CENTEX CHAPTER
CENTEX CHAPTER
CENTEX MONTHLY MEETING - February 20, 2010
9:30 - 11:30 a.m.
Characters in a Novelist's Zoo is a fun interactive workshop. A tool used to layer stories with deep POV, motivation, and conflict, the talk allows you to experience how personality strengths and weaknesses will enhance character development while improving personal relations and resolving real-life conflict. Creating characters as real people has come from Marilyn's professional experience and expertise as a facilitator for the True Colors organization, a mediator and student advisory group.
Marilyn has been trained in team building, communication skills, conflict resolution, suicide prevention, and dealing with troubled and angry people. She takes the one element that these all have in common, personality identification, to create a tool useful in character development. She will show you how to use that same tool to develop deep, multi-sided characters that will jump off the page and into the hearts of your readers.
Marilyn has known since she made her first book in Kindergarten that she was meant to write books. A membership in RWA, ACFW and DFW Ready Writers has given her the education and mentoring needed to become an author published in Chicken Soup for the Dieter's Soul, Ulitmate Gardner, Words to Write By, and several devotions published on line. She is currently working on a novel that piqued the interest of two editors and one agent at the 2009 ACFW national conference in Denver, Colorado.
Monthly meetings are held in the Lane House at the First Baptist Church, 306 Round Rock Avenue, in Round Rock, Texas, 78664. For map and driving directions see: http://www.fbcrr.org/. The map is a pdf file so it may take a moment to load. Parking is in the small lot in front of Lane House as well as across the side street in the church's larger lot.
JANUARY MEETING PRESENTATION
A Texas-size THANKS to THOMAS UMSTATTD, JR. for his presentation How to Use Twitter to Build Your Platform.If you missed this presentation, you missed some of the best computer tech information available for writers in central Texas, maybe even the whole Southwest, probably pushing the whole nation. He challenged us to consider who is our audience and how can we thrill them. He discussed Twittering, Blogging, and Facebook. His enthusiasm, content knowledge, and clarity in answering our questions were a tremendous blessing.
Visit his websites http://www.AuthorTechTips.com/ and http://www.UmstattdMedia.com/ for more information about Mr. Umsattd and his services.
UPCOMING 2010 MEETINGS
MEMBER NEWS
Rene Banglesdorf
Two of Rene's articles Sgt. Makerney--Fights for Your Life, Then Fights for Hers (12/08/09) and From City Slicker to Hunter (12/15/09), Rene's story of shooting her first deer were published in Guns & Patriots section of Human Events.com.
Richard Barnett
Richard's poem Dove Psalm won a small prize recently for a Christmas Twitter Poetry Contest sponsored by Utmost Christian Writers. He sold a poem entitled Bird Carols to Areogpagus Magazine in the UK for their Christmas issue. He also tied for third place in the EI (Eternal Ink) Literary Contest for 2009 with a prose piece entitled May Your Roots Go Deep. His poem, Have You Seen the Children Crying, placed 3rd in Category 2 in the 2009 Utmost Christian poetry contest sponsored by the Utmost Christian Writers Foundation.
Ann Bell
Ann has been asked to write several devotionals for her church's 2010 Lenten Devotional Booklet. She signed books at the Hill Country Book Festival November 14th, the Texas Authors Day at the San Marcos Library on November 22nd. She spoke at the Blacksmith's Drive Reading Club on December 16th, held at the Georgetown Country Club. Her latest educational technology book has just been released. It's entitled: Exploring Web 2.0: Second Generation Interactive Tools - Blogs, Podcasts, Wikis, Networking, Virtual Worlds, and More.
Lila Guzman
Lila has signed with agent Jason Yarn of Paradigm Agency with her new YA series - first book entitled Snatchers. Her Dr. Hector P. Garcia: Fighting for Justice won "First Place" in Category 8-Picture Book in the 2009 Oklahoma Writers Federation Contest. Her Spinach Wars won "Honorable Mention" in Category 9-Middle Reader.
Karen Hodges
Karen has an article in Library Media Connection, a Librarians' Journal, which will be printed in the August/September issue. Her articleGrowing Your Guild was published in June in the Texasteller, the newsletter for the Texas-wide Tejas Storytelling Association.
Nancy Jo Jenkins
Nancy Jo spoke to the Metropolitan Baptist Church book club in Houston on August 20th. She discussed and answered questions about her book Cold Water Revival.
Alicea Jones
Alicea will have an article appearing in Opulence Magazine on micro farming. Opulence is an upscale living publication in Austin. Her article The Call will be published in 2010 in Now What? the online publication for Bible Advocate Magazine.
Stefanie Morris
Stefanie signed with agent Terry Burns to be represented by Hartline Literary Agency.
Melody Pickle
Melody is the new Online Writer Lab (OWL) Instructor at St. Edward's University. She helps graduate students revise papers via the web. She's also teaching an English class at Austin Community College.
Michelle Shocklee
Michelle sold a story to Chicken Soup for the Soul! It'll be in their Tough Times, Tough People book released in May, 2009.
Lynette Sowell
Lynette sold a devotional that will be in the book Heavenly Humor for the Cat Lover's Soul which will be released in November 2010. She also has sold a novella, Lights of Love, in the anthology A Riverwalk Christmas to be released in September 2010 from Barbour Publishing.
Patrick Whalen
Patrick recently had an article approved for publication in a future issue of Car Chat Club eZine.
MEMBER WEBSITES
| Rene Banglesdorf | Richard Barnett | Ann Bell | Jason Carr | Lila Guzman | Nancy Jo Jenkins | Melissa Leedom | Joy Nord | Lynette Sowell | Peggy Tidwell | Patrick Whalen |
OTHER ACFW CHAPTERS
WRITING RELATED CONFERENCES/WORKSHOPS
Act One Seminar - Screenwriting & The Business of Hollywood to Fort Worth
Friday and Saturday, February 19-20, 2010
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth
Online Information: http://www.actoneprogram.com/screenwritingweekends.htm
Who Should Attend? Act One Conferences welcome all professional and aspiring writers, producers and entertainment executives. If your state says you're old enough for high school, you're old enough for our seminar. We don't care what church you attend, or how you vote - if you love Jesus and love the idea of creating film and television, come spend a life-changing weekend with us. Bring a pen, a sense of humor, and an open heart and ready mind.You Should Know...Our sessions are packed with film and television clips. Some of them include brief instances of adult subject matter and language. We do our best to present these clips in a Christian context, but they don't necessarily represent the worldview of Act One, Inc. or our instructors. If the MPAA were rating our seminars, they'd probably call them PG - and so do we.
Cost: $225.00 regular attendees and $205.00 for full-time students
WRITING RESOURCES
Officers | Dorothy Featherling | Rene Banglesdorf | Lynette Sowell | Lin Harris |
CenTex Chapter dues is $10 annually.
First year membership in ACFW is $50 and is required prior to joining the CenTex Chapter. ACFW renewal fee is $40.
Download the CenTex application form
Contact Lin Harris for additional memberhship information.
Lin Harris
129 Fox Hollow Cove
Cedar Creek, Texas 78612-4844
(512) 601-2216
(240) 208-3201 fax
The CenTex Chapter web site is under construction. Please visit again soon for more information about this writers group and member activities.
