Creative Writing Classes: After School Program at Smart Kids Club, NW Calgary - April, May and June

Join me for a lively, interactive and fun-filled series of creative writing sessions at Smart Kids Club in NW Calgary in April, May and June. For more information or to register, visit the Smart Kids Club website
April 14

Grade 1-4: 4 to 5 pm - Spectacular Story Starters
What if you were invited to a school for wizards? Or discovered a door into another universe in your bedroom closet? Or followed a rabbit down a hole and ended up in a bizarre underground universe? Learn where ideas come from and how writers turn them into stories in this creative writing class designed to truly stimulate the imagination.
Grades 5-8: 5 to 6 pm - Crazy Characters
Explore where writers get ideas from for the people and the names of characters in their stories. In this class, children will invent their own unique characters, complete with occupation, career path, friends and family, likes and dislikes, hopes and dreams - in short, anything that makes their creations really come to life.
May 5
Grades 1-4: 4 to 5 pm - Spectacular Story Starters
What if you were invited to a school for wizards? Or discovered a door into another universe in your bedroom closet? Or followed a rabbit down a hole and ended up in a bizarre underground universe? Learn where ideas come from and how writers turn them into stories in this creative writing class designed to truly stimulate the imagination.
Grades 5-8: 5 to 6 pm - Superstuff!
In this class, children create their own unique superheroes, with incredible powers, extended families and friends, plus one or more archenemies. They will create a detailed biography of the character, complete with an origin story, facts about their superpowers and weaknesses, their secret identity, headquarters and more.
June 9
Grades 1-4: 4 to 5 pm - Spectacular Story Starters
What if you were invited to a school for wizards? Or discovered a door into another universe in your bedroom closet? Or followed a rabbit down a hole and ended up in a bizarre underground universe? Learn where ideas come from and how writers turn them into stories in this creative writing class designed to truly stimulate the imagination.
Grades 5-8: 5 to 6 pm - Time Travel Tales
In this exciting writing class, children invent an imaginary time machine, method or device, complete with a believable means of traveling in time. Participants create the premise for a plausible time travel story, paying attention to accurate historical research to make their story more authentic and devise an attention-grabbing title for their story.

Smart Kids Club, 599 Northmount Drive NW, Calgary AB T2K3J6
Register by phone at 403-615-3720 or e mail at info@smartkidsclub.org

Creative Writing for Home Schoolers at Cardel Place, North Central Calgary - May and June, 2010

Join me for classes in creative writing, especially for home school children from the northern part of the city of Calgary and in the surrounding area, at Cardel Place. The next set of classes take place every Thursday, from May 6 to June 24, with registration commencing on March 29.

Ages 11 to 16 - Time Travel Tales

In these sessions, children create their own time travel stories, complete with a time machine, method or device. We will discuss their time travel methods, the time period chosen, the story premise and see how much attention they have paid to accurate historical research to make their story more authentic and to crafting a plausible means of traveling in time. They will then create a title for their story and a concise, attention-grabbing back cover for their potential book. We also explore how to write gripping fiction, in terms of attention grabbing back covers, page turning beginnings and cliff-hanger endings.

Ages 8 to 10 - Superstuff!

In these sessions, children can create their own unique superheroes, with powers, extended families and one or more archenemies. They will create a detailed biography of the character, complete with an origin story, facts about their superpowers and weaknesses, their secret identity, headquarters, arch enemy and more. Students will draw their creation, create a cover for a comic book and write a short piece describing the hero's origin tale, plus an action packed concise newspaper story, complete with an attention-grabbing headline, about a recent battle that hero had with the main villain.

Cardel Place is located at 11950 Country Village Link NE, Calgary, AB T3K 6E3. All classes commence Thursday, May 6 and run until June 24. Registration for classes is available on March 29, but should you require further information prior to that date, you may contact Cardel Place directly or e mail me at info@simon-rose.com.

Sponsorship Opportunities - The Calgary Children's Book Fair and Conference 2010

For the Calgary Children's Book Fair and Conference, set to take place in November 2010, we do have sponsorship opportunities available for audio visual requirements, coffee, tea and cold beverages, direct mail campaigns, media sponsorship, photography and video production, printing, prize draw items and refreshments, plus sponsorship is also possible for the entire event, the conference or for the Children's Fiction Writing Award. Please visit the website here and forward your proposal or contact me directly at sorcerersletterbox@gmail.com.

Words4TheWebwise – Copywriting and Website Design and Development

Last month I talked about the necessity to make your website about the viewer rather than about you. While the design of your site is not about you, the content is. 

Branding is often talked about as something that big corporations do to attract customers. If you want customers (or readers), you are in the same business. As an author, you are the brand of your company or enterprise. You may not think of yourself as a brand, but consider this. When people think of your name, something comes to mind. It could be your face, your humour, your voice or anything else - perhaps a cover of one of your books. THAT is your brand. Your brand is not your logo, or the fantastic colour scheme you use on your business cards, it’s how other people view you. Try it out with other brands. Ikea. Sony. Stephen King. Something just popped into your head. And that is the thing that you need to work on. 

While your website and anything else you do online is not going to be about what you want or think you want, it is going to be about you as a brand. Everything you do contributes or detracts from that brand, and that is what you need to control whenever you Tweet, update Facebook, blog or upload to YouTube. What are those materials saying about you? What will they make people think of your books? 

Build your brand with messages that say the same thing about you and your work, and you will develop a strong impression in the minds of your current and future readers. 

I can be reached by email (Contact at nburmandesign.com) and Twitter (@nburmandesign). NBurman Design can be found online at http://www.nburmandesign.com and you can also visit my blog LifeImitatingDesign.

Be a Fan on Facebook, Follow on Twitter, View on YouTube or Connect on MySpace

You can now become a fan on Facebook right here. Each of my novels also has a Facebook group page at The Doomsday Mask The Heretic's Tomb The Emerald Curse The Clone Conspiracy The Sorcerer's Letterbox and The Alchemist's Portrait

And of course you can always follow my updates on Twitter, view videos on YouTube or connect on MySpace as well.

PlayWriting Camp this August with the Calgary Arts Summer School Association

PlayWriting Camp will once again will take place this summer from August 16 to 20 with the Calgary Arts Summer School Association. This is a half-day camp (either morning or afternoon) for students ages 8 to 12. In a dramatic and fun-filled week, children will learn how to write, rehearse and perform their own unique play in just five days. Children will create the plot, craft the script, write dialogue and hone their acting skills for their very own dramatic production, which will then be performed at the end of the week.

This year's theme is Outer Space and Science Fiction. For the PlayWriting Camp, this theme will lend itself very well to a multitude of scenarios in which participants will be able to set their plays - adventures on mysterious planets or in strange dimensions, weird and wonderful alien characters, heroic starship commanders and wonderfully conceived monsters from other worlds, in plots featuring comets, meteors, black holes and other stellar phenomena, as children unleash their limitless imagination in the creation of their very own dramatic production.

Further details and registration information for PlayWriting Camp can be found here.

Improv Camp this August with the Calgary Arts Summer School Association

Improv Camp will take place this summer with the Calgary Arts Summer School Association, from August 3 to 6. This half day camp (either morning or afternoon) is for all students ages 8 to 12 years. Throughout the week, children will create their very own unique characters and write dialogue for them in a series of highly original, lively and fun-filled skits.

In 2009, Improv Camp combined inspiration, imagination and invention, with elements of both writing and and dramatic performance. In a fun-filled week, crammed with creativity and excitement, children conceived their very own unique and highly individual characters, then wrote effective and engaging dialogue for their creations.

A series of short and highly original skits were performed throughout the week, using a variety of props and other dramatic devices, in several different genres, all with an unexpected twist as camp participants connected the lives and personalities of all their characters together. All children developed a sense of mutual cooperation, partnership as a result of their collaborative efforts throughout the week, some even returning for PlayWriting Camp two weeks later. Improv Camp is a very welcome addition to our summer schedule and promises to be just as exciting and action packed in 2010.

Full details, registration information and fees for this summer's Improv Camp can be found here

Online Creative Writing Workshops for Children and Young Adults

Give your aspiring young authors the unique opportunity to work with a published author by employing an online writer in residence, right in your own home with my Online Workshops for Children and Young Adults. Many children are interested in writing, but often they need help to channel their ability in a particular direction and give them the encouragement they need to move forward. Having access to professional advice can encourage a child in their creativity, whatever form that may take.

Through a series of e mail assignments, details of which are available at here we explore where ideas come from and how to turn them into stories, basic story structure, plot development, creating characters, developing dialogue and more to help develop writing ability. A set of workshops can be started at any time. Following registration, all assignments are sent by e mail and are completed at your own pace, to be sent to me by return e mail. There is no time limit and participants may take as long as they wish to complete their full set of workshops.

Check out Online Workshops for Children and Young Adults today.

Future Plate Tectonics - The latest article at Dark Roasted Blend

Check out my latest article at Dark Roasted Blend, entitled Future Plate Tectonics, a fascinating exploration of the shifting surface of the earth, both in the distant past and into the far future. 

The article also examines Charles Hapgood's controversial theory of earth crust displacement, its adoption by Graham Hancock for his book Fingerprints of the Gods, and the grim predictions associated with the culmination of the Mayan calendar, all of which were influences behind the recent movie 2012. I also discuss these issues and their connection to the legend of the lost civilization of Atlantis on YouTube in my video about the story behind the story of my most recent novel, The Doomsday Mask.

Future Plate Tectonics is now published at Dark Roasted Blend, among the finest locations online to find the weird, the wonderful and the fantastic, crammed with great articles, stunning photography, plus fabulous new content which appears daily.

Listen to a recording of the March 1 show with Robin Falls Kids on Blog Talk Radio

History is a Thing of the Past - On Blog Talk Radio
This show examined the use of history as inspiration for works for fiction, making use of real personalities and events, and the need for accurate historical research, with  guest authors Kathleen McDonnell and Lois Harris. Check out the show on Blog Talk Radio right here. 

Teleclasses every month at the National Writing for Children Center

Join me at the Children's Writers' Coaching Club at the National Writing for Children Center for live teleclasses every month.


Upcoming sessions, plus teleclasses archived on the site and available for purchase, include such topics as Naming your Characters, Writing Non-fiction, Creating Conflict, Time Travel Tales, Websites and Online Marketing, The Importance of Historical Research, Beyond Belief: Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy for Younger Readers, People Plotting and Creating Characters, Ideas: Where to Find Them and How to Use Them, Marketing and Promotion for Writers and Authors, The Curse of Writers Block, School and Library Visits, Book Signings and Promotional Events, Writers and Seasonal Affective Disorder, Magic in Stories for Children, The Importance of Editing and Revision, Creating Time and Space for Your Writing and much more.

Copies of archived teleclasses can be purchased here. Check out the Children's Writers' Coaching Club today.

Simon Says - The column at the National Writing for Children Center

Check out my column, entitled Simon Says, which appears every Wednesday at the National Writing for Children Center.

Topics of interest to writers and authors concern the use of magic in stories for children, dealing with everything from the roots of magic in myths and legends to the world of Harry Potter. Columns also cover getting started as a writer, creating characters for your stories, marketing and promotion, school and library presentations by authors, dealing with writer's block, creating time and space for your writing, the importance of editing and revision, historical research and more.

Check it out at the National Writing for Children Center, home of the Children's Writers Coaching Club.

Coaching Program for Writers. Check it Out @ www.simon-rose.com

Writing is by nature a solitary occupation and can be a lonely business, without the benefit of hordes of cheering fans on the sidelines. A professional writing coach is someone with whom you can consult, ask questions, send your work to and receive constructive feedback, a guide to help you with your writing as you try to build your career as a professional writer. A writing coach can help you conquer a stumbling block, help you to regain momentum and get back to your writing or make a start on a new project.
My coaching program is designed to help you progress as a writer. You decide what you want to work on during a personalized, one on one relationship. For example, I can be your coach for just one month or we can establish a month-to-month arrangement, depending on your schedule and expectations. Just a few examples of topics we can cover during the coaching period are point of view, creating characters, developing dialogue, story structure, editing and revision, marketing and promotion and submissions to publishers. However, I am very flexible and happy to discuss your own unique requirements and areas where you feel that you may need the most help.
In addition to coaching, on my website you can learn more about my other services for writers, such as online workshops for adults, manuscript evaluation and online workshops for children and young adults.

Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops - In Conclusion

While its very important to do your own homework in terms of discussing schedules with the teachers, organizing your presentations, planning your topics to fill a week or more as an author in residence, selecting subject matter appropriate to each audience, ensuring that all financial matters are in order and so on, before embarking on a school visit, the experience is usually very rewarding for children’s authors. School visits allow you to talk about your own work, your inspiration, your future projects, answer questions, sell some autographed copies of your books, and present yourself to a entirely new audience or geographic area. Writing in any discipline can be a solitary, even lonely profession, but children's authors do have the opportunity to visit to schools and libraries, allowing you to connect with your readers on a personal level. Children are also thrilled to meet an author, especially if they are familiar with your work, and if they are not, you will most likely gain a whole new set of readers as a result of your visit to the school.

An author visit can also be very beneficial to the school, inspiring the students and encouraging them in their own writing or just getting them excited about books and reading. You may also help them to explore their own artistic creativity, whether this involves writing, illustration, painting, poetry, sculpture, photography, film or another discipline altogether and ultimately, you may even make a real difference in the lives of some of your readers.

Creative Writing Classes: After School Program at Smart Kids Club, NW Calgary - April, May and June

Join me for a lively, interactive and fun-filled series of creative writing sessions at Smart Kids Club in NW Calgary in April, May and June. For more information or to register, visit the Smart Kids Club website

April 14

Grade 1-4: 4 to 5 pm - Spectacular Story Starters
What if you were invited to a school for wizards? Or discovered a door into another universe in your bedroom closet? Or followed a rabbit down a hole and ended up in a bizarre underground universe? Learn where ideas come from and how writers turn them into stories in this creative writing class designed to truly stimulate the imagination.

Grades 5-8: 5 to 6 pm - Crazy Characters
Explore where writers get ideas from for the people and the names of characters in their stories. In this class, children will invent their own unique characters, complete with occupation, career path, friends and family, likes and dislikes, hopes and dreams - in short, anything that makes their creations really come to life.

May 5
Grades 1-4: 4 to 5 pm - Spectacular Story Starters
What if you were invited to a school for wizards? Or discovered a door into another universe in your bedroom closet? Or followed a rabbit down a hole and ended up in a bizarre underground universe? Learn where ideas come from and how writers turn them into stories in this creative writing class designed to truly stimulate the imagination.

Grades 5-8: 5 to 6 pm - Superstuff!
In this class, children create their own unique superheroes, with incredible powers, extended families and friends, plus one or more archenemies. They will create a detailed biography of the character, complete with an origin story, facts about their superpowers and weaknesses, their secret identity, headquarters and more.

June 9
Grades 1-4: 4 to 5 pm - Spectacular Story Starters
What if you were invited to a school for wizards? Or discovered a door into another universe in your bedroom closet? Or followed a rabbit down a hole and ended up in a bizarre underground universe? Learn where ideas come from and how writers turn them into stories in this creative writing class designed to truly stimulate the imagination.

Grades 5-8: 5 to 6 pm - Time Travel Tales
In this exciting writing class, children invent an imaginary time machine, method or device, complete with a believable means of traveling in time. Participants create the premise for a plausible time travel story, paying attention to accurate historical research to make their story more authentic and devise an attention-grabbing title for their story.

Smart Kids Club, 599 Northmount Drive NW, Calgary AB T2K3J6
Register by phone at 403-615-3720 or e mail at info@smartkidsclub.org

Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops - Virtual Author Visits

Children are almost always inspired when they meet a real life author or illustrator, but it may not always be possible to have an author visit your school. However, why not put technology to work for you? Now you can arrange a virtual author visit via video using Skype. These can be conducted with large groups in a library or gym or with individual classes. You can get an idea of what a virtual visit looks like by viewing my videos in which I talk about my books, my workshops for adults and schools, plus my various services for writers.

Ideally, in preparation for a virtual author visit, students should have read at least one of my books prior to the visit, but can also familiarize themselves with my work by undertaking the Super Scavenger Search. Teachers may also wish to download the word search puzzles related to each novel. Study guides are also available for all my novels and each book can provide teachers with a wide variety of ways to explore projects with their students and class sets of books are available.

To host a virtual author visit, it is necessary to download Skype, which is available for both Windows and Macintosh, and have a webcam. Mac users may also be able to set up a virtual author visit using iChat. Schools also need a projection screen and speakers in the library or gym or wherever the virtual visit takes place. For individual classes, it is possible to connect via laptop computers. You may contact me directly at sorcerersletterbox@gmail.com for details on technical requirements and all about exactly how a virtual author visit works. A technical run through a few days prior is also advisable, to ensure that everything runs smoothly on the day of the visit.

Creative Writing Classes for Home Schoolers @ South Fish Creek Recreation Centre, Calgary - March & April 2010

Join me for classes in creative writing especially for home school children at South Fish Creek Recreation Centre in SW Calgary. The next set of classes take place every Tuesday, from March 2 to April 20, 2010. Registration details are available here.

Junior Adventures in Creative Writing Ages - 6 and 7

Things That Never Were - In these classes, we examine the elements of fantasy and the many creatures and characters that inhabit the fantasy realm. Most children are very familiar with monsters and strange creatures from mythology, books and movies and in these workshops they invent their own unique mythological creature along with its powers, enemies, diet, habitat and the land where it lives. Children will also create their own fantasy kingdom, complete with its system of government, myths and legends, magical objects, currency, major landmarks, natural features such as mountain ranges, rivers and oceans and more.

Adventures in Creative Writing Ages - Two classes, ages 9 to 11 & 12 to 15

Superstuff! - In these sessions, children can create their own unique superheroes, with powers, extended families and one or more archenemies. They will create a detailed biography of the character, complete with an origin story, facts about their superpowers and weaknesses, their secret identity, headquarters, arch enemy and more. Students will draw their creation, create a cover for a comic book and write a short piece describing the hero's origin tale, plus an action packed concise newspaper story, complete with an attention-grabbing headline, about a recent battle that hero had with the main villain.

All classes commence Tuesday, March 2 and run until April 20, 2010. Registration details are available here.

Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops - Author in Residence

For an Author in Residence program, you can be at a school for a week or longer. This allows you to cover certain topics in much more depth than would be possible during a regular author visit. You can also look at working with the students on a specific project. A week in residence can be designed however you would like, to best meet the needs of the students. You can see what a week could look like, based on a school where I spent five days working with students from grade one through seven, here. However, this is just an example, and I am always happy to discuss a residency with the school to determine how the time there will work best. Topics to cover during a residency can of course all be related to your own book or books, but bear in mind that you do have to fill an entire week or sometimes longer. If you aren't going to use your own material as a study guide, make sure the topics are ones you’re very familiar with. I offer a variety of presentations and you can see these on my website here. However, certain sessions remain popular, such as those relating to the superhero genre, the subject matter of The Emerald Curse, or the ones about time travel, since three books feature this theme. You can learn about the subject matter of all the books here.

I also offer a variety of workshops on writing topics such as character development and dialogue, creating stories for younger students in K to 2, and on popular subjects such as the fantasy realm and science fiction, but am very flexible and always happy to discuss matters with the teachers to ensure a good fit with the students. I have even worked with a ventriloquist during a residency where children learned how to make puppets, operate them and write dramatic scripts in which all the characters are their own creations. Students then presented and performed in their short plays with their new puppets, in a fun filled finale for children, teachers and parents. I have worked on other dramatic productions with children, both in schools and at summer camps, plus conduct programs very similar to a residency in my work with home school students.

Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops - Book Sales

Author visits can be a lucrative source of book sales, but it's wise to ask if such activity is even allowed at the school ahead of time. Most schools are delighted that you will be bringing books to sell and sign for the children while you are there. If you send order forms or other paperwork prior to your arrival, teachers often collect the money for you and everything can be extremely well organized. However, some schools do have very strict policies about selling anything to the students and prohibit promotion for commercial purposes. Make sure you always ask in advance to avoid any uncomfortable situations when you are at the school.

Once a visit is confirmed, I send out order forms for the books, which most schools send home with the students just prior to my arrival. A list of all books for purchase can be found here. Consequently, parents can see what sort of books are available, even visit my website, so that those children interested in getting signed copies remember to bring the correct payment while I am at the school and so avoid disappointment. However, I make it very clear that this is entirely at the discretion of the school. I do not expect to have a firm number of orders for books before I travel and always take a good supply of each title with me. I also ensure that I always ask if the school would like to purchase copies of my books for their library or if teachers are interested in class sets, usually at a discount.

At the time of writing, I have six children’s titles in print, but there are still no guarantees in terms of book sales during school visits. Sometimes your sales may be in the hundreds and on other occasions you may only sell ten copies or less. As a result, book sales during author visits should often be considered a nice bonus, rather than expected to be highly successful every time.