There were only three attendees in the library meeting room this month – perhaps not surprising given the recent weather. Many thanks to Christine for setting up there, and to Matthew for being in charge. Meanwhile we had ten members online – a smaller meeting than usual, but a lively one! We celebrated achievements of 2023 and discussed our goals, both personal and group goals, for 2024.
Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes 20240121Click the genres that interest you most. Leave a comment if you want us to add more genres to the list.
Please add further suggestions in the comments and I will add them to the poll. (If you can’t see a place for comments, click on the header “Topics for 2024” then keep scrolling down to find it.)
Let’s make this our best year ever!
Fourteen people joined us for December’s Writers’ Mill meeting – a smaller number than usual, but perhaps everyone’s busy this time of year. Seven attended in person at the library and seven online. I promise I’ve tried to take good minutes for those members who were absent and the ones who couldn’t hear the speaker online. Unfortunately, sound and room setup are complicated for hybrid meetings, but we’re glad you’re all persevering!
Mollie Hunt was a wonderful speaker, and we all had a great time. In person, we were able to share in the Book Exchange and to buy some of Mollie’s books. Online members exchanged book recommendations which will be included in these minutes.
Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes Dec 17 2023Mollie Hunt currently has around 16 published titles: 11 mysteries in two cozy series, 1 standalone novel, 3 science fiction novels, 1 memoir, and 1 book of poetry! A common theme in her books is cats because…
Continue reading Cats on the Keyboard, with Mollie Hunt, Dec 17th 20239 in-person and 11 online attendees were present to see the upload of this year’s anthology to Amazon. We were delighted to welcome new NaNoWriMo participants, and very much hope they might join us at future meetings too. If you’ve not already signed up for our newsletters, please go to the SignUp page on the portlandwritersmill.org website and follow the instructions there. (You’ll get the instructions in an email from admin @ portlandwritersmill . org, so make sure you flag those emails as “not spam” when they arrive.)
Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes, Nov 19th 2023Sheila had a PowerPoint presentation prepared to guide us through the upload of this year’s anthology, but Zoom and PowerPoint both crashed. Fearing the computer might crash next, she proceeded to give the talk off the cuff instead. By the end of the following day, our latest anthology was on sale at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNPQ2F92/. Get your copies soon, before the price goes up!
Continue reading How to Upload your Book to Amazon, from Sheila’s talk, Nov 19th 2023Our 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?
Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes, Oct 15, 2023David Porter started writing bad poetry at age 12 and soon progressed to good. In 1968 he was at PSU and was already being published. In the ’70s and ’80s he wrote freelance articles, poems, and short stories, getting published in the Oregon magazine and NW magazine (inside the Oregonian). Meanwhile he wrote grant proposals, newsletters, presentations, etc for nonprofits for 40 years. He’s even written Beaver Board Historical Markers! Plus many book reviews.
Continue reading Fulfilling That Writing Commitment: David Porter, Oct 15, 2023Twelve participants attended online, and three were present in the library meeting room, for a total of fifteen. Zita Podany led the meeting in Sheila Deeth’s absence. Christine Wong managed the technology from the library, with assistance from Matthew McAyeal who coordinated the Zoom chat with library attendees. Jean Harkin took Minutes. We welcomed new attendees, Julia Hardy and Andrew Kim.
Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes Sunday September 17th 2023