The Writing Life
Explore creative writing in a relaxed and inviting atmosphere. Through writing exercises and critiques, participants will try out their poetic and story-telling voices. The instructor is prepared to tailor the course according to participants' individual interest - her focus is on clarifying for each individual writer in the course what living the writing life means.
This class is not being offered for the summer session. If interested in taking it in the future, please call 804-261-6200. We will advise you when the next class will be offered.
NEW! The Writing Life II
Instructor: Lee Bloxom
This course will feature writing exercises and discussions on the writing life. It may be taken as a continuation of the first session, but attendance at the first session is not required.
This class is not being offered for the summer session. If interested in taking it in the future, please call 804-261-6200. We will advise you when the next class will be offered.
NEW! The Basics of Fiction
A day of discussion and writing exercises with a focus on the elements of fiction, including plot, character, dialogue, detail and point of view. Participants will end the day with plenty of new material for potential stories, as well as a better understanding of the elements that pull a story together.
This class is not being offered for the summer session. If interested in taking it in the future, please call 804-261-6200. We will advise you when the next class will be offered.
NEW! Creative Nonfiction: Writing from Life
Writing from factual experience, nonfiction writers use story-telling and poetic techniques that leave readers hungry for more. Through discussion and writing exercises, participants will leave the workshop with a better understanding of creative nonfiction and with new material for their own work.
This class is not being offered for the summer session. If interested in taking it in the future, please call 804-261-6200. We will advise you when the next class will be offered.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Writing Op from Louise Dumont
Dear Christians Who Write:
Louise has spoken to our group several times in the last few years.
Dear Colleagues
My latest WIP is tentatively titled, *If a Tux Could Talk: The Men Who Help Plan Their Weddings, and the Women Who Love Them For It*. For this project I will need newlyweds, and soon-to-be brides and grooms to fill out my questionnaire. I am particularly looking for humorous, poignant and unusual ways in which you or your groom participated in planning the wedding. I would also like to know how and when husbands began taking on the role of spiritual leader of the household -- the more detailed and descriptive the anecdotes the better.
Please pass this invitation on to other applicable persons.
Brief Book Description:
Today's groom is not afraid to order quiche tartlets for his reception or display a daisy boutonniere on his tux. Most couples are footing more than a third of their own wedding bill. Grooms both want and need to participate in the decision-making. If a Tux Could Talk: The Men Who Help Plan Their Weddings, and the Women Who Love Them For It reflects the changing role of a groom. Unlike many other groom guides, this book also addresses a young man's Godly desire to become the spiritual leader of the home, even as he values the talents and strengths of his bride.
More information can be found at the North Jersey Christian Writers Group blog. You may also email me about it at louisedumont@gmail.com.
Louise Bergmann DuMont
http://www.louisedumont.com/
Louise has spoken to our group several times in the last few years.
Dear Colleagues
My latest WIP is tentatively titled, *If a Tux Could Talk: The Men Who Help Plan Their Weddings, and the Women Who Love Them For It*. For this project I will need newlyweds, and soon-to-be brides and grooms to fill out my questionnaire. I am particularly looking for humorous, poignant and unusual ways in which you or your groom participated in planning the wedding. I would also like to know how and when husbands began taking on the role of spiritual leader of the household -- the more detailed and descriptive the anecdotes the better.
Please pass this invitation on to other applicable persons.
Brief Book Description:
Today's groom is not afraid to order quiche tartlets for his reception or display a daisy boutonniere on his tux. Most couples are footing more than a third of their own wedding bill. Grooms both want and need to participate in the decision-making. If a Tux Could Talk: The Men Who Help Plan Their Weddings, and the Women Who Love Them For It reflects the changing role of a groom. Unlike many other groom guides, this book also addresses a young man's Godly desire to become the spiritual leader of the home, even as he values the talents and strengths of his bride.
More information can be found at the North Jersey Christian Writers Group blog. You may also email me about it at louisedumont@gmail.com.
Louise Bergmann DuMont
http://www.louisedumont.com/
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Share your old books
Dear Christians Who Write:
Here is a pass-along from mary moss. One word of caution, if you join either of these programs be certain all personal information is removed from the books or magazines you share. As a former jail chaplian I know of cases where inmates (and other undesireables) made personal contact with individuals circumventing the channel set up by the organization supporting the project. I am not saying this will happen, but i am saying remove all personal information that could lead someone back to you as a participant. I have not checked out any of this info.
<<
Books for Soldiers is an organization that allows military personnel to make requests in an online forum, for books they would like to have. Books can be sent directly to them. Because items are being sent to military personnel, a notarized application is required and must be mailed to address provided prior to your making a donation. A bit of work, but a worthy cause.
Books Behind Bars is a regularly updated site the posts requests from prison libraries. Needs range from law dictionaries to Spanish-language novels. Looks like a pretty straight-forward process.
We're getting ready to purge our library at home and at church and I think it's rather timely that I came across information on these two sites in a magazine this afternoon.
Mary Moss
Divinely Designed
http://www.momprays.com/
for devotions
http://www.divinelydesigned.etsy.com/
for hand crafted decorative items
Here is a pass-along from mary moss. One word of caution, if you join either of these programs be certain all personal information is removed from the books or magazines you share. As a former jail chaplian I know of cases where inmates (and other undesireables) made personal contact with individuals circumventing the channel set up by the organization supporting the project. I am not saying this will happen, but i am saying remove all personal information that could lead someone back to you as a participant. I have not checked out any of this info.
<<
Books for Soldiers is an organization that allows military personnel to make requests in an online forum, for books they would like to have. Books can be sent directly to them. Because items are being sent to military personnel, a notarized application is required and must be mailed to address provided prior to your making a donation. A bit of work, but a worthy cause.
Books Behind Bars is a regularly updated site the posts requests from prison libraries. Needs range from law dictionaries to Spanish-language novels. Looks like a pretty straight-forward process.
We're getting ready to purge our library at home and at church and I think it's rather timely that I came across information on these two sites in a magazine this afternoon.
Mary Moss
Divinely Designed
http://www.momprays.com/
for devotions
http://www.divinelydesigned.etsy.com/
for hand crafted decorative items
Monday, June 05, 2006
Three Writing Opportunities
I have permission to share these writing ops with RCWW members. If you have questions contact Charlotte Holt: cjholt@kingwoodcable.net
<< Three Writing Opportunities:
Trusting Him for Life After Divorce - a compilation of 1500 word testimonies. The stories should reflect the faithfulness, mercy, love, compassion and power of God through and after divorce. Tell your story for His glory! Help others in their time of heartache.
Trusting Him With Your Addicted Child - a compilation of 1500 word testimonies. Stories of parents with former, or presently, addicted children. Show how God sustained or sustains you. Let's encourage other parents in this situation with our own victories by God's power.
Deadline for the above two is August 15.
Keeping your Cool In the Midst of Medical Madness - a compilation of 2500 word stories by patients and health care providers. Tell your story of 'Medical Madness'.
Show how you kept your witness, good name, integrity, and peace in a hair-raising story of medical attention (or inattention). Let's encourage others to maintain, or adopt, a Christian witness in these stressful times.
The deadline is December 20, 2006.
For all submission, write in Times New Roman 12 and double space.
If your story is used, you will receive a book + discounts when the book is published. For further information, please contact Charlotte Holt at cjholt@kingwoodcable.net. For more information regarding Charlotte go to www.publishedauthors.net/charlotteholt.
Publishers are looking at proposals for these books. Please send you stories.
Thanks,
Charlotte Holt >>
<< Three Writing Opportunities:
Trusting Him for Life After Divorce - a compilation of 1500 word testimonies. The stories should reflect the faithfulness, mercy, love, compassion and power of God through and after divorce. Tell your story for His glory! Help others in their time of heartache.
Trusting Him With Your Addicted Child - a compilation of 1500 word testimonies. Stories of parents with former, or presently, addicted children. Show how God sustained or sustains you. Let's encourage other parents in this situation with our own victories by God's power.
Deadline for the above two is August 15.
Keeping your Cool In the Midst of Medical Madness - a compilation of 2500 word stories by patients and health care providers. Tell your story of 'Medical Madness'.
Show how you kept your witness, good name, integrity, and peace in a hair-raising story of medical attention (or inattention). Let's encourage others to maintain, or adopt, a Christian witness in these stressful times.
The deadline is December 20, 2006.
For all submission, write in Times New Roman 12 and double space.
If your story is used, you will receive a book + discounts when the book is published. For further information, please contact Charlotte Holt at cjholt@kingwoodcable.net. For more information regarding Charlotte go to www.publishedauthors.net/charlotteholt.
Publishers are looking at proposals for these books. Please send you stories.
Thanks,
Charlotte Holt >>
June Meeting Notice: Reply Requested
Richmond Christians Who Write
"Write the vision, and make it plain..." Hab. 2:2
12114 Walnut Hill Drive, Rockville, Virginia 23146
Telephone:
804-749-4050
FAX 804-749-4939
E-mail: RichmondCWW@aol.com
Blog: http://rcww.blogspot.com
Rev. Thomas C. Lacy
Founder - President
Barbara Baranowski
Membership
Marie Corso
Advisor
Michael Rew
Blog Master
June 3, 2006
Dear Christians Who Write:
NOTE: We will meet on the second Sunday to avoid meeting Father's Day, June 18th.
ALSO NOTE: Due to my error, the May Meeting Notice did not go out to the e-mail list, therefore, I am repeating the program I had planned for May.
June Meeting
Our next meeting will be June 11th, 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Grove Avenue Baptist Church. NOTE: Enter the church through the rear entrance closest to the Parham Road side of the building. Upon entering, look for the elevator on your left. Go to the 2nd floor. Turn right when getting off the elevator, go to the end of the hall, turn right, go to the first door on the left past the water cooler.
At last, I've found a kind of poetry I can write. Follow the instructions below and bring your best effort to read and discuss at our June meeting.
(This idea is from Tami Filbrant's article "Cultural Identity" in POTATO HILL POETRY, Vol. 4, No. 4.)
Notice how the poet eloquently evokes her culture, her roots, her experiences through vivid sensory imagery. Try your had at a vivid poem showing where YOU are from, in every sense of the word: geographically, physically (your family), emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.
Think of childhood memories of tastes, smells, sounds, colors, textures -- think of the people in your life and their favorite sayings, of special toys and animals in your life, of family stories, of special friends and secrets, of vacations and holidays, of school, of games and songs, etc. Let your vivid specifics create a sense of the whole of your life, the whole of YOU.
Example:
WHERE I'M FROM
I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride,
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening, it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush
the Dutch elm
whose long-gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.
I'm from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair
I'm from the know-it-alls
and pass-it-ons,
from Perk up! and Pipe down!
I'm from He restoreth my soul
with a cotton ball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself
I'm from Artemus and Billies' Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the anger,
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments--
snapped before I budded--
leaf-fall from the family tree.
- George Ella Lyon
I've already done mine. It was confusing at first, but then when it begins to flow it is hard to bring to a close. It has been deemed by some my best piece of writing. I'm looking forward to hearing what you write.
Planning Committee Meeting June 17th
Over the past couple of years I've called on a few RCWW members for suggestions and to help me with planning programs and meetings. We will be meting on June 17th. If you have suggestions for meetings, speakers, workshops or conferences, please let me hear from you. I am especially interested in getting your views on a fall writers conference as mentioned below.
2006 Meeting Schedule
July 16, August 20, September 17, October 13-14 RCWW, November 19.
Normal Monthly Meeting Schedule
2:00-2:15 Sign In and Fellowship
2:15 Opening Prayer
2:15-2:45 Introductions and Announcements
2:45-3:45 Speaker or Workshop
3:45-4:00 Refreshments and Fellowship
4:00-4:55 Critique (Bring 20 copies, typed, double spaced)
4:55-5:00 Closing Prayer
Writing Conferences
NOTE: I am repeating the following from a previous Meeting Notice because no one gave me feedback. In one sense of the word, no answer is an answer. If you are not interested in RCWW holding an annual weekend writers conference, please take a moment to say, "Not interested." If you would like to see RCWW hold an annual writers conference, please take a moment to say, "Yes, I'm interested."
Our planning committee will be meeting June 17th. We need feedback to set our agenda.
Thank you.
In my March meeting notice I asked you to look for my letter about local writing conferences. (Sorry, but I didn't think it would take me this long to get back to you.) American Christian Writers (ACW), of which we are a chapter, has come to Richmond for the last seven years because of RCWW. This year the numbers were way down. Next year they will not come back to Richmond. Like any business, they have to make a profit to stay in business.
RCWW has held 4 fall conferences. We did not hold one in 2005 because the last two were not well attended. But I know conferences are vital to writers. And I know they are expensive to hold and expensive to attend.
A small local conference cannot afford to bring in top authors, editors, publishers and agents. So local conferences tend to be writing workshops focusing on learning the craft. We have locals wo are qualified to teach writing workshops, and I have called on the ones I know, and they have done a great job. But these local conferences have not been well attended. Even so, I have set aside the weekend of October 13-14 this year and October 19-20 in 2007 for holding conferences. I need your help in planning.
What features would you like included? What workshops would benefit you the most? Do you know local instructors, authors, editors and publishers I could contact? What would you be willing to do to help?
Obviously, I need prompt feed back. Let me hear from you soon.
Write-to-Publish Conference, June 7-10, 2006
Details: www.writetopublish.com
Sandy Cove Christian Writers' Conference, October 1-4, 2006
Details: www.sandycovewriters.com
Dues and Mailing Lists
Dues, in the amount of $20.00, are payable January through June and $10.00 July through December. They may be paid at our monthly meetings or mailed to: Richmond Christians Who Write, 12114 Walnut Hill Drive, Rockville, VA 23146.
Check out our Blog! See you on June 11th. Bring a friend!
Tom Lacy
"Write the vision, and make it plain..." Hab. 2:2
12114 Walnut Hill Drive, Rockville, Virginia 23146
Telephone:
804-749-4050
FAX 804-749-4939
E-mail: RichmondCWW@aol.com
Blog: http://rcww.blogspot.com
Rev. Thomas C. Lacy
Founder - President
Barbara Baranowski
Membership
Marie Corso
Advisor
Michael Rew
Blog Master
June 3, 2006
Dear Christians Who Write:
NOTE: We will meet on the second Sunday to avoid meeting Father's Day, June 18th.
ALSO NOTE: Due to my error, the May Meeting Notice did not go out to the e-mail list, therefore, I am repeating the program I had planned for May.
June Meeting
Our next meeting will be June 11th, 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Grove Avenue Baptist Church. NOTE: Enter the church through the rear entrance closest to the Parham Road side of the building. Upon entering, look for the elevator on your left. Go to the 2nd floor. Turn right when getting off the elevator, go to the end of the hall, turn right, go to the first door on the left past the water cooler.
At last, I've found a kind of poetry I can write. Follow the instructions below and bring your best effort to read and discuss at our June meeting.
(This idea is from Tami Filbrant's article "Cultural Identity" in POTATO HILL POETRY, Vol. 4, No. 4.)
Notice how the poet eloquently evokes her culture, her roots, her experiences through vivid sensory imagery. Try your had at a vivid poem showing where YOU are from, in every sense of the word: geographically, physically (your family), emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.
Think of childhood memories of tastes, smells, sounds, colors, textures -- think of the people in your life and their favorite sayings, of special toys and animals in your life, of family stories, of special friends and secrets, of vacations and holidays, of school, of games and songs, etc. Let your vivid specifics create a sense of the whole of your life, the whole of YOU.
Example:
WHERE I'M FROM
I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride,
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening, it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush
the Dutch elm
whose long-gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.
I'm from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair
I'm from the know-it-alls
and pass-it-ons,
from Perk up! and Pipe down!
I'm from He restoreth my soul
with a cotton ball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself
I'm from Artemus and Billies' Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the anger,
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments--
snapped before I budded--
leaf-fall from the family tree.
- George Ella Lyon
I've already done mine. It was confusing at first, but then when it begins to flow it is hard to bring to a close. It has been deemed by some my best piece of writing. I'm looking forward to hearing what you write.
Planning Committee Meeting June 17th
Over the past couple of years I've called on a few RCWW members for suggestions and to help me with planning programs and meetings. We will be meting on June 17th. If you have suggestions for meetings, speakers, workshops or conferences, please let me hear from you. I am especially interested in getting your views on a fall writers conference as mentioned below.
2006 Meeting Schedule
July 16, August 20, September 17, October 13-14 RCWW, November 19.
Normal Monthly Meeting Schedule
2:00-2:15 Sign In and Fellowship
2:15 Opening Prayer
2:15-2:45 Introductions and Announcements
2:45-3:45 Speaker or Workshop
3:45-4:00 Refreshments and Fellowship
4:00-4:55 Critique (Bring 20 copies, typed, double spaced)
4:55-5:00 Closing Prayer
Writing Conferences
NOTE: I am repeating the following from a previous Meeting Notice because no one gave me feedback. In one sense of the word, no answer is an answer. If you are not interested in RCWW holding an annual weekend writers conference, please take a moment to say, "Not interested." If you would like to see RCWW hold an annual writers conference, please take a moment to say, "Yes, I'm interested."
Our planning committee will be meeting June 17th. We need feedback to set our agenda.
Thank you.
In my March meeting notice I asked you to look for my letter about local writing conferences. (Sorry, but I didn't think it would take me this long to get back to you.) American Christian Writers (ACW), of which we are a chapter, has come to Richmond for the last seven years because of RCWW. This year the numbers were way down. Next year they will not come back to Richmond. Like any business, they have to make a profit to stay in business.
RCWW has held 4 fall conferences. We did not hold one in 2005 because the last two were not well attended. But I know conferences are vital to writers. And I know they are expensive to hold and expensive to attend.
A small local conference cannot afford to bring in top authors, editors, publishers and agents. So local conferences tend to be writing workshops focusing on learning the craft. We have locals wo are qualified to teach writing workshops, and I have called on the ones I know, and they have done a great job. But these local conferences have not been well attended. Even so, I have set aside the weekend of October 13-14 this year and October 19-20 in 2007 for holding conferences. I need your help in planning.
What features would you like included? What workshops would benefit you the most? Do you know local instructors, authors, editors and publishers I could contact? What would you be willing to do to help?
Obviously, I need prompt feed back. Let me hear from you soon.
Write-to-Publish Conference, June 7-10, 2006
Details: www.writetopublish.com
Sandy Cove Christian Writers' Conference, October 1-4, 2006
Details: www.sandycovewriters.com
Dues and Mailing Lists
Dues, in the amount of $20.00, are payable January through June and $10.00 July through December. They may be paid at our monthly meetings or mailed to: Richmond Christians Who Write, 12114 Walnut Hill Drive, Rockville, VA 23146.
Check out our Blog! See you on June 11th. Bring a friend!
Tom Lacy
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