The vice-president of the Shreveport Writers Club is hosting a Nanowrimo write-in at Retro 521 Coffee, Cafe & Venue starting today. This will occur every Wednesday from 5-7pm. Come out to be inspired and encourage each other.
Advertisements
November Meeting
The Shreveport Writers Club held their regular monthly meeting at 10 am on Saturday, November 3rd. This month the writers met at Retro 521 Cafe in Bossier City.
Club President, Tiffany Pennywell, welcomed visitors and members. The first order of business was presenting the “Making a Mark” awards. Members who submitted any piece of writing to any publication are given a commemorative writing pen as encouragement. Writers this month “making a mark” were M. L. Dumars and Loretta Casteen.
The group then moved on to the Flash Writing Exercise. The writers were asked to write on any of these topics:
- I didn’t know my daughter knew the queen…
- A baker, a ballerina, and the ultimate ninja…
- He looked me straight in the eye and said…
- The turkey was almost done, but…
- Open topic
After members shared their writing, the group moved on to other business.
December Meeting News : 
The December Holiday meeting location was discussed, but not decided upon. Those interested are encouraged to check back on this site or on the Facebook group once the meeting place for December is finalized.
The December Holiday meeting will include the yearly potluck meal, games, readings and fun. Special guest for the December meeting will be novelist, Maple Sudds, who will discuss self-publishing her memoir No Blood in the Turnip.
Next, club Vice-President Deondre Holmes announced the winner of the October short story contest.
For her short story, “Windows” Stephanie Bullard won a $25 gift card and spooky Halloween shot glasses.
Congratulations Stephanie!
The theme and deadline for the next contest will be announced at the December meeting.
The writers then participated in another writing activity. Each person was asked to write for ten minutes about their “perfect writing situation.” Afterwards, writers shared their work, if they wished to.
The Shreveport Writers Club Critique Group will be held at Retro 521 on Saturday, November 17th, from 10 am to 12 pm.
Vice-President, Deondre Holmes also invited anyone interested in evening meet-ups back to Retro 521 every Wednesday evening in November from 5 to 7 pm for critiques, sharing work and encouragement during NaNoWriMo.
The final activity was the Round Robin reading. Anyone who brought writing to share was encouraged to do so.
Filed under Uncategorized
Reminder
A reminder that the Shreveport Writers Club location is at Retro 521 today in Bossier City.
Filed under Uncategorized
October Meeting
The Shreveport Writers Club held their regular monthly meeting on October 6th, 2018 at the Shreve Memorial Library Broadmoor Branch. President, Tiffany Pennywell welcomed visitors and members.
First on the agenda was the presentation of the Making the Mark Awards, given each month to members who have “taken the plunge” and submitted work for publication.
Next, the writers concentrated on the Flash Writing Exercise. Participants were asked to write for ten minutes about these writing prompts:
- Lancelot, plaid, outer space
- The Tragedy of the Ever-Smiling Clown
- An unusual house
- “Please shut the…”
- Open topic
After sharing their writing on the topics, the group heard from Vice-President Deondre Holmes. Deondre gave an update on the much-anticipated Shreveport Writers Club Anthology which will soon be available to order or to download from Amazon.com.
Deondre also announced the October Writing Contest.
Shreveport Writers Club members in good standing are encouraged to submit prose, poetry or creative non-fiction on one or more of the following themes:
- I’ve Never Been So Scared
- The Spirit of Halloween
- Ghouls, Goblins and Ghosts! Oh, my!
There is no fee to enter. There is no word limit on entries. Entries should be the original work of the author. All publishing rights remain with the author.
Entries will be judged blind. Each entry should have a cover page stating the author’s name, contact information, the title of the work and which theme their work references. The cover page will be removed from each entry before judging. No other identifying information should be included on the rest of the submission.
You may enter as many times as you like and may submit work on any or each topic, but each submission should be emailed separately.
Deadline for submissions is October 20th, 2018. Each submission and cover letter should be attached as a word document or an rtf file. If the work is short (under 1,000 words) you may also paste the submission in the body of the email, below your “cover sheet” information.
Entries should be emailed to shreveportwritersclub@gmail.com
If you are interested in becoming a member of Shreveport Writers Club, a PayPal option to pay your yearly membership fee is available. Click the PayPal button to the right to get started.
The writers then went on to play the game “Guilty Pleasures” where each person was asked to write down their favorite author or genre on a piece of paper. Players placed their paper slips together and Tiffany pulled them one by one. Members then tried to guess which person had written which “guilty pleasure” slip. Once the player was identified, each person talked about why that particular genre or writer was his or her favorite.
The Round Robin portion of the meeting followed. With writers sharing some of their most recent work and works-in progress.
Reminder: Critique Group will be held at the Shreve Memorial Library-Broadmoor Branch on Saturday, October 20, 2018.
Filed under Uncategorized
Shreveport Writers Club September Meeting
The Shreveport Writers Club met for their September meeting on Saturday, September 8 at Shreve Memorial Library’s Broadmoor Branch.
After greeting visitors, the monthly “Making a Mark” awards were handed out to members who submitted or had work accepted for publication. Receiving a “Making a Mark” award this month were Rob Hudgens, Tiffany Pennywell and John Brizzi. Rob received the award for having his first piece of fiction accepted for publication. Tiffany earned her pen by self-publishing her second book of poetry and John for starting a new blog. Congratulations to everyone.
The group then moved on to the Flash Writing Exercise. Members and guests were invited to write for ten minutes on several provided prompts or to write on any topic they chose. Several of the group shared their writing afterward.
Ken Shively shares on the topic he chose “I Shouldn’t Have Opened My Mouth” after the Flash Writing Exercise.
After a brief business discussion, President Tiffany Pennywell introduced the Guest Speaker, Caddo Parish Poet Laureate Ashley Havird.
Havird is an award-winning novelist and poet. She spoke to the group about her writing process and the discovery of “self” within her poetry and longer fiction writing endeavors.
Havird shared several new poems with the group. She then opened up the floor for an informative and lively question/answer and discussion session.
Members discuss writing and the writing process with havird.
In the Round Robin portion of the meeting, several group members shared examples of their recent works or works-in-progress.
For the latest news and information about the club, please like and follow this page. Find us on Facebook at Shreveport Writers Club public group, on Instagram at shreveportwritersclub and on Twitter@shrevewriters
Members and guests pose with Havird
The next Shreveport Writers Club Critique group will be at Shreve Memorial Library Broadmoor Branch on Saturday, September 22 from 10am to 12 pm.
Filed under Uncategorized
Shreveport Writers Club August Meeting
The Shreveport Writers Club August 2018 meeting was held at the Shreve Memorial Library Broadmoor Branch on August 4th.
President Tiffany Pennywell led the meeting, which began with the greeting and welcoming of visitors.
Next, writers who had submitted their work within the last month were recognized with “Making the Mark Awards.” Rob Hudgens and Loretta Casteen claimed their prize pens.
The writers then participated in the Flash Writing Exercise. Each person was tasked with ten minutes of writing on one of these topics:
- Memorable moment at a funeral
- Lost patience
- I thought I would hate it, but…
- Desperate measures
- Open topic
Next, came the business discussion. Dues were explained ($20/year) and the club heard suggestions on speakers for future meetings and participating in events. Loretta Casteen was nominated by Tiffany Pennywell for the vacant secretary position. The motion of nomination was seconded by Jim Freeman. The motion carried by voice vote.
In the discussion portion of the meeting, members discussed the importance of social media for marketing. Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and more were emphasized for their usefulness in connecting writers with their audience.
Rounding out the meeting was the “Round Robin.” Several members shared finished work and works-in-progress.
Note: The next Critique Group will be held at the Shreve Memorial Library–Broadmoor Branch on Saturday, August 18 from 10 am to 12 pm. Members are encouraged to bring work to share, or to simply participate in discussing others’ work constructively.
Filed under Uncategorized
Shreveport Writers Club July Meeting
In July we held our Shreveport Writers Club Meeting at Rick’s Records. There, Rick gave us a pep talk about how to follow our dreams as writers. He also told us not to listen to other critics or even our own negative thoughts when it came to our writing. Rick also shared his experiences with publishing traditionally and self-publishing. We want to thank Rick for sharing his space and, wisdom and experience with the group.
We also want to give a shout out to a couple of members who gave readings at the Agora Borealis this month. They did a great job and I hope they continue sharing their work.
On August 4th, Saturday, we will be meeting at the Broadmoor Library. From 10am-12pm, come out to work on flash writing, have a discussion with us and share some of the work you’ve been focusing on.
We will also be giving an update on the secretarial position.
Visitors are always welcomed and remember to “Write on!”.
Filed under Uncategorized
