Mystery author leads writing workshop at local Barnes & Noble

The world's largest writing workshop started out small Saturday in Bloomington.\nJust two writers appeared at the Barnes & Noble at 218 E. Third St. for the start of what was, according to Barnes & Noble, the 'world's largest' writing workshop. Co-sponsored by Writer's Digest Books, the workshop took place at 2 p.m. in 500 Barnes & Noble bookstores across the country. Brown County native Michael Newton, author of crime novels such as "Armed and Dangerous: A Writer's Guide to Weapons," "The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers" and "Century of Slaughter," led Bloomington's workshop.\nNewton, who has had 165 books published, is best known for his true crime novels. \n"They always say, write what you know, and so I went with mentally disturbed criminals," Newton said.\nDuring the workshop, Newton provided information on how to break in to the writing business and offered personal insight into his own career and how he got started. \n"Stephen King typed his 'Danse Macabre' on the backs of letters and old receipts," Newton said. "Unless you're already a well-established writer, I wouldn't recommend sending in your manuscript that way. \nNewton said usually a writer starts out by thinking of an idea he would like to write about and then sending a query letter to either an agent or editor, or both. Newton warned against the dangers of writing without an agent.\n"Most editors won't even look at a writer without an agent," Newton said. "The manuscript goes straight into the trash can -- or what we call the slush pile. Only once or twice a year does an unpublished writer without an agent get noticed by an editor, and that's so rare that when it does happen it makes the news." \nNewton also stressed perseverance and said rejection was part of the job.\n"My first crime novel, I wrote 300 pages a year, and it ended up being 1,000 pages," Newton said. "I got 25, 26 rejections, so I cut it down to 300 pages and sent it to a small house that published paperbacks." \nEven after finally getting published, Newton said it took 12 years for him to get his first royalty check from the book. \n"For some reason when the check did come it was made out to 'Huey Newton', and when I asked the publisher why, he just said 'If you could see our accounting department, you'd understand,' which told me absolutely nothing," Newton said. "It can be an extremely quirky business."\nThe ultimate qualification one must have to become a writer, said Newton, was simply love of reading and writing.\n"Dean Koontz once described writing as an 'agonizing compulsion'," Newton said. "He may be better known than I am, but in my opinion, if you're going to think of it that way, you shouldn't be writing. The best writers are probably voracious readers, and if you don't like immersing yourself in language and inspiring people, you will probably not be a success." \nMore writers arrived as the workshop progressed. Bloomington resident Chapla Verma said that while she found the workshop nice, she had hoped to learn more about how to find an agent from Newton. \n"My main concern was how to find an agent who deals with Eastern philosophy, since that's what I'm writing about now," Verma said. "It's so hard to find one with that subject."\nVerma has already written two other books, both discussing mysticism and philosophy.\nBarnes & Noble employee Greg Buce said he was pleased with the turnout. \n"It was a great workshop," Buce said. "It's really lucky that we have Mr. Newton living so close in Brown County."\nBuce added that Barnes & Noble hosts a small writer's group on the last Tuesday evening of each month. \n"It's just about half a dozen people, and some of those are writers who have already been established for a long time, but anyone is welcome," Buce said.