Saturday Programme

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Saturday August 19^th

*Time*	*Description*		*Speaker*	*Location*
7.15am – 8.30am	Registration Open			Conf Centre entrance Coffee available
7.15am – 8.20am	Cold Reads	Host / Reader: Host/ Reader:	Sue Grimshaw Jessica Watterson	Batten 1 Batten 2
8.30am	Conference Opens – WELCOME		MC’s Catherine Robertson	Batten Rooms 1&2
8.50am	KEYNOTE	Build a Character, Build a Book	Christie Craig (CC Hunter)	Batten Rooms 1&2
9.50am		Morning Tea		Foyer
10.20am to 11.20am	KEYNOTE	Build a Character, Build a Book	Christie Craig (CC Hunter)	Batten Room 1&2
11.25am to 12.25pm	KEYNOTE	Tips to Build Your Brand	Kristen Lamb	Batten Room 1&2
12.30pm		*LUNCH*		Restaurant
1.30pm to 2.30pm	*MAIN* *Batten 1 & 2* KYLIE SCOTTBetween Plotting and Pantsing: Book planning and structure on a level you can live with		Mansfield Room Published Authors Round Table (For published authors only – traditional or self pubbed)
2.30pm to 3.30pm	BREAKOUT SESSION ONE Mansfield Room ANNE GRACIE Getting out of the Slush Pile	Seddon Room SPA GIRLS Dealing with Author Overwhelm in the Digital Age	Batten 2 JUDY L MOHR Hidden Traps of a Writers Platform (what you need to know about security online)	Batten 1 CASSANDRA DEAN & LUCY CLARK How to Inject Emotional Punch Through Pacing
3.30pm to 3.45pm		AFTERNOON TEA		Foyer
3.45pm		Introducing Random House	Sue Grimshaw	Batten Room 1 & 2
4.15pm to 5.15pm	BREAKOUT SESSION TWO Batten Room 2 TRACEY ALVAREZ, WENDY VELLA, FAYE ROBERTSON (SERENITY WOODS), BRONWEN EVANS My Strategy for Successful Self Publishing	Batten Room 1 ALLISON CARROLL, BRYNN KELLY AND FRANCES HOUSDEN Keeping them in Suspense	Seddon Room GRACIE O’NEIL How to Write a Blurb that Sells or a Query that gets a Request	Mandsfield Room KATHY DERRICK Grand Designs. Discovering the Building Blocks of Story
5.30pm		AGM Introducing the new Executive	Iona Jones – Chair	Batten 1 & 2
5.45pm	Batten Room 1 &2	Jean Drew Volunteer of the Year Award RAFFLES DRAWN Out of Towners Draw	MC Catherine Robertson	Batten 1 & 2

7.30pm – 10pm	Harlequin Awards Dinner	Theme – Some Enchanted Evening	MC Catherine Robertson	Rutherford

The Conference Programme is subject to change.

Workshop rooms will be designated and set up to cater for participants using your selected registration options so please honour the selections you have made at time of booking. Please be considerate of the presenter and other participants if you need to leave for pitch appointments.

As always, our conference is perfume free.

Saturday 19th August

General Blurb for the day

Plenary Sessions

Kristen Lamb – Social Media Overview

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Christie Craig – Building a Character Build a Book

You’ve mastered writing, and finally have a grasp on story development, but those rejections haven’t stopped. Without strong characters to hold up your plot and prose, a book can, and probably will, fail.

Using simple techniques, New York Times best-selling author Christie Craig teaches how to create engaging characters one building block at a time. Goals, flaws, fears, conflicts, and plot development—they all stem from character.

Come hear Christie Craig, a New York Times Bestselling author, and a proclaimed character-driven writer, do an in-depth talk about building characters.

She’ll offer tips on: how to make your characters jump off the page and into the hearts of your readers. How to make them more lovable—even when they’re bad. How to plagiarize from your own life to offer richness to your scenes. Using simple techniques, she teaches how to create engaging characters one building block at a time. Goals, flaws, fears, conflicts, plot development, it all stems from character.

Craig will give you the tools to get your characters in shape, then this southern spitfire, who has received thousands of rejections, is gonna give the waning writer in you a good swift kick in the pants.

Kylie Scott—Between Plotting and Pantsing: Book planning and structure on a level you can live with.

This session is aimed at new to mid-level writers.

Published Authors Round Table

This session is for published authors only—traditionally published, self-published, or hybrid. In it we will be discussing the market, contracts, Self-Publishing, and anything else on your mind. Come with questions. Chaired by Bronwen Evans.

Breakout Workshop One

Please click here to see a list of four workshops. You may choose one of these four for this session.

Breakout Workshop Two