Have you been struggling with seeing the vision for your book come to life on the page? Working on a novel or memoir and desperately need a few readers and some critical feedback? At the Ulin Workshop, an exclusive group of your peers, led by professional critic and author, David Ulin, will spend up to two hours diving deep into the core of your project and help you brainstorm around ideas, solving problems, and most importantly, unearthing the potential in your book.

Here are a few things we will focus on as well as some key reasons to attend:

• Close attention and lengthy discussion around your manuscript not only as it stands today but also your intentions for the direction of the story
• Input on how to get those intentions into motion on the page
• Characters and their motivations. You have a great character but what is their story and how do you best tell it?
• Plot – what elements does your story need?
• Structure – how do you sequence those elements? How might you re-arrange or re-order events to tell a better story?
• Deadlines get things done. Signing up for the workshop is a great motivator to make some real progress on your project.
• The value in reading other author manuscripts and organizing your feedback around their work. This can help you see and solve problems in your own work.

So far, we’ve had two attendees who have been published in major publishing houses, three who have found top New York agents. All count our workshop as the key to those successes.

David L. Ulin is the author of Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles, shortlisted for the 2016 PEN Literary Award. He’s authored eight previous books, including The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time and the Library of America’s Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, which won a California Book Award. A 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, he is former book critic and book editor of the Los Angeles Times.

Each day of the two-weekend workshop will include discussion of two manuscripts, this means every participant will have half a day of discussion devoted entirely to their own work. The discussion is in depth, honest critique delivered with the authors’ creative intentions in mind. Because of the intensity and personal focus, the workshop is strictly limited to 8 participants. Attendees will be expected to have read the other manuscripts. See below for comments from previous attendees.

Coffee and snacks are served throughout the day. On Saturdays, lunch is provided, usually savory pie or soup; Sundays, lunch is on your own. Ivy Salon is located the historic South Park area of San Diego, 3 blocks from a variety of restaurants. If you are coming from out of town, I can suggest a comfortable hotel in nearby Little Italy, or B&Bs within walking distance. Or, Airbnb has been a great option for previous participants with many options within a block.

This workshop is by acceptance and referral only. If you are interested in attending, please email me for instructions: amyliz@amywallen.com. The workshop fills fast, so check with me sooner, rather than later.

How many chances are there to have a book critic review your manuscript before you submit it to an agent or editor?

Cost: $1800 for four-day intensive workshop in a comfortable setting (no cold metal folding chairs, just comfy couches).

WORKSHOP DATES

Two consecutive weekends:

Fall 2017: October 7 & 8 and 14 & 15

Spring 2018: February 3 & 4 and 10 & 11

Upcoming deadlines:

August 1, 2017 Enrollment ends. Sign soon as the workshop fills FAST! 50% deposit due upon acceptance.

September 5, 2017 manuscript due. Final Payment due.

Due to logistics and advanced preparation, all deposits and payments are non-refundable, except in the rare case that David or I must cancel and are unable to reschedule.
 

Limited to 8. By acceptance only and referral only. Email me for further information amyliz@amywallen.com

We have numerous repeat students. This is a sign that something’s working! Here’s what others are saying about the workshop:

“It was intense and critical…I took volumes of notes because I wanted to remember everything [David] said. He has a remarkably good heart in tandem with his humongous brain. [Amy] is especially good at seeing the core, what a book is really about. I realized that for me writing is not so much about writing as uncovering secrets and lies I tell myself.” Lawrence Spann attended October 2015

“David was brilliant, insightful and gentle. He’s not only a master of craft, he masterfully runs a workshop. Best experience ever!” Rachel Groves attended May 2014 and January 2015

“David’s comments and written notes are worth the trip alone. A supportive and small (no name tags or sign-up sheets!) group of smart, fun writers. Generous, safe workshop – with pie.” Tudy Woolfe attended January & October 2013, May 2014 and October 2015 (4 times!)

“I signed up for this workshop for the chance to work with some of the most brilliant minds in literature. I was stuck and sheepish about showing my novel-in-progress with all its flaws and broken plot lines. What sets this workshop apart from others, besides the chance to have a critique of 200 pages of work, is the comfortable atmosphere: a comfy living room, pets, homemade pies, and laughter. My fear disappeared. I left the workshop feeling confident and inspired, with specific ways to transform my manuscript into something so much better.This workshop will do miraculous things to your work in progress.”Susan Henderson attended May 2014 and October 2015, her book will be published Spring 2018

How many times have you been to a reading and found it wanting? The story may be terrific, but if the author’s delivery doesn’t rise to the occasion, the audience can’t appreciate it. The upshot? Writers need to learn how to deliver their work in public, to be comfortable when they share their words.

Creative people, especially writers, are often asked to share their work publicly. Rae Dubow, Director of Talking Out Loud, has worked closely with writers at all levels. Even if you don’t have a reading or book signing in your near future, she’s compiled a Career Tool Box you don’t want to miss.

The first thing she’ll do is assess your comfort zones. To read publicly, you need to know what you want to read and how you want to read it, and she can help with both. She’ll go over your content; then, she’ll take you through a series of practice runs. At every turn, she offers focused performance feedback in a safe and secure environment, working with you to develop and put into action an effective communication strategy.

This one-day workshop is scheduled during the Manuscript Review Workshop, but it can be taken alone or added to the longer workshop.

Friday, January 23, 2015 10am – 5pm with lunch break

Public Reading (optional) Sunday, January 25, 2015 Venue TBD

$110/one-day workshop

$90/added to the Manuscript Review Workshop with David Ulin

You’ve worked so hard on your manuscript. Shouldn’t you work as hard on your presentation of that work?

Email me at amyliz@amywallen.com for more info.

I first met Dinah when she was on my LA Times Book Festival panel ready to talk about her memoir, Bigger Than Life: A Murder and Memoir. A brilliant story of Dinah’s self-reckoning when her father, a character bigger than life, is murdered by teenagers in a botched abduction and robbery. Her new book of essays, The Object Parade is no less brilliant and a look inside the things, and sometimes not things, that make up her life, her memories, who she is. From her Steinway piano, to the kiss she must give her friend’s husband because they are playing Gertrude and Claudius on stage, she peals back layers within layers, making you laugh, and cry, and want to hug the hardcover book because she’s now your best friend, or you hope she will be soon.

Please join me in hanging out with Dinah in my living room. Email me now, as this will book quickly: amyliz@amywallen.com

Date: Saturday, September 13 Time: 11am – 4pm

Where: Ivy Street Salon in the historic South Park neighborhood (directions provided upon registration)

Why: Because who doesn’t love to talk to authors while we eat pie. Lunch will be a savory pie and dessert and some wine, if you so desire.

Cost: $150 for a luxurious day. It’s like Spa Day for writers and readers.

Click on Dinah’s website link to see all that she does beside writing. She’s writer, actor, mother, teacher, friend and beyond. dinahlenney.com

Here are only a few of the incredible things that have been said about Dinah’s books:

The Object Parade: Essays

“Dinah Lenney’s marvel of a book is both unflinching and confiding. Her subjects are, ostensibly, the familiar objects of daily life. But no matter what this writer sets her sights on–a scarf, a coffee scoop, a pair of shoes–its sure to yield unexpected meanings, intricate histories, and memorable stories. The objects in this parade quickly transcend their personal significance to the writer and stir the reader with a sharpened sense of life’s pleasures and risks. Lenney knows that everything we touch has the power to change us.” —Bernard Cooper

“A pensive perusal of the objects that can define and shape a life… the collection’s pieces build on each other, layer upon vivid layer of Lenney’s personal history, her heart firmly invested in hearth and home…One of the book’s most moving entries also happens to be its shortest: a strikingly gorgeous, two-page homage to Lenney’s daughter, portrayed as a young girl bouncing in the sun trailing a kite flush with bright streamers. An eclectic treasury of the cherished and the evocative.” —Kirkus Reviews

Bigger Than Life: A Murder and a Memoir

“A brilliant contribution to autobiographical, literary non-fiction; the author takes us right into her con¬sciousness, and recreates thought and feelings with passion and restraint. This book is a model of engaged and engaging memoir-writing.”—Phillip Lopate

But she doesn’t just write novels, her work has appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times Book Review, Best American Short Stories and beyond. Read more about her award winning books and stories on Sarah’s website.

Or read an excerpt of Ms. Hempel’s Chronicles, “The Yurt”  in The New Yorker here and you’ll see for yourself how delectable and mesmerizing her storytelling is.

Date:  Sunday, November 2, 2014

Cost: $150 lunch included

Limited to 10 pie-eaters.

Email me to save your seat, or for further information email me at amyliz@amywallen.com

Hope has also written a gorgeous memoir The Possibility of Everything about her search for a cure to her family’s escalating troubles, and the leap of faith that changed everything for her.

But she also raises two beautiful daughters, teaches writing at writing workshops and hikes mountains. Many of you may know about my own 50th birthday and trying on all sorts of new challenges. For Hope’s birthday this year, I joined her on a hike in Topanga Canyon as she was preparing for her Inca Trail trek.

Come join us to talk about everything from the Inca, the Maya, the history of Motherless Daughters.  We will laugh and tell tall tales and grieve and probably even gossip a little.  It will be a wonderful day full of magic, and that’s really all I can guarantee, but that’s a pretty big guarantee.

Read Hope’s blog about her trek to Machu Picchu, and check out her website for more info.

Sunday December 7, 2014

11am – 4pm

Cost:  $150.00 Lunch is included, and the salon is limited to 8 people, so book early.  amyliz@amywallen.com