March 20, 2010
Location: Best Western Seven Seas
411 Hotel Circle South, San Diego 92108
Map
Cost: $25 for RWASD Members
$30 for Guests
Morning Session: Capturing an Agent's Attention and Then Keeping It
Learn how Jennifer Schober, a top-ranked New York agent, goes about creating a "plan" for taking on and then marketing clients in today's ever tighter publishing world.Afternoon Session: Strong Beginnings Workshop
Editors
and agents talk about the importance of the beginning of your story. If
they don't like the start, they're not going to read to the end (or
even to Chapter Two). Author HelenKay Dimon will lead an interactive
workshop covering the common mistakes of those early pages, including
investigating the right time to use a prologue. We'll look
at published (and unpublished) examples to see what works...and what
doesn't. Bring the first two pages of the manuscript you're working on
and we'll start analyzing.
Jennifer Schober
Prior to joining Spencerhill in 2006, Jennifer received a B.A. in Religious Studies from Ithaca College and an M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Lesley University. Trained as a psychotherapist, Actively acquiring since 2006, Jennifer has sold more than 100 books with recent sales to Mills & Boon, Harlequin, Kensington, Dorchester, Sourcebooks, HarperCollins and Ballantine. She is looking for books with an emotional hook, fantastic storytelling and dynamic characters that leap off the page. She is accepting submissions from published and unpublished authors in women’s fiction including literary fiction, category, contemporary, historical, historical romance, erotic and paranormal romance, romantic suspense, as well as urban fantasy. She is accepting YA but does not accept Children’s work or Sci Fi at this time.
Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

Linda Thomas-Sundstrom is a native of California, where she lives with her husband and teaches at a major California University.Linda writes in the genres of fantasy and romance, and at the moment has two more books in the works in the paranormal romance genre. She prefers reading and writing dark historicals, with plenty of gothic-style atmosphere, but on a challenge from an editor is finding light contemporary paranormal also a kick to write. She is now writing more often, has cut back slightly on her teaching schedule, and has a book being considered for television.

After twelve years as a divorce lawyer specializing in unhappy endings, HelenKay Dimon is now writing books for a living. HelenKay is an award-winning author of more than a dozen novels and novellas. Her first single title, Your Mouth Drives Me Crazy, was excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine in August '07 and spotlighted at E! Online. She made Cosmopolitan a second time in December 2009 with her novella "It's Hotter At Christmas" from the Kissing Santa Claus anthology. Her books also have been published by Doubleday Book Club and Rhapsody Book Club and translated into several languages.
Meeting Agenda:
9:30 to 10:00: CheckIn-Networking
(coffee, teas and pastries)
10:00: Welcome - Introductions &
Announcements
10:15: Morning Session
12:00: Lunch & Booksigning
12:45: Chapter Business Meeting
1:30 Afternoon Session
2:45: Opportunity Raffle
3:00: Meeting Adjourned

