June 21 – Pros and Cons of Indie, Small Digital Pub, and Big Five NY Publishers

Judith Arnold will lead a panel of authors to discuss the pros and cons of various options open to authors right now.

Judith Arnold is the USA Today bestselling author of nearly one hundred romance and women’s fiction novels. She’s been a multiple finalist for Romance Writers of America’s Rita Award
and the EPIC Award for electronic fiction, and she’s won four RT Magazine Reviewer’s Choice Awards and the New England Readers Choice Award. Publishers Weekly named her novel Love in Bloom’s one of the best books of the year.

A lifelong New England resident, Victoria Morgan lives in a suburb of Boston. There she juggles (with differing degrees of priority) a part-time job, writing, watercolor classes, her husband, a teen-ager and college student, and a mini-golden doodle with a Napoleon complex. Published with Berkley Sensation, a Penguin Random House Group, she is an insatiable reader who loves to see the magic of a world taking shape through the words of a book or the beauty of a painted picture. You can contact her through her website, Victoriamorgan.com or through FB. Leave a comment as she loves to hear from readers!

Frances Susanne Brown is an accomplished writer of both nonfiction and fiction. A graduate of NYIT, she received her MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University. Frances began her career writing magazine articles. She is a still a regular feature contributor for Renaissance Magazine, as well as being one of their book reviewers. Her memoir, Maternal Threads, was released May 1, 2015 from High Hill Press. Writing under the pseudonym Claire Gem, her debut novel was released in February 2015. Addressing the themes of May-September romance and the heartbreak of Alzheimer’s, Phantom Traces combines a modern love story, a historical tragedy, and a spooky paranormal in a multilayered, fast-paced plot guaranteed to take the reader on an emotional ride.
Her other novels include Memories of You, Book 1 in The Lake George Series, coming soon from Lachesis Publishing. Her women’s fiction, The Phoenix Syndrome, recently won first place honors in FCRW’s The Beacon Contest. Originally from upstate New York, Frances has also lived in Florida, Texas, and North Carolina. She presently resides in Massachusetts with her husband of 36 years.

Kristen Strassel prides herself on having not one, but two of the coolest jobs in the world. She’s a makeup artist for film and television as well as an author of paranormal and contemporary romances. She writes off-beat heroines who find their happily ever after where they least expect it. Her latest novel, The Fire Dancer, a vampire dark fantasy, was released May 21.

March 15 – Word Choice with Hannah Howell

Hannah Howell, New York Times and USA Today Bestseller, has been published for twenty-six years.  She now has two Historical Romance series published by Kensington books.  The 20th book in the Murray series set in medieval Scotland came out in December of last year.  The other series is the Wherlockes, set in eighteenth century England.  If He’s Noble, the sixth book in the Wherlocke series will be out in September

In this workshop, Hannah will speak on the importance of the words you use in your writing.  How the change of one simple verb can take your sentence from adequate to powerful.  Or how you can give the reader a good picture of a character with just a few well-chosen words instead of pages of description.  Even how the use of such things as simile and metaphor can add texture and depth.  A story has a plot and characters you hope will catch a reader’s attention but it is the words you use that will hold it fast.  There will be handouts and book recommendations.

February 15 – Critiquing: The Sequel

Please bring five copies of the first five pages of your WIP or what the agent/ editor will be reading before the conference. We’ll break into groups, not necessarily the same groups as last month, and we’ll follow certain rules/ methods for critiquing.

THINK TANK
The Board is starting a THINK TANK, which should take no more than 10 to 15 minutes during each meeting. If any member wants advice on any aspect of writing, she (or he) can bring the question to the floor.

January 18 – Query Letters that Entice

We will use January’s (and February’s) meetings to prepare our members for editor/agent conference appointments. In January, we will cover a specific format for query/ cover letters. This 4 paragraph format was provided by an agent. By far, the most difficult paragraph is pitching your novel in 5 sentences. Michael Hague has provided a format for that important paragraph. Step 1: Handouts provided and explained, Step 2: Members write their paragraphs, Step 3: Break into groups and critique those paragraphs.

November 16 – Scrivener Basics with Jennifer Kettell

Have you been hearing a lot about writing with Scrivener, but you’re overwhelmed by all its features? Are you a plotter and not sure where to put all your notes and set up your writing project? Are you a pantser and not sure if Scrivener fits into your writing process at all? Jennifer Kettell explains the basics of how to use Scrivener and adapt it to suit your personal approach to writing. Learn how to use the major features of this powerful application and how to create a template containing all of the tools you need to write novel after novel.

Jennifer Kettell has written and contributed to dozens of books about software applications, web design, and other technology. Her most recent titles are Scrivener Absolute Beginner’s Guide and My Kindle Fire HDX. She has worked at Microsoft and other top companies as well as doing freelance web design and online community management. Her first new adult romance novel, Relocated, will be released on January 13, 2015, if she doesn’t expire from stress first.

October 19 – Serious Pursuit with a Common Business Interest and Other Issues

Our October meeting will be an extended business meeting to discuss the issue of Serious Pursuit with a Common Business Interest as described by Cindy Kirk in the October RWR. This is an issue that will affect our chapter in a number of ways. You are encouraged to read the article and the FAQ that was distributed to the NEC Loop and come prepared to talk about these proposed changes to membership classification.

September 21 – Collaborations (with Loved Ones) and Other Creative Risks

New York Times bestselling author and twenty-year romance veteran Suzanne Brockmann and her husband, Edgar Award finalist and award-winning screenwriter Ed Gaffney discuss the art of control-freak-friendly collaboration as they share the lessons they learned about writing genre fiction from co-writing and co-producing a romantic comedy movie.

After childhood plans to become the captain of a starship didn’t pan out, Suzanne Brockmann took her fascination with military history, her respect for the men and women who serve, her reverence for diversity, and her love of storytelling, and explored brave new worlds as a New York Times bestselling romance author. Over the past twenty years, she has written more than fifty novels, including her award-winning Troubleshooters series about Navy SEAL heroes and the women—and sometimes men—who win their hearts. Her latest romantic suspense, DO OR DIE, is available on February 4, 2014, in hardcover and ebook from Ballantine Books, and in audio from Blackstone Audio.  In addition to writing books, Suz Brockmann has co-produced a feature-length movie, the award-winning romantic comedy The Perfect Wedding, which she co-wrote with her husband, Ed Gaffney, and their son, Jason. She has also co-written a YA novel, NIGHT SKY, set in the world of her paranormal Fighting Destiny series, with her daughter Melanie, due out in October 2014 from Sourcebooks Fire.  Find Suz on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/SuzanneBrockmannBooks, follow her on Twitter @SuzBrockmann, and visit her website at www.SuzanneBrockmann.com to find out more about upcoming releases and appearances.

Ed Gaffney is the critically-acclaimed author of four legal thrillers published by Bantam/Dell, the latest of which, Enemy Combatant, was a finalist for the EDGAR Award. He also co-wrote and produced a full-length play named Looking for Billy Haines, which ran off-Broadway for approximately 10 weeks during the spring of 2010.  And most recently, Ed became an award-winning filmmaker, when The Perfect Wedding, a feature film he co-wrote and co-produced won the Bud Abbott Award for Best Feature Length Comedy at the Garden State Film Festival.  He lives in Florida and Massachusetts with his wife, New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann.

Find out more about The Perfect Wedding at www.ThePerfectWeddingMovie.com

August 17 – Prompted to Write

Has your word count wilted in the summer heat? If so, come get Prompted to Write at our August meeting! Based on a chosen prompt by the Amherst Writing Method, we will have a 30-minute writing session followed by a discussion of our creations. Join us and get back in the groove after those lazy days of summer.

June 15 – The Scoop: Using Television Techniques to Craft a Killer Novel with Hank Phillippi Ryan

Here’s what you need to produce a successful television story: Develop memorable characters. Build suspense. Show conflict. Tell a compelling story. Find justice. Here’s what you need to become a successful television journalist: Never miss your deadlines. Create a brilliant and flawless product every time. Be completely devoted to your job. Here’s the scoopWhat you need to write a successful novel–in any genre!– are exactly the same things!  Hank Phillippi Ryan’s won 30 Emmy awards for her investigative reporting…and the prestigious Mary Higgins Clark, Agatha and Anthony awards for her crime fiction. How? She’ll will divulge the tricks of the TV news trade—and give you a top ten list to help you make your book the best it can be.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN is the on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s NBC affiliate. She’s won 32 EMMYs, 12 Edward R. Murrow awards and dozens of other honors for her ground-breaking journalism. A bestselling author of six mystery novels, Ryan has won multiple prestigious awards for her crime fiction: the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, and for THE OTHER WOMAN, the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award. National reviews have called her a “master at crafting suspenseful mysteries” and “a superb and gifted storyteller.” Her newest thriller, THE WRONG GIRL, has the extraordinary honor of winning the 2013 Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel! A six-week Boston Globe bestseller, it is also an Anthony and Daphne Award nominee, a Patriot Ledger bestseller, and was dubbed “Another winner” in a Booklist starred review and “Stellar” by Library Journal.  She’s a founding teacher at Mystery Writers of America University and 2013 president of national Sisters in Crime. Watch for her next novel, TRUTH BE TOLD, on October 7, 2014. Visit her online at HankPhillippiRyan.com, on Twitter @hank_phillippi and Facebook at HankPhillippiRyanAuthorPage.