Friday-Sunday, November 8-10, at the Hilton Boston/Dedham: Terrific roster of speakers on a range of topics for master classes, panels, and hands-on workshops.
Guest of Honor Gabino Iglesias:
Critically-acclaimed author, critic, journalist, and MFA professor, Gabino Iglesias defies genre with his novels, including The Devil Takes You Homeand House of Bone and Rain. He is an Edgar Award finalist and winner of the Shirley Jackson, Bram Stoker, and numerous Book of the Year Awards.
Master Classes on Friday afternoon: Space is limited for Master Classes, so sign-up NOW to guarantee your seat!
Planting the Clue and Turning the Screw by Kate Flora
Often, classes on crafting suspense turn on the mega issues in a book. This workshop focuses on the multiple minor ways writers can create tension in a story scene by scene, using often overlooked opportunities. It will cover strategies for hiding vital clues in plain sight. This presentation will feature a PowerPoint lecture and a few in-class writing activities to demonstrate how the techniques taught will work.
Love Your Villain by Gary Goshgarian
This class will stress making one's villain believable, not a cardboard punch out—giving a villain clear motives for wrong-doings and backstory to create round, interesting, and distinct villains. I will illustrate my points with references to villains from books by Dennis Lehane, Stephen King, Tess Gerritsen, Louise Penny, Thomas Harris, and others, including myself.
Often, classes on crafting suspense turn on the mega issues in a book. This workshop focuses on the multiple minor ways writers can create tension in a story scene by scene, using often overlooked opportunities. It will cover strategies for hiding vital clues in plain sight. This presentation will feature a PowerPoint lecture and a few in-class writing activities to demonstrate how the techniques taught will work.
Love Your Villain by Gary Goshgarian
This class will stress making one's villain believable, not a cardboard punch out—giving a villain clear motives for wrong-doings and backstory to create round, interesting, and distinct villains. I will illustrate my points with references to villains from books by Dennis Lehane, Stephen King, Tess Gerritsen, Louise Penny, Thomas Harris, and others, including myself.
Killing Puppies: The Art of Violence in Fiction by Guest of Honor Gabino Iglesias
In this workshop, study the importance and impact on violence in crime stories, examine the formula for violence to see how we can alter it to make our narratives more unique, and discuss the relationship between violence and language, character development, and pacing.
You Had to Be There: A Deep Dive into Setting by Stephen D. Rogers
The country, state/region, city are large-scale settings that can shape a story, influence the plot, and become a character. But what about small-scale settings? Where does this or that scene actually take place? In this workshop, you will take one situation and set it in a dozen different places to examine the various benefits, losses, and challenges of each decision.
Making Your Crime/Mystery Stand Out by Jule Selbo
Look at how to use the classic and modern elements of adventure, thriller, romance, historical fiction, sci-fi and fantasy, and more, and how they can be blended into crime mysteries to increase audience appeal. We’ll look at how conscious considerations of “story genres” can be used as guideposts to help build characters and also to help us to structure our crime/mysteries—to get us from the beginning, through the middle (that problem area), to the exciting “fade out” moments of our work.
A New World: Audiobooks, AI Tools, and Voice Cloning by Sarah Smith
The audiobook market is huge, but only one percent of books are ever turned into audiobooks. AI tools need human creativity, but you can accomplish things with them that you can’t otherwise. You can add special effects to your book, make a rough draft of an audiobook quickly, edit audio more efficiently, and produce more and different works in less time. Participants will be able to clone their voices, submit writing samples to be read by cloned voices, and edit cloned voices to make them more human.
In this workshop, study the importance and impact on violence in crime stories, examine the formula for violence to see how we can alter it to make our narratives more unique, and discuss the relationship between violence and language, character development, and pacing.
You Had to Be There: A Deep Dive into Setting by Stephen D. Rogers
The country, state/region, city are large-scale settings that can shape a story, influence the plot, and become a character. But what about small-scale settings? Where does this or that scene actually take place? In this workshop, you will take one situation and set it in a dozen different places to examine the various benefits, losses, and challenges of each decision.
Making Your Crime/Mystery Stand Out by Jule Selbo
Look at how to use the classic and modern elements of adventure, thriller, romance, historical fiction, sci-fi and fantasy, and more, and how they can be blended into crime mysteries to increase audience appeal. We’ll look at how conscious considerations of “story genres” can be used as guideposts to help build characters and also to help us to structure our crime/mysteries—to get us from the beginning, through the middle (that problem area), to the exciting “fade out” moments of our work.
A New World: Audiobooks, AI Tools, and Voice Cloning by Sarah Smith
The audiobook market is huge, but only one percent of books are ever turned into audiobooks. AI tools need human creativity, but you can accomplish things with them that you can’t otherwise. You can add special effects to your book, make a rough draft of an audiobook quickly, edit audio more efficiently, and produce more and different works in less time. Participants will be able to clone their voices, submit writing samples to be read by cloned voices, and edit cloned voices to make them more human.
Forensics Experts on Sunday morning:
No registration required.
Burning Suffolk County for Profit: Arson Investigation in 1980s Boston by Wayne Miller
In the early 1980s, Boston was set ablaze. Two hundred sixty-four buildings were intentionally set on fire, resulting in millions of dollars in damages and hundreds of injuries. This is the true story of the deep conspiracy of nine men determined to wreak havoc on the city and the relentless investigators who uncovered them. Wayne Miller was the head ATF Special Agent in charge of the investigation. This became known as one of the largest arson cases on record in the history of the country.
Forensic Science and Crime Scene Reconstruction by James Jabbour
James Jabbour has held positions in investigation, crime scene processing, statewide prosecution, response to police shootings and homicide scenes, witness protection, and computer crimes task force. Now a professor at Curry College, he will lead a session on crime scene investigation, using selected crime scene photos for a discussion of the reconstruction process, including identification and processing of evidence.
No registration required.
Burning Suffolk County for Profit: Arson Investigation in 1980s Boston by Wayne Miller
In the early 1980s, Boston was set ablaze. Two hundred sixty-four buildings were intentionally set on fire, resulting in millions of dollars in damages and hundreds of injuries. This is the true story of the deep conspiracy of nine men determined to wreak havoc on the city and the relentless investigators who uncovered them. Wayne Miller was the head ATF Special Agent in charge of the investigation. This became known as one of the largest arson cases on record in the history of the country.
Forensic Science and Crime Scene Reconstruction by James Jabbour
James Jabbour has held positions in investigation, crime scene processing, statewide prosecution, response to police shootings and homicide scenes, witness protection, and computer crimes task force. Now a professor at Curry College, he will lead a session on crime scene investigation, using selected crime scene photos for a discussion of the reconstruction process, including identification and processing of evidence.
The Agents & Editors track features some of the best (and hungriest!) talent-seekers around. If you have a manuscript that’s looking for a home, Crime Bake’s A&E track is for you!
REGISTER or add to your registration here.
A block of rooms at the Hilton in Dedham has been reserved at reduced rates for New England Crime Bake registrants, so be sure to use the special link on the website to make your reservation.
A block of rooms at the Hilton in Dedham has been reserved at reduced rates for New England Crime Bake registrants, so be sure to use the special link on the website to make your reservation.
Crime Bake is celebrating 23 years of community, craft, and crime!
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