WhipCity Wordsmiths

Last December, I was approached by a member of Artworks of Westfield, Inc. and asked to consider starting a writer's group in my hometown. At the time a writer's group was already in existence and I wasn't inclined to step on the toes of the writer/author who was running that group because she was my friend. I declined.


In the spring, when the writer's group dissolved, I was approached again, and I still didn't want to do it because I work full time and write in my free time, plus I have health issues that sap my energy at times...so I wasn't sure I could dedicate myself to a writer's group.


Then Kelly said she'd help, and we began discussing it. In May I agreed to start a group, but delayed the official start until September due to vacations, traveling, and school being out during the summer months. However, in June we launched the WhipCity Wordsmiths blog and began soliciting membership from writers and authors she and I have met at author events at Blue Umbrella Books, the Agawam Public Library's ReadLocal events, and the Southwick Public Library's recent author event. We garnered additional members from facebook postings on Westfield sites and our own facebook pages.


Membership grew quickly, and members stayed connected via the blog and monthly newsletters throughout the summer while anticipating the first group meeting in September.


That first meeting took place today and was well-attended. New members arrived and completed their membership forms. Several members sent text messages about being unable to attend, which was considerate of them.


The writers and authors who met today had varying levels of skill from beginner to impressive portfolio of accomplishments. Yet, every person brought energy and creativity to the table. Being the inaugural meeting it was a little dry with the let's get to know one another stuff and layout what we hope to accomplish, but then we got into our first prompt- with everyone having brought a favorite word that was put into a hat. We all drew a word from the hat and wrote for five minutes using the selected word in whatever we wrote about. One writer wrote a poem. Another turned her word into an anacronym, assigning each letter a new word and then using the word plus all the new words in the anacronym in her prose. Some pieces were thoughtful, thought evoking, humorous...everyone participated and read their piece. It was interesting to see what we all came up with in the allotted five minutes!


I was nervous when I arrived, caught off guard by a surprise phone call from an author friend in Vermont who just wanted to wish me luck and show his support, and astounded by the number of people who did show up. Overall, I was pleased with the group and all the Wordsmiths in attendance today.


I only began sharing my decades of writing with the public in June of 2015. Since then I have self-published 30 novels and story collections. At the beginning of 2017 I revised all the earlier books, giving the interiors a revamp to make them look more professionally published, and updating covers to amp them up as well from my original choices. I also began using my own photographs for covers. I self-published a few books this year, then revised the three Christmas story collections that I'd left until the end of summer to revise. Then I had an idea about creating smaller stocking stuffer sized holiday story books, so the three larger books were divided down into seven separate books with 3 independent novellas, and four small collections of past, present, inspirational, and family-related holiday stories. Then I pulled two novellas from the Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales volumes- The girl with the Ivy Tattoo and The Magic of Cross and Crowe and made small books from them for Halloween. Next I took Halloween Story which had been published under a pseudonym and revamped it completely into a 9-12 year old age group chapter book, and gave it a vintage postcard cover. After all that was finished I tackled Medea...the 2014 Nano novel that was the first book I self-published and the worst of the lot, even after a cover update and interior revision early on- it was still horrible. A small book with revised interior and new title and cover art called The Unwilling Witch was the result of this major revision and facelift. It is now self published under my own name just as Isabel's Initiation is.


Now, with all that preplanned work accomplished, I have time for a writer's group and for doing more author events.


I'm happy with the group, and with rotating moderators it lessens the burden on me to prepare for each group meeting. At some meetings I can attend as a member and let another member run the meeting. That works out well for all involved because it keeps the meetings fresh and interesting- we're all different. We all have something to offer so the group offers a perfect opportunity to discuss these things.


I'm glad this is working out and that I agreed to do this.