September 30th Meeting Report

We enjoyed a great meeting this last Wednesday. It was fun to hear six different first chapters of new works that haven't been read to the group before.


ANNOUNCEMENTS:

We have two new meetings starting this month! The first Wednesday of each month a screenwriting group will meet at Skinny Dugans. If you would like to learn more about movie writing, or if you have a script, bring it along! Email Darrah Whitaker if you'd like to read at the screenwriting meeting (wdwhitaker [at] qavsys [dot] com).

Email Gregory if you'd like to read at the poetry meeting on the 16th, or at one of the regular Monday meetings (gregory [at] kompes [dot] com.) And email Karlo if you'd like to read at the Westside meeting on the 23rd (stetsonblue1929 [at] yahoo [dot] com.)

If you want your address and phone number in the membership list, email Judy. If you do not email her, then only your name and email will be included in the membership directory.

The time is here for submitting to our anthology, Writer's Bloc V. Email Audrey (audrey101 [at] aol [dot] com) to enter. Submissions must be received by October 28th.

We enjoyed a nice discussion at our recent publicity meeting. We are looking for members of the group with good social media skills who would be willing to share their talents. If you are into twitter, dig, pinterest et cetera, or if you have an idea about how to better promote our group or the members of our group, email Tina (christina [at] bajabrody [dot] com.)


BRAGS:

Congratulations to Judy Salz on submitting her first essay to the Journal of the American Medical Association. It was accepted for review.

Congratulations to Henry Schmidt on the recent publication of his book "Smitten, and then some."


QUOTES OF THE NIGHT:

"POV is like the bane of my existence."

"If she has psychic abilities, then how come she doesn't know what's going on?"

WRITING TIP from Jo Wilkins:

"Theme is an element to a story that may never appears in the text, but influences the direction of the story. Sometimes you don’t discover your theme until you are into writing the text, but once you discover it post it somewhere so you can see it while you write. If you keep your theme in mind it will help keep your story centered."

DID YOU KNOW?

There is a conference coming up right here in Vegas next week: Writers of Southern Nevada is putting on a conference October 11th and 12th titled "Fiction in the Digital Age"  On Friday October 11th there is a book signing that has a few slots open for nonattendees. So even if you're not going to the conference, if you're free that weekend and want an opportunity to network and promote your book, check out the Atomic Book Signing at Atomic Liquors on Fremont Street.

There is a book festival in St. George: http://stgeorgebookfestival.org/ The deadline to sign up for the Friday night dinner is October 12th. The Book Expo is Saturday, October 19th.

twoop.com is a great site to check out historical facts and dates. You can find a timeline there for just about anyone and anything.


ARTICLE from Judy Logan:

What's a Genre?

What’s a genre, anyway? It’s a category (of sorts) into which a specific “style” of writing falls.

Depending on your resource, the number of fiction/non-fiction genres can vary from 5 to 96!

There are some standards, though, that most people recognize: action/adventure, chick lit, children’s, fantasy, horror, literary, mystery, police-procedural, religious-spiritual, romance, speculative, steam punk, sci-fi, and true crime, women’s fiction, young adult, etc..

Within those major genres (or categories), there are endless sub-categories and varieties (see the Wikipedia reference below) of writing.

The most difficult genre to describe, however, is “literary fiction.” For some, literary fiction is the catch-all for fictional works not easily identified as belonging to another genre.

For serious students of the study and categorization of literature, literary fiction, however, denotes a quality and skillfulness of the language used, with the actual story being secondary.

Literary fiction, compared to say, commercial fiction, is like the difference between a James Patterson work and one of John Updike’s. It’s the language chosen, the sub-text, symbolism, universal themes presented, albeit subtly that separates good writing from a masterful command of the language.

If you’re interested in learning more about genres, and about discovering where your writing fits into the continuum, check out these web sites:

http://www.cuebon.com/ewriters/definitions.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genres

Enjoy.

Judy Logan, Historian of the Henderson Writer's Group

CALENDAR:

October 2013 Sun       Mon      Tues      Wed           Thur           Fri                 Sat
	23 Lutheran Community Church 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 Screen Writing meeting at Skinny Dugans 6:30	3	4	5
6	7 THE COFFEE HOUSE  in Henderson  6:30-8:30	8	9 Writers Pen and Grill	10 HWG officer's meeting 6:00	11	12
13	14 Lutheran Community Church 6:30-8:30	15	16 Poetry meeting Skinny Dugans 6:30	17 Las Vegas Writer's Group Meeting	18	19
20	21  THE COFFEE HOUSE  in Henderson  6:30-8:30	22	23 West Side meeting at Skinny Dugans 6:30	24	25	26
27	28 Lutheran Community Church 6:30-8:30	29	30	31 Happy Halloween	Nov 1	2

Thanks for reading.
-Jenny Ballif, Newsletter Editor