January 14th Meeting Report

Last night 28 people gathered at the Lutheran Church to hear and critique 6 readers.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Preparations for our upcoming conference are going well. Consider donating to the raffle! Proceeds from the raffle at our conference raise money for our student scholarship.

A few more volunteers for the conference are wanted. If you are interested please email Jay Yarbrough, jyarbrough7 [at] cox [dot] net.

Kathleen Mosko is participating in the Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society 50th Anniversary Banquet next Saturday, January 26th. She would like to donate some books from authors in our group, if you have a book you would like to donate email Kathleen: kathleenmosko [at] gmail [dot] com.

BRAGS:

No brags this week.

UPCOMING MEETINGS:

Our next meeting is Monday, January 21st at 6:30 p.m. in the Albertsons grocery store in Henderson. For a map and directions to our room there see the previous newsletter. To see a calendar of our meetings, check out this link or scroll to the bottom of the post.

WRITING TIP from Jo Wilkins:

Here is another tip for avoiding passive voice. Taking the time to write in active voice highlights your story not your technique, pulling readers into the story through its flow. When you find yourself at a loss to eliminate passive sentence structure try rearranging the phrases/clauses in the sentence. Moving the last phrase to the beginning might solve a problem of slower passive prose. Or, try tightening 2 sentences into 1 to paint a clearer picture.

JUST IN CASE YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED:

If you have a brag to submit to "Writers' Tricks of the Trade" E-Zine, the submission deadline for the March/April issue is March 5.
The Idaho Writer's Association has a conference May 2-4th. Early bird registration available before February.
Submissions to the 2013 Eric Hoffer book award contest (which charges a fee) are due January 21st.

PHOTO ESSAY:
In lieu of an article, this week we have a short photo essay, created by me:

 Cultivated,

 Wild.

 Healthy,

 Sick.

Writing with a writer's group,

and without.

CALENDAR:

Jan/Feb 2013 Sun           Mon           Tues          Wed            Thur           Fri             Sat
	21 Albertsons in Henderson 6:30-8:30 p.m.	22	23 West side meeting at Skinny Dugans ? 6:30 p.m.	24	25	26
27	28 Lutheran Community Church 6:30-8:30 PM	29	30	31	1	2
3	4 Albertsons in Henderson 6:30-8:30 p.m.	5	6	7	8	9
10	11 Lutheran Community Church 6:30-8:30 PM	12	13  Writer's Pen and Grill	14	15	16
17	18 Albertsons in Henderson 6:30-8:30 p.m.	19	20	21	22	23
24	25 Lutheran Community Church 6:30-8:30 PM	26	27	28

Have a great week!

Editor- Jenny Ballif