The 2010 Bay to Ocean Writers Conference is an educational and motivational opportunity for writers of all levels. Over 20 experienced speakers include authors, poets, film writers, writing instructors, editors, publishers and agents. The program will address writing craft, inspiration, publishing, marketing and up-to-date uses of the Internet. Expert manuscript reviews will also be offered (see Manuscripts).

8:00 - 8:45Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:45 - 9:15Opening Remarks (Auditorium)

9:30 - 10:30      Crafting a Winning Plot  (Auditorium)
Presenter: Austin Camacho explains the basics of creating a storyline that will hold the reader's attention, create suspense, and showcase the development of your characters.  He also describes the roles of the antagonist, protagonist, setting and theme and how these elements drive a good plot to its logical conclusion.

9:30 - 10:30 The Art and Craft of Screenplay Adaptation
(Classroom A)
Presenter: Khris Baxter will offer fundamental strategies for anyone seeking to write a screenplay adaptation. He’ll examine how screenwriters tackle the challenges of adapting different forms (novel, short story, play). The seminar will also include an overview of the conventions of screenwriting: story, structure, and scene development.

9:30 - 10:30 The Personal Essay   (Classroom B)
Presenter: William O’Sullivan asks what makes an essay a personal essay? How can you elevate an experience from the anecdotal to an exploration that has an idea behind it, that asks questions and leaves readers with something meaningful to contemplate or to relate to their own lives? This workshop will look at elements the best personal essays share.




9:30 - 11:00 (1 1/2 hours)  Free Write Workshop (Cafeteria Back)
Presenter: Maribeth Fischer - Free Writes! can be a vital tool in getting to the heart of your stories, essays or poems. In addition to turning off the internal editor, Free Writes offer lessons in style, teach necessary skills, and best of all, remind you that writing can be--should be--fun.

10:45 - 11:45   Surveying Book Publishing's Changing Landscape
(Auditorium)
Presenter: Gregg Willhelm - The economic downturn has both eroded some publishing opportunities while forming new options for writers. Learn new ways of promoting yourself, given these shifting sands. 

10:45 - 11:45   Building Scenes That Work: Fiction, Non-fiction and Memoir (Classroom A)
Presenter: Barbara Esstman - Scenes are the essential building blocks that structure every piece of fiction, creative non-fiction and memoir.  Constructed and strung together correctly, they also provide the momentum that drives your story.  Learn the elements that make a strong, functional scene, how to spot the elements of a  pseudo-scene and change those into scenes that work.

10:45 - 11:45 The Poetry of Loss (Classroom B)
Panel: Sue Ellen Thompson, Anne Caldwell, Ellen Wise, and Meredith Davies Hadaway.
Four award-winning regional poets will discuss ways to write about “loss.” Whether the subject is the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, or leaving a beloved home place, poems about loss can be found in almost every American poet’s work.  This panel will focus on specific approaches to dealing with loss and grief without indulging in sentimentality or embarrassing your reader.

12 - 1:00 Networking Lunch
(Cafeteria)

1:15 - 2:15  Screenwriting Is Haiku (Auditorium)
Presenter: David Garrett will discuss what is a screenplay? As in haiku, the boldness and simplicity you develop will ultimately serve to touch the heart and lift the soul. You will learn the basics of screenplay structure, strategies for defining your ideas, and tools that will help you strengthen your language, sharpen your imagery, jazz up your dialogue, and breathe real life into your characters.

1:15 - 2:15  What Makes It a Story ? (Classroom A)
Presenter: Kate Blackwell will discuss some of the elements that can transform a vignette, anecdote, or character sketch into a memorable and satisfying short story.

1:15 - 2:15   Your First Novel: Breaking into Print (Classroom B)
Presenter: Kathryn Kimball Johnson will focus on the practical aspects of writing book-length fiction and achieving publication. Topics include: fitting a productive writing life into busy schedules; creating a professional manuscript; finding a niche in today’s fiction market that is right for you, the debut novelist; and effective approaches to finding a literary agent and publisher.

1:45 - 3:15  A Prompt at a Time (Cafeteria Back)
Presenter: Maribeth Fischer - Writing prompts are about so much more than just "warming up," or "brainstorming," though certainly they are helpful in both of these things. By learning how to use prompts in a very focused and specific way, you can actually write an entire essay, short story, novel, or memoir, one prompt at a time.

1:45 - 3:15Metaphor - Poetry Workshop (Cafeteria Side)
(1 1/2 hours - limited to 15 participants)
Presenter: Sue Ellen Thompson will lead a 90-minute workshop for up to 15 poets.In this class you will examine some of the more challenging and unusual metaphors that contemporary poets have used to bring their poems to life: how to choose between simile and metaphor, how to control and extend an image, and how to avoid making comparisons that are sentimental or clichéd. There will be a writing exercise designed to challenge our image-making powers and time to examine the effectiveness of the similes and metaphors in the poems that participants bring to class.

2:30 - 3:30Everything You Should Know About Agents 
(Auditorium)
Presenters: Jeff Kleinman and Laura Strachan  - learn everything a writer needs to know about finding and working with a literary agent, including how to research, locate, and approach the agent best for you and your project; what material you need to submit to an agent; standard author/agent agreement terms; what to expect your agent to do and not do for you; what you should do and not do for your agent, and more.

2:30 - 3:30     Revisions: Polishing Your Work for Submission
(Classroom A)
Presenter: Ally E. Peltier - Every writer knows—or soon learns—that it takes multiple revisions to create a piece ready for publication. But where do you start? This session will introduce you to the most common problems that plague written works and offer simple ways to identify and resolve them in your own novel, short story, or memoir.

2:30 - 3:30 Current Internet Trends & Writing Online for Pay
(Classroom B)
Presenters: Leslie Walker and Mary McCarthy
Leslie Walker will give a state-of-the-art overview on Internet trends for writers. Mary McCarthy will describe the differences in pay structure among online writing opportunities, the use of online search engines, keywording for revenue, how Google advertising works, affiliate programs, and other online 'writing for pay' models.

3:45 - 4:45  The Anatomy of Book Publishers: The Five Types
(Auditorium)
Presenter: Melissa A. Rosati will share the secrets to a good relationship with a publisher. Learn the characteristics of each type of publisher and gain the insider's perspective to the publisher's goals, expectations, and definition of "success" as it pertains to your book's genre. This evaluation will help authors focus on how to communicate effectively, manage their time and resources, and cultivate their platform in ways that complement their publisher's type and style. 

3:45 - 4:45You ARE a Writer! (Classroom A)
Presenter: Melanie Rigney - Does all this talk of query letters and book proposals and marketing and social media threaten to block your creative process? This session will get your imagination going… and remind you why you wanted to become a writer in the first place. Come and stretch your mind in painless, invigorating ways!

3:45 - 4:45 Viral Networking – Social Media for Writers
(Classroom B)
Presenter: Mindie Burgoyne will address how a writer can use social media to draw the attention of readers, agents, and publishers while broadening their reading audience.  She will discuss and give brief introductions to the "big 5" social media networks: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, UTube and blogging, and will show how a writer can fit using social media into a busy schedule.

3:45 - 4: 45      What Editors Are Seeking
(Cafeteria Back)
Panel: John Ellsberg, Richard Peabody, and Jamie Brown
John Elsberg, editor of Bogg, will moderate a discussion with Richard Peabody, editor of Gargoyle magazine, and Jamie Brown, editor of the Broadkill Review about what today’s editors want from writers. The broad publishing and writing experience of all three editors will provide writers with an opportunity for very helpful insight. This is an informal session, and editors encourage your questions.

2010 Bay to Ocean Program
2010 Conference Is Sold Out
February 20, 2010 Conference Schedule
A mystery novelist, Austin Camcho is a popular speaker and instructor on the craft of writing at Anne Arundel Community College. The author of four detective and two action adventure novels, he is a past president of the Maryland Writer's Association.  www.ascamacho.com.
Khris Baxter's body of work includes eight optioned screenplays and one produced film. Khris teaches screenwriting at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD, and for the MFA program in Creative Writing at Queens University, in Charlotte, NC.   (www.baxterbaker.com)

Maribeth Fischer's first novel, The Language of Goodbye won Virginia Commonwealth University's First Novel Award for 2002. Her second novel, The Life You Longed For, is selling in five foreign countries. In addition to founding the Rehoboth Beach Writers’ Guild and serving as executive director of the annual Writers At The Beach: Pure Sea Glass Writing Conference, Fischer teaches workshops on writing craft. She is currently at work on her third novel.  www.maribethfischer.com.
Gregg Wilhelm is the founder of the CityLit Project,  which produces book festivals, conducts writers' workshops, promotes literary events, and provides consultation services. He is also Director and Editor-in-Chief of Apprentice House, the country's only campus-based, student-staffed book publisher (based at Loyola University Maryland).
Barbara Esstman  Internationally published and nationally awarded author Barbara Esstman is the coeditor of A More Perfect Union: Stories and Poems about the Modern Wedding (St. Martin’s Press). She is also the author of twoe novels adapted for television by Hallmark Productions. She teaches creative writing and creative nonfiction at universities and The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD.  www.barbaraesstman.com
Sue Ellen Thompson’s third volume of poetry, The Leaving: New and Selected Poems, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. A fourth volume, The Golden Hour, appeared in June 2006 and was also nominated for a Pulitzer.  She recently edited The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry. Ms. Thompson teaches at The Writers' Center in Bethesda, and several Eastern Shore venues. www.sueellenthompson.com.
Anne Agnes Colwell, a poet and fiction writer, is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Delaware.  In 2007, she received the Dogfish Head Poetry Prize for her chapbook Father’s Occupation, Mother’s Maiden Name.  Her first book of poems, Believing Their Shadows, is forthcoming from Word Press. 
Ellen Wise, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellow and semifinalist for the Pablo Neruda Prize in Poetry, was awarded residencies at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) Amherst, VA, 2008, and VCCA Auvillar, France, 2009. She serves as board member for Perugia Press, publishers of emerging women poets.
Meredith Davies Hadaway'sFishing Secrets of the Dead was a Word Press award-winner in 2005. Her work received a Pushcart nomination in 2007. She is the poetry editor for The Summerset Review and teaches part-time at Washington College, where she serves as Vice President for College Relations and Marketing.
David Garrett’s first film was an adaptation of his play Your Children: the Testimony of Charles Manson. He’s been a finalist in the Nicholl Fellowship competition, and won the Litwak Award for Distinction in Screenwriting from Columbia University. His film Warlord won best short at the South by Southwest festival.

Kate Blackwell 's collection of short fiction, You Won't Remember This, was published in 2007. In 2009 she was a featured writer in The Delmarva Review. She teaches writing at The Writer's Center in Bethesda, MD and various other venues.
Laura Strachan is a literary agent and lawyer with her own agency in Annapolis, specializing in literary fiction and narrative nonfiction.
www.strachanlit.com.
Jeff Kleinman is a literary agent, intellectual property attorney, and founding partner of Folio Literary Management, LLC, a New York literary agency which works with all of the major U.S. publishers. www.foliolit.com.
Ally Peltier is an editor, writer, and publishing consultant with a decade of experience working for clients such as Simon & Schuster, Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt. She formerly acquired and edited books for Touchstone Fireside/Simon & Schuster and speaks regularly for conferences, organizations, and as an adjunct instructor at both Anne Arundel and Howard County Community Colleges.  www.ambitiousenterprises.com
Leslie Walker is a  pioneer in Internet news. Currently the Knight Visiting Professor in Digital Innovation at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism, she spent 16 years as a reporter, columnist, and editor for The Washington Post, much of it chronicling how the Internet transformed media economics. 
Mary McCarthy writes for several online e-zines, in addition to her own blog three times a week. She has over 15 years of professional writing experience for print publications including the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer and Baltimore Sun, Victorian Homes magazine, Chesapeake Life, Maryland Life, and What's Up Eastern Shore, where she worked as Managing Editor. She now writes a popular humor blog three times a week at www.pajamasandcoffee.com.
Melissa A. Rosati, CPCC, is a creativity coach, writer, and speaker. Throughout her career in the publishing industry, she has nurtured hundreds of authors on their path to success. She serves on the faculty of the International Women's Writing Guild and is an adjunct professor of publishing at Pace University in New York City. Her forthcoming book is The Wisdom of Your Inner Marketer: How to Create Publishing Plans that Work for You. Website: www.melissascoachingstudio.com
Melanie Rigney is the owner of Editor for You (www.editorforyou.com), a publishing consultancy. She has nearly thirty years' experience as an editor and writer, five as editor of Writers Digest. In the past three years, her business, Editor for You, has provided content and copy editing and manuscript evaluation services to more than 100 publishers, literary agents, and authors. She writes inspirational nonfiction and fiction and is copyeditor for The Delmarva Review.
Mindie Burgoyne is former publisher of Trinity Music and The Pastoral Press. She has written three books – all focused on Maryland. Her articles and music compositions have been  featured in Music News, National Catholic Reporter, Metropolitan Magazine, Edible Chesapeake, and the Today Show. She served as an advisor to National Geographic Television Network and has been a featured guest on National Public Radio affiliates. Her website is: www.writingthevision.com.
Jamie Brown is founder, publisher and editor of The Broadkill Review, founder of the John Milton Memorial Celebration of Poets and Poetry, and director of the Dogfish Head Poetry Prize.  He teaches at Wesley College in Dover, Delaware. He taught the first Creative Writing class offered at the Smithsonian Institution.  He was the fiction editor of The Washington Review of the Arts, contributing editor for The Sulphur River Literary Review, and associate editor with The Sulphur River Literary Review. His recent collection of poetry is Conventional Heresies (2008).
William O’Sullivan is senior managing editor at the Washingtonian magazine, and teaches “the personal essay” at the Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He has published in The New York Times, Newsday, The North American Review, National Geographic Traveler, and Christopher Street, among others.
Kathryn Johnson's most recent novel, a 17th-century historical, is THE GENTLEMAN POET (William Morrow, September 2010).  The author of 41 novels, she teaches the popular Extreme Novelist class at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda. Her mentoring and editorial service, www.Writebyyou.com,  helps authors, new and experienced, reach their publication goals.
John Ellsberg, moderator, is a poet, teacher, publisher and member of the Editorial Board of The Delmarva Review. Mr. Ellsberg is the long-time editor of Bogg, A Journal of Contemporary Writing, in Arlington, VA.  He has published 17 books and chapbooks of poetry, and his work has appeared in numerous reviews.  He has taught at University of Maryland and Northern Virginia Community College. He has a home in Henderson, MD, on the Eastern Shore.

Richard Peabody, a prolific poet, fiction writer, and editor, is an experienced teacher and important activist in the Washington, D.C. community of letters. He is the founding editor of Gargoyle magazine and editor (or co-editor) of sixteen anthologies. He teaches at Johns Hopkins University, where he has been presented the Faculty Award for Distinguished Professional Achievement. You can find out more at www.wikipedia.org and www.gargoylemagazine.com.

February 26, 2011
Chesapeake College
Wye Mills, MD