The January meeting of the WhipCity Wordsmiths authors/writers group was held at Blue Umbrella Books, 2 Main Street, Westfield, MA on Saturday, January 20, 2018. There were eight members present (Shawn, Susan, Kelly, Sandy, Joseph, Rhonda, Geri,and Judith F.) and three guests, Dorothy, Bella (Sandy's granddaughter), and Angela Powell who was Judith's guest and interested in joining.
Joseph had questions about converting a typed manuscript into a word document. Kelly said it was possible with the use of a scanner and will give him further advice at a future meeting. He had several pages of his manuscript that he gave to Susan who will read them over and give him feedback at the next meeting. He's interested in publishing his memoir. Joseph also writes poetry.
Rhonda has an adult book in the works, a different path for this children's author who loves to rhyme. She had a manuscript color copy of her book that has been popular in Haiti, and showed copies of her T Bear's Adventures books which she signed and gave to Angela as a gift for one of her grandchildren. Rhonda also talked abut Flitten Kitten Fairy Tails.
Shawn spoke about his adventures in self publishing and will be giving more advice on self publishing to Joseph at a future meeting. Shawn is putting together his thoughts on another book, this one about another of his cats. He was encouraged to do so since The Kitty Who Rescued Me after I Rescued Him has been popular and established a connection with a lot of cat lovers. Shawn has been busy attending pet expos, and other events and author appearances to promote his book. He spoke about the difficulty of being ones own publicist and book marketer- a challenge for any self-published author.
Geri enjoys writing essays and found she shares that passion with Angela. Geri will share an essay or two at a future meeting.
Judith, who lost her husband Giuseppe who was also a member, recently talked a bit about his writing that he left for her to work with and she will be doing this. She also spoke about publishing her book Senior Year.
Susan told the group that Andrew was unable to attend because he is in New Orleans but hopes to join us again next month is his schedule allows. Glen had sent a message with his regrets at being unable to attend as he was also out of town. Lynnmarie had sent a message that she was not feeling well and wouldn't make it. Melissa was also sick and unable to attend. Sandy and the group briefly discussed the current flu epidemic and how to keep ourselves safe and healthy until it subsides.
Susan then talked about her new novel (untitled) which got off to two false starts a couple of weeks ago. The first version reached 26,900 words before she grew dissatisfied with the way it was going. She restarted the novel and quickly reached around 50,000, but again found herself dissatisfied with the path the novel was taking. She trashed that, stewed about, vented on facebook, received wise advice from author friends, took a breath, relaxed...and found her muse that same afternoon. The current version (third) now stands at 61,001 and is on track.
Susan then read Pep Talk #1 You Don't Need Permission to Be A Creator from Grant Faulkner's book 52 Pep Talks for Writers (Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo) Grant is the executive director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). We are using this series of pep talks to motivate and encourage the group and promote discussion and mutual support.
Susan had Brandon Royal's The Little Red Writing Book with her and suggested it would be a god investment as it contains 20 powerful principles of structure, style, and readability all authors/writers should be aware of. It's a good writer's tool. She also had a copy of the Writer's Digest Novel & Short Story Writer's Market (2017) book which she left in the store. The 2018 edition is available at Barnes & Noble, to order at Blue Umbrella, or to buy on Amazon or directly from Writer's Digest. There is also a Writer's Market that is an excellent reference book for non-fiction writers and was suggested to Joseph as a resource for finding a publisher for his memoir.
Susan had brought copies of her pre-revision novels and story collections as giveaways. A year ago she revised the interior copy of all her books after a Writer's Digest judge suggested the chapters start mid-way down the page, not one quarter of the way down the page. She also made some minor grammar and technical corrections. And she gave most of her books new covers. Members were excited about the giveaway and helped themselves to books to help pass the winter.
This fourth meeting of the Wordsmiths saw more group participation from members as we have found our comfort zone with one another as fellow authors and writers. Conversation was brisk and lively and there was a wonderful flow to the meeting as everyone had something to offer. The energy and spark was there between members and hopefully everyone left the meeting feeling energized and ready to write!
Not writing related but interesting just the same, Sandy had learned that Susan has always loved camels and has a Christmas story called Bruce about a live camel being delivered for a living Nativity scene instead of a fiberglass camel. Susan also collects camel figurines, plush, and related things including a repro post Civil War era camel bell. So, Sandy gifted Susan a vintage camel saddle that she had at her house! There has got to be a story in this somewhere!!!
The meeting adjourned at 4:30PM.
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