Last night, despite the rain, I made it to my writers group. It was the first time I went to a meeting since before the Little Miss was born, meaning since mid-summer. I was a bit surprised at how many new faces I saw there, but perhaps I shouldn’t have been; it is a good…
I belong to a few writing critique groups and find them to be incredibly valuable. In fact, I’d wish I’d joined some of these groups before I sold a story. It might have taken me less than 14 years to make that first sale. On the chance that you’ve never been involved in a critique…
Tonight, at the Arlington Writers Group, we are doing an exercise on “beginnings”. The idea is for each person to read the opening page or so of a novel and then the group will discuss why it does or does not work. Being a science fiction writer, I am wont to choose a good science…
Best-selling fantasy novelist and fellow Arlington Writers Group member Michael J. Sullivan said to me and writer and group member, Jess Stork this evening: “I expect to see blog posts from both of you tomorrow morning.” This said, after a number of beers were consumed by all in the fabulous outdoor atmosphere of the Northside…
For the second time since joining the Arlington Writers Group back at the end of August 2010, a story of mine was critiqued during the group last night. The story I submitted for critique was a science fiction mystery that I like quite a bit, but that has been rejected just about everywhere I sent…
On January 12, I will be giving a talk on science fiction for members of the Arlington Writers Group. This is the first time I’ll be doing something like this and I am both excited and nervous about it. We critique stories every other week. On the alternate weeks, we have some kind of discussion…
I mentioned my Wednesday night writer’s group in the previous post, so I thought I should discuss that briefly. Tonight will be the 6th meeting I’ve attended of the Arlington Writers Group and the group will be critiquing a story of mine called “In the Cloud”. I discovered this group through another writing colleague, Larry…