The Bowers House Writers Retreat and Literary Center

Category: Announcements

Category: Announcements

Building Characters for Fiction ‘Writers Guild Retreat’ January 2023

Repeat of Successful Retreat for Intermediate Writers: Creating Captivating Characters

At the September Building Fictional Characters Workshop Retreat participants enjoy the eat in kitchen while awating  instruction and writing assignment under the direction of Charles Prier

JANUARY 26-29, 2023 

at The Bowers House Writers Retreat

Are you struggling to bring your fiction characters to life on the page?
Want to create more lovable heroes and hateful villains that readers simply can’t get enough of?
Looking to publish a book that will live on in the hearts and minds of readers forever?

If so, then don’t miss the Writers Guild Retreat at The Bowers House focusing on FICTIONAL CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

Inside this intensive three-day workshop, you’ll learn how to create unforgettable characters that propel your plot forward and grab your reader’s attention – page after page. Led by Charles Prier, accomplished author and publisher, this game-changing event includes dynamic presentations, videos, group discussions, hands-on writing exercises and assignments. This illuminating retreat also includes a fictional character immersion session with special guest, Javon Johnson, an award-winning writer, educator and actor. Once the weekend comes to a close, you’ll walk away with the knowledge, skills and confidence to craft riveting characters that animate your story and deliver your message to the world. Ready to elevate your writing skills and learn how to create captivating characters?

$500 includes lodging meals and workshops

Application: Charlie Read 954-888-8948 txt or call

More information or questions, Charles Prier
(706) 246-9421 or (706) 436-9632
charles@priernet.com

Become the Writer You Were Meant to Be at The Bowers House

Terry Kay, George Singleton, Alice Friman, Scott Russell Sanders, Anne Pancake, Alison Hawthorne Deming … these are just a few of The Georgia Review alums who have sought refuge at The Bowers House to further hone their craft and perfect their stories before releasing them to the world.

Living Room at The Bowers House

For decades, this 100-year-old historic registry railroad hotel nestled in the sleepy hamlet of Canon has provided writers with the seclusion and inspiration they needed to move forward with their most important works. Perhaps their creativity ripened under starry nights or amid spiral-vined gardens, in the thick shade of towering magnolias or the comforting embrace of the wraparound porch here at The Bowers House. If you’re ready to follow in the footsteps of some of the most acclaimed authors out there, consider a retreat or residency with us.

Meet Charles Prier, Retreat Director

Charles Prier has been a writer for 30 years with stints in trade publishing, the tech industry, local news and fiction. As director of Writers Guild at The Bowers House for the past 12 years, he has mentored and coached countless members on their journeys to become published authors. The author of four books,

Writers Guild and Retreat Director, Charles Prier (l) with Terry Kay, “To Dance with the White Dog,” an inductee into The Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, on his 82nd birthday.
Writers Guild and Retreat Director, Charles Prier (l) with Terry Kay, “To Dance with the White Dog,” an inductee into The Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, on his 82nd birthday.

Charles has also edited and published the work of more than 20 members.

About Javon Johnson, Special Guest

We are thrilled to welcome Javon Johnson to the January 2023 retreat. An award-winning writer whose work includes musicals, films and literary fiction,Javon is also an educator and talented actor who has appeared on “The Oval” (2019), “American Soul” (2019) and “Survivor’s Remorse” (2014). Johnson will conduct a fictional character immersion session from the dual perspective of an actor and a writer while sharing his favorite character development exercises and techniques.

A special guest workshop session on author character immersions conducted by writer, educator and playwright Javon Johnson who wrote the acclaimed musical “Sanctified.”
A special guest workshop session on author character immersions conducted by writer, educator and playwright Javon Johnson

 $500 Retreat fee includes: Locally inspired and prepared meals, and comfortable living space and private rooms with work area.
Thursday 91/26 – Arrival check-in 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. 7 p.m. Orientation, Meet and Greet social.
Friday 1/27 – Daytime workshops and special guest, Javon Johnson, evening writing assignments.
Saturday 1/28 – Daytime workshops and writing.
Sunday 1/29 – Summary, Recognition, farewell, free time afternoon. Participants may remain for at $75 per person per additional night.

The Writers Guild at The Bowers House January 2023 Retreat focuses providing experienced writers featuring an intensive three-day workshop on creating memorable characters. The essential phrase “know your character backwards and forwards” encapsulates the focus of this three-day workshop.

I The fundamentals of character invention
II Building Characters
III Reader/Character relationships
IV Character-to-character relationships

 

Begin with the Character • Character Properties Flaws and Habits • Likability • Character Motivation • Character Arcs • You Are Not Your Character • Basing Your Characters on Real People • Characters as metaphors • Exploiting Cultural Influence in Character Development

$500 includes lodging meals and tour
Reservations: Charlie Read 954-888-8948 text or call please

More detail and questions: Charles Prier
 (706) 436-9632
charles@priernet.com

A retreat for experienced writers featuring
an intensive workshop on creating
memorable characters led by Charles Prier,
Retreat Director and Program Manager
at The Bowers House

Join Writers Guild at The Bowers House

Want to get the ongoing support and guidance you need to become a better writer? Then join Writers Guild at The Bowers House. The group meets on the second Wednesday of each month from 1-3 p.m. For $25 a year, you’ll receive coaching and lesson plans from Charles Prier, valuable feedback from peers, and a chance to meet and learn from writers just like you. Membership is open to writers at every skill level. We are currently developing remote attendance guidelines so non-local members can participate in group discussions. Visit bhwriters.org for details. The Bowers House is available for group overnight rentals to writers and artists and individual member residencies. Donations and sponsorships are encouraged. Call family custodian Charlie Read at 954-888-8948.

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Molly Read Woo Sings from Book at Bowers Hour Recording

BOWERS HOUR PERFORMANCE

9/3/22 7PM

Molly Read Woo, an Atlanta, GA-based novelist and award-winning reporter, published The Red and Black Breed, a murder mystery, in 2011. As a journalist, she captured six Georgia Press Association Awards for writing and photography while reporting for several newspapers in the Southeast. In 2006, she presented The Read Report, a documentary to help Georgia improve the effectiveness of its disaster preparedness programs. She graduated with honors from the UGA School of Journalism. Woo will read and perform original music she composed for the book a a filming of Bowers Hour at The Bowers House and a reading from the novel.

Reservations are required. There is a private showing of Paige Priers fine art paintings which are on sale online. The showing will start at 5PM before the recorded performance. RSVP for gallery show or performance 954-888-8948 call or text Charlie Read

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Charles Prier’s ‘Writers Guild’ September Retreat

Learn How to Create Captivating Characters

Jess Fowler and Paige Prier contribute to a Bowers Hour production, shown here with grandfather, Charles Prier Retreat Director and head of Writers Guild at The Bowers House

September 22, 2022 through September 25, 2022
at The Bowers House Writers Retreat

Are you struggling to bring your fiction characters to life on the page?
Want to create more lovable heroes and hateful villains that readers simply can’t get enough of?
Looking to publish a book that will live on in the hearts and minds of readers forever?

If so, then don’t miss the Writers Guild Retreat at The Bowers House, September 22-25, 2022.

Inside this intensive three-day workshop, you’ll learn how to create unforgettable characters that propel your plot forward and grab your reader’s attention – page after page. Led by Charles Prier, accomplished author and publisher, this game-changing event includes dynamic presentations, videos, group discussions, hands-on writing exercises and assignments. This illuminating retreat also includes a fictional character immersion session with special guest, Javon Johnson, an award-winning writer, educator and actor. Once the weekend comes to a close, you’ll walk away with the knowledge, skills and confidence to craft riveting characters that animate your story and deliver your message to the world. Ready to elevate your writing skills and learn how to create captivating characters? Contact Charles Prier at 706-246-9421 or 706-436-9632. charles@priernet.com

$750 includes lodging meals and tour( $600 reserved before Sept 6)

Application: Charles Prier
(706) 246-9421 or (706) 436-9632
charles@priernet.com

Become the Writer You Were Meant to Be at The Bowers House

Terry Kay, George Singleton, Alice Friman, Scott Russell Sanders, Anne Pancake, Alison Hawthorne Deming … these are just a few of The Georgia Review alums who have sought refuge at The Bowers House to further hone their craft and perfect their stories before releasing them to the world.

For decades, this 100-year-old historic registry railroad hotel nestled in the sleepy hamlet of Canon has provided writers with the seclusion and inspiration they needed to move forward with their most important works. Perhaps their creativity ripened under starry nights or amid spiral-vined gardens, in the thick shade of towering magnolias or the comforting embrace of the wraparound porch here at The Bowers House. If you’re ready to follow in the footsteps of some of the most acclaimed authors out there, consider a retreat or residency with us.

Meet Charles Prier, Retreat Director

Charles Prier has been a writer for 30 years with stints in trade publishing, the tech industry, local news and fiction. As director of Writers Guild at The Bowers House for the past 12 years, he has mentored and coached countless members on their journeys to become published authors. The author of four books,

Writers Guild and Retreat Director, Charles Prier (l) with Terry Kay, “To Dance with the White Dog,” an inductee into The Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, on his 82nd birthday.
Writers Guild and Retreat Director, Charles Prier (l) with Terry Kay, “To Dance with the White Dog,” an inductee into The Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, on his 82nd birthday.

Charles has also edited and published the work of more than 20 members.

About Javon Johnson, Special Guest

We are thrilled to welcome Javon Johnson to the September retreat. An award-winning writer whose work includes musicals, films and literary fiction,Javon is also an educator and talented actor who has appeared on “The Oval” (2019), “American Soul” (2019) and “Survivor’s Remorse” (2014). Johnson will conduct a fictional character immersion session from the dual perspective of an actor and a writer while sharing his favorite character development exercises and techniques.

A special guest workshop session on author character immersions conducted by writer, educator and playwright Javon Johnson who wrote the acclaimed musical “Sanctified.”
A special guest workshop session on author character immersions conducted by writer, educator and playwright Javon Johnson

 $600 Retreat fee includes: Locally inspired and prepared meals, and comfortable living space and private rooms with work area.
Thursday 9/22 – Arrival check-in 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. 7 p.m. Orientation, Meet and Greet social.
Friday 9/23 – Daytime workshops and special guest, Javon Johnson, evening writing assignments.
Saturday 9/24 – Daytime workshops and writing, 5 p.m. visit to meadery and brief town history tour.
Sunday 9/25 – Recognition, farewell, free time.

The Writers Guild at The Bowers House September Retreat focuses providing experienced writers featuring an intensive three-day workshop on creating memorable characters. The essential phrase “know your character backwards and forwards” encapsulates the focus of this three-day workshop.

A retreat for experienced writers featuring an intensive workshop on creating memorable characters led by Charles Prier, Retreat Director:
I The fundamentals of character invention
II Building Characters
III Reader/Character relationships
IV Character-to-character relationships

An Overview of the Retreat Plot, theme, setting, point of view, dialogue, and pacing are important craft elements used to construct a story. These affect and, more importantly, are affected by the competency of characters. The comprehensive development of memorable characters brings together all these elements fine-tuned to deliver outstanding stories. Through craft study, guided group discussions, partnered exercises formulating fictional characters, coaching, and critiques, the planned colloquium will provide the participants with the knowledge and practice to significantly improve their writing skills. Discussions topics include:
Begin with the Character • Character Properties Flaws and Habits • Likability • Character Motivation • Character Arcs • You Are Not Your Character • Basing Your Characters on Real People • Characters as metaphors • Exploiting Cultural Influence in Character Development

$750 includes lodging meals and tour( $600 reserved before Sept 6)

Application: Charles Prier
(706) 246-9421 or (706) 436-9632
charles@priernet.com

A retreat for experienced writers featuring
an intensive workshop on creating
memorable characters led by Charles Prier,
Retreat Director and Program Manager
at The Bowers House

Join Writers Guild at The Bowers House

Want to get the ongoing support and guidance you need to become a better writer? Then join Writers Guild at The Bowers House. The group meets on the second Wednesday of each month from 1-3 p.m. For $25 a year, you’ll receive coaching and lesson plans from Charles Prier, valuable feedback from peers, and a chance to meet and learn from writers just like you. Membership is open to writers at every skill level. We are currently developing remote attendance guidelines so non-local members can participate in group discussions. Visit bhwriters.org for details. The Bowers House is available for group overnight rentals to writers and artists and individual member residencies. Donations and sponsorships are encouraged. Call family custodian Charlie Read at 954-888-8948.

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SUMMER UPDATE 2022

Charlie Read  

From the family custodian and co-founder of bowershouse.org. The Bowers House Retreat
Late last year we reopened our doors on limited occupancy to vaccinated guests and alumni. We began a production company, Bowers Hour, filming and recoding programming material focusing on resident work product to maintain the facility and fund house sponsored residencies. We expanded our scope from writing and literature to multidisciplinary and music arts, and started the long term restoration of the several acres and buildings at the facility. We began taking in occasional guest and b&b lodgers, and small event venue rentals to subsidize our expansion and reentry after shutting down during the health crisis.

With ambassadors representing The Georgia Review, poetry and arts organizations, well know author alumni and music figures, and most importantly, The Writers Guild, helmed by Charles Prier bhwriters.org for 12 years, we unabashedly solicit new support and ventures from writers/ workshop professionals/ established musicians/ performers with honorariums and often in exchange for exclusive usage of the facility and dining for their personal or professional retreat purposes.

We continue to provide a place for artists to grow and create. Our goal is to keep The Guild running as the crux of the mission we have established in this 100 year old historic family hotel in NE Georgia.

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WRITERS GUILD MEMBER PROFILE: LINDA DYE

“OF OUR TIMES”    LINDA DYE

We feature and promote the works of Writers Guild Members whose presence in the house at monthly meetings and readings and events fulfills our mission. We are grateful to them and Guild Director, Charles Prier for his dedication for over a decade.

Linda H. Dye: Linda is a life-long resident of Elberton, Georgia. Linda says, “I have a rich full life. My interests are varied and I am always eager to try something new and exciting, meet a new person, travel to an unfamiliar place. My family and my church have been my focus over the years, but I am a voracious reader, a flower gardener, a three mile a day walker, a watercolor painter, a Fun Club traveler, an OLLI member and, some people say, a good cook. Writing is completely new to me. It is an adventure in progress.”

BLURB: Linda H. Dye is a wife, mother, and friend. Living her entire life in a small rural town in Georgia has yielded the opportunity for up close and personal relationships with an assortment of interesting people and situations. Linda writes with the knowledge, experience, and understanding of life well lived. Her keen observations and an active imagination result in stories that evoke a delightful array of smiles, laughter, and nostalgia, with perhaps a speck of melancholy thrown in for good measure. Included in this book are forty-seven fun to read entries so entertaining you are likely to find it difficult to read just one.

Details

Publication Date
Nov 4, 2020
Language
English
ISBN
9781716450860
Category
Fiction
Copyright
All Rights Reserved – Standard Copyright License
Contributors
By (author): Linda H. Dye, Edited by: Charles Prier

About Know-It-All Publications

I either wrote, edited, contributed to or assisted in publishing the books presented here. These are Independently published, Print On Demand editions offered for sale through Lulu Press Inc. If you have written or are writing a book, you would like to publish independently, I may be able to help you. You can contact me at: Charles@KIAPublications.com
Go to author’s page
Pages
209
US Trade (6 x 9 in / 152 x 229 mm)
Short StoriesNostalgia
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Paige Prier Art Gallery Show at The Bowers House

Display of work by Paige Prier Art

The Bowers Hours episode featuring Bleace and Kolorful Media is also the opening of our second inaugural visual artist and Bowers House Ambassador, Paige Prier, (paigeprier.com) whose work replaces and sends to the upstairs hallways our first Bowers House Art Gallery spotlight artist, Faye Behar Mitchell. The artwork that covers the walls of the old hotel building interiors is available for purchase, often including a stay at The Bowers house or other perks, and we consider guest purchases of these works another form or fundraising and sponsorship support of the facility and our mission. 5PM-7PM gallery.

Continue reading “Paige Prier Art Gallery Show at The Bowers House”

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Anne Pancake – Reading from her works, April 21 @7PM

438
author of “Creative Responses to Worlds Unraveling: The Artist in the 21st Century” (Fall 2013), and the novel, “Strange As This Weather Has Been (2007)

7 PM READING at THE BOWERS HOUSE WRITERS RETREAT

Ann Pancake—fiction writer, essayist, and environmental activist—will read from her work on Monday, April 21, at 7 PM, followed by a talk and short reception. Although Pancake currently lives in Seattle, Washington the West Virginia native’s writing, political efforts, and heart remain firmly focused in her home state, where the coal mining industry—in particular the highly controversial process of mountaintop removal—has both supported and devastated the populace in many areas.

Her first book was Given Ground (2000), a collection of short stories published as the winner of the Bakeless Prize. Pancake’s novel Strange As This Weather Has Been (2007) won the Weatherford Award, was a finalist for the Orion Book Award, and was named one of the top ten fiction books of that year by Kirkus Reviews. Wendell Berry termed this work “one of the bravest novels I’ve ever read.”

Pancake’s recent Georgia Review essay, “Creative Responses to Worlds Unraveling: The Artist in the 21st Century” (Fall 2013), worries the hows and whys of what a writer might do in the face of the huge complexities of environmental degradation: “I believe literature’s most pressing political task of all in these times is envisioning alternative future realities . . . a way forward which is not based in idealism or fantasy, which does not offer dystopia or utopia, but still turns current paradigms on their heads.”

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Join us for The Bowers House Writers Guild

The Bowers House Writers Guild offers encouragement to local and visiting writers whose writing covers a range of genres: local and personal history, personal memoir, adult and juvenile poetry, book reviews, journalism, newspaper and magazine articles, short stories, essays, how-to books, fiction and non-fiction. The Guild provides members the opportunity to meet writers with similar interests, to meet together, to become good friends or to enjoy the company of friendly acquaintances.

SAMPLE AGENDA
• Meeting Outline

Writer’s Craft – discussion and exercise

More about Show Don’t Tell See Article “Thought Verbs”
Discussion of writing terms (Jargon)

Member’s projects

What are you doing – how is your progress – how can we help?

Readings – members share new work

Group Projects – Discuss potential projects

General discussion – writing topics, somewhere between Once upon a time and They lived happily ever after.

Next Month

Suggestions for next meeting and future meetings

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Tuesday, April 23 at 7 pm the Bowers House is hosting a very special guest…..

SRS-pic

Tuesday, April 23 at 7 pm the Bowers House is hosting a very special guest. Nationally known environmental activist and award-winning writer Scott Russell Sanders will speak on “Literature and Legacy.” In an essay entitled “The Way of Imagination,” published in the summer 2012 issue of The Georgia Review, Sanders wrote about a man who sought to provide old-growth forests for future generations to enjoy. Sanders will read an excerpt from the essay and discuss the powers of imagination illustrated by this benefactor’s legacy—powers crucial to the making of literature, to the practice of science, and to works of compassion. A question-and-response period will follow.

Sanders, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Indiana University, has published more than thirty works of nonfiction and fiction over the past forty years, including a number of books for children. Among his titles are Earth Works: Selected Essays (2012), A Conservationist Manifesto (2009), A Private History of Awe (2006), The Country of Language (1999), Staying Put: Making a Home in a Restless World (1993), The Paradise of Bombs (1987), and Wilderness Plots: Tales about the Settlement of the American Land (1983). His enduring concerns include the place of human beings in nature, the pursuit of social justice, the relationships between culture and geography, and the search for a spiritual path.There is no charge for the evening however donations are greatly appreciated. It is very important we have a great turn-out to support this special event!

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On Tuesday, April 23 at 7 pm

On Tuesday, April 23 at 7 pm the Bowers House is hosting a very special guest

scott-sanders_big

Nationally known environmental activist and award-winning writer Scott Russell Sanders will speak on “Literature and Legacy.” In an essay entitled “The Way of Imagination,” published in the summer 2012 issue of The Georgia Review, Sanders wrote about a man who sought to provide old-growth forests for future generations to enjoy. Sanders will read an excerpt from the essay and discuss the powers of imagination illustrated by this benefactor’s legacy—powers crucial to the making of literature, to the practice of science, and to works of compassion. A question-and-response period will follow.

Sanders, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Indiana University, has published more than thirty works of nonfiction and fiction over the past forty years, including a number of books for children. Among his titles are Earth Works: Selected Essays (2012), A Conservationist Manifesto (2009), A Private History of Awe (2006), The Country of Language (1999), Staying Put: Making a Home in a Restless World (1993), The Paradise of Bombs (1987), and Wilderness Plots: Tales about the Settlement of the American Land (1983). His enduring concerns include the place of human beings in nature, the pursuit of social justice, the relationships between culture and geography, and the search for a spiritual path.

There is no charge for the evening however donations are greatly appreciated. It is very important we have a great turn-out to support this special event!

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