Writers Workshop Blog

We had a spirited meeting this month as Sydney, Patrick, and Denise submitted a chapter from her novel, and poems. We all agreed that some extra writerly touches would go a long way toward making Sydney's work more publishable (descriptions, detailed actions instead of tags, and a greater sense of place), but the story has us hooked and we'd like to feel more of the conflict and mystery/history going on.

Patrick and Denise's poetry sparked the most spirited debate we've had in awhile (which is what writers ought to do, huh?). Even though Patrick's work seems off-the-cuff on first read, the language is chosen deliberately and must be read and considered before making final opinions. A couple of small changes can make all the difference- and we debated the need for some of those in our session.

Denise brought some intense imagery to her poetry, stemming from an episode of canning with her mother when she was young. It was a wrenching yet wonderful look at mother suffering a miscarriage, looked at from the perspective of a young daughter. One thing up for debate was the language of the daughter, whether she could actually say such things, but I think writers have to take some liberty in these regards since kids can't possibly put words to their feelings in these situations (and not many adults, either). Nice work, Denise!

We have our Skill Building Conference for Local Writers coming up on Saturday, May 11th from 9:30 - 3 p.m. All interested writers are asked to sign up at the library Events page here. For more info, check out the here link above.

We also had over 30 entries for our Westland Writes ... Poetry book this April and even more for our Book Title Poetry contest (lots of of kids and their parents submitted so the entries should be a lot of fun to read :) Look for our Book Release Party on Thursday, May 30th- it will be a lot of fun, even if you haven't submitted.

As always, send me an email at: andy.schuck@westlandlibrary.org if you're interested in getting more info about the Writers Workshop or would like to join. Cheers.

There are a couple of great Open Mics coming up at area coffee shops this week. The Westland Library's monthly Open Mic, which features singer-songwriters mainly but also comedians and poets, is happening this Thursday (2/21) at the Westland Biggby Coffee on Ford Rd. Biggby is offering discounted drink prices ($1 for sm. coffee or tea, and money off their fancier drinks).

The Plymouth Coffee Bean is also hosting their monthly Gathering of Writers, a more literary-based open mic and reading. This month's featured reader is Donna DeMeyer, a local writer and coffee aficionado.

Have fun wherever you decide to go.

We had a light turnout this month but we were able to cover Chapter 3 from Jesse's 2nd book and 4 new poems from Patrick, including his "Una" series, based on his upcoming wedding (congrats to you, Mister Pat!).

First things first, though. A big congrats (!!!!) to our own John Capraro on getting his YA novel published. An e-copy will come out in February and the hard copy will be out in early March. Awesome stuff, John! Look for an author reading/signing at the library in the near future.

Back to the meeting: Patrick's wordplay is always a delight to hear (it's worth coming just to hear him read) and his draws inspiration from quirky characters, including Cool Hand Luke. Sometimes the work needs a little less backstory to understand, but all in all very enjoyable stuff.

The Japanese setting in Jesse's work has created a nice backdrop for book 2 of her epic fantasy but the constant (or inconsistent) shape-shifting had us going googly-eyed. The story is on the right track, though, and we're looking forward to future chapters.

Our Local Authors Conference (LAC) was also discussed as I am writing a Michigan Humanities Council grant to bring in famed Michigan authors like D.E. Johnson and Mardi Link. Look for more information in the coming months, but for now the event is scheduled on Saturday, May 11th.

Hope to see you all next month. So far, we have a couple of short stories from Brendan on the docket, so anyone who has attended in the past is able to submit work for our February 20th session.

We decided to have an un-meeting this time around, seeing as we've all been working hard on novels and stories and poems for the past year. So Patrick, Casheena, John, Cheryl, Brendan, and more showed up to drink some nog and eat up some cheese and chocolate. Of course we talked shop and Casheena got it started with her questions about publishing with an agent, which John more than capably answered. Cheryl also spoke of her publishing and writing experience, and Patrick offered the well-timed quip (which he is apt to do). We did not have volunteers yet to submit for our January meeting, probably because everyone had the holiday season ahead of them and no matter how bad we want to write at this time, family time seems to take over (in a good way, hopefully). We'll gather up the submissions just after the New Year, tho, in order to give you enough time to do your thing with the work and help our writers learn from your skills. The next meeting, btw, is on Wednesday, January 23rd from 7-8:30 p.m. Happy holidays to all! See you on the flip side.