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Members Only
Interested in reviewing books? Contact us at
member@writersleague.org with "Members Review" in the subject line and we will respond with more details.
Click
HERE to read WLT member
Tony Burnett's review of
Good As Gone
by Amy Gentry.
"Meet the Members"
Want to be profiled on our blog? We are looking for willing subjects for our weekly Q&A posts with current members. If interested, write us at
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Member News
Lareatha Clay
(Dallas) invites writers of all genres and experience levels to the Texas Writers' Workshop in Dallas for a 1-day workshop on February 18. Kick off your 2017 year of writing by attending this day of powerful instruction, camaraderie, and motivation. Registration includes a Continental Breakfast, Lunch and a 2017 "Writer's Survival Kit." More details here.
Pat Dunlap Evans (Lakeway) invites published authors to the Lake Travis Novel Writers, a support group for published authors. Meetings are every first Monday at Lake Travis Community Library, 2 pm to 4 pm. Bring your novels for show/tell, along with a creative tip and a marketing idea for group discussion. No vendors or sales pitches, please. Email Pat Dunlap Evans
here for details.
Jessica Hagemann (Austin) is offering a class called "Legacy Writing I: The Memoir and Autobiography
"
on
February 18 in
Austin. This class will teach participants to understand the difference bet
ween a memoir and an autobiography, visually map their life's timeline, begin writing their life story, self-publish their story, and more. Register here.
Are you a current WLT member interested in submitting to Member News? Email your 50-word blurb (including links and your city of residence) to member@writersleague.org. Please make sure to follow the third-person format used in our announcements. For a full list of guidelines, click here.
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Our next Texas Writes event will take place at the Mt. Enterprise Library in Mt. Enteprise, TX on February 4, 2017 at 1 pm.
Featured Speakers:
Kathleen Baldwin and Charlotte Gullick.
For the full 2016/2017 schedule, visit the
Texas Writes page on our website.
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Johnson City Library's 9th Annual Writers Conference
February 22, 2017
10 am - 2 pm
First United Methodist Church,
Johnson City, TX
The Johnson City Library is proud to announce its 9th consecutive annual Writers Conference sponsored by the Johnson City Library Friends of the Library.
This year's theme is "Agents, Editors and Authors." WLT
Program Director Michael Noll will moderate the morning roundtable discussion with panelists Jennifer Canzoneri, Bill Cotter, and Mark Falkin. Find more information and registration details here.
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Bess Whitehead Scott Scholarship Fund
To learn more about the scholarships and apply online, visit their website.
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Open Office Hours - February 2
Registration closes
February 1 at 12 pm
Members can meet one-on-one with a WLT staffer (in person or call in). This option is available to all members regardless of their city of residence!
Click
here for guidelines and to sign up. Current members only.
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Attention, Members:
Sign Your Book at the
San Antonio Book Festival!
9 am to 5 pm
San Antoni
o Central Library
San Antonio, TX
One of our favorite WLT member benefits is giving recently published authors the opportunity to sign their books at festivals across the state. We're so excited to once again participate in the
San Antonio Book Festival
(April 8, 2017), where we'll have 45-minute slots available for members interested in signing and selling copies of their books.
If you're a current member of the Writers' League and are interested in signing at this year's San Antonio Book Festival please click
here to read the guidelines for consideration and to submit your information.
DEADLINE:
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, at NOON
Questions? Call us at 512-499-8914.
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For the Love of Writing
February is almost here! In a month that's all about love, we hope you'll celebrate your love for one of the most important things of all: writing. Here are some ways to celebrate the written word this month:
- Got a writer in your life? Give them a Writers' League of Texas gift certificate. The deserving writer in your life would surely love to receive a membership, class registration, conference registration, or the dollar amount of your choice.
- Looking for (strictly friendship) writing connections? One of our new member benefits is our Writer Classifieds program. If you're looking for writing/critique partners or groups, fill out this form to have your name added to our list of writers seeking writers. Members only, please! Not sure where to find the Writer Classifieds page on our website? Login to your membership account and find "Writer Classifieds" in the sidebar.
- Learn how to write about causes you love at our February Third Thursday on "Writing about Social Justice: How to Unite, Ignite, and Get It Right." Find more info here on our website or join the Facebook event page.
- Published a book in 2016? We'd love it if you'd submit to our 2016 Book Awards contest! The deadline is February 28, 2017. Find more info here on our website.
- Most of all, we'd love to hear from you! Writers' League members can sign up for Open Office Hours appointments each month. Speak to a staff member for 30 minutes (in person or via phone) about your writing and publishing questions. Click here for guidelines and to sign up. Current members only.
If you're a Writers' League member or someone who simply enjoys our programming, we're always here for your questions. Call us at 512-499-8914 or email wlt@writersleague.org.
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Expand Your Short Story Toolbox
Do your short stories run out of steam after the first few pages?
Do you struggle to use backstory without killing the narrative?
Do you feel like you're trying to juggle too many narrative elements at once?
Crafting short stories requires great openings, vivid details, escalating tension, a tightly choreographed climax, and a perfect ten ending. This half-day, hands-on class will explore:
- Building a strong narrative arc,
- How to use dialogue to advance plot and reveal character,
- Bringing the setting to life with the tiniest details, and
- Creating a balance between action and exposition.
Short stories must do everything that novels do in much less space. In addition to tackling the craft elements above, this class will also look at these very important questions: Why is this story happening now? How do you use backstory so that it works like fate on the pages of your story?
Participants will examine specific published stories and do writing exercises aimed at making every tool in your writing toolbox more accessible and easier to use.
This class is for all writers (beginning to advanced) who want to sharpen their short story writing tools.
For more details and registration, click
here.
Lindsey Lane is an award-winning playwright and children's and young adult author. She earned her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her debut young adult novel Evidence Of Things Not Seen
is a "unique, powerful novel," said Francisco Stork, author of Marcelo and the Real World. Publisher's Weekly
said that it "offers a gripping and genre-bending mosaic centered around the sudden disappearance of physics-obsessed high school junior Tommy Smythe." The Horn Book
said, "Complex and rich, the story hints at Tommy's fate, but with an open ending that is perfect for sparking discussion." Lindsey is also the author of the award-winning picture book and iTunes app Snuggle Mountain
, illustrations by Melissa Iwai, which was named Best Children's Book of 2004 by Bank Street College of Education. She lives in Austin, Texas with her family.
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Write More Inspiring Prose
Does your own prose feel flat or uninspired?
Have you ever admired a novel or memoir's language and said, "It's almost like poetry?"
Want to learn to create more powerful images and sentences?
Poetry's economy of language and use of powerful images offers creative, succinct points of divergence for writers of all genres. This online class will focus on specific poetic tools such as rhythm, repetition and alliteration to seed, deepen, and refine new and in-progress writing. Students will study 3-5 poems and essays that engage poetic techniques and generate new material to incorporate into a current project or begin a new one.
From novice to rising novelist, to seasoned, successful writers and screenwriters, this workshop will provide a broad spectrum of perspectives on poetry's richness as foundation, catalyst and lively companion.
Participants are asked to have a copy of a favorite poem to work with.
What past students have said about this class:
- "I could immediately use what I learned and practiced."
- "What a truly creative mind and set of approaches Charlotte brings forth."
For more details and registration, click
here.
Charlotte Gullick is a novelist, essayist, editor, educator, and Chair of the Creative Writing Department at Austin Community College. A first-generation college graduate, she recently earned a MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Charlotte's first novel, By Way of Water
, was chosen by Jayne Anne Phillips as the Grand Prize winner of the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards Program, and a special author's edition was reissued by the Santa Fe Writers Project in November of 2013. Charlotte's other awards include a Christopher Isherwood Fellowship for Fiction, a Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship for Poetry, a MacDowell Colony Residency, Faculty of Year from College of the Redwoods as well as the Evergreen State College 2012 Teacher Excellence Award.
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Self-Publishing 101
Ready to self-publish your book?
Not sure which platform to use or how much to charge?
Have you already self-published a book, but it's not selling?
This class can help.
It's been six years since the self-publishing revolution went mainstream. Strategies to get your book in front of readers have changed tremendously. Whether you have several books out, or are still finishing up a manuscript you intend to publish on your own, this class will take your career as an author to the next stage in its self-publishing journey. In this four-hour class, participants will:
- Review the self-publishing platforms for ebook and print and their current market share
- Discuss the best price points for each genre and type of book
- Build a release strategy that gives your book the best possible start
- Establish a "rescue plan" for current titles that have not yet found their audience
For more details and registration, click
here.
Deanna Roy is the six-time USA Today bestselling author of women's fiction, college romance, and middle grade books under three pen names. She is a regular speaker and instructor for authors who choose the self-publishing route for their books.
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