It was great to see all of you (12!) who came to the Writers’ Arts Café on Wednesday, March 6. Gabi started with a bragging session, where we asked anyone who’d had something good happen since the last meeting to share it. This took a long time – because so many people had good news.
Carol Shaffer won the Fairfield Public Library Food Memoir writing contest
Penny Pearlman had an item accepted for an online inspirational book, and an “idea for the day” accepted for a calendar
Robert Williams had an article accepted for the online magazine “The Good Men Project” in which he described his first yoga (terrifying ) yoga class.
Susan Hood has had a series of illustrated children’s books accepted for publication
Carol Boas had a story accepted for Echook, the new short writing app
Shira Linden is an now an honored writer for Echook
Speaking of Echook, we talked about their fascinating new publishing idea. To find out more, click the link below.
Then we talked about the main subject – writers’ workshops and groups – worth the time? Worth the money?
We defined that writers’ groups as informal gatherings of like minded writers, and decided that finding a group of writers in the same genre was crucial to productive feedback. Echook has a very good summary of how to start a writers’ group here:
The Fairfield Library runs a series of free writers’ groups in various genres: http://www.fairfieldpubliclibrary.org/writers.htm
They have a writers’ blog, too, which you might want to check out : http://fairfieldwriter.wordpress.com/
Other writers in the group talked about their best and worst writers conference/workshop experiences. Places mentioned were:
Breadloaf, VT: http://www.middlebury.edu/blwc
Squaw Valley, CA: http://www.squawvalleywriters.org/
Wesleyan Writers’ Conference, CT: http://www.wesleyan.edu/writing/conference/