"?
What does an editor want in a writer and what do some writers do to decrease their chances of getting the "call"?
What exciting changes are taking place at Harlequin Superromance?
Wanda Ottewell is a new Senior Editor of Harlequin Superromance. Before working with Superromance she was a Senior Editor with Harlequin Flipside but has worked with writers in every line at Harlequin. She's excited about speaking to Toronto Romance Writers and encourages questions about writing, editing, and how she works with her writers.

NOTE: THIS MEETING WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE FAIRVIEW LIBRARY LOCATION

MARCH 8, 2008

CRITIQUE SESSIONS
NOTE: This meeting is open to TRW Members ONLY
Bring five pages of your manuscript to be critiqued by one of our published authors.
The categories are as follows (all genres will be discussed in the same group):

• Opening Scene
• Sex Scene
• Action Scene
• Dialogue Scene
• Synopsis
• Brainstorming GMC (Goal, Motivation, Conflict)

Please register by March 1 by emailing Kelley Armstrong with your first AND second choices, in case your first choice is full or is cut due to lack of participants. The participating published writers are: Kate Bridges, Eve Silver, Molly O'Keefe, Christine D'Abo, Michelle Rowen, Margaret Moore, Michele Ann Young, and Kelley Armstrong.

APRIL 12, 2008

NATALIE BOON : Research: Finding the Needle in Your Haystack
Location: North York Central Library 1 - 4 p.m.
Many people see research as a boring chore that they might just be able to avoid. In this workshop, you'll find out how to make it a puzzle that fits easily into place. We'll cover: How to organize your research projects, research strategies, how to take advantage of local resources, how to communicate with librarians and how they think, and how to organize the material you collect. You'll learn how to get starting finding the information you need. Whether you need to find out a few select details about a location or figure out the details of life in the past, this workshop can help you do it.

MAY 10, 2008

BONNIE STARING : Creativity Camp for Writers
Location: Fairview Library, 1 - 4 p.m.
Do you feel, even though you can write, that you aren’t a creative person? Discover your unique imaginative abilities through exercises, games and activities focused on shaking up conventional thinking. Get out of that rut and on your way to discovering your own creativity so that you may apply it to everyday living and have some fun, no matter what you’re up to!
Following this two-hour workshop, attendees will be able to:

After hearing too many people claim that they're not creative, Bonnie Staring set out to do something about it. Her experience in the advertising and entertainment industries supports her belief that everyone has the capacity to be creative. By combining the methods of advertising concept generation, improvisational training and just plain fun, she brings a fairly elusive concept down to a practical level. Bonnie facilitates brainstorming sessions for advertising agency clients, is a graduate of Humber College's Comedy Writing and Performance program and has taught workshops in kitchen creativity. Her articles regularly appear in romANTICS and on  www.womencandoanything.com.

JUNE 14, 2008

LORI WILDE : Got High Concept? The Key to Dynamic Fiction That Sells
Location: North York Central Library, 1 - 4 p.m.
Do you want to razzle-dazzle editors? Earn a bigger advance? Create media buzz for your book? Inspire Hollywood to come knocking? The way to achieve these goals is to come up with a dynamic high concept pitch that will knock the socks of editors and agents alike.
This workshop is designed to provide you with the tools you’ll need to mold your story idea into an intriguing one sentence pitch that can magically unlock closed doors. It’s simply the most effective way to capture a publisher’s interest. This is the perfect opportunity for you to learn how to craft a high concept pitch to sell your book.
This workshop will cover the following topics:

1. A step-by-step method to creating high concept
2. First aid for low concept books
3. Ways to make a high concept even better
4. Where to find high concept ideas
5. How to think like a high concept writer
6. Creativity and brainstorming exercises
7. Hints and tips from top industry insiders

BONUS EVENT: Booksigning with our PAN members!

Lori Wilde has written forty-one novels for three major New York Publishing houses. She holds a bachelors degree in nursing from Texas Christian University and a certificate in forensics. She volunteers as a sexual assault first responder for Freedom House, a shelter for battered women.
Recently, she received a two book contract from Warner books based solely on a 25 word 'high concept' pitch. When the sale—along with the pitch—was announced on Publisher's Marketplace, she was approached by eight film production companies—including Paramount and Warner Brothers—interested in optioning her completed novel for a movie. She is an instructor for a company who provides online community education to over 1500 colleges and universities.
Lori is a past RITA finalist and has four times been nominated for Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award. She's won the Colorado Award of Excellence, the Wisconsin Write Touch Award, The Golden Quill, the Lories, and The More than Magic. Her books have been translated into 22 languages and excerpted in Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Complete Woman, and Quick and Simple magazines. She lives in Texas with her husband, Bill. 

JULY 12, 2008

RAELENE GORLINSKY : Everything you Ever Wanted to Know about E-Publishing
Have you considered submitting to an e-publisher but can't find enough solid information about how it works? Got a manuscript that falls outside of what New York is buying and think an e-publisher might be willing to take the risk? Learn more about this growing part of the romance publishing industry from Raelene Gorlinsky, Publisher, Ellora's Cave. Raelene will teach us the differences between "traditional" publishers and e-pubs, walk us through the e-pub process - from the "call" to a book being proudly placed on the shelf. She just might show you that e-publishing will work for you!

Raelene Gorlinsky spent twenty-five years in the computer information communication profession, as technical writer, editor and manager. She started editing part time for Ellora’s Cave because it was an interesting variation from her day job in a computer department. It was a lot more fun to work on “He caressed her body with his gaze” than “Key in the serial number and press Enter.” In January 2004 she moved to Ohio to take on the job of Managing Editor at Ellora’s Cave, allowing her to use her organizational, managerial, and editorial skills on a wide variety of projects. Raelene's position is now Publisher, and she supervises twenty editors, deals with over 400 authors, manages the digital releases for all three imprints, handles foreign translation and other subsidiary rights arrangements, still edits several authors of her own, and is enjoying this job more than any other in her life. 

AUGUST9, 2008

SEPTEMBER 13, 2008

OCTOBER 11, 2008

ELOISA JAMES : Hitchiker's Guide to the Historical - How to Change Your Focus
At the end of Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur settles down to read his copy of the guide. He comes across this entry:

The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question, "How can we eat?" the second by the question "Why do we eat?" and the third by the question "Where shall we get lunch?"

This is a talk for every writer who wishes she had a hitchhiker's guide to time-traveling: anyone who is writing a historical for the first time – or who has written in one period and is contemplating another.
This talk will not give you pages of data about the difference between Jezebels and courtesans or (to be even more arcane) light-frigates, light-heeled women, light o'loves, light-skirts and light women.
This is a talk about asking the right kinds of questions.

Doing It All Over Again: Writing Novels in a Series
New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James explains how to hook readers, drive sales, and build a reader community by designing related, interwoven plots. We'll talk about designing multiple books, pitching a series to editors, and creating that all-important reader excitement that drives the sales momentum of each book upward.

New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James’s historical regencies have been published to great acclaim, as when People Magazine raved that “romance writing does not get much better than this.” Her novels have repeatedly received coveted starred reviews from Publishers' Weekly (most recently, Affair Before Christmas, Dec 2008), and regularly appear on the best-seller lists. Her website, www.eloisajames.com, receives well over ten thousands visitors a month, and features writing advice, “extra” chapters, and a bulletin board she shares with Julia Quinn.
After graduating from Harvard University, Eloisa got some more degrees from Oxford and Yale, and eventually became a Shakespeare professor. Currently she is an associate professor, Director of Graduate Studies, and Director of Creative Writing in the English Department at Fordham University in New York City. She's also the mother of two children and, in a particularly delicious irony for a romance writer, is married to a genuine Italian knight.

ALSO: Booksigning with PAN members and Eloisa!

NOVEMBER 8,2008

DECEMBER 13, 2008

ANNUAL CHRISTMAS SOCIAL: Join TRW to celebrate a wonderful year for our members, share some yummy finger foods, and exchange stories from the trenches of romance writing.

NORTH YORK CENTRAL LIBRARY

SUBWAY: Take the Yonge Subway to North York Centre. Follow the signs to the Civic Centre or Library or Novotel.

DRIVING: North York Civic Centre is on the west side of Yonge St., just north of Sheppard Ave. (From 401, go north at Yonge exit)

PARKING: Underground parking at the Civic Centre is $3.00 on Saturdays. Entrance is off Beecroft (1 block west of Yonge), just south of Park Home, beneath Mel Lastman Square or there is a surface lot (pricier) on the west side of Beecroft

LIBRARY WEB SITE