November 5th Meeting Report

Thirty one of us joined together last night to hear seven readers. Our group had a great booth at the Green Valley Farmers Market last Friday and this last weekend's book fair also went very well.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Beginning in January 2013 we will be alternating our meeting location between the Lutheran community church (where we meet currently) and the Albertsons grocery store on College and Horizon Ridge in Henderson. Our meeting time will also change from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m.

The Las Vegas Romance Writers group is hosting a lunch next Saturday, November 17th. Literary Agent Laura Bradford will be attending and authors who attend may have the opportunity to pitch their novel to her. The cost is $50 for non members, lunch is included. See LasVegasRWA.org for more information.

BRAGS:
A very big congratulations to Gregory Kompes on the recent publication of his new book "The Middle Man."

Congratulations to Linda Lou on having four nights in the Hilton doing stand up comedy, and receiving tips and feedback from famous comedians Louie Anderson and Rich Little. Linda also had a great month trying out Amazon's KDP select (Kindle Direct Publishing). She sold over 600 books last month and thought it had great promotional help for new authors.

Congratulations to Pat Kranish who had an interview on Oksana Marafioti's blog "The Gypsy Chronicles" and also has part of her book coming out soon in an anthology.

Congratulations to Kathleen Mosko who will have upcoming interviews airing on radio station "Vegas Unwrapped".

And congratulations to Ariel Belanger on coming in 6th place in her writing contest!

UPCOMING MEETINGS:
Our next meeting is our weekly Monday meeting at the Lutheran Church at 6:00 p.m. on November 12th. For more information on our meetings check the calendar. Also, don't forget that we will have a booth at the Green Valley Farmer's Market this Friday, November 9th.

QUOTE OF THE NIGHT:

"I like your shoes."

WRITING TIP from Jo Wilkins:

SHOW DON’T TELL also paints a better picture through your prose. Writing in active voice is a necessity if you don’t want your story to drag. Active voice means painting a clear picture with your words. It means showing the reader instead of telling them a story. ("I pressed my hands over my quaking stomach"—showing—vs. "I was upset"—telling—).


ARTICLE by Pat Kranish:

I go over my stats compulsively. Five stories published and one due out next year. Obeying Mark Twain’s admonition about choosing exactly the right word, I rewrite my one paragraph biography with every submission. I’ve done book reviews and author interviews. Designed a chart to keep track of submission guidelines, then forget to look at it. Bookslut turned me down. I’m too bookish and not sluttish enough. (Or vice versa.) Sent out a long interview to Paris Review last week—by snail mail. Secretly hoped that the post office lady would ask me if I was a writer. Submitted the same review to two other anthologies. On a lark, or considering my late night dread, a raven, I queried a blog which looked good and carried interviews. 

To my great surprise, they want to publish mine. Today. All they want, besides the article, is my headshot, and a link to my websites, you know, for all those people who “wish to read more about” me. The article is ready to go. I do have a head and a camera to shoot it with. But somehow I never got around to building that all-important author’s platform. The innocent request from the “empty pocket” publisher goads me—only slackers and dilettantes fail to promote themselves. I hate my procrastinating, cowardly, genre-dashing, self more than ever. And suppose the Paris Review forgets it only publishes top-shelf, best-selling authors and journalists and chooses little old me? Will I have to rewrite my tiny literary biography to add that I turned down a career building, paying gig, because after midnight, when the only light in the house is cast by my computer screen, it’s the numbers that count: six down, one to go, and the year, and the night, is young.