Best-selling author and speaker Lara M. Zeises will be the keynote speaker for the Mid-Atlantic Writers Conference: The Writers Conference for Non-Writers, set for Saturday, Oct. 2, at the Sheraton Dover Hotel, Dover.
“The Conference organizers choose Lara for her humor and ability to motivate an audience, but also for her background,” said Bethany Hacker, conference coordinator and Director of Delmarva Discussions. “She is a life-long resident of Delaware and, as Lara puts it, when she began to write ‘it never occurred to me that I could make a life-long career out of something I did for fun.’ This makes her a perfect choice to address a writers conference for non-writers,” Hacker said.
“Our conference is aimed at people who want to write, but have no idea how to get started or don’t think they can actually do it. Lara had a similar view,” Hacker said. “The conference is aimed at those who enjoy aspects of writing for work, making up stories for their children and grandchildren, journal, or have family documents and letters they think others would enjoy or benefit from.”
Zeises has discovered how to make her love of writing work for her. She is the author of “Bringing Up the Bones,” a Delacorte Press Prize Honor Book (2001); “Contents Under Pressure,” a Delaware Blue Hen Teen Book Award winner and an IRA-CBC Young Adults’ Choice (2006); and “Anyone But You,” a YALSA Popular Paperbacks selection (2008). Her latest novel, “The Sweet Life of Stella Madison,” was published in July 2009. She also has published two novels under the pseudonym Lola Douglas: “True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet,” which was adapted into a Lifetime movie starring multi-platinum recording artist Joanna “JoJo” Levesque and Golden Globe winner Valerie Bertinelli, and its sequel, “More Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet.”
Writers can meet and hear Zeises at the conference, a day-long event bringing regional authors and beginning writers together to explore various genres including fiction, memoir and poetry.
Fifteen sessions are scheduled throughout the day including How to Write a Mystery with bestselling novelist Mary Kennedy, Giving Shape to Experience: Plotting Your Story with novelist Cruce Stark, and Set Design with poet Billie Travalini. In addition to the sessions, attendees have the opportunity to lunch with an author, have their story/poetry/publishing ideas critiqued by a professional, and spend an evening with Charles Dickens. Special lodging rates are available by calling the hotel at 302-678-8500; mention writers’ conference.
Delmarva Discussions is a non-profit community organization dedicated to the promotion of literature and life-long learning on the Delmarva Peninsula. The conference is being co-hosted with Kent County Tourism and the Delaware Division of Libraries.
The conference will be from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Attendees must pre-register before Sept. 18. More information and registration forms can be found at www.DelmarvaDiscussions.org/conference, by calling 302-724-9049, or by emailing bhacker@DelmarvaDiscussions.org. Space is limited and available on a first come, first served basis.
