The Pacific Coast Children’s Writer’s Workshop will be Aug. 15-17, 2008, at the Hilton Hotel in Santa Cruz, California.

The program is a team-taught seminar for 30 writers of character-driven, realistic youth novels. The 2008 focus is “Epiphanies and Endings: Bring Your Story Arc Full Circle.”

The faculty will be:

Anne Hoppe is an executive editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books. Titles she has edited include the multi-award-winning YA novel Your Eyes in Stars by M.E. Kerr (HarperCollins, 2006) and a New York Times bestseller by Alice Walker.

Edward Necarsulmer, agent, is director of the Children’s Department at McIntosh and Otis. He has represented Lynne Reid Banks, Nancy Garden (author interview), Madeleine L’Engle, Scott O’Dell Estate and M.E. Kerr, among others.

Deborah Halverson has authored three Delacorte youth novels. A Harcourt children’s book editor for 10 years, she edited Norma Fox Mazer (author interview), Gary Soto, and Eve Bunting, and also taught writing at University of California-Extension.

The program will consist of team-taught manuscript clinics and faculty-led discussion of peers’ early/later chapters and synopses, which attendees review in advance.

Focus sessions will include: Applied Writing; Marketing Tips & Demonstrations, keynotes; Q & A session. In sum, there will be 12 hours professional instruction, which are 90 percent interactive.

Tuition is $299-$599, depending on quantity and type of faculty critiques (written or in-person; up to three per writer); this includes most meals. Various discounts may apply.

Lodging: For doubles, add $53 to $137 per night per person (at Hilton or nearby Best Western). Singles also available.

For academic/professional credit, conferred by the University of California, add $90.

For more information, contact Nancy Sondel, founding director.