DAWG Speakers for 2013

January 8 -will be a DAWG Critique Night--with our guest critique panel ready to give feedback to those who come prepared to read that evening--authors should bring 5 copies (4 for the panel & one to read from).

Here are the DAWG critique guidelines -- please read them before signing up for a critique.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013 - Lynne Gentry - She will talk about: "Are your characters flat? Learn stage techniques that will make characters leap from the page. During this 45 minute presentation, Lynne reveals the secrets stage directors and costume designers use to create believable characters—and teaches you how to use them."

Lynne Gentry has been writing, producing, directing and coaching drama for over twenty years. She also teaches private audition and stage presence classes, and currently serves as the Director of the Dallas International Performing Arts Academy.

Lynne has written several novels and recently sold a 3-book series to a major publishing house but can’t announce details yet.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013 - Win Shields - "Many people believe all stereotypes are bad, just as many people believe all cholesterol is bad. But just as with cholesterol, there are good and bad stereotypes—especially from a writer's point of view. Win will touch on the history and causes of stereotyping and demonstrate both its good and bad points. Most of the evening will be devoted to showing how writers have used good stereotyping to their advantage and techniques to help you use good stereotyping and avoid bad stereotyping, without being overtly politically correct."

Win is a former staff writer for Bob Hope and longtime writer and script doctor for Universal Studios (Punky Brewster, Murder She Wrote and others),

DAWG Critique Night--with our guest critique panel of published authors & editors ready to give feedback to those who come prepared to read that evening--authors should bring 5 copies (4 for the panel & one to read from).

Here are the DAWG critique guidelines -- please read them before signing up for a critique.

May 14: Janis Patterson. Janis is a seventh-generation Texan and a third-generation wordsmith who writes mysteries as Janis Patterson, romances and other things as Janis Susan May, children’s books as Janis Susan Patterson and scholarly works as J.S.M. Patterson.  Formerly an actress and singer, a talent agent and Supervisor of Accessioning for a bio-genetic DNA testing lab, Janis has also been editor-in-chief of two multi-magazine publishing groups as well as many other things, including an enthusiastic amateur Egyptologist. She began and edited the Newsletter (now called Menhedj) of the North Texas Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt, which for the nine years of her reign was the only ARCE publication in the world. She is also one of the original founders of RWA, as well as a member of MWA and the Authors Guild. Janis married for the first time when most of her contemporaries were becoming grandmothers. Her husband, also an Egyptophile, even proposed in a moonlit garden near the Pyramids of Giza. Janis and her husband live in Texas with an assortment of rescued furbabies.

June 11: Laura Kopchick. A graduate of Austin College, University of North Texas and University of Michigan, Laura has taught creative writing at UT Arlington since 2004. She has won awards both for short fiction and for excellence in teaching. Laura will speak about some principles of non-fiction writing, many of which also apply to fiction.

July 9 - TBA

August 13 - TBA

September 10, Tuesday - MARY BROOKE CASAD received a BA in journalism from Southern Methodist University. She is the author of Pelican's Bluebonnet at the Ocean Star Museum, Bluebonnet at Dinosaur Valley State Park, Bluebonnet at Johnson Space Center, Bluebonnet at the East Texas Oil Museum, Bluebonnet at the Marshall Train Depot, Bluebonnet at the State Fair of Texas, and Bluebonnet at the Texas State Capitol. Casad created Bluebonnet, the well-traveled armadillo, to teach Texas children about their rich local history. She lives in Sulphur Springs, Texas.