Announcing new summer writing workshop!

Greetings! We are pleased to announce a free workshop over the summer, meeting on three Saturday afternoons spanning seven weeks. It is called SWISH: Story Workshop In Summer's Heat, and you can find more details about it SWISH Story Workshop.

This workshop is designed to help you write a complete short story and submit for possible publication to any anthology with a due date after August 4, 2012. Or, you can use it to fine-tune and revise the novel you are working on.

Just a note: This is a 'working' workshop, where you will listen to a few ideas, but mostly work at putting them into practice and getting feedback from other participants.

Hope to see you there!

John

Five Brave Souls

Five people read from their first pages at Thursday's FWA meeting ( May 10 ), after some initial observations and examples given by yours truly. It was an interesting night, as the audience was able to listen to and offer feedback on a YA novel, a YA short story, a mystery, a cyber thriller and a medical thriller.

What variety! And the authors got a clear sense of what worked in their story and what needed work.

It's like my sister said when she considers a new author to read. She reads the first page, and if it's not interesting to her, she puts it back and looks for someone else. I'm afraid I don't always get that far. Sometimes it's the first couple of sentences.

A big thank you to those who came out and those who offered their writing - always a great learning experience. Want more? Join a critique group! See me for more information.

Jack Moves the Words

Jack Vanek, the poet, talked about the link between poetry and prose, and offered several great quotes for attendees to digest. As always, it's about the words. The stronger the word, the more meaning it imparts, the stronger your story. He read several of his poems, some very moving and reflective of his life.

In addition, others joined in by reading their work, and we were privileged to have Cosmic Radio appear for several musical poetry numbers and one spoken word piece to finish the evening. For the tandem, it was their 219th different venue on their quest to play at 300 different places. (I forget if there was a timeline attached, and when I asked what they would do after they reached 300 they said go for 400.)

It was a great night for the 20 in attendance as they were treated to some great poetry and original music, ranging from dark to light in tone.

Avid Reader and Promoter Shares Her Secrets

Shelby Isaacson, avid reader, past marketing specialist at a small publisher and current author promoter, spoke about her passion - for reading, for story, for helping writers succeed in the swamp pit of publishing. Yes, dear readers, it is a struggle once word has appeared on page to get anyone to read it.

But with the right promotion, the right idea and the right timing, you can make it! And, it's really about doing what you enjoy, unless it's a job, and then it's about enjoying what you do! (Because if you don't enjoy it, why are you doing it?) Shelby shared some of the insider information on publishing, including book cover design, editing and marketing.

I think one of her stronger points was - get a professional edit! Too often she has seen work come across that was not properly edited, which immediately slams in on the fast slope to the slushpile.

As usual, we continued the conversation at the St. Pete Diner where she talked some more about her experiences. An enlightening evening!

In memory of Dahris Clair

Dahris Clair, past leader of the Pasco FWA Writers Group and instigator of the one day mini-conference that was so popular at the New Port Richey library, has passed away. She was a tireless enthusiast for writing and for the FWA and many of you may have met her at the yearly conference in Orlando.

I had the privilege of meeting her at one of their meetings and found her to be a font of knowledge about writing, a generous and kind person, and more active than I would have thought possible, due to her health challenges. She stepped down from leading the group last year, and due to a fall in January from which she couldn't recover, she has moved on.

If you'd like to comment on her Facebook page you are welcome to do so.