18876 Disc courses in Cardiff delivered Online

LOOKING FOR: YA/NA FANTASY, SFF, HORROR, ADULT FICTION John Baker (he/him) joined the Bell Lomax Moreton agency in 2019, cultivating a list shaped around his passion for science fiction, fantasy, and horror, though has lately also branched out into action/adventure fiction. John focuses on authors writing in the Adult, New Adult, and YA spaces. John leads the wider agency's film & TV desk, is the Secretary of the Association of Author’s Agents, and the co-chair of the AAA’s Bridge Committee. He also serves on the Kingston University MA Publishing Advisory Board. Under the umbrella of speculative fiction, John is looking for fantasy, science fiction, horror, romantasy, or literary speculative fiction. He has built a reputation as a champion of underrepresented voices and stories, be it from creators hailing from the global majority and their diasporas or neurodiverse authors, and naturally gravitates towards this kind of storytelling. In short, if he’s never read a story like yours before, he wants to see it. Adult fantasy: John loves beefy epic fantasy, especially non-Anglo Christian-inspired. Give him an immersive world, a fresh magical or mythic system, and an exciting cast of characters and he’ll be happy. He is a broad church in the genre so loves a political fantasy, swords and sorcery, courtly intrigue, monster hunting and dastardly villains. John is keen to find an urban fantasy that feels fresh and fun and he’s a sucker for a heroic quest narrative. He’s also very open to fantasy that isn’t easily categorised, but it is playing in that world. John is keenly hunting for more historical fantasy, especially inspired by modern history. He’s had fun with mythological retellings in the past, but as ever, let’s make sure it’s shining the spotlight on new stories. He would also love fantasy that centres on types of relationships less celebrated in fantasy, such as established and secure married couples, or siblings. NA/YA fantasy: In this genre, most importantly, John wants to have a good time, whether it’s swoon-worthy kisses in lush ball gowns, or gruesome gore and monsters, so send him pacy, plot-filled adventures. He’d love more books that teenage boys would love: Skullduggery Pleasant forever! Romantasy: The thriving new romantasy genre comes with its own set of challenges, so John wants to know what makes your romantasy different; what will set it out from the (very crowded!) market. Give it completely barmy stakes, cool and unique new settings, or a love story that will make your jaw drop. To be clear, he’s happily sorted for a human person meets a fae creature in the spooky woods. Also, cosmic romance is the genre of the future. Give him romantasy in space. Easy. Horror: John and horror are old friends. He loves horror inspired by myth and folklore, subversive weird horror that leaves your eyebrows in your hairline, historical horror that pulls from ghastly true stories, and anything that you’ll be reading with the light on. He also loves a gothic element and is particularly looking for horror with a strong romantic throughline, fun YA horror, and female & NB horror authors. Science fiction: SF is coming back! And John has been shouting about that. He loves to see an adventurous found-family romp through space or an epic, crunchy space opera. Speculative near-future is fun too, in the vein of Black Mirror’s more uplifting episodes, (e.g. San Junipero). He loves YA science fiction as well; the more creative the better. Literary: John is open to finding more rich magical realism or something character-led yet supernatural and would love a high-concept mystery, in the vein of Stuart Turton. He also loves spec fic that uses the speculative lightly as a way of confronting a deeper truth in society today. Weird stuff: John wants books that will blow people’s minds and defy categorisation. This is hard to describe, but think Gideon The Ninth, The Library At Mount Char, This Is How You Lose The Time War. John loves a pitch that leaves the editors baffled but intrigued. Action/Adventure, Historical Adventure, Espionage: John is branching out into non-speculative adventures, such as John Le Carré, Lee Child, Ian Flemming, and Mick Herron. More as his taste develops, but the hunt is on! Not looking for: military sci-fi or hard SF, or anything with biblical “character wakes up in purgatory/heaven/hell” narratives. The right comedic fantasy has yet to hit his inbox, but please don’t comp Douglas Adams or Sir Terry. John would like you to submit a covering letter, 1-2 page synopsis and the first two chapters of your manuscript in a single word document. (In addition to the paid sessions, John is kindly offering one free session for low income/under-represented writers. Please email agent121@iaminprint.co.uk to apply, outlining your case for this option which is offered at the discretion of I Am In Print).  By booking you understand you need to conduct an internet connection test with I Am In Print prior to the event. You also agree to email your material in one document to reach I Am In Print by the stated submission deadline and note that I Am In Print take no responsibility for the advice received during your agent meeting. The submission deadline is: Tuesday 15th July 2025

GDPR Practitioner

LOOKING FOR: ADULT FICTION, NON-FICTION Florence has been at A M Heath for five years and represents a range of commercial fiction and non-fiction. For fiction, comforting, funny and warm reads, as well as gripping page-turners, will always be Florence's cup of tea. Her favourite thing is to escape with a story she can’t put down. If you think your book fits that, then do send it to her.  Books in this vein that really left her wanting one more chapter include Marian Keyes’s character, Rachel, from Rachel’s Holiday that left Florence with a compassion for addiction that only the most skilled of writers can conjure. Florence finds Catherine Newman to be a genius for making hospice care so funny in We All Want Impossible Things. Smart page turners such as Anatomy of a Scandal, Such a Fun Age, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, wowed her with clever, gripping prose and complicated, flawed characters she hadn't met before. She also loves older classics like the Cazalet Chronicles and Georgette Heyer’s Regency novels. Florence is actively looking for writers who are under-represented in the publishing world, through non-traditional channels, as well as her submissions. She’s keen to find non-fiction and fiction writers who speak to a millennial and younger audience, be that a journalist who is looking to expand an idea, a screenwriter who is looking to try their hand at fiction or perhaps an activist with a social media platform.  She is also interested in environmental and social issues. The authors she represents include Jaspreet Kaur, Salma El-Wardany, Rachel Thompson, Annie Lord, Angelica Malin and Phil Ellis. Their books range from the heart-breaking and profound to the inspirational, funny and wise, with almost everything in between. Florence does not wish to receive, YA, Fantasy or Sci-fi.  Florence would like you to submit a covering letter, 1 page synopsis and the first 5,000 words of your manuscript in a single word document.  (In addition to the paid sessions, Florence is kindly offering one free session for low income/under-represented writers. Please email agent121@iaminprint.co.uk to apply, outlining your case for this option which is offered at the discretion of I Am In Print).  By booking you understand you need to conduct an internet connection test with I Am In Print prior to the event. You also agree to email your material in one document to reach I Am In Print by the stated submission deadline and note that I Am In Print take no responsibility for the advice received during your agent meeting. The submission deadline is: Wednesdy 16th July 2025

Developmental stages of children and developing activities for 0-12 year olds   Do you want to know more about how children learn and play at different ages to inform how you create family activities in your museum?    About this training   This training webinar will be led by cultural heritage learning consultant Anna Salaman. She has thirty years’ experience immersed in the arts, heritage and cultural sectors, specialising in learning and participation, creativity and play. Anna has worked with organisations around the world including ArtScience Museum (Singapore), Discover Children’s Story Centre, the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the V&A.   The session will help delegates to: learn about the developmental stages of children, ages 0-12, gain an understanding of different facilitation styles to build confidence when interacting with children of different age groups, explore the five types of play and facilitating play, make plans to put the training into practice in their organisation.   Take a look at the full schedule.   Please note: this is a recording of the session which took place on 6th June 2024.   Who should attend? This training is aimed at staff who work in museums, art galleries and heritage sites and are interested in developing your knowledge and understanding of the developmental ages and stages of children to inform how you create activities for families. 

Emotional Intelligence, EQ, EI, Moccasin Approach, Moccasin Manager,

Develop a Zombie Survivor FPS game from the beginning. Learn to create the zombie game step-by-step and set up your personally designed characters, weapons, animations, effects, and more. Create game modes with a complete game scenario with all the assets to build the game included in this course.

Creating family friendly exhibitions Please Note: this is a recording of a session which took place 3 July 2024.   Do you want to create a family friendly exhibition in your museum, but aren’t sure where to start?   About this training   During this session, we will be exploring the process of developing and delivering a family exhibition with practical tips and ideas.   This training webinar will be led by Sarah Shaw, former National Family Interpretation Manager for English Heritage. Her work included collaboratively designing family friendly experiences with families at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Birdoswald Roman Fort, which won the Best Family Day Out UK Heritage Award in 2020. She was also the project manager for the Marvellous and Mischievous: Literature’s Young Rebels exhibition at York Art Gallery in 2023.   The session will help delegates to:   discuss how to plan for families in exhibitions find out how to use learning and play styles for interpretation and resources learn top tips for developing family friendly exhibitions think about how you consult with families to develop your provision hear ideas for wider improvements to your family visitor experience.   Take a look at the full schedule.     Who should attend? This training is aimed at staff who work in museums, art galleries and heritage sites who are interested in developing successful family friendly exhibitions.

LOOKING FOR: ADULT FICTION / NON-FICTION Ciara McEllin is building her list as a Junior Agent at Watson Little. She reads widely across book club, upmarket and literary fiction. Within these areas, she is drawn to novels that examine family and relationship dynamics, sexuality, identity, and vulnerability. Ciara is keen to hear from writers who take a fresh approach to these themes, whether that be a new perspective on a traditional narrative or a focus on characters and voices that remain underrepresented: think Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday or Monkey Grip by Helen Garner. She will always want to read beautifully written novels with a strong sense of place, tangible characters and an essence that stays with you – living deep in your bones – long after you’ve finished reading. Recent reads Ciara has enjoyed include: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad, Close to Home by Michael Magee, Siblings by Brigitte Reimann, Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, The Idiot by Elif Batuman, Highway Blue by Ailsa McFarlane and My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley. At the moment Ciara is particularly eager to see: - Sexy, sensual and seductive stories that explore desire and sexual boundaries not often represented in literature such as Little Rabbit by Alyssa Songsiridej, Cleanness by Garth Greenwell and Mrs. S by K Patrick - An atmospheric and existential thriller in the vein of Intimacies by Katie Kitamura, In The Cut by Susanna Moore and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk - An intoxicating coming of-age-tale that captures the aliveness, intelligence and wildness of girlhood like Brutes by Dizz Tate, The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides and The Girls by Emma Cline - Books that are joyful or brutal, particularly those that are both, similar to Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel, Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan and Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan - Stories exploring an Australia or Ireland that is rarely seen in literature for example A Loving, Faithful Animal by Josephine Rowe and Wild Houses by Colin Barrett In non-fiction, Ciara enjoys narrative, memoir and essay collections. She is interested in hearing from experts, academics, critics and journalists writing about society, culture and food, and excited by writers seeking to revise, reshape or revolutionise the conversation in their area of expertise. Some of her favourite non-fiction titles include How To Survive A Plague by David France, The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye, the Living Autobiography Series by Deborah Levy, Last Witnesses: Unchildlike Stories by Svetlana Alexievich, King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes; and she particularly enjoys the work of M.F.K Fisher, Annie Ernaux, Natalia Ginsburg and Helen Garner. Ciara is not looking for Children’s, YA or Fantasy. Ciara would like you to submit a covering letter, 1 -2 page synopsis and the first 5,000 words of your completed manuscript in a single word document. (In addition to the paid sessions, Ciara is kindly offering one free session for low income/under-represented writers. Please email agent121@iaminprint.co.uk to apply, outlining your case for this option which is offered at the discretion of I Am In Print).  By booking you understand you need to conduct an internet connection test with I Am In Print prior to the event. You also agree to email your material in one document to reach I Am In Print by the stated submission deadline and note that I Am In Print take no responsibility for the advice received during your agent meeting. The submission deadline is: Thursday 17th July 2025

Fraud Prevention: A Guide for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises   Course Description   Copyright Ross Maynard 2021   Course Description Business fraud is a significant, and growing problem. Hardly a day goes by without news reports of organisations being hacked or having their data hijacked. Phishing scams and ID theft are also serious threats to businesses. According to data produced by Accenture, 43% of cyber attacks are aimed at small or medium sized organisations, but only 14% of those organisations are well protected. Around 60% of successful internet fraud cases are the result of phishing emails, and  30% of cases result from ID theft. These two approaches are increasingly being combined in business internet fraud. The aim of this course is to help managers in small or medium sized organisations understand the fraud risk that they face, and to take action to mitigate the risk. The course covers frauds risks, creating an anti-fraud culture and developing an fraud risk management strategy. The course comes with a fraud risk mini-audit and sample anti-fraud policies, and related policy documents. The best way to prevent fraud is to have clear anti-fraud policies and procedures which all staff understand, and which are rigorously enforced; coupled with an open, communicative environment, where staff feel safe and supported to question actions and raise concerns. To help your organisation put these elements in place, this course has five parts: Part 1: What is Fraud and Who Commits it? Part 2: Creating an Anti-Fraud Culture Part 3: Fraud Risk Management Part 4: Managing Bribery Risk Part 5: Appendices with sample anti-fraud policies, fraud response plans, a whistleblowing policy and anti-bribery policy.   I hope you find the course helpful.     Key Learning Points  On completion of the course, delegates will be able to: Define meaning and nature of business fraud Appreciate the variable nature of people’s honesty and how that can tip into fraud Understand the personality types of people who commit business fraud Identify the elements of an anti-fraud culture Explain the steps required to guard against internet fraud Understand the elements of a fraud risk management strategy Outline the sanctions available for those committing fraud Develop an Anti-Fraud Policy, Fraud Response Plan, Whistleblowing Policy and Anti-Bribery Policy for their organisation Begin to audit the level of fraud risk and bribery risk in their organisation     Curriculum Part 1: What is Fraud and Who Commits it? L1: What is Fraud? L2: The Variable Nature of Honesty Part 2: Creating an Anti-Fraud Culture L3: Creating an Anti-Fraud Culture L4: Internet Fraud and Cybercrime  Part 3: Fraud Risk Management L5: The Fraud Risk Management Strategy Part 1 L6: The Fraud Risk Management Strategy Part 2 L7: Sanctions for Fraud  L8: Tips to Help Prevent Fraud L9: The Fraud Risk Mini-Audit L10: Fraud Prevention Exercises Part 4: Managing Bribery Risk L11: The Bribery Act 2010 L12: The Bribery Risk Mini-Audit Part 5: Appendices Sample Anti-Fraud Policy 1 Sample Anti-Fraud Policy 2 Sample Fraud Response Plan 1 Sample Fraud Response Plan 2 Sample Whistleblowing Policy Sample Anti-Bribery Policy     Pre-Course Requirements There are no pre-course requirements     Additional Resources PDF copies of the following documents are provided with the course: Sample Anti-Fraud Policy 1 Sample Anti-Fraud Policy 2 Sample Fraud Response Plan 1 Sample Fraud Response Plan 2 Sample Whistleblowing Policy Sample Anti-Bribery Policy Sample Code of Ethics CIMA Fraud Risk Management Guide 2016 The Honesty Questionnaire The Fraud Risk Mini-Audit The Bribery Risk Mini Audit     Course Tutor Your tutor is Ross Maynard. Ross is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in the UK and has 30 years’ experience as a process improvement consultant specialising in business processes and organisation development. Ross is also a professional author of online training courses. Ross lives in Scotland with his wife, daughter and Cocker Spaniel

New Excel Functions   Course Description   Ross Maynard     Description In the second half of 2020 Microsoft released a significant upgrade to the most used spreadsheet programme in the world. Microsoft Excel now offers the ability to handle dynamic arrays – functions that return a range of results that update as the source data changes. In this course, we discuss the power of dynamic arrays and introduce the new functions. The functions I am going to cover are: RANDARRAY- creating a table of random numbers or random dates UNIQUE – identifying the distinct items in a list SEQUENCE – listing numbers with a set interval SORT and SORTBY – new ways of dynamically sorting data FILTER – building the ability to filter data into formulae XLOOKUP – replacing VLOOKUP with greater flexibility IFS and SWITCH making it easier to construct IF statements The new CONCAT, and TEXTJOIN text functions   If you have an earlier version of Microsoft Excel then these functions will not be available to you and this course might not be for you. But if you do have a subscription to Office365 – either personally or through your work – I think you will find this course extremely useful.         Learning Outcomes Participants in this course will learn: What the new dynamic arrays feature in Microsoft Excel means How the new RANDARRAY function works How the new UNIQUE function works How the new SEQUENCE function works How the new SORT and SORTBY functions work How the new FILTER function works How the new XLOOKUP function can replace VLOOKUP How to build IF statements with the new IFS function How the new SWITCH function works How the new TEXTJOIN function can replace CONCATENATE and CONCAT How the new functions can be used in management reporting     Course Requirements There are no pre-course requirements.   Additional Resources Course Spreadsheet with the examples covered.       About Ross Ross Maynard is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in the UK. He is director of Ideas2Action Process Excellence Ltd and has 30 years’ experience as a process improvement consultant and facilitator. Ross is also a professional author of online training courses for accountants. Ross lives in Scotland with his wife, daughter and Cocker Spaniel