What's coming up

Writing to inspire

From around the middle of August, I’ll be running three one-day workshops here at our lovely retreat up on the South Kaipara, covering a ton of stuff to help you excel at writing.

As well as teaching a lot of skills for non-fiction writers, I will be bringing in some specialists on writing children’s books and creative fiction writing [including a live session with one of New Zealand’s most successful novelists who’ll answer your questions.]

The course will cover a lot of ground right from conceptual ideas, the disciplines of being an author and heaps of info on editing, proof-reading, typesetting, printing and illustration choices.

We’ll look at the pros and cons of publishing commercially or self-publishing.

We’ll examine softback and e-book options and the choices in software to make your product really sing. And we’ll cover promotional strategies. You’ll hear from people who’ve written specialised ‘short-course’ books and are making good ground with their products.

You’ll also learn about blogging and podcasting options.

At this stage, courses numbers will be limited to 15 for each of the days. If you have to travel some distance to get here – we are just over an hour north of Auckland – I will offer a few beds for those who’d like to stay overnight so the travel times are not so arduous.

If you attend the course, I will offer post-conference mentoring sessions to help take your projects forward,

Right now, I anticipate the day-long course, including snacks and a light lunch, will cost around $159 per person. [No GST]

The tentative dates are all Saturdays – August 23, 30 and September 6.

Each seminar will likely major on one of the key genres you’ll be keen to explore – non-fiction, fiction and children’s books. The key ingredient will be you’ll be getting advice from some specialists in these crafts.

There will likely be an early-bird rate – so if you’re interested in being further informed one of these day-long seminars, please email me – Rob –