The Wannabe’s Journal
For
July 22, 2011
A New Home:
Last Friday was a new chapter in the Wannabe’s history. We meet in the cafeteria of UD’ River Campus building at 1700 South Paterson Blvd. The surroundings and vastness of the room made for an enjoyable meeting. We were able to welcome new members to the group and share readings and information about recent classes, seminars and showings that members of the group had participated in.
Who we are:
Don Peacock-written a memoir about his family history which he has self published that includes genealogy charts and family pictures.
Martha Willis- retired nurse who loves to hear stores and writes for her family’s pleasure
Bill Foreman-Poet, who has an Art Gallery and is world on a fictional novel about a Whale in the library,.
Bob O’Connor-better known as “Hutch” was recently the Grand Marshall of the Holiday at Home parade in Centerville. His daughter presented him with a book of pictures of he and his bride that centers on his experiences in that role.
Maurice Boffioux- sometimes called: “Buff” got his start in writing at an early age by winning an essay contest in grammar school.
Judy Whelley-retired in 2005. Her new love is writing and in particular Memoir creation. She is a fellow instructor in the LLI program. She recently spent time in Paris being tutored, along with other writers from around the world on craft of writing stories.
Don Hart- has been teaching in the LLI program for 16 years. His careers span real estate, mortgage banking and air force positions. His area of expertise continues to be Mnemonics.
Rosie Huart-a locally known artist who shows her paintings at Town and Country Fine Art Center. She will be teaching a class in southern France next summer on Painting and more during the week of April 20th 2012.
Trisha Calvert-our young artists who is having a show of her works at the Centerville Police Station on West Spring Valley on August 5th. Her open house will show paintings and glass work from the improvised area of India where hunger is a way of life.
She recently submitted her memoir to Antioch College’s Masters Program.
Shulamit is a clinical psychologist who has been recognized for her creative photography. Her photo was recently published in the current issue of Mock Turtle Journal. She also has been selected to show a number of her photos in one of the window store fronts in downtown Dayton.
Readings:
Don P.: Read a limerick. Last meeting Don H. read one that had been published a number of years ago. Ms. Eloy who was present at the last meeting indicated she wanted to create one for this past Friday but she unfortunately was not able to attend. Don filled in quite nicely.
Martha: read a list of memories to commemorate her and her husband’s 56 years of marriage. She has titled the piece as the surprises keep coming. She describes the piece as: “My life on one page.”
Bill Foreman: Read from this work entitled: The Whale in the Library.” He also thanked Rosie and the Art Center in Town and Country for their support for poets and artists in the Dayton area.
Bob O’Connor: The book his daughter created was done using Snapfish. Here is the web site for creating a similar product. http://www.snapfish.com/snapfish/photo-books.
It is very similar to Blurb.
Maurice: Read his sons short story entitled: Riverbank. He is investigating the option of self-publishing the story. It was well written.
Judy: Attended a Deep Writing Workshop in Paris last month. The session was taught by Eric Maisel. He spent some time with the students from all parts of the globe explaining the benefits of self publishing. (See my recommended blog site articles below)
She is still writing her memoir. The book that she recommended was “Still Alice” by Lisa Genova. The new novel is about a 50-year-old woman's sudden descent into early onset Alzheimer's disease. The book has won a number of awards and is a NYT best seller.
Don H: “Sheep jumped out of the tree” is a short story he is currently reading. I believe it is a puzzle that the reader is asked to solve.
He is also entering a Contest on Short/Shorts for limericks. They are usually very funny poems which follow a distinct pattern of rhyming.
Rosie: Announced that The Arts Center is hosting a Photography Exhibition called Focal Point, runs from August 13th through September 4th. Your pictures need to be matted and framed with the wire hangers. All mediums are eligible. The juror will be Nancy Roach. Entry fee is $ 15 for first entry and $ 10 for each subsequent entry. Limit three entries.
During our discussion of the photo exhibit which is planned for next month we discussed the creative idea of writing a short story by the Wannabe’s one paragraph or sentence at a time. We would call it the “River of Words.” More about this idea will be next month’s journal.
Don Q: Reviewed his attendance at the weeklong Antioch Writers Workshop.
My review: The week long boot camp for writers was a mental “Paris Island”. There was no drill sergeant to wake you early in the morning and get in your face harassment. Our instructors were well known novelists and poets from the writing community.
Nancy Pickard taught Fiction
Jim Daniels taught Poetry
Matthew Goodman taught Non Fiction.
We also had recently published authors, two agents and a book editor and individual who had recently self-published her own book talk about the industry and how/what you should do to write a query letter, find the right agent and get published.
After lunch with the instructors you were off to have a concentrated afternoon reviewing your individual manuscripts in a fiction (there were three groups), poetry or essay/memoir group. I participated in the memoir group. Our leader for the afternoon session was the renowned educator and author Ms. Joyce Dyer.
There is too much for me to put into this month’s issue of this Journal so I will in future months concentrate on one genre at a time.
I will have a handout at the next meeting a listing of the best Memoirs/Personal Essay authors that Ms. Dyer recommended.
I came away with my batteries charged and ready to start writing and editing. That and pulling weeds in the garden has taken up most of my spare time the last two weeks.
Use of Technology: One thing that I learned at the AWW was that you can use your Kindle to help you edit your novels even when you are driving. The Kindle has the feature to convert the word document that was used to create you e-book into an audio file and so you can play the device either in your home while you are looking at the manuscript or over your car radio with the right kind of cable connection or Wi-Fi feature on the devices. Pretty cool…
Writing Competition: Just for Women Fiction Writers. I don’t understand why we men are excluded but we are. Here is the link to the information.
http://blog.authonomy.com/2011/07/competition-get-personal-writing-advice.html
By the way this site is a good place to post a portion of your story or manuscript if you want feedback. Or you can use Writers Digest Community.
I have recently listened in on a number of Webinar’s that are sponsored by Createspace. Recently I listened to presentation on Awards and Review. The on line one hour session was conducted by Brian Jud. I will pass out a listing of resources that you can use to get books reviewed.
Writer’s Digest and Abbott Press have partnered to create another self publishing alternative. Here is the link to learn more: http://www.abbottpress.com/WDPublish.aspx?et_mid=511656&rid=3100634
Recent Blog article on Self Publishing:
http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/ article on “Why I turned down two publishing contracts.” This is a great site for those interested in self publishing news.
Seminars in 2012
Save the Date!!!
The seventh annual
Mad Anthony Writers Conference
April 13-14, 2012
Details coming soon to www.writelikemad.com
Well I think that should be enough for this month.
