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 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.) During COVID, we’ve been meeting via ZOOM. We’ll post what will happen in Sept. 2021 as soon as we know.
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: October 1, 2022
12:30 (via ZOOM)
L’Michelle Bleu L’Eau & L.K. Blair
Book Trailers – An Introduction
This brief introductory workshop highlights the process of how to design a story trailer. We’ll discuss the story board concept, how to search for images to put into PowerPoint slides. We’ll also look at crafting a trailer script and how to search for the right music.
When searching for a way to bring her storytelling to life, L’Michelle (aka Lynda) discovered book trailers. After releasing two trailers for the Transcendent Authors’ Spring—The Unexpected anthology and desiring to enhance the detail of her story trailers, Lynda partnered with a web designer and fellow author of the Transcendent Authors, Lyn Blair. Lyn shared web software to add to the depth Lynda wanted for her visual stories.
This spring working with Lyn, Lynda consulted during the development of the Transcendent Authors’ website and consulted on their Spring anthology book cover. Impressed with their work, the two partnered, creating L&L. In partnership, their joint body of work for the Transcendent Authors is the Winter anthology book cover and trailer recently released. In addition, the group contracted them to create ten individual teasers for weekly email promotion as part of marketing the anthology’s release in October 2022.
L’Michelle has taught several authors her process of creating trailers for their stories. At the conclusion of the session, students receive a copy of her Trailer Tip sheet as a guide. L’Michelle and her design partner L.K. Blair are also available for individual consultations.
Author bio: RIRW Member L’Michelle Bleu L’Eau is an emerging storyteller who formerly authored book reviews in The Eagle View Press, and now writes flash fiction, and short stories leaning into her ancestral lineage and traditions. A human or social issue that affects their life shapes her protagonists. L’Michelle takes her affinity for nature, in its purest form, to align characters and natural elements and guides them through a transformative denouement.
She wrote her first short story “The Blooming Box,” which was published as part of the 2021 The Write Practice 10th Anniversary writing contest. L’Michelle has published her short stories in Transcendent Authors’ publication Spring—The Unexpected, and in The 2022 Write Practice spring writing contest. She has contributed two short stories to the upcoming release of Winter—An End and a Promise.
Her latest projects include working with her editor on revisions to her upcoming novel, about finding voice, cultural, and ethnic acceptance after domestic violence. L’Michelle is also working on an edited version of her late mother’s handwritten memoir.
She lives on the East Coast. You can visit her website at michellebleuleau.com.
RIRW meetings start at 12:30, with workshops starting after that (c. 1:30). Non-members who want to check us out, just email via https://www.rirw.org/officers/ and we’ll send you a link.
Upcoming Meetings:
1 October
5 November
10 December (ARIA Expo Dec. 3)
7 January 2023
3-5 February 2023 (Retreat)
4 March 2023
1 April 2023
6 May 2023
3 June 2023