| VWC E-Nunciator Newsgram |
| April 12, 2013 |
| Letter from the President |
| Hello everyone, I am honored to write my first president’s message for VWC E-nunciator. Please let me start by thanking June Forte for her leadership over the past couple of years. She’s left me with big shoes to fill -and many cool ideas on how to take our club to the next step. In December 2012, several members of the executive committee (Chuck Lumpkin, Linda Layne. Sara Robinson, June Forte and I) met to talk about what we need to do to drive our club ahead. We came up with a series of initiatives, which we immediately broke into committees. Yes, you guessed it. We need volunteers. Our committees are Communications (messaging, standardized look and feel, and standardized messaging for each chapter), Membership (fee analysis, retention analysis, chapter development, fee structure for affiliates/corporations, and membership category analysis), Web Site (affiliate/corporate marketing, calendar expansion, content editing, design evolution), Symposium (enrollment, annual theme, speaker acquisition, registration, registration table). We have several volunteers already but we need more. And we need some committee leaders, too. You don’t have to be a member of the Board of Governors to be either a task or committee leader. You have to be willing to volunteer to help out. Please raise your hands. We need everyone involved. Oh yes. We have one more committee that is totally empty. VWC will turn 100 in five years. We need to begin planning NOW to have a year-long series of events. Who can help??? Thanks again for entrusting leadership of the club to me. I will work my darnedest to live up to your expectations. Betsy Ashton |
| 2013 VWC Golden Nib Writing Contest |
| DEADLINE: Each chapter has their own deadline. Check with your local chapter to get details. Chapters need to submit their finalists' entries by SEPTEMBER 3 for the state competition. Entries are now being accepted at the VWC Chapter level for our annual Golden Nib Writing Contest. VWC members need to submit entries to the Chapter closest to where they live. Top finalists from the Chapter level contests will be forwarded for judging at the state level in September with winners to be announced at the VWC Annual Meeting & Awards Banquet on Saturday, November 2. ENTRY RULES & GUIDELINES ___________________________________________________________ 2013 VWC Summer Short Shorts Writing Contest
DEADLINE: June 30, 2013
Categories
Fiction - A short story not to exceed 1,200 words Non-fiction - A personal essay not to exceed 1,200 words Poetry - Any form not to exceed 30 lines
NOTE: Only members of the VWC who have paid their membership dues for 2013 may enter the contest.
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| Announcements from the VWC Regional Chapters | ||
| Appalachian Authors Guild Chapter
1.
Committee participation in the Appalachian Heritage Writers Symposium,
Southwest Virginia Community College, Richlands, Virginia, June 14 and
15, 2013. Keynote speaker will be Bob Inman, novelist, screenwriter, and
playwright. He is the author or four novels, seven screenplays with six
for motion pictures for television.
2. We are cooperating with a local bookstore owner, Bubbas, staffing an AAG/writer's information booth in the main auditorium and mini workshops on a variety of topics in break out rooms. Open to the public at Fun Fest, Sunday, July 14 at the Kingsport, VA Civic Center, noon to 6:00 PM 3. We will have a double booth at the Virginia Highlands Festival August 2 - 11.
Blue Ridge Writers Chapter
Accolades: We’ve just concluded two successful programs in the annual Virginia Festival of the Book, "The Magic of Words" and "Getting It Together: The Process and Power of Anthologies." Special thanks to all who helped in any way to ensure the success of these two programs. I’m quite proud of our accomplishments. We also achieved success in the publication of our fourth anthology, thanks to Linda Layne, the publisher; Gary Kessler, the volume editor; and all chapter members and others whose work fills the Anthology. We are off to a good start in promoting and selling the Anthology; sixteen copies were sold at "The Magic of Words." Future Meetings (1) Chapter member Deborah Prum and her sister Susan Lanterman, also a writer, will be guest speakers at our May 22nd meeting. (2) To further our commitment to promote and sell the 2013 Anthology, several additional member readings have been scheduled for May. Both of these events will be evening meetings. The May 1st reading will provide the program for the Friends of the Fluvanna County Library annual evening event. The second May reading will take place May 30th, when we will participate in the Jefferson-Madison Library’s Regional Authors Series. (3) Our June 26th monthly meeting again will be focused on readings from the Anthology. Additional readings will be scheduled later in the year. New Writing Contest - The Blue Ridge Writers Chapter "Winter Writing Contest" will be reinstated. This contest will take place in November - December 2013.
Dinner Meeting - Wednesday, April 17th, 2013 -
Brickwood Grill in Gloucester (formerly Goodfellas). (Open to the
public on a space available basis) Advanced Reservations required. Mail
payment by 4/10/13 (Members at $20/person; Nonmembers & Guests at
$25). Cash Bar 5:30PM, Dinner at 6PM, Program at 7PM, Adjournment at
about 8PM. TOPIC: "The Novel Idea - Before & After." SPEAKER: Greg
Lilly, author of Sunsets and Semicolons: A Field Guide to the Writer's Life. More details at: http://www.chesapeakebaywriters.org/PressRoom.htm
The
Hanover Writers Chapter is resurrecting the Hanover Book Festival and
is now in the planning process. The event will be the 2nd Saturday of
August at the Liberty School Activity Center in Mechanicsville, VA. To
find more details or to participate or be a sponsor, visit www.hanoverbookfestival.com.
In the meantime, our meetings continue to be held on the 3rd Tuesday of
each month at 6:30 PM at the Eastern Hanover Fire Station #3 in
Mechanicsville. Our April speaker is Web Designer Jason Jacobs.
Northern Virginia Writers Club The Northern Virginia Writers Club has enjoyed several interesting programs this year. Members Matt Iden, Karen Cantwell and Misha Crews discussed self-publishing in January and will give another presentation on "Marketing Your Digital Book" in April; Matt Watier discussed freelance art with an emphasis on artist/writer collaboration in February; and, club president Dorothy Hassan gave a seminar on dialogue in March. In May, member Art Taylor will provide a four-hour workshop on character and plot. Art is a fiction writer, book critic, assistant professor of English at George Mason University, and marketing director for the Fall for the Book Festival. A survey of our members was conducted by Vice President Karen Cantwell to find out what brought our members to the club and what they wanted the club to offer them, particularly in terms of programs. The most frequently requested programs were: digital publishing, publishers and agents as speakers, and craft workshops. Richmond Chapter VWC Next meeting: Saturday, April 20, 2013 10:00 – 12:30. “Getting Your Book or Manuscript Ready for Self-Publishing or Traditional Publishing” presented by 40-year publishing industry veteran, David H. Morgan. Free and open to the public. Gayton Baptist Church, 13501 North Gayton Rd., Richmond, VA. Riverside Writers Next meeting: Saturday, May 11, 2013 1 PM. Speaker: Distinguished Poet, Dr. Barry Amis. Salem Church Library, Spotsylvania County. Barry D. Amis is the Vice President of the Poetry Society of Virginia for the Northern Region. He is a Philadelphian and has degrees from Penn State, the University of Pennsylvania, Middlebury College, and Michigan State. He was professor of American and African American literature at Michigan State University and Purdue University. He was also a Fulbright professor of American Studies in France, Madagascar, Cameroon, and Niger. He lectured and conducted workshops for the United States Information Agency in more than two dozen countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. His poetry has appeared in a variety of journals and his volume Dust of the Ground is expected to come out later this year. Accolades: Larry Turner was chosen as featured poet in the upcoming newsletter of the Illinois State Poetry Society and his poem "Uncle Sam's Niece" was accepted for the April Voices on the Wind; for Jim Gaines, his short story translated from Alphonse Daudet, "The Lighthouse on Bloody Shoals" appeared in the April issue of The Arts and Entertainment Magazine and his poems "Dreaming in Right Field" (Baseball Bard, March), "The Mix" (The Weekly Avocet online 3/13/13), "The Path to Avalanche Lake" (Spring number of hardcover Avocet), "Memorial Day," "Valentine's Day," and "The Orphan's Birthday" (the latter three in April issue of Voices on the Wind) also appeared recently. Valley Writers Chapter Write by the Rails Chapter _____________________________________________________________ OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS April 13, 2013 - Fredericksburg, VA. 11th Annual Poetry Festival presented by the Riverside Writers Chapter VWC. April 27, 2013 - Staunton, VA. "Downtown is for Book Lovers" block party with regional authors and local bookstores. Organized by VWC member, Clifford Garstang. May 2, 2013 - Charlottesville, VA. "Writing and Marketing Popular Fiction" author's workshop. Presenters: VWC Member-Andy Straka with Jenny Gardiner, Michael Green, David Moody and Carl Briggs. 2014 VA Festival of the Book - Author Participant Applications available end of May with a FIRM October 1 deadline. Virginia Literary Journal - featuring works by Virginia writers, photographers and illustrators with a Virginia setting or theme. Now accepting submissions thru August 1, 2013. Published by VWC member, Cedar Creek Publishing. The Arts & Entertainment Magazine & The Eerie Digest - online publication for college students and educational professionals. Providing career insights thru feature stories, interviews of authors and Hollywood celebrities, book reviews, and more. See "Spotlight" section to read featured interviews. Free. Published 1st and 15th of each month. Advertise your book! Published by VWC member, Joseph J. O'Donnell. Nearest Poem Anthology - your nearest and dearest memory of a poem is wanted for this special project of the Poet Laureate of Virginia, Sofia M. Starnes (VWC member). Deadline June 30, 2013. |
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Contact: Linda Layne, VWC Executive Director, VWCMail@aol.com
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