Are You Tuned in to the Colorado Writers Collaborative?

When this coronavirus pandemic lurched on to the conference and convention scene, live events all over the world were cancelled. We writers, just like the rest of humanity, had to stop in our tracks, go home, and scrap the schedule. Our calendars began to look pretty empty.

But then planners and managers got creative, online opportunities grew like wildfires (sorry, that reference is very painful for some folks these days), and we social butterflies jumped on board. We found new ways to indulge our occasional attacks of extrovertness, see the smiling faces of our friends and acquaintances, and connect.

In Colorado, three major writerly conferences were cancelled: Northern Colorado Writers and Pikes Peak Writers in the spring and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold in the fall. Not to be sabotaged by a nasty virus, the brilliant minds at these organizations, with additional support from others such as Rocky Mountain Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime Colorado, put together an extensive September event called the Colorado Writers Collaborative.

Pre-recorded presentations and conference-like sessions prepared by a wide variety of writers and writing-related experts are available this month (and maybe a little beyond if we’re lucky because there are some I’d like to watch again). Over thirty-five offerings are on You Tube in one easy location.

The ones I’ve watched so far, from motivational talks to self-publishing have been excellent. Some will make you laugh. Others will have you scrambling for a notebook and pen to take notes. Mark Coker from Smashwords is there with three in-depth workshops. John Gilstrap talks movie deals. Do you have questions about organization? Check out Post-It Planning or Storyboarding. Can’t figure out Amazon ads? There’s a session to help.

Time is running out, so take a look at the Colorado Writers Collaborative now. 

Pat (Patricia) Stoltey is the author of four novels published by Five Star/Cengage: two amateur sleuth, one thriller that was a finalist for a Colorado Book Award in 2015, and the historical mystery Wishing Caswell Dead (December 20, 2017), a finalist for the 2018 Colorado Book Awards. This novel is available in a large print edition, ebook, and trade paperback. Her short story, “Good Work for a Girl,” appears in the Five Star Anthology, The Spoilt Quilt and Other Frontier Stories: Pioneering Women of the West, released in November 2019.

Pat lives in Northern Colorado with her husband Bill, Scottish Terrier Sassy (aka Doggity), and brown tabby Katie (aka Kitty Cat).

You can learn more about Pat at her website/blog, on Facebook, and Twitter. She was interviewed for the Colorado Sun’s SunLit feature that you can find at the Colorado Sun website.