Who we are:

Whether you’re just learning the writing craft, spending much of your time working on a literary project, or writing for a living, you’re a perfect fit for our group.

We are a not-for-profit writers’ group dedicated to providing networking opportunities, feedback, education, and motivational support to our members. With a few exceptions, we meet every fourth Saturday of the month. The business meetings start at 9:00 (members only) and the presentations begin around 10:15. The annual cost to members is $30, which defrays speaker fees and other expenses. Our diverse membership includes published and not-yet-published authors of all genres. Every few months we gather for group critique sessions. We encourage people to check out a meeting and/or presentation for free before signing up to become a part of our network.

Sources of Photos for Commercial Use

Illustrating your book and website articles can be challenging. But using websites where you can find photos that are royalty free for commercial use is very helpful. You can use the photos as they are or use image software to change them into something new.

Writing Spy Fiction with an Unputdownable Plot

When you’re writing spy fiction you have one overriding goal: to keep the reader turning the pages. There’s no greater compliment to the spy thriller author than for their readers to say ‘I couldn’t put it down.’ But how can we keep the reader engrossed? How many supposed thrillers have you abandoned because you lost interest in them?

Short Story Hacks: 10 Tips to Improve Your Creative Writing

Seton Hill University is a liberal arts university in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Formerly a women's college, it became a coeducational university in 2002 and enrolls about 2,200 students. Dennis G. Jerz is a Associate Professor of English–New Media Journalism and this is from his blog. It's the winner of the 2011 Best Academic Weblog / John Lovas Memorial Weblog Award.

How To Write A Mystery That Will Knock Them Dead

Good mysteries are also good novels. They have memorable characters, an exciting plot, lively dialogue and writing that "shows" instead of "tells".

15 Smart Writing Tips For Crafting Copy That Sticks

To help you do this well, 15 members of Forbes Communications Council gave us their tips for writing short, quick copy that will stick with your audience long after they've read it. Follow their tips to improve your marketing copywriting.

Hints on How to Create Characters

Did you ever ride a bus to school? It's not the bus that is important, nor the trip, it's your fellow students. If you didn't ride a bus, sit for a minute and go up and down the rows of your classroom, at different ages, and maybe from different schools. These school mates are the fodder for any character you want to include in any writing you may do. How so?

Author Introduction Sample

Here a great sampel of how you could introduce yourself to other on this Web site.In this article an author shares information about aspects of her writing style, personality, and her books.

Sidelined by Steroids

BarbaraHelene Smith just published Sidelined by Steroids. The second Connie Murphy Mystery e-book, available on Amazon.com.

Pro tips for writing and publishing speculative fiction

All fiction is speculative to some extent, posing a “what-if” question, which serves as the premise and drives the plot. But for fantasy author Kij Johnson, winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Award, the specific genre of speculative fiction adds its own special writing challenges: “A brilliant speculative story is harder to write than a brilliant realistic story, because it must do all the same things mainstream literature does – characterization, language, theme, and all the rest – and also, it needs to meet the requirements of the genre: accurate science, plausible worldbuilding, and the physiological triggers essential to a horror story.”

Book writing service gives veterans a way to preserve their stories

Story Terrace is giving vets a discount so that they can write books based on their lives and experiences. The company is calling it the "Speak and Listen" campaign. "My grandfather was in the resistance in the Netherlands (in WWII), and I regret not recording his stories," says Story Terrace CEO Rutger Bruining. "That's why I think it's really important for the entire family that these stories are kept and retold, so people remember what happens."

Death by Dysfunction

BarbaraHelene Smith published Death by Dysfunction, the first in the Connie Murphy Mystery series. Connie is an FDA investigator, who is dedicated to protecting public safety. While conducting seemingly routine inspections ...

Easy guide on how to write a book review: Steps you need to follow

A book review is a critical analysis and evaluation of a work written in a scientific, literary, or journalistic style to ...

New Venue to Showcase My Books

According to their website "Hometown Reads is digital author platform focused on showcasing books from local authors across the United States. We want to highlight authors in their hometowns, while inspiring local readers to discover hidden treasures in their hometown. We desire to create a collaborative author community, where authors exchange local book marketing advice, engage in cross-promotion of one another, and network with community organizations."

Observations of Alex Perch

Was the stoplight really green? From which way was the wind blowing from this morning? When was the last time you located the Big Dipper in the evening sky? In this hectic world of ours odds are you were not able to answer any of the above questions.

Writing Contests 2020

Discover the finest writing contests of 2020 for fiction and non-fiction authors of short stories, poetry, essays and more. Updated weekly, these contests are vetted by Reedsy to weed out the scammers and time-wasters.