RIRW exists to promote excellence in women’s and popular fiction, to help writers become published and build careers in their writing field, and to provide continuing support for writers within the women’s and popular fiction publishing industry. Formed in 1983 as a Romance Writers of America chapter, we disaffiliated in 1988. We are an independent, nonprofit organization in Rhode Island.
We welcome everyone, without regard to race, color, national origin, disability, religion, cultural identity, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, physical appearance, or any other identity distinction. Furthermore, we recognize that because racism, homophobia, and other forms of bias are systemic in our national culture, people from marginalized communities continue to be denied advancement in our industry. RIRW strives to address this by raising awareness within our membership and increasing our efforts to attract members from a variety of backgrounds to enrich our community of writers.
If you are serious about writing popular fiction, we invite you to join us!
We meet from September to June on the first Saturday of the month in the Hayden Center at the Cumberland Public Library in Cumberland, Rhode Island. (Because of holidays and/or activities at the library, the date or venue may change. We will announce changes here.)
12:30 p.m. General Meeting
1:30 p.m. Workshop/Speaker
We welcome Visitors. (We would appreciate a $2.00 donation at the door.) Visitors may attend up to two meetings before they need to join.
Check us out on our public Facebook page (click here!)
Next Meeting: May 1st, 12:30 (ZOOM)
Jane K. Cleland: Overcoming Writer’s Block
Find Your Inner Muse: Your internal critic feeds on your own self-doubt, anxieties, and fears. To quiet her, you must starve her out. Our internal editor is a different voice from the one that misdirects our energy by demeaning our efforts. The internal editor is smart and savvy and helps us improve our work. The internal critic shuts down creativity and mocks our editorial eye. In this speech, Jane shares practical strategies to address the three reasons writers feel blocked: fear of failure, fear of success, and perfectionism.
Jane K. Cleland writes the multiple award-winning and bestselling Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries. Her short stories are published by Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. She’s also written the bestselling and Agatha Award-winning how-to books, Mastering Plot Twists and Mastering Suspense, Structure & Plot, both from Writer’s Digest Books.
In addition, Jane provides a free series of monthly webinars on the craft for writing hosted online and created a writing podcast called Honors Class. She is also a Contributing Editor for Writer’s Digest Magazine and chairs the Wolfe Pack’s Black Orchid Novella Award, in partnership with AHMM.
Jane has an MFA (in professional and creative writing) and an MBA (in marketing and management). Jane is a lecturer at Lehman College where she is also the director of the Program for Professional Communications, and a frequent workshop facilitator and guest author at writing conferences and university programs.
For more on Jane, visit www.janecleland.com.
RIRW meetings start at 12:30, with workshops starting after that (c. 1:30)
Upcoming Meetings:
1 May
5 June
Summer break
11 September (Labor Day 6 Sept.)
2 October
6 November
4 December (ARIA Expo 11 Dec, change from usual)