Preparing To Teach A Writing Workshop

My online critique group conference is the last week of this month. About twenty of us will gather in a beautiful state park just outside Washington DC. Nicely furnished cabins all have decks that look out onto the Potomac River. The cabins are nestled among the wooded area of the park, and deer wander in and out among the trees. An ideal spot for writers to write, to mingle with other writers, to learn more about their craft and to enjoy nature at its best.

This will be the fourth conference our group has had but the third one for me. I had major problems while trying to make a connecting flight at the time of the first conference. Ended up stranded in Chicago for two days and missed the conference. OK, I wasn't exactly stranded as we have family in Chicago who took me in while I waited for a flight home. With no luggage which I finally found waiting for me in Kansas City. I still grieve over that first conference that I missed. One reason was that the women who went raved over the presentations as well as the great bonds they'd formed.

So, now here we are getting ready for our "Fourth and Final" conference. I've been asked to talk about writing for anthologies. Harriet Cooper, another member of the group, is the anthology queen. She has had 36 stories in Chicken Soup books, whilc I can only claim  12. I'd love it if we could do this conference presentation together, but Harriet is staying home in Toronto, so I'm on my own.

I've been pondering the subject, have a list of articles to read for some additional background and have selected one or two stories to use for examples. But I'd like some help from you, too. What would
you like to know about writing for anthologies? Send me your  questions via the comment section below, and I'll do my best to answer and include it in my talk.

I'd like to give the writers who will be listening some inspiration to try writing in this field. It took center stage with the explosive success of Chicken Soup books, but a good many more have burst onto the scene as well. Some have died quickly and others are still going and hoping to catch up with Chicken Soup.

Some of the things I will cover are:

History of today's anthologies
Guidelines
Marketing
Submitting process
Kind of stories needed
List of anthologies needing submissions
Who reads these anthologies
New anthology possibilities
Importance of emotion in these stories

Can you come up with anything else? Do you have a specific question? Send them to me soon