Rudy Shur has talked with many authors and writing groups in his long career. He’s learned that lots of authors get ripped off by people they thought were going to help. And he points out, the book world is a rather large marketplace—it can be hard to know who will really help.
Continue reading Rudy Shur on PublishingLast year, someone recommended that Sheila create a template file that could be used for subsequent anthologies, so she did. It’s a Word Doc rather than a template, and she included (chapters of) instructions on how to use it, in hopes that perhaps someone will take over from her and “use” it next year! The template should also be helpful for anyone who hopes to self-publish their work in a 6×9 inch book.
Continue reading Book TemplateWe’d all love our readers to fall into our writing and not know how to get out. Walt showed a great graphic to entice us. But how do we get there?
Continue reading Help your reader get lost in your book, with Walt SochaHilary trained in book publishing at PSU, which is the only such program on the West coast. Others in the US are in NYC. Hilary focused on agents and acquisitions but was open to any questions on publishing.
Continue reading Agents, Editors and Publishers with Hilary and Alan DeethEric Witchey is a well published author all around the world, and a well respected writing teacher – definitely a writer helping writers! Find him at https://ericwitchey.com/index.html
Continue reading Character Emotion and Word Choice with Eric WitcheyCarolyn Martin (https://carolynmartinpoet.com/) presented a wonderful hybrid workshop at our hybrid meeting on April 21 2024. The meeting was recorded and can be watched at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83Iq4hT0DJA (submissions) followed by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGL4rVOHbR0 (settings)
Continue reading Submissions and Settings with Carolyn MartinWith thanks to all the members who offered advice, questions, comments and more, most people present learned something during our “efficient use of Word” meeting, so now we just have to try not to forget it all. To that end, Sheila has added (she hopes) everyone’s suggestions to the file she was working from, and uploaded the file in DOCX and PDF format to our website.
Efficient Use of WORD, word doc: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/The-Efficient-Use-of-WORD.docx
Efficient Use of WORD, PDF: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/The-Efficient-Use-of-WORD.pdf
If you want to know what we did at the meeting, and if you want to use WORD more efficiently, please follow the links and download the files. Then you’ll be able to follow through all the actions and add to your own skillset.
Maryka Biaggio is a Portland author of several published historical fiction novels.
Ron introduced Maryka and stated that he had enjoyed reading her novel, The Model Spy. Her topic today concerned “telling lies”to flesh out historical fiction when actual facts are not readily available. She began by saying, however, that the “lies” must be believable, fitting into known history of the period. Background research is necessary, and there is nothing that throws off a reader more than finding an “oops”—words, dialog, events, etc.—that do not fit in with historical truth.
Continue reading Historical Fiction with Maryka BiaggioMollie 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 2023