|
"This mark is like a mirror held up in front of the viewer. It reflects where inspiration, thoughts, ideas, and stories originate—in the mind."
Designer, Gordon Smith
| |
|
February 1, 2022,
Volume 29 Issue 7
Word by Word 100 Years!
Our mission: to support local writers and promote their development through education, recognition, and community.
| |
|
President's Message:
Some many priorities so little time—
about sums it up—at the end of this program year, I will step down but before I turn things over to David Collins, I’m chunking through the list of want-tos, things started I’d like to finish or at least clean up before my term is done.
Top on the list is Seeking Refuge: How Stories Can Save Us.The program that was originally planned for Sensoria 2020, championed by CWC North’s Gilda Morina Syverson, is finally happening in April, see the CWC North block below for details.
Kicking Off a Year to Remember!
52 Zoomers, on the 18th of January—New York Times bestseller of Suspense Megan Miranda’s program on Finding the Right Way to Tell Your Story, the 2021 Ruth Moose Flash Fiction Contest winners, and two newly published books to celebrate! Check out the Meeting Recap Page. Members, I’ll send you the YouTube link. Contact me at CWC President .
Workshops in Cyberspace 2022 Free to CWC members:
Larry Sorkin’s March 5 & 12, 2-session poetry workshop, coordinated by CWC North, leads us off. Stay tuned for more as presenters are firmed up. Our workshop coordinator Anshu Gupta would love to hear your suggestions— topic and/or presenter, Email Anshu Here.
And don't miss the progress report for spring and fall centennial events at the Mint on Randolph.The committee i(Adrian Calabrese, David Collins and I) has been busy in the with programs for each. Check out the block below.
Join us or if you are a former member this is a great time to reup, here's how, visit the CWC Membership page.
Take Care
Keep Writing!
Caroline
| |
Tuesday, February 15, 2022 | |
Betsy Thorpe is our speaker. Her topic is
Taking That Final Step toward Publication.
A veteran of twenty years and more in the book business, Thorpe has seen it all from behind the editor’s desk.
She will gives us an overview of the different kinds of editors and drill down on what it means to be a developmental editor and how a developmental editor can help you hone your work for publication.
Visit the CWC Calendar of Events page for more on her presentation.
| | |
|
On the 3rd Tuesday of the month (February 15),the meeting opens at 6:30 pm and business begins at 7pm.
Join us for the half-an-hour of social time to catch up with old friends and make some new ones.
***************************************************
Gathering of moments happy and sound remembering
We are One under the rainbow Love!"
| |
CWC Meeting: We Are In Person this Month | |
Since COVID and its spawn remain part of the plot, we need your help to keep us all safe.
we ask that you provide proof of full COVID vaccination and while in the building, wear a face covering over your mouth and nose.
Members and guests, when you RSVP, you will be prompted to take a photo of your vaccination card and email it to
MembershipCWC@yahoo.com.
You’ll only have to do it once and we will have you on our VIP List. As you arrive for the meeting, we will check you off the list.
We will also accept showing vaccination cards at the door as a last-minute emergency—though prefer not to have to do this because we don’t want to have to turn anyone away as we follow city & county mandates.
If you have questions, concerns, or thoughts please CONTACT US.
| | |
|
The Winners of the Nonfiction Fiction Contest Will be Unveiled
Darrell Horwitz, co-contest chair, will do the honors again in February--announcing the results of the 2022 Nonfiction Contest and the top finishers will be in the house to pick up their certificates, prize money and to read from their winning works.
| |
|
Charlotte Writers' Club
A Century of Shared Passion: Coming to Know The Not-Known in Dialogue on the Page
On March 5 & 12, 2022
1:00-2:30 pm via Zoom
Larry Sorkin leads this two-session workshop to mark our 100th anniversary, free of charge for CWC members, $50 for non members.
Hurry Seats Are Going Fast! Register to receive the Zoom HERE.
The presenter will provide the link prior to the beginning of the workshop. He says, "participants should know that they will be recorded including their participation."
Find out more about our instructor and more about her course at the CWC North Workshops Page
| |
CONGRATULATIONS
2021 Ruth Moose Flash Fiction Contest Winners
Thank you to judge Gary Powell for selecting the flash fiction winners.
Honorable Mention
2 .Landis Wade-The Good Samaritan
- Thomas Wolf-Water Oaks
Finalists
3.Michael Banks-Seven Days a Sinner
2.Rick Pryll,-No Good Deed
and the the winner is...
Mary Struble Deery
Catching Fireflies in the Bar
| |  |
|
Virtual Writing Salon & Social Time
is back new date is February 14, 2022..
Tiffany's got a bouquet of prompts for your muse. Treat yourself to a sampler for an adventure, a new plot and new characters maybe you'll find a memory to savory or at least to explore each prompt like a box of chocolates.
*Please re-register if you previously registered for the 8th.
Check out the particulars at Calendar of Events page.
Your opportunity to
take 75 minutes to write is back this month. Join in and see where the prompts take you!
There will be time to share if you wish, no pressure, no angst, just writing fun! Hope to see you there!
| |
Why I Write #85
Because creating something that didn't exist before is as closetomagic as I'll ever get.
| |
“And so I write. I write my life. I write to escape real life. I write to live moments over again. I write to rewrite the moments I’ve lived over in a way that makes more sense to me. I write the moments to heal. I write the moments I hope never happen. And I write the moments I hope will happen.”
― R.B. O'Brien
| |
|
Seeking Refuge:
How Stories Can Save Us
Thursday evening,
April 21, 2022 at St Peter's Episcopal Church in Charlotte.
The panelist are: Diya Abdo, Founder, Every Campus a Refuge, Banu Valladeres, Charlotte Bilingual Preschool, Joseph Bathanti, North Carolina Poet Laureate 2012-2014, and Gilda Syverson, Memoirist, Poet, Educator, is the moderator. St. Peter's Episcopal Church is our host and CWC & CWC North are sponsors of this community discussion. Watch the CWC North page for instructions on how to register and to get more information on the panelists & program. Please note TransAmerica parking deck is now the 401 North Tryon Street parking deck.
| |
|
Bio:
Faye Cobb is a co-founder of the Mind Full Foundation, a non-profit educational and charitable organization which serves to meet unanticipated financial needs of college students. She moved to the South from Michigan over twenty years ago. Although she has written as an academician, she started writing fiction during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
| |
To start a conversation with Faye send her a message through the Member Directory
Login first, then go to Member Directory.
If you'd like to participate in Meet-a-Member please contact the newsletter editor,
Teresa Taylor or President Caroline Kenna.
|  | |
The Role of Writers in Society
By Nicholas Conley
For writers, self-doubt is something we’re all too familiar with. It’s unavoidable, really. Whereas most careers are built on concrete evidence and a clear end goal for each day, writers usually have to operate from a sort of murky, hazy subconscious desire. Our goals are driven by a mysterious voice that sometimes chooses to speak to us, and sometimes doesn’t.
Really, it makes sense. After all, a professional writer is someone who has learned, over exhausting time and effort, to use their voice to communicate things in a way that people want to read. A fiction writer, meanwhile, is someone who applies these skills in such a way that people are interested when they make stuff up.
Writers aren't writers because we desire worldwide fame and lucrative amounts of money, however. We're writers because we're passionate about writing, and because we have something we want to say to the world.
| |
|
Faye says:
When and Where Do I Write?
I write when the mood strikes whereby, I quickly get to my computer or write notes on my cell phone. Then I follow up with writing or adding to a short story. Once at the computer, it is hard to draw be away until I realize that I am hungry. Hunger moves me to stop writing.
Tiffany Grantham’s monthly Virtual Writing Salon and Social Time group is a must for nascent writers like myself. Her Salon is fun and inspiring which has “prompted” me to develop a short story and adapt it to a ten-minute play. I participate in the Salon and other writings from a bedroom turned into an office. I have photographs, pictures, and objects of comfort and calmness displayed throughout the room for peaceful episodic writing.
Favorite writing tool?
Writing tool? For me, the word tool, although I know what is meant, makes writing sound like work. And for me, writing is a delight. The major tool is my imagination. Secondarily, my desktop computer is a pleasure machine. It allows me to review grammatical issues; search content; and teaches me all the features of Microsoft word. I also print hard copies when I really want to “hear” what I wrote, requiring me to focus.
A favorite writing resource:
As a beginner, I use several resources: Roget’s International Thesaurus; The Emotional Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression; YouTube videos; and the Charlotte Writers’ Club’s workshops and seminars. However, my latest, favorite resource is Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft by Burroway.
Best Writing advice you’ve received and actually taken?
I presented to a critiquing group one time. There were several helpful suggestions as to how I could improve one of my short stories. At the end, a person said, “Do not listen to any of us.” That comment made me shift from trying so hard to be perfect or to write to win a contest or be published to writing as I saw fit for the dialogue, plot or character. I write sometimes, but not all the time, from an African-American perspective. Notice I said an African-American perspective and not the African-American perspective. My stories are just one woman’s perceptions. I think the person was trying to tell me to listen to my own voice. Yet I still adhere to the classic craft of short story writing as best as I can.
One thing I would like help with?
I am sure this question was intended to mean what I need help with in terms of writing. But right now, I concentrate on staying healthy and safe in the midst of a pandemic. The mere act of writing short stories aids me in that quest.
|  | | |
What's the Good Word?
Share your publishing news at MEMBERS' KUDOS
so we can celebrate too.
| |
 |
Answer the Call for Volunteers:
Serve the Club on the Leadership Team
We need you; your ideas, your time, talents and expertise to sustain and to grow our writing community. We are looking for the 2022-2023 leaders to work with VP of Membership Axel Dahlberg and Dave Collins, program planner extraordinaire who will be the president during that program year and (we hope) the next.
See the job descriptions in our Policies and Procedures document and think about donating a year or more to serve our club.
These executive board seats will be open by the end of June:
-
Treasurer: John McGillicuddy who has held this post for two years is ready to step down and would like train his successor. Email him at Treasurer.
-
VP/President-Elect, as Dave steps into the role of president. Who will be our president in training?
-
Secretary: Tiffany Grantham who served in this capacity since 2018, has already stepped down as she is adding an online graduate program to a busy schedule which will still include leading our social write-ins.
And
-
Webmaster: Debra S. Wallin, will step aside in June to focus on her own writing. In the last decade or more as a leader of this writing community, she has worn many hats and as our Tech Guru, has brought us into the 21st century. She will train her successor or successors and Blair Peery will be on hand to assist. Contact her at Webmaster.
Other Advisory board positions open:
2 program planners, Dave Collins has been
2 contest coordinators, Darrell Horwitz & Adrian Calabrese
2 social media/marketing/publicity, (open now)
1 critique groups coordinator, (open now)
1 co-workshops coordinator open now) Anshu Gupta has been doing this job alone.
Do you want to help? if you have the time and would like to serve please contact Caroline Kenna for information.
| |
Did You Get It?
We've launched a second newsletter with all the rich club & community content & added this new feature below.
| |
We've Got You Covered!
Snap a selfie of your book cover and submit it to the newsletter editor. We will feature a few each month. The deadline is February 10th for the second edition.
| |
|
Open Now!
The Elizabeth Simpson Smith Short Story Contest,CWC's most prestigious award, opened on Tuesday January 18.
Attention: CWC members & writers living in the Carollinas, Deadline to enter
your 1,500 to 4,000 word fiction short stories
is on Tuesday, March 15th.
For Eligibility & Guidelines and to learn more about this year's judge
Bryn Chancellor, visit the CWC Contests Page.
| | | |
On Tuesday February 8,1:00pm - 2:00pm
in-person event and signing. Click the image to learn more.
| |
|
Youth and Teen Poetry Contest
ages 5-18 are invited to submit their original poems virtually. Submission deadline is February 12, 2022
To enter email: aka.artteam@gmail.com
with name and age
| | |
|
Write Your Poem
by Amy LV
Scoop up some words you find lying around, throw them high let them fall like confetti.
See where they land tune your ear to the sound of your heart. Now your poem is ready.
Write it right now on a paper in ink.
Take sweet time with this poem you're planting.
Years from today a stranger will tell you he found your wrods simply enchanting.
| |
|
Poetry in Plain Sight 2022-23 Poets Announced
48 poets from across North Carolina have been selected for the 2022-23 Poetry in Plain Sight program. Poems from all five living state Poets Laureate are included, as well as poems by 21 new poets. To read the list of poets and poems selected, Click Here and scroll down the page. Thanks to Sam Barbee, PIPS coordinator, and our judges, Malaika King Albrecht and Scott Owens.
| |
|
CWC Members Teaching @ Lit in 2022
Dannye Romine Powell:
Poetry Workshop MFA Style 6 sessions Thursday February 24 to April 7. Sign up Here
Paul Reali:
Scrivener Essentials Unlocking the Best Software for Writers Tuesday February 15 & 22. Learn more here.
Novel Structures Save the Cat, Hero's Journey & More, Tuesday March 15. Sign up here.
Novel Jumpstart,4 weeks asynchronous sessions Saturday April 3 to April 30. More here.
Irene Blair Honeycutt:
"I would almost say they saved me," --Trees as metaphor in Poetry, Sunday April 2. Register Here.
Judy Goldman:
Everything, Really Everything! Judy Goldman knows about writing creative nonfiction. Thursday April 21,2022.Sign up here.
Check out the rest of the catalogue here.
| | | |
|
Tell a true story from your life in 2021…in 21 words or fewer.
A personal story which can be hilarious, heartbreaking, puzzling, uplifting, or just plain strange. Look for something intriguing, perhaps something with emotional or intellectual resonance.
Click the image for more information and to enter your unpublished story.
Submission is free. Deadline is February 28, 2022.
The memoir that is the most captivating wins a free class from
It may be apocryphal, but the story goes that Ernest Hemingway won a bet by writing a short story that ran fewer than ten words. One version of the story places the bet at the famed Algonquin round table. Whether true or not, there is an actual bet-winning short story attributed to Hemingway:
For sale. Baby Shoes. Never worn.
| |
|
Charlotte Lit:
Click on the image to see what else Kathie Collins and Paul Reali, CWC members and Co-founders of Charlotte Lit have planned for 2022.
Check out the list of CWC members teaching classes this winter and spring.
| |
|
Dr. Darling serves as Editor-in-Chief of Tupelo Press and Tupelo Quarterly.
Beginning in the fall of 2022, she will also serve as Publisher-in-Residence at the American University of Rome.
| |
|
On Tuesday, February 15, 2022, at 7:00 pm EST, author and editor Kristina Marie Darling will lead the online class "Lit Mag & Small Press Publishing."
Registration is open.
In this 90-minute, open-format event, Kristina Marie Darling will talk about publishing in literary magazines and publishing with a small press—for writers of fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction. Following a short talk, Kristina will participate in a moderated Q&A driven mostly by questions from registrants. Come armed with questions: participation is strongly encouraged!
The cost for the class is $35 for NCWN members, $45 for non-members. Space is limited.
| |
|
Charlotte Readers Podcast
Click on the image to see what CWC member Landis Wade, the host and creator of Charlotte Readers Podcast has in store for us in February.
| | | |
The Personal Story Publishing Project | |
Stay turned for the next anthology of personal stories Curious Stuff, coming this spring.
Visit Facebook@6minutestories to see who is telling their story on the podcast this month and listen to a few.
Click on the image to visit Randell Jones's website to learn more about the personal story publishing project.
| |
| |
|
Open Mic Night at Mugs Coffee
Where members practice reading their work
Click the image to learn more and see who read at open mic the previous month. Open Mic is Every fourth Friday of the month
(Only Members can register to read - all others welcome to hear great stories!)
7:00-9:00 p.m.
Register here to Read
| | |
|
MEMBERSHIP
Membership in the Charlotte Writers Club entitles you to participate in workshops, critique groups, contests, and guest speaker programs. The cost is a modest $35 per year for individuals and $20 for students.
We welcome all writers in all genres and forms to join our Charlotte-area literary community. Your membership in the Charlotte Writers' Club helps support writers, readers, and literacy at a critical time in our nation's and our city's history.
To Join or Renew click this Membership Link and follow the instructions.
| | | | |
