OC Christian Writers Conference Announces new Speakers and Writing Contests

WEBWIRE – Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The OC Christian Writers Conference taking place on May 18-20, 2012, is set to strengthen Christian writers by offering a full weekend of workshops, lectures, panels and individual consults led by Christian writers, literary agents, and editors. It seeks to help identify the emerging writer by offering five different writing contests with over $7,000 in prizes and publishing contracts. The OC Christian Writers Conference weekend lectures and workshops are taught by seasoned mentors who are accomplished in their craft. In our 29th year, the OC Christian Writers Conference is dedicated to bringing the best available training to the inspirational writing community.

Preceding the weekend conference six full-day workshops (prior to the writers conference) will be offered on Friday, May 18, in small class formats. The workshops will cover memoir writing, personal story, professional coaching, fiction writing, book proposal writing, and blogging. The writing workshops have been designed to cater to intermediate and advanced writers who have works-in-progress and provides peer and instructor feedback. These classes are designed to improve writing skills and ready a work for publication. The coaching workshop is designed to help writer’s breakthrough to success.

The six-preconference workshops taking place on Friday May 18, 2012.

Susan Osborn: Book Proposal 101
BJ Taylor: Turning Personal Experiences Into Short Stories that Sell
Mick Silva: Full Length Memoir Writing
Alice Crider: Your Infinite Publishing Potential – Book Coaching
Ken Kuhiken: Fiction Intensive
Bill Belew: Blogging for the Masses

The weekend OC Christian Writers Conference brings a wide-variety of seasoned professionals such as literary agents Rachelle Gardner (Books and Such Literary Agency), Bill Jensen (William K. Jensen Literary Agency), and Mike Nappa (Nappaland Literary Agency). Editorial faculty will feature Steve Lawson from Regal Books and Amy Nappa from Group Publishing. Publishers from Westbow Press (Kathi Macias), New Hope Publishing (Susan Titus Osborn), and Precious Times Magazine (Marilyn White) will also be present as faculty. Individual consults, panel discussions, 27 different breakout sessions, along with Rogue and Tough-skinned critique sessions. Visit www.occwf.org for more information. The conference also sponsors The Editorial Department fiction writing contest. This contest provides an opportunity for emerging writers ready to move on to the next step of representation and publication. The OC Christian Writer’s Conference sponsors the following contests:

Beverly Bush Smith Aspiring Writer Award
WestBow Press Writing Contest
Memoir Writing Contest
Fiction Writing Contest
Book Proposal Writing Contest

The OC Christian Writers Conference will be held at the Radisson Hotel in Newport Beach from Friday, May 18, 2012 to Sunday, May 20, 2012. Pre-conference workshops will be on the 18th from 8:30am to 4:30pm.For more information go to www.occwf.org Contact John DeSimone at john@occwf.org