Category Archives: Writing
Carolyn Martin Workshop July 2021
Carolyn Martin’s Workshop: “It Happens This Way”:
Before diving into the actively creative part of the workshop, Carolyn reminded us that fallow time—a time to rest, reflect, read, collect—is also valuable for the poetic brain. Like seeds in fallow soil, more bountiful production will emerge. Resting prepares for creativity.
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WRITERS’ MILL MEETING
July 18, 2021
Minutes with thanks to Jean Harkin
Attendance: 16 via Zoom (thanks to Laura Baca at Cedar Mill Library). Laura announced this will be her last meeting as library host with Writers’ Mill. She introduced Jennifer Keyser, who will be her replacement for a while. The group applauded and thanked Laura for her valuable assistance to Writers’ Mill during the last few years.
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May’s meeting was well attended, and we delighted in the mix of new and old members, prompting discussions of how we will meet when real-world attendance becomes possible again. Laura assures us the library is planning to set things up so distant members can continue to attend by Zoom. Like many other library groups, we look forward to welcoming back those who couldn’t Zoom, and continuing to welcome those who’ve joined us because of Zoom. Watch this space…
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If you weren’t one of the 18 people at April’s meeting, you missed a lively and informative discussion, followed by a lively and informative critique. But you probably enjoyed the Sunday sunshine, so it’s all good!
Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes 202104Mystery Writing Workshop with Cindy Brown May 21st2021
Cindy Brown is the author of some wonderfully titles mysteries, Macdeath, The Sound of Murder, Oliver Twisted, Ivy Get Your Gun, The Phantom of Oz, Killalot, … She’s been writing professionally for 20 years, starting with playwriting (hence her interest in the relationship between plot and dramatic structure), then screenwriting, and then… She fell in love with mysteries as a child – loved Nancy Drew, was introduced to John D MacDonald, and finally started reading Sue Grafton and decided she wanted to write like her, especially as her books are set on the West Coast! So… here’s how she led us in understanding more about genre, character and plot.
Continue reading Mystery Writing Workshop with Cindy Brown May 21st2021Writers Mill Minutes 202103
Members from around the world and from around Cedar Mill met together for Cindy Brown’s mystery writing workshop in March, and Sheila did her best to take good minutes for those who couldn’t make it. Apologies to those who had problems with the email link – in general, if a link doesn’t work, you need to cut the whole link – or, as one member put it, the whole set of gobbledygook letters and numbers – and paste it into your browser. Judy has kindly offered to field requests for help if anyone has problems with the link at future meetings, thus freeing Sheila to continue to take minutes, so please remember: If you can’t cut and paste the whole link, email Judy for assistance!
The Story of a Bilingual Picture Book in a Time of Covid, from Jim Mockford’s talk, 02/21/21
Sheila met Jim Mockford at a Willamette Writers’ virtual coffee morning, and was fascinated by all the ways he was planning to advertise his book, so she and Jean invited him to speak to us and were delighted when he accepted. We were even more delighted when he joined our group as a new member a few months back!
Continue reading The Story of a Bilingual Picture Book in a Time of Covid, from Jim Mockford’s talk, 02/21/21Writers’ Mill Minutes 202102
Writers’ Mill Minutes Feb 21st 2021
We tried out a new Zoom meeting format this month, with a ten-minute snack-and-get-to-know-you break in the middle, to emulate those delicious snack breaks we used to have in real life. Matthew reminded us that this was the one-year anniversary of our last real-world meeting, so a good date for reinstituting snacks. Also we have lots of knew people who we’d love to get to know. In fact, we had so many members at the meeting, there were too many for a single Zoom screen for while! A great achievement, and we hope you all enjoyed the meeting.
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With several new members, we started our meeting by reminding everyone of who we are: the Writers’ Mill, writers helping writers, meeting on the 3rd Sunday of every month. We all agree that our librarian is fantastic and Zoom is wonderful (if occasionally challenging). And maybe one day there’ll be mixed real-and-virtual meetings—it’s a dream, but please be thinking about how it might work. And on the subject of dreams… we run monthly contests online for which this month’s topic was dreams. Von announced the results, and you should have already received them from our contest coordinator, unless you’re a new member (in which case I’ve only just added you to the list):
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