Winter Program and Annual Business Meeting

  • 27 Jan 2018
  • 8:30 AM - 3:00 PM
  • Trader Duke's Hotel (formerly DoubleTree Hotel)

Registration

  • Rate for League members
  • Rate for people who are not League members

Registration is closed

NEW DIRECTIONS, NEW JOURNEYS:

WRITING RESOURCES FOR VERMONT WRITERS

Registration Is Now Open!

Date: Saturday, January 27, 2018

Location: Trader Duke's Hotel, 1117 Williston Rd, South Burlington

Please register by January 23, 2018

SCHEDULE

8:30 - 9:00 - Registration & Morning Refreshments

9:00 - 10:15 - Legal Constructs of a Great Mystery with Sisters in Crime, New England

10:30 - 11:45 - Everything you want to know about comic writing but were afraid to ask

11:45 - 12:30 - Annual Business Meeting

12:30 - 1:30 - Lunch

1:30 - 2:45 - New Directions, New Journeys - A Writing Resources Panel

2:45 - 3:00 - Closing Remarks


PRESENTATIONS

LEGAL CONSTRUCTS OF A GREAT MYSTERY

Writing a legal thriller or creating a tight mystery have more in common than you think. Attorney and author Connie Johnson Hambley will talk about constructing a great thriller using a legal mindset where the discerning reader is treated like carnivorous opposing counsel–each word counts and pacing matters. Oh, and are you going to write a legal thriller? Connie will give tips and insights into making sure you get your law right and sharpening the suspense through the use of facts and precedent. Don’t worry about not going to law school, short cuts and resources will be provided to make sure you’re writing the best stories possible.


EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT COMIC WRITING

BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK

J Moulton will lead the discussion of the process of writing comic books. They will discuss how they have found the pros and cons, spanning the entire process from idea to completed project, followed by a question and answer session.


NEW DIRECTIONS, NEW JOURNEYS - A WRITING RESOURCES PANEL

In keeping with our theme, New Directions, New Journeys, LVW has put together a panel of representatives from local and regional writing organizations including the Burlington Writers Workshop, Green Mountain Writer’s Conference, Green Writers Press, League of Vermont Writers, and Vermont Comic Con. Each panelist will provide a brief introduction and description of his/her organization. Following introductory comments, we will moderate a Q&A session, so come prepared with questions! This is a terrific way for writers to learn more about unique writing resources Vermont and New England have to offer.

Panelists

DEDE CUMMINGS is a Vermont poet, literary agent, and publisher. At Middlebury, she won the Mary Dunning Thwing Award, attended Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and published in Mademoiselle, The Lake, Vending Machine Press, Connotation Press, Mom Egg Review, Figroot, and Bloodroot Literary. She was a Discover/The Nation poetry semi-finalist. Dede was awarded a partial fellowship and writers grant from the Vermont Studio Center in 2016. Her first poetry collection, To Look Out From, won the 2016 Homebound Publications Poetry Prize and was published by Homebound in 2017. Her second book of poems, entitled The Meeting Place, is due out in fall 2018 from Salmon Poetry. Dede is the founder and publisher of Green Writers Press in Brattleboro, Vermont, a global press devoted to environmental activism, social justice, and sustainable publishing.


CONNIE JOHNSON HAMBLEY grew up on a dairy farm and all would have been idyllic if an arsonist hadn’t torched her family’s barn. Bucolic bubble burst, she began to steadfastly plot her revenge against all bad guys, real and imagined. After receiving her law degree from Vermont Law School, she moved to Boston and wrote for Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Nature and other wonky outlets as she honed her skills of reaching readers at a deep emotional level with great research, laser-sharp focus on detail, and persuasive writing. Her high-concept thrillers feature remarkable women entangled in modern-day crimes and walk the reader on the razor’s edge between good and evil. Connie delights in creating worlds where the good guys win–eventually. Her short stories, Giving Voice and Black Ice won acceptance in New England’s Best Crime Stories: Windward (2016) and Snowbound (2017), respectively, published by Level Best Books. The third book in The Jessica Trilogy, The Wake, joins The Charity and The Troubles. Connie is a two-time winner of Best English Fiction literary award at the EQUUS International Film Festival in New York City and is a board member and Featured Speaker of the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime.


DEENA FRANKEL is by day communicator and facilitator in the electric power industry where she energizes words, images, and people to evolve Vermont’s power grid for a brighter, greener future. In her other life, she is a freelance writer, editor, and designer. She tells Moth-style stories at venues around New England, and recently appeared in the Boston Women in Comedy Festival. Deena is the co-producer of Storytelling VT, a monthly event in Burlington, and leads the Burlington Writers Workshop oral storytelling workshops. She has served as an assistant editor for Mud Season Review, nonfiction editor for the Best of the Burlington Writers Workshop 2015, and designer for the past three volumes of The Best of the Burlington Writers Workshop.


Bio Photo Credit: John Alderman

YVONNE DALEY is the author of six nonfiction books, founder of the Green Mountain Writers Conference and Verdant Books, a small nonprofit publishing collaborative, an educator, gardener, wife, mother and grandmother. As a longtime journalist for the Rutland Herald, Boston Globe, Washington Post and dozens of other publications, she balanced investigative reporting with profiles of ordinary people whose lives provided lessons in generosity, determination and delight. For 17 years, she divided her time between Vermont and San Francisco, where she was a professor of creative nonfiction and journalism at San Francisco State University. Her sixth book, Going Up the Country: When the Hippies, Dreamers, Freaks and Radicals Moved to Vermont, will be published in late spring by University Press of New England. The book blends the stories of 119 people and Yvonne’s own experience to chronicle the impact of the “hippie invasion” on Vermont and, as important, the ways in which Vermont values and sensibilities transformed the young people who moved to the Green Mountain State during the late 1960s and 70s. She lives in Rutland with her husband, the writer Chuck Clarino, and two Maltese dogs.


J MOULTON - Founder of Moulton Conventions which owns Vermont Comic Con, Green Mountain Comic Expo and VT Horror. J Moulton lives in Vermont with his fiance, Natasha. Together they run Moulton Conventions, a business dedicated to bringing a wide range of pop culture entertainment to the Green Mountain State since 2013.


NATASHA - Natasha began her career as an event coordinator for Vermont Comic Con. After getting engaged to J, she took on a more involved role as co-owner and also helped to develop a Moulton Conventions-sanctioned all-inclusive cosplay group. She helps to encourage cosplayers of all ages, genders, and ethnicities by forming a welcoming cosplay community. Together with J, Natasha is helping to expand the entertainment that Moulton Conventions brings to Vermont.