WORKSHOP AGENDA:

Hour 1
We’ll talk about domain registration and web hosting. By the time you leave, you’ll know not only what these terms mean, you’ll also have a list of reliable companies to choose from. You’ll also learn how to install WordPress on your website.

I’ll provide access to short videos refreshing your memory about how to do these steps after you go home.

Hour 2
We’ll talk about headers, columns, and navigation. Fonts and images. “Above the fold” and “below the fold.” We’ll look at some sample websites and explore the world of free and premium themes.

Then we’ll create a preliminary sketch of your site. We’ll have colored pencils and paper site elements — columns, images, text, fonts — to push around. What do you want your home page to look like? Inner pages?

It’s not about polished art, and you probably won’t have time to produce a finished web design. But you’ll learn about the elements, think creatively about what’s possible, get feedback, and maybe get the germ of an idea that will lead to something great. At the very least, you’ll come away with a hand-to-eye understanding of what’s involved in web design so that you’re in a better position to make decisions.

Break

Hour 3
We’ll put away the colored pencils and talk about site organization. What kind of content works for fiction vs. nonfiction. How to organize your site to speak to one audience, along with some options for expanding into different kinds of writing or different audiences.

We’ll talk about the difference between posts and pages, and between categories and tags. We’ll talk about navigation and how to use WordPress menus.

We’ll also talk about plugins for social media.

Hour 4
The last hour will focus on writing. Specifically, writing for the web: what makes it different from the other kinds of writing you do; how to talk to the search engine robots; to blog or not to blog.

We’ll end the day with a generous block of time for questions, and we’ll give each person the chance to talk about the challenges of creating a website.

It doesn’t take a year to create a website; you can get it online in an afternoon. Then begins the process of making it better and better.

Let’s all work together to get your website off the “someday list” and onto “tomorrow afternoon.”

Cancellation Policy: All cancellations are subject to a $35 cancellation fee. Cancellations received SEVEN (7) DAYS before the program date are refundable. Sending in this form or signing up at the website indicates that you have read and understand the cancellation policy.

Sign up now via PayPal:

Member ($60): 

Non-Member ($1o0): 

If you would prefer to pay by check, please print and mail this Registration Form.
 

For information, contact Jan Bear.

The New Publishing World: Everything You Need To Know From E to Z

START TIME: Mar 24 2012 – 09:00 AM

Portland Airport Sheraton

Take Advantage of New Technology & The Digital Revolution!
March 24/25, 9:00AM to 5PM at the Airport Sheraton – 8235 NE Airport Way

Saturday, March 24
· Understanding Terminology and Finding Resources
· Amazon.com, CreateSpace & Kindle Direct presentation and display
· Tablet/eReader display and chance for hands-on examination
· Presentation/Training about The Importance of eBook Formatting & How To Build a Better eBook
· Uploading: Understanding the various “eTailers”
· Hospitality Room – Meal and beverages in the evening

Sunday, March 25
· Nonfiction eBook Marketing/Promoting
· Fiction eBook Marketing/Promoting
· Author Websites
· Social Media
· Running Your Own E-Publishing Company
· Ask The Experts – Q&A at End of Day

For more complete details, presenter names, and the time schedule, please CLICK HERE.

Cancellation Policy: All cancellations are subject to a $50 cancellation fee. Cancellations received SEVEN (7) DAYS before the program date are refundable. Sending in this form or signing up at the website indicates that you have read and understand the cancellation policy.

To register, print and mail the Registration Form.

You can also sign up via PayPal:

Registration for 2-day ePublishing workshop ($189):

Plan and write most (or all) of your fiction or nonfiction book with author Kerry Cohen.

The workshop starts the weekend of June 2-3, 2012, in Rockaway Beach at Colonyhouse, OWC’s writers retreat. There, students will determine their projects, gather inspiration from one another to begin their projects, and engage in one-on-ones with Kerry to clarify challenges and plan their approach to the next six months. From there, students will meet with Kerry every other week in Portland and every other month for scheduled weekends at Colonyhouse. The intensive is limited to six writers.

Throughout the six months, the writers will be in constant and close contact with Kerry via email and phone (and the as-needed face-to-face) as they complete their projects.

The fee for this intensive is $1000, or six monthly installments of $225. Additionally, all participants must be members of OWC, which costs $40 anually. Room and some board at the Colonyhouse weekends is included.

Kerry Cohen is the author of six books, including the memoirs Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity; Seeing Ezra: A Mother’s Story of Autism, Unconditional Love, and The Meaning of Normal; and the general nonfiction book Dirty Little Secrets: Breaking the Silence on Teenage Girls and Promiscuity.

Cancellation Policy: All cancellations are subject to a $50 cancellation fee. Cancellations received SEVEN (7) DAYS before the program date are refundable. Sending in this form or signing up at the website indicates that you have read and understand the cancellation policy.

Sign up now via PayPal:

Total upfront fee ($1000):

Six monthly installments ($225):

OWC annual membership ($40): (If you are not already a member, please download and send a membership application in addition to registration for the intensive.)

If you would prefer to pay by check, please print and mail this Registration Form.

For information, contact Kerry Cohen.

James Bernard Frost’s novel, A Very Minor Prophet, was released on April Fool’s Day through Hawthorne Books.

Tom Robbins, author of Still Life With Woodpecker, says “Bucking a headwind of despair, Frost pedals his verbal bicycle into the belly of the Beast, only to return bearing a brand-new Gospel illuminated with Voodoo cream and composed in the edgy vernacular of Portland’s thriving freak scene.”

Jump Start is a free meeting for all interested writers, members and non-members. The program will feature a published author reading and talking about his writing life, break-out groups for topics such as craft building needs, and a menu for possible future workshops. In addition, time will allow for genre discussion groups and the possibility of forming critique groups for specific genres.

Jump Start will be held at TaborSpace, 5441 SE Belmont St. Portland, OR 97215.

4th Annual NW Book Festival

OWC has reserved two spaces for our members at this book festival. If you have a book or books for sale send an e-mail to Marlene Howard marlenehow@comcast.net to claim your spot at our tables. Details will be sent out to interested members toward the end of April.

Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland, OR (corner of SW Morrison and SW Sixth Avenue)

START TIME: Apr 27 2012 – 6:00 PM

Colonyhouse, Rockaway Beach

Novelist Heather Sharfeddin will be offering private one-on-one mentoring for novel writers as part of our Mentor in the House weekend program. Both beginning and advanced writers should consider this unique opportunity to work closely with an accomplished fiction writer.

From April 27th @ 6 PM to April 29th @ 3 PM, Mrs. Sharfeddin will live and write at the Colonyhouse, a historic log cabin on the Oregon Coast at Rockaway Beach, and will be available for personally tailored hour-long consultations with each retreat participant. In addition to plenty of time to write over the weekend, an optional Saturday night sharing allows participants to workshop their writing in a relaxed atmosphere with the mentor and other retreat-goers.

The cost of the retreat is $150 for members, and $190 for non-members (includes a one-year Oregon Writers Colony membership). This price includes shared lodging at the Colonyhouse. Participants are expected to provide their own food and bedding. A communal meal may be arranged with the consent of the mentor.

Heather Sharfeddin is the author of four novels set in the modern rural West. Her debut novel, Blackbelly, received the Erick Hoffer Book Award and the San Francisco Book Festival Award. Her third novel, Windless Summer, received the New York Book Festival Award. Her stories are acclaimed by the Chicago Tribune, San Diego Times, Washington Post, Boston Tribune, Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly, among many others. Her articles and poetry are published in numerous magazines and anthologies. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Art.

Cancellation Policy: All cancellations are subject to a $50 cancellation fee. Cancellations received SEVEN (7) DAYS before the program date are refundable. Sending in this form or signing up at the website indicates that you have read and understand the cancellation policy.

Sign up now via PayPal:

Member ($150):

Non-Member ($190):

If you would prefer to pay by check, please print and mail the Mentor in the House Registration Form.

For information, contact James Bernard Frost.

For a printable flyer and entry form for both contests, click here.

Contest deadline: August 15, 2012

Poetry awards

• First prize: $100
• Second prize: $50
• Third prize: $25
• First, Second and Third prize poems will be published in the Colonygram. All winners will be listed inside the Colonygram and on the OWC website.
• Winners are invited to read their winning entry at the awards ceremony.

Poetry contest rules

• Up to three poems per entry, any form or style, original and unpublished.
• Fee per entry: $10 (OWC members), $15 (non-members).
• No author name on poems. This is an anonymous contest.
• Multiple entries are permitted.
• One entry (up to three poems) per submission packet.

Include in Poetry submission packet:

• Two copies of each poem. (Please keep originals; entries will not be returned.)
• One business envelope with the following inside:
  • Check for entry fee
  • 3×5 card (no odd-sized cards, please) with:

1. Your name, address, phone, and email;
2. Poem titles;
3. How you heard about this contest (online, word-of-mouth, etc.);
4. OWC Member or non-member status;
5. SASP (self-addressed stamped postcard for notice of receipt and your peace of mind).

Mailing address for Elizabeth Bolton Poetry Contest:

OWC Contest
Judith Massee
3415 S.E. Steele Street
Portland, OR 97202-4161

You may also pay your entry fee in advance by PayPal:

Members: $10
 
Non-members: $15
 
Direct inquiries to Judith by email.

Contest judges:

Elizabeth Bolton Poetry Contest Final Judge: Sue Parman Sue Parman is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and an award-winning poet, playwright, essayist, and fiction writer. Since moving to Oregon in 2009 she has received over ten writing awards, including four first-place awards from the Oregon State Poetry Association and Oregon Writers Colony and two Kay Snow Awards from Willamette Writers. Her play Queen Victoria’s Secret (published in Voice Catcher and nominated for the Pushcart Prize) was performed in Portland’s Fertile Ground New Play Festival in 2011 and at Powell’s Bookstore and the Portland Central Library in 2012. In 2012 her play The Gorilla in Beowulf was produced by Portland Theatre Works as part of their fund-raiser, For Better or for Verse. Her poems have appeared in Faultlines, Cloudbank, Verseweavers, Slant, The Hiram Poetry Review, The Elephant-Ear, The Blue Mouse, and the Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal. Her chapbook The Thin Monster House will be published by Finishing Line Press in June 2012.

Born in Astoria in 1899, the Bumble Bee Seafoods eventually became a national and international success story, employing thousands of workers and fishermen at ports in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and elsewhere.

Published by the Chinook Observer Publishing Company, the book contains hundreds of historical photographs of the company’s fishing boats, workers and packing plants, as well as company labels and other illustrations.

Roger Tetlow and Irene Martin, are both well known for their historical research and fisheries publications, including Legacy and Testament, the story of Columbia River Gillnetters, and The Beach of Heaven, a History of Wahkiakum County by Irene Martin and originally published by WSU Press, and Barbey, The Story of a Pioneer Columbia River Salmon Packer, by Roger Tetlow. The Flight of the Bumble Bee is the only book available about a company known from Alaska to California and beyond.

Available by mail from the Chinook Observer, P.O. Box 427, Long Beach, WA. 98631, @ $22.95, plus $5 each shipping/handling.  $1.79 each sales tax for Washington residents