YA Book Panel in Portland - June 4th at 6:30

Next Wednesday, June 4, at 6:30 pm, Cat Winters will be on a YA panel with fellow Portland-area novelists Paula Stokes, Miriam Forster, and Tara Kelly. They'll be talking about their books and writing in general, answering questions, signing copies of their novels, and mingling with readers amid coffee and desserts.

The event will be held at Manaia Coffee House & Grill, 203 E. Main St., Hillsboro, OR, and it's being presented by Jacobsen's Books.

Here's a website listing more info: http://www.jacobsensbooks.com/event/spring-summer-great-ya-reads.

And here's a copy of the flyer for the event.

The Great Critique

Another chance for writers to be mentored and critiqued by a professional and their peers. We did this in January and it was so successful that attendees asked for a repeat, so here it is!
Location: The Dining Room, TaborSpace, 5441 SE Belmont St, Portland, OR 97215
Time: 9:00 to noon.

Never been in a critique group? Wish you could be critiqued by someone who is ahead of you in the publishing game? Want to strengthen your work? Need a fresh set of eyes and ears on that oft-revised piece? Want to have your manuscript ready for the May conference? This is your chance. A published writer will lead each small group and critique your manuscript. You'll also hear others' work and get feedback from those writers too. Plus you'll learn from the comments by the critique leader about the work of others.

Cost:

SCBWI members - $10.00 (That's less than the price of a Friday night movie!)

Nonmembers - $15.00 (If you bought any refreshments, your movie night would cost way more!)

How it will work:

1. Sign up now with the kind of manuscript you'll be bringing. You may bring a maximum of five double-spaced pages or 1200 words. DO NOT bring more. Use standard manuscript format, which means your first page will not be a full page. For picture books, we suggest you bring no more than 750 words.
2. We will do our best to place you in a group of 5 or 6 peers who write in the same genre and with a published author who writes in that genre.
3. We'll let you know how many copies of your manuscript to bring to the meeting.
4. We'll also send you some basic critique group guidelines.
5. At the meeting each of you will have a chance to pass your work around to your group and read it aloud.
6. Each person in the group will make notes on your manuscript as you read. They'll write down what they like, mark errors they see, indicate where they are confused or what doesn't work for them.
7. The professional writer will verbally critique your work. If time, other participants may comment.
8. You'll receive your copies with written comments from each one in your group. Take them home and let the ideas simmer.
9. You might even make some new friends or find those to form a critique group.
   

"Can’t imagine sitting with a group of strangers and reading your manuscript aloud? It should be harder to imagine sending an untried, unedited, unrevised bit of your soul out on submission!" – Jenn Bailey, children's writer and social media expert

PAL AUTHORS CRITIQUING include Carolyn Conahan, Cat Winters, Emily Whitman, Mike Thaler,Susan Hill Long and Suz Blackaby.