2015 Year End Recap

2015 has been an amazing year for the Whitesboro Writers Group. We’d like to share some of our accomplishments with you, in hopes that you’ll be inspired to join us as we continue to grow. Membership is free and informal – any adults who wish to join may do so at any time. You needn’t live in the Mohawk Valley. You can be a part of our group in person or on the internet, or both.  

Now for a bit of background.

The beautiful, historic DUNHAM PUBLIC LIBRARY  (pictured above and also on our Facebook page) is home base for our 2 main writing groups (Monday Writers Group and Plotters Ink). We hold our monthly meetings in a Victorian-style room on the second floor, surrounded by vintage books. In between scheduled sessions, our writers can often be spotted sipping coffee downstairs while working on various projects. We appreciate the library personnel who are consistently friendly, helpful and supportive.

The lively MONDAY WRITERS GROUP, which meets every 4^th Monday at 6 PM, was founded in January 2011. The current facilitator of this group is Jerry Finkelstein. This group focuses on creative prose, either fiction or non-fiction. Each month a new “writing prompt” is suggested for the following month’s meeting. During sessions, we read our stories aloud and our colleagues read along on printouts provided by each writer, then provide immediate feedback. Story length is set at a maximum of 400 words to encourage writing in a clear and concise manner. Although it is not mandatory, we encourage our writers to publish their work on the group blog for the public to enjoy. All that is necessary is to submit the story via email. Writers are then welcome to share links to their publications on social media. You can view all the published stories and view upcoming assignments from this group  HERE.

PLOTTERS INK was the 2014 brain child of the current editor and blog manager, CJ Alexander. This is strictly a fiction writing group, which meets at 1 PM on the 2^nd Thursday of each month. Every year there is a different focus. In 2014, we practiced writing various elements of fiction such as conflict, dialogue, scene setting, and point of view. In 2015, we wrote stories in various genres from science fiction to westerns, drama to romance, and many more. In 2016 we will turn our attention to depicting complex fictional characters. Writers must confine their stories to one page (about 500 words) for each assignment.  All the published work from the group as well as future assignments can be seen HERE.

In 2015, we launched a number of new projects that were a lot of fun and drew interest from writers all over the world. We have received stories and poems from Ireland, Great Britain, India, Canada, and Poland. In the United States, our writers hail from Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, and many parts of New York State.

In the spring of 2015 we initiated an experimental project loosely based on a “round robin” format. Several local writers took turns writing stories based upon characters they invented for the UNDERWEB CHRONICLES, which grew to an astonishing 49 chapter novella that we published on the Plotters Ink blog. It is a fantasy internet adventure of some 27,000 words which anyone can read at their leisure. The project was completed in July, 2015. We intend to start another project like this in 2016. You may view the details of how it’s done, and the ideas under consideration HERE . We hope to attract some additional writers to this project.  

The Whitesboro Writers Group held 5 unique WRITING WORKSHOPS on the last Thursday of the months of May through October. We will resume workshops the last Thursday of each month starting March 31, 2016 and through October 2016.

In September, we produced a CHAPBOOK consisting of six original writers group stories. It’s entitled Western Style Musings & Amusings and is available at the library for $2.00. All proceeds from this little book benefit the library.

By far the most exciting project of the year was collecting 47 stories and poems for an anthology with a horror theme. We published 25 writers’ work in an E-Book on Amazon Kindle in October, 2015. The book is called HALLOWEEN MUSINGS & AMUSINGS, which can be purchased on the Amazon website any time. This is a money-making venture so if you feel inclined to acknowledge the work of your fellow writers we would all appreciate your patronage. If you don’t own a reader, you can download one for free on Amazon, which you can use on your phone or computer.

As the year draws to a close, we are engrossed in producing a second E-Book which has a Winter theme. The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2016. If you’d like to participate in this wonderful project, you can read all the details HERE.

The Whitesboro Writers Group would like to acknowledge the personal success of some of our writers whose excellent short fiction has been (or soon will be) published by Horrified Press of Great Britain. Congratulations to local authors Miriam E. Waters, Cheryl Palmer, and CJ Alexander, as well as Irish writer Perry McDaid, who inspires us all. We hope more of our members will join us as published authors in the coming year.

Questions, submissions, and comments? Contact us at whitesborowriters@gmail.com, or visit our FACEBOOK Page. Please visit our POETRY and NON-FICTION blogs too!

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this exciting group!

And as always…Keep Writing!