Nov 15th Meeting

Although participation was sparse at this meeting, Carol La Valley and Marsha Ward had a lot of fun talking about writing techniques, and then going to eat.

Our next meeting will take place on December 6. Please check the Meeting Schedule page above for future meeting dates, as rumor has it that our facilitator is contemplating discontinuing further email notifications.

Meetings cancelled, calendar these:

Due to too many other conflicts, our October meetings did not take place. We look forward, however, to seeing each other again in November, on the 1st and 15th. Please put those dates on your calendars.

July 5 Meeting

Today's meeting will include critiques and a writing assignment. Come with your writing tools and sense of adventure!

More Changes

Not only have we moved the days of the month and the location for getting together, at the last meeting we voted to move the hour to 1 p.m., and extend the meeting from 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours long.

That means we now meet on the first and third Thursdays of each month, at Good Samaritan Society's Majestic Rim Senior Apartments in the private dining room accessed to the left off the main dining area, at 1 p.m., and we'll be there until 3 p.m.

Our memoir writer will talk about his adventures upon coming into the world of writers from a non-writer's perspective. This should be very enlightening. See you on June 21st at 1 p.m.

May Meetings

We had a lovely meeting on May 10, with a few members present who haven't been able to attend for a while. We missed others who couldn't come, but a good time was had by all.

T. read another of his pithy memoir segments, and Marsha shared a short scene from her Work-in-Progress, Spinster's Folly. Then Carol B. gave a very useful lesson on Interviewing. We all interview people in life: car salesmen, politicians, prospective dates. Why not learn techniques to help us gain the information we need to find out what makes our characters tick, or our sampling soar? Thank you, Carol, for the tips.

Our next meeting is at 12:30 p.m. on May 24 at the same location. Ce Ce will tell us why reading is so valuable to us, not only as members of the human family, but as writers. If you have a manuscript to be critiqued, bring several copies of up to three pages of double-spaced work.

See you there!

Today's Meeting

We had a lovely meeting today. Six people attended, plus sweet little Jessica, Jamie's daughter. Bettie was the only one who worked on the assignment, which she shared with us. Her honest style of writing is intriguing.

We discussed each person's current writing project, and four of us read work. Andy read a class assignment dealing with dialog, Chaya read parts of her FINISHED NOVEL (HURRAH!), Marsha read a scene she wrote last night, and Jamie read a blog post.

Our next meeting is on April 28 at 12:30 p.m. at East-West Exchange, 100 N. Tonto St. Bring six copies of up to three pages of your latest work to receive editing suggestions. Please join us.

Welcome to Rim Country Writers

by Marsha Ward

Since I became the leader/mentor/general factotum of Rim Country Writers a few months ago, I've been working to increase attendance and find a meeting time that would fit most schedules. Although it's not perfect for everyone, those who attended our last two meetings agreed that Thursday afternoons at 12:30 were workable. Then they asked if we could meet twice a month, as we used to do. Okay. The site could accommodate us for that.

The upshot of this is that our meetings are held on the second and fourth Thursdays from 12:30 to 2 p.m. at East West Exchange, a bookstore, coffee shop, and gift shop at 100 N. Tonto (just off Longhorn), which also sponsors a variety of classes and events.

Next Thursday, we are to bring an assignment to read. Write about the time when you knew you were a writer. If I'm not mistaken, this can be up to 1000 words long, but if you write poetry, don't feel obliged to do an epic work. ;-)

But what IS Rim Country Writers, you ask. Will I fit in? Are there dues? Do I need an MFA to attend? Am I welcome to drop in and check you out?

The answer are: Probably, No, No, and Most Assuredly. If you like to write (in any form or genre), need encouragement and helpful critiques, and want to hang out with some really great folks, Rim Country Writers is probably the right place for you. We don't have dues. We don't have a charter or heavily structured organization, and we aren't snooty. Well, maybe I am, but I disguise it well. Just kidding! We like people and we like to write in all sorts of forms and genres, including poetry, essays, journalism, travel writing, novels, and how-to books.

We hope to see you on the 14th.