Writing, Editing, and Teaching
As a teacher and coach, I’ve spent more than 20 years working closely with writers to strengthen, grow, and refine their skills in fiction and memoir writing. In addition to offering private virtual classes and workshops throughout the year, I have taught writing at numerous writing conferences, such as the prestigious Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Conference and the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference, most chapters of the California Writers’ Club, Gavilan Community College, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, at the University of Oslo, Norway and for Brown University. I’ve published six books on the craft of writing, including How to Write a Page Turner, A Writer’s Guide to Persistence, Make a Scene, Writing the Intimate Character, Writing Deep Scenes (with Martha Alderson) and Write Free: Attracting the Creative Life (with Becca Lawton).
I’m also the author of three novels, most recently Women in Red and Forged in Grace, with a forthcoming new novel, Fallout, from Running Wild Press, due in 2024, and my work can be found in national publications such as The Atlantic, Mental Floss, The New York Times, Pacific Standard, The Rumpus, Scientific American, The Washington Post and many others.
If you’re looking to practice your writing craft, polish your writing for publication and/or create a meaningful writing community, you can find more info about upcoming classes and private 1:1 coaching below.
Paid subscribers receive a free self-paced class and one copy of any of my books.
Latest Updates & Info
More publishing news: Forged in Grace gets second life
Eleven years ago I published Forged in Grace, a novel of psychological suspense and a love story to those early friendships that can be almost as intense as love affairs. Now, that novel is getting a second life, thanks to the intrepid Sibylline Press. It will publish as part of their “digital first” program. You can pre-order the e-book now for Kindle (and you will be able to get it through non-Amazon channels in February and beyond), as well as an audio book and I will also have print copies available.
How to Write With Page Turning Tension Masterclass at SFWC, Feb 6.
Join me for a three hour master class ahead of the San Francisco Writers Conference, February 6, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Happy, nice people living easy lives make for boring stories. To keep a story taut, and to hold readers’ attention, you must learn to write with tension. Tension in novels, stories, and even memoirs is like the connective tissue that allows muscles to attach to bones, and thus flex their might. It’s the heart of conflict, the backbone of uncertainty, the hallmark of danger. It requires opposing forces—characters and circumstances moving in opposition to each other in a variety of ways, at the scene level, and at the plot level. Learn to understand essential kinds of opposing forces to write page turning stories.
If this is the year you’re thinking about a writing conference, check this one out in San Francisco’s Embarcadero, at the Hyatt Regency! Keynote speakers include the award winning Tommy Orange, and Isle McElroy. I’ll be teaching a Master Class on Page Turning Tension, offering edit consultations and, as the Fiction Track coordinator, we have an incredible line-up, if I do say so myself! Register here.
On the Fallout Book Tour: Jordan and Nina Schuyler in Conversation at Book Passage. Sat. May 31, 1 pm.
Join authors Jordan Rosenfeld (Fallout, Forged in Grace, Women in Red) and Nina Schuyler (In This Ravishing World, Afterword) as they discuss themes from their novels to celebrate the publication of Jordan's new eco-thriller, Fallout at Book Passage. 51 Tamal Vista Blvd, in Corte Madera, CA.
Event Info