The southern Oregon chapter of Willamette Writers meets the first Saturday of the month through June 2008 in the Adams room of the downtown Medford Library, 205 South Central Avenue. Please use the front door to enter. Meetings are free to members, $5.00 for non-members. Join us for networking at 9:30 a.m. Speaker begins at 10.

For information about local events, please call the coordinator, Lori Patch at 541-955-9365. Lori is a writer of fiction and a realtor in Grants Pass. She coordinates the monthly meetings in Medford and arranges for speakers. She is assisted by Anita Grimm.

2008 Speaker Series

Saturday, May 3rd
Elizabeth Lyon
Add Personality to Your Prose

The kiss of death, whether you share your writing with friends or family or seek publication, is non-distinctive, flat, forgettable writing. Elizabeth Lyon, veteran book editor for over twenty years, will share techniques to reverse these negatives and make your prose—fiction or memoir/personal essay—vibrate with personality.

BONUS-Afternoon Workshop with Elizabeth Lyon

There will be a fee for this workshop.

"Movement, Movement, Movement"

Underlying effective characterization is movement. Underlying effective plot is movement. Learn the half-dozen ways to create movement, which in turn improves pace, ups the suspense, and deepens characterization. Apply this much-overlooked element of craft—to fiction, memoirs, and essays--and see your writing utterly transformed.

Elizabeth Lyon has spent over twenty years teaching writing and working with hundreds of writers as an independent book editor. Passionate about empowering writers, Lyon has written six books on craft and marketing, for both fiction and nonfiction writers. Her articles have appeared in The Writer, Writer's Digest, in anthologies, and in the 2008 Guide to Literary Agents. In 2007 she launched her traveling workshops, "I'll Come to You!" to help writers living anywhere. Her newest published book is Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore. Her websites are www.4-edit.com and www.elizabethlyon.com. She lives in Springfield, Oregon.