Donald Maass, a renowned name in the craft of writing, and founder of the Donald Maass Literary Agency, along with C.C. Finlay, a successful novelist and award-winning editor, are pleased to announce a Workshop for Professional Novelists. Scheduled for September 2026, this critique-focused weekend offers a twist on most craft workshops by assuming applicants are already well past the basics and are interested in forwarding their skills with professional guidance and quality peer critiques.
Working together, Don and Charlie have created a workshop for those writers who are alread creating income from their books, whether they are traditionally published or self-published, but still want more. This workshop is for those who reach higher—that legacy novel may be in your future.
Talk with Donald Maass about books and he’ll talk about his love for a good story, and how great writers trigger dopamine, oxytocin, and cortisol in readers with their prose. Make him cry, make him cheer, make him worry about a character as if it were a friend. This is Don’s goal for every story that hits his inbox.
Donald Maass founded the Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York in 1980. He is the author of The Career Novelist, Writing the Breakout Novel, The Fire in Fiction, The Breakout Novelist, Writing 21st Century Fiction, The Emotional Craft of Fiction, and over sixty novels.
C.C. Finlay has a gift for finding the one thing a manuscript needs, the core element that can raise a good story to a great story, then conveys this power with a compassionate
heart, knowing that every novelist’s journey takes passion, commitment, and perseverance. Bringing the best out of an author is his superpower. For Charlie, happiness is seeing a book get published.
C.C. Finlay has published five novels and a short story collection. His fiction has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novella, the Nebula Award for Best Novella, and the Sidewise Award. In 2003 he was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer In January 2015, Finlay was named the ninth editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and served until the January/February 2021 issue. In 2021, he won a World Fantasy Award for his work editing the magazine.