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This Weekend's Classes: Beginnings & Endings (Saturday) and Character Building Workshop (Sunday)

photo of a man in hello kitty armor
Taken at last year’s con, but I don’t know the gentleman’s name, unfortunately.
I’ve still got room in this weekend’s classes, Beginnings & Endings (Saturday morning) and the Character Building workshop (Sunday morning). In the first, I’m going to talk about a number of things, including how to use your beginning to create your ending and vice versa, what your beginning sets up for your reader, what your beginning and ending must contain, how to most effectively use title + beginning + ending, and various other tips and tricks. There will be 3-4 quick writing exercises over the course of the class designed to help you apply what we’re talking about in order to effectively add it to your writerly toolbox.

The Character Building Workshop is familiar to some of you, and I always love teaching it because I come away with at least a couple of wordlumps that end up being part of the current WIP as well as better insight into the characters I’m working with. Come join us if you want a little inspiration for your current project.
Register by mailing me at catrambo@gmail.com or cat@catrambo.com with the name and date of the class you’re interested in. And please feel free to pass this newsletter along to friends and fellow writers you think might be interested!

April Classes
April 16 (Sat, 9:30-11:30 AM PST) Beginnings and Endings
April 17 (Sun, 9:30-11:30 AM PST) Character Building Workshop
April 23 (Sat, 9:30-11:30 AM PST) Creating an Online Presence for Writers
April 24 (Sun, 9:30-11:30 AM PST) Description and Delivering Information
April 30 (Sat, 9:30-11:30 AM PST) Flash Fiction Workshop

May Classes
May 1 (Sun, 9:30-11:30 AM PST) First Pages with Caren Gussoff
May 14, (Sat, 9:30-11:30 AM PST) Moving from Idea to Finished Draft
May 15 (Sun, 9:30-11:30 AM PST) Literary Techniques for Genre Writers
May 21 (Sat, 9:30-11:30 AM PST) Retelling and Retaleing with Rachel Swirsky
May 22 (Sun, 9:30-11:30 AM PST) Literary Techniques for Genre Writers II

June Classes
June 3 (Sat, 9:30-11:30 AM PST) Writing Your Way Into Your Novel
June 4 (Sun, 9:30-11:30 AM PST) Moving from Idea to Finished Draft

#sfwapro
Enjoy this sample of Cat’s writing and want more of it on a weekly basis, along with insights into process, recipes, photos of Taco Cat, chances to ask Cat (or Taco) questions, discounts on and news of new classes, and more? Support her on Patreon.

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Want access to a lively community of writers and readers, free writing classes, co-working sessions, special speakers, weekly writing games, random pictures and MORE for as little as $2? Check out Cat’s Patreon campaign.

Want to get some new fiction? Support my Patreon campaign.
Want to get some new fiction? Support my Patreon campaign.

 

"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."

~K. Richardson

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Links from Blogging 101 Class - General Social Media Links

As part of the Blogging 101 class I just finished up teaching for Bellevue College, I organized a bunch of my links into a handout. Here is the General Social Media Resources section.

Mentioned in class:
(We didn’t actually get to this, but it’s a good way to track which of your links are getting shared.)Way to shorten URLs and monitor which are being reshared: http://www.bitly.com
(Also didn’t get a chance to hit in class, but is a good way to see if your name is available on various social networks as well as a pretty comprehensive listing of such networks.) Way to check your name on social networks: http://namechk.com/
Way to look at your social media presence: http://www.klout.com
Cartoon History of Twitter and Social Networking: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/cartoon-history-social-networking_b6160

Technical:
10 Social Media Mistakes We Bet You’re Making: http://www.businessinsider.com/10-social-media-mistakes-we-bet-youre-making-2010-9
10 Things Social media Marketers Should Know about Millennials: http://socialtimes.com/socialmedia-marketing-millenials_b31715
Best Free Social Media Tracking Tools: http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/02/18/social-media-tools/
Five Myths About Pushing Social Media Marketing Content: http://socialtimes.com/five-myths-about-pushing-social-media-marketing-content_b55978
How to Actually Become Friends with Social Network Connections: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-make-powerful-connections-through-social-media-2011-1
How to Crack the New York Times Popularity Code: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/12/20/how-to-crack-the-new-york-times-most-emailed-list.html
What Social Network is Right For You? (2010): http://lifehacker.com/5472223/which-social-network-is-right-for-you
Winners and Losers of Social Networking: http://mashable.com/2011/04/12/social-networks-infographic/

Food For Thought:
Fantabulous Lists of Social Media Case Studies: http://socialmediatoday.com/igiedrius/268023/fantabulous-lists-social-media-case-studies
Google+ discussion of Wal-mart’s use of social media data:
https://plus.google.com/109581870574956225297/posts/2KKuJAUUruo
How governments are using social media: http://mashable.com/2011/07/25/government-social-media/
Innovative Uses of Social Media: http://mashable.com/2011/04/07/innovative-pr-social-media/
On Social Media, Most People Don’t Want to Be Heard: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2030594/social-media-people-dont-heard
Six Verbs You Need to Understand for the New Web:
http://www.spinsucks.com/social-media/six-verbs-you-need-to-understand-for-the-new-web/
What Social Commerce Can Learn From Social Gaming: http://socialcommercetoday.com/what-social-commerce-can-learn-from-social-gaming/
Why Social Accountability Will Be the New Currency of the Web: http://mashable.com/2011/07/28/social-media-influence-accountability/
3 C’s of Social Networking: Consumption, Curation, Creation: http://socialmediatoday.com/index.php?q=briansolis/233806/three-c-s-social-networking-consumption-curation-creation
5 Social Good Sites Aimed at Youth: http://mashable.com/2011/07/22/social-good-youth/
How 3 Cities Are Crowdsourcing for Revitalization: http://mashable.com/2011/07/20/crowdsourcing-city-tech/
5 Innovative Food Truck Social Media Marketing Campaigns: http://mashable.com/2011/07/21/social-media-food-trucks-marketing/
25 Terrific Social Media Infographics: http://socialmediatoday.com/pamdyer/266010/65-terrific-social-media-infographics

I’m glad to discuss any of these links in comments here.

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And So March Begins

Cover for the fantasy novel Beasts of Tabat,
Cover for Beasts of Tabat, first volume in the Tabat Quartet.
Things are cranking away as we get ready for the book release. Here’s the cover – the typo that some of you will notice has been addressed. 😉

The book will be available at Emerald City Comicon — find me there at one of my panels, or stop by the Wordfire Press table, which is where I’ll be hanging out when not stalking John Barrowman.

Those panels will be:

Friday, March 27: Fueling Creativity: Sci-Fi and Fantasy Authors on Ideas
Room: Hall B (WSCC 602-603)
Time: 3:30PM – 4:20PM
Moderator: David Hulton

Guest(s): Cat Rambo, Greg Bear, Ramez Naam, Jason M. Hough, Myke Cole
Authors often dread the interview question “where did you get the idea for this book?” because the answer is never simple. There’s rarely a single moment where an entire plot or world comes to mind. This panel is an exploration of why that’s such a difficult question to answer. Our panel of novelists will discuss the many ways they find inspiration for their work. In addition, they’ll talk about the wonderful and often strange ways an idea will find its way into a novel.

Sunday, March 29: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations
Room: Hall B (WSCC 602-603)
Time: 10:30AM – 11:20AM
Moderator: Anna Alexander

Guest(s): Cat Rambo, Garth Reasby
Diversity in entertainment is both vital and challenging. This panel of novelists will cover how to effectively write compelling characters who are different than you and how to deal with critics of who you are versus your work. Panelists include Anna Alexander, Jamie Ford, Cat Rambo, Aaron Duran, J.R. Terrel, Garth Reasby, and Sarah Remy.

I’ll also be appearing at ICFA March 18-22, and will be leading an informational meeting about SFWA there.

Plenty of stuff is lined up for the blog over the next two months, including:

  • Several giveaways
  • Lots of guest posts, including experts talking about writing for games and comic books, how to write more than one series at the same time, food and fantasy, writing collaboratively, and more!
  • Pieces of original fiction related to the book
  • Essays on the writers that influenced the book
  • Links to appearances elsewhere
  • Snippets from the sequel, Hearts of Tabat

I will not be teaching or taking on any new editing projects in March; I will be mailing out soon about April and May classes.

#sfwapro

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