Wednesday, November 27, 2013

December meeting and congratulations to one of our authors!


Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope this post finds you all happy, healthy, and ready for feasting... and some news about our Western Slope ACFW Prologue Chapter.

First and foremost, congratulations to Templa Melnick of Grand Junction, Colorado. Templa has a contract with Cladach Publishing for her novel, Season of Forgiveness. 

Second, as per our previous post, we're planning to meet on Sunday, December 15, at 2 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Grand Junction, for as many of us who can get there. Spending time with other like-minded writers is vital and valuable "as iron sharpens iron," so mark your calendars and join us! If you think you can come, RSVP to westernslopeacfw@gmail.com. If you can't come, but would like to Skype in to say "hello" via computer, send an email and let me know so I can come up with a virtual party plan!

Also, if you look to the tabs at the top of this post, you'll see one titled "Our Authors." If you are a published Western Slope ACFW author, please send an email with your book title, author photo, and pertinent publishing info to be added to the list.

And whether you are pre-published, published, or just scribbling away frantically, here's a word of encouragement to keep in mind as you keep plugging at those stories:
"Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there'll always be better writers than you and there'll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that—but you are the only you."
— English author Neil Gaiman 
Blessings and prayers for happy, healthy Thanksgiving celebrations!

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,