Due to extreme weather conditions and your personal safety, the Monday Writers in the Grove meeting for January 9, 2017, is cancelled at the Forest Grove Community and Senior Center in Forest Grove, Oregon.
We will return to our normally scheduled meeting next Monday.
Be safe and warm. And stay off the roads unless you absolutely have to be out.
On February 13, 2017, author Kendra Elliot will speak at our Monday Writers in the Grove meeting at 9AM at the Forest Grove Community and Senior Center in Forest Grove, Oregon.
Elliot is a prolific author of suspense, thriller, and murder mysteries. After reading a newspaper article about NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, she decided she could sit down and write 50,000 words in 30 days, and did. She says on her website:
I sat down and wrote a contemporary romance but kept tripping over dead bodies in each chapter. I got the hint and my stories evolved into romantic suspense.
This Pacific Northwest native continues to live in the area and says she is obsessed with forensics, even studying with the FBI, and is involved in many writers associations and groups dedicated to her genre, weaving everything she learns into her fascinating stories.
Elliot has published numerous books including the popular series The Bone Secrets, Callahan and McLane, The Mercy Kilpatrick, and The Rogue River Novella series.
She will be talking about how she writes her books so fast and furious, publishing several a year, and about the publishing industry, dealing with agents and publishers.
Please join us for this fascinating presentation. There is no charge. We thank Kendra Elliot for her generosity in sharing her experiences with us.
This year, we have two Mondays, the days of our regular meetings, falling on holiday dates when the Forest Grove Community and Senior Center is closed. We’re offering two alternatives for the two Mondays.
Monday, December 26, 2016, will be at the home of Paula and Parks Adams in Forest Grove at the regular time of 9AM.
Monday, January 2, 2017, will be at the home of Diana and Elliot Lubarsky in Hillsboro, Oregon, at the regular time.
Bring pen and paper and be ready for some fun prompts!
The January prompt-a-month for our Writers in the Grove members is:
Space Time
The deadline for submissions is 2/1/2017. Submissions will be published within the next 30 days.
Writers in the Grove members may hand in their submissions during the workshops or use our members only submission form. Check out the guidelines and instructions for submissions in the announcement.
The January prompt-a-month for our Writers in the Grove members is a small but powerful word:
Yes
The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2017.
Check out the guidelines and instructions for submissions in the announcement. We’re looking forward to what you will do with this one.
The following is by Writers in the Grove member, Patti Bond.
I enjoyed the time going to door to door saying “trick or treat” as a child. Sometimes my family would go out to eat then Dave and I would have to hurry home and get dressed in our costumes. I really liked dressing up. The only thing I didn’t like was going trick-or-treating in the rain, but that’s what living in Oregon is all about.
I loved the year I was Little Red riding Hood. I was a pretty one that year. I’d be so anxious I would be waiting for trick or treat time, dressed in a cape with a scarf on my head.
That Halloween, after going around several blocks, Dave and I came home and emptied our bags on the living room floor to see what all the neighbors gave us. I remember putting the candy in our piles and thinking “Wow!” My favorites were Smarties, Tootsie Rolls, and bubble gum.
After Dave and I saw our treats, our mother would say, ” Okay, you can have two but you have to put the rest in a bowl and put it in the kitchen.”
We weren’t allowed to have the bowl in our room. Did she think we would eat all the candy at once? If we did, we would get sick, then that would spoil all the fun for next year, as I’d learned in the past. We’re supposed to learn from our mistakes, right?
Due to weather, and some other holiday excuses, Writers in the Grove has extended the deadline for submissions to our annual Wintersong Reading Event 2017 until December 19, 2016.
Get your submissions in as soon as possible to be considered for reading your 4-minute max piece(s) on January 21, 2017.
The following is by Writers in the Grove member, Debby White. She is an active member of the Vernonia Library group in Vernonia, Oregon.
Gertrude blew a strand of hair from her face as she peeled the small mountain of potatoes destined for mashing. She gave a quick glance to the clock on the oven. Ten a.m. The day’s agenda ran through her mind as the peeler continued to work it’s way through the mound. The turkey will be ready in an hour, kids and grandkids should arrive any minute. Dinner rolls should go in the oven in about forty five minutes. Harry, her husband of 30 years, was watching a loud Thanksgiving day football game in the living room, making an appearance in the kitchen only when he needed a warm up for his coffee.
Outside the wind whipped the rain around frequently throwing it against the windows, tree branches swaying as if throwing a tantrum.
“Quite a storm out there.” Gertrude jumped. Harry chuckled behind her. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” he said, reaching for the coffee pot to fill his cup for the fifth or sixth time.
Gertrude sighed, “I hope we don’t lose power. The turkey still needs almost another hour in the oven, then there’s the dinner rolls. Lots of food in the fridge that could go bad if the electricity’s out for a long time.”
“Don’t panic, honey,” Harry patted her shoulder. “Remember that’s why we spent all that money on the generator. Out here in the boondocks we lose power at the drop of a hat. With the generator life goes on as usual.”
They both turned at the sound of voices in the entryway. Seconds later they had little grandchildren arms wrapped around their legs. Sadie, their oldest daughter, planted a kiss first on Gertrude’s cheek then Harry’s. “Jack and Nikki drove up behind us,” Sadie said of her brother and his wife. “Nate is helping them carry stuff in.” Nate being Sadie’s husband.
Minutes later the women and children were gathered in the kitchen and the guys convened in the living room to finish watching the football game. Gertrude finished peeling the potatoes and Sadie and Nikki set the table while dodging little Nate and Jillian. Suddenly, everything went black. From the living room a chorus of “Hey, what happened?” was heard as the TV went blank. Gertrude raced into the living room, with a panicked look on her face. “We’ve lost power!” she exclaimed. (more…)
The following article is by Writers in the Grove member, Carolyn Bradley.
What have I learned about writing from participating in my first NaNoWriMo?
It is more fun to have written than it is to write. Writing is hard. Writing takes discipline.
I have learned that I don’t have any.
And so I am grateful to Writers in the Grove and NaNoWriMo for shoving me off the stump I’ve been roosting on for years and getting my butt moving in the right direction. It helps to be held accountable – someone is expecting some words to be written.
I have learned that I am a planner not a pantser. I probably already knew this but my husband confirmed it. So I know it will be hard to write until the dishwasher is loaded and the bed is made and I’ve learned that an outline is a huge help to me.
I have learned that I am not a very good writer. This surprised me. I am in awe of the wordsmiths in this writers group who write with such amazing clarity – sometimes in fifteen minutes or less. That is not me. But some of them have been writing for a long time, thousands of words, and I am just a beginner. So I have learned that I will have to write many more words in order to improve my craft.
I have learned that I can turn off my editor for long periods of time. This is probably the most important takeaway from this experience for me, since this is what has kept me from writing for so long. For that, I am the most grateful.
I have learned that I have a lot to learn. And more importantly, I know now what I do not know and how to learn it.
And one final thing – please excuse the absence of contractions. It’s a NaNoWriMo thing. If you’ve done NaNoWriMo, I’m sure you’ll understand.
The deadline for Wintersong submissions is December 15, 2016.
If you have a written piece that can be read out loud in four minutes or less, you are welcome to submit it for consideration, but it must be received or postmarked by December 15 to be considered.
We’re looking for prose, poetry, or songs that are family-friendly.
Get your submission in by December 15 to be considered for the January 21, 2017, reading event presented by Writers in the Grove and held at the Forest Grove United Methodist Church at 10:30AM in Forest Grove, Oregon. The event is open to the general public and free, as are the submission entries. Even if you do not submit an entry, we’d love to have you join us, so mark January 21 on your calendar.
For more information and the entry form, see our announcement and submission form.
Writers in the Grove 