We will not meet the day after Christmas, but will meet the day after New Year.
Shannon had a hot streak; he finished drafts of his book, a short story, and an article.
Jan 2
Ciuin
Shannon
Krista
Jan 9
Dylan
Randy
Troy
Jan 16
Open slots
Jan 23
Open slots
Jan 30
Open slots
Feb 6
Open slots
Keep Writing,
Bill
The group decided to not meet the day after Christmas, but there may be enough interest the day after New Year’s Day. If you have thoughts on this let us know.
Aime was asked to read and review someone’s fan fiction.
Dylan got fan mail for both of his bylines.
Ciuin finished one of her five school papers.
Dec 19
Krista
Randy
Aime
Dec 26
Day after Christmas – no meeting
Jan 2
Ciuin
Open slots
Jan 9
Dylan
Randy
Troy
Jan 16
Open slots
Keep Writing,
Bill
December 12th is our annual clash with a large party at the restaurant. Look for us to the left of the door in some corner.
Aime wrote again on Fun with Democracy
Ciuin wrote 14 pages so far on school papers needing 45 pages.
Shannon finished his draft of Merger of Evil, and started a new short story. He also committed to writing a guest blog entry.
Ryan wrote a new short story.
Dec 12
Dylan
Troy
Aime
Dec 19
Krista
Randy
Aime
Dec 26
Day after Christmas – no meeting
Jan 2
Ciuin
Open slots
Jan 9
Open slots
Keep Writing,
Bill
We had a visitor at the last meeting who has done research for a biography of a regionally known businessman and philanthropist. He feels he needs a collaborator to write the book, as he no longer has the energy that let him write three previous books. If you are interested, ask the moderator for his contact information.
Aime wrote and gave a speech. She was featured in a newspaper article.
Jeremiah was asked to write business copy.
Ciuin wrote and turned in a paper on time.
Nov 28
Thanksgiving – no meeting
Dec 5
Nick (4700)
Krista
Ryan (short story)
Dec 12
Dylan
Troy
Aime
Dec 19
open slots
Dec 26
Day after Christmas – do we want to meet?
Jan 2
Open slots
Keep Writing,
Bill
Nick finished the Driver story.
Krista did planning for her book.
Dylan finished Raging Alone. He participated in panels at ICON. A reader gained through ICON read all the stories on Dylan’s web site in four days because he liked them so much.
Ryan got over writer’s block and is working on multiple projects.
Ciuin started writing on Citadel again.
Nov 21
Visitor talk
Aime
Troy
Shannon
Nov 28
Thanksgiving – no meeting
Dec 5
Nick (4700)
Krista
Ryan (short story)
Dec 12
Dylan
open slots
Dec 19
open slots
Dec 26
Day after Christmas – do we want to meet?
Keep Writing,
Bill
Shannon recommends the new expanded edition of The Emotional Thesaurus. It has entries with options to illustrate and describe your character’s emotions in 130 situations.
Ciuin finished a paper and is nearly done with the museum card edits.
Shanon’s reading at ICON had to be paused several times, waiting for the laughter to fade.
Nov 14
Shannon’s sentence discussion
Dylan 6k
Rachel 6k
Nov 21
Aime
Troy
Shannon
Nov 28
Thanksgiving – no meeting
Dec 5
Nick
Krista
open slot
Dec 12
open slots
Keep Writing,
Bill
See older newsletters for many educational topics.
Ciuin finished Chessmaster. She had to rewrite the ending, but fixed Dropbox so she now has backups. She is writing the text for Vets Memorial gallery.
Krista found the group and is restarting her book.
Nov 7
Randy (also discuss a couple sentences)
Ciuin (double length)
Nick (short)
Nov 14
Dylan
Rachel
Open slot
Nov 21
Aime
Troy
Open slot
Nov 28
Thanksgiving – no meeting
Dec 5
open slots
Keep Writing,
Bill
See older newsletters for many educational topics.
Aime wrote a new short story. Her web content writing is turning into regular work.
Shannon hit 40k words on his story. He found a new coffee shop to write at.
Ciuin turned in more school papers, but only got B’s.
Oct 31
Troy
Aime
Ciuin
Nov 7
Randy
Ciuin
Open slot
Nov 14
Nick
Dylan?
Rachel
Nov 21
open slots
Nov 28
Thanksgiving – no meeting
Dec 5
open slots
Keep Writing,
Bill
See older newsletters for many educational topics.
Attendance is up. In the past three meetings we’ve had 11, 7, and 10 people.
Dylan posted two short stories and got a community award for them. He broke writers block on Raging Alone.
Aime completed writing a web site. She wrote a candidate summary for a voters’ guide.
Ryan made his first submission and survived the critique, and bought a printer.
Ciuin turned in two major school papers ON TIME.
Oct 24
Shannon
Ciuin
Ryan
Oct 31
Troy
Aime
Ciuin
Nov 7
Randy
open slots
Nov 14
Nick
Dylan?
open slots
Nov 21
open slots
Keep Writing,
Bill
Thanks to Shannon for this item:
So, we have some new writers, and Rachel was asking about submitting short stories, I thought I’d throw out some general information. Not comprehensive, but somewhere to start.
First, there are a huge number of people out there trying to scam authors. There used to be a site called “Predators and Editors,” but they seem to be on hiatus. I did find this on the SFWA website. https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/
Also QueryTracker.net has publisher information and active forums. https://querytracker.net
As far as places to get your work published, I don’t know as much about that. However:
Googling “Short fiction markets” might find some answers. You might want to add the keyword pay or paying to that. Some only offer two copies of the magazine as payment.
There is a book called “Writer’s Market.” Before the internet, they were the best source to find places to submit. They come out with a new edition each year, and the common consensus is the book is worth reading in Barnes and Noble or the library, but not worth the price tag. (Though I see it now sells for $20. I think it used to be much higher.)
As far as how to submit, I like Robert J Sawyer’s Manuscript Checklist https://sfwriter.com/mschklst.htm and sample manuscript https://sfwriter.com/ms.pdf They are a little antiquated now; for instance, “Disposable Copy” isn’t really necessary anymore as most submissions are electronic and Times and Calibri are more expected than Courier typeface now, but it gets across what professionals expect. Some editors/agents do ask for very specific things to weed out those who aren’t serious, so it never hurts to check their website for guidelines. Usually they expect Word Docx format, as the industry kind of runs on Word, but some will take or even prefer PDFs.
Aime got a website writing job. She posted a review of a movie.
Oct 17
Aime
Troy
Ryan
Oct 24
open slots
Oct 31
open slots
Nov 7
open slots
Nov 14
Nick
open slots
Keep Writing,
Bill