January 19th Meeting Notes

The WhipCity Wordsmiths met on a bone-chilling Saturday, January 19th at Blue Umbrella Books, our home base. Twelve members were in attendance and three authors joined our meeting as guests and then were welcomed as new members. It is good to see our group growing and thriving! Gingerbread men and bottled water were provided for members enjoyment.

Quick introductions were made so our new members could get an idea of who we are and what we write, and we could meet them as well.

Russell Atwood provided us information on the upcoming Poe's 201th Birthday Bash at Blue Umbrella Books on Saturday, January 19th. There will be a Ghost Stories Live! event at 6PM with regular cast members reading Poe short stories and poems. Susan has done several pen & ink drawings and made prints of a hissing black cat, a full raven, and a raven profile that are available in the shop and will also be available during the events that day. Glass artist Hugh Nagger will be working his magic with glass rods and a torch from noon until 5PM. DJ Sean Martin will be spinning gothic tunes and Poe readings in the morning.

Mimi Caban Ross (excuse me if I have the names backwards!) and husband Mike ventured down from the hilltowns to join us today. She read to us a letter that she wrote pretending to be her 8-year old self writing to her future adult self, offering older self her best advice as an eight-year old. She wrote the letter in crayon. It was a sweet letter full of the innocence and wisdom of a child with a limited idea of what it is like to be an adult, with a few cautions and observations. It made me think back to when I was eight years old...what would I advise my older self from back then?

Our youngest author, Ayden Rogalski, at 10-years of age is in the best position t write a letter as his eight-year old self to his future adult self. It would be interesting to hear what he would advise himself at this point in his life. Ayden is working on two new books at this time. One is on homesteading and the other is a children's mystery. (after the meeting Tanya, his mother posted on facebook that Ayden was energized and inspired by today's meeting and now has another 2 books in his writing queue- one a science book, the other another children's book!)

Tenzie talked about her vampire novels and her difficulty formatting a book for KDP. Kelly offered to assist her with learning how to format for self-publication.

The topic of marketing and self promotion of our independently published works was brought up again. When an author works full time and has many other obligations it's difficult to get out into the community and surrounding states to have book signings, meet & greets, and attend other events where one can promote ones books. This led me to thinking that as a director of Artworks of Westfield I may be able to ask for their help hosting a WhipCity Wordsmiths Meet & Greet the Authors event where as many of us as are able to attend can have a table to display our books, etc. and talk about what we write and why we write. During the course of the event authors who would like to give brief talks could be scheduled to speak, like they do at the Springfield Library events. We can do something like that here, and try to get young writers, middle school writers, high school and college writers involved with a contest for each age group judged by WhipCity Wordsmith authors.

Judith has been working on a Christmas book she started awhile ago. It was good to see her at a meeting again as we've missed her.

Gerald McFarland spoke about his experience with Levellers Press in Amherst. Rhonda published her new children's book using Bridgeport Bindery in Agawam. Both have had positive experiences with these companies.

Geri is putting together some vignettes to self publish.

Lindsay is working on several projects and is dabbling in the paranormal, a new genre for her.

We talked a bit about stepping outside of the genres we are comfortable working in and trying something different. Susan did this recently with The Worth of a Woman. No magic, no special powers, no ghosts, vampires, werewolves, or happy endings. It was an emotionally wrenching experience she's not all that anxious to repeat!

There was a lot of energy flowing during the meeting with everyone participating and having something to offer the group. The time passed way too quickly!

The meeting adjourned about 4:15PM as several members had other obligations, or distances to travel. Several members lingered in the shop to chat and browse.

See you on February 2nd!!