Ireland Writing Tours: Interview with workshop teachers and host

ATTEND A FANTASTIC WRITERS’ CONFERENCE IN

A STORY-BOOK SETTING

If you’ve ever been to a writers’ conference, you know they’re pretty much a whirlwind experience. Usually lasting two to three days, a good writers’ conference can leave you inspired, yet more exhausted than a woman who’s just given birth to triplets. Also, a popular conference is likely to have hundreds of attendees, which makes your chance of getting individual attention about as probable as losing weight on the chocolate cake diet.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a writers’ conference with enough fun time between workshops to allow your brain to relax, and creativity to flow? And what if a professional author or editor at that conference had actually read your stuff and offered, not only helpful feedback, but the moral support and personal career advice you would only get from a mentor?

Well, there is a writers’ conference exactly like that, and you can attend it. There’s only one catch. You have to be willing to visit castles, ancient abbeys, spooky caves, stone circles, holy wells and Celtic ring forts in between the scheduled conference days. That’s because this is a conference combined with a tour of Ireland. Yes, it sounds like a great hardship, but if you’re serious about your writing, isn’t it worth having a gourmet dinner in a haunted castle and listening to a bit of faerie lore in an enchanted Irish forest?

Of course, in between all that touring, there will be serious writing days with schedules that look something like this:

Tuesday	Course
9:30-11:00	Writing Authentic Characters that Leap from the Page
11:15-12:45	Organizing your Novel from start to finish: Plot, Subplot, and the Dreaded Outline
12:45-1:30	Lunch Break
1:30-2:30	Editing Techniques: Macro & Micro + The Emotional Journey of Each Draft
2:45-4:00	Series Writing from A to Z
4:00-5:00	Effective Use of Social Media

Each conference/tour is limited to only twelve people, which allows for the individual mentoring experience. This July, multi-published authors and editors, Lisa Maxwell (Sweet Unrest, Gathering Deep, and Unhooked) and Jaye Robin Brown (No Place to Fall, Will’s Story, and Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit) will be guest faculty for the conference entitled, “Bringing Your Manuscript to Life: Building Worlds, Characters, and Stories that Sell.”

Here, the authors and tour coordinator describe what participants can expect from Ireland Writer Tours (IWT):

PAT: Lisa, you and Jaye (JRo) will be teaching workshops on the conference days. We’ve got a tiny example (above) of previous workshops. Can you tell us what sorts of workshops you will be teaching this summer?

LISA: We’ll be tailoring the workshops to the specific interests of the group. Each participant fills out a 3-page registration form and tells us what they’re writing, where they are in the process, what specific writing assistance they’d like to receive at the conference, and what their writing goals are. Based on the responses on those registration forms, JRo and I will come up with workshops specifically designed to meet the needs of the twelve participants.

PAT: JRo, will you be reading manuscript pages from the participants?

JRO: Yes, Lisa and I will read and comment on at least fifteen pages from each participant before the conference begins. Then, during the conference, we will schedule private one-on-one consultations with each writer to discuss our comments and their questions, etc.

PAT: This one’s for both of you. I’m assuming you’ve both been to writers’ conferences. What was your most valuable conference experience?

JRO: For me, one of the most valuable experiences, is to be in a community of fellow writers who are also serious about publication, or at least their craft. Writing with those goals in mind can be incredibly solitary, so to have a community where you are all working together in an intense, concentrated period of time is energizing and inspiring.

LISA: I think one of the best experiences I’ve had was a retreat that I went to during my debut year. Just being able to work all day with other writers and then spend the evenings talking about their real-life experiences with publishing was invaluable to understanding my own place in the industry—how to negotiate those tricky parts, how to keep going when things seemed tough.

PAT: Lisa, have you ever had a writing mentor, and if so what was the relationship like?

LISA: I’ve actually never been lucky enough to have a specific mentor. When I first started writing, I was lucky enough to be in an RWA chapter with Jennifer Echols, and she was really, truly generous to a newbie like me. She never read my pages, but she was an amazing sounding board for advice about the publishing industry—querying, submission, working with editors, and the like.

PAT: JRo, what post-publishing experience has been the most profound for you that you might share with IWT participants?

JRO: I am both a high school teacher and a young adult author. The most profound moment came for me the day after my book launch. The launch was attended by people from all different walks of my life, including some students. The next day it was back to the classroom for me. At lunch, a time when my room is always populated with a few kids who want to escape the melee of the cafeteria, three students were laying belly down on my tables reading my book. It was surreal! And profound, because my first novel, NO PLACE TO FALL, is set in the area where I teach and I knew, or hoped, that these young adults would see themselves on the page.

PAT: The tours are being coordinated by professional tour guide, Fiona Claire. Fiona, what made you decide to put together a writers’ conference and tour?

FIONA: There were several reasons. First of all, there’s nothing else like it – I’ve checked. I’ve had my own small tour business in the west of Ireland for well over ten years, and have also worked as a tour guide for those giant bus tours. I love showing people around my homeland, and sharing old Irish legends, stories, history. Last year, one of the IWT participants was enjoying herself so much, she told me, “I feel like I’m living inside a kid’s storybook.” Those kind of comments make my job an absolute joy.

Secondly, I love North American-style writers’ conferences but there just aren’t any in Ireland. So I thought it would be a fun idea to combine those two things, and so far, writers have really enjoyed the experience.

PAT: Where do you take people on the tours?

FIONA: We are based at a nice hotel in a small village in the west of Ireland. The tours are on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, in between the workshop days, and include many sites in Galway, Clare and Mayo Counties, as well as the Aran Island of Inis Mor. There’s a full itinerary on our website, here: www.irelandwritertours.com

PAT: And is it difficult to reach that small village – will people get lost on their way there?

FIONA: Oh, no! We make it super-easy for participants and give in-depth instructions for everything from best flights to airport/Galway connections, Euro/Dollar exchange and how to avoid jet lag. I also help participants connect with each other and meet-up before the conference, if they decide to come in a day or two early, as well as offer additional hotel and travel advice. In the past, participants have gotten along so well that they formed a secret Facebook group to keep in touch, and even a writers’ support group that meets via skype.

It sounds like an all-around terrific summer experience that can have profound benefits throughout a writer’s career. So if you’re looking for a fabulous writers’ conference in a story-book location, with the potential of making a gaggle of writer friends and getting great advice from professionals, you’d better hurry over to the Ireland Writer Tours website and register. This is an opportunity you don’t want to miss.

IRELAND WRITER TOURS: http://www.irelandwritertours.com/

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