In Time, Place and Beyond: Bring Your Setting To Life, will examine various methods for plunging your reader into your setting and making it real.

We will cover:

• The Basics—Time, place and mood.
• World Buildings—Researching your setting.
• Make Your Setting a Character—Give your setting a unique personality.
• Storyboarding—It’s not just for plotting anymore!
• Those Who Forget the Past—The history of your setting.
• Geography 101—Your setting’s geography.
• Moody Blues—Creating your setting’s mood.
• It’s Tradition!—How tradition and folklore can reveal your setting.
• Bonus Lesson: Creating you fictional setting

Included in the workshop is a workbook with assignments, worksheets, and more.

I believe I was destined to be interested in history. One of my distant ancestors, Thomas Aubert, reportedly sailed up the St. Lawrence River to discover Canada some 26 years before Jacques Cartier’s 1534 voyage. Another relative was a 17^thCentury “King’s Girl,” one of a group of young unmarried girls sent to New France (now the province of  Quebec) as brides for the habitants (settlers) there.

My passion for reading made me long to write books like the ones I enjoyed, and I tried penning sequels to my favorite Nancy Drew mysteries. Later, fancying myself a female version of Andrew Lloyd Weber, I drafted a musical set in Paris during WWII.

A former journalist and lifelong Celtophile, I enjoyed a previous career as a reporter/editor for a small chain of community newspapers before returning to my first love, romantic fiction. My stories usually include an Irish setting, hero or heroine, and sometimes all three.

I’m the author of The Claddagh Series, historical romances set in Ireland and beyond, and The Wild Geese Series, in which five Irish heroes return from the American Civil War to find love and adventure.

This workshop will be conducted live via Zoom.com and recorded for future viewing by RWO members and paid students for 90 days after the workshop. Please visit Zoom Support for their guidance on system requirements for Windows, macOS, and Linux computer systems.

Do I have to have a paid Zoom account to participate? No, we use the Romance Writers Online account to host Zoom workshops. You just need a free account.

What time will the workshop start? We usually go live ten minutes before the listed start time so please join us then.

How long will the workshop run? We usually go about 90 minutes.

Will I be able to ask questions? Of course! The workshop moderator will announce at the beginning of the session how the presenter will handle questions and comments.