For many writers, their first published book is not the first book they've written. Whether you are writing your first novel or writing the novel that you hope will be the first one to find its way into print, this workshop will help you discover ways to organize your time, structure your ideas, and establish strategies for successfully developing characters and plot to achieve your vision. The four sessions will focus on the basic building blacks of novel writing and will also point out common mistakes of first-time writers. There will be writing assignments both in and out of class; however, we will not critique or "workshop" the assignments or manuscripts in class.

John Pipkin is the former executive director of the Writers' League of Texas. His first novel, Woodsburner, will be published by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday in April 2009. A work of historical fiction, Woodsburner tells the story of a forest fire in Concord Woods, set by a young pencil-maker, Henry David Thoreau. John received his Ph.D. in British Literature from Rice University in 1997 and was an assistant professor of humanities and rhetoric at Boston University, before working as an editor and content specialist in educational publishing. You can find out more about Woodsburner at www.johnpipkin.com.