An Author's Party

Yesterday between 3-6 p.m. I felt I was a real author. The kind of author I always dreamt of being -- hanging out with other authors, discussing book signings and publishings, discussing current topics and the books that we have read and liked. Or maybe didn't like.

I was invited to a party where Penny Fletcher was featured as the guest. Ms. Fletcher is an award winning journalist and an author of four books, namely Wild Rose and The Sumerian Secret. The latter title deals with the Sumerian Texts and NASA. From the cover, it sounds pretty good, so eventually, that book, which is a lead in a series, will be added to my already robust library. She has quite a background, both professionally and personally. For more information on her, you can google her name.

Most of the guests were fellow writers from the writing group and most of them are published. All the writers are very interesting people from very diversified backgrounds. I am probably the only one who is a trained and experienced journalist, having worked in both newspapers and magazines. I also have experience as an editor, in newspapers, magazines, and books.




 These books are on my local author/known author shelf in my library. I helped James Riordan with the typing of his book, Stone, about Oliver Stone the director. I was a reader/editor for J. Weakly's book, Under Broken Skies, about the DB Cooper legend. The other books featured here are by the writers in my group: Joyce Lee McIntosh's Inside Out, the first in a detective/mystery series she has written; David Siegenthaler's A Trip Through Leatherstocking Country, a regional historical piece; and WW Walton's Qi, a fantasy.

I got hungry, though, and quit the journalism business around the age of 40 and obtained a teaching certificate. I taught. I always felt I sold my writing soul for a buck. I did. But I did keep writing, just in a different form -- letters for people, a resume business, journaling, and writing just for me with no plans to publish anything. I had written a couple of children's books, but I had no clue on how to publish my books, and I am not an artist so I was lacking the illustrations. To this day, they are filed among my unpublished works.

I believe all this is about to change.

Now there is the INDIE world (writers publishing independently), and that is what I am going to do. My collection of short stories is so close to being finished that I can taste it. Then, to decide how I am going to publish. People in my writing group are guiding me with their suggestions.

We, the people of the Writing Group, listen to other's writings, give suggestions on how to make a sentence better or question the viability of a sentence. Such as, during my last reading of one of my short stories, I wrote that the mother dug up tulip bulbs to store them for the winter. A woman in the group questioned that statement, saying that tulips are perennials. Another person said, no, not in the north. So, since I am not a gardener, and was writing from what I had observed in my life, I needed to do a bit of research on tulips. We are all correct. Tulips can stay in the ground through the winter and rebloom the following spring, but some people dig up the tulips and store them for a year because tulips may get a bit "tired". The only time to plant the tulips are in the fall. I made the necessary corrections, and that small scene is now correct. That's what we do. We listen, give advice, and help one another, be each other's cheerleaders. What a group!

And that was the summary of yesterday's party. We listened, gave advice or answers or shared our experiences, and encouraged all to keep writing.

I also encourage you to write. Write your thoughts (journaling) or a short story or start your memoirs. Of course, read. That is what we writers do, think, read, write. And I am sure that most of my readers do at least two of the three -- read and think. Hopefully, write, too.

Until tomorrow...have a great day!