March 21: Sign up for Elaine's Literary Salon Workshop, "Becoming a Master Writer" with John DeDakis скачать в хорошем качестве

March 21: Sign up for Elaine's Literary Salon Workshop, "Becoming a Master Writer" with John DeDakis

On today's video interview with Jeffrey James Higgins, host, Elaine's Literary Salon — Meet John DeDakis Course Description: A series of topic-specific workshops designed to drill deeper into the finer points of storytelling. Writing exercises will help you hone your skills and give you the confidence to take your writing to the next level. Deep Listening for Writers: A writer is an observer first, last, and always. This session is an invitation to consider every interaction as an opportunity to follow one's curiosity about people of other genders, races, ages, cultures, and socio-economic backgrounds with an eye on creating interesting and varied characters. This session will be interactive, with opportunities to practice listening techniques. Characterization Through Dialogue: When characters talk to each other, the story moves forward and the reader learns about the speaker. In this session you’ll learn how to create characters out of thin air and learn the do’s and don’ts of finding the right words to put into their mouths. Planning vs. Seat-of-the-Pantsing: Are you a meticulous planner, or do you just wing it? In this session we'll explore writing strategies designed to add variety to your palette of writing techniques. If you're a planner, we'll explore how seat-of-the-pants writing can help you connect the dots. If your style is more free-form, we'll look at how peeking at the road ahead can inspire your writing in the here-and-now. Facing Your Writing Fears: Not only is writing a lonely process, it can be downright scary – especially if you’re shy, or an introvert. And, when it comes to mustering the courage to share our work with others, fear can turn to terror. In this session, we'll look at understanding what frightens us -- and how to get beyond those fears. About John's books: Fast Track is the story of Lark Chadwick, a young woman searching for purpose as she solves the mystery surrounding the car-train collision that orphaned her as an infant. The novel deals redemptively with issues of suicide, journalistic integrity, anonymous sources, and mentoring relationships. It grew out of two events in the author's life: a fatal car/train crash he witnessed as a youngster in 1959 and the suicide of his sister in 1980. Fast Track won Silver (2nd place) in the 2021 Reader Views Literary Awards in the Classics/Adult Fiction category. Bluff, a sequel to Fast Track, is John's second novel that is based on his four-day, 25-mile hike along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru. Both novels are set in south central Wisconsin. In the 2021 Reader Views Literary Awards competition, Bluff won Silver in the Mystery / Thriller category and placed first in the Great Lakes Region. Troubled Water, John's third novel in the Lark Chadwick saga, Lark discovers the first victim of what turns out to be a serial killer while on her way to her new job as a cops and courts reporter at a kick-ass daily newspaper in Georgia. Readers will come away with a better understanding of how journalism works -- and doesn't. Bullet in the Chamber, was published by Strategic Media Books October 1, 2016. In John's fourth novel, Lark once again finds herself at the wrong place at the right time: front-row center when the White House press briefing room is suddenly attacked. The president is missing, the first lady’s life is at risk, and Lark’s personal life is falling apart when the man she loves disappears. In this story, John draws on his own personal pain – the heroin overdose that killed his 22-year-old son Stephen in 2011. The book won the Reader Views Reviewers Choice Award for 2016/2017, placing first in the Mystery/Thriller/Suspense/Horror category. Bullet also won a Silver Medal (second place) for The 2016 Foreword INDIES Book Award in the Thriller/Suspense category. It was an INDIES finalist in the Best Mystery category. And Bullet won the 2017 Feathered Quill Book Award (Bronze/3rd Place) in the Best Mystery/Thriller category. Fake, John's fifth Lark Chadwick novel, we find Lark thrust into a media-bashing frenzy at a time when facts are suspect and reporters are targets. Fake was published September 1, 2019. Fake earned Honorable Mention for the Reviewers Choice Award and was a Finalist for two book awards: Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion, and the CLUE Award sponsored by the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBA). Enemies Domestic, a political thriller, Lark is White House press secretary. The story is set at a time when abortion is a crime and a dictator becomes president. Enemies Domestic is the winner of the Literary Titan Book Award. Each book in the Lark Chadwick series is written to stand alone and doesn't need to be read in order.