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!

Last month we had a great talk by author Shirley Jump. She prepared and presented two different workshops for us to enjoy. The first was “Powerful Dialogue” and the second was “5 Secrets of Compelling Novels”. The event was well-attended both online and in person at the library and the recording of the workshop is available for our members on the member’s website on the Library Page. These videos are only available to our members throughout the year 2024.

June 8, 2024 Writers Workshop is being given on Zoom by Author Jenna Grinstead. She will be doing two workshops. The first is called “Writing Across Generations” and the second is “The Power of Facebook Groups”. Both of these sound extremely interesting. We hope to see you either at the Library or on Zoom.
West Branch Regional Library
1425 Chaffee Road S
Jacksonville, FL 32221
Opens at 10:00 am on Saturdays
You can come in and join some of our members to view the Writer’s Workshop on Zoom and meet a few members.
Non-Members need only fill out the Workshop Form and pay the small $10 fee to view it from your home on our Zoom Channel. The Zoom link is sent to members in the group emailing list.

Anthology Updates and Organizational Projects

NERFA – National Excellence in Romance Fiction Awards contest is in its final stages of judging. The 3 finalists in each category has been chosen and now are with our final group of judges to pick the winner in each category. They will be announced at the end of the first week in July.

Our First Anthology of the Year

Romancing the Tropics 2 – is in preorder right now and will be available for purchase world-wide beginning June 11, 2024 at all major online retailers. This version contains 5 different romance novellas written by members of FCRW. All proceeds from the sale of these anthologies goes towards paying for our writing workshops and other activities we do to help our members get published.

Other Anthologies Planned

The group is currently working on two more anthologies this year. The next one is called a “Shared World” anthology where a different author publishes a romance novella story every month for the next 12 months using the same WORLD characteristics. Each author has a choice of the time period and type of romance genre they would like but it happens in the same town called Pinevale Valley. The first book will be published in the middle of July and we will have one a month. Stay tuned for more information.

The last anthology will be called “For the Love of Winter 2” and will be filled with romance stories for the holidays from Thanksgiving until New years. Love and Romance to heat up the colder months. This book is scheduled for release towards the end of September 2024. It is going to be great as we have several new members who would like to join in on the fun. We do not have cover art yet for that but, again, join our newsletter and keep abreast of what the group is doing.

Speaking of the Newsletter – For those who subscribe to our newsletter there are going to be some nifty incentives and fun thinks happening for those who are subscribers. One of those is going to be the upcoming Romance Cover Contest! Yes, we will be inviting all romance writers who have published a book from January 2023 to June 2024 to participate in our Book Cover Contest. The author has to pay a small fee to participate to help pay for the website and advertising for the contest. There will be cash prizes and every subscriber to the newsletter will be able to judge each of the covers. – JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER!