In this week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode, Howard Tayler and I are joined by Scott Westerfeld to discuss visual components of novels. And in the most recent WARBREAKER annotations I talk about Vivenna’s plottings with Denth and Susebron’s spelling, among other things.

In January I’ll be teaching at the Superstars Writing Seminar in Salt Lake City. Here’s how Kevin J. Anderson describes it:

If you are ready for a full-blown “boot camp” of the things you need to know to be a career professional writer, consider attending the second Superstars Writing Seminar, which will be held this January 13–15 in Salt Lake City (Thursday–Saturday, the weekend before the national holiday of Martin Luther King Day).

Three days of intensive instruction taught by six international bestselling authors, Brandon Sanderson, Dave Wolverton, Rebecca Moesta, Eric Flint, and special guest instructor Sherrilyn Kenyon. Topics include:

• Economics of Commercial Publishing
• How Editors Look at Manuscripts, Novels, and Short Fiction
• Dissecting a Book Contract
• How to Read and Understand a Royalty Statement
• Dirty Secrets: What You Need to Know About Being a Professional Author
• How to Leverage Your Intellectual Property
• Balancing Acts: Writing World and Real World
• Agents
• Networking and Self-Promotion for Authors
• Understanding E-Books
• Pitching the Big Proposal
• Two Heads Are Better than One: Collaborations
• How to Get an Edge with New Media
• Movies, TV, and Authors

—and more, including open Q&A sessions, a special limited-seating VIP banquet to get to know the instructors, and plenty of networking opportunities among the teachers, other writers, and fellow students.

The Superstars Writing Seminar is a practical, no-nonsense course on business topics for the professional writer. We don’t teach you how to write; we teach you how to be a writer.

Prices increase by $50 on December 1. For more information and to sign up, go to SuperstarsWritingSeminars.com.

INSTRUCTORS:

 

Kevin J. Anderson—award-winning, international bestselling author of the new Dune series (with Brian Herbert), the Terra Incognita and Saga of Seven Suns series, X-Files, Star Wars, and numerous comics; he has published 100 books, with more than 21 million copies in print in 30 languages.

Eric Flint—A master of military science fiction and alternate history, Eric is best known for his 1632 and Belisarius series (with David Drake). An expert in electronic publishing, he was also the founder and editor of Jim Baen’s Universe online magazine.

Rebecca Moesta—Award-winning and New York Times bestselling Young Adult author of Star Wars: Young Jedi Knights, Star Challengers, the Crystal Doors series, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Little Things. She also holds a Masters of Science in Business Administration from Boston University and is the CEO and business manager for WordFire, Inc.

Brandon Sanderson—A New York Times bestselling author in his own right for his Mistborn series, Brandon was selected to complete Robert Jordan’s epic Wheel of Time. The first volume, The Gathering Storm, immediately reached #1 on the bestseller lists. He also writes successful Young Adult fiction and lectures on creative writing for BYU.

Dave Wolverton—Author of 50 novels, Guinness World Record holder for the largest single-author signing, multiple New York Times bestselling author (under the names Dave Wolverton and David Farland). Dave worked for nearly a decade as coordinating judge for one of the world’s largest writing contests.

Sherrilyn Kenyon—Bestselling author of the Dark Hunter series, The League, and the Chronicles of Nick. In the past two years, Sherri’s books have hit the #1 New York Times bestseller spot an amazing 14 times.