News: The Year of Faith at CWGLive

Here’s my recent interview on GRN about the fifth annual Catholic Writers’ Conference LIVE and our local Catholic Writers Group.

The Catholic Writers’ Conference LIVE provides Catholic authors with a prime opportunity to meet and share their writing and their faith with editors, publishers, fellow writers, and bookstore owners.

From Wednesday, August 7 at 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Friday, August 9,  we’ll meet at the beautiful Garden State Exhibit Center in Somerset, NJ. We’ll enjoy the Catholic Marketing Network Trade Show and social and entertainment events with publishers and bookstore owners.

The theme of this year's conference is “The Year of Faith.” Speakers include authors Patti Armstrong (Stories for the Homeschool Heart), Teresa Tomeo (Ave Maria Radio, Wrapped Up, Extreme Makeover), Award-winning author Michelle Buckman (Rachel's Contrition, My Beautiful Disaster), Randy Hain (The Integrated Catholic Life), Ellen Gable Hrkach (Stealing Jenny) and Ann Margaret Lewis (Murder in the Vatican), and author, blogger and podcaster Pat Gohn (Blessed, Beautiful and Bodacious).

Patti McGuire Armstrong gives our keynote on “Writing for God, Marketing for the World.” We’ll hear from many inspirational speakers such as Pat Gohn on “Your Word is My Delight” and Randy Hahn on “Finding Your Voice in the New Evangelization.”

We learn the craft of writing in a Catholic fiction workshop and a session on plotting. We get inspired with a panel on Faith in Fiction. We discover how to tailor our fiction or non-fiction submission to the ideal publisher and make a good pitch to the publishers who are available.

Then there’s the  business of writing: the ins and outs of the marketing publications with a session specifically for Kindle. A panel of writers and editors teach us about the author-editor relationship.

The Social Media Marketing Panel with Teresa Tomeo and other high-profile media people will draw a crowd as well as the  blogger's summit with a panel of experienced bloggers and professional authors.

Advanced registration is required for the group critique session and the pitch sessions with publishers’ representatives. This conference is fun, spiritual and educational. There’s something for all writers from beginners to professionals with lots of book signings, and the chance to see (and purchase at deep discounts) the largest collection of Catholic books and gifts in North America.

The Catholic Writers Guild has fabulous resources and support for writers and all the details for the 2013 CWGLive conference. Check them out at CatholicWritersGuild.org.