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    For Writers: August 25 meeting of IWOSC/SPAWN VC — Voice and its importance when writing

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    stuff arial, decease sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;”>New Location

    clinic arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;”>IWOSC/SPAWN Ventura County is moving to Mimi’s Café on Moorpark Rd. More sitting space, a private room for our speakers, and space to sell books.

    Join our speaker for dinner by arriving at Mimi’s Café by 6:30 pm to enjoy a meal. If you won’t be having dinner, please arrive by 7 pm for the start of the meeting. The restaurant is donating the room so if you do come, consider ordering desert or a drink.

    Our August Speaker and Topic:

    Narrative Voice: A unique, fresh voice will sell your book

    With literary agent and former Macmillan and St Martin’s Press Executive Editor,
    Toni Lopopolo

    What editors in publishing houses tell agents:
       
    “I look for solid, voice-driven writing—something that makes the author stand out
     from the pack.”   Michael Homler, Editor
     
    “Captivating voices and vividly-realized settings are what get my attention.”
    Toni Kirkpatrick, Editor: Thomas Dunne Books
     
    “What speaks to me most is a strong narrative voice with a commercial bent.”
    Kelley Ragland:  Editorial Director, Minotaur Books
     
    “As an editor I love nothing more that to find a phenomenal debut novel, everything from voice-driven contemporary to a high-concept idea with commercial series potential.”  Vicki Lame, Associate, Editor
     
    “I love a strong narrative voice, vibrant, jump-off-the-page characters, smart, funny heroines, and of course, stories that make me cry.”   Holly Ingraham, Associate Editor
     
    “Fiction or non-fiction, I’m looking for robust stories with strong characters and a distinctive voice. “  Brenda Copeland, Executive Editor
       
    The above represents what Toni Lopopolo, a literary agent, hears over and over from editors in New York City’s Big 5 publishing houses and also from smaller established houses, and exclusive literary publishers.
     
    Notice the same word mentioned in each of the above quotes? Voice is what we ‘hear’ when we read a novel, or a work of narrative non-fiction such as Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. The strongest voice stays with us, becomes unforgettable. 
            
    ‘Tomorrow is another day.’’  We remember Scarlett O’Hara’s strong voice in Margaret Mitchel’s Gone With The Wind. Maybe not so much Melanie’s, a softer, less forceful one. InCatcher In The Rye, J D Salinger’s character and narrator stayed with us; Yosserian in Joseph Heller’s Catch 22. 
     
    In literary agencies, in publishing houses, hired readers are instructed to stop reading a manuscript when the reader gets pulled out of the story, or distracted, bored, or loses interest, the reason why most manuscripts are not read to the end. The writer has not engaged the reader with a voice that compels that reader to keep turning the pages. The writer who has mastered his/her writing skills, will pull in the reader on the first page and not let go until the last. 
     
    Voice is what we remember. Voice stays with us. Voice becomes the personality of a book. 
     
    Toni will discuss by using successful examples, how to create a great, compelling voice that jumps from the page and into an editor’s heart.

    TonyAbout our speaker….
    Literary Agent, Toni Lopopolo, has a book publishing resume that began in 1970 in the publicity department of Bantam Books, where she helped publicize authors such as Philip Roth, Barbara Cartland, Isaac Asimov, and Louis L’Amour. She next served as Library Promotion Director at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, and visited almost every major library in the USA. Then Houghton Mlfflin offered her a position in Boston as Marketing Manager, Paperback Books. Her big campaigns includedEven Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins.  When Macmillan presented Toni the title of Executive Editor, she moved back to New York City and published Judy Mazel’s Beverly Hills Diet and Elvis 56 by Al Wertheimer among other hits. St. Martin’s Press made an offer she couldn’t refuse, so Toni became Executive Editor there from 1981 to 1990 and published Hot Flashes by Barbara Raskin andRich and Famous by Kate Coscarelli plusElsa Lanchester, Herself, by Elsa Lanchester, On The Other Hand by Fay Wray and many more titles.In l991, Toni opened Toni Lopopolo Literary Management. She has since sold books for authors Sol Stein, Lee Silber, Lillian Glass, Steve Duno, Nancy Baer, Flo Fitzgerald, Judith Smith-Levin, Howard Olgin, Jeanette Baker, Larry Seeley, and several others. Toni relocated her company to Santa Barbara, California in 2011. Toni is also known for her writing workshops where she uses a unique method that helps first-time novelists to master the skills needed to successfully write book-length fiction, and she aids nonfiction writers to produce compelling narrative nonfiction, using fiction techniques. www.LopopoloBooks.com

    Next Meeting: Thursday, August 25
    7 to 8:30 pm
    If dining, please try to arrive by 6:30 pm
     
    Mimi’s Cafe
    400 N. Moorpark Rd.
    Thousand Oaks, California
    Phone: 805.373.5922
     
     
     

    IWOSC and SPAWN are California nonprofits. Learn more about each organization at:www.IWOSC.org  or  www.SPAWN.org

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