August Webinar

Collaborative Writing: Killing Your Darlings Without Killing Each Other

Presenters: Sara LaFontain, Julie Brown, Marina DelVecchio, and Jen Sinclair
Host: Lisa Montanaro

Wednesday, August 6, 2025
7:00 PM Eastern

Join the webinar

Collaborative Writing: Killing Your Darlings Without Killing Each Other

Come learn how to collaborate with other writers to co-author a novel from the women behind the pen name, Ivy H. Booker, and their dark friendship fiction debut, The Accidental Life of MF Ascher. Topics include choosing your partners and identifying a good fit for a successful collaborative relationship, developing and structuring a novel as a team, managing inevitable conflicts that occur among different genre writers (and personalities), and tackling essential business tasks as a group. This webinar will provide resources, tips and tricks, and personal anecdotes from a successful collaborative team about the many benefits of working together toward writing and publishing a book that everyone can be proud of.

Sara LaFontain lives in Arizona, where her husband lovingly supplies her with chocolate to fuel her writing habit. She is the author of the romantic women’s fiction Whispering Pines Island series, and the Corbitt Calamities pop star thrillers. Prior to becoming an author, Sara held a variety of jobs ranging from the unusual (wildlife tour guide in the Brazilian Pantanal) to the emotional (domestic violence case advocate) to the respectable (attorney). She also works as an Author Accelerator certified book coach.

Julie Mayerson Brown is an author, essayist, and playwright. Her Clearwater Series, five novels and a YA novella, takes place in a charming town in California Wine Country. The books all feature lovable, quirky characters, adorable dogs, best-friendships, and delicious sticky buns. In addition to feel good stories, Julie writes book club fiction that delves into darker themes of family dysfunction, betrayal, and suspense. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and a pack of rescued boxers.

Marina DelVecchio is the author of Dear Jane (2019), The Professor’s Wife (2021), The Virgin Chronicles (2022), and Unsexed: Memoirs of a Prostitute’s Daughter (2024). Her essays appear in Ms. Magazine, the Huffington Post, The New Agenda, The Tishman Review, WE Magazine for Women, and Vast Literary Magazine, among others. She teaches writing, literature, and women’s studies as a full-time professor in North Carolina.

Jen Sinclair pens personal essays and contemporary fiction that explore complicated relationships, love, loss, and all the messiness of life. She lives in Saint Augustine, Florida, with her husband, kids, and spoiled puppy. When she isn’t working out story elements, belting out songs from one of her many Spotify playlists, or having conversations with imaginary friends, she enjoys spending time outside walking beaches and trails, paddling waterways, or driving around with the top off her Jeep.