The Write Stuff
The Official Newsletter of Mobile Writers Guild
April 29, 2014
Volume 4 Issue 11
From the President:
So we’re now sliding into our final meeting of our calendar year! As a reminder, we don’t meet over the summer and we start our new calendar year in September. Hopefully everyone’s been working hard on their goals! Also this Thursday’s meeting will be busy, with the young writer contest winner announcements, election of new officers, and our presentation! Looking forward to see you all. As a reminder, nominations are still open for officer positions, so please don’t be shy! We will still be open for nominations at the meeting, and each candidate needs a nomination and a second, and then we’ll vote. See you Thursday!
-Angela Trigg w/a Angela Quarles
2013-2014 MWG President
Upcoming Events/Opportunities:
Our next monthly meeting is this THURSDAY, May 1, in the first floor meeting room of the West Regional Library from 6-7:30pm. Our guest speaker will be our own Joyrce Scarbrough. The title of Joyce’s talk is “Let’s Get Mental! How to Write Crazy Characters” and she considers herself a quasi-expert on the topic for two reasons: her fondness for writing them herself and her experiences with some certifiably crazy people in her family. Crazy characters are fun to write because of the freedom they afford the author in what they can do and what can happen in the story, but if not done properly, crazy characters can easily become cartoonish clichés. Joyce will show everyone how to avoid the most common mistakes and how to dig a little deeper into their crazy psyches to make them real people that readers can relate to. Joyce served as president of the Mobile Writers Guild from 2007-2010. She was also the senior editor for Champagne Books from 2004-2008, when she left to focus on her own writing. She has three published novels—TRUE BLUE FOREVER, DIFFERENT ROADS and SYMMETRY, and she also has short stories featured in six different anthologies. Her next book release will be AFTER ME, the first installment in her “Unfinished” paranormal YA series, available this summer from Buzz Books USA. Joyce writes fulltime and also does freelance editing for a very select group of clients. She’s lived all her life in beautiful LA (lower Alabama), she’s the mother of three gifted (nonconformist) children, and she’s been married for 31 years to the love of her life—a superhero who disguises himself during the day as a high school math teacher and coach at Baker High School. Joyce is also the world’s biggest blue enthusiast, hence her blog’s name—Blue Attitude. There you can find writing advice, fangirling over her favorite books, nerdy grammar rants, shameless self-promotion, and justification for her penchant for using words such as “penchant” and “hence.”
Taking officer nominations! If you have anyone in mind to nominate as an officer, please do so by either posting it in our private group on facebook, or in person at Thursday’s meeting. The positions are: President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Please note that the VP is in charge of programming for the year, so keep that in mind.
Are you a writer? A poet? Sense wants to hear from you! Sense, a local magazine, welcomes short fiction, essays, humor and poetry submissions. Submit your edgy, eclectic work to editor@thesenseofitall.com and it could be published in the next issue of Sense!
The Third Annual Tracy Hurley Memorial Writing Contest. We are excited by the number of entries we received and will be proud to announce the winners at Thursdays meeting and present them with their prizes. Thank you to Carrie Cox and Joyce Scarbrough for running the event and judging the entries!
Greg Iles will be at Centennial Hall at Faulkner State on May 4. An American writer at the height of his creative powers, #1 New York Times bestselling novelist Greg Iles returns with his most eagerly anticipated book yet, and his first in five years — Natchez Burning, the first installment in an epic trilogy that weaves crimes, lies, and secrets past and present into a mesmerizing thriller featuring southern mayor and former prosecutor Penn Cage. Join us at 2 pm at Centennial Hall as Greg signs and discusses his new book. Tickets are $5 and may be used as a coupon toward the book purchase.
Cassandra King will be at The Venue in Fairhope on May 5. Written with a blend of humor and practical wisdom, The Same Sweet Girl’s Guide to Life offers inspiration and solid advice to new graduates that can sustain them through life’s inevitable ups and downs. In this small book you will find advice that will only grow in meaning throughout the years. It can — and should — be read again and again, by thoughtful people of all ages. Join us as we host Cassandra King to sign and discuss her new book over lunch beginning at 12 pm at The Venue. Tickets to the event are $15 and include lunch and $5 off the purchase of the book.
Member News:
Continue to send in your writing news and author events to mobilewritersguild@gmail.com so we can share your milestones with the community.
Where to find us:
www.mobilewritersguild.com
www.facebook.com/pages/Mobile-Writers-Guild/132422949536?ref=hnav
On Twitter: @MobileWriters
Email: mobilewritersguild@gmail.com
Remember that comments, suggestions, and questions are welcome—both online and at the meetings. Thanks for your continued support!
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