Our librarian Christine set up the zoom and room, and we had 19 members in total at October’s meeting – 6 in person and 13 online. Sheila started the meeting by reminding in-person attendees to face the microphone when speaking and avoid talking among themselves. Online attendees were reminded to switch on captions and use speaker view, especially to watch our speaker, David Porter, during his talk. David asked if the talk was being recorded, but we can’t record without setting it up before the meeting, and letting everyone know. Maybe it’s something we should think about doing more often—what do you think?

Ezine

Michael Fryer announced results from our October “Why Me?” contest—all great submissions which can be read in October’s ezine: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/oct-2023-ezine-contest-page/oct-2023-entries-voting-page/  

• FIRST place, with most votes goes to Elizabeth Maggio for “A Touching Compromise”
• SECOND place goes to Max White for “Death in Mosier”
• THIRD place gets to be a TIE between Peter Letts for “Whynot the Robot” and Judy Beaston for “The Best Dishwasher Loader”

OTHER ENTRIES were:

• A Wonderful Surprise sent in by Jessie Collins
• How Did You Celebrate Your 30^th Birthday? Sent in by Dian Hillard
• Just Change Course sent in by Judy Beaston
• Little Joe’s Blue Collar sent in by Sheila Deeth
• When the Whole World Wonders Why! Sent in by Lyndsay Docherty
• You Can’t Set German Shepherds on Fire Tonight sent in by Gary Romans

UPCOMING EZINE TOPICS:

These all have 1200 word limits (but fewer words is great—challenge yourself to write a 6-word story!). Any genre, just don’t try to offend. And send your entries to contest @ portlandwritersmill . org (remove spaces!). Deadlines are always the end of the 1^st Sunday in the month (and meetings are on the 3^rd Sundays).

• NOVEMBER – deadline is Sunday, November 5^th
  • THEME: Pushing Past Barriers, Host is Clayton M. Davis
  • Suggestions:
    • When in your life have you hit a wall and decided to push past it? How did you overcome it?
    • OR maybe you decided to not even try and turned back around?
  • How to enter:
    • As always, 1200 words or less / Essay, Fiction or Poetry
    • SEND to Contest@PortlandWritersMill.Org
    • Attached doc or docx file preferred, will accept PDF and if needed, or you may paste it into the body of the email.
• DECEMBER – deadline is Sunday, December 3^rd
  • THEME: The Last Time I Was In…, Host is Elizabeth Maggio
• JANUARY 2024 – deadline is Sunday, January 7^th
  • THEME: Euphoria
  • Note—this month also contains an optional challenge
• VISIT the UPCOMING CONTESTS page for further details: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/upcoming-contests/

Writing a Family Mystery (Fact or Fiction?) with David Porter

David Porter is a much-valued member of our group who wrote regularly for our monthly contests, provided wonderful images for our anthologies, often writing for them too, but more recently took “time off” to work on his family history novel. He spoke with us just over a year ago, and we were delighted to welcome him back with an update on what he’s writing, why, how, and what decisions the writing makes him ponder. Find notes from his talk at: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/20/fulfilling-that-writing-commitment-david-porter-oct-15-2023/

Anthology News

Sheila announced that the anthology is progressing well. The absolute deadline for any additions or changes (potential images, permissions for images, revised versions of submissions, etc.) is the end of Sunday Oct 22. But PLEASE get your changes to her sooner so we can move forward more easily.

At present, images are included in the master file with annotations in black if the author has requested or approved the image, in blue if the author has said they like the image but it’s okay not to include it, and in red if the image is entirely optional.

The anthology will be uploaded to Amazon at our next meeting, November 19^th.

NaNoWriMo News

Just a reminder, Nanowrimo at our local libraries include:

• Thursday, October 26^th at 6:30pm: Plotting a Story Roadmap at the Bethany Library
• Saturday, October 28^th from 2-3pm: NaNoWriMo Kickoff event at BCLM
• Wednesday, November 1^st at 6:00pm: Write-in at CML
• Thursday, November 2^nd at 6:30pm: World Building Workshop at CML
• Saturday, November 4^th from 10:30-12:30: Write-in at Garden Home Library
• Thursday, November 9^th at 6:30pm: Romance Workshop at Bethany Library
• Tuesday, November 14^th from 5-7: Write-in at BCLM
• Saturday, November 18^th from 2:30-4:30: Write-in at BCLM
• Sunday, November 19^th from 1-3pm: Writers’ Mill Meeting and Self-Publishing Workshop at CML
• Saturday, November 25^th from 10:30-12:30: Write-in at the Garden Home Library

More info at https://library.cedarmill.org. This is your chance to get that novel started and/or finished, or just hang out with lots of writers.

Jean reminded us to visit Second Edition, next to the library, where we can purchase wonderful things including framed photographs by Jean (Sheila bought one straight after the meeting). Proceeds support the library.

Then Sheila closed the meeting with a reminder to sign up for emails if you’re not already receiving them. If you have a writing friend who isn’t getting the emails, please help them sign up!

Happy Writing!