Meeting Minutes March 4, 2012

We had a very small group today, 6 of us, but a lot of laughs.
Clare was our fearless leader.

News
Clare's wife Dorothy is recovering nicely after her fall on ice a while ago. We all send hugs!

Harry Posner's booklaunch for Charivari takes place March 27, 2012 at 7pm BookLore in Orangeville. Proceeds of the sales of his book go to The University Health Network.

The Brian Henry workshop Feb 25 was the best one yet. Half the crowd was made up of HWG members who all got a great deal of information about writing a page turner. Patricia will write a blog post about the session at a later date.

There is a contest being run by Dragonfly called "Tell Me Her Story" where writers tell a story about an oil painting done by SJ Pringle. The painting is on display inside Dragonfly. Writers can submit a short story or even just a premise or title about the painting. Please have your entry in at Dragonfly before March 24. There is an open house March 31st at 2pm when the winning story will be read. The winner will win "naming rights" and a print.

Readings

Sonja - read the final version of her Toronto Star Short Story contest entry called "In the Palm of his Hand." After all the edits, it has turned into a very strong, riveting story.

Danielle - read part of a short story that had us all in the palm of her hand.

Marilyn - is working on an anthology "Short Tales from a Short Person." This will be her own ecclectic collection of poems and short stories. Today she read an Isaac Asimov inspired poem called "Inspiration."

Clare - talked about a column he wrote for the Orangeville Banner called "Dufferin Storyteller with the heart and soul of a Bard" about Jim Tramble. Jim's widow enjoyed his "meanderings."

Prompt

Clare versed us on PARAPROSDOKIANS. Definition: "Figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected: frequently used in a humorous situation." Winston Churchill loved them!

Examples: 
1) Where there's a will, I want to be in it.
2) Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
3) The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on my list.

Some of the ones we came up with:

Old King Cole was a merry old soul, until he was dragged through divorce court.

Time flies, except at the airport.

All you need is love, and an iron-clad prenuptual agreement.

It's better to give than to receive, particularly if it's crabs.

The recipe for success is a good bowel movement.

A fool and his money are great to take on vacation.

Only an idiot would run for government office. Obviously.

And in closing....

We came, we saw, we had some laughs.
Our next meeting is March 18. Marilyn will be leading.

Keep on Writing!

HWG sponsored Writing Workshop - February 25th

The Headwaters Writers present …

"Secrets of Writing a Page-turner"

~ 18 secrets from the pros ~

Saturday, February 25
Tweedsmuir Presbyterian Church, 6 John Street, Orangeville

Time 10:00am to 3:30pm

Ever stayed up all night reading a book? In this workshop, you’ll learn you how to
build that kind of tension. And we'll help you put into practice the techniques professionals
use, on every page and in every kind of story, to create drama and tension.

Fee for members of the Headwaters Writers:

$35.40 plus hst = $40 paid in advance
or $42.48 + hst = $48 if you wait to pay at the door

Fee for the general public:

$38.94 + hst = $44 paid in advance
or $42.48 + hst = $48 if you wait to pay at the door

To register, please make out a cheque to Brian Henry and mail it to:

Brian Henry, 110 Reiner Road, Toronto, ON M3H 2L6

To reserve a spot now, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Meeting Minutes October 16, 2011

Congratulations to Jayne on the release of her novel "Murder in Hum Harbour." We had a wonderful time at BookLore Oct 15. It was a fabulous afternoon with her reading and answering questions. Missed out on winning the seaglass earrings, but I'm loving the book which had sold out by Sunday! Watch for the review in In The Hills this winter as well as a follow up in the Citizen.

Jayne was also our leader for the day. And gave Nancy a thank you note for the group: To the members of the Headwaters Writers Guild, Words can't express how much I appreciate your presence and support at yesterday's book launch. Thank you so much, Jayne Self.

Ashley was back for a visit with us and is planning to participate in NaNoWriMo again this year. NaNoWriMo is the National Novel Writers Month held every year in November for more information, check out http://www.nanowrimo.org/. This is Ashley's forth or fifth year trying to meet the goal of 50,000 words. She also told us about a new version of NaNo called Script Frenzy. And that she is hoping to start a writing group of her own in Toronto geared for University students who are looking for a little moral support.

Pat told us all that our favourite bookstore lady, Nancy Frater of BookLore, received a lifetime achievement award at Authors & Armchairs a couple weeks ago. The group gave her a bottle of wine and handpainted wine glasses as an appreciation gift for all of her support of our writers.

Nancy has been in contact with Brian Henry regarding an upcoming workshop. The workshop will take place February 25, 2012. Our choices of courses are:
1) How to Make Yourself Write
2) Eighteen Secrets to Writing a page-turner
3) Writing with Style (which we needed more information on)
4) You  Can Write Great Dialogue
We were deadlocked between #1 and #2 so Nancy will touchbase with other members who normally attend the workshops and we will decide.

Nancy is interested in doing a series of workshops based on the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. We have talked to someone who offers the course through Continuing Education, but feel we could do the same thing for free as our own small group. If anyone is interested, please let us know.

Marilyn told us she has checked out The Next Big Writer.com and is impressed with what she's seen. For $50 per year, you can post work, enter contests and get feedback from impartial people. Both the contest submissions and the work you can post are between 1000-2000 words. Check it out at http://www.thenextbigwriter.com/

Readings:
Marilyn announced that she is "getting all poetic or something ridiculous" and read a poem she'd written.
Diane read a short story written for a Wynterblue Publishing contest called "She Needs to Lose Weight" which caters to the if-only world of if cake and soda were diet foods.
Danielle read part of her fantasy novel that was written as a journal entry.
Ashley had a wonderful poem written in french that she translated for us. It was called "The Drama Queen" and was about her former drama teacher from Westside who passed away this past September. A lovely tribute to her mentor.
Trina (our newest member! Welcome!) read about Trinity Church, the one in New York City that was a central meeting place during the days after 9/11. We loved hearing how being their moved her and put things into perspective.
Nancy read a poem called "Uninvited." Very moving.

On Gaining Confidence....
Jayne thanked us all for helping her become more confident and able to speak in public thanks to reading aloud in the group.
Trina said she'd put off coming to join us on a regular basis, but after reading such a personal poem and getting so much support and feedback, she feels stronger.
Danielle loves how we are all supportive and encouraging to each other.
Marilyn said that "It is amazing how we credit people with the judgements we don't have."

Prompts
Jayne had a bag full of slips of paper on which were written the names of emotions. We chose two slips. The first time, we wrote about the emotion without naming the emotion. Some words that were used were: Sympathy, Excitement, Shame, Fondness, Suspicious, Contentment, Worry, Happiness, Grief.
The second session, we had to start with the sentence: "Sam opened the door..." and use the second emotion without naming it. More emotions to describe: Love, Despair, Desire, Curiosity, Revenge, Sadness, Jealousy, Hope, Passion, Longing.

Some noteworthy dates:
Next meeting is October 30th. Clare (who was notably absent this week) will be leading.
Our Christmas luncheon is Dec 11, details TBA.

Keep Writing!!!

Writing For Children and YA Workshop October 2, 2010

On October 2, HWG hosted a workshop by Brian Henry about writing for children and young adults. As well as giving us some instruction regarding the many different types of books there are, he also did a critique of samples we brought from home. I was the only one brave (or stupid) enough to stand up in front of the entire class to read mine aloud. It made my day when one of the other students announced, "I want to hear more" and Brian echoed her sentiments.

There are several formats for books that we discussed.
Board books - for babies, published on cloth, plastic, or paperboard
Picture books - 1,000 - 1,500 words,meant to be read to children.
Easy Readers - Pre-school to Grade 2, Usually 32 pages divided into chapters
Chapter books - Grades 2 - 4, About 4,000 to 20,000 words, divided into chapters
Juvenile novels - Grades 4 - 7, 100-150 pages or 25,000-50,000 words.
Middle-Grade non-fiction - about 40-100 pages or 10,000-25,000 words
Young Adult - grades 7 and up, about 175- 200 pages, 40,000-50,000+ words
"High-Low" books - high interest, low vocabulary for students with reading or language difficulties or new English readers.

We talked about how the writer of a children's book usually is not the illustrator - even if they are a professional artist. Most publishers keep a list of illustrators and use them to create the artwork for manuscripts.

Brian also gave us information about children's book publishers, a few books about writing for children, and some examples of query/cover letters to submit once your book is complete.



Several of the group that day were interested in Picture books. Personally, during our writing time, I started a Chapter book which may turn into a Juvenile Novel for my sons.

HWG - Orangeville Banner

The Headwaters Writers Guild presents Writing with Style, a full-day creative writing workshop on Saturday, March 13 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Workshop leader Brian Henry will help budding writers learn how to put words on paper in a way that will grip the reader’s imagination and how to avoid common errors that drain life from prose. The guest speaker will be author Jean Rae Baxter. The workshop will be held at Tweedsmuir Presbyterian Church (6 John St., Orangeville). To register, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca or phone Shirley Bray at 519-940-4821.


Posted by The Orangeville Banner.

http://www.orangeville.com/what's%20on/article/626331--what-s-on

WRITING WITH STYLE - Brian Henry Workshop

The Headwaters Writers' Guild present…
“Writing with style” ~ with guest author Jean-Rae Baxter ~
Saturday, March 13,10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Tweedsmuir Presbyterian Church, 6 John Street, Orangeville

If you do any kind of creative writing, fiction or non-fiction, and your prose needs some panache or a dash of sass, this workshop is for you. We’ll tackle the nitty-gritty of putting words on paper in a way that will grip the reader’s imagination. You'll learn how to avoid common errors that drain the life from your prose. And you'll discover how to make your writing more vivid, more elegant and more powerful.

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing teacher for more than 25 years. He has helped many of his students get published, including guest speaker Jean-Rae Baxter…

Jean Rae Baxter is an author of many talents. Her short story collection A Twist of Malice (Seraphim) garnered critical acclaim, and one of the stories was re-crafted as a stage play. She has also published, The Way Lies North (Ronsdale Press), a young adult historical novel set during the American Revolution. Most recently, she published, Looking for Cardenio, a literary murder mystery. Jean will publish a sequel to The Way Lies North next year, and a second short story collection (for adults) is also in the works.
Visit her website here: http://www.jeanraebaxter.ca/

Fee for members of the Headwaters Writers’ Guild: $35.24 plus gst = $37 paid in advance or $42.86 plus gst = $45 if you wait to pay at the door

Fee for members of the general public: $39.05 plus gst = $41 paid in advance or $42.86 plus gst = $45 if you wait to pay at the door

To register, please make out a cheque to Brian Henry and mail it to:
Brian Henry, 110 Reiner Road, Toronto, ON M3H 2L6
Or give your cheque to Nancy and she will mail it for you.

To reserve a spot now, email http://ca.mc461.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Note: For information about other writing workshops and courses, agents looking for authors, markets for your writing and writing contests, check out Quick Brown Fox: http://quick-brown-fox-canada.blogspot.com/

Notes from Our Meeting Nov 15, 2009

We had a laughter filled meeting as always. Lots of things going on in Nov/Dec before we take a little break for Christmas:

Kudos to Harry Posner on his big win last weekend at the Poetry Slam - we hope his ears were burning as we praised his many talents! We hope he'll grace us with his presence at the next meeting and give us a recital.

Our own Clare McCarthy's book launch is Nov 30, 2009 at 7:30pm at BookLore. You can see a sneak preview of it in In The Hills Winter 2009 on page 47. He is in the middle of the page surrounded by our own Nadine (Anouska) Fry with Sebastian and the Spider King and a friend of mine Alyxandra Harvey with her new book Hearts at Stake. Congratulations to you all!

Another bit of news it the Headwaters Writers' Guild Christmas Luncheon on Dec 5, 2009 at King's Buffet in Orangeville. Please let Nancy know if you are coming and if you are bringing a guest! There will be tons of good food and interesting conversation.

In 2010, we are hosting another Brian Henry workshop on Writing Well. This grand event will take place March 6, 2010 with location to be announced. Keep your eyes peeled.

Our next meeting will be Nov 29, 2009 with Clare leading. Hope to see you all there for the last meeting of the year!!!

Blog Roll-Up: Best of the Week's Writing Blogs

I don't make it to our meetings very often, and sometimes I even feel like I'm doing okay on my own. And then I come across a post like this, One is a Lonely Number--Why You Need a Writing Mentor on Write to Done, and I'm reminded of not just what the group can do for me, but what I can do for the group.

Do you Tweet? Do you blog (and if you do, let me know so we can add you to our blog roll)? Should you? The Guide to Literary Agents blog answers these questions with another post from the South Carolina Writer's Conference: Literary Agents Talk Blogging, Twitter and More. If you need more incentive to check out Twitter, then head on over to Freelance-Zone.com for an explanation of how TweetMyJobs Changes the Game and Freelance Folder sends out a Call to All Freelancers to get included on a Freelance Folder.

Also, make sure you head over to There Are No Rules by Writers Digest's Jane Freidman for her list of Best Tweets for Writers. There are tweets about craft and technique, getting published, self-publishing and marketing and promotion--and more!

Are you looking for new markets for your work? Are you trying to break out as a freelance writer, or even as a short story writer? The Freelance Writing Jobs Network offers 15 Places for Freelance Writers to Find Magazine Markets (note: you can use these for fiction markets as well) and 10 Ways to Get Your Freelance Writing Foot in the Door. The Renegade Writer is offering a New FREE Teleclass: Breaking into Food Writing.

Men With Pens is hosting a special fiction writing week with posts about Creating Character Flaws and Creating a Setting. Be sure to check out the full week's posts!

If dialogue is your weak point, C. Patrick Schulze brings you a couple of posts that should help: The Hidden Secret to Dialogue and How to Punctuate Dialogue.

Rachelle Gardner has some suggestions for Writing a First Draft in honour of NaNoWriMo, and The Three-Ring Circus posts this week offer tips for writing that draft quickly. Diane, our prolific writer updates us on the progress of her work, and the Brian Henry workshop over at Pens, Paints and Paper.

Finally, if you need a little inspiration, head over to Jennifer Lawler's Finding Your Voice blog for a quick lesson in The Power of Yet. And if you prefer your inspiration in laughter, definitely check out The Official Rejectionist's Death Match of Wittery, a tongue-in-cheek contest to find the best rejection letter. Scroll down to the comments to find them.

Brian Henry Workshop - November 1,2009 ORANGEVILLE

The Headwaters Writers' Group presents…
“How to Build Your Story” ~ Plotting novels and writing short stories ~

Sunday, Nov 1, 2009 1 - 5 p.m.The Oddfellows Hall, 24 Elizabeth Street, Orangeville

This workshop will show you how writers plot a novel. You’ll also get the best tips on writing short stories, where to get them published and how to win contests. Best yet, you’ll see how to apply the story-building techniques you’ve learned to your own writing.

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for 25 years. He teaches at Ryerson University and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Sudbury. He has helped many of his students get published.

Fee for members of the Headwaters Writers’ Group:
$31.43plus gst = $33 paid in advanceor $38.10 plus gst = $40 if you wait to pay at the door

Fees for the general public: $35.24 plus gst = $37 paid in advance or $38.10 plus gst = $40 if you wait to pay at the door

To register, please make out a cheque to Brian Henry and give it to Nancy Rorke
or mail it to:

Brian Henry
110 Reiner Road
Toronto, ON M3H 2L6

To reserve a spot now, email: mailto:to=brianhenry@sympatico.ca

WRITE YOUR LIFE -- Writing Workshop

The Headwaters Writers’ Guild presents…
“Writing Your Life” ~ and other true stories ~

Sunday, January 1810 a.m. - 4 p.m.Oddfellows Hall Association, 24 Elizabeth Street, Orangeville
Have you ever considered writing your memoirs or family history? This workshop will introduce you to the tricks and conventions of telling true stories and will show you how to use the techniques of the novel to recount actual events. Whether you want to write for your family or for a wider public, don't miss this workshop.

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for 25 years. He teaches at Ryerson University and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Sudbury. He has helped many of his students get published, including our guest speaker, Ross Pennie.

Our guest speaker will be Dr. Ross Pennie, author of The Unforgiving Tides, a doctor’s memoir of Papua New Guinea (Manor House Publishing). He has also just signed a contract with ECW Press for three mystery novels. Dr. Pennie will speak on how to turn ordinary life into dramatic material and will answer questions about how he wrote his memoir and got it published.

Fee for members of the Headwaters Writers’ Guild: $35.34 plus gst = $37 paid in advance
Or $42.86 plus gst = $45 paid at the door
Fee for the general public: $39.05 plus gst = $41 paid in advance or $42.86 plus gst = $45 paid at the door

To register, please make out a cheque to Brian Henry and mail it to…
Brian Henry, 110 Reiner Road, Toronto, ON M3H 2L6