From Nan Rinella, Director of The C.S. Lewis Retreat

To begin with—I’m going. That’s the strongest endorsement I can think of.

I’ve had the pleasure of attending the 2010 NTCW conference — on the prompting of Thomas Umstattd, the president of Castle Media, who said Frank Ball’s conference was one of the best run he’d ever attended. Thomas has attended many Christian writers conferences including the best of them. Thomas is a social media and web technology guru extraordinaire.

If you’ve attended The C.S. Lewis Foundation Southwest Regional Retreat and Writers Workshop at Camp Allen, Texas, in 2009 or 2010, you’ve enjoyed and benefited from Frank and Thomas’s teaching sessions. Thomas also spoke in 2011 and will be a presenter again for the Writers Workshop Track for The C.S. Lewis Retreat November 8-11, 2012

Our writers retreat this year is Lewis-centric and is focused on the writer. Our pre-retreat workshop will feature sessions on writing, publishing, and social media. But if you are looking for a concentrated comprehensive conference on the writing craft, I advise the NTCW event this month, the 22^nd and 23^rd.

Frank Ball has gathered an impressive faculty providing instruction for novice, intermediate, and advanced writers, fiction and nonfiction, plus a program for high schoolers. Personally, I’m attending DiAnn Mill’s Fiction Mentoring Clinic. I have an appointment with Thomas for website coaching. I’m always too busy to talk with him when I’m working at our retreat at Camp Allen. I’ve also signed up for Explore Your Character’s Psyche with Dr. John Savell. What an intriguing idea.

Do join me in Fort Worth. There is so much we can learn about the essentials of writing in this day and age. But we shouldn’t pass up the gems we can glean from the greats either. You’ll have four months to put into practice what you garner from NRCW.

Then by November you’ll be ready to come to The C.S. Lewis Retreat and  benefit from what C.S. Lewis and his writers group, The Inklings, can teach you.

1. Preliminary Schedule
2. Tracks summary
3. Writers Workshop Track
4. Readers Track
5. Web Banners
6. Blog

Enjoy! And don’t forget that if you register by July 15th, you can save up to $65 per person!!

For you writers out there, we highly recommend the North Texas Christian Writers Conference. For the full, ultimate writers experience (inspiration + community + discipleship + techniques + tips + contacts + worship + the arts) come to both the NTCWC and The C.S. Lewis Retreat!

Their Early Bird rate ends tonight. Here’s information from an email they sent out earlier today.

Early bird registration rates end TODAY

The ninth annual North Texas Christian Writers’ Conference is coming soon and early bird registration rates end TODAY, May 15.

This year, with a faculty of 19 and 35 elective classes, you’ll be able to narrow your focus to the courses that address your particular need. Be sure to sign up for the free fifteen-minute consultations with instructors who most closely offer subjects in your area of interest. The faculty is eager to help with your specific issues or answer your questions. The best assurance for getting one of the private meetings is to come early each day and go to the sign-up sheets posted daily.

Faculty bios and class descriptions can be found under Events at:  www.NTChristianWriters.com

During the conference, a limited number of sixty-minute spots are available for private editing consultations with a professional editor. You may also take advantage of thirty-minute website and social media coaching consultation appointments, as well as thirty-minute appointments with a psychologist to explore your characters’ psyche. These special consultation appointments are on a first-come, first-served basis. The consultation times will be an additional cost and are not included in the conference registration fee. When you REGISTER for the conference, consultations times will be shown, available for purchase at that time.

A few seats are still open for the Fiction Mentoring Clinic with DiAnn Mills on June 21-23 (three-full days this year).

Email Linda Franklin for more information.

Participants may register to come a day early for special workshop programming on the evening of Thursday, November 8th through the morning of Friday, November 9th.

Confirmed speakers and performing artists will be announced soon!

The topic this year will be C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce.