Next Meeting: September 10, 2011

Sherri Browning Erwin: Monster Mashups

 

When Quirk Books editor Jason Rekulak contacted writer Seth Grahame-Smith with a new idea for a book, adding monsters to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, he could not have known that he was inspiring a whole new genre in fiction: the literary mash-up. New York Times bestselling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is often considered the first of the literary mash-ups, but it is hardly definitive of the genre. Many new authors are approaching classics with new twists and spins, retelling favorite stories in new ways, often with comedic and paranormal elements, but not always with the irreverence and cheek of Seth Grahame-Smith. Sherri Browning Erwin’s take on Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, with Jane as a vampyre slayer (Jane Slayre, Gallery Books, 2010), has “raised the bar for monster classics” according to Library Journal. In her workshop, Sherri explains the literary mash-up, her writing process, and how you could end up writing with your favorite long-dead author.

A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Sherri Browning Erwin writes historical and contemporary fiction with a paranormal twist. To date, her only appearance in the New York Times has been a mention in a cartoon lampooning her literary mash-up, JANE SLAYRE. She recently moved with her family from Massachusetts to Connecticut, where she is at work on multiple projects, including the promotion of her newest literary mash-up, GRAVE EXPECTATIONS. Please visit Sherri’s website at www.sherribrowningerwin.com or join her on Facebook or Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/SherriBrowningErwin and @SherriErwin.

Upcoming Meetings

September 10, 2011

October 1, 2011

November 5, 2011 – Mini conference

December 3, 2011

January 7, 2012

February 4, 2012

March 3, 2012

April 14, 2012

May 5, 2012

June 2, 2012

 

Next Meeting: June 4, 2011

Patricia Grasso: Plotting with Panache

Boring beginnings?   Sagging middles?   Flat endings?
Both plotters and pantsers need well-structured stories.  Plotting with panache—a dashing style of confidence, flamboyance, courage—will cure what ails your story.  Learn the plotting secrets that will keep readers turning pages and prevent reviewers from using deadly adjectives—boring, sagging, flat—to describe your masterpiece.

Patricia Grasso is the author of eighteen historical romances that have won various awards:  National Readers’ choice Award, New England Readers’ Choice Award, Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice and KISS Awards as well as B. Dalton and Bookrak Awards for best-selling first time author. A dog person who lives with ten cats, Patricia lives in the Boston area.  She earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at a state college and, for too many years, used her “leisure” time to teach in a public high school.

Next Meeting: May 7, 2011

Jo Ann Ferguson: Revision Ramifications

You’ve woven your story tightly. Now you need to revise it – either for yourself or for an editor/agent. What pitfalls do you need to avoid? How do you stay excited about the manuscript when you have to go through it yet again? How do you keep one small change from rippling out and changing your whole story…or should you go with the flow? Let’s talk about the good, the bad, and the really annoying aspects of revising a completed ms.

Award-winning author Jo Ann Ferguson has a split writing personality. As Jo Ann Ferguson, she launched the Regency line at ImaJinn as well as being the author of best-selling historicals. J.A. Ferguson writes paranormals for ImaJinn. Jocelyn Kelley’s next title is Time Raiders: The Greek Lover from Harlequin Nocturne and will be released in July 2011. Jo Ann Brown writes for Guideposts Books (her second title in the Patchwork Mysteries series, Secret in the Stitches, was be released March 2011). Her 80+ titles are also published by Tudor, Ballantine, Zebra, Harper, Penguin, Warner, and Thorndike. The books have been translated into almost a dozen languages and sold on every continent except Antarctica.

Upcoming Meetings

Please note: From March to June, meetings will be held in the Seminar Room at the Cumberland Library not the Community Room. The Seminar Room is on the first floor.

June 4, 2011: Patricia Grasso “Plotting with Panache”

Next Meeting: April 2, 2011

What’s Holding You Back? Fifteen Common Errors Made By Aspiring Writers

Data dumping, point-of-view and blocking—oh my! Are you starting in the right place? Do you understand the basic rules of point of view? Is your story not quite making the grade with agents or editors? It could be that you’re making one or more of the 15 most common errors new and aspiring writers often encounter. Join multi-published author and frequent contest judge Marie Force as she leads you through the fifteen common errors and helps you apply the lessons to your work in progress.

Marie Force is the award-winning, bestselling author of three contemporaries: Line of Scrimmage, Love at First Flight and Everyone Loves a Hero. Love at First Flight recently reached no. 5 on the Kindle bestseller list and her two self-published contemporaries, True North and The Fall, have reached numbers 12 and 52 respectively on Kindle’s contemporary bestseller list. She is also the author of the Fatal books, a romantic suspense series set in Washington, D.C.,  from Harlequin’s Carina Press. Fatal Affair and Fatal Justice will be joined later this year by Fatal Consequences and Fatal Destiny with Fatal Flaw coming early next year. Marie has been married to her husband Dan for more than 18 years and is the mother of two children, a daughter, 15, and a son, 12. The family resides in Portsmouth, RI, with their 15-month-old wild-child dog (and Facebook star) Brandy. Read more about Marie at www.mariesullivanforce.com and reach her at marie@marieforce.com.

Upcoming Meetings

Please note: From March to June, meetings will be held in the Seminar Room at the Cumberland Library not the Community Room. The Seminar Room is on the first floor.

May 7, 2011: Jo Ann Ferguson “Revision Ramifications”

June 4, 2011: Patricia Grasso “Plotting with Panache”

Meeting Room Change

Meetings from March to June, 2011 will be in the Seminar Room at the Cumberland Public Library, rather than the Community Room where we have been meeting. The Seminar Room is on the first floor just below the Community Room.

Next Meeting: March 5, 2011

Putting the History in the Historical

Whether history is a backdrop to your story or the focus of the story itself, this workshop will provide you with the tools to find the facts you need, organize the data in a functional manner, and merge that data seamlessly into your novel. Discover the level of historical data to include as a function of a particular writing goal. Learn the definition of historical markers and how and where to unearth them. And uncover the tools to integrate history, research and the fiction plot arc. Most of all, find out how to honor verisimilitude-the goal of any historical writing-and avoid the dreaded anachronism.

Donna Russo Morin is an award winning author of historical fiction for Kensington Books. Her first novel, The Courtier’s Secret, released in February of 2009, was a National Readers’ Choice Award Finalist and the winner of RWI-RWA’s Best First Book. Book Illuminations chose her second novel, The Secret of the Glass, as an Outstanding Pick for 2010. Her latest release (Feb. 1, 2011) is To Serve a King, a story of intrigue, murder, passion and betrayal at the courts of Francois I and Henry VIII. A graduate of the University of Rhode Island, Donna worked for years as a freelance journalist with more than eighty articles and book reviews published in newspapers and magazines nationwide. Her short horror fiction has been published in critically acclaimed anthologies and she conducts workshops and speaking engagements throughout the northeast.

Upcoming Meetings

Please note: From March to June, meetings will be held in the Seminar Room at the Cumberland Library not the Community Room. The Seminar Room is on the first floor.

April 2, 2011: Marie Force “What’s Holding You Back? Fifteen Common Errors Made By Aspiring Writers”

May 7, 2011: Jo Ann Ferguson “Revision Ramifications”

June 4, 2011: Patricia Grasso “Plotting with Panache”

Next Meeting: February 5, 2011

Tax Tips for Writers and Writing as a Business

Speaker, Ben Aceto, CPA

Whether you’re published or unpublished, keeping track of expenses is an important part of your tax return preparation.  Ben will give you tips on what you can claim and some ways to stay organized, including a simple spreadsheet that your tax preparer will love.

He’ll also discuss different ways to make writing a “business” once you hit the big time.  Should you become an LLC?  Should you incorporate?  Ben will explain what these alternatives entail and how they can save you tax money when you’re raking in the big bucks.

Ben Aceto has been a CPA for 37 years.  He spent 10 years with the CPA firm Ward Fisher, then moved to the private sector as a controller and CFO.  In 2000 he started his own firm, Aceto & Associates, now located in North Providence.  Aside from personal and business tax returns, the practice focuses on advising small businesses toward growth and offers a full line of bookkeeping and payroll services.

Upcoming Meetings

Please note: From March to June, meetings will be held in the Seminar Room at the Cumberland Library not the Community Room. The Seminar Room is on the first floor.

March 5, 2011: Donna Russo Morin “Putting the History in the Historical”

April 2, 2011: Nina Pierce “Writing Short”

May 7, 2011: Jo Ann Ferguson

June 4, 2011: Patricia Grasso “Plotting with Panache”

Next meeting: January 8, 2011

Round Table Discussion: eBooks, eReaders and the Future of the Book
Facilitated by Terri Kennedy

Bring that new eReader you got for Christmas and join the discussion about eBooks and eReaders and what they mean for the future of publishing. Is the book dead? Are libraries obsolete? Will writers ever again be able to quit the day job and earn a living writing novels? Digitization is revolutionizing the publishing and bookselling industries. What does it mean to authors and readers like us? Do you see doom and gloom or golden opportunity?

Terri Kennedy is the Technical Services Librarian for the Yarmouth Town Library. She recently attended a day-long webinar sponsored by Library Journal titled eBooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point.

Upcoming Meetings

February 5, 2011: TBA

March 5, 2011: Donna Russo Morin “Putting the History in the Historical”

April 2, 2011: Nina Pierce “Writing Short”

May 7, 2011: Jo Anne Ferguson

June 4, 2011: TBA

Next Meeting December 4, 2010: Brainstorm Session Moderated by Jeanine Spikes

Brainstorming.  Two or more grey matter clouds bounce thought energy off each other until creative thunder shoots a bolt of an idea toward the page.

At some point in your writing career, you’re likely to run into a snag in your work-in-progress.  Whether it’s at the beginning, where you can’t decide the hero’s career, or in the middle sag when you aren’t sure if the best path for the heroine is A or B, or you’ve reached the end and need to decide how best to wrap it up – any of these scenarios could be helped by brainstorming through it.

Some writers use their critique partners for brainstorming.  Others might have specific brainstorming buddies.  Still others might turn to their beta readers for help, or a trusted friend or their spouse.  Regardless of where you find it, the act of brainstorming can stir up your creative juices and give you more ideas than you know what to do with.  And one of the most wonderful moments is when you help yourself by helping someone else.

So come to our group brainstorming session.  Bring your snags and your grey matter and join the fun!

Jeanine Spikes is a ‘graduate’ of the Maine RWA Annual Retreat Brainstorming Sessions and frequent contributor to their brainstorming loop, where it’s said she is acquiring a fan base.

Upcoming Meetings:

January 8, 2011: eReader Round Table

February 5, 2011: TBA

March 5, 2011: Donna Russo Morin “Researching the Historical Novel”

April 2, 2011: Nina Pierce “Writing Short”

May 7, 2011: Jo Anne Ferguson

June 4, 2011: TBA

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