Associate Director – Thomas Eaton, Ed.D
From Book Talk to Table Top
Everything you need to know to write a beautiful story.
January Dates to be Announced Creative Writing – Series 1
The First Page
How to Begin • Asking the Right Questions • What is Voice? • Narrative Arc • Writing Rules to Live By
Character
13 Ways to Make Characters REAL • Narrative Urgency
Dialogue and Setting
What to Say, How to Say It • Setting, More than a Place • Setting, Friend or Foe? • The Four Elements to Research • How to Research
The Word and the Sentence
Diction • Sound Device • The Sentence Figurative Language • Types of Phrases • Style
8-Week Series $150
Dates to be Announced Creative Writing – Series 2
Subtext, High Events, Closing
Below the Surface of Story, Plot, Context • Implicit Narrative • Weaving the Dramatic & the Subtle • Two Mistakes with High Event • Endings can Culminate or Imply Continuation • Ending Literal or From Afar?
Self-Editing
From First Draft to Finished Manuscript in 15 Steps • Reviewing and Applying all the Writer’s Tools
8-Week Series $150
Maumelle Publishing Series
Dr. Tom has returned from his two-month writing retreat in Wyoming and will begin his Monday night workshops on Publishing on October 5.
This workshop will meet every Monday night for seven weeks from 6 – 8 p.m.
Topics covered will include: Publishing Publishing Options, their Advantages & Disadvantages • How Publishers Choose • Agents • Your Right Market • Self-Publishing • Subsidy/Co-op • Run-on-Demand • Small Presses • “Traditional” Publishing • How to use Catalogues & Published Market Reports to Your Advantage • Writer’s resume • Query Letters • Manuscript Preparation • Understanding Your Contract • Legal & Aesthetic Negotiations • Legal & Publishing Vocabulary • Networking in the Industry & More. . .
You will have the opportunity to bring your query letter and synopsis to Tom for individual help.
The workshop will be held at our Maumelle location at the Jeff Odom Community Center, 1100 Edgewood Dr, Maumelle, AR 72113
If you live in Central Arkansas, this is your opportunity to learn how to get that book into the world!
Dates TBA.
Comments on this Workshop
Thank you again for putting so much of yourself, your talents and passion, into our coursework. I couldn’t help but notice how respectful and kind you were in every interaction with us, even when cautioning us about our missteps. . .From your example, I think I may be entering an entirely new and wonderful era in my life. – John C
I have registered for the second class and look forward to it. I wish to thank you for the opportunity to be in the first class as it kicked off my writing. I had thought I would have started in self-start mode much earlier, but there are always so many pretty things to do . . .your class set me free enough from them that I actually started putting down the words I expected to. Many thanks indeed. – Sam P
BIO
Thomas Eaton holds a BA, from the University of Wyoming, an MA, from Southeast Missouri State University, and an Ed.D, from the University of Missouri – Columbia.
He served as Associate Professor of English Education at Southeast Missouri State University where he taught teachers to teach literature and language, was a thesis reviewer, and taught online. He also reviews galleys for new textbooks in composition and grammar for Pearson Publishing, McGraw-Hill, and Bedford-St. Martin. Twice a year, he teaches comparative American/Russian literature at Vinnyestia State University in the Ukraine.
A Wyoming native who grew up on and ran a ranch, Tom also writes western fiction.
His work was published in the William Faulkner Short Story competition, Journey Magazine, the Westering, Outer Darkness, The American West E-zine, The Scavenger’s Newsletter, Big Muddy: Journal of the Mississippi River Valley, and most recently, Rough Country, an anthology of western stories. He has a publishing contract with High Hill Press, Missouri, for his next two forthcoming short story collections, Stories from Mission County and I’m Right Where You Left Me – More stories from Mission County.
Eaton returns to his family ranch in Wyoming during the summer months to fix fence, see family, and come up with new stories from his native west.
“As a writer, I’m somewhat like a turtle — I carry my home with me and when I get homesick — I just fold in my legs and creep within the pages of my stories. Life is a balance and I’m joyful for having found that. Working within a natural world, sharing in teaching, and in writing are all elements that work together. I am excited about teaching creative writing in Maumelle and the opportunity to teach in the Village Writing School. We all have a story to tell and I want to help people to find that story, share it, and send it out to the common human experience.”
For more information, contact Tom at 573-979-7099 or doctom06vws@gmail.com.
Pricing
Each 8-week series includes: 16 hours of instruction, weekly assignments, critiquing and mentoring.
$150 per series or $400 for all 3 series.
Jess Odom Community Center
1100 Edgewood, Maumelle, AR 72113
For more information, contact Tom at 573-979-7099 or doctom06vws@gmail.com.