Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Greetings, Colorado Western Slope writers!

Hello to all of you who have expressed an interest in having an ACFW Colorado chapter for the Western Slope. Attendance at the Montrose workshop in June was very encouraging, and we've all had a few months to (hopefully) connect with our critique partners, and apply some of the wonderful tools we received at the workshop to our writing.

Now it's time to take the next step. We need to begin to develop regular communication with each other in order to build relationship, encourage each other, and continue to grow as Christian writers. Distance is our greatest foe on the Western Slope when it comes to getting together to fellowship. Fortunately, the Internet, for all its faults, does offer us the benefit of virtual "togetherness." Hopefully, this blog will provide an easy way for us to begin to get to know each other, share our writing journeys, learn more about our craft, and stay connected.

At this point, we have several things to discuss...

• December meeting?

We'd like to organize an early December face-to-face meeting in Grand Junction or Parachute, depending on who is coming. We could have a Christmas gathering, no presents exchanged, but maybe each person could bring some writing tidbit to the gathering, that way we could make it a learning experience as well. Leave a comment if you have other ideas, and if you prefer a weekend or weekday?

• Interest in virtual meetings?

At the ACFW Colorado quarterly board meeting, I (Niki) participated via Skype. It was my first Skyping experience, and a good one. From what I understand, Skype is only one of the ways we could all participate in scheduled meetings without leaving the comfort of our own homes, or wherever we go to get a decent Internet connection. So, in the comments, please share if you would be interested in participating in a meeting via our amazing new Jetsons-style technology... (morning masks not included).



• Future content?

My plan is to tap into the vast resources we have among our fellow ACFW Colorado members who already blog, write, or speak about various aspects of the writing life, giving us a chance to talk about the lessons they share here.
In addition, when we have new releases or other writerly news to share, this blog will give us another online avenue to share that information.
Our page will also be added to the main ACFW Colorado website, as the other Colorado chapters have done. We're not an official chapter at this point (hence the "prologue" in the title), but we have to start somewhere.
If you have additional ideas or thoughts about content, please share them!


Let's all continue to pray about our part in ACFW Colorado, and what role we might play as Western Slope ACFW members in particular! I look forward to hearing from you!



Blessings,




18 comments:

  1. HOW exciting!! Praying great blessings on this new endeavor!!

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    1. Yay! Thank you, Paula! It's going to be a good thing!

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  2. Niki, this is amazing. What a great place to get the word out, the very thing we love to do. Thanks for doing this.

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    1. Hi Patti! I hope you are doing well, we missed you in Montrose. But there will be more opportunities to come! Thanks and you're welcome!

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  3. Hi Niki, thanks for shepherding the WSPC-ACFW Blog. It's a fitting first step and resource for us. I'm really new to Colorado so I don't travel far from home during the winter months. However, participating by Skype or AnyMeeting is a great solution. I hope that's something WSPC can do. We have several Durango area folks, maybe we can get together for electronic meeting hook-ups. My prayers are with you. - Lin

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    1. Thank you! I need as much prayer as I can get! : )
      I'm a Colorado native, and I don't travel far from home in the winter, either, so don't think you're alone in that. I'm excited about the possibilities of these new online meetings, too!

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  4. Offering a huge smile here on the front range. :D Blessings on getting all of this together.

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    1. Thank you so much, Kathy! Looking forward to good things ahead for ACFW on the Western Slope!

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  5. Way to go! I sent along an invitation to the Southwest Christian Writers group to join our blog. I see Lin Harris has already signed in

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  6. Thanks for doing this. This will be a great way for us to communicate and encourage each other.

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    1. Robin! We have GOT to get together! I'll email you!

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  7. I am super excited! This is going to be great! If the meeting is in Junction I can come during the week. If it is in Parachute, I can get there on a weekend. Depending on the weekend. I am pretty flexible on chatting with computer. The video clip was awesome. Crazy how Sci Fi is becoming reality. Thanks for taking all of this on. I will contribute to blog, etc. wherever I can.

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  8. Jessica, we'll let you know what we come up with. Thank you for being flexible! Crazy how the cartoons we (I) grew up with are imitating life.l... kinda freaky! Will be in touch!

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  9. Thanks for your hard work in getting this put together. I look forward to having a place where we backwoods writers can congregate.

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  10. Niki, this is awesome! Looking forward to a face-to-face meeting in December with other Western Slope writers. Thanks so much for kicking this off!

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    1. Yes, me too! We need to establish a date and a location ASAP. December is sneaking up on us fast!

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