Area 2 Newsletter
November 2023
Pennnwriters Area 2 Happenings and News
I'm Katie Yelinek, the Area 2 representative. Please email me at area2rep [at] pennwriters.org or kathryn [at] kathrynyelinek.com if I can help you in any way.
The Area 2 critique group is currently alternating between meetings in Danville and Berwick. For information about the next meeting, contact Dave Freas, quillracer [at] pa.metrocast.net.
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Mark your calendars! The next Area 2 meeting will be Monday, January 8 at 7 pm. Join area member and editor Deb Reynolds as she shares her experiences editing both nonfiction and fiction. Bring your editing questions! The Zoom link will be shared in January.
I'd love to highlight your writing win here. Email me with whatever you'd like to celebrate. Deadline for the next newsletter is the first of the month.
Pennwriters Organization-wide news
Question: Did anyone enter the writing contest this past January, and you still have not received feedback on your entry? We're investigating instances of feedback going astray. If this is true for you, please contact me.
Pennwriters is in need of a new Online Course Coordinator. Description: The Pennwriters Online Courses Coordinator is the administrator of all online classes offered by the Pennwriters organization. The Coordinator is a non-voting member of the Pennwriters Board of Directors. The mission of the Coordinator is to oversee the online courses program to provide members and non-members with exceptional learning opportunities. The Coordinator recruits new instructors as well as works with current and established instructors to develop a course year of classes filled with different topics for all levels of writers – from beginner to multi-published. Our current Online Course Coordinator will assist during the transition. New coordinator will assume responsibility on 1/1/2024. This is a volunteer position. Please contact president [at] pennwriters.org if interested in this position. We thought we had this one filled but, sadly, the person had to step down due to unforeseen circumstances.
The November course is Topics in Warfare for Writers with instructor Timons Esaias. It starts this Tuesday, November 7, so there's still time to register! It runs Tuesdays from 7:30 to 9:30 pm.
Additional upcoming courses are:
- December--no course, enjoy the holidays!
- January--Bumps in the Road: Developing Conflict in Your Novel with Instructor Kathy Otten
- June--Creating Diverse Characters with Instructor Fritze Roberts
- July/August-- Developing the Television Pilot with Instructor Diana Botsford
- August--I Think I Have a Book: Successful Strategies for Preparing Your Poetry Manuscript with Instructor Keith Kopka
- October--Writing Meaningfully in an Election Year: The Poetry of Politics and Witness with Instructor Keith Kopka
Reminder! The Pennwriters Annual Writing Contest will open January 1. Start polishing your entries!
And don't forget to mark your calendars for next year's conference May 16-19, 2024. It will be closer to home in Lancaster. The Friday night keynote speaker will be Hank Phillippi Ryan. The Saturday luncheon speaker will be Timons Esaias.
Here are two non-Pennwriters opportunities.
- Looking for an agent for MG/YA?
- An agent friend of mine passed along the news that she met a new agent looking for middle grade and young adult authors. She says: "Their name is Aiden Siobhan, they work at Laura Dail, and they just opened to queries like a month ago... If you have a YA/MG I would definitely seek them out. https://aidensiobhan.com/."
- What does a year in your #authorlife look like?
- Join Us as We Make History By Chronicling Our Own
- 100 authors across many genres will chronicle their daily lives as American writers. The goal is to document the daily journey of an author from the most mundane to eureka moments in finding the perfect word to explain an emotion.
- The final completed diaries will be sent to the American Diary Project for inclusion in our collection and archived in perpetuity. We’re honored to be the stewards of these unique pieces of history.
- #AmericanDiaryProject #DiariesAreHistory #100authordiaries #100americanauthors #authorlife #365author
- READ MORE - > https://www.ogaines.com/100authors
- I'M IN! Where do I sign up? https://www.ogaines.com/100authors
- Questions: olivia[at]ogaines.com
At the suggestion of a member, our Author Advocate Jim Rada and P.R person Cynthia Hospador would like to try something new. We can create a spreadsheet of events where authors can sell books, bookshops that welcome authors for signings, and other opportunities. However, for this project to work, we need your participation. Please send us information about the successful events and venues that you use so that we can add them to the spreadsheet. Jim will then send the spreadsheet to everyone on the Published Penns’ mailing list to use as a marketing resource. Here is the information we're looking for:
- Events: The event, date, city, deadline to apply (if known), website (if any), how to contact, booth fee.
- Bookshops: The store, contact information, contact person.
- Other opportunities: This would be primarily for media that are willing to write about authors and their books. Tell us the opportunity, what it is, who to contact and how to contact them.
Send your information to Cynthia at chospador [at] gmail.com. She will compile the list, and Jim will send it out.
Looking for feedback on your latest work in project? Pennwriters offers the Critique Partner Program to match authors up with fellow writers. We want to know what you're looking for. Then, we'll find the most compatible partner based on genre, progress, and other factors. We can also handle articles, essays, or other nonfiction. Our goal is helping to create a mutually beneficial partnership for both parties. So whether you have a finished work you'd like a beta reader for, or a work in progress that you'd like critiqued, please email D. J. Stevenson at PennwritersCritiquePartners [at] gmail.com for more information.
That's it for now. Happy writing, everyone. And good luck to anyone participating in NANOWRIMO!