Ventura College Gets Emotional With Writers

Ventura College has teamed up with award-winning author Michael Mehas to offer a weekend writing intensive workshop, entitled "The Craft of Building Emotion Into Story."

Teaching the workshop will be Michael Mehas, local attorney and author of the critically acclaimed novel Stolen Boy.

The workshop begins Friday July 18th, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., and continues on Saturday July 19th and Sunday July 20th, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at Ventura College, 71 Day Road, Rm. 3a, Ventura.

Writers of all levels of experience, fiction or nonfiction, are invited to attend. The classes will provide the developing writer with the opportunity to spend an intensive writing weekend learning the craft of constructing engaging plots and believable characters that will grab the readers heartstrings and leave them wanting more.

"There will be no time for weakness of the wrists," says Mehas, who served as associate producer, researcher, and writer on one of last year's most controversial films, Alpha Dog, starring Justin Timberlake, Bruce Willis, and Sharon Stone. "We're going to work on the same elements of craft that great modern writers like Dennis Lehane and Dan Brown use to generate their bestsellers. They're skills you can't find just anywhere. Which is why they call them the 'secrets of the trade.'"

The workshop will offer writers an opportunity to learn the skills necessary to plotting an emotionally packed story. Students will practice writing scenes that trigger emotional switches in the reader. Through scene study, they will also discover character emotional development and how the Yin and Yang of writing mirrors the Yin and Yang of life. "These are all things that are critical to a writer's success," Mehas adds.

Mehas' first novel, Stolen Boy, is based on Jesse James Hollywood, the youngest man ever on the FBI's Most Wanted List. Hollywood, who was charged with orchestrating the kidnapping and murder of fifteen-year-old Nicholas Markowitz in August of 2000, presently faces the death penalty in Santa Barbara.

Stolen Boy has garnered several national literary awards, including a Gold Medal for fiction, from Independent Publisher, Best Book of the Year in Fiction from Books-And-Authors.net, and First Place from the Public Safety Writers Association for Best Novel. The book has also been selected as one of two national finalists for fiction by Indie Excellence Awards and Honorable Mention for Best Fiction from the New York Book Festival.

For further information about the writing workshop, go to www.communityed.venturacollege.com or call 805.654-6459.

To learn more about Michael Mehas or Stolen Boy, go to www.MichaelMehas.com or www.StolenBoy.com.