A few weeks ago, I reluctantly went to a talk at Barnes & Noble where a some esteemed traditional published writers had gone the self publishing. I listened to David Wilk, who made sense, and whose company does quality work for any serious writer who now knows that you can wait around forever, but the book market as we once knew it and valued it is gone. I highly recommend going to this seminar and learning what you have to do to make yourself successful. It's not about vanity. Its about reality.

 

BookWorks.com: The Self-Publishers Association Presents

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The Beekman Hotel

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Tuesday, June 26, Monday, September 24, and Tuesday, October 23

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$99 workshop fee

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Call us at 212-486-1531, visit bookworks.com or email david@booktrix.com

Our Vibrant Group Makes In-Roads to Support Writers Working in Solitude

Last Wednesday's Writers' Cafe was a blast, as always. Ina presented the critiques without the writing, and the writers she and Margaret had paired up using the anonymous forms.

For those who don't know about this... writers  who are members of the non-fee based group, but who communicate with us and/or attend some meetings are invited to submit up to 1500 words as a blind submission for a critique by another writer, not necessarily in the same genre. It was valuable to hear the critiques, which gave each writer something to think about vis a vis our own writing, and our writers agreed that this was what they were looking for. These critiques stood alone from the writing and were handed out to the writer afterwards.

The MouseMuse storytelling program, Stories on the Green, (which branched of the original writers artists cafe)  has been picked up for another winter season at the Fairfield Museum and History center. Finalizing all of next season's dates at various venues and posting them is the challenge for the next two months. A writing contest is in the works. Stay tuned.

We bought stage lights  for our multiple venues which make all the storytellers look wonderful. (These are also available to rent at fabulously inexpensive rates, if you need them. Get in touch with Ina@mousemuse or Rozannegates@optonline.net.  Rozanne is the tech expert should you need one.

Check our mousmuse programs page for updates as they are added www.mousemuse.com

And finally, MouseMuse Storytelling has its own n radio program at WPKN (89.5FM). The show airs Monday, February 27 at 11:00 pm. Bill Bosch and Ina will be hosting live to introduce the programs and the best of our years worth of Storytelling culled from  recordings. MouseMuse will be airing the storytelling recordings and as we progress we will develop on-air readings by writers. Stay tuned as we find our way around this one. We have programming freedom, but planning this requires much attention.

MORE BRAGS

Elsie Ferrara has been asked to contribute to a booklet of Lenten Reflections by her church.

Jane Sherman is working hard on her memoir. An excerpt from it will be published in the next issue of the Weston Magazine (and in all its associated magazines, 8 in total).

Valerie Austin gave us her new favorite word: sesquipedelian, explaining that it means characterized by long words, or long-winded. She's determined to avoid this in her writing.

Dee Andrian will be joining some 20 other actors/writers to read from her memoir at the Westport country Playhouse in a performance entitled, provocatively, Under the Covers. The performance will take place on may 4 and 5.

Lisa Calderonewas set to launch her new website Mahjongg Memoirs yesterday (Sunday). Designed as a tribute to Lisa's mother on her birthday, Lisa is now looking fro other memoirs of Mahjong, to publish on the site. She asked writers to look at the site and give her any feedback/suggestions they could. (I've seen it; it's fascinating and I think Lisa could give us all some tips on how to produce a really professional site.)

Sophie Barnes read two minutes of her first ever fiction writing. Until now she's been writing memoir.

Leslie Chess Feller joined the group and asked who would be interested in starting a grandmother's writing group. Most of us declined but since Leslie is a new grandmother, we applaud her. If we forgot your brag, please contact us. It's a voluble group. Fun, vibrant and full of ideas.

Among the more general announcements:

The Fairfield Museum and History Center is presenting Thinking Outside the Box: original 10 Minute Play Fest on March 4 and 11. organized by Jeanine DeFalco, founder of the Falcon Repertory Company these short plays have been written by Connecticut writers. Ina wondered whether our writers might like to stretch their play-writing muscles by trying to write a 10 minute play too.

In addition, Lisa is Founding and Executive Editor of Mason's Road, the literary magazine of Fairfield University, and announced their new reading period. Submissions have to be in by May 15.

Among the more general information:

Here's the link to find out more about Poets & Writers submissions database
http://writeconnexion.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/looking-for-somewhere-to-submit/

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, March 14. See you there 🙂

HOW TO BE PART OF THE BLIND CRITiQUE PROCESS : At this particular point we welcome all writers who have attended one or more of our monthly meetings and whose participation within a group has been felt to be positive and adherent to professional standards.

Submission Dates for Writers Artists Collaborative Blind Submission Process:

The Writers Artists Collaborative provides a monthly opportunity to get blind feedback on pieces we’re writing. We submit a piece or work-in-progress anonymously, and that piece is matched with a reviewer who briefly describes what hit the target, was missed or didn't grab them. Pieces are also rated with a number between 1 and 10 (with 1 being "needs a rewrite" and 10 being "will win a Pulitzer" -- well, at least we can dream!) and discussed, time permitting, at our Writers' Cafe.  Please visit www.mousemuse.com for more details.

March Deadlines:

April Deadlines:

May Deadlines:

We are homing in on our agenda for our Writers' Cafe meetings which have become wonderful sharing points, but many people don't have the time in the middle of the day. In all fairness to them, we are trying to stick to an agenda that takes the best of the best and helps you all stay in touch at other times.

Email: Margaret H. Wagner <margaret_wagner@hotmail.com> for submission forms and any other information.

Thanks to all, Ina@mousemuse



 

 

Margaret Wagner was kind enough to take notes at the last Writers' Cafe since I couldn't be there. Here's what she wrote:

We had a small but mighty Writers' Cafe on 12/14/11 before the holidays – seven people attended. Here are some of the highlights:

TWO-MINUTE READINGS

We continued reading something we’ve written for two minutes, in an effort to get to know each other better and start the conversation about having people writing in similar genres pair up and work with each other.

We also talked about doing a survey, so we’re clear about everyone’s intentions for being in the group. It should also provide an opportunity for suggestions and determine how to best serve our collaboration.  Look for a short online survey in the new year.

BLIND FEEDBACK

No, Mouse Muse is not producing Three Blind Mice!  Rather, the group thought it would be helpful to provide a monthly way to get blind feedback on pieces we’re writing.  So, for anyone who would like to participate, here’s the process:

We’re excited to offer this, so let’s see how it goes for the first month, and we’ll make refinements from there.

BRAGGING RIGHTS

FUTURE 2012 MEETINGS

Location: Future Writers’ Cafes will be held at Ina Chadwick’s home, 2 Redcoat Lane in Westport, CT (near Exit 41 on the Merritt/Route 15).  For directions, please email Ina at: Ina@mousemuse.com.  (NOTE: We are no longer meeting at the Westport Arts Center.)

Parking: Please park as neatly as possible in the driveway, and use the second door on the side of the house (the first side door is the entrance to the dentist’s office; the second door is the one at the beginning of the walkway).Time: 12:30pm to 2pm

Options to bring:

Save these dates for future Writers’ Cafes in 2012:

 

We had a really great group at the Writers' Cafe on Wednesday. Rather than having a particular topic this time, we decided to ask people to bring a 2 minute reading of something they;'d written. The idea was partly to get to know each other better, and partly to see what genres we were writing in, and whether there were people writing in similar genres who'd like to pair up and work with each other as editor, mentors, and general encouragers. (OK, that's not a word, but you know what I mean.)
The results were interesting.
First, we decided that 2 minutes wasn't quite long enough. And that isn't because we're all narcissists who love to hear ourselves read aloud. (That's just me.) On the other hand, if we'd had a larger group of people reading (we were about 12 people with 9 people brave enough to read) there might not have been time for everyone. We read without explaining what we were reading, when we'd written it, what it was about, and which genre it was in (memoir, fiction, journalism, essay, etc).
We had two writers who were writing memoirs that involved travel, two essays, one journalism piece, two short fiction pieces, and two memoirs.
As it turned out, when it came to bragging time, many people were writing in more than one genre.
Margaret Rumford had a story accepted for the Winter issue of Mused.
Jane Sherman is editing her memoir
Sally Allen is now Westport editor of Hamlet Hub www.hamlethub.com
What she didn't mention (probably because she didn't want to pay the dollar...) is that she also has a great book blog on Open Salon: http://open.salon.com/blog/sally_allen
Robert Steven Williams has had another article published at the Good Men Project. Read it here: http://goodmenproject.com/ethics-values/money-and-the-moral-compass/
Tricia Tierney sent out two query letters to agents this month regarding her memoir here's her blog: http://triciatierneyblog.com/
Ina is working on a piece about how she found out that her mother had been married before for a New York publication
Margaret Wagner wrote a guest blog on branding for a foodie blog.
Catherine Onyemelukwe is halfway through writing a book proposal and a memoir.
And I finished my NaNoWriMo horrible draft of a first novel, and came second in the EChook 'Tis the Season story contest. Find out how to submit your work here: http://echook.com/submissions/.

Finally, we took a vote on where to continue our meetings, and the overwhelming choice was Ina's house, where her welcome make me, for one, feel like I'm in some famous salon. And the coffee's good too.
So the next meeting will be on DECEMBER 14 - that's only two weeks away. Ina's address is 2 Redcoat Road, Westport. The time is 12.30-2.
In the meantime, keep writing!

Another great Writers' Cafe yesterday - 15 enthusiastic writers came to share, learn and connect at Ina Chadwick's house. There was so much bragging that we made $18 (at $1 per brag, that's a lot of progress being made by people...)
Here are some of the highlights, with links you may find useful if you'd like more information:

WRITING CONTEST DEADLINE EXTENDED
Our writing contest with the Center for Contemporary Printmaking has had its deadline extended to October 10 at midnight due to Hurricane Irene, and because of some apparent confusion about the subject. The prompt is Deja Vu - Have you been here before? Do you wish you'd been here before? Did you only dream this? Did the dream come true? We're looking for personal memoirs. You may use Jack Boul's art to inspire you, but you needn't use his subjects. Here's the link for submissions
http://www.contemprints.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=146:writing-competition&catid=2:latest&Itemid=4

STORYTELLING NEXT MONDAY
Ina's company, Mouse Muse Productions, organizes storytelling evenings throughout the year. Our next one is on Monday September 19th, at the Landmark Academy in Westport. The topic: "Adventures in parenting". Come and hear 8 friends and neighbors tell their stories of parenting joys, disasters and poignant memories. As writers, you'll be interested in the way in which we help them craft their stories into 8 minute gems. $20 buys you entrance, drinks, food and a chance to connect with others. Email me if you'd like me to hold tickets for you, or walk in.

ECHOOK LAUNCH NEXT TUESDAY AT B&N
Ina and I will be among the eight writers helping to launch Echook's short story app at Barnes and Noble next Tuesday at 7pm. This is a great networking event for writers, with local authors, writers, publicists and editors. And it's free! Here's the link for full details: http://echook.com/sept-20-event/

BRAGGING RIGHTS
Alex McNab has snared Robert Ellis (author of the Lena Gamble police thrillers) as a guest blogger for the October issue of the Fairfield Writer's blog fairfieldwriter.wordpress.com/

Christine Shaffer's winning entry for the Fairfield Library's writing contest has been published in a volume entitled "Around the Table". I'm nagging the Library to provide copies for purchase and will keep you updated.

Margaret Wagner submitted a mixed media piece to the Westport Arts Center's current show. (Not accepted, but it's doing it that counts.) I love crossover creativity!

Penny Pearlman's 2009 book Pretty Smart, has been chosen as a class textbook for a sociology class in pop culture Suffolk University in Boston, and she'll be guest lecturing there. She'll also be a judge in the next Miss Boston contest...you never know where writing will take you. In addition, she will be teaching a class at the Hudson Valley Writers' Center: Secrets of Successful Interviewing for Writers. http://www.writerscenter.org/, and is helping to organize an authors luncheon with Danny Meyer (Shake Shack etc) to raise money for the Leukemia Society on Nov 2. www.lls.org/ct/starwrite

Robert Steven Williams, had 8 stories published in a comic book which has been nominated for the Oscar of comic books - The Harvey. Way to go!

Jane Sherman is submitting work, and reworking her memoir.

Ryan Devlin has written a pilot for a TV show, and his wife Kara Holden, is currently being paid to write for the screen.

Barbara Stokes has written an article she'd going to submit. Her first ever. Great!

Lisa Calderone is developing a new website: http://mahjonggmemoirs.com as a tribute to her mother Millie, who's been playing for 70 years. And she'll be teaching an online class in Literary journalism during the January semester at Fairfield U.

Ivy Eisenberg was a runner up in a contest for America's Funniest Humor. Personally, I think she should have won - here's the link so you can judge for yourself. http://humorpress.com/Results/Essays-200812-200901/aa-Winners/Essay-200812-200901-Winners.htm#4

MFA's - Worth the time and money?
This provoked an interesting conversation. MFA graduate Lisa Calderone, Christine Shaffer and Jane Sherman who had all taken low-residency MFA's at Fairfield U were in agreement on the main benefits of an MFA:
An MFA produces a sense of community and a thorough education in the craft of writing.
Having academic expectations and deadlines makes people focus on their writing.
You can teach writing with an MFA degree
You develop a network of connections among both students and faculty.

Kara Holden had taken an MPW (Master of Professional writing at USC. This was a full time course, and she agreed that the benefits were great. Among them, in particular, was the quality of teachers and mentors.

Here's the link to Writers' Relief, a submissions agency,  requested by people yesterday: http://www.writersrelief.com/

Great Writers’ Café last Wednesday with 16 lively writers who showed up in addition to Ina and me. They had plenty to brag about, too. So much so, in fact, that I can’t put everything down here, or you’d never get to the end of the post.

Ina reiterated that the submission forms for the Memoir writing contest, entitled Déjà vu, that we’re running for the Center for contemporary Printmaking is live online this week. Here's the link:

https://www.contemprints.org/writers/index.php

I saw an interesting article by the people at Writers’ Relief, about the benefits of print vs. ebook publishing. I left my printed copy at home so here’s the link. (The benefit of online publishing!)

http://www.writersrelief.com/blog/2011/08/print-online-digital-publishing/

Ivy Eisenberg has just started a new humorous blog (tag line: Nothing is off limits) about trying to follow a weightwatchers diet. Check it out here:

http://schmeightschmatchers.wordpress.com

We discussed some of the many topics related to creating a writer’s platform. Essentially, a platform is a marketing campaign and the product you’re selling is you.

As a result, we’re wondering whether anyone would be interested in a short workshop which would enable you to get yourself organized on Facebook and/or Twitter. We could also do workshops on how to set up a website and how to start a blog. These workshops would be hands-on. Let us know if you’re interested.

Jane Sherman had attended Adair Heitmann’s presentation on how to create a writer’s platform the night before (Tuesday) at the Darien Library. She found it interesting because it covered so many topics. Our workshop would be complementary in that it would show you not only why you should do it, but how to do it. Here’s the link to Adair’s blog:

http://creativityandwellness.wordpress.com/

If you’d like to contact Jane for more details about the presentation, email me at Gabi@mousemuse.com, and I’ll forward your email to her.

And then the following day, the New York Times ran a couple of articles on the issue of whether people are becoming swamped with social media, and what to do about that. Even Ina and I were intimidated simply by the number of social media sites out there. That’s why we’re sticking to something simpler to start with.  Here are the links for those articles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/fashion/digitally-fatigued-networkers-try-new-sites-but-strategize-to-avoid-burnout.html?emc=eta1

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/fashion/tips-for-managing-social-networking-burnout.html?emc=eta1

SO – plenty to think about…and we’ll keep you updated on when and where next month’s Café will be.

If you’d like to take a look at my brand new blog, here’s the link to it:

http://gabicoatsworth.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

 

 

We had a great Writers’ Café last Wednesday at the Westport Arts Center. There were plenty of brags to start us off:

Ina bragged that she’s had her latest piece published in the Good Men Project online magazine:

http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/facing-my-fathers-demons/.

She also had a review of her favorite short story published on Echook’s website as a guest blog:

http://echook.com/guest-blog-ina-chadwicks-favorite-short-story/

Robert Steven Williams had two pieces published in the Good Men Project, both sports related (kind of – the Phillies and yoga).

http://goodmenproject.com/sports-2/to-philly-fans-chill-out/

http://goodmenproject.com/sports-2/yoga-a-mans-view-from-the-mat/

Elsie Ferrara had her memoir piece included in Writing Your Life 2011, published by the New Canaan Library.

I bragged that I had, in fact, completed 30 creative things in the 30 days of June. (I'd rashly said I would do this at the last meeting.) I learned that it’s OK to fail, and can even be fun. I also discovered some different creative skills I didn’t know I had. (See my Facebook photos for details, and my friends hilarious comments.)

Ina gave a preview of our next writing contest, to be undertaken for the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk. The theme will be Deja Vu, and writers will be asked to look at the work of Jack Boul, Master print-maker, for inspiration. The contest will officially be announced on August 2, and entries will be accepted until September 19. Check the MouseMuse website for more details (link below).

 

Ina also mentioned that she had a very good editor available at a very reasonable fee for people who'd like someone to work with. Please send all requests to Ina, who will pass them on.


We spent a little time discussing social media as a way of building a platform for writers who’d like to publish. Facebook and Twitter seem to be the minimum requirements, so long as they don’t stop one from actually writing! We may discuss this further at a future meeting if our writers would like to.

Our Next Writers’ Café is on Wednesday, August 10, from 1-2 at the Westport Arts Center.  Please come, and do send this on to any of your writing friends you think might be interested.

Whether you've been writing forever, or are new to it, whether you're published or hope to be, join us at the Writer's Cafe at the Westport Arts center. Sympathy, support, new ideas and time to connect with other writers. We'll bring the coffee, you bring your sandwich. For more details, please visit www.westportartscenter.org and www.mousemuse.com.

Whether you've been writing forever, or are new to it, whether you're published or hope to be, join us at the Writer's Cafe at the Westport Arts center. Sympathy, support, new ideas and time to connect with other writers. We'll bring the coffee, you bring your sandwich. For more details, please visit www.westportartscenter.org and www.mousemuse.com.

(203) 247-3346

ina@mousemuse.com

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