Workshops

Workshop Offerings for 2026

"I try to leave out the parts that people skip."   - Elmore Leonard

Monday Night Creative Writing Workshop Series In-person and on zoom

• March 30 - April 27
• 6 sessions in this series
• 6:30 - 8 pm 
• $220 

A fun and generative workshop especially for writers, and artists of poetry, fiction, short story, novel, and screen writing. Do you wish you wrote more? Want to feel a sense of community when you write? Want to start a project or finish a book?

This creative series is the most popular and longest-running workshop I offer.  Craft, technique, and prompts for fiction of all forms. A kick in the butt for your writing life! Waiting for inspiration is also called procrastination.  So don't wait - connect with a community and improve your writing process and practice. Mondays from 6:30 to 8 pm. This series will fill up fast as I keep the size of the group intimate. Sign up by email to tangledrootswriting@gmail.com or call 530-386-3901.

Write a Ten Minute Play Workshop Hybrid (in person and online/Recording available)

• Mar 16 & 23 (sign up for one or both)
• Monday 6-8 pm
• $48/$90 for both

In these fun workshops hone your skills in dialogue, conflict, setting, and character. No drama experience necessary. All levels of writers and ages are welcome! We’ll look at the use of props, how to create suspense with a ticking clock, and how to choose the “at rise” occasion in the drama. Learn how to manage pacing, create strong emotional impact, present vivid characters, develop compelling situations, show rather than tell, and present a question that drives your audience’s attention with tension or suspense. Get small group feedback on your writing.

·    Even if you’ve never thought about writing a play, this workshop will help you sharpen writing skills for all genres of writing. You can use this fun two-hour workshop to explore the ah ha moment in your novel or story or memoir.

·    Sign up for one workshop or both. Additional one on one editor feedback is available. The workshop is available in person in my living room with tea and chocolate as well as online with Zoom. A recording will be available.

Free Workshop at Truckee Library: Writing in the Time of Northwoods by Daniel Mason: for Readers and Writers

• March 24, 2026
• 4:30-6 pm

An engaging discussion and writing workshop about the Nevada County Reads book selection Northwoods.  Pulitzer Price Finalist Daniel Mason is a master of literary voice. The novel begins with two young lovers fleeing their oppressive Puritan colony to brave life together in the wilderness deep into the wooded foothills in Western Massachusetts, an area now called the Berkshires. Over four hundred years to follow, the forest clearing they chose for their home would shelter generations of families, adventurers, villains, artists, sheep, a cougar, and an ever-growing cast of resident ghosts. 

 Truckee Library Creative Writing Workshops: Writing for memoir

• Friday mornings Truckee Library 10031 Levon Ave, Truckee
• Just show up! 10:30-Noon
• All Welcome/all ages
• Free 

Mar 6
Apr 3
May 1
Jun 12 

The Writers Circle: Monthly Feedback Workshop 

February - June 2026

TBA - reach out to apply for this series

In this intimate workshop, the goal is to work with a consistent, focused group of writers to workshop, develop and revise your fiction and non-fiction writing projects. Each session will include tools for developing your project and feedback. We will workshop in a guided and supportive atmosphere with focus on strengthening your writing skills, developing your manuscript, and exploring meaning in your writing. 

This workshop is deadline- and goal-oriented to move forward with the next draft. You will get professional feedback for developing the heart of the subject as well as the organization and skill of craft. Learn techniques to creatively unearth what really matters so that your writing stands out as surprising and original to an editor.  Expect  a supportive community, session notes, reading other work and deadlines to keep you accountable and move your craft of writing and your project forward.

 

Submission Strategies for Publication Workshop Series: Where, how and when to submit 

TBA

$35 each/$105 for all three 

TBA

You can sign up for all three sessions at once, or join a la carte. These workshops are in person and on Zoom.

A practical workshop series presenting the newest and latest calls for submissions, insights and strategies for organizing, planning, and tracking your submissions, and help with manuscript preparations. We will work on our research, selection, plans, and prepping the second half of the time together as we gather and submit our work. One take away will be a long term plan for organizing your submissions over the next 6 -12 months, taking a look at project goals and timing them with future open reading periods. Get the details you need to plan where, how and when to submit. Handouts, tea, and chocolate too.

Work in a supportive community of writers to research the field, prepare your manuscripts, and submit them to a carefully selected field of publications:

·       Contests

·       Literary journals and Magazines

·       Anthologies

·       Calls for submissions

·       Collaborative arts

Discover new opportunities for your writing:

·       reviews

·       translation

·       prose and verse chapbooks (short story and essay)

·       first chapter submissions

·       artist residencies

·       conferences

Free Truckee Library Creative Writing Workshop Series: Friday Mornings: 

10:30 am - Noon 10031 Levon Ave, Truckee, CA 96161

This workshop series offers a creative space for writers of all ages and experience levels to explore new approaches to being creative on the page.  While this series focuses on writing your own story, these workshops include prompts that can lead to any form of writing - poetry, fiction, memoir, even songwriting. Of course, light refreshments are included!

Each workshop is a Friday morning from 10:30 - noon at the Truckee Library  

• Mar 6

• Apr 3

• May 1

• Jun 12

“Literature is where I go to explore the highest and the lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart.” – Salmon Rushdie

One on One Coaching

Take charge of your writing career, a book project, professional communications, or your PhD dissertation by hiring a writing coach. I can help you improve your writing skills and offer support and guidance to reach your deadlines. Call me to talk about your goals.

 

 For Students - Prepare College Essays and Scholarship Applications

One specialty of my coaching is working with elementary and high school students in customized coaching sessions to develop and improve writing skills and a passion for writing. Call me to talk about what would best support your student.