Feb 18th Meeting Report

Last night about 33 people met to enjoy hearing six writers read. Our speaker was postponed to next week. At our Feb 25th meeting Wolf will present "Microsoft Word Magic for Authors."

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

We are in good shape with volunteers for the conference. Thank you!

We are also getting good gift certificates and donations for our raffle. We are putting together a book collection containing published books from members of our group. If you have a book to contribute please do! Contact Amanda for information about how to donate to the raffle.

Carolyn Hayes-Uber is in the midst of some serious health struggles, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

BRAGS:
Congratulations to Toni Pacini who submitted material to the online magazine MUSED (Bella online literary journal) and had two short stories and one poem accepted!

Congratulations to Jo Wilkins and her co-author on editing over 350 pages of their manuscript this weekend! Also Congratulations to Jo on being invited to go to Bullhead City this weekend to give a presentation to their local writing group.


QUOTE OF THE NIGHT:

"The wind blew hot and sharp like a slap across the face."

-From "My Life as a Sperm" by Darrah Whitaker

UPCOMING MEETINGS:

Our next weekly meeting is next Monday at the Lutheran Church, Room 2C, at 6:30 p.m.
The West Side meeting at Skinny Dugans is next Wednesday, Feb 28th at 6:30 p.m.
For more information about the meetings see the calendar at the end of the Feb 4th blog post.


WRITING TIP from Jo Wilkins:

Drama – writers who write without drama (whether they write fiction or non-fiction) are just listing facts. It is drama that brings life to our subject/storyline. Without the drama of why your character does something or seeks an answer, there is nothing to draw the reader into the project you have devoted so much time putting together. It’s the reason your facts/fiction become interesting. It shows the reader how your facts/fiction have affected someone else’s life. 

DID YOU KNOW?

The Emotion Thesaurus was mentioned at our last meeting as being a useful resource. A copy may be coming to our group library soon. You can read more about the book here on one of the author's blogs. Did you know that our group maintains a nice library of books about writing, from which you can borrow? Contact Judy to see a list of available books.

Our group recently received an email from Molli Nickell advertising her monthly writing contest:

"My FREE monthly writing contests for the query, synopsis, or first page help writers release fears about making the mental shift from "telling" to "selling." Contest participants follow writing prompts and gain confidence as they practice writing these three marketing documents.

Winner of each monthly contest receives a FREE 60-minute consultation with me, Molli Nickell―a former publisher and Time-Life editor. Plus, their winning document is posted on my website. Honorable mentions also receive free critique comments.

Entry form for the monthly query, synopsis, or first-page writing contest is available now at www.getpublishednow.biz."


ARTICLE:

Many of our members have great blogs that feature regular writing-related posts. The following article is a post from HWG member Fred Rayworth's blog, The Worlds of Fred Rayworth, which you can find at http://fredrayworth.com.

DO YOUR STORY OR CHARACTERS HAVE A TRADEMARK STYLE?

By Fred Rayworth

As with any writer, once you find something that works, you get into a groove. You find your place and tend to go with it. Sometimes it’s deliberate, sometimes it’s unconscious and it’s not until other people tell you about it.

The reason I picked this subject is because of a series of books I just read by a British author. His stories are in the DaVinci Code mold, sort of. The hero usually chases after some kind of McGuffin with biblical connotations. Of course, he travels to plenty of exotic places and gets into loads of trouble along the way. What makes these stories unique, or as I’ll define it, the authors trademark, is that though is lots of over-the-top violence sprinkled throughout the story, the hero has little to do with it except usually being on the receiving end or escaping. The bad guys or others perpetuate it. He’s left to keep his sidekick, his ex-wife out of situations, help figure things out (she’s usually the brains), and lead the way. I call him the born-to-be-mild cop (his actual job when he’s not off adventuring). Out of four books, I can only remember him shooting one person. Considering the body count in those four books, that’s quite unusual.

My trademark, at least in my Gold series of stories is that though my hero, Detach goes after gold in each novel, the metal is actually a side issue to a bigger picture. There really is gold to be found in each story, but it’s only the starting point.

In my icky bug novels, since they’re not a series, I guess my trademark would be the humor. In that respect, humor would be the trademark of all of my stories.

For some authors, it might be something annoying, like using million dollar words, or writing in present tense, or other editorial issues I rail about all the time.

For all of you out there, especially those that have more than one novel or are still finding your groove, do you have a trademark you’re aware of? Have you thought of one, or are you contemplating one?