Meeting Minutes September 9, 2012

After a wonderful summer the group is back in full swing. We had a great turn-out and shared lots of information.

Jayne reported that Ray Wiseman, writer & editor, is giving a workshop out west but could use a "practice session". He would like to use our group for a trial run. Writers other than members of our group are invited. Further details about the workshop will be posted at a later date. As reported to me after the meeting, Mr. Wiseman has chosen our meeting dates of October 14th and October 28th for this workshop. It will take place at our regular meeting time of 1:30pm at Tweedsmuir. More details will follow.

Jayne suggested that we might wish to consider renting tables at the Orangeville Farmer's Market and the Orangeville Fall Fair to sell our published works. Pricing would have to be looked into for next year and members would have to take shifts. Therefore full cooperation of our members would be required. You may not have a published work NOW, but you may at that time, and even if you don't our group is all about supporting one another. This is a great opportunity to sell our members' works and show the face of The Headwaters Writers' Guild to the community.

Eden Mills Writing Festival takes place next Sunday, September 16th from 12pm to 6pm.

Armchair, Authors & Art, part of the Headwaters Arts Festival, takes place Friday, October 28th at 6:30pm at the CGI Centre. Tickets are $25 each. Hors d'oeuvres and refreshments will be served after the presentation. You will be able to purchase books and meet the authors. Last year was a sell-out so get your tickets now! I bought mine today.

Marilyn passed around her newly published book Short Tales From a Tall Person which is currently available at Amazon.com.

Marilyn also shared a book she published for her client Love, Obey and Betray also available at Amazon.com.

Jayne shared her most recent publication Death of a Highland Heavyweight available at BookLore in Orangeville, Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and her website.

Nancy reported that she recently read a book, First 50 Pages by Jeff Gerke, claiming it is the best book on writing she has read. She contacted the author, a Sci-Fi writer, who responded to her. Nancy will do her own write-up about the book on this blog.

Last month's writing session was rescheduled as a field trip to the Orangeville Theatre where actors performed a reading of an as yet produced play. Five members of the group attended and all enjoyed it. Hopefully one of these members will write a report here on the blog. (Hint)

Danielled mentioned more websites where you can post writing and get feedback from other authors. She also warned of over-marketing or risk being labeled a spammer. She will post more details in a separate post.

Jayne read the opening line of her new novel Death of a Highland Heavyweight. I purchased the book today and can hardly wait to read it.

Joe read from his bio he is posting on his website and received valuable feedback regarding hooking the reader.

June joined us this week after a long absence. Her work schedule has been conflicting with our meetings. She read from a short story she wrote for an erotica short story contest.

Danielle read from a short story she is writing for a fantasy website short story contest wherein writers are to come up with the most creative magic system.

And now to the prompts:

A writing exercise for brave and adventurous authors:

Pick a partner for this exercise. Each partner will write a character in the story you are creating together. Your characters are having silent conversation using body language ONLY. Write that silent conversation with your partner.

Writing suggestions for those not feeling quite so adventurous today...

1. Rewrite a song as a short story.

2. What's the best thing that ever happened to you?

3. Write a book review for a book you recently read.

4. Rewrite the first few paragraphs of a famous novel.

5. Find something interesting about the most boring thing you can think of. Write about it.

6. Pick a controversial topic of importance to you and write a "letter to the editor" presenting your opinion on the topic. Be clear and concise in why you hold that opinion and defend it with evidence.

7. Write a piece of dialogue between two characters who are husband and wife.

8. What's the most frightening thing that ever happened to you?

Danielle and Sonja took the challenge of writing a story with no dialogue and did a great job. Dialogue between and husband and wife was a popular pick. As always, I encourage members to post their writing prompt results here. You can clean them up first. I know I promised to post something I wrote and never did get around to it. I will post this week's prompt and hopefully the one I promised from before.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Sunday, September 23rd. Nancy will be leading.