Upcoming Workshops

Join LIRW for monthly classes and workshops via Zoom! Most classes are free for members. Non-members may sign-up for classes for a fee by clicking REGISTER below

or emailing longislandromancewriters@gmail.com

January 24, 2026

11:00AM-2:00PM EST

Libbie Grant presents: Query Ready

Free for members, $20 for non-members

This hands-on workshop will walk participants through the process of creating an irresistible query letter, a great synopsis, and polished opening pages. Participants will complete the class with a query that’s ready to send to agents and editors, plus the skills necessary to create a great synopsis and revise their opening pages to make them as effective as possible. Topics will include: Crafting a query with a powerful hook; maximizing your bio; understanding and identifying comps; distilling an entire plot into a tight synopsis; evaluating your opening pages for hook, pacing, and voice; and how to improve weak opening pages. Requirement: A manuscript that’s ready for the query process.

Libbie Grant, who also writes as Olivia Hawker, is an author of literary and historical fiction. She is a Washington Post bestseller and has been a finalist for the Washington State Book Award, the Willa Literary Award, and the Audie Award for outstanding audiobooks. Her novel One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow, a favorite of readers around the world, made Amazon's Top 100 Bestselling Books of 2020. A permanent resident of Canada, she divides her time between Victoria, BC and the San Juan Islands of Washington State. For more information, please visit hawkerbooks.com.

March 1st-March 31st

Month-Long Asynchronous Workshop

Linnea Sinclair : Prune Your Prose

$10 for members, $25 for non-members

As the saying goes, “Close only counts in...hand grenades.” Don’t let your manuscript bomb because of easily overlooked errors, or for lack of sophistication and polish. Learn how to make every chapter count, every scene earn its keep, every main character memorable. Award-winning Bantam Random House author Linnea Sinclair will take you through ten tips (and more!) that will make your story shine, move it out of the slush pile, onto an editor’s desk so that—when on the shelves—it can garner reviews that note: A must-read, by an author who never disappoints! Attendees should bring sample pages of their work-in-progress (including their first page) and be prepared to share and improve!

Winner of the prestigious national book award, the RITA®, science fiction romance author Linnea Sinclair is a name synonymous with high-action, emotionally intense, character-driven novels. Her books have claimed spots in the Locus Top Ten and received starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly. Romantic Times BOOKreviews magazine consistently gives Sinclair’s books 4-1/2 stars (their highest rating). Starlog magazine calls Sinclair “one of the reigning queens of science fiction romance.”
Her previous careers include news reporting and private investigation. Since 2000, she’s taught seminars in the craft of writing for all levels of writers via on-line writing sites and at writing conventions nationwide.
Sinclair resides in Pensacola, Florida with her husband, Robert Bernadino, and their thoroughly spoiled cats. Readers can find her perched on the third barstool from the left in her Intergalactic Bar and Grille at www.linneasinclair.com
Website: www.linneasinclair.com
Email: linnea@linneasinclair.com
Represented by: The Nelson Literary Agency

March 28, 2026

11:30AM EST

Jane Cleland presents Tell Your Story to Beat the Bots:
A Writer’s Guide to Thriving and Surviving in the Age of AI

Free for members, $10 for non-members

You have a story to tell, an important story, your story. Getting that story down on paper is hard, though, and with bots taking over the writing market, authors worry they’ll soon become irrelevant. The answer isn’t to surrender to the doom and gloom predictions. On the contrary, it’s time to lean into your humanity, to do what artificial intelligence can’t—be creative. AI is, by definition, derivative, so the trick is to come up with new ideas, new structures, new approaches. In this webinar, you’ll learn how to harness your innate creativity using science-based creativity-boosting techniques to come up with fresh ideas. When you bring your creativity, your individuality, and your judgment to your work, you’ll out-write a chatbot all day long.

Jane K. Cleland is an Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards finalist and a seven-time winner of the David Award for Best Novel for her long-running Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries (novels published by St. Martin’s Minotaur and short fiction published by Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine). Books in the series have received starred reviews from Library Journal and Shelf Awareness, and the series has been optioned for TV/film.

Jane is also the author of several acclaimed books on the craft of writing, including Beat the Bots: A Writer’s Guide to Surviving and Thriving in the Age of AI, praised by Louise Penny as “Brilliant!” Her earlier books, Mastering Suspense, Structure & Plot and Mastering Plot Twists, each won the Agatha Award.

Jane teaches writing at Lehman College (City University of New York), mentors in Western Connecticut State University’s MFA program, and serves on the faculty of Writer’s Digest University. She is Vice President of Mystery Writers of America’s Florida chapter, a past President of the New York chapter, and has served on MWA’s National Board. She is also a member of International Thriller Writers and Sisters in Crime.

More information can be found at https://janecleland.com.

Long Island Romance Writers