Euro2014
A
Writing Retreat and Conference
November
12 to 22, 2014
Euro2014, a
writers’ conference and retreat, provides you with a window of freedom to
rediscover your creativity or harness its reins to bring that once in a
lifetime story to fruition. Join us for a 10 day writing adventure aboard the
Norwegian Jade where you’ll be enthused and encouraged by the sights, sounds,
tastes, smells, and feel of the great cities of antiquity: Rome, Olympia,
Athens, Ephesus (Izmir), Istanbul, and Pompeii (Naples). Give yourself the gift
to try new ideas, to take chances, to fail harder and to succeed higher in the
pursuit of your artistic endeavours. You’ll find new ways of expanding your
writing repertoire in directions you’ve never imagined in a safe, trusting environment
of established writers and faculty.
Each day, you’ll spend time in group
and individual activities geared towards releasing and opening up pathways to
improved creativity and imagination to vibrant ideas and game-changing
opportunities. Work with supportive writers through lecture, discussion, and
workshops to overcome problems with plot, character and story development. Find
exciting ways to express the written word.
The cruise conference/retreat
includes over thirty hours of instruction, face time with a professional editor
and literary agent for blue penciling or to pitch your latest work, a welcome
wine and cheese, two dinners at speciality restaurants aboard the Norwegian
Jade, one hosted by one of our superb presenters or faculty, the other, a
wind-up dinner on our final night after leaving Pompeii (Naples).
For you early risers, catch the sunrise over the Mediterranean Sea while discussing over coffee some craft
related issue with David Blinkhorn, an award winning
writer and poet, director and founder of the host school of this conference,
the Fraser Valley Writers’ School.
Our main
conference occurs on the four days while we are at sea but there are events and
talks each day. Each conference day will have a theme: The Business of Writing,
Memoir Morning, The Game’s Afoot: Plotting Your Way to a Great Story, and
Second Draft. If something on those days doesn’t catch your interest, there
will be an alternate stream of presentations and workshops on different aspects
of craft. Topics will range from Point of View, Aids in Creativity,
Productivity in Writing, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: A Workshop in
Character Development to name a few. One day will be devoted to topics of
interest to the self-publisher including e-book creation, marketing, and
self-promotion. It is a retreat/conference where everyone will find something
of interest.
Writing
contests? Yes, there’ll be plenty with some great prizes relevant to the cruise
and the cities we are visiting.
Canadian
Writers’ Idol: One evening will be devoted to the critique of query letters and
opening chapters. The twist? Our judges will be famous historical characters
from our ports of call. Socrates is very logical but that Cleopatra, well, she
can be quite a… You get the idea.
We’ve
arranged for our own private tours at Ephesus and Istanbul that will be at
least fifty percent less than the cost if you book the same excursion off the
boat. We are working at expanding those offerings to a morning trip in Olympia
and a day in Athens. Whether you take advantage of one of our tours or choose
to go a different route, you’ll have access to people, who have experience in
these ports so that you can get some ideas how to best attack your day in each
stop.
Additional
Blue pencil sessions and consults with our editors will be available for
additional cost.
Euro2014 is
the one writing event you don’t want to miss this year. Flight and cruise are
$1750 for an inside cabin and $1900 for an outside cabin with a window or
porthole. All prices are based on double occupancy. The cost for the writer in
your group for the conference is $500. Admission to the evening’s events, the
specialty restaurants, and welcome wine and cheese for spouses and significant
others are included in the price of the cruise and flight. Gratuities on the
ship are not included and are estimated to be $12 per day per person.
Each day we
are adding proven, established writers to our list of presenters including
Janie Chang, the break-out author of Three Souls and social media darling,
Sylvia Taylor, memoirist author of The Fisher Queen and editor extraordinaire,
and well-known travel writer, Joei Carlton Hossack and everyone’s favourite
literary agent, Jill Marr with the Dijkstra Agency to name a few of the great
line-up of instructors that are coming to this event. A final program is expected
by late March, 2014.
If you are
interested in attending this event, email The Fraser Valley Writers’ School for
information about deposit and payment schedule and the additional costs of
excursions and editor/agent consultations. Email address: fvwschool@gmail.com (Program
and presenters subject to change)
