Writerly Webinars, Classes, and Other Things You Should Know About

I don't know about you, but my head is swimming with webinar opportunities and writing classes and weekly chat opportunities and frankly, if it weren't for my handy planner, I'd be in a bit of a flustered tizzy. I thought we could use a little round-up, since there's so much going on.

First, for those living anywhere within reasonable distance of Toronto, there are several "continuing education" classes on writing for children being offered at the University of Toronto - woo-hoo!  That means anyone can sign up, guys!  There are three units, one of which is being taught by the Silver Birch Award-winning author of ZORGAMAZOO, Robert Paul Weston.  If this class is even a fraction as good as his book was, it will be a bargain.  You can read more and register for that here.  Hurry up, because it starts on September 20th.

Incidentally, the U of T has a whole bunch of classes on writing for kids, for which there are no pre-requisites, which means anyone who wants to write can register, and you can find those here.


Lots and lots of other universities offer classes in writing for kids all around the world, but I don't live anywhere near any of those and it would take me the whole term just to type them all in, so Google your nearest Uni and search their continuing education classes for whatever they're offering.

Also, Mary Kole, a literary agent with Andrea Brown (I'm sure most of you knew that, but seriously, if you haven't heard of her, check out her KidLit blog because it will blow your socks off!), is giving a webinar with Writer's Digest on Thursday, September 23rd.  Included in the price of the webinar is a guaranteed critique by Mary of the first 500 words of your novel or the first 300 words of your picture book.  Do you want to miss this?  No, you don't.  Read more and register here.

CALLING ALL PICTURE BOOK WRITERS: There's a weekly chat just for us over at Chatzy.com every Sunday evening (for those operating on Eastern Time)/Monday mornings (for those in Australia)/whatever time it is where you are in the world when it's Sunday evening on the East Coast.  For more info on that and for instructions on how to join in, go here.

That's about all I have space for, but I'm opening the floor to you guys.  I want to make sure everything gets in here, so I'm not posting again until Tuesday, and I hope that if you know of a class/workshop/webinar and you think it looks good, you'll let us all know about it (with web addresses so we can find out more, please) in the comments.  Have a great rest of the weekend!

In Celebration of Author Visits, and an Announcement

The other week I took my son to see a well-read guy
Who wrote a novel all in verse.  (A thing I've never tried.)

We sat around in folding chairs; our books were in our laps.
And then the author sauntered in, to our resounding claps.

The bookstore lady grinned and said, "My gosh, I love this job!
I give you Robert Weston!"  And he said, "Please, call me Rob."

He took a seat, we said "hello" and introduced ourselves.
He talked about his favorite books; we told him ours, as well.

Then questions, lots of questions - yes, we really picked his brains.
He shared all his techniques, his secret methods, and his pains.

He gushed about his agent, cover artist, and the rest
Of lovely folks who worked so hard to make his book the best.

We asked him just how long it took to write it, anyhow?
He said it took him four whole years - the kids said, "Holy cow!"

We begged him, "Will you read for us?"  He smiled and said, "Why not?
Just let me find the passage in this softback that I brought."

And as he read, the children all leaned forward in their chairs
To hear the story of a girl who eavesdropped from her stairs.

He waved his arms, he leaped about, he cackled, wheezed, and grimaced.
I gazed upon my son: his eyes were shining, start to finish.

The bookstore lady thanked him then, and asked if he could stay
And greet the children one by one to end their special day.

He shook our hands; he signed our books; he posed for pictures, too!
I asked him: "Do you teach a class?"  He said, "Why, yes, I do."

SO:


If you live in the GTA (just like my son and me),
Then you can take Rob Weston's class, down at the U of T.