WOoGI Updates

Hello all! Here's a copy of the flyer for the May 5th WOoGI meeting at the West Lafayette Library. (Click on image to see full size)


Come let us in on what you've been up to. Come see what everyone else has been up to. Most especially:


Come with ideas for what you'd like to see WOoGI doing in the coming months: speakers, outings, how-to workshops, etc.


I started WOoGI with the intent of providing support for, and creating a community of, writers of genre fiction--popular fiction of all genres--because there wasn't any such support system here before. I write in multiple genres myself--horror, paranormal romance, mystery, etc.--and I felt for years that I was in a vast and barren wilderness when it came to support for, or even the company of, my fellow popular fiction writers. Surely, I can't be the only one in Indiana who feels this need for the company of my peers. If I'm not, please show up and tell me so--either in person, or here, virtually. I'll be very happy to meet/see you!


I do hope you'll join us for a meeting and see what it is to spend some time in the company of your peers. In the meanwhile, please feel free to send us your news, and we'll post it here. (FYI: We'll be needing a recommendation for a new "book of the month" soon!) Thanks.

Kurt Vonnegut 1922-2007

Indianapolis-born Kurt Vonnegut died on April 11th as a result of head injuries sustained in a fall. Vonnegut was the acclaimed author of unique speculative novels such as Slaughterhouse-Five and Timequake, and more recently a scathing essayist and commentator. He was a consistently vehement and outspoken humanist and pacifist.

I include below his rules for writing a short story as presented in Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction.

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

The last, at least seems to be advice he followed in life as well as writing. No one was ever left wondering what Kurt Vonnegut felt or thought about where this country was going. It is still a great loss to discover there are no more pages left to him.

When Next We Meet ~ Saturday the 14th!

Hello everyone! Yes, it's that time again ~ WOoGI time! Yay! Our next meeting is this coming Saturday the 14th and we're going to be making plans for the rest of the year, so come on out and give us your input, what do you say? Saturday, April 14, 1:30 - 3:30 at the West Lafayette Library. Email if you need directions. Hope to see you there!
Rebecca

(click on image to see full size)

The Friday Bulletin

The first Friday Bulletin! Due to a lack of planning this Bulletin exists mainly to announced that there will be a Bulletin. So, if you have news, no matter how small, send it to me at veinglory at gmail.com.

In the meantime all I have to announce is that I finally started a personal blog at http://www.veinglory.com/blog.html...

Oh, and that our first book of the month (see left column) is MJ Pearson's "A Discreet Young Gentleman." Go out and buy it y'all. If you use the amazon link here to buy the book of the month of search for other books WoOGI will get a small percentage of the sale to use in future prizes and promotions for the group.

WOoGI to meet 2nd Saturday in April

Because of the Easter Holiday and other reasons, WOoGI's monthly meeting for April has been post-poned to the second Saturday ~ April 14th. I'll get back to you all with flyers, etc. by the end of the week.

Note: I apologize in advance for any upcoming skimpy and/or infrequent posts ~ I realized last night that I have less than 2 months to complete my creative thesis, including preface and bibliography, as well as several other items of administrivia, including writing a description of the seminar I'll be teaching for my graduation presentation (it's going to be on the importance of finding or creating a community which nurtures us as writers -- which is what I hope we're doing here) in order to finish my MFA and graduate this summer, so I'm going to be writing like mad every spare minute for the next while.

Talk to you soon, and in the meantime: Happy Writing!

Buying Local

I decided it would be nice to write some reviews of books by Indiana authors. Now, I know better than to review my friends' books--so I didn't want work by WoOGI members. I went into the local Borders and wandered around until I found the local interest section. There was not a single fiction book in it. So I asked several staff members for names of writers from this town or state. I could not elicit a single recommendation. Apparently the staff member concerned with this sort of thing will be back in-store this afternoon, so I will try again. But my first impressions are... there is a need for this blog. Time to support local writers! I am starting a list, please let me know of any and all published writers in or from Indiana.