Techniques in Dialogue
2026-02-12 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Underdog Bookstore, 312 South Myrtle Ave, Monrovia, CA, 91016, United States
Discover techniques to make your dialogue not only sound natural but also drive your story forward. This generative workshop will explore the art of crafting dynamic and engaging dialogue. Learn how to develop authentic voices, build tension through conversations, and reveal key elements of plot and character subtly. Students are encouraged but not required to share their work.

Memory as Material
2026-03-26 19:00 - 20:30 | Underdog Bookstore, 312 South Myrtle Ave, Monrovia, CA, 91016, United States
Crafting Image-Driven Creative Nonfiction
Memory is both a treasure and a trickster—fragmented, selective, and sometimes unreliable. This workshop explores how to use memory’s imperfections as creative fuel to write vivid, image-driven nonfiction that captures the essence of moments, emotions, and experience in short-form narrative. Participants will examine how memory shapes storytelling, practice mining sensory details, and learn techniques to write with honesty, depth, and imaginative clarity.

Crafting Bite-Sized Narratives
2026-05-21 19:00 - 20:30 | Underdog Bookstore, 312 South Myrtle Ave, Monrovia, CA, 91016, United States
Unlock the art of short form storytelling and learn how to distill complex ideas, vivid characters, and rich worlds into a few short paragraphs that linger in the reader’s mind long after the last word. This generative workshop will guide you through the techniques and strategies to create powerful, bite-sized stories that pack a punch. Students are encouraged, but not required, to share their work.

Monrovia Pride Book Festival
2026-06-20 12:00 - 18:00 | Monrovia Library Park, 321 S Myrtle Ave , Monrovia, CA, 91016, United States
I’ll be at the Monrovia Pride Book Festival! Come join the fun!
Underdog Bookstore is excited to present the inaugural Monrovia Pride Book Festival on June 20th, from 12-6PM at Monrovia Library Park!
Join us for a celebration of queer storytelling, featuring over 50 authors and vendors, community building, and free activities for all to enjoy!

Workshop: What If? Building Queer Worlds in Speculative Fiction
2026-06-26 08:00 - 17:00 | Underdog Bookstore, 312 South Myrtle Ave, Monrovia, CA, 91016, United States
Speculative fiction is where queer writers ask radical questions. What if gender worked differently? What if desire was dangerous — or liberating? What if the rules of the world itself reflected your deepest questions about identity and freedom?
In this workshop, you’ll start with a question that matters to you — about identity, desire, or freedom — and build an entire speculative world around it. You’ll design how that world affects queer people, create a character navigating it, and write scenes that bring it to life.
Drawing on examples like Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, we’ll explore how queer speculative fiction isn’t just about representation — it’s about imagination, worldbuilding, and asking “what if?” in ways that reshape everything.
Come ready to write. Leave with a story that’s entirely your own. Students are encouraged, but not required, to share their work.
