Ethan Gilsdorf | Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks Book Tour & Other Events!
See schedule below
for events, readings, classes
I'm teaching and other appearances.
Please let your friends know and
I hope to see you out there
on the road!
[Do you want to book Ethan for a lecture, book talk, or other event? See below ...]
Events and workshop/seminar teaching schedule [More events being added all the time]
Past events, Fall 2011:
Teaching: So You Want to Be a Writer?
6:30-9:30pm, Grub Street headquarters, Boston
In this seminar, well examine, discuss and debunk the myths, dreams and tough realities of becoming a writer and then map out realistic action plans for making the leap to a full or part-time commitment to writing. Well look at concrete strategies, such as: creating short (one to two year) and long-term (three to ten year) series of goals; understanding the sacrifices necessary to build a career and the importance of working on multiple projects in different genres; tackling psychological issues such as writer's block and rejection; and grasping the value of networking and putting yourself out there. For beginners or anyone looking to re-inspire or re-commit themselves as writers. Instructor: Ethan Gilsdorf Level: For Everyone Type: Seminar Registration Deadline: Monday, August 29, 2011 register as a member $50.00 register as a non-member $65.00 http://tinyurl.com/6ftgtky Grub Street Inc. 160 Boylston St., Boston, MA, 02116
Teaching: How to Pitch Your Articles, Op-eds, and Essays for Publication
6:30-9:30pm, Grub Street headquarters, Boston
In this seminar, you will how to write killer pitch letters (AKA query letters or cover letters) for submitting essays, op-eds, articles and feature stories to editors of magazines, newspapers, literary magazines, and online publications. We'll look at top mistakes that writers make and examine pitch letters that actually worked. We'll also see how to leverage your background and expertise to best present yourself, even if you don't have a lot of publishing experience. Optional: Bring 15 copies of a draft of any pitch letter (its OK if youre not sure how to write one) for a piece you are currently working on and well try to quickly workshop as many of them as we can. Instructor: Ethan Gilsdorf Level: For Everyone Type: Seminar Registration Deadline: Monday, September 12, 2011 register as a member $50.00 register as a non-member $65.00 http://tinyurl.com/6ftgtky Grub Street Inc. 160 Boylston St., Boston, MA, 02116
Teaching: Freelance Writing Essentials
6:30-9:30pm, Grub Street headquarters, Boston
You want to write feature stories for the Boston Globe or the Cambridge Tab, essays for salon.com or slate.com, or op-eds for USA Today or the New York Times. Now what? In this seminar well discuss how to come up with ideas that editors want, where to get insider information on who edits what. Well also look at the dos and donts out of contacting editors and cover the basics of pitching stories and writing pitch letters. Equally important is grasping how much various markets pay, being able to read a contract and understand your publication rights, and developing a realistic game plan for your success. (Note: this class wont cover corporate writing or freelance copywriting.) Instructor: Ethan Gilsdorf register as a member $50.00 register as a non-member $65.00 http://tinyurl.com/6ftgtky Grub Street Inc. 160 Boylston St., Boston, MA, 02116
Teaching: Writing Great Personal Essays
11:00am-2:00pm, Grub Street headquarters, Boston
This teaches the basics of what makes great, compelling, readable, narrative-based personal essays and how to write them. We'll focus on structure, voice and form, and how to best identify a story to tell. We'll look hard at exemplary writers from a variety of traditions and steal (OK, borrow) from their bag of tricks. After two or three weeks of in-class exercises and material-generation exercises, workshops of longer student essays will begin. If you are in need of extended prompts or writing assignments to generate an essay, these will be given, or you can work on essays of your own design. Students will likely have two essays workshopped (though this depends on class size). On the last class or two, well discuss markets for where to publish your finished personal essays, and go over the best ways and strategies for submitting them. More info and registration: http://bit.ly/oeOMfy Grub Street Inc. 160 Boylston St., Boston, MA, 02116 .
3pm, location: Phillips House, 34 Chestnut Street, Salem, MA
Families provide writers with their best material: secrets, joys, humor and tragedy. But how do we make family members, beloved and otherwise, into rich, multi-dimensional characters, neither saints nor monsters? And having done this, how do we avoid hurt feelings, libel suits and wrath? In this panel discussion, three authors of books that center on family and personal experience will talk about these issues and entertain your questions. Time and location TBA. More info: http://www.salemlitfest.com/ Salem Literary Festival Salem, MA, USA 01970
9/28/2011
Internet lecture
8pm, Kaplan's Annual Virtual Conference
What is the lure of fantasy worlds? The "psychology" of gaming?
10/1/2011
Third Annual Dave Arneson Memorial Gameday
5:00 to 6:30, Brooklyn Strategist, Brooklyn NY
panel discussion: "The World Dave Made: Arneson’s Legacy in Modern Culture"
This discussion will explore all the things we owe to Dave Arneson's life and work, from his seminal involvement in the original roleplaying games Braunstein and Blackmoor to his co-creation of Dungeons & Dragons and his later career teaching game design at Full Sail University. Panelists will present key aspects of Arneson’s legacy, including the concept of having a character that represents you in an imagined realm and is described by statistics that reflect your advancement as a result of experience, and talk about how these ideas continue to shape progress in their own fields.
Teaching: Promoting the Nonfiction Book
6:30-9:30pm, Grub Street headquarters, Boston
If you're about to publish a nonfiction book, you've probably got questions about how to best publicize it, and you're probably wondering how soon to begin your PR campaign, and which ideas work best. Whether you have a big or small publisher, or chose self-publishing, this seminar will outline both traditional and non-traditional methods to identify, reach and build a target audience in various potential book-buying communities. We'll discuss planning and executing a master timeline for book promotion; setting up a promotional budget; creating a book tour (and not just at bookstores but using non-traditional venues); brainstorming special contests, promotions and giveaways unique to your book; establishing yourself as an expert and tying in your book to current events; writing tie-in op-eds and commentaries; pitching yourself to traditional media like print, TV and radio; creating a website and DIY book trailer; and jumping on social media to develop a fan base and create buzz. We'll also look at what your publisher should do and what you can do, and the problems that self-publishing creates (and how to work around them). Come with questions. Info and registration: http://bit.ly/oeOMfy Grub Street Inc. 160 Boylston St., Boston, MA, 02116
Teaching: Writing Essays, Columns, and Op-Eds for Publication
6:30-9:30pm, Grub Street headquarters, Boston
This intensive class is geared specifically for students wishing to write and get personal essays and columns published. Each week, we will examine work that appears in both local and national newspapers, magazines, websites and other media outlets (such as New York Times "Modern Love"; the Globe and Huffington Post; NPR commentaries; parenting, cooking, and outdoors magazines, etc). Then, we write a personal essay or column that adheres as closely to that publication's format and style. Depending on class size, we will either workshop each student's assignment each week, or take turns on a rotating schedule. We will do a few in-class exercises, and will also spend time learning how to pitch essays and columns to editors --- how to find the right market, write a cover letter, and position the writer as an "expert" in their chosen topic or angle. The goal: by the end of the course, students will write and revise at least three personal essays or columns and send them out for publication. info and registration: http://bit.ly/oeOMfy Grub Street Inc. 160 Boylston St., Boston, MA, 02116
11:15am-12:15, Dorothy Quincy Suite, Boston Public Library
I'll be participating in the Boston Book Festival, in a panel discussion with Sherry Turkle ("Alone Together") on the theme of her book, how technology is affecting our relationships. With Sue Hallowell, Andrew McAfee (host)
11:00am-2:00pm, Grub Street headquarters, Boston
Finding the heart of your memoir can be vexing. What story do you want to tell? How do you tell it? How can you make your reader care about your life? This seminar will help writers who are beginning to write a memoir (or want to write a memoir) find a shape and form for their story. We will discuss how to narrow and frame your life experiences in memoir, and examine some common structures for telling the story, with the goal of ultimately helping you find the heart of what story to tell. Quick exercises will help you "map" your memoir's scope --- the time frame, theme, plot, character arc, and key moments. We will discuss chronological time vs. narrative time, and dilemmas of "truth" and memory as it relates to recovering and recreating the past. Please bring a brief and rough (under 300 word) summary of a real or potential memoir project. Info and registration: http://bit.ly/oeOMfy Grub Street Inc. 160 Boylston St., Boston, MA, 02116
Lecture with questions, and then book signing, as part of Haverhill Public Library having chosen Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks for their "One Book, One Community"program. Free copies of my book at the library! More info: http://www.haverhillpl.org/haverhillreads.htm
Teaching: Crafting the Pitch Letter for Nonfiction Projects
6:30-9:30pm, Grub Street headquarters
In this seminar, you will learn how to write killer pitch letters (AKA query letters or cover letters) for submitting essays, op-eds, articles and feature stories to editors of magazines, newspapers, literary magazines, and online publications, and for submitting nonfiction book proposals to agents. (Sorry, we wont discuss how to pitch short fiction or novels.) We'll look at top mistakes that writers make and examine pitch letters that actually worked. We'll also see how to leverage your background and expertise to best present yourself, even if you don't have a lot of publishing experience. Optional: Bring 15 copies of a draft of any pitch letter (its OK if youre not sure how to write one) for a piece you are currently working on and well try to quickly workshop as many of them as we can. info and registration: http://bit.ly/oeOMfy Grub Street Inc. 160 Boylston St., Boston, MA, 02116
Want to book Ethan?
I love to give readings and meet readers! I've given talks, lectures, slide shows, moderated panels, and fought with foam swords at conventions like Pax East, Gen Con and DragonCon; at book festivals like Decatur (Atlanta), Brooklyn and Boston; at universities like MIT and LSU; and at dozens of bookstores, book groups and other random venues.
If your bookstore, library, book group, writer's festival, college/university, high school, club, game shop, convention, bar, cafe, mother, etc. would like to book me to give a talk, slide-lecture, organize a discussion, or have moderate a panel or Q&A let me know. Contact me here.