I had a really great time meeting somewhere in the neighborhood of 23 local writers on Saturday at the Provo Library. We talked about writing science fiction and fantasy for children and young adults, and in that context we talked about hooking agents and editors and young readers themselves with killer first chapters and beyond. I think my favorite part of the afternoon was getting volunteers to read their first hook and then the collegial atmosphere when we applied what we’d been talking about as we discussed how to improve those samples.

Thanks to everyone who came! I think a writing group grew from it, as well. Good luck with your writing.

I think I’ll try to do a seminar like this every quarter or so, and perhaps a few other classes, perhaps getting more in-depth on other aspects of writing science fiction and fantasy for young readers. Suggestions for class topics welcome, and if anyone from the class has further questions I’m happy to answer them.