What's the Secret to Becoming a Best Seller?

For our Thursday, Nov 9th Meeting, author & owner of Soul Attitude Press John Rehg will be speaking. We'll meet at the Main Branch St. Pete Library at 6:00 PM. Networking/mingling begins at 5:30 PM. This meeting is open to the public.

Topic: The Untold, Amazing, Shocking! Secret Formula for Becoming a Bestselling Author Finally Revealed

Details: Scamming the Dream - how others promise you the moon as long as you pay them. Includes an open discussion about writing and publishing.

BIO:

JOHN REHG has been writing and rewriting since 2006, after taking 30 years off to pursue a career. He's still working, fitting in writing at odd times of day or night. After getting several short stories published in various anthologies, he started his own publishing business, Soul Attitude Press, to control the revenue on his stories as well as to help others realize their dream of holding their own book in their hands. He has published his own short fiction and non-fiction, and has helped others publish their stories. His novel is currently in its second revision, which he hopes to complete this year.

www.soulattitudepress.com

Journey to Publication with Cheryl Hollon in April

For our Thursday, April 13th Meeting, author Cheryl Hollon will be speaking. We'll meet at the Main Branch St. Pete Library at 6:00 PM. Networking/mingling begins at 5:30 PM. This meeting is open to the public.

Topic: My Journey to Publication

BIO: CHERYL HOLLON writes full time after leaving an engineering career of designing and building military flight simulators in amazing countries such as England, Wales, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and India. Fulfilling a lifetime dream, she combines her love of writing with a passion for creating glass art. In the small glass studio behind the house, Cheryl and her husband design, create, and produce fused glass, stained glass and painted glass artworks. Cheryl is an officer of the Florida Gulf Coast Sisters in Crime, and a member of Mystery Writers of America and Romance Writers of America. A mystery conference addict, she regularly attends SleuthFest in Florida, Malice Domestic in DC, Thrillerfest in NYC, and Magna Cum Murder in Indianapolis, IN. You will also find her at Left Coast Crime and Bouchercon, wherever they are being held. Cheryl and her husband live in St. Petersburg, FL in a 1920’s Craftsman Bungalow.

Website: www.cherylhollon.com

Live Critique at FWA St. Pete February Meeting

For our Thursday, February 9th Meeting, writers are welcome to join us for a Live Critique Session. We'll meet at the Main Branch St. Pete Library at 6:00 PM. Networking/mingling begins at 5:30 PM. This meeting is open to the public.

Topic: One Page Critique
Moderator: Bria Burton

What to bring: A singe page of your novel, short story, or other writing (double-spaced, up to 250 words)
Who can participate: First-come first-serve, members and non-members

What will the critique look like:

• After the author reads their page, the critique will open up to the audience
• Audience will be encouraged to provide positive feedback and constructive criticism in combination
• Author will not be allowed to talk during the critique (a buzzer will be on hand--if the author talks, they will get buzzed)
• The critique will be timed for each author. At four minutes, the timer will announce that the critique is over and the next author will be allowed to read their First Page

Does everyone have to read?

• No. But the audience will be encouraged to provide feedback, even those who choose not to read their work to the group.

FWA St. Pete April Meeting

For our April 14th Meeting, Nancy Howe, the Publisher of Tampa Bay Newswire and CEO of KnowHowe, will be speaking. As usual, we'll meet at the Main Branch St. Pete Library at 6 PM. Networking/mingling begins at 5:30 PM. This meeting is open to the public.

April 14th~ Creative Ways For Freelancers to Expand Their Customer Base

BIO

NANCY HOWE has spent the vast majority of her life in Pinellas County and began her publishing career at the St. Petersburg Times while attending USF, majoring in archaeology.  She moved on to become the Managing Editor of Art & Design News (an international graphic arts magazine), and then to Maddux Business Report in 1990 – starting out as circulation director, moving to associate publisher and then publisher for the past 14 years. When the Maddux Business Report closed in 2010, Nancy continued on as publisher of the daily NewsWire, changed the name to Tampa Bay Newswire and founded KnowHowe, a full-service writing company that offers a varied menu from blogs, to press releases, editing, web copy, ebooks and everything in between. Current client industries include not-for-profits, legal and court reporting, commercial and residential real estate, manufacturing and service industries. KnowHowe is also the publisher of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce’s publications, ‘Burg Life and St. Petersburg’s Official Visitors Guide.

Her website: www.knowhowe.biz

Free Writing Class at North Branch Library

FWA St. Pete is proud to present this FREE Writing Class for members and non-members alike!

Hurting Your Characters

Speaker: M.J. Carlson

Join us for this FREE writing class called "Hurting Your Characters: Writing Believable Injuries from the Character's Point of View." Award-winning Author M.J. Carlson will be speaking.

About the Class
Attendees will come away from the lecture with a basic understanding of the most common injuries in fiction, in everyday language. This includes the immediate effect of the trauma on the body, and its physiologic response to trauma. M.J. Carlson will help attendees gain an understanding of why a given injury hurts, including a superficial overview of the physiology of acute pain in easy-to-understand terms and ideas. He'll conclude with an overview of the expected recovery times for the injuries discussed in young, otherwise healthy individuals.

WHEN: Saturday, March 26th from 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM

WHERE: North Branch St. Pete Library, 861 70th Ave N, St. Petersburg, FL 33702 (Ph: 727-893-7214)

COST: FREE

Limited to 40 participants. Please RSVP to this email fwastpete@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

BIO:

M.J. Carlson is an FWA member and fiction author. His futuristic suspense stories have received honorable mentions in 2013 and 2015 WRITERS OF THE FUTURE science fiction contests and been finalists in the 2010 RPLA short story and novel categories. He’s authored articles in THE FLORIDA WRITER and short stories for The Prometheus Saga and In Shadows Written.
Two of M.J.’s novels, Changed and Indigo Man are currently available, and he’s working on the book You Broke What? -- The Writer’s Guide to Believable Injuries.

www.mjcarlson.com

October FWA St. Pete Meeting

For our Oct 8th meeting, author, blogger, and St. Pete Writers Group leader Bria Burton will be presenting. As usual, we'll meet at the Main Branch St. Pete Library at 6 PM. Networking/mingling begins at 5:30 PM. This meeting is open to the public.

Topic: Writing and Running: Improving Craft Through Blood, Sweat, and Tears
What to bring: Something to write with (pencil/paper, stylus/tablet, etc)

Throughout her years as a writer and a runner, Bria has discovered that writing and running have quite a lot in common. She'll be making connections between the craft of writing and the art of running that will help writers cement some important truths about their craft. She'll also be leading the group through a few simple exercises (not the physical kind).

BIO

BRIA BURTON graduated magna cum laude from Flagler College with a bachelor's degree in English. In 2008, she joined the Florida Writers Assocation and began leading the FWA St. Pete group in 2015. She also serves as an FWA Board Member. At St. Pete Running Company, she's employed as a blogger and customer service manager. Her speculative fiction has appeared in over a dozen anthologies and magazines, such as The Prometheus Saga, Broken Worlds, Welcome to the Future, The Colored Lens, the Journey Into... podcast, and the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine. In 2011, her manuscript, Livinity, won a First Place Royal Palm Literary Award (RPLA) in the Unpublished Fantasy Novel category. Her novella, Little Angel Helper, and her unpublished women's fiction novel, Sprinter, are currently RPLA finalists. While she writes, her dog and cat do their best to distract her, which is why they now star in her family-friendly short story collection, Lance & Ringo Tails.

Bria's website: www.briaburton.com

Great Sept meeting, a peek at October

At our September meeting last Thursday, author Ford Easton spoke about Targeting Your Audience. He had a wonderful presentation where he went through some of the steps he took to create his book, Stock Car Racing in the 50's, a self-published non-fiction work that has sold over 2,000 copies so far. His niche market has helped him be able to reach the people who want to buy his book. His passion came out during his talk as he shed a few tears while sharing some of the feedback he has received from readers who are overjoyed with the final product. This passion project, a labor of love, as he called it, was built on a lot of hard work and smart choices. While he shared what he learned with us, many people commented on how much they got out of his talk.

Next month on October 8th, author and FWA St. Pete Group Leader Bria Burton will be speaking about the craft of writing. Her topic: Writing and Running: Improving Craft Through Blood, Sweat, and Tears. Stay tuned for more details.

A Q&A about the FWA St. Pete Critique Groups

After two very successful Critique Group Interest Meetings, one fiction critique group filled up and one non-fiction critique group filled up.

Q: What does this mean for those who are still interested in joining a critique group but couldn't make those meetings?

A: We need more groups!

Q: How do more groups form?

A: We need people willing to lead!

Q: What does leading a critique group involve?

A: More than anything, a willingness to facilitate, which involves making sure things stay on track at meetings and keeping the people in the group updated on group procedure. A critique group leader must be an FWA member. The first responsibilities are to arrange a meeting time, place, and duration. Other decisions must be made as well, such as how critiques will be done (electronically or printouts) and how much writing will be critiqued at a time (word count limits, page count limits, etc.).

Q: If I've never led a critique group before, how can I possibly be qualified?

A: If you're an FWA members who is willing to volunteer in this capacity, you are qualified.

Q: I feel inadequate to lead a critique group, but I want to be in one. What do I do?

A: There are other critique groups in the St. Pete area (Pinellas Writers, St. Pete Writers Club) so be sure to check those out. But also, think about volunteering to start a new group because maybe there are many people wanting a critique group who are too afraid to lead, but if you're willing to lead, they'll step up and join your group!

Q: I might be willing to lead a new critique group. Is it scary?

A: Not at all! Most writers who want to be in a critique group are serious about improving their writing skills just like you. The hardest part is just figuring out all those initial details (meeting time/place/etc) and once that's established, it's all about the writing and the critiquing.

Q: That's the part that scares me: the critiquing. What if people get upset about critiques that are sent, and I'm stuck in the middle as the leader?

A: I have a lot of experience leading a critique group, including problem-solving, so I'd be happy to share my insights with you. The first rule I recommend for every critique group is to make sure the group participants make positive comments, not just critical ones. Positive comments go a long way to making a person feel like the critique is not a personal attack. That said, it's not the purpose of a critique group to make people feel good about their writing. The purpose is to help writers improve their craft with feedback from fellow writers. Comments should always be constructive, not harsh or demeaning. When these rules for the group are stated up front, it's usually enough to prevent the scenario mentioned in the question.

Q: I have more questions. Who can I ask?

A: Contact me (Bria) by emailing fwastpete@gmail.com

New Critique Groups Now Forming

At Critique Group Interest Meeting Part 1 held Aug 13th, we had a great discussion, decisions were made, and one critique group called SPwrites (St. Pete Writes, pronounced sprites) was filled up! There are also more writers who have mentioned a desire to find a critique group.

SO...

Critique Group Interest Meeting Part 2

When: Wednesday, August 19th from 6:30 - 7:30 PM

Where: Tyrone Panera (2420 66th St N, St Petersburg, FL 33710)

Who: All writers are welcome to attend

If you were unable to attend Part 1, join us next week on Weds for Part 2. This meeting will be similar to Part 1 in that I'll be explaining how critique groups can be run (there are so many possibilities) and for those interested in forming new groups, we can arrange dates, times, and meeting places so that anyone who'd like to check out the new groups can know where to go.

New Critique Groups Forming

A new non-fiction group in St. Pete:

Nani Freeman has offered to lead a non-fiction group (memoir preferred) in the St. Pete area. She will be attending the Critique Group Interest Meeting Part 2, so if anyone is interested in finding out more, please join us at that meeting.

If you're unable to attend the meeting but are interested in Nani's critique group, contact her at freeman62101@yahoo.com so she can get your information, including times/dates/places that will work for you to meet.

A new group in North Pinellas:

Marylou Hess will be leading a new group in North Pinellas (she lives in Tarpon Springs, but is willing to have the meetings in other areas like Eastlake). Her group will have a format where writers exchange a larger number of pages (25-50) and a month is given for critique. Fiction welcome in these genres: cozy mystery, mainstream fiction, women's fiction, Christian fiction, mysteries, character-driven stories. In her words, this is an ideal group for "55+ writers North of Gulf to Bay who read and write in these genres."

Weekday hours will likely be set for these meetings, but she does have some flexibility.

Interested in joining Marylou's critique group? Contact her at writer@marylouihess.com

Active Critique Groups Currently Accepting New Participants

FWA critique groups:

Tarpon Springs Fiction Writers

Agenda: read and round-table critique

Meets every Wednesday except holidays 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M.

Tarpon Springs Library, 138 East Lemon Street. Tarpon Springs, FL 34689

Contact: David Edmonds, dedmond2@tampabay.rr.com

Oldsmar Omnivore Authors 

Agenda: critique (with query letter/synopsis training)

Meets 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month, 5:30 - 8 PM

Oldsmar Public Library, 400 St. Petersburg Dr. E, Oldsmar, FL 34677

Contact: Molli Nickell, getpublishednow.biz@gmail.com

(note: if the group is full, guests are welcome to attend in "audit" mode)

Other local writing groups:

Pinellas Writers

Agenda: round-table critique (all genres welcome, fiction and non)

Meets every Saturday from 9:30 AM - Noon

Largo Community Center, 400 Alt Keene Rd, Largo, FL 33771

Group website with contact page: http://pinawor.info/

St. Petersburg Writers Club

Agenda: critique (all genres welcome, fiction and non)

Meets 1st and 3rd Thurs of the month, 6:30 PM - library closing

West Community Library at St. Pete College (Multipurpose Room), 6700 8th Ave N, St. Pete, FL 33710

Contact: Elenora Sabin, arucadienterprises@erosesabin.com, 727-345-3376

Questions? Interested in starting a critique group in your area? Feel free to contact me at fwastpete@gmail.com