September 16th Meeting Report

We enjoyed a great meeting this Monday at the coffee shop. I'm looking forward to next week's meeting, because it is our workshop critique. The extra time allotted to our readers should encourage some good discussion about character development, plot line, and other elements of writing and story telling.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

There is a publicity meeting at 6:30 p.m. September 26th at Tina's house. If you are interested in publicity (or have great twitter, facebook, tumblir, pinetrist... skills you'd like to share), come along for a round table discussion about how we can improve the publicity for our group.

Our group maintains a small library of books about writing, cared for by our Librarian Judy. This Monday she brought a list of the books, all of which are available for the members to borrow.

I recently finished "Writing the Breakout Novel" by Donald Maass, which I borrowed from our library.

The book presented me with a new source of anxiety that I'd never considered. What if you do get published, but your books don't do very well, and then no publisher will buy your next books because your writing just doesn't cut it? Eeek.

After a sobering introduction with plenty of anecdotes about published authors whose careers fizzled to this dismal point, the book turned to what makes a great novel, one that is a "breakout." Each chapter had a summary of main points and the book as a whole is a great mini-course on storytelling, and how to do it well.

If you'd like to borrow this one next (or check out one of the many titles in our library), come to a meeting or contact Judy at jeslogan1 [at] hotmail [dot] com.


Do you want to have a piece in Writer's Bloc V? Anthology entries are due next month, by October 28th. The anthologies will be available by our Spring conference. A big thank you to Mystic Publishing for donating the cost of publication for our anthology.

To enter, submit one edited work of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or a teaser from your novel. The submission must be less than 4,000 words, and standard formatting applies (one inch margins, double paced, 12 point font...). Please include a cover page with the author's name, title, genre, and word count. Email submissions to Audrey Balzart at audrey101 [at] aol [dot] com.


BRAGS:

Congratulations to Gregory Kompes on being contacted by Carolyn Howard-Johnson to write a blurb on the next edition of her book, The Frugal Book Promoter.

Congratulations to Donald Riggio on the airing of an interview about his books this Sunday and Monday. Check the HWG facebook page for details about the time and station.


QUOTE OF THE NIGHT:

"...all landing in a heap with the elf underneath."

- Toni Pacini

WRITING TIP from Jo Wilkins:

"How can I write life-like characters? We, as authors, just need to relax enough to write characters that let the readers merge into the story. 

I tell my classes to let the characters be themselves and they will write themselves."

CALENDAR:

September/October 2013 Sun       Mon      Tues      Wed           Thur           Fri                 Sat
	2 THE COFFEE HOUSE  in Henderson  6:30-8:30	3	4	5	6	7
8	9 Lutheran Community Church 6:30-8:30	10	11 Writer's Pen and Grill	12 HWG officer's meeting 6:00	13	14
15	16 THE COFFEE HOUSE  in Henderson  6:30-8:30	17	18	19	20	21
22	23 Lutheran Community Church Workshop Critique 6:30-8:30	24	25 West Side meeting at Skinny Dugans 6:30	26 Publicity meeting  6:30	27	28
29	30  THE COFFEE HOUSE  in Henderson First Chapter Read  6:30-8:30	Oct 1	2	3	4	5
6	7 THE COFFEE HOUSE  in Henderson 6:30-8:30	8	9 Writer's Pen and Grill	10	11	12

Thanks for reading.
-Jenny Ballif, Newsletter Editor