Past Appearances in Various Venues
Colorado Gold Conference (Sept 27-29, 2024)
- Middle Edits: Between First Draft and Line Edits
Colorado Gold Conference (Sept 8-10, 2023)
- Screenwriting 101
- Tools of the Pitch: One line, One Paragraph, One Page
PIkes Peak Writers Conference (April 28-30, 2023)
- Writing a Nonfiction Book Proposal
- Troubleshooting Fiction: Developmental, Middle, and Line Edits
- Undercurrent: Using Subtext to Pull Readers Into Your Story
Scribophile - online two week course (April 10-21, 2023)
- Write Three-Dimensional Stories by Mastering the Art of Subtext
Colorado Gold Conference (Sept 9-11, 2022)
- All Great Characters are Unreliable
- Detours to Success: Reinventing Yourself
- From Rough to Ready: Developmental, Middle and Line Editing
Castle Rock Conference (Sept 25, 2021)
- Have a Nonfiction Book in You? (on-line)
Colorado Gold Conference (2021)
Colorado Gold Conference (Sept 8, 2019)
- Voice
Colorado Gold Conference (Sept 6-9, 2018)
- Make Your Readers Come to You
RWA Kiss of Death - July 2018
- The Magic Sales Tools
(open to the public, on line)
He
- Crafting and Delivering a Pitch
Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers University (on-line) March 12-25
-Writing Effective Flashbacks
Castle Rock Writers Conference (Oct 22, 2016)
- Explore Ways to "Write Your Life"
Colorado Gold Conference (Sept 9-10, 2016)
- The Magic Sales Tools: One Line, One Paragraph, One Page
- Surviving Criticism (panel with Kazimer, Baker, Reed, and Reisner)
RWA Kiss of Death (on-line) Jan 4-29, 2016
- Your Voice, Your Characters
(open to the public, on-line)
Colorado Gold Conference (Sept 11-13, 2015)
- The Writing Biz: Truth and Lies with Money
Castle Rock Writers Conference (Oct 4, 2014)
- Short Stories
- How to Tell a Great Story
Colorado Gold Conference (Sept 5-7, 2014)
- Etiquette for Writers
PPW On-Line Write Brain Course , Delve (June 17, 2014)
- Parlay Your Writing (free on-line course about reinventing yourself)
Princess Cruise Lines - Sea Princess (5/1/14 - 5/14/14)
- Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Samoa, Figi, New Caledonia, Sydney
Pikes Peak Writers Conference - Adjunct Faculty 4/24/14--4/27/14
- Writing Etiquette for Success
- Get Real! Telling Your Story with Nonfiction (3-hour master class)
- Ghostwriting (with Laura Hayden)
Celebrity Cruise - Equinox (12/9/13 - 12/20/13)
- Fort Lauderdale, George Town, Cartahena, Colon, Belize, Costa Rica, Cozumel
Celebrity Cruise - Eclipse (6/22/13 - 7/6/13)
- Southampton, Bruges, Berlin, Stockholm, Helsinke, St. Petersburg, Tallin, Copenhagen
Colorado Gold Conference - Presenter (9/9/13-9/11/13)
- Book to Script
- Critique
Pikes Peak Writers Conference - Adjunct Faculty 4/19/12--4/22/12
- MIle High Concept: The Big Idea (3-hour Master Class with Esri Allbritten)
- Nonfiction Book Proposals
- Writing Your Life
Telling Tales in the Tipi Summer Workshop Series - Adjunct Faculty
- Self Editing From the Base Up - 4/14/12
2011 Colorado Gold Conference - Presenter (Sept 9-11)
- I've Been Here Before - Writing Effective Flashbacks
- Perfecting the Pitch--Life Isn't Just An Elevator Ride
2011 Pikes Peak Writers Conference - Adjunct Faculty
- Writing Your LIfe--What's Your Angle? (3-hour Master Class)
- Self Editing
- High Concept
- Building a Non-Fiction Platform (panel)
- Non-Fiction Proposals
Workshop: 11/6/10 Pikes Peak Writers Volunteer Retreat
- Tricks for Staying Motivated
2010 Colorado Gold Conference - Presenter
- High Concept - Titilate Me, But Do It Fast
- Want To Turn Your Novel Into A Screenplay?
- Critique
2010 Pikes Peak Writers Conference - Adjunct Faculty
(with collaborator Janet Fogg)
- Collaboration 101
- Screenwriting 101
Boulder Writers Meetup Group 7/17/10
- Landing a Top Agent
Workshops: 8/1/09 PPW Volunteer Retreat
- I’ve Been Here Before: Writing Effective Flashbacks
- Editing from the Base Up – A Builder’s Approach
Workshops: 8/9/08 PPW Volunteer Retreat
- High Concept
- Nonfiction Book Proposals
Boulder Writers Meetup Group 10/03/09
- High Concept for novelists, nonfiction writers, and screenwriters.
Pikes Peak Writers Success Story Panel May 9, 2006
Spoke in and facilitated writing workshops
for high schools and middle schools (2003-2009)
\Guest YouTube (11/15/22)
or
Guest podcast on Rocky Mountain Writers
Interview with Mark Stevens
Ups & Downs & One Big Cautionary Tale
About Working With Literary Agents
Private Pitch Coach - Pikes Peak Writers Conference 2009
Pitch workshops:
Speed Pitch Coach - Pikes Peak Writers Conference 2009
Pitch Practice - Pikes Peak Writers Conference 2011
Moderator:
2004 & 2008 & 2010 Pikes Peak Writers Conference
Interviews:
2004 MovieBytes Magazine
"Karen Lin -- you are freaking brilliant. Thank you for the in depth discussion of the non-fic proposal process. I can now nail this sucker and get it out :)” - Deb Courtney
"Hey, what a terrific class on subtext. You took a loosey-goosey topic and made it really understandable and actionable. As a matter of fact, I'm doing another editing pass on my ms. and have run across a bunch of places where, fortunately, Karen was watching over my shoulder. You helped me catch sloppiness, imprecision, and I got rid of several lazy 'felts'!" -- Debbie Burke
"Karen -- Thank you for your talk at our group yesterday. I am new at this and I never fail to learn from the presentations. Yours was a winner for me. After I thought about High Concepts and Log Lines I was sufficiently moved to sit down after the Rockies game last night, with a story line totally fresh for me, and write a 2200 word short story. Without your presentation, my magazine pitch would have been dreadfully long, and lacked the punch I am able to give it, not to mention coming up with a title I like. Thanks.” – Tom Parsons, Boulder Writers Meetup Group
“Karen, Thank you so much for all your wonderful workshops and lectures at RMFW conference this year! It was such a pleasure to attend your High Concept course and it really helped me solidify my pitch and to help others do the same. (Thanks to you I was asked to submit my full MS to the agent of my dreams!) I look forward to seeing you at a future workshop or lecture soon!" - Bree Ervin
"Wow, what can I say about Karen. Obviously she is good since she is on my nominee <for best speaker> list twice! She is a published author with a passion to help us peons… I mean aspiring authors… with our craft. Her first workshop was amazing. So much so, I jumped from my seat to share my pitch for DRAGONS FOREVER. She critiqued it beautifully and made me feel like I really had something. Which of course is awesome. Then I had her again for the Critique workshop. Mostly talking about how important critique partners are and how to get groups set up if you want them. I know how important they are and am fortunate to have a critique partner whom I can call on anytime of the day. But more then once during the day I heard people talking about Karen’s workshop and how it’s helped them figure out where to go. Excellent topics, good information, well thought out responses and just overall great great lady." -
"It was such a privilege getting to know you and listening to your wisdom. Your presentations were so organized, interesting and easy to follow. I look forward to listening to the tape as a refresher." - Trish Whynot
“Karen is a brilliant instructor with years of experience coaching newbies and oldies alike. She teaches you to look at your work in a new way. Instead of examining it under the microscope for minor flaws and wayward commas, she shows you how to soar above it and get that eagle’s eye view. Are your plains rolling? Are your peaks jutting? Have you lost the forest for the trees? And most importantly, does your winding road of narrative actually take you where you think it does?
She professionally and compassionately shows you how to tear down your own defenses and open your eyes to what’s really on the page so you can see past what you thought you put there, wanted to put there, meant to put there – to what actually IS there.
Karen worked with all of us, as a group and individually. She showed us all the broad steps of self-editing, that soaring eagle’s eye view we need to take, and how to move in closer and closer to work out the details once that sweeping scene has been painted, and the road from Beginning to End has been put in.
She asked deep, probing questions, making sure we were seeing the traps we’d laid out for ourselves so we could step around them, or re-work them to our benefit.
When she left, well after lunch, we were all changed writers. We all had a new way of looking at our work, at our words, at our process even.
Cathy Bradner wrote to tell me: I loved Karen, she’s a wise editor, truly inspiring and gave ‘right on’ advice.”
-- Bree Ervin - in reference to April 14, 2012 Tales in the Tipi Self Editing Workshop. Bree's Blog