A hands-on workshop
With author Jess Wells
Discover the unique challenges and opportunities within the increasingly-popular genre of historical fiction. Through an in-depth and articulate exploration of the form, learn how to:
• Identify an era and an area that speak to you
• Learn where and how to research
• Explore the requirements of accuracy vs. entertainment
• Uncover stories of historical and fictional characters to populate your book
• Discuss the unique requirements for believable and well-crafted fiction
• Discover the available resources in the history community
• Learn where to publish and how to publicize your work
• Discuss your specific challenges with your story or material
Whether you’re a student, a first-time writer or a published author, this workshop is designed to help you master the unique facets of historical fiction and to tap into the resources available for long-term success in the field.
Each workshop will include an opportunity to discuss your project and brainstorm solutions for your challenges. Or, if you’re just exploring the genre, you’ll walk out with a clear understanding of what’s involved.
Jess Wells is the author of numerous volumes of work, including the novel The Mandrake Broom (Firebrand, 2007), which dramatizes the fight to save medical knowledge during the witch-burning times in Europe 1465-1540. Her work on The Mandrake Broom earned her a San Francisco Arts Commission Grant for Literature to write her second historical novel, which will chronicle the early years of Christine de Pizan in the French court of Charles V.
Available for booking into your writer’s group, college, university, conference or art center, separately, or in conjunction with “Making Time for Creativity: How to Write with a Full-time Job.”
A 1-2 hour, hands-on workshop
with Jess Wells
People everywhere wish they could find the time to express themselves. Meeting rooms, construction sites and classrooms are filled with people who can't re-orient their priorities to make room for art in their life.
Even those who identify themselves as artists are constantly plagued with a shortage of time to create, and students, ready to tackle a new life, need instruction on how to build a lifestyle that is conducive to their visions.
This workshop will:
• Empower the participants with practical, hands-on ways to carve out time for their art
• Instruct in priority building
• Confront the obstacles, internal and external, to a creative life
• Develop techniques for maximizing time
• Reveal the famous writers who produced great works of art while gainfully employed
• Provide guidance in building a writer’s life and budget
• Introduce the business work-ethic into the creative process
• Plan a new writer’s life that can start tomorrow
Through a combination of worksheets, discussion and lectures, participants will walk out with a plan of action that works!
Jess Wells is a recent recipient of a San Francisco Arts Commission Grant for Literature. She is the author of thirteen volumes of work, including the historical novel, The Mandrake Broom and the novels, AfterShocks, re-issued as a Triangle Classic by InsightOut Books, and The Price of Passion. She is the author of five collections of short stories, the editor of several volumes of non-fiction and fiction, and a four-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. She has been employed for 22 years in Silicon Valley, usually self-employed, and is a single mother. If there's one thing she knows how to do, it's write with a demanding life!
