2012 Conference

“Catch The Wave” Writers Conference

August 22-24, 2013

Registration Open Soon!

A truly top-notch conference and a great value!

The Catch the Wave conference has the best of all worlds for a Christian writers conference. Strong teaching from leaders in the industry in a beautiful Atlanta location, and all for a reasonable price.

The Lodge at Simpsonwood

A first-class retreat and conference center rated number 1 in Gwinnett County, GA.

For directions and more information, visit simpsonwood.org.

Walk-ins and on-site accommodations are available. The price of the conference includes lodging, meals, keynote speakers, workshops, and evening critique sessions. Daily rates are also available for single day and/or local attendees.

See below for registration and pricing information.

What others are saying about Catch The Wave:

• People were friendly and things were organized.
• I loved the combination of friendliness, humility and quality speakers.
• All the presenters were great. Each workshop varied but were very encouraging and inspirational.
• Awesome! Great information and delivery.
• I’m grateful to be part of your conference and had a great time teaching and interacting with people. They are serious about writing, and I have bonded more with this group than any other.

Featured Speakers: TBA for 2013

2012 Conference Featured Speakers:

Lynette Eason – Author

Best-selling award-winning author Lynette Eason has written/contracted twenty-three novels, several of which have hit the CBA best-seller list. Lynette writes for Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense line and Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Lynette is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and Romance Writers of America (RWA). She and her husband and their two children make their home in South Carolina.

www.lynetteeason.com
www.infinitesuspensefromlynetteeason.blogspot.com
www.craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com

Lin Johnson – Editor / Author

Lin Johnson is managing editor of Christian Communicator, Advanced Christian Writer, and Church Libraries; author of more than 70 books, with a specialization in Bible curriculum; a Gold Medallion Book Award and an EPA Higher Goals award recipient; and adjunct professor of writing at Taylor University. She also directs the Write-to-Publish Conference in the Chicago area and teaches at writers’ conferences across the country and internationally.

Tiffany Colter – Writing Coach

Tiffany is a freelance writer for Today’s Christian, Charisma Magazine, Toledo Business Journal, quarterly features for Afictionado E-zine and a monthly column “Ask Your Writing Career Coach” in Suspense Magazine. She served as coordinator of The Master Seminars for Chip MacGregor, and serves as a judge for multiple writing contests. In 2007 she won the Daphne du Maurier award. Tiffany travels, speaks, and teaches business, marketing, time management, and runs online classes. Read more about Tiffany by clicking here.

Les Stobbe, Literary Agent

Executive Editor of the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild, Les Stobbe was founding editor of the Mennonite Observer, served as editor at Christian Life Publications, editorial director of Cambridge Publishers (business magazines), Moody Press Books, Christian Herald Books and Book Clubs, and Here’s Life Publishers Ltd., as managing editor of curriculum for Scripture Press and as editor of Christian Education Journal. For seven years he served as president of Here’s Life Publishers. From 1996 to 2001 Les served as Vice President of Communications at Vision New England in Acton, MA.  He is author or co-author of 14 books and has written more than 700 published articles—and currently keeps his days filled as mentor, article writer, and literary agent. Read more about Les by clicking here.

Mary Lou Redding- Editor/Author

In her current role as Editorial Director for The Upper Room magazine, Mary Lou is responsible for supervising, editing, production, and manuscript distribution of the bimonthly magazine with a circulation of 4.6 million copies in 100+ countries and 39 languages. She has authored six books including Breaking and Mending: Divorce and God’s Grace and Meeting God in Scripture Mary Lou has served on the boards of several religious magazine publications. She is the past president of the Associated Church Press, a group of nearly 200 religious periodicals, and the recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award from the National Educational Press for her children’s story Prisoners of War. CAG welcomes Mary Lou.

On-site Conference Faculty:

Opportunities abound for conference attendees to pitch their writing works to leading industry acquisition agents and editors — at no charge for a 15 minute appointment.  Here is a partial listing of acquisition staff who will be on-site during the conference:

Fay Lamb – Acquisitions Agent

Fay has several important jobs with ACFW, American Christian Fiction Writers, and she has a new book coming out. Visit her website at www.faylamb.com.  As an acquisition agent for Pelican Group Publishing, Fay is accepting submissions during the conference. For writing guidelines, click here.

Nancy Lohr, Acquisitions Editor at JourneyForth Books, acquires for both the youth and adult markets. Nancy has fifteen years of experience in book publishing and was an educator and children’s librarian for two decades before moving to publishing.

On the editor’s side of her desk, her responsibilities range from acquiring manuscripts and illustrations, editing the manuscript, and managing book production. As an author, her personal writing resumé includes a number of published pieces, including two historical novels for children, curriculum stories, Newbery book reviews, and numerous articles for parents and educators.

Tracy Ruckman – Publisher / Acquisitions Editor        Write Integrity Press and Pix-N-Pens.

Tracy Ruckman is currently accepting manuscripts for two publishing companies – Write Integrity Press and Pix-N-Pens Publishing. Books published by Pix-N-Pens  are evangelical in nature. Manuscripts can be fiction or nonfiction, but they must share Jesus in some way. Write Integrity Press manuscripts are more general in nature, and may or may not carry an obvious Christian message, but all are clean and wholesome. We especially like books presented to us in series, and books that offer hope. We’re open to women’s fiction, mystery/suspense, and some historical, as well as a variety of nonfiction projects.

Conference Pricing :

Room: (Price includes room for two nights, kick off dinner, workshops, meals, snacks, and conference fee.)

single: $470 (members $435)

double: $400. (members $365)

triple: $300 (members  $285)

quad: $275 (members $ 250.)

Optional Day attendance:

A.    Thursday Kick-off dinner $30.

B.     Friday only $130 (includes breakfast, lunch, snack, all day classes)

C.     Friday and Saturday (breakfast, lunch, snack, all day classes both days.) $240.

D.    Saturday only $130 (includes breakfast, lunch, snack, all day classes)

Conference Schedule, click here.

Critique Groups Available: CAG members may request a critique group for no charge and non-members pay $25. Make your critique selection on the conference application then download guidelines.

Manuscript Critiques for Conference Attendees:

Each manuscript is $35. The speaker will have a fifteen minute appointment with you at conference to go over the manuscript.

Tiffany Colter will accept romantic suspense, historical fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, speculative fiction, mystery suspense thriller, nonfiction.

Any genre appropriate for 8- 12 or 12-17 year olds.

Please send 3500 words or less.

To send a manuscript to Tiffany. After paying, send  manuscript with cover sheet to Tiffany@WritingCareerCoach.com with “Manuscript Critique” in the subject line. You may call her cell phone to confirm she got your manuscript at 517-936-5896.

Lin Johnson will accept articles, nonfiction books, devotionals for adults, Bible curriculum for any age, Bible study guides from junior to adult.

Articles – may be up to 1,200 words

Devotionals – may be a group of short devotionals up to 10 pages

Nonfiction book – proposal or one chapter

Bible study guide – one study session

Curriculum – one lesson plan

To send a manuscript to Lin: Use Guidelines on 2012 Conference ms cover sheet. Fill out and attach to the first page. After paying, send manuscripts to susanschulz@bellsouth.net  Put “Manuscript Critique” in the subject line.

As a Writing Career Coach, Tiffany Colter mentors aspiring writers in the basics of platform development, marketing and craft BEFORE the first book contract. As the competition grows stiffer, the only thing separating many authors from publication is a potential market who already KNOWS the author.

For established writers, those who are either royalty or subsidy published, Tiffany can give coaching on everything from time management to juggling multiple projects to brainstorming marketing of new books and backlist.

If you have questions, she is ready to help.

25 minutes for $25.

Application:
Click on the link for the 2012 Conference Application
Download and return your completed application via email to conference@christianauthorsguild.org
or mail to: Christian Authors Guild, P.O. Box 2673, Woodstock, GA 30188

Payment may be accepted by check or on-line via PayPal. See Payment page.

CONFERENCE CANCELLATION POLICY:
Cancellations before July 25 will receive a full refund minus a $50 administrative fee. Emergency cancellations after that date will be evaluated on an individual basis.