I love the Zoom meetings we’re having with people from across the country. Writing can be lonely, but the lockdown has brought to the fore this great way of communicating. So, the WritersMic on Tuesday welcomed people from as far away as Texas, as well as New York and Connecticut. And the Writers’ Rendezvous provides a reliable place to show up once a month and reconnect with other writers, no matter where you are.  
CrimeCONN Express, the virtual version of the Connecticut Mystery Writers Conference, will take place on Thursday evenings from October 22-November 12 Thursdays at 7pm via Zoom. Moderators and panels include real-life crime fighters, best-selling authors, experts in writing craft, and more. Topics include police procedure on October 22.  Connecticut writers David Rich, Nikki Woolfolk, and Tessa Wegert talking about writing on October 29, and a wonderful conversation between Tom Straw and best-selling crime novelist Walter Moseley on November 12, among others. More details and registration here. You must register for each session, to get the Zoom link.

The Harrison Library is running an all-day Meet the Authors event this Saturday, October 24, via Zoom. This year they’re featuring 13 award-winning and best-selling authors, including Ann Napolitano (Dear Edward), Riley Sager (Home Before Dark), Ellen Marie Wiseman (The Orphan Collector), and Pamela Paul (How to Raise a Reader), Editor of the NYTimes Book Review. Genres include historical and contemporary fiction, memoir, and non-fiction, and you can drop in and out as you need to. More details and registration here.
This year’s CRAFT Flash Fiction Contest is open for submissions from now until November 1. They’re looking for unpublished stories of up to 1,000 words and there will be three winners, each of which will be awarded $1,000, publication, a bundle of the Rose Metal Press Field Guides, and more. Submit here.
Norwalk Public Library’s fourth-annual Indie Author Day will take place on November 7 on Zoom from 10am-4:30pm. Each year, libraries and other organizations welcome local indie authors, writers, and their communities, for a day of education, networking, writing, open mics, panels, and more.  Take advantage of this opportunity to connect with other writers and publishing professionals to learn, share, spread the word about your work, and sell books. To join, email clahey@norwalkpl.org.
On November 12, the Mark Twain House is offering a talk by Joyce Maynard about her latest projects, returning to finish her degree at Yale fifty years after dropping out to begin a relationship with J.D. Salinger, and living through the pandemic on the base of a volcano in Guatemala. Maynard is the author of 17 books, including The New York Times bestselling novel Labor Day (which was made into a Jason Reitman film starring Kate Winslet), To Die For (which was made into a Gus Van Sant film starring Nicole Kidman), and the memoir At Home in the World. Her most recent book, The Best of Us, tells the story of finding and losing her second husband. Tickets $10.
CTRWA (Connecticut Romance Writers Association) is offering this free workshop from Kilby Blades: The Book Marketing Audit, from 10-11:30am on November 14: It will show you why your current marketing isn’t working and teach you to stop copying tactics that can’t work for your book. It will teach you to focus on smart opportunities specific to your own brand.  Email for the Zoom link.
Reading Works is running its second fund-raising Annual Short Short Story Contest. They are a nonprofit, community-based literacy program that provides free tutoring to teens and adults in reading, writing, and speaking English in Albuquerque, NM. Write a story using no more than 100 words that relates in some way to one of these topics: water, the 1940s, bowling, or ants. They offer seven cash prizes and submission dates are from October 1-January 15. Entry fee $10 per story
Sarah Nicolas, author of Keeping her Secret, host of PubTalk Live, BOD for Pitch Wars, offers a free weekly newsletter with stacks of events for writers and readers. Among them are conferences, talks, and appearances, paid and free. You can also submit your own event(s). She has a wide readership so it’s worth signing up for.
There are more events on the calendar page.
And in between attending them – keep writing!
Part 2 will follow on Monday.