Webinars are held on Tuesdays or Thursdays each month at 7pm ET. Please refer to the list of dates and times below.
Chapter members will receive an email with a link to the webinar via Zoom. The link will also be posted in the ACFW Virginia Facebook Group. When instructors permit, we will make PowerPoint slides available to members under the file tab of the ACFW Virginia Facebook group page as well. Webinars are recorded and accessible for two years.
As a reminder, each time you attend a live webinar January – September, you will be entered into a drawing for a paid registration fee to our November virtual conference!
If you’re not eligible for Virginia Chapter membership but want to view the webinars, click here to learn about webinar-only access.
Playing Well With Others: How to Leverage the Power of Group Promotions
Presented by Sarah Hamaker
January 16, 2025
Dictation 101: How to Use Your Voice to Finish Your First Draft
Presented by Heidi McCahan
February 18, 2025
Developing Voice in Your Novel: Everyone Talks About It. How Do You Get It?
Presented by Barbara M. Britton
March 20, 2025
Ten Tips for Beginning Writers
Presented by Steven Rogers
April 15, 2025 @ 7 p.m. EDT
Where do you focus your efforts as a writer? Join award-winning novelist Steven Rogers as he discusses ten tips that helped him (and still help him) on his writing journey. The workshop will focus on writers developing their craft—how to train your mind to think creatively, develop characters, experiment with styles, and determine what type of story to write. Steven will also share how he dealt with input from test readers and rejection of his work. This workshop will be interactive, and attendees are welcome to share experiences they have had.
Steven Rogers is a novelist and retired business executive. His novel Into the Room was the first-place winner in the Spiritual Fiction Category of the 2022 Eric Hoffer Book Awards, a finalist for the 2022 American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Awards, and a runner-up in the 2023 Christian Independent Publishers Book Awards. His second novel A Year in the Room was published in 2024. Steven, a proud father of three adult children, is happily married to his wife of thirty-seven years. They live in Henrico, Virginia.
Connect with Steven: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram
Healthy Habits for Christian Creatives
Presented by Linda Dindzans
May 15, 2025 @ 7 p.m. EDT
Christian Creatives are called to a life that’s often sedentary, solitary, and single-minded. These aspects of the writing life can take a toll in ways we may not have considered. Linda Dindzans, M.D.—writer, singer, and speaker—will offer simple, practical prescriptions to help prevent, combat, and minimize these occupational hazards. Some of the topics included:
- Ergonomics
- Preventing DVT, overuse injuries, poor circulation
- Maintaining overall strength, range of motion, healthy lifestyle and weight
- Saving your voice so you can speak and sing for Him
- Spiritual Self-care: mental fatigue, isolation , depression, poor sleep
- Developing an overall plan for “Writer Resilience”
Linda Dindzans, M.D. a retired ENT surgeon, writer, and speaker, with the heart of a healer, is grateful for this time to lay down her scalpel and pick up her pen. As an M.D., she addresses the occupational hazards Christian Creatives face. Her debut novel—A Certain Man—offers readers a story of redemption. Though her compelling characters struggle through the treacherous times of the Bible, their hopes ring true today. Linda believes “there is nothing new under the sun”. Only a profound encounter with the Son can transform either her characters or present- day creatives from victims to victors.
The Name Game
Presented by Cathy Rueter
June 17, 2025 @ 7 p.m. EDT
Names are important. We’re identified and recognized by them. The perfect nomenclature is just as significant to our businesses, brands and—as writers—to the cast of characters between our pages. What needs serious contemplation when we title our fictional performers? Should we pluck a word or two from the air and slap it on the next body needing an epithet? Or, like any good board game, are there rules to learn, follow, and maybe even ignore?
If character names just pop in your head, then lucky you! If not, don’t despair, resources and information are available to help bestow the perfect sobriquet. We’ll explore crossing real legal lines, memories and reputations to consider, quirks and confusions, cultural or family nicknames, subtle clues linked to specific labels, and exactly what those perfect pet names can do for you as the writer.
Play THE NAME GAME and learn how to more effectively use this fun and rewarding writerly tool
Cathy Rueter returned to her passion of freelance writing after a career in reporting and newsletter editing. She is a Christian murder mystery author, speaker, and creative. Contracted to Elk Lake Publishing, her first novel is scheduled for publication soon.
Possessing Michigan roots and (DFW) Texas shoots, she calls herself the Texagander Gal, with her heart planted in both states. You can find her either at her desk, with her nose in a book, hanging out with her family, or attending writer’s groups and conferences.
Connect with Cathy at CLeaRly Creative Writing, Facebook , or on Instagram.
31 Day Author Platform Challenge
Presented by Bitsy Kemper
July 17, 2025 @ 7 p.m. EDT
Bitsy Kemper is the proud award-winning author of over 26 children’s books, including picture books, chapter books, and YA. She also authored the new Mommy & Me Micro-Moments: Nurturing Faith, Sharing Laughs that she calls “a devotional, family journal, and activity book all rolled into one great mix of laughs.” She admits to spending too much of her early career focused on the computer industry, appearing in places like CNN and co-writing a nationally-syndicated newspaper column (remember newspapers?). You may have seen her profiled in Writing Children’s Books for Dummies and Children’s Book Insider or literally hundreds of other media outlets and podcasts. Bitsy enjoys yoga, dark chocolate, and church–but not all three at the same time. When not nose down and knee deep creating & editing, she finds time to present at author events and writers conferences from NY to CA. She is an accomplished speaker, mother of three (four if you count her husband), and according to her business card, a really nice gal. www.BitsyKemper.com.
Virtual Assistant: Need One? Be One?
Presented by Tammy Karasek
August 19, 2025 @ 7 p.m. EDT
You’re a writer! Yet, now you need to do more than write. The responsibility to build followers may overwhelm you—you may need a Virtual Assistant or VA. A VA can wear many hats from admin to graphic designer and more. I’ll share what I do as a VA for authors and as the BRMCWC Social Media Manager. I’ll give ideas to assist you in your decision to hire an assistant. But wait, do you have skills to offer that others may need? You may be able to make some side-gig money for your writing expenses by becoming a VA!
Tammy Karasek uses humor and wit to bring hope to everyone she meets. Being bullied by her family now drives her passion to encourage and inspire others. No longer defeated, she lives a “Tickled Pink” life knowing there’s a giggle wanting to come out!
Her debut book, Launch That Book, released in November 2023. She’s a writing team member for The Write Conversation, The Write Editing, and Blue Ridge Conference. As The Launch Team Geek, she helps authors launch their books, a Virtual Assistant for authors, and Social Media Manager for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. Connect through her website.
How to Mind Map and Brainstorm for Our Writing Life
Presented by Patricia Tiffany Morris
September 18, 2025 @ 7 p.m. EDT
Take a dive into the various methods to brainstorm and ignite your creativity with eclectic author and artist Patricia Tiffany Morris. We’ll explore mind maps and brainstorming on paper, with color, and simmering ideas into a visual soup of inspiration on paper and with digital tools. Your head will buzz with all the ways you can imagine worlds and stories as well as keep track of your writing life.
Patricia gravitates toward inspirational messages and uplifting artwork, and encourages others to find hope in a vibrant relationship with God.
An eclectic creative with a geeky-tech affinity and a poet with three names, she has earned awards in poetry, children’s, YA, literary, short & suspense fiction.
In 2024, Children’s Book International named her a double winner in inspirational and picture book categories, and a finalist in children’s literature for her unpublished picture book, Grief Like Rain.
Publications include Guideposts, Lyrical Iowa, NFSPS, EnLiven, and Patricia’s own imprint, Journaling Scribbles. She adores Pinterest, Instagram, and hashtags, but finds Twitter quirky.
Finding Ways to Build a Platform Before You are Published
Presented by KyLee Woodley
October 21, 2025 @ 7 p.m. EDT
We are told that we must have a platform to land a contract/agent, but how do you reach readers before you are published? This class focuses on different ways to reach future readers, connect with authors of your genre, and create content that will last.
Kylee Woodley is a wife and a 30-something-year-old mother of teenagers. She has a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education, with a Minor in Creative Writing from the Karen Kingsbury Center of Creative Writing at Liberty University.
In 2021, she started the Historical Bookworm Show promoting historical authors from Baker Publishing and Tyndale House to promote their books. When not podcasting, teaching, or spending time with family, KyLee writes historical fiction with a pinch of adventure for Wild Heart Books. You can connect with her at www.KyLeeWoodley.com
No November Webinar
Excel for Writers
Presented by Jacinta Meredith
December 4, 2025 @ 7 p.m. EST
Learn how to use Microsoft Excel to organize multiple aspects of your writing life! This class will briefly touch on some basic functions, such as creating and filtering a table, before focusing on specific ways you can use it as a writer, including easily tracking tax information or making your tasks automatically turn red if they are overdue.
Please note: All taught functions can also be used in Google Sheets.
Jacinta Meredith is a full-time author living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. with her husband, Daniel, and her cat, Tennyson, who was named after her favorite poet.
Her previous job as an analyst required her to use Microsoft Excel on a regular basis to analyze data, and she now uses that expertise to track various aspects of her writing life. She has had multiple short stories published and won the 2023 Genesis award for Historical Fiction.
When she isn’t writing or editing, you can usually find her reading, cooking, binging Castle, or researching just for fun.