Saturday, March 17, 2018

MARCH 17TH WORDSMITHS MEETING NOTES

      The WhipCity Wordsmiths met this afternoon at Blue Umbrella Books. There were 9 members in attendance- Susan, Geri, Joyce, Judith F., Melissa, Lex, Russell, Joseph, and Lindsay.
      First of all, our newest published author, Lindsay Stenico, was in attendance. Geri had already purchased a copy of Lindsay's first novel, The Assignment, so we all got a preview of the book. Lindsay will be having an author event at Blue Umbrella as mentioned in a previous post. That date is March 24th, from 6PM-7PM. Congratulations to Lindsay!
      Susan had a picture of the covers (front and back) of her soon to be self-published novel, The Clockmaker's Son. When she'd mentioned she needed a cover, Melissa had jumped right on it 2018and soon presented her with a beauty! Interior file and cover were uploaded on CreateSpace and a printed proof copy is now on the way! Susan is hoping the book will be available at the upcoming  Articulture2018 event on April 21st at the Church of Atonement on court Street here in Westfield. Susan had visited Blended Vintage Marketplace prior to the meeting to snag the matted Danny Nason photograph of Westfield's mechanical clock tower, the tower that had inspired the horror/romance novel about a lycanthrope, the son of a clockmaker who fled his home after high school graduation, went to Germany and began building exquisite mechanical clock towers.
      Susan brought a variety of antique and vintage clothing/collectible buttons and talked about how she combined her love of writing and buttons when she agreed to be editor of the Massachusetts State Button Society Bulletin in 2007 after having only been a collector for 4 years. Susan was editor for ten years, stepping down in 2016 after getting that year's issue out at the April meeting. No one stepped up to fill the editor's shoes, so the Bulletin succumbed to lack of interest in keeping it going. She brought the printer proofs of five of the issues she did which included articles she'd written on subjects such as butterflies, mermaids, Edgar Allan Poe, and love letters.
     Joseph  had his 300-page typewritten manuscript with him. He mentioned there was a contest for memoir books he was interested in entering his "book" in- only his book needs help. SOS! Well, he came to the right place. Melissa mentioned that his typewritten pages could be scanned to a flash-drive at Staples and then his file could be converted to a word doc on a computer and submitted to the contest (he had checked to make sure typewritten, not quite correctly formatted submissions would be accepted, and was told it was all right). Immediately after the meeting he went directly to Staples and had this done, much to his delight. He then contacted Susan and they have a date set to meet at her house to upload his file to the contest submission site. Melissa has also offered him further tech support as needed as he may need help with his book cover when it reaches that point. He has pictures in mind, but will need help converting them to a book cover.
     We talked about book covers and how a good cover grabs your attention and makes you pick up the book. We scanned the shelves of the bookstore and picked out covers that drew our eye and interest to demonstrate the power of the visual image in leading you to pick up a book and look at it.
     We then went around the table to relate what our favorite books are and who our favorite authors are.
      Susan read her short story based on the Holyoke St. Patrick's Day Parade, The Night Before Parade Day, which was published in butterscotch-a collection of stories.
      The hour and a three quarters we were together flew by!
     What happened during this meeting today demonstrated exactly what Kelly and I want this group to be- a social/support network of authors and writers and those who want to write who offer advice, ideas, and help to one another.
   


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