December 2021 Newsletter
December 2021 Newsletter
Next Meeting:
Wednesday, December 8
6:30 to 8:30 PM
McCallum Room, 4th floor
Frisco Public Library
6101 Frisco Square Blvd.
Frisco, TX 75034
December's meeting will be held in-person. Mark your calendar for December 8 at 6:30-8:30 PM. Look forward to seeing you then!
All are welcome to attend Write Club meetings….no formal invitation needed. Write Club meeting information can be found on the Frisco Library web site and on the club's Facebook page (Frisco Write Club). Additionally, every month, in advance of the meeting, Rich Blazevich (richblazevich@gmail.com) will send an invitation by email to the active members.
Anybody who has attended a Write Club meeting is automatically subscribed to our newsletters. At the top of each newsletter is a notice of our next meeting.
Our Website: FriscoWriteClub.org
Please visit our website, run by Kevin Mann, for updates and announcements.
Our Facebook Page: Frisco Write Club | Groups | Facebook
December Meeting
We will do the icebreaker, sharing, and critiques and have a little fun with an exchange. Feel free to break out one of your ugly sweaters for the meeting.
December will be a sharing meeting and a White Elephant Exchange. Bring any of your published books for people to see, and please bring a wrapped gift that has something to do with writing. (“Wrapped gift” means it can be covered in wrapping paper or in a gift bag.) Your gift can be a book or anything else that is writing related. It should be of nominal value. The goal is to try to outdo your fellow writers on creativity or ridiculousness, not on the value of your gift!
If you have extra books to get rid of, bring more than one. We always have a couple of guests and we don’t want anyone to be without a gift.
NaNoWriMo
November is over and so is NaNoWriMo. This year our group set up a spreadsheet to monitor of written words per day for members who wanted to set goals and track them.
Kevin C set a goal of 50,000 words and actually wrote 50,088. Congratulations! Kevin’s average daily word count was 1,667.
Other participants include Linda J, Donna A and Tara C.
Linda’s goal was 30,000 and she wrote 17,470.
Donna’s goal was 20,000, and she wrote 16,331.
Tara’s goal was 10,000 and she wrote 8,020.
Free Contests of the Month
POETRY
Blue Mountain Arts Poetry Card Contest. Genre: Poem. Prize: $300. Deadline: December 31, 2021.
SHORT STORY
Substack runs a monthly short story competition. Their mission is to “revive the art of the short story, support artists, and produce something wonderful.” Genre: Short story. Length: 6000- 10,000 words. Prize: $100 plus 50% of subscription revenue to be sent by Paypal, Zelle, or check. Deadline: December 31, 2021. Reprints are ok so long as you still have the rights to distribute.
BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
Ezra Jack Keats Children’s Book Award. Genre: Published or self-published picture books that portray the universal qualities of childhood, a strong and supportive family, and the multicultural nature of our world. Prize: $3,000. Deadline: December 31, 2021.
Successes
Jeanette Smith has received more than one hundred rejection notices this year. Isn’t that marvelous? Has anyone else submitted one hundred pieces of work this year? Every rejection brings you one step closer to publication. Before you submit, you find the right place to target for your work, and you carefully read and follow the submission guidelines exactly. You can’t be published unless you submit. Our rejections are successes because we’ve written, edited, found a niche market, and submitted.
Jennifer Evans shared the mock-up of her children’s book, Follow the Green Frog at the November meeting. We may get to see the final version at the December meeting.
Michael Erger posted his exciting information on the facebook page:
Pescador dropped last night on Amazon Prime and Google Play. I hope you will support. It is available here:
Amazon Prime
Google Play
If you could rate and review it on Amazon that would be amazing.
It could also be rated and reviewed below:
Rotten Tomatoes
IMDB
Thanks
Linda Baten Johnson’s nonfiction article Chinese Food Christmas was published this month in Sasee. Go to Sasee.com, and the story is on page 44.
Presentation Format for Members Presenting Work for Critique:
Writers: Send your document to Jennifer Evans at dallaswestie@gmail.com prior to the meeting which include the following:
title of your document
your name
your email address (optional)
Add line numbers to your document (Go to Layout, then Line Numbers, then Continuous)
Limit your document to 500 words (approx. 2 pages) for time constraints. Each reader will be given 10 minutes to present and receive feedback.
Jennifer will post documents to this Google Drive folder.
Critiquers may download documents, make comments, and provide feedback during the meeting.
Critiquers may send comments to writers who provide their email address.
If the writer doesn’t provide an email address, critiquers may send edited doc to Jennifer who will forward to author.
Find additional information about critiques on our website.
Blogs from Our Members
John Alexander: www.alexandernovels.com/blog
Fergal O’Donnell: https://proconnesus.com and www.facebook.com/proconnesus (author blog)
Derek Blount: www.DerekBlount.com (author blog)
Carolyn Lis: www.NorthTexasRamblings.com (local sights and attractions)
Becky Michael: https://platformnumber4.com/ (author blog)
Linda Baten Johnson: www.lindabatenjohnson.com (includes Heirloom of Faith Blog)
Jennifer Evans - Jennifer Evans - Professional Editing and Proofreading (jmfeditor.com)Jennifer's services as a professional editor, her book, and tips for writing
Morgan Kosinski - Blog – Makrosmic Morgan's blog with personal essays, book reviews, erotic literature, and more
Rich Blazevich - Blog - Self Publishing Fast Lane Rich's blog with tips for writing and self-publishing books.
Tara Carnes - http://www.taralcarnes.com/ Tara’s is a multi-purpose site with information about her spiritual direction practice, a blog, and a portfolio of her poetry.
President: Rich Blazevich
Secretary, Newsletter: Linda Baten Johnson
Vice President, Social Media: Kevin Mann (this role includes Write Club web page, Google Docs and Facebook)
Vice President, Critiques: Jennifer Evans
Presidents Emeritus: Gary Thornberry, Fergal O'Donnell
*Other contributors: Zoom meetings: Donna Anderson, Facebook administrator: Ari Frick