Is This Thing On?

Hi all!

Yah, it's been a while. Sorry about that. New job, life happens, and all of that.

Okay! On to the subject o' the day:

Contests!

I've been rattling around some plans for 2019, 'cause it's the end of the year and my mind is in that zone. After a little research, here's what I've found for 2019 (so far)...

Short Story:
Reedsy Writing Prompts Inspired Short Story Contest (weekly)

Dialogue Only Writing Contest (July 5th deadline)

Horror Writing (June 30 DEADline...)

Poetry:
Walt Whitman Award (Deadline Nov 2019)

Tom Howard / Margaret Ried Poetry Contest (April 15-Sept 30 submission period)

Faith Poetry Contest (June 25 deadline, faith-based)


Other...
Creative Writing Award (Genres: Fiction, Poetry, Short Story; $12 fee)

Drue Heinz Literature Prize (PUBLISHED AUTHORS contest, June 30 deadline)

North Street Book Prize (June 30 deadline)

William Van Wert Award for Fiction (June 30, novel excerpts)

McLaughlin-Esstman-Stearns First Novel Prize (June 28)

More to come later!

Write on.

-Dave

Getting Ready to Write!

Hello everyone and welcome Erica!

We discussed Kathy's SciFi work, plot points, time travel mechanics, story arcs, character bibles, etc. It got kind of 'timey-wimey', but I hoped it helped.

Eric has completed her first work and is shopping it around. Now she looking into that second book, zeroing in on some character details!

We talked about elevator speeches and shopping out books. We discussed some publishing groups such as:

https://www.one-story.com/

I've also attached a few more publishing links over there to the right...

We discussed royalties for anthologies: covering for publishing costs, editors, and using the profits to facilitate further works. We briefly discussed the anthology plans as well, folks still seem interested and I'll do my best to cobble together what I've got so far in a (near) future blog.

We discussed Diane's work about a bike hike up a mountain, and the trials that occur. We also got a peek at her poetry books (2 so far and a third coming together)!

Jennifer discussed her opening chapters of her book, some rewrites, and adjustments!

This was followed up with a transition question Megan had with her work, unfortunately I had to step out early before I had a chance to be a part of the follow up. Bring Book II in next W.B. Megan! It sounds like you have (at least) a few sales!

Write on, everyone.

-Dave

A Foggy October

Good day all!

I just wanted to shoot out a quick HELLO to Mike and Mary, who are new to our group.

Also, we did some writing stuff:
We had some freeform discussion concerning NaNoWriMo (see the link over there on the right side of the page), discussed some of our current efforts, talked about dealing with publishers and agents, the philosophy of writing (crafting verses commerce), what makes a story compelling, and various forms of self-promotion (blogging, public speaking, anthologies, etc.).

Two critiques today: Tad brought in a short work and Jennifer read a handful of pages from her Civil War novel. Hopefully we were able to give each of these fantastic works a proper critique.

We're planning on meeting on Monday, October 22 at 9 am. See you then!

-Dave

Anthology, Day 1...

Good day, all!

It was a great morning at the WB! Diane discussed some character concepts, Jen W is looking at editing her novel, Tad took us to the Carnival, and I talked about Ashland, Wisconsin.

Working with Tad's poem, we practiced a feedback style called: Latter of Feedback. With this process, the author reads the work, then the floor opens to four stages of discussion:

First, Clarify. This is where people ask questions about the work for understanding.
Second,Values.  This is where we discuss the positives of the work.
Third, Concerns. This is where we discuss the issues we have with the work.
Fourth, Suggestions. Opinions and ideas that didn't make it into the above three categories.

It opened the door for a LOT of discussion and positive feedback! Thanks for showing it to us Tad!


We ended on the subject of creating an Anthology to be made ready by late 2019. Our ultimate goal is to have 15-25 authors create works (any genre, poetry, memoir, etc) that would fill in a soft cap of 3000 words.
Yes. I understand that some poems are a little lighter than that, and we'll work though it.
Questions raised were:

1. Editor? Publisher? Press?
2. 10-Month Process (1st draft date, rewrite date, final edit date)
3. Final Proof and Print
4. Publication Date?
5. Launch Party (and public reading)!

Just something to think about!

-Dave

Rainy Monday

Back at the WB!

Streamline and organizing the writing space...
   Spring cleaning is in the air and the WB group has been tweaking their writing space for inspiration and better space use. Lots of new things, from the creation of new / updated blogs to a complete re-org of individual creative zones. Write on!

Decafnovelist.com is MK Wisemans site...
   The above link is the NEW MK Wiseman blog site for the Bookminder series, and beyond. Go check it out and see what is happening in the Croatian fantasy realm!

On family and those beta readers within...
   On a side note, we veered into the pros and cons of having family read our work. Memberable quotes such as "Will your readers know what a 'magi' is?", to (after hours of hmmmm, ahhh, mmmm) "It's nice.", and other such anticlimactic responses. Granted, the folks we trust in our families love us and want to help without risking harm. Still, it was a very therapeutic session!

Calling up the Kites Mountain short story...
   Just a quick thanks to the WB crew this week! We did some tear-down / feedback to the intro of the story. LOTS of great suggestions and edits!!! Although the story has already been submitted to GenCon for the contest, it was a eye-opening experience for me. One of my shortcomings is reading my own words out loud. As I read, I try to fix the story for the audience at hand. So apparently self-assured tenacity is something for me to keep tweaking. Still, at the end of it all, it was kind of fun answering the 'what motivated you to write this part' and 'how would you put this part and that part together for more clarity'. Insight and puzzle solving for the reader and author. Good stuff!

Diane brought in her poems...
   Fresh off the printer comes book 2 and book 3 is in the works! Hand-stitched bindings and some wonderful wordsmithing on the inside. Unfortunately, I had to cut out early for work, and was not around for the feedback and discussion. If anyone from the group reads this blog, feel free to leave whatever I missed in the comments!

-Dave

The Not-So-Quiet-Room

Hope everyone had a great WB last week!

Kathy D gave me an update on the going's on:

The Children’s Library is getting new carpet in May, and they’re moving the library into our meeting room. So they’ve asked us to move our meetings into the Quiet Room for May.

Lots of good interaction! 

Jennifer 1 spoke of her religious essays. 
Jennifer 2 brought 7 pages of her Civil War memoir and we critiqued. 
Diane brought in a finished copy of her chapbook along with the trials along the way. 
Kathy brought good cheer and her ever-sharp editorial eye to the table.

Write on everyone! See you on May 14th in the 'Quiet Room'.

-Dave

Things Done and To-Do

The group covered a TON of items at the last W.B., and I just wanted to both recap and note the plans for the upcoming get-together.

1. Diane is putting together a poetry booklet (good luck on the format issues!)

2. Camp NaNoWriMo is happening this month, I have an account and can see if I can set up a cabin, if anyone is interested.

3. Kathy is sorting out her 500 Word Confusions...

4. Megan has book 3 under construction and has finalized the cover artwork for book 2 of the Bookminder series!

5. I'm playing around with an 8000 word contest for Gen Con's Writer's symposium.

6. Tom (the library director) introduced us to the new Adult Services manager and also informed us that he would like any ideas that we might have for the creation of a 5-minute YouTube vid service that the Niederkorn library is interested in creating.

7. Jen gave us an obituary to read. It kicked off some interesting analysis and response!

One thing that was discussed is the reading / editing / responses to a short story for an upcoming contest. I was under the impression that the due date was April 1, but it turns out it is April 30. Here's the link (if you are interested):

http://www.genconwriters.com/node/193

Looking forward to seeing everyone on April 9th!

-Dave

New Year, Lots of Projects

Greetings to all!

Last W.B. we had Lynn, Megan, Rose, Diane, Kathy, and Dave along with tea, coffee, and banana bread!

Lynn provided a GREAT opening for a sci fi book. Discussion followed. I think it is safe to say that this is one of those story arcs that both engages in a timely manner while also transporting the reader into a neat, cautionary tale.

We talked about Megan's projects. A certain trilogy's final book is coming together even as I type this. Also discussed were the the joys of moving. Boxing things thought lost. Fitting in an established life into the frame of another home (and making it yours). If I wrote in the romance genre, I can see that being the framework of a cool flashback / flash-forward styled book...

Setting up a blog. Go Blogspot! Also, the expectations of writing on a daily / weekly / monthly basis...

Rose talked about holiday letters. This is an interesting time capsule of many nifty nuggets: issues of the day / year, the changes in an author's voice, reflections of the individuals to / from / about...

Another free-form Monday to inspire!

See you on Monday 2/12 for our next installment. I'll bring a goody and more coffee & tea.

Write on.

-Dave

Happy New Year Everybody!

Howdy all!

Soooo, I'm looking at the unpublished posts from 2017 and found that I've become a MASTER at writing posts during our Writers Blocks, then saving and never posting them. Still, there are quite a few with some gems jotted down, so if I suddenly seem to have a number of disjointed subjects...

Yesterday, we had our first WB of 2018!

The year is starting off with some new folks as well as the regular lineup. Megan is kicking off a new novel project, Kathy is back from a VERY extended leave and still plugging away at that editors guide. I've come on board with Illusionist Magazine (www.illusioni.st) this week. Yes, the ink is still drying on the contract.

Unfortunately, I was unable to catch up with the whole gang. However, the next WB will include a little free writing practice and I'm planning on discussing plotting for various sized projects.

The next Writer's Block will take place on Monday, Jan 15 at our usual time of 9 am - Noonish.

Write on!

-Dave