[large] Author Morgan St. James to present workshops at Las Vegas Writers Conference[/large]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) April 4, 2010 -- After discovering their mutual love of funny mysteries, St. James and her sister, Phylllice Bradner, began writing together. Both were published writers in different genres, but neither had written fiction. These young-hearted seniors set out to create a funny series with main characters based upon their own personalities, and added a pair of eighty-year-old former vaudeville magicians. However, they decided to make the Silver Sisters identical twins—silver-haired Mae West lookalikes as different as Goodwill and Gucci.

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Author Morgan St. James to present workshops at Las Vegas Writers Conference

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At the time Bradner lived in Juneau, AK and St. James lived in Mar Vista, CA, so they had to figure out how to write long distance. With Bradner now living in McMinnville, OR and St. James splitting time between Marina Del Rey, CA and Las Vegas, NV, they still write long distance, and have become best friends in the bargain.

The audio edition of their first comical crime caper, A Corpse in the Soup, released in 2007, was named Best Mystery Audio Book by USA Book News. It was re-released in 2009, by L&L Dreamspell, followed by Seven Deadly Samovars in 2009. They are currently finishing the third caper, Vanishing Act in Vegas. St. James also looks forward to the upcoming release of her two romantic-suspense novels, Devil’s Dance and The Devil’s Due, written as Arliss Adams.

A frequent panelist, speaker and workshop presenter, her workshops “Crafting Twists and Dropping Clues” and “The Art of Drawing Pictures with Words” will be presented at the conference on April 15. The “Twists” workshop will be repeated on April 16.

St. James says, “I’ve developed these workshops to share what I’ve learned since transitioning from writing magazine articles to writing fiction. There are many ways to plant subtle clues that produce “head-slap” moments when the twist is revealed. It is very important for the author to drop those clues. The reader is generally trying to solve the crime as they read the book. It isn’t fair to throw a twist at the reader when there hasn’t been one indication that it might happen. You need to drop those little gems as the story unfolds, but the trick is to make them so innocuous that the reader doesn’t attach importance to them until the twist is revealed.”

When asked about twists, she smiled and said, “Maybe I’m a bit diabolical, but I love crafting twists. The mysteries I write, whether Silver Sisters, short stories or writing as Arliss Adams always include one or more delicious twists. My workshop takes a good look at how the author can use a multitude of devices to do this.”

As for drawing pictures with words, St. James stated that is a definite art. “My workshop uses examples of word pictures by various authors—images that place the reader right in the middle of what’s happening, scenes where they actually feel like a voyeur or word pictures so realistic the reader perceives the person or place as three dimensional."

The Las Vegas Writers Conference, April 15-17, 2010 is an intimate conference limited to 150 attendees. It is still possible to register by visiting the website. www.lasvegaswritersconference.com.

St. James also writes “how to” articles for www.perpetualprose.com and two weekly columns for www.examiner.com Las Vegas edition. Her Tuesday columns for Examiner feature a Spotlight on local authors, visiting authors, events and organizations involved in publishing and the Friday column is a selective listing of writing community events around Las Vegas.

More information can be found online at http://www.morganstjames-author.com

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