December 23, 2022

First – Season’s Greetings! Whether or not you celebrate any particular holiday, it’s always good to welcome the lengthening days. Soon it will be time to set goals and make some resolutions for 2023. One of mine in 2022 was to turn both the WritersMic (our open mic evening) and the Writers Rendezvous back into…

October 24, 2021

I attended the Connecticut Literary Festival on Saturday, and met the professor from Southern Connecticut State University who’s in charge of their MFA program.  He told me that according to Connecticut state statute, senior citizens (62 and over) can take college classes and earn a degree tuition-free.  I mention this because it’s a way to…

September 17, 2021

The year seems to be flying by, and the list of writing events, classes, and conferences doesn’t seem to be slowing. Among them are the weekly Monday morning write-ins I run for the Pequot Library, and the WritersMic evening coming up on Tuesday evening, September 21. Check the events page on this blog for details….

August 19, 2021

Our August meeting was full of interesting people and useful ideas, as usual. We even had one attendee from Bangla Desh! The joy of Zoom is that it allows people to join us from anywhere. We covered a number of topics, and some of the events I mentioned have short deadlines, so read on for…

June 17, 2021

We had another great meeting on Wednesday, where we discussed, for the first time in ages, some live events for writers. There are still plenty of virtual events, and I suspect many will remain so, because they enable people to access events far from where they live, without the time and expense involved in travel….

May 24, 2021

Here, as promised is the second part of this month’s update. Apart from the writing events, there are ideas for submitting to a new reading software, information on publishing with different types of companies, and webinars you can watch after the fact at a reduced price. Thanks for reading! The Mark Twain House is holding…

March 22, 2021

The Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest is now in its 20th year and is looking for today’s best humor poems. There’s no fee to enter and they accept both published and unpublished work. Deadline April 1. First Prize: $2,000 plus a two-year gift certificate from the co-sponsor, Duotrope (a $100 value) The top 12 entries will be published…

February 22, 2021

I hope you found part one of this update useful. Here’s part two, with more places to submit, and contests to enter. First, though, member Libby Waterford is teaching a couple of useful virtual classes in April. The first is Writing Dynamic Fiction which will cover the following aspects of craft: dialogue, active voice, backstory,…

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