Classes, Workshops, Events and Appearances

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HERE are samples of more Shocking Real Life Alumni Success Stories!

What past participants say about the Shocking Real-Life Writing Seminar

• “I made contact (totally used your letter) with a friend’s agent at Writer’s House. It worked! Now he wants to see the proposal. They loved the idea. Thanks again! The class was great.” — Stephanie Davis, Editor, skirt! Magazine
• “Hollis, thanks for being in touch so quickly. Your seminar rocked!! I want to be one of your successes. I’ll start with [the agent you suggested] and if a rejection, will just keep going. I did not even realize I was so on fire about getting this book out there, until I felt the full Hollis Effect!!” — Susan Campbell
• “Hollis Gillespie’s writing workshop was the best I’ve ever attended. Hollis was extremely encouraging and helpful in both creative and procedural modes. And the yellow theme with the mimosas worked at a deep level of community which added to the enjoyment of the whole experience.” — David Ryback
• “Hollis is a rule-breaker who will teach you things you won’t hear anywhere else. If you don’t care about political correctness and want to learn a proven tactic to get an agent’s attention, Hollis can show you the way.” — Debbie Unterman
• “Hollis and crew were positive and upbeat. ‘Can’t’ wasn’t spoken. The environment and food were ‘quirky and fun,’ one of the underlying themes of the workshop and Hollis’s principles: build a support system of writers, share your work and contacts, and hit the send, send, send button on your computer made sense. The agent list was an added bonus.” — Lynn Hesse
• “The Hollis Gillespie workshop was money well spent and the day went by very quickly! Hollis took time with each person to help them clarify details of the story that they’d like to tell, develop a creative title, found similar books to use as examples in a pitch letter and provided a list with a recommendation of an agent (or agents) to contact. Hollis gave concise, realistic feedback to each person. As an added bonus, Michael Alvear spoke and each offered excellent advice. I came home and began work immediately on my story! I’m impressed by Hollis and Michael’s philosophy of helping other writers. Thank you for offering this wonderful seminar to AtlantaWriters Club members.” — Sharon LeMaster

• “It was a great experience and nice to sit around a table with others who are dealing with the same obstacles I am. I liked the advice given to ignore conventions and rules when querying agents and publishers which I will paraphrase: as long as it’s well written, go for it regardless of the ‘supposed’ hurdles or rules. Receiving a rejection doesn’t necessarily mean you’re work isn’t any good or you didn’t follow the rules. I liked having published authors talk about their personal experiences and paths to success using somewhat unconventional means. I spent part of yesterday putting the advice in practice and sent out several queries with an entirely different attitude.” — Kathy Lewis

Available Now!

How to Get Killed on Vacation (Shocking Real Life Publishing)

Part memoir, part insider exposé and part worst-case scenario handbook, this hilarious book of essays will have you rolling with laughter all the way on (and off) the airplane. Hollis Gillespie – humor columnist, NBC Today Show travel expert and former airline “scullery plebe” – knocks this one out of the park with personal essays that impart hysterical advice for the truly terrified, while riotously explaining the following travel mysteries, among many others:

• Why the mile-high club is not at all what it’s cracked up to be
• Which passengers are most likely to survive a plane wreck
• What make the best improvised weapons on an aircraft
• Why you should never stay in a hotel room above the fifteenth floor
• The most kidnap-iest countries in the world
• How to escape a locked car trunk
• Why you should always put up your tray table, dammit!
• That guy who tried to smuggle that human head through customs that one time
• The inordinate amount of dead people taking up passenger seats on airplanes these days

How to Get Killed on Vacation will have you laughing so hard you’ll be begging for oxygen.

We Will be Crashing Shortly (Merit Press)

Unaccompanied Minor (Merit Press 2014)

Confessions of a Recovering Slut (and Other Love Stories) (HarperCollins)
“A very trippy trip through Gillespie’s head, rendered in glittery, jangly, spectacularly vulgar prose.” — Atlanta Journal Constitution
“Candid. Wise. Funny.” — Marie Claire
“A bleakly comic masterpiece.” — Dallas Morning News
“Riotous, raunchy and surprisingly touching.” — Miami Herald
“A Second Helping of self-consciously quirky, bite-sized anecdotes . . . Fans of the Atlanta writer’s potty-mouthed humor and frank observations will find plenty of both here.” — Washington Post
“If you judge a book by its title, you might think Gillespie’s latest collection of autobiographical essays features torrid tales of bed-hopping and boozing. You’d be half-right…” — New York Post (4 star review)

Trailer Trashed; My Dubious Efforts Toward Upward Mobility (Globe Pequot)