Workshops
We're not sure if she's even human. Join us as the hilarious Rachel Hollis kicks off our weekend with her color-coordinated (possibly scented) life advice
The importance of character development and plot structure. A fifty-minute workshop with Willow Aster
A fifty-minute session with writing sensation Colleen Hoover on how to WOW
The art of turning reality into fiction with the talented Dina Silver
Learn how to outline, structure, and organize your thoughts into a working manuscript with NYT bestseller Karina Halle
How to build confidence and what to do for inspiration with Tarryn Fisher
A panel discussion with experts in the field on their journey to becoming traditionally published with Anna Todd, Dina Silver, S.L. Jennings & more
Wattpad wonder Anna Todd talks about her unique journey to success and balancing a career with your everyday life
How to utilize Amazon's platform
Speakers
Willow Aster is the author of USA Today bestseller, True Love Story, In the Fields, Maybe Maby, and Fade to Red. Willow loves nothing more than writing the day away—anywhere will do. Her husband and two children graciously put up with her endless daydreaming; otherwise, the writing would never get done. She’s also an avid reader, and has been known to walk, cook, and clean with her nose in a book. She’s lived in Texas, Tennessee, Indiana, and California, but Minnesota has captured her now and doesn’t seem to be letting go.
Tarryn Fisher is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author of nine novels. Born a sun hater, she currently makes her home in Seattle, Washington with her children, fiancé, and psychotic husky. Tarryn writes about villains.
Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of The Pact, Love, in English, The Artists Trilogy, Dirty Angels and over 20 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.
Rachel Hollis is the founder of Los Angeles-based Chic Media, the parent company of her popular lifestyle website The Chic Site. Chic Media specializes in creating premium content for women and their ability to tap into an engaged and voracious fan base is the foundation of their meteoric rise in white label content and social campaigns for the highest-level brand partnerships. At 27, Rachel was named by Inc. Magazine as one of the “Top 30 Entrepreneurs under 30” and she has built off that momentum every since. She began her career as an event planner and has designed and produced fabulous parties for many of Hollywood’s elite, including Bradley Cooper, Rashida Jones, Al Gore, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jamie King, and Cuba Gooding Jr. (just to name a few). Hollis is also the author of the Amazon Bestselling women’s fiction series, “The Girls” published by Lake Union Publishing. The series focuses on young women on different career paths and includes the books Party Girl, Sweet Girl and Smart Girl. In addition, Thomas Dunne Books published Rachel’s first cookbook entitled Upscale Downhome in October 2016 and will publish the follow up in Summer of 2018. Her first inspirational non-fiction book called: Girl, Wash Your Face will be published by Thomas Nelson in 2018.
Colleen Hoover is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including the #1 bestseller, Hopeless. She lives in Texas with her husband and three children. She is the founder of The Bookworm Box, a book subscription service which donates 100% of its proceeds to charity. She also owns The Bookworm Box, a specialty bookstore located in Sulphur Springs, TX.
S.L. Jennings is a proud military wife to her high school sweetheart, a mom of 3 rowdy boys, and a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary and paranormal romance. When she’s not obsessing over book boyfriends, you can find her hanging out with a few epic fictional loves at independent bookstores or sipping Bloody Marys at her favorite brunch haunts in Spokane, Washington. She’s a self-proclaimed food snob, makeup junkie and lover of all things shiny, sparkly and kitschy.
R.K. Lilley lives in Texas with her husband and their two beautiful sons. She’s had a lot of interesting jobs, from being a first class flight attendant, to being a stablehand, but swears she never knew what hard work was until she had children. She’s been addicted to both reading and writing fiction since she can remember. She loves to travel, read, hike, paint, game, watch anime, and make the most of every single day. She is the author of In Flight, Bad Things, and Breaking Him, to name a few. She is currently hard at work on her next contemporary erotic romance and the second book in her urban fantasy series, Crossing Fire.
I got fired from my last job. It’s true. I know you’re sitting there thinking, “Jenn, how could anyone in their right mind fire someone like you?” And I’d love to give you a good reason, but the truth is that sometimes being all sorts of awesome isn’t fun for other people. They don’t always tend to like it.
So I picked my pride off the floor, bought a laptop and started writing my first book. And you know what I realized? Writing stories that meant something to me was a million times better than working my ass off for someone who didn’t really care about anything other than the bottom line.
My soul has never felt more satisfied. My heart has never been more full. I’ve never worked so hard in my life, but I love every second of it. I truly do. It is SO worth it. All of it. Every moment. The journey it took to get to this point- I wouldn’t change a thing.
So thank you for reading, loving and recommending the stories I write to other people. Your word of mouth is my very best friend…. that and your reviews. I sincerely appreciate each and every one of you.
Anna Todd is a writer spending her days in Los Angeles, with her husband. She has always been an avid reader and boy band and romance lover, so now that she’s found a way to combine the three she’s enjoying living a real-life dream come true. She now knows what life is like when you get to do what you love. She also has a thing for things that begin with T’s: Tom Hanks, TOMS, Target. Anna is the author of After, After We Collided, After We Fell, After Ever Happy, Before, Nothing More, Nothing Less.
Sponsors
Sponsorship opportunities for the author retreat are available.
Please email WriteOrDieRetreat@gmail.com to inquire on how you can help us to make this retreat a huge success.
Hard Rock Cafe
116 Pike Street
Seattle, WA 98101
September 29th – 30th, 2017
9AM – 4PM
SEA Seattle-Tacoma International Airport