We are fast approaching December 2024. The election is behind us and now we are looking forward to the holidays. If you haven’t been attending our meeting in person at the West Regional Library or on Zoom you have missed out on some great learning opportunities and our first Writer’s Retreat Weekend in September. 2025 … Read more
Marketing your books no matter the genre takes work. You have to plan out your goals in order to then plan out how you are going to achieve them. Indie authors as well as some traditionally published authors utilize a variety of tools in addition to getting their local bookstores and libraries to allow them to hold a book signing event. One of those is called the Virtual Book Tour and the other “Take Over Day” for a social media group such as those found on Facebook.
September is going to be a very busy month for most of us. With all the worries we have with the upcoming hurricane season we have to be ready for there are lots and lots of different books and authors events. We will not be having a writers workshop this month. The organization will be having a member’s retreat at the lovely St. Augustine, Florida beach house. We will be posting pictures from the event and may even “GO LIVE”. The members have worked hard all year contributing to our anthologies, learning new skills and volunteering their time and talents to our organization.
Everything is in bloom. The spring crops are being harvested and the summer ones will be soon. There are strawberries and blueberries everywhere. Soon there will be watermelons everywhere you go. The dreaded Hurricane season has officially started and we are all wondering what Mother Nature has in store for us. But with preparation and innovation, we can keep ourselves cool, enjoy the harvest bounty, and even attend some writing workshops and events to help us with our writing craft. Readers increase your TBR with one or two of our anthologies!
The sting of a rejection letter can leave even the most seasoned writer feeling deflated. But before you pack away your manuscript and declare yourself a literary failure, take a deep breath and remember this: rejection is a normal part of the writing journey.
Here’s a little secret: even the most celebrated authors faced a mountain of “no’s” before finding their “yes.”
August Wrap-Up and another great workshop will be coming soon for our members and guests. In August we had KG Fletcher presenting some great information about how music affects us all and can help us write better prose. Most authors create different playlists for each novel to help them get into the headspace for those characters and scenes they will be writing. She also discussed some of the laws we have to be aware of when wanting to use song titles and/or lyrics in our books and other types of writing. There are also specific rules about using music with your book trailers and social media posts. Of course, check with a lawyer for specific information.
July Speaker Wrap-Up and Member News – This month’s speaker was Pamela Taylor from Texas who gave us two workshops. One about DIY editing and the other was a great group exercise called Authenticity vs. Creativity in Contemporary and Historical Settings. The first training session went over some of the more common problem areas that writers have and should be award of to keep a look out for when they do their own editing. Giving a ‘clean’ manuscript over to a professional editor will save her/him time and you money.
The second workshop was an interactive class session where Pamela gave us a grid on various genres and we free-associated what we thought was important for writers in those storylines. Great exercise and very helpful for both newbies and those who have published a few stories already.
The March Workshop was given by Caron Burmeister. It was a very invigorating discussion about building suspense and creating memorable sense of place. There was even a short writing sprint at the end that we all got to participate in and read our results. A little bit nerve-racking but very helpful feedback and you can never have too much writing practice. Below is her short biography, the description of the talks. Members have access to the handouts on our “Members Only Website”.
Caren Burmeister Bio
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