Posted on February 29, 2016 by lavlunabiz

Tricks Of The Trade – Writing Advice from the Experts

Panel
TRICKS OF THE TRADE – Writing Advice from the Experts

Monday, February 29, 2016
7:30 to 9:15 p.m. (networking follows the program)

There’s no one formula for writing – there are a thousand!
Aside from raw talent and a tip or two from the Muse, we have principles, rules, devices, guidelines, categories, strategies, tools, tactics, and techniques.

Our expert panel will offer help for all writers whether writing fiction, screenplay, or even nonfiction.

2016-02-29_20.10.46_Robert-Ramsey-speaking_[0959] We will discuss (as time allows):
– Brainstorming ideas
– Pitching formulas
– Story structures
– Plot lines
– Scene dynamics
– Narrative devices
– Character development
– Strategies for reader feedback
– And more!

Our panel of writing veterans:

BRENT FORRESTER got his start as a writer for the Ben Stiller Show where he won his first writing Emmy.

Forrester has written for 6 Emmy Award-winning shows including The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Late Night With Conan and Mr. Show With Bob and Dave.

Brent spent 7 seasons as a writer and director at The Office, and was Co-Showrunner in its final season.

He is currently the Showrunner on “Love” a Netflix show produced by Judd Apatow (debuts February 19th, 2016).

ELLEN SANDLER was nominated for an Emmy for her work as a Co-Executive Producer of the CBS hit series, Everybody Loves Raymond.

Sandler has written for many other prime time network television comedies, including ABC’s Coach, and has created original television pilots for ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox Family, Oxygen Network, and the Disney Channel.

Ellen is the author of The TV Writer’s Workbook (Bantam/Dell), which is used as a text by both UCLA and USC film schools.

She teaches Comedy Writing for the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, and Television Writing for Playwrights at The Herbert Berghof Playwrights Foundation in New York.

She has been a guest lecturer at many colleges and universities, including New York University, Marymount Manhattan College, The New School, and the University of Southern California.

ROBERT RAMSEY’s feature film credits include Destiny Turns on the Radio (1995); Life (1999); Big Trouble (2002); Intolerable Cruelty (2003); Man of the House (2005); and Soul Men (2008).

Ramsey was a Fellow at the Sundance Screenwriters Workshop in 1992. He received a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University and has been a member of the WGA since 1988.

Robert has been teaching screenwriting at USC School of Cinematic Arts since 2012.

Our Moderator

GREG MILLER is a writer, producer and writing coach. He is the author of “How To Be A Writer Who Writes” and the new mega reference e-book “Miller’s Compendium”.

Miller has written and produced feature film and tv projects for Fox, Disney, Dino De Laurentiis, Oxygen, MTV, HBO and Comedy Central. He has also written articles for Writer’s Digest, Premiere, LA Weekly, Entertainment Weekly and news for the CBC.

As a teacher and writing coach, Greg has helped NY Times best-selling authors, TV showrunners, studio screenwriters and absolute beginning writers to write and perform for 20 years.

He has taught classes and workshops at UCLA Extension, LA Times Festival of Books, LA Gay & Lesbian Center, Humber College, Kripalu Center, Media Bistro, Teen Canteen and Story Expo.

As co-creator and producer of Uncabaret he worked with a who’s who of alternative comedians including Julia Sweeney, Margaret Cho, Patton Oswalt, Bob Odenkirk, Taylor Negron, Michael Patrick King, Larry Charles, Judd Apatow and many others to develop personal story-based comedy.

A short clip from the evening:

https://youtu.be/3AvcJ3WWmOk

Posted on February 21, 2016 by lavlunabiz

Magazines and Ezines: What you need to know

Panel
Magazines and Ezines: What you need to know

Monday, March 21, 2016
7:30 to 9:15 p.m. (networking follows the program)

Magazines are everywhere. It seems as if they must be starving for content, but they don’t make it easy to for writers to contribute. In fact, they can be downright secretive about the process.

Not all magazines pay well; some do not all pay at all. But sometimes the article practically writes itself, and other times the resume credit is worth the effort, even if the money does not fit. And sometimes there are other valuable perks that you might not have considered.

Our expert panel will discuss:
– How to get the attention of magazines
– How to contact the magazines
– What they look for
– A calendar of upcoming topics
– What to submit
– What not to do
– How to protect your work
– Perks associated with magazine writing
– Answers to your own questions

If you have ideas, here’s where they can find a home.

Our panel will include:

MICHELE RAPHAEL is the co-founder with David Lott of Angels Flight • literary west, a new, L.A.- based literary, arts and culture journal.

Promoting emerging, prominent and diverse voices, AFLW has featured L.A. writers Anna March, Wendy C. Ortiz, Eileen Cronin and Deanne Stillman, among others.

Previously, Michele was a staff writer and columnist for the Los Angeles Times, a features editor for latimes.com, and director of publications for the Norman Lear Center. She has written for Glamour, Quartz, Variety, The Huffington Post, Billboard and Los Angeles Review of Books, among other publications. She holds an MA in journalism from USC.

Jeff Miller is the founding editor of Thrillist Los Angeles, the ultra-popular cityguide that’s become a market leader for 21-40-year-olds looking the best local spots to eat/drink/hang out/have fun.

He’s also written about everything from Britney Spears to ventriloquism for many, many publications including Billboard, The Los Angeles Times, Variety, and Maxim, and is the bandleader for the world’s first indie-rock tribute band, Black Crystal Wolf Kids.

You can learn more about Jeff at facebook.com/JournalistJeffMiller.

Paula Parisi is a Los Angeles-based journalist with extensive experience covering business, entertainment, technology and lifestyle topics.

She has written cover stories for Wired and Entertainment Weekly, and was a staff writer and editor at The Hollywood Reporter, exiting in 2008 from her position as VP and Executive Editor. In the ensuing years, she launched TheEquestrianNews.com and MaxTheTrax.com.

Author of the book “Titanic and the Making of James Cameron,” Parisi currently serves as Director of Events & Marketing at TheWrap.

JAMIE WOLF is a journalist, editor and photographer who is also an executive producer of documentary films. For many years she’s been actively involved with PEN Center USA, which represents the world-wide writers’ organization PEN International in the western United States; she was first a member of the Board and now serves as vice president for the Center.

Wolf was one of the original group of editors at The Washington Monthly; she has written about politics and other subjects for that magazine as well as for Harper’s; The New Yorker; New West; American Film;The Los Angeles Times Magazine; Los Angeles Magazine, for whom she was a contributing writer; and The LA Weekly, for whom she covered the Howard Dean campaign; and also for MotherJones.com. She was one of the founding board members of the on-line publication The Los Angeles Review of Books. Her two-part series about the long career of then-Congressman Howard Berman appeared in LARB in the fall of 2012, and can be accessed here and here.

Wolf’s essay dealing with parenthood and grown children, “The Shoes in the Hall,” appeared in the anthology “The Empty Nest,” published by Hyperion in 2007. Her photographs of urban landscapes have been published in DoubleTake magazine and exhibited in Washington, D.C., and in Los Angeles. She’s a member of Impact Partners, a documentary producing consortium. Independently, she has executive-produced “Open Secret,” a documentary by Steve Lickteig, which aired several times on Al Jazeera America in the fall of 20013, and “Born This Way,” by Shaun Kadlec and Deb Tullman, which won the Best Documentary prize at Los Angeles’ Outfest film festival in July of 2013, and was aired on KCET-link last December.

Together with Geralyn Dreyfous she executive produced,“ Compared to What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank,” which debuted at Tribeca in the spring of 2014, went on to become a staff pick and the winner of the documentary award at San Francisco’s Frameline festival in June of 20014 and aired on Showtime in October of last year. Also together with Geralyn, she executive-produced the documentary “Dogtown Redemption,” directed by Amir Soltani, which made its debut at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October of 2015, where it won the Silver Audience Award; it will be broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens this year. Wolf is an executive producer of Laura Gabbert’s documentary “City of Gold,” which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015 and is currently showing theatrically; she is also an executive producer of “Newtown,” a documentary by Kim Snyder that was shown at Sundance this year, and is scheduled to be shown on Independent Lens this coming summer, and of “Audrey and Daisy,” directed by Jon Shenk and Bonnie Cohen, which will premiere globally in 2016 under the Netflix Original banner.

Our Moderator

BRENT SIMON is a film critic and regular contributor to Screen International, Paste, Playboy, Yahoo Movies and is West Coast correspondent for the leading Asian-language film and TV industry magazine, MTime.com.

An honors graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Simon served for five-plus years as editor-in-chief and lead film critic of the now-defunct Entertainment Today, at the time Los Angeles’s oldest free weekly publication focused exclusively on entertainment. Simon has contributed essays and feature pieces for print publications as diverse as Los Angeles Daily News, Paper, Los Angeles CityBeat, H Magazine, Zeitgeist, Now Playing Magazine, PopSmear, New York Magazine and Vulture, IGN, Rotten Tomatoes, FilmStew and Reelz.

A former three-term president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Simon has worked with AFI Fest, and served on festival juries at City of Lights, City of Angels (COLCOA), Method Fest and more, and in 2007-08, his play “Pulp College” was produced Off Broadway.

You can see his blog at SharedDarkness.com and “Meet the Critic”
Twitter: @SharedDarkness

Photo by Allan Miller

Posted on February 21, 2016 by lavlunabiz

Magazines and Ezines: What you need to know

Panel
Magazines and Ezines: What you need to know

Monday, March 21, 2016
7:30 to 9:15 p.m. (networking follows the program)

Magazines are everywhere. It seems as if they must be starving for content, but they don’t make it easy to for writers to contribute. In fact, they can be downright secretive about the process.

If you have ideas, here’s where they can find a home.

Our panel will include:

MICHELE RAPHAEL is the co-founder with David Lott of Angels Flight • literary west, a new, L.A.- based literary, arts and culture journal.

Promoting emerging, prominent and diverse voices, AFLW has featured L.A. writers Anna March, Wendy C. Ortiz, Eileen Cronin and Deanne Stillman, among others.

You can learn more about Jeff at facebook.com/JournalistJeffMiller.

Paula Parisi is a Los Angeles-based journalist with extensive experience covering business, entertainment, technology and lifestyle topics.

Author of the book “Titanic and the Making of James Cameron,” Parisi currently serves as Director of Events & Marketing at TheWrap.

Our Moderator

You can see his blog at SharedDarkness.com and “Meet the Critic”
Twitter: @SharedDarkness

Photo by Allan Miller

Posted on January 1, 2016 by lavlunabiz

Trends in Publishing

Panel
Trends in Publishing

Monday, January 25, 2016
7:30 to 9:15 p.m. (networking follows the program)

WHAT DO PUBLISHERS WANT?

As the greatest writer of them all once said, “That IS the question.” We all know that writing an interesting, involving, and top-quality book is a must, if you want to attract a good agent or a mainstream publisher — and especially if you want to publish it yourself.

But what happens after you write “The End”?

What goes on “behind the scenes” at publishers and agencies that determine if they say Yes or No? What do publishers and agents need from authors themselves, with regard to pre-existing fame and media profile, platform, credibility, education/credentials, and the like, besides writing a good book on a worthwhile topic?

What is the step-by-step journey that a manuscript travels behind closed doors at a publisher, after you or your agent or referral gets the book in the door? How are books — and authors — publicized and promoted in today’s social media, multi-platform world?

With physical bookstores on the decline — but a few valiant indies starting to recover again — how important is the physical bookstore to a self- or small/medium-press published author?

How has the change from emphasizing professional career authors (e.g., Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates) to “overnight superstar” reality-TV celebrities changed things — and what about E-books, Kindles, and iPad apps?

As the Great Recession finally shows signs of beginning to lift, it is more important than ever to find out how to advocate for yourself, how writers will be able to make a living, and how to navigate these game-changers in the 24-hour spin cycle that is today’s publishing world.

IWOSC’s kickoff panel of 2016 will address all of these questions and more.

Panelists confirmed include veteran editor and book coach (and IWOSC member) Monica Faulkner and Tom Benton, a senior sales and marketing executive with Penguin/Random House. Additional panelist to be added, possibly a book publicist, self-publishing and/or small-press coaches, and a literary agent.

IWOSC’s own Telly Davidson will moderate — and there will be plenty of time set aside for audience Q&A with the panel, and networking afterward.)

Memories from the panel:

Posted on October 17, 2015 by lavlunabiz

The Essay: Art and Attitude

Panel
The Essay: Art and Attitude

Monday, November 17, 2014
7:30 to 9:15 p.m. (networking follows the program)

Written essays have always been a creative way to express views and test the waters for larger pieces. Many have become the framework for much of social communication. Now, with the advent of the digital age, essays have taken on a new and in some ways bolder life. Not only are they published in magazines and compilations, but the essay also lives in blogs and other social media.

Essays can be literary criticism, political manifestos, technical explanations, recollections, and more.

As Aldous Huxley once said, “Like the novel, the (written) essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything.”

We will take a lively look at how it has evolved recently and what several very accomplished writers have done with the form.

LESLIE LEHR is a prize-winning author, essayist and screenwriter. Her novel “What A Mother Knows” follows “Wife Goes On,” “66 Laps,” and three nonfiction books. Her essays appear in the New York Times, Huffington Post, and have been praised on the Today Show. She contributed to “Mommy Wars,” “The Honeymoon’s Over,” “On Becoming Fearless,” and blogs on writing at GirlfriendsBookClub.org. Lehr mentors writers privately and for Truby Writers Studio.

A USC Cinematic Arts grad with an MFA from Antioch, she’s taught at the Writers Program at UCLA and Story Expo.

She’s in PEN, Authors Guild, WGA, Women In Film, Women’s Leadership Council, and contributes to the series Now Write.

Her website is: LeslieLehr.com

NOELLE OXENHANDLER‘s essays have appeared in many national and literary magazines, including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, VOGUE, Tricycle, “O” the OPRAH Magazine, and Parabola. They have been frequently anthologized, included in “The Best Spiritual Essays of the Year” collections, and listed in “The Best Essays of the Year” series.

She is the author of three non-fiction books: “A Grief Out of Season” (Little Brown); “The Eros of Parenthood” (St. Martin’s); and “The Wishing Year: A House, A Man, My Soul“(Random House).

She is a full-time member of the English Department at Sonoma State University, where she teaches Creative Non-fiction, and exults in the beauty of the Wine Country.

TONILYN HORNUNG is the author of “How to Raise a Husband: A Whole Bunch of Ways to Build a Strong and Happy Marriage.”

She has been interviewed for numerous television and radio shows, discussing her knowledge of relationships, marriage, and baby spit-up. Her essays can be read in regional and national newspapers and such magazines as Redbook, Today’s Woman, and Pregnancy and Newborn.

Tonilyn lives in LA with her two smart Border Collies, her one sassy kitty, her one supportive husband, her one new baby boy, and never enough closet space.

Her website is: TonilynHornung.com

OUR MODERATOR:
LITA BARRIE is an L.A-based art critic and essayist who currently writes for Huffington Post,
Artweek L.A and is aggregated in Painters Table and Art Agenda. Originally from New
Zealand, she is the recipient of four Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council Grants for art
writing. She is the author of numerous museum and art gallery catalog essays. In
New Zealand she wrote a weekly art column for the New Zealand National Business
Review and contributed to many art magazines. In L.A she taught composition at Cal
State University L.A and aesthetic philosophy at Claremont Graduate University, Otis
and Art Center.

Posted on October 16, 2015 by lavlunabiz

Writing Nostalgia: When the Past Sings, Make it Zing

Panel
Writing Nostalgia: When the Past Sings, Make it Zing

Monday, November 16, 2015

Who doesn’t like nostalgia?

But nostalgia for one person might be ancient history for another. But good nostalgia can strike a chord with many people.

Nostalgia can liven fiction and stand on its own. If given the proper treatment, it can become an “evergreen.”

We will look at the writings and the process of several notable writers, veterans in the field of nostalgia. They have preserved a world and within those words are inspiration, fascination, humor, and pathos, and since it is all based on real events, often from known names, we can relate to the universals.

The many horror stories, success stores, emotional upheavals and poignant aftermath of events past, take on a personal meaning in the world of nostalgia.

We will explore:

The all-important legal aspects
Why the writers chose nostalgia
How they researched and found permissions
The ways the dynamics change when real people and families are involved
Approaches for bringing out and working with the strengths of the all-important story
Fleshing out the facts with created but authentic personality
The perks and benefits
What NOT to do, as illustrated in stories from real life
Estate considerations if it becomes a perennial hit.
And more

Our stellar panel will include:

HANK ROSENFELD is author of two as-told-to memoirs: “The Wicked Wit of the West” by Irving Brecher about Hollywood, “Memorie” by Benjamin Mandil about the Holocaust.

The new book he is writing for Chimayo Press is: “Walky Talky: Conversation Tips from a Folk Journalist.”

His stories have appeared inThe Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, California Lawyer, Premiere, Village Voice, PAPER, The NY Post, Jerusalem Post, the Forward and other publications.

He has contributed humor and essays to NPR shows like All Things Considered, Marketplace and Off-Ramp on KPCC and some can be heard at HankRosenfeld.com/links

JORDAN R. YOUNG Jordan R. Young is a show business historian, playwright, theatre critic and travel writer whose work has appeared in “The LA Times,” “The New York Times,” “The Washington Post,” “LA magazine,” “Westways” and other publications.

Jordan’s books include “Spike Jones Off the Record;” “Reel Characters: Great Movie Character Actors;”” The Laugh Crafters: Comedy Writing in Radio and TV’s Golden Age;” “Acting Solo: The Art and Craft of Solo Performance;” “The Beckett Actor;” “Dalí, Disney and Destiny;” “The Nostalgia Entertainment Sourcebook;” “John Ford’s The Quiet Man: The Making of a Cult Classic;” and “King Vidor’s The Crowd: The Making of a Silent Classic.”

Jordan’s plays have been produced in Hollywood and Off Off Broadway.

Jordan has written special material for the Grammy Awards and has served as a consultant for BBC Radio and Rhino Records. He is a sought-after speaker and talk show guest, and has been featured on CNBC, CNN and E! TV; CBS, KABC, KUSC, WNYC, WGN Chicago, and BBC Radio; YesterdayUSA.com and TheCommentaryTrack.com.

Writer/producer HERBIE J PILATO is the author of “Glamour Gidgets and the Girl Next Door,” “The Essential Elizabeth Montgomery,” “The Bionic Book,” “The Kung Fu Book of Caine,” among others.

He’s written about nostalgic pop-culture for “Starlog” and “Sci-Fi Entertainment” magazines, and has produced, consulted and appeared on classic TV and DVD documentaries for A&E, TLC, Bravo, Syfy, and more.

Pilato writes “The Retro Report” for ForcesOfGeek.com and contributes to Emmys.org and presides over Television, Ink. (a TV, film and literary production company), and founded the Classic TV Preservation Society (a nonprofit dedicated to the positive influence of classic television).

ROBERT S. BADER is the curator of the Bing Crosby Archive, the archivist and the licensing director for Daphne Productions and The Dick Cavett Show, and he also works with the estates of Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Jackie Gleason, and the Marx Brothers.

For PBS, Bader produced The Legendary Bing Crosby, Dick Cavett’s Watergate, and Dick Cavett’s Vietnam .Other writing and production credits include the CBS special The Honeymooners 50th Anniversary Celebration, and documentaries on John Fogerty, Johnny Mercer, and the Chicago Cubs. He’s produced DVD material about the early TV shows of Groucho and the Marx Brothers, Dick Cavett, Danny Kaye, Johnny Carson, Tom Snyder, Bill Cosby, and much more.

Bader edited the anthology Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales. His next book is devoted to the Marx Brothers’ stage career and will be published in 2016

Moderator

ROBERT S. BIRCHARD is a former award-winning film editor who brings an insider’s perspective and a great affection for the people who work in the picture business to his chronicles of the movies.

Birchard is the author of “Cecil B. DeMille’s Hollywood,” “Silent-era Filmmaking in Santa Barbara,” “Early Universal City,” and “King Cowboy: Tom Mix and the Movies” and a contributing writer to the omnibus volumes “M-G-M When the Lion Roars,” “Don Miller’s Hollywood Corral,” “The Encyclopedia of Early Film and Hollywood: The Movie Factory.”

His articles on Hollywood filmmakers have appeared in “American Cinematographer,” “Statement,” “Film History,” “The Moving Image,” “Griffithiana,” “Daily Variety” and “Los Angeles Times Calendar.”

He is also co-editor and co-publisher of the journal POP Twenty, which is devoted to 20th century popular culture.

He is a past president and board member of the preservation organization Hollywood Heritage, Inc. and is current president of The Society for Cinephiles/Cinecon which presents the annual Cinecon Classic Film Festival and contributes to film preservation projects.

Posted on September 26, 2015 by lavlunabiz

Everybody’s a Critic! How To Get Your Projects Noticed By Top Critics — And How To Become One Yourself!

Panel
Everybody’s a Critic!
How To Get Your Projects Noticed By Top Critics — And How To Become One Yourself!

Monday, October 26, 2015

How does a book writer, artist, performer/musician, or filmmaker get noticed by professional critics and bloggers, in today’s cacophony of 500 channels, Netflix, and YouTube — especially if they’re small-press, self-published, or an “indie” filmmaker or performer? And just as important, what qualities do critics want to see (and avoid!) in what they’re reviewing? What sets paid/professional film, TV, book, and arts criticism apart in today’s world of Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, and Blogspot “film critics” and “political commentators?” What is the ROLE of the professional critic in today’s society — and can you become one yourself?

And how has the demographics/diversity explosion changed the mandate for what films, books, and TV must address, in today’s highly charged media climate? What are the ethics behind “fair” and “unfair” reviewing — and are book, music, and movie reviews doomed to a future of either blathering talk-talk about critics’ personal lives or short, terse, “thumbs-up / thumbs-down” reviews of rotten tomatoes and television without pity?

In concert with our October 17 Saturday Seminar on “How to Get Your Work Noticed,” IWOSC is presenting a full panel of top critics from Book, Film/TV, Music, and Performing Arts Criticism to address these issues and more — and to take your questions from the audience.

Our stellar panel includes:

TELLY DAVIDSON (moderator/panelist) has been an active IWOSCan for the past decade-plus, having hosted or appeared on previous panels on Trends in Publishing, Literary Agents, Books-to-Film, and Covering the Celebrity Beat.

Telly was senior film and TV reviewer for bestselling pundit David Frum’s FrumForum from 2009-12, has reviewed movies and TV and conducted interviews for FilmStew, 213 Magazine, iF Monthly, Entertainment Today, Guitar Player, All About Jazz, and has worked on TV specials for NBC and PBS including The WRITE Environment and Pioneers of Television.

He currently works with top producer’s rep Jeff Porter of Porter Pictures on the placement of independent films, is the author of the Emmy magazine-cited TV’s Grooviest Variety Shows and is completing a new book on pop culture and politics to hopefully be published next year, tentatively titled CULTURE WAR.

BRENT SIMON is a film critic and regular contributor to Screen International, Paste, Playboy, Yahoo Movies and is West Coast correspondent for the leading Asian-language film and TV industry magazine, MTime.com.

You can see his blog at shareddarkness.com and “Meet the Critic”
Twitter: @SharedDarkness

DEBRA LEVINE is editor/publisher of arts•meme, the fine arts blog she founded in 2008.

A specialist in Hollywood dance history with over 30 years’ experience writing about dance and live theatre/performance, she is a frequent host and speaker at dance-on-film events, bringing fresh ideas to audiences at the Museum of Modern Art, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, UCLA Film & Television Archive, Dance Camera West, American Cinematheque, The Last Remaining Seats, and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.

In January 2016, Debra will curate and host ALL THAT JACK (COLE), a 20-film retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. On Turner Classic Movies, she co-hosted, with Robert Osborne, “Choreography by Jack Cole,” a full-evening broadcast featuring four classic dance films.

She has produced multiple in-person screening events starring Academy Award-winning actor/dancer George Chakiris of “West Side Story,” including “George Chakiris: A Life in Film” at UCLA Film & Television Archive and MoMA.

Debra is a two-time Fellow at NEA Arts Journalism Institutes. In dance and classical music/opera. Debra’s criticism and feature articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post, La Opinion, Long Beach Press Telegram, South China Morning Post and Dance Magazine.
Twitter: @artsmeme

DAN SCHINDEL is one of LA’s newest and youngest film and TV/DVD experts — he spent an entire year watching and reviewing a new documentary every day, and it became a blog originally titled “Days of Docs.”

Dan’s writing has appeared in Los Angeles Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Movie Mezzanine, Paste Magazine, Film School Rejects, Nonfics, ScreenPicks, and much more.

You can relive his “days of docs” — as well as get the latest on all sorts of current big-name film and TV titles, at DanSchindel.com.

Twitter: @danschindel

ERIKA SCHICKEL returns to our panel, having served alongside the likes of Digby Diehl and Steve Wasserman on past IWOSC panels.

The daughter of legendary film, TV, and book critic (and Friend of IWOSC) Richard Schickel, Erika is a writer, mother, teacher, author, journalist, essayist, and “opinion-atrix” whose writing has appeared in the LA Review of Books, LA Observed, City Beat, LA Weekly, and many other online and print publications and op-ed pages.

Erika is the author of You’re Not the Boss of Me: Adventures of a Modern Mom, and is currently finishing her second book, The Big Hurt, a “memoir of romance in a post-romantic age.”

A former actress and performance artist herself, Erika has worked extensively in theatre, TV, radio, and film.

You can get to know her at: ErikaSchickel.com and @schickity

Posted on August 28, 2015 by lavlunabiz

Writing Captivating Memoirs —Tips and Tools

Panel
Writing Captivating Memoirs —Tips and Tools

Monday, September 28, 2015
7:30 to 9:15 p.m. (networking follows the program)

Thinking about writing the stories of your life? Wondering where to start? Or have you started but feel unclear about how to organize your writing? Looking for ideas to make your tales a better read? Are you a published author looking for help writing in memoir form?

We will discuss techniques that help enliven and enrich books of memoir, and tools to sharpen your writing and organization skills. We’ll help you move to the next level of your work.

We will discuss:

Tips on writing a memoir that readers will enjoy reading!
Detail — how much is appropriate to include?
Themes and Structure: considering a variety of ways to hook your stories together to draw readers in
Dialog: adding life and spice to your stories
Character: ways to give dimension to the people in your life, by showing, not telling your reader about them
Marketing
Objective criticism
Mistakes and windfalls
And more!

Our stellar panel:

BARRY FOX is an author, ghostwriter and editor of 60-plus memoirs and books in other genres, including New York Times bestsellers.

One of his early memoirs, “Diana & Dodi: A Love Story,” described the world-famous romance from Dodi Fayed’s butler’s point of view.

Barry’s other memoirs include looks at the lives of the President of Toys ‘R Us, the Chairman of a U.S. steel company, and an Italian physician who had some amazing — and frightening — adventures while tending to the injured and ill in Nigeria.

HIs website is: BarryFox.us

PAOLINA MILANA is the author of “The S Word,” a memoir about secrets…those a young girl coming of age in the middle of crazy does her best to keep — secrets about her mama’s schizophrenia; secrets about her sexual awakening; secrets about her seduction that turns to rape; secrets about being the good Sicilian Catholic girl — so many secrets that silence and nearly suffocate her, until she finds the strength to save herself and to realize her own self-worth.

A former journalist for a major daily newspaper in Illinois, Paolina was born and raised in Chicago, and has made her living as a storyteller in the for-profit and non-profit worlds.

She is currently Chief Communications Officer for St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the number one private funder of childhood cancer research.

She currently lives on the edge of the Angeles National Forest in California, and she blogs at PaolinaMilana.com and welcomes the opportunity to share her stories with interested audiences.

BRETT PAESEL is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller, “Mommies Who Drink: Sex, Drugs, and Other Distant Memories of an Ordinary Mom.”

Her humorous essays have appeared in several collections including “Toddler,” “Behind the Bedroom Door,” “Lights, Action, Travel,” and “Afterbirth.”

Brett has been a contributing editor to three national magazines: Violet, Wondertime, and Parents.

Her pieces have also appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles, and Salon.com. In Hollywood, Brett has developed television shows for HBO, ABC, Fox, Comedy Central, WB, Nick at Nite, and Lifetime.

Before she became a writer, she was an actress who appeared most notably in the critically acclaimed sketch show, “Mr. Show with Bob and David” on HBO.

KATE ZENTALL Writer and editor of books and magazines in New York and Los Angeles for 25+ years. Senior editor at Buzz magazine, where she also wrote two weekly columns for Buzz Weekly; before that she wrote articles, reviews, profiles, and blurbs for Los Angeles, Westways, Bon Appetit, and other magazines.

Kate became Editorial Director at DisneyOnline, then joined FamilyFun.com, online presence of the successful Disney-owned magazine, as writer/producer; segued to Reunion[now MyLife].com as marketing communications manager, after which she created blogs and shopping guides for SHOP.com and did copywriting for eHarmony and other websites.

She is currently editing, shepherding, and rewriting personal memoirs, fiction, and trade nonfiction, as well as coaching professionals and students with personal statements.

Moderator/Panelist:

INA HILLEBRANDT is a writer, speaker, writing coach, and editor/publisher specializing in memoirs. She also works with fiction, to help both new and published authors create books of their life stories — or flights of fancy — with flair, and fun.

Her work includes taking the written word onstage, and she is involved in developing film and TV projects, her own and students’. Ina’s experience includes 20+ years as a creative and communications consultant for Fortune 500 companies, and 15+ years writing/coaching clients and members of the public from a variety of countries and backgrounds.

Books Ina’s written include “How to Write Your Memoirs…Fun Prompts to Make Writing…and Reading …Your Life Stories a Pleasure!” The follow-up to “How To Write Your Memoirs,” the Toolbox Edition, will be out by spring 2016. Her first book, “Pawprints,” the book of close encounters of the furry kind, became an Amazon.com best-seller, led to the Pawprints Literacy Plus™ program, and a curriculum guide for educators, “Pawprints — The Student Prints,” revised and reissued December 2012. A new edition is on the way, in eBook and print form, along with two other works in progress.

Books Ina has helped others develop and publish include the “Stories From The Heart” series, the second volume dubbed a top seller by Amazon.com; “Wine, Women, Whispers” by Alon Mintz; “Of Politics, Ladies and Bagels” by Gene Zahn; and other books of memoir and poetry.