With eleven in-person and twelve online attendees, plus an excellent speaker, February’s Writers’ Mill meeting was a thoroughly enjoyable and informative occasion. We opened with contest results from Michael while waiting for stragglers to arrive, and Februarys Winter Days contest produced lots of great entries—if you’ve not read them yet, go to https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/february-2023-contest-page/feb-2023-entries-voting-page/ and catch up on your free monthly magazine. March’s magazine will arrive on March 6th, at which point you’ll be invited to read, comment, and vote—and be writers helping writers!
Contests
Michael announced the results of the Winter Days contest:
- FIRST – Judy Beaston for “We Met On a Winter Day”
- SECOND – Mary Baylor for “Above the Snow”
- THIRD – Lyndsay Docherty for her poem “Silver Linings”
Other participants and their entries (in entry-alphabetical order) were:
- A Story About Arrows by Sheila Deeth
- A Winter Morning (poem) by Judy Beaston
- Goodnight Winter (poem) by Jean Harkin
- See You Next Fall by Robin Layne
- Sunshine in the Eternal Winter by Matthew McAyeal
- Two Viewpoints (poem) by Jessie Collins
- Why? by Peter Letts
- Winter by Jenny Anton
- Winter 2020 – Snowbound by Zita Podany
- Words About Snow by Gary Romans
Upcoming contests
Contests all have 1,200 word limits, and no genre restrictions (just try not to offend). The deadline is always the end of the first Sunday of the month, precisely two weeks before the next meeting, which is on the third Sunday of the month. Send entries to contest @ portlandwritersmill . org (remove spaces!). Easiest for us is if you send a .doc or .docx file. (Uploading all those entries is a time-consuming task, for which we thank our contest coordinator, Judy.)
- March:
- THEME: Take the Other Road
- HOST: Gary Romans.
- NOTES: In homage to Poet Frost, it’s not the road less traveled, nor the easiest, nor the hardest, just the “Other”. The small fairly inconsequential decision that resulted in a major life moment.
- MORE INFORMATION and sparks for writing found on the contest page: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/march-2023-contest-page/
- April:
- THEME: “Please, sir, I want some more” (from Oliver Twist)
- HOST: Gary Romans
- NOTES: Focus is on Food
- MORE INFORMATION on the upcoming contests page: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/upcoming-contests/
- May:
- THEME: Soundtracks of Life
- HOST: Mary Baylor
- NOTES: Challenge Month—the optional challenge: Sensory Rich – Weave sensory details into whatever you are inspired to compose in response to the theme.
You might need the password to read the contest pages. It’s in your emails!
Presentation
Cindy Brown (https://www.cindybrownwriter.com/), author of the highly acclaimed Ivy Meadows Murder Mysteries, was our speaker this month. She last visited us in May 2021—https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/16/mystery-writing-workshop-with-cindy-brown-may-21st2021/. She’s the author of some wonderfully titled mysteries, Macdeath, The Sound of Murder, Oliver Twisted, Ivy Get Your Gun, The Phantom of Oz, and Killalot, and she’s been writing professionally for 20 years, starting with playwriting, then screenwriting, (hence today’s topic, perhaps), then mystery novels. We were thrilled to have her back… and even more thrilled when she said she might be willing to come again next year! Thank you Cindy.
Notes from Cindy’s Talk can be found at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/21/what-novelists-can-learn-from-the-movies-presentation-by-cindy-brown-2023-02-19/
Website and Critiques
Sheila closed the meeting by introducing new (and old) members to our website. She went through the various pages, which you’ll find listed in the green line near the top of our website. If you’re using a phone, click on the three lines to get a long (very long) list of pages and subpages:
Website
- Signup: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/newsletter/ If you’re inviting someone to join us, remember to tell them they will have to follow ALL the instructions in order to be properly signed up to receive newsletters, links, contest info and minutes.
- About Us: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/about-us/ This page gives (not necessarily up to date) information about the history of our group.
- Contact Us: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contact-us/ is where you’ll find email addresses for contest entries, critique groups, admin, etc.
- Help: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/help-2/, or better, look at the drop-down sub-menu to find lots of helpful info – how to use the website, how to use Word, how to upload books to Amazon, etc.
- Schedule: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/schedule/
- Contest: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/ Again, look at the drop-down sub-menus to find links to contests, contest entries, tables of winners, etc.
- Critique: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/critique/ a place where you can post something to get it critiqued by the group. Please read Robin’s chapter which is posted there now, and leave some comments for her.
- Links: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/links/ includes a link to our Facebook group.
- Books: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/books/ gives you the link to our page on Amazon
- Library: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/library/ contains a list of books that have been donated to us. Find the email address for our librarian on the Contact Us page.
Critiques
We have four opportunities to give and receive feedback and critique on our writing.
- Through comments on our contests – these vary from very short comments to seriously helpful analysis. Just go to any of our recent contest entries. You don’t have to enter the contest to leave a comment (and vote). And you don’t have to be a writing expert. Just help your fellow writers and read, comment, and vote when you get the contest link.
- If what you’re writing doesn’t fit a contest prompt, but you’d like some similar feedback, you can post it on our critiques page https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/critique/ where Robin’s latest chapter can be found. Read the instructions at the top of the page. It’s not complicated.
- Then there are critique groups. Contact groups @
portlandwritersmill .org to get connected with a group. We currently have two:
- One has around six members, with very different interests and styles, who just happen to be good friends with each other. We’re very casual and we meet weekly, chat a lot, and when someone has something to look at we give (what I’ve found to be) very helpful feedback.
- The other has two or three members and meets less frequently, but with, perhaps, a more serious commitment to having something ready for every meeting.
- There’s certainly an argument for having critique groups geared toward single genres, and if someone wants to volunteer to start one, we’d love to hear from you.
- The fourth method is one that we try to include in meetings as often as we can. This is group critique (as opposed to a critique group). Contact critiques @ portlandwritersmill . org (remove spaces) to set up a date for your critique. Sheila will send out the piece for critique shortly before the meeting so everyone can read it. The author often gives us some questions for readers to address. Sheila sometimes includes other questions. Then a critique leader (VOLUNTEER PLEASE!) leads a conversation around the piece, trying to include all the critique questions. The author generally stays quiet during the discussion, so they can concentrate on making notes. This gives you an idea of how random readers react to what you’ve written, rather than how they react to what you’re saying. At the end, the author gets five minutes to respond and ask further questions.
Volunteers
Our group is run entirely by volunteers, with support from the library. At present, we need more volunteers to lead critiques, and more authors to volunteer to have their writing critiqued. Reply to this email or (better) contact critiques @ portlandwritersmill . org. Thank you.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting will be on March 19th. We plan to include everyone in a discussion of how we get our writing “out there” (which, we’ll see, doesn’t just mean getting a book published), and what happens when we try to get our writing out there. If you have any questions you’d like to make sure are included, reply to this email. Sheila is compiling a list of “frequently” and occasionally asked questions, including:
- How long is a book?
- How do you find a publisher/agent/contest/anthology?
- How do you sell a book/zine/picture-poem? Etc.
So… be there or miss out on a great discussion. Last time we did this we all gained surprising and valuable insights from each other.