This workshop is being run by Diane Samuels, who runs the regular writers' group I go to. She is the most fantastic teacher/facilitator, and if you want re-fuelling and inspiring as a writer, concentrating on process not product, I can't recommend this too highly.

I won't post her email and phone on a public forum, but if anyone's interested, do WWmail me, and I can pass them on.

Emma

Mastery and Mystery full-day writing workshop run by Diane Samuels and Tonya Blowers This is NOT a workshop about writing detective or fantasy fiction. Instead you will explore your real stature as a writer, published or not, flex your creative muscles and delve into the subtle depths. It IS a workshop for considering the possible meanings of mastery of your different voices and craft, entering into the realms of mystery - a source of a very different kind of artistic power - and doing lots of writing alone as well as sharing work with others. By the end of the workshop people will have played, experimented, and had fun with words, sentences, paragraphs and the known as well as the unknowable. They will be standing tall, writing aloud, playing off each other's work and finding renewed vigour, confidence and courage for a new year of bountiful creative output. This workshop reaches parts other workshops cannot reach. Date: Saturday, January 14th, 2006 Time: 1pm to 9pm. Supper at 6pm. Venue: Upstairs room, Magdala pub, London NW3 Cost: £70 (including buffet supper and refreshments) if booking made before Dec 16th; £80 after Dec 16th. Diane and Tonya met when Tonya joined Diane’s regular writing group two years ago. Since then they have enjoyed exploring together the possibilities of fiction writing from spontaneous outburst to re-drafting and fine-tuning. This is a chance to share these methods and insights and hopefully discover a few more! BIOGRAPHY OF DIANE SAMUELS Diane Samuels was born in Liverpool in 1960 and now lives in north London. She worked Education Officer at the Unicorn Theatre before becoming a full time writer in 1992. Diane’s work for the theatre includes: "Frankie's Monster" (adapted from Vivien Alcock's novel, "The Monster Garden", Unicorn Theatre, 1991. Published by Heinemann.); "Chalk Circle" (Unicorn Theatre, 1991); "Salt of the Earth" (Theatre Centre, 1993); "The Bonekeeper" (Tricycle Youth Theatre, short-listed for the W. H. Smith Awards for plays for children, 1992); "Watch Out for Mister Stork" (one-act play, Soho Theatre Company's Writers' Festival, 1992, and Finborough Theatre, 1995; Regents Park Open Air Theatre, August 1995); "Kindertransport" (co-winner of the 1992 Verity Bargate Award, winner of 1993 Meyer Whitworth Award. Produced by Soho Theatre Company at the Cockpit, 1993; at the Palace Theatre, Watford transferring to the Vaudeville Theatre, West End, 1996. Also, Manhattan Theater Club, New York, 1994. Other productions throughout the USA, also Sweden, Japan, Germany, Austria, Canada and South Africa. Published in Britain by Nick Hern Books and in the USA by Plume/Penguin); "Turncoat" (Theatre Centre national tour, 1994); "How To Beat A Giant" (SNAP People's Theatre Trust, 1995); "One Hundred Million Footsteps", (Quicksilver Theatre Company national tours, 1997); "Forever and Ever" (SNAP People's Theatre Trust, 1998); "The True Life Legend of Mata Hari", Palace Theatre, Watford, 2002; ?Beyond Midnight? (Trestle Theatre Co. national tour, 2005). Her work for BBC radio includes: "Two Together?" (Radio 4, 1993); "Frankie's Monster" ( Radio 5, 1992); "Watch Out For Mister Stork" (Radio 4, 1994); "Kindertransport" (Radio 4, 1995); "Swine" (Radio 4, 1996). "Hardly Cinderella" (Radio 4, 1997); "Doctor Y" (Radio 4, 1997); "Hen Party" (Radio 4, 2001). Her short story, "Rope" was one of the winners in Radio 4's 2001 DotDotDot online short story competition, broadcast 2002. Diane was awarded a Science on Stage and Screen Award by the Wellcome Trust in 2001 to undertake an experimental collaboration with 3 medical specialists, visual artist Alexa Wright and playwright Sarah Woods to make an innovative piece of theatre about the nature of pain. The resulting work, “PUSH”, was showcased at The People Show Studios in London in June 2003. She is currently writing a new play for children for the Unicorn Theatre inspired by Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. Diane has completed her first novel, an exploration of myth and true-life, "Cinderella's Daughter”, a book for children “100 Million Footsteps”, and is currently working on a new novel, as well as writing regular book reviews for the Guardian. Diane has participated in a writing and dialogue group exploring the relationship between Palestinians and Israelis. She tutors playwriting for young people as part of the Theatre Royal, Haymarket's Masterclass scheme, has lectured part-time at Middlesex University, Oxford University, Goldsmiths? College, London and Birmingham University on writing and drama. Diane regularly works as a writer-in-residence in Islington schools, runs a regular writing group as well as many one-off workshops for writers of all ages. Diane is currently conducting research into the nature of Magic as Pearson Creative Research Fellow 2004/2005 at the British Library. BIOGRAPHY OF TONYA BLOWERS Tonya has taught literature and creative writing over the last fifteen years in universities, colleges and schools in the US, Italy and England. She was most recently Visiting Lecturer on the Creative Writing masters programme at Royal Holloway, (the director is poet laureate Andrew Motion). She has been running her own small business, ‘Wordplay’ teaching creative life writing to small groups of mature students, for the last two years. Tonya has a doctorate in literature from the University of Warwick and has published widely on autobiography in academic journals and books. She is currently completing a novel and a collection of short stories.

Ooh, this looks great, Emma - thanks for posting the details.

And have a look at the interview with Diane (who is a fab teacher/inspiring writer, you're spot on Emma) here