The Cedar Falls Christian Writers Workshop has been held annually at the beautiful Riverview Conference Center in Cedar Falls since 2003 until this year, when we had to move it online for a live virtual event experience, due to the coronavirus threat. Our virtual days are a little varied from our usual design. We will still meet both Thursday and Friday all day, although we will end in the afternoons. Rather than extend it into Saturday morning, we chose to start the workshop with a kick-off keynote and get-acquainted time on Wednesday evening before. The workshop will end on Friday afternoon. Check the Schedule tab for details.
We hope to be back in 2021 at this serene venue in person, so keep this image to your left in your mind and these dates on your calendar: June 17-19, 2021. And if it is possible to gather in person before the 2021 workshop, we just might have a little party or co-working retreat there.
Our workshop was founded in 2003 by Shelly Beach and Pat Larsen and has been hosted for many years by Cedar Falls Christian Writers Group and coordinated by Jean Vaux and Sue Schuerman, with Shelly Beach consulting and Mary Potter Kenyon helping with marketing. Not only do workshop participants love our workshop, the speakers love it as well, because it affords everyone more opportunities to connect and communicate.
Shelly Beach and her husband, Dan, moved back to Iowa from Michigan in 2019 and we are blessed to have her and all her talent and connections back in our community. She initially was our keynote speaker this year, however, she has a family emergency and needs to be out-of-town during our workshop to attend to it. We are keeping Shelly and her family in our prayers and are grateful that James Watkins has stepped into our keynote speaker role for our 2020 virtual workshop. Keep up with Shelly at PTSDPerspectives.org, PTSDPerspectives and Caregiving Journey on Facebook, and ShellyBeachOnline.com
James Watkins is an award-winning author of over 2,000 articles and author, co-author and contributor to over 40 books, (see https://www.jameswatkins.com/books-2/book-list/), including a timely Our Daily Bread Guide to Everyday Life: Overcoming Fear and Worry, published in late 2019. He has served as an editor and editorial director at Wesleyan Publishing House, an editor with the American Bible Society, editorial advisor for ACW Press, and taught writing at Taylor University for 15 years. Jim has been a guest-lecturer all over the country and the world, including the Cedar Falls Christian Writers Workshop in 2015. He is currently writing and speaking full-time as well as consulting in book development. His most important roles, however, are being a child of God, husband, dad and “papaw.” Jim lives in Indiana and is passionate about spreading hope and humor and teaching others to express themselves through writing. His prolific website resides at www.jameswatkins.com and you can find his hope and humor on Facebook at James Watkins. Jim is a very funny guy and he will be giving us the straight story on editing so that your work is more likely to be accepted.
The 2020 live online workshop will include time to write, break into smaller groups and apply learning as we go. Come join the fun and fellowship! Get engaged and refreshed with your writing!