Next Meeting: December 11!!

Our final meeting of 2018 will be Tuesday, December 11 in the Community Room of the Pine Valley Library at 7:00 PM. 

Please bring 6-8 copies of a poem or prose piece to share and receive feedback. 

If you didn't write anything this month, that's okay. Please come anyway to offer your insights to other writers on their work. 

Hope to see you all soon!! 

Take care, and keep writing!! 

Warmly,

"Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul." ~Anne Lamott

Next Meeting: October 9!

The writers of the Mountain Empire area of San Diego County will be meeting the second Tuesday of October, the 9th, at 7:00 PM in the Community Room of the Pine Valley Library. 

Bring 6-8 copies of a poem or no more than 1500 words of prose to be shared and receive feedback from the group. 

But if you don't have writings to share, come to offer your two cents to our writing friends. We all desire feedback on our work, and your ideas may be just the thing! 

And don't forget: National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is coming up soon in November! Perhaps we'll hold another "Write-In" on a Saturday at the Pine Valley Library! Let us know if you'll come! 
Hope to see you all on Tuesday, October 9th!

And a little Poe for October! 

Writing with you,

Next Meeting: September 11!!

The writers of the Mountain Empire area of San Diego County will be meeting the second Tuesday of the month, September 11th, at 7:00 PM in the Community Room of the Pine Valley Library. 

Bring 6-8 copies of a poem or no more than 1500 words of prose to be shared and receive feedback from the group. 

But if you don't have writings to share, come to offer your two cents to our writing friends. We all desire feedback on our work, and your ideas may be just the thing! 

Hope to see you all on Tuesday, September 11th!

Writing with you, 

Next Meeting: Tuesday July 10th!

The writers of the Mountain Empire area of San Diego County will be meeting the second Tuesday of the month, July 10th, at 7:00 PM in the Community Room of the Pine Valley Library. 

Bring 6-8 copies of a poem or no more than 1500 words of prose to be shared and receive feedback from the group. 

But if you don't have writings to share, come to offer your two cents to our writing friends. We all desire feedback on our work, and your ideas may be just the thing! 

Hope to see you all on Tuesday, July 10th!

Writing with you,

"I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living." ~Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

Next Meeting: Tuesday, June 12!!

To All Mountain Empire Writers and Those Interested in Writing!

We meet the second Tuesday of the month (and have for over ten years now!) in the Community Room of the Pine Valley Library at 7:00 PM. We'll be meeting this month on Tuesday, June 12 @ 7:00 PM! 

Bring 6-8 copies of a poem or fewer than 1500 words of prose if you'd like to receive written feedback. We're kind and helpful!! 

We also discuss publication strategies (especially those of us who are published) and work to improve our craft. 

Everyone is welcome--bring a writing friend!!

The Definition of Writing: "Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every afternoon." ~Raymond Chandler

Writing with you,

Next Meeting: Tuesday, May 8th!!

I apologize for missing our April announcement post here; it's been a crazy time for me with my teaching load, especially all of the MLA research essays coming my way! 

We had a lovely meeting with five of us in April. Elaine read several little "ditties" that she had typed into her phone as they came to her. We're encouraging her to submit them to our local monthly publication, The Valley Views, as her thoughts as a relative newcomer to our mountain village are fresh and thought-provoking. 

Dianne continued with her mystery novel which is set in a town based on our own Pine Valley, leaving us with quite the cliffhanger! I brought the beginnings of a Pride and Prejudice fanfiction novella to share, and Teresa shared a selection of her poems as well as the first two chapters of her fanfiction novella based on L. Frank Baum's Oz books. 

So we'll be meeting next on Tuesday, May 8th in the Community Room of the Pine Valley Library from 7:00 PM to approximately 8:30 PM. Everyone interested in writing and/or publishing their work is encouraged to attend. 

Please bring 6-8 copies of a poem or a prose work of fewer than 1500 words to share with the group. But if you haven't written anything to share, please attend to offer feedback to those who are bringing their writings to share.

We hope to see you all on May 8th!! 

Writing with you, 

"Details make stories human, and the more human a story can be, the better." ~Ernest Hemingway

Next Meeting: Tuesday, March 13!!

The writers of the Mountain Empire area of San Diego County will be meeting the second Tuesday of March, the 13th, at 7:00 PM in the Community Room of the Pine Valley Library. 

Bring 6-8 copies of a poem or no more than 1500 words of prose to be shared and receive feedback from the group. 

But if you don't have writings to share, come to offer your two cents to our writing friends. We all desire feedback on our work, and your ideas may be just the thing! 

Hope to see you all on Tuesday, March 13th!

 

Writing with you,

Next Meeting: Tuesday, February 13th!

February is a busy time for those of us who love writing and live in San Diego. It's a wonderful month, chock full of writing inspiration. So let's put on our writing caps and get with it! 

First of all, the next meeting of the Mountain Empire Creative Arts Council (MECAC) Writers' Workshop is Tuesday, February 13 from 7:00 - 8:30 PM in the Community Room of the Pine Valley Library. 

Everyone interested in writing is encouraged to attend. Writers who wish to receive written and oral feedback on their work should bring 6-8 copies of a poem or 1500 words or less of prose to share with the group. If some writers don't have any work to share, that's okay, too; they can offer their thoughts and feedback to the writers who have brought work to share. 

In addition, I just ran across a really great blog post about time management for writers that's common-sensical as well as well as quite do-able. It's from the BookBaby Blog for independent writers, and here's the link to the post: The Writing Process: Time Management Tips by Norm Schriever.  I found this post quite practical and also inspirational at the same time. 

Plus, February is time for the Writer's Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University. The theme for this 23rd annual symposium is "Writing That Deepens." Here is the schedule for the week of the symposium:

February 19, 2018 – Deepak Chopra (in conjunction with Warwicks Books)

February 20, 2018 – Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley (A Thousand Acres)
February 21, 2018 – Peabody Award winner Krista Tippett (Becoming Wise), host of the podcast "On Being" 
February 22, 2018 – Writing Workshop, "Conflicted: Telling the Stories of Conflicts at Home, Abroad, and in the Heart"
February 22, 2018 – New York Times-bestselling author and legendary athlete Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court)
February 23, 2018 – PLNU Alum Justin Skeesuck and co-author Patrick Gray (I'll Push You)

Earlier this week, Dean Nelson (the creative force behind the Writer's Symposium) tweeted about the upcoming symposium with this quote: Line in a book by Kareem: "During my five decades as a writer, I also played some basketball."

We'll be discussing logistics of attending at least one of the sessions at our meeting on February 13, including possible carpooling from Pine Valley.

Hoping to see you on February 13!

Writing with you,

Next Meeting: Tuesday, January 9!!

We'll be meeting next on Tuesday, January 9th at 7:00 PM in the Community Room of the Pine Valley Library.

Bring 6-8 copies of a poem or less than 1500 words of prose to share with the group. But if you don't have anything to share, come anyway and offer suggestions to your fellow writers. 

We'll also discuss attending the Writer's Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University February 19-23. They have quite the line-up of writers discussing writing this year, including Deepak Chopra (in conjunction with Warwicks Books in La Jolla), Pulitzer winner Jane Smiley, Krista Tippett, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. 

Here's a bit of what we enjoyed last year with poet Robert Pinsky (53 minutes):

Hope to see you all there! 

Writing with you,