1. This is a pitch-planning session, so bring a pitch you’d like to work on. It  should be as brief as possible.  Our aim is to arrive at the essence of the conflict and (sex, violence, and more sex, hopefully, lol) and phrase it in such a way that it would immediately catch attention and partial requests.
2. There is no need to perfect the delivery, as we will critique not the delivery, but the content.  So you are very welcome (in fact it’s preferable) to bring the pitch written down so you can read from it. It’s hardly inducive to relaxed work if you suddenly forget it!
3. If you’ve nothing ready and no book in the works, don’t worry about it.  In fact, done right, this should be very instructive to newer writers, because after a while you will soon realize if you don’t have a strong conflict, it’s hard to distill a good pitch from the mass of verbiage.
4. And no, you don’t have to participate! Feel free to come and laugh, listen and learn as usual.
5. The PRO group is sponsoring a separate, more in-depth pitch planning and practice session for people who have editor or agent appointments at the National conference in July. Deb/Jenna will send out more info on that soon.

What: New Member Tea
When: Sunday, April 6, 2008, 2pm - 4pm
Where: Sally Anders’ House

When: Friday - Sunday, October 3-5, 2008

Where: McKinney Roughs Nature Park | Park Rules

Cost: There are several options for participating in the retreat.

• Both nights (includes dinner on Friday, three meals on Saturday, and Sunday breakfast): $100
• Saturday night only (includes Saturday lunch and dinner, Sunday breakfast): $65
• Saturday day trip: $25 (lunch included)

Pack your pajamas, a toothbrush and your work-in-progress and spend a weekend in the rolling countryside just east of Austin at McKinney Roughs Nature Park. Get away from the stress of your day-to-day routine and come talk shop with your fellow romance writers. We’ll have good food and good times, along with critique and brainstorming sessions and downtime for you to write your heart out without interruption. The cabins are clean and climate controlled. You won’t want to miss the Saturday night campfire, and you can spend some quality alone time with your muse just hiking through the exquisite scenery.

Price for the entire weekend is $100 and includes two night’s accommodations, food, and all activities. Saturday activities and overnight accommodations that night is $65. Attending the Saturday group sessions only, including lunch, is $25. Sign-up is exclusive to ARWA members through June 1st!

The brainstorming session is a free flowing kind of thing. We’ll
divide up into groups and when it’s your turn, you decide what part
of your WIP you want the group to work out. You give a summary of
your plot, characters, etc and if there is a specific thing you want
worked out, you lead the discussion that way.

Or it could be a bigger picture kinda thing. Like maybe you have a
heroine in mind and want to know the perfect hero for her to spare
with, that kind of thing. What would make great conflicts for
them?

Everyone should get at least 15 minutes to work on their project.
We need a lot of people to come out to make this work and it really
is a lot of fun.

And because it is Texas Independence Day, we’ll celebrate with
appropriate snacks, like BBQed cocktail weenies. I know you can
hardly wait to taste them so mark your calendar today.

We’ll send out a map to the ARWA loop the week before the event.