We may have started the year late but we started it in style with a wonderful February meeting where everyone participated, everyone had something to say, and everyone learned something. Carolyn Martin’s talk was such a success we’ve asked her to return in November, so if you missed this one, make sure you don’t miss the next one! Continue reading Writers Mill Minutes 201702
December’s meeting was more sparsely attended than usual due to snow and ice, but we still had 13 people celebrating the achievements of 2016 and setting goals for 2017. Some of those goals were goals for our future meetings, so feel free to email your opinions to SheilaD at Portlandwritersmill dot org too add your voice to our plans. This is YOUR group and these are YOUR meetings! We aim to please – and to be “writers helping writers.” Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes 201612
18 members attended November’s meeting, where Ron and Sheila gave a joint talk on the art of giving and taking in critique (see below), copies of the journal were handed out (email Sheila if you’ve not received yours), orders were taken for Zeus and Bo and Fred and Joe and Co (email Sheila if you still want to order it), and Jean led a fascinating discussion (also below) as we critiqued Patty’s prolog. Plus we had one new member, another Ron! Welcome! Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes 201611
Nearly 20 members, plus a few guests, were at the Cedar Mill library on Sunday September 18th to listen to Brian Doyle’s presentation on writing. We had an amazing, wonderful time, and I shall do my best to make sense of my notes at the end of these minutes. Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes 201609
You may remember Jim Stewart, poet, short story writer, novelist, musician and more from our May meeting. He returned for a much-anticipated second visit in August, where he invited and answered questions on editing poetry and how to make words count. Around 16 members of the Writers’ Mill braved the heat to attend. Notes on the questions and answers will follow these minutes. Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes 201608
With thanks to Karin and Judy…
WRITERS’ MILL MINUTES
13 writers attended the Writers’ Mill meeting with Wildfire Writer Christi Krug. As Sheila was vacationing in England, Norm had the honor of chairing the meeting. The inspirational talk and writing exercises provided by Christi were followed by Robin’s delicious snacks. After the break Judy handed out the writing awards on behalf of Jean for the July contest. Thereafter Lavonna led the critique of the second part of Matthew’s story as well as Robin’s story. Continue reading Minutes 201607
22 writers, including several new members, left their homes on Father’s Day afternoon to attend a Writers’ Mill meeting with local author Ken Baysinger. A fun, inspirational and informative talk was followed by delicious gluten-free snacks from Jean, writerly awards from Karin for the monthly contest, and a fun all-hands-on-deck critique of Matthew’s story. By the end it was clear lots of us could have stayed longer than the usual 2 hours. But the room would be needed for other events, so we finished at 3 and planned to return next month, July 17th, for more inspiration from Wildfire Writer Christie Krug. Continue reading Minutes 201606
21 members attended May’s meeting and listened to an excellent discussion on all things writing, led by poet, short story writer and novelist Jim Stewart. Jim has generously agreed to a return engagement to lead a poetry workshop for us soon. We really appreciated meeting with him, and notes from his talk will be included in a separate post. Continue reading Minutes 201605
Nearly twenty people gave up two hours of a sunny Sunday afternoon to attend April’s Writers’ Mill meeting and hear the talk from Steve Theme. Of those, many were able to buy copies of his book, and we hope you’ll remember to post reviews when you’ve read it. Steve would like you to know he’s happy to be contacted with questions at any time via the “contact form” on his website: http://stevetheme.com/contact/ Continue reading Minutes 201604
Sorry to be so late posting this.
Nearly twenty people attended February’s Writers’ Mill meeting, including several new members who have hopefully now been added to our email list. Don’t forget, as a member of the Writers’ Mill, you each have a writerly email address of the form NameI@portlandwritersmill.org where Name is your first name and I is the first letter of your last.
As the clipboard was passed around, we learned that Continue reading Minutes 201602