Category Archives: Meetings

September 20, 2020 Meeting – Top Ten Tips for Tightening Tension with Molly O’Keefe

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Our September 20th monthly meeting will start with a workshop presented by Molly O’Keefe on Top Ten Tips for Tighter Tension, which will be followed by our monthly chapter business meeting.
Headshot of author Molly O'KeefeWorkshop description: Tension is what keeps pages turning and makes a book of any genre satisfying. The tighter the tension, the more rewarding the ending. Incorporating internal and external tension into your characters and plot at every stage of writing from brainstorming to editing will keep the pages turning and the books selling. In this highly interactive workshop we’ll discuss how to create characters that create tension, how to manage backstory and plot and what are the ten best ways to keep the tension as tight as possible in your manuscript.
The workshop will start on Zoom at 1pm. The Zoom meeting info has also been posted in the NECRWA Facebook Group and the NECRWA chapter forum on RWA. Virtual doors will open at 12:45pm. Please reach out to Alexa Rowan at [email protected] with any questions.

BIO: Molly O’Keefe is the USA Today Bestselling author of over 50 romance novels. She’s won two RITA Awards and four RT Reviewers Choice Awards. She also writes USA Today Bestselling women’s fiction under the name Molly Fader. Her books have been selected book club picks by Women’s Day Magazine and the Brenda Novak book club. She lives in Toronto, Canada with her husband, two kids and the largest heap of dirty laundry in North America.

Learn more at Molly O’Keefe’s website.

Please note that NECRWA meetings are online.

August 16, 2020 Meeting – WriteFAST! with Siera London

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Our August 16th monthly meeting will be in two parts.
Siera London headshotPart 1 will be a Workshop in a Box presented by Siera London on WriteFAST!
Workshop description: A straightforward method to transform your story idea into a first draft FAST!
The pre-recorded workshop will start promptly at 1pm and will be presented on Gotowebinar. Registration information has been posted in the NECRWA Facebook Group and the NECRWA chapter forum on RWA. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Please reach out to Alexa Rowan at [email protected] with any questions.

BIO: Siera London is a bestselling author of contemporary romance and romantic suspense. She crafts stories of diverse characters navigating the challenges and triumphs to find lasting love. Intelligence, wit, emotion, drama, and sensual romance are between the covers of every Siera London novel. Siera lives in California with her husband, and a color patch tabby named Frie.

Learn more at Siera London’s official website.

Part 2 will be our monthly chapter business meeting, which will be held on Zoom. The Zoom meeting info has also been posted in the NECRWA Facebook Group and the NECRWA chapter forum on RWA. Again, please reach out to Alexa Rowan at [email protected] with any questions.
Please note that NECRWA meetings are online.

July 19, 2020 Meeting – “Workshop” Your WIP

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Workshop Your WIP!

We are holding an informal (virtual) meeting this month, with no presenter. We’ll be breaking into small groups to “workshop” the aspects of our works-in-progress (manuscript, blurb, etc.) that we’re struggling with or that are stymieing us. Sometimes talking these issues through with supportive writer friends and colleagues can help us figure out how to solve them. Or, if you don’t feel like workshopping anything, you can hang out and socialize while others are in the breakout rooms.

Please note that NECRWA meetings are online.

June 14, 2020 Meeting – Your Protagonist’s Job workshop with Rose Lerner

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Rose Lerner

Make Your Protagonist’s Job Work for YOU!

Our work shapes us.

Whether your protagonist is a scientist, a homemaker, a fast food worker, or a demon hunter, they spend countless hours every week working and thinking about work, and they have for most of their life. If you take the time to really think about how your protagonist’s profession affects their personality and worldview, you’ll see the results in the added depth, naturalism, and uniqueness of your characterization.

In this workshop, you’ll have a chance to partner up and create a character together! Then I guide the group through a series of interactive exercises and brainstorming sessions. You’ll use the character’s job as a lense to build characterization, covering everything from job skills and the economic nitty-gritty to deep POV and story structure.

Please note that NECRWA meetings are online.

BIO: Rose Lerner discovered historical romance when she was thirteen, and tried her hand at writing one a few years later. Her writing has improved since then, but her fascination with all things Regency hasn’t changed. Rose is a tour guide by day (at least, she was before lockdown…), and by night she writes romance! Her protagonists include a chemist, an innkeeper, an army officer, a con artist, a valet, a maid-of-all-work, and a confectioner. Books in her small-town Lively St. Lemeston series have been featured in NPR’s Book Concierge and Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2014. Visit RoseLerner.com to find out more. (Rose also freelances as a book doctor, editor, and research assistant at RoseDoesTheResearch.com, helping authors tap into their creativity and realize the full potential of their ideas!)

 

May 17, 2020 Meeting – Character Archetypes with Anju Gattani

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Bree Bridges

“Writing fiction is the act of weaving a series of lies to arrive at a greater truth.” –Khaled Hosseini

Fiction may be little white lies for some but characters are real. A story may get over when you reach THE END but characters have the power to live in our hearts, minds and leap off the page and into our lives.

Join fiction author and international freelance journalist, Anju Gattani, in a power-packed workshop (complete with handouts) as she dissects character archetypes and deep-dives into the different dimensions of your characters. Anju will explore how to make your protagonists and villains sparkle on the page, amp up the tension and drive story forward. Join Anju as she summons protagonists to THE END so you can lead them toward THE BEGINNING of a sequel or series.

Please note that NECRWA meetings are online.

BIO: A fiction author, freelance journalist, fiction writing instructor, blogger and former newspaper reporter, Anju was born in India but grew up in Hong Kong. She has also lived and been published in Singapore, India, Australia, New Jersey, Connecticut, and finally dug her roots in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, with her husband, 2 dashing boys and a rebel lion-head rabbit. Anju has been published in cover stories, fiction, feature, news, interviews, travel, perspective pieces and more.

‘Duty and Desire’ the debut in her Winds of Fire series, is slated for release on June 2, 2020. Anju hopes her books will Bridge Cultures and Break Barriers.

Anju Gattani website

 

April 19, 2020 Meeting – Online Promotion for Introverts with Bree Bridges

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Bree Bridges It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an author in possession of a book to promote, must be in want of a place to hide.

Okay, maybe it’s not universally acknowledged. But plenty of authors love the peaceful hermit life of writing a book and freeze in the face of going out and actually asking someone to buy it. Whether you suffer from anxiety, introversion, shyness, or any combination of the above, sometimes it seems like nothing is more terrifying than telling the world, Hey! Look at me!

Bree Bridges (the painfully shy half of Kit Rocha) has spent a decade perfecting the art of building an online brand and a marketing machine while being, to put it gently, straight up freaking terrified of talking to people.

Join her for a free-wheeling adventure through tricks and strategies to get your name out there, build long-term relationships with reviewers, maximize the potential of every terrifying human interaction, survive the pressure to Do All The Things on social media, and find ways to navigate the high-pressure world of actually selling that book you just wrote.

Whether you’re self-published, traditionally published, hybrid, or just getting ready to start building your brand, you’ll leave with some new ideas on how to get the most from doing the least. (At least when it comes to scary things!)

Extroverts are also welcome. Plenty of the tricks will work for you, too! Just don’t make any sudden movements. We’re shy.

BIO:

Kit Rocha is the pseudonym for co-writing team Donna Herren and Bree Bridges. After penning dozens of paranormal novels, novellas and stories as Moira Rogers, they branched out into gritty, sexy dystopian romance.

The Beyond series has appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists, has been nominated for best erotic romance in the RT Reviewer’s Choice award five times, and won in 2013 and 2015. Their new Mercenary Librarians series from Tor debuts in 2020.

 

March 15, 2020 Meeting – Copyedits and Revisions Head-On with Isabel Ngo

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Isabel Ngo Isabel will discuss grammar and Chicago Style basics, common mistakes in manuscripts, and pointers to get you through the editing and revision process. This presentation will include copyedit examples, practical tips, and a short Q&A.

BIO:

Isabel Ngo (she/her) is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles, California, with experience in journalism and literary publishing. She graduated in 2018 from Loyola Marymount University, where she studied theatre, English, and studio arts. Isabel offers copyediting and sensitivity reading services through Tessera Editorial, a company of BIPOC committed to diversifying the publishing industry. You can find Isabel on Twitter @isabelsprout and learn more about Tessera at our website: www.tesseraeditorial.com

 

February 16, 2020 Meeting – The Taoist’s Guide to Staying Sane in the Writing Business with Jeffe Kennedy

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Jeffe Kennedy Feel like one more workshop on promo might send you over the edge?

Anne Lamott famously noted that while writing, as difficult as the process may be, delivers gifts publication makes people crazy. Many writers get into the business first out of love, however, love doesn’t pay the bills and it can take a while for writing to pay a living wage. The writer who has no other financial support often has no choice but to work one or more “day jobs” to keep the money coming in. The dream, of course, is quitting that day job to make a living entirely as a writer. What can happen, however, is that intense focus on bringing in money from writing – from scrutinizing the marketplace, to constantly checking Amazon rankings, to jealous obsession with other writers’ sales figures – can suck all the joy out of what was once a dream, and even reduce the art of writing into an algorithm. The Taoists believe that focusing on monetary gain instead of on their concept of virtue “maddens the mind.” Jeffe Kennedy, a comparative religious studies major who did her honors thesis on the Tao Te Ching, and a practicing Taoist for most of her life, will discuss these concepts and encourage round table discussion of people’s experiences. It’s not that money is the root of all evil, but that the love of money is. There’s nothing wrong with plying our art to gain wealth, but there are ways to refocus our attention on the core values that truly matter, such as telling a memorable story while navigating the tumultuous publishing world.

BIO:

Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author whose works include novels, non-fiction, poetry, and short fiction. She has been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award.

Her award-winning fantasy romance trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms hit the shelves starting in May 2014. Book 1, The Mark of the Tala, received a starred Library Journal review and was nominated for the RT Book of the Year while the sequel, The Tears of the Rose received a Top Pick Gold and was nominated for the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2014. The third book, The Talon of the Hawk, won the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2015. Two more books followed in this world, beginning the spin-off series The Uncharted Realms. Book one in that series, The Pages of the Mind, has also been nominated for the RT Reviewer’s Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2016 and won RWA’s 2017 RITA® Award. The second book, The Edge of the Blade, released December 27, 2016, and is a PRISM finalist, along with The Pages of the Mind. The next in the series, The Shift of the Tide, will be out in August, 2017. A high fantasy trilogy taking place in The Twelve Kingdoms world is forthcoming from Rebel Base books in 2018.

She also introduced a new fantasy romance series, Sorcerous Moons, which includes Lonen’s War, Oria’s Gambit, The Tides of Bàra, and The Forests of Dru. She’s begun releasing a new contemporary erotic romance series, Missed Connections, which started with Last Dance and continues in With a Prince.

In 2019, St. Martins Press will release the first book, The Orchid Throne, in a new fantasy romance series, The Forgotten Empires.

Her other works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion; an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera; and the erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, which includes Going Under, Under His Touch and Under Contract.

She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.

Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular SFF Seven blog, on Facebook, on Goodreads and pretty much constantly on Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Sarah Younger of Nancy Yost Literary Agency.

 

Old Town Hall Bedford Massachusetts

January 19, 2020 Meeting – “Town Hall” on Recent Events and NECRWA’s Future – MEETING IS STILL ON

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Old Town Hall Bedford MassachusettsNECRWA’s first meeting of 2020 will be a Town Hall style meeting focusing on recent events within RWA and NECRWA’s future. (No, it will not be summertime like in the lovely photo, alas.)

We will not be voting on taking any actions at this meeting. Rather, NECRWA’s leadership will explain the options available to the organization. We will then seek input from the membership on how to proceed and will answer your questions as best we can. Members, please feel free to send us questions in advance, whether or not you are planning to attend the meeting. The meeting will be accessible electronically to members who are unable to attend in person via a Facebook Live session through the chapter Facebook group. Electronic access will unfortunately not be available to guests. Guests are, however, welcome to attend in person (payment of a $5 guest fee is required).

We hope you will join us on January 19th.