SEMINARS & CLASSES

July 17, 10:00AM - 4:00PM
Capitol City Young Writers Conference
San Domenico School
1500 Butterfield Road
San Anselmo, CA 94960
415-258-1900
David joins a stellar array of distinguished writers, journalists, screenwriters and philanthropists in a day devoted to educating, encouraging and inspiring young writers.

David's talk will be:

The Facts of (the Writing) Life
Writing what you know requires that you know something worth writing about. Just as inspiration rewards hard work, the imagination relies on experience. Although some great writers never ventured far from their home ground—Flannery O'Connor, for example—most have made a point of launching off into the world in search of adventure as they conceived it. In his talk, David will discuss how to mold the facts of one's life into the subject of one's art.

July 22-25
The Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Boulevard
Corte Madera, CA 94925
Conference Coordinator: Kathryn Petrocelli
Phone: (800) 999-7909, ext. 239
Email: bpconferences@bookpassage.com

David will be teaching an opening day class at the conference titled:

Quirks, Tics, Bad Habits & Politics
Fleshing Out Characters by Getting Under Their Skin

Psychological adaptations, moral convictions, political beliefs (or obsessions), quirks and tics and bad habits—these are all invaluable areas to pursue when trying to create greater subtlety of feeling, depth of emotion, or psychological complexity in your characters. In this class, David will guide students through the various ways these areas can assist the writer in creating a richer, more vivid, more mysterious or enigmatic portrayal of one's protagonists, nemeses, and secondary characters. The degree to which the character herself need be aware of such traits will also be explored, as well as ways to convey such characteristics dramatically in scenes, not in static descriptions.

David will also be teaching classes on Character and Dialogue (with Tim Maleeny) and Plot (with Tony Broadbent), as well as moderating or taking part in several panels, and introducing guest authors Don Winslow and Gregg Hurwitz.

To register for the conference, go here.

September 24-26
East of Eden Writers Conference
Salinas Community Center
Salinas, CA

David will be teaching a class titled The First Fateful Step, in which he will address the myriad complications of a simple thing: How to begin. Point of attack, establishing authority, foreshadowing, "throat clearing" and other secrets will be divulged.

David has taught at UCLA Extension, Book Passage, Wordstock, and both the East of Eden and Truckee Meadows Community College writers conferences.