This Hasn't Been An Easy Year

 This hasn't been an easy year for me since the beginning of My when I had emergency abdominal surgery on the 2nd and exactly a week later lost my husband of 37 years suddenly. It totally blew my life out of the water and I've been scrambling and struggling to find the new normal for me amid all the things that need to be done when you lose someone, while you're trying to recover from surgery, while you're trying to continue working full time and carry on. Kelly has been incredibly helpful, keeping the group's facebook updated, posting meeting notices, etc.

I appreciate Heidi's assistance with booking the Athenaeum's Committee Room for our September and October meetings as we resume in-person meetings. 

A few of us have experienced personal losses this year. We've all struggled with to mask-or not to mask, to vaccinate or not to get vaccinated, to get the booster shot or not....choices! We've seen this virus mutate and now affect children who have returned to school. We continue to see people in our communities pass away due to COVID. Yet, many of us have turned out some amazing new books and carried on attending meetings in the Zoom format and now in person. Life goes on.

I, for one, am so appreciative f all my author/writer friends.

This past weekend 18 authors set up tents and tables on the green in downtown Westfield for the Artworks of Westfield sponsored Artoberfest. It started out as a rather blustery, gloomy day with overcast skies and practically no attendance, but once the sun came through about 11:30Am foot traffic picked up and we had a decent attendance. I did mention that the location of the authors left us feeling somewhat isolated from the Elm Street art/music and creative aspects of the event, kind of placing us on a green island surrounded by heavy traffic, making leaving the green to seek nearby facilities and food rather a challenge. All feedback will be reviewed at the next Artworks meeting so if this event happens again next October there will be improvements. This was the first year doing this event separate from Westfield on Weekends' Pumpkinfest. 

Looking forward to seeing as many of you as can attend the October 30th meeting.

Welcome to new WhipCity Wordsmiths who have joined the group the past few months! 

If you need to reach me or Kelly please email us at whipcitywordsmiths@gmail.com