Alex Shvartsman's Speculative Fiction

I’m back from spending a day at the writer’s workshop in Stroudsburg, PA. This event is a brainchild of Mike Ventrella and is organized by the Pocono Liars Club at the Hughes Library (which, with its two stories, grand event space, and a built-in cafe, is among the finest libraries I’ve visited to date. Kudos!)

Speakers at this event included literary agent Marisa Corvisiero, SF/F author Gregory Frost, romance author Gwen Jones, and me.  Author and anthologist Mike Ventrella hosted. There were roughly 40 attendees (a bit smaller than average, I’m told, as the original event date got snowed out and we rescheduled for April.) Each guest delivered an hour-long talk on various aspects of writing and then selling one’s writing. I talked about editing your manuscript as well as how to benefit from outside feedback by beta readers and critique partners.

The event was free, with an optional $20 fee that got you into private sessions with the guests, whereas they would also read and critique a writing sample. That’s a bargain’ a professional level critique on a 5000 word writing sample would normally cost far more than $20, and that’s without a private session. And on top of that, Marisa requested several synopses and even a couple of fulls from the people in her group, so they might find representation, too!

There’s tremendous value in these sorts of workshops for the newer writers. I highly recommend that you sign up and attend the 2020 workshop next April if you’re in that geographical area.

Next month, me and Ian Randall Strock of Fantastic Books will lead workshops for high school students at a book festival in Maspeth, NY. That’s another free event and while the workshop is limited to high-schoolers, there will be panels and author tables open to everyone.

See more photos from the Pocono Writer’s Workshop here.

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