Weapons, Warfare & High-Caliber Writing: Masterclass At SF Writers Conference
The Class:
High Caliber Writing: Writing firearms and people doing violence to create fascinating characters and visceral action that drives your plot, enriches your setting, and keeps tension wire-tight from page one to The End.
Gripping action is the beating heart of some genres, and can be an invaluable addition to others, but writing it can be difficult because the typical writer has not spent a great deal of time fighting for their life.
Fortunately, the way humans react to stress and danger is largely constant across time and culture. Once a writer understands the basics, writing immersive action becomes a matter of applying consistent reactions to their specific work.
In High Caliber Writing these reactions are shown through the lens of the most common modern tool of violence, firearms. Significantly for authors, the methods used to acquire firearms, the type of firearm, their use, and the emotional and psychological reactions can further develop your character as well as drive your plot forward.
Starting with biology and working outward to entire armies and cultures, using examples taken from the work of bestselling author Lewis Perdue, students will learn how to write top quality murder, havoc, slaughter, and destruction, all while ensuring the participants are suitably terrified (or thrilled).
The People
Karl Henwood was briefly a cop in Oakland, CA, is an Iraq veteran, and has been an Armor officer on the M1 Abrams line of main battle tanks for 18 years. He’s finished two Science Fiction manuscripts and is currently working on a third, He does professional editing on the side. He is currently about to plunge back into the query trenches. He lives with his wife, two children, and a rather strange dog in Boise, Idaho.
Lewis Perdue is a bestselling author of 22 published books including 15 thrillers and 7 non-fiction. He’s an environmental chemical researcher affiliated with the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine and develops AI apps. He has decades of firearms experience and training, and as served in an intelligence capacity with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. He’s also served on the faculties at UCLA and Cornell University, served as a top aide to a U.S. Senator and a state governor, run Congressional races, worked as an investigative reporter (Jack Anderson, Watergate etc.), and as a columnist for The Wall Street Journal Online and TheStreet.Com. He recently sold his freemium wine industry business publication, Wine Industry Insight. More at: Lewisperdue.com. Until her retirement he was represented by the Natasha Kern Literary Agency.
