Wednesday, December 14, 2011

December Minutes and News

On Tuesday, December 13th, the WordWeavers had their monthly meeting and Christmas Party. Diana Purser, Denise Jarmola, Heather Davis, Rita Durrett, Barbara Shoff, Sybil Copeland, Sharlene Copeland, Marilyn Boone, Sylvia Cramer, Tawnya York and Jennifer McMurrain were all present. Our special guest was a reporter for Bartlesville Montly Magazine, Amanda Scott.

Most of the meeting was spent talking about the WordWeavers and the publishing industry with Ms. Scott. We look forward to seeing her article in the magazine this spring. I'll let you know which month exactly closer to time.

Our next meeting will be January 17th at the Bartlesville Public Library at 7pm in Meeting Room A (upstairs, food and drink welcome). This will be an OPEN meeting, in fact all our meetings are open unless stated otherwise. We will not be critiquing, but taking the opportunity to get our contest entries for OWFI and the FOL Bartlesville Creative Writing Contest ready to go. Hope to see you there. Happy Writing.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Correction: Next Open Meeting Date

The next open WordWeavers meeting will be Tuesday, January 17th at 7pm at the Bartlesville Public Library, not the 16th which was stated in the pervious post.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

November Meeting Minutes and News

On Tuesday, November 15th, the WordWeavers had their monthly meeting. Diana Purser, Denise Jarmola, Heather Davis, Rita Durrett, Barbara Shoff, Sybil Copeland, Sharlene Copeland, Marilyn Boone and Jennifer McMurrain were all present. A special welcome to Sybil and Sharlene, we look forward to reading your memoir.

The first hour was spent tending to old and new business. We have a total of 11 paid members, all of which have also joined OWFI. So we have met our affiliate obligations with them. Jennifer McMurrain is going to try to attend the OWFI board meeting on December 4th, so we can get a better feel of what OWFI can offer us beyond the conference.

The OWFI and Bartlesville Friends of the Library writing contests are approaching very soon. Both contest deadlines are on February 1, 2012. For more information you can go to http://www.owfi.org/ and http://www.bartlesville.lib.ok.us/ .

The rest of the time was spent critiquing. We will be critiquing work from Diana, Sybil and Jennifer.

Our next meeting will be members only on December 13th at Denise Jarmola's house. Details and directions will arrive in your inboxes shortly. The next open meeting will be on January 16th.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

October Meeting Minutes and News

On Tuesday, October 18th, the WordWeavers had their monthly meeting. Diana Purser, Denise Jarmola, Heather Davis, Rita Durrett, Barbara Shoff, Jim Bartmess, Marilyn Boone and Jennifer McMurrain were all present. A special welcome to Jim Bartmess, we hope you make WordWeavers part of your writing routine.

Old business included paying of dues. If you have not paid your dues, you can still be a member of WordWeavers, its $10.00 for WordWeavers and if you’d like to join OWFI through us it’s $15.00. Joining OWFI as a Member-at-Large is $25.00, so think of joining through WordWeavers as a two for one special.

The entry forms are out for the 2012 Bartlesville Friends of the Library Creative Writing Contest. You can pick up a form at the library or you can download a form by going to http://www.bartlesville.lib.ok.us/ . WordWeavers did very well in this contest this year; let’s hope our success continues in 2012.

Don’t forget http://www.cleverfiction.com/ has a short story prompt every week. It’s an excellent writing exercise, plus you can gain valued feedback from fellow writers.
We have two members with their works on Amazon.com, check out:

Murder Goes to Church by C.D. Jarmola (http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Goes-to-Church-ebook/dp/B005MGP53O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319679075&sr=8-1 )

and Rita Durrett’s mystery romance novels:

Keeping Secrets (http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Secrets-ebook/dp/B00596749U/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1319679122&sr=1-1 ),

Smugglers in Paradise (http://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-in-Paradise-ebook/dp/B005EDMFQ0/ref=pd_sim_kinc_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2 ) and

Calypso Princess (http://www.amazon.com/The-Calypso-Princess-ebook/dp/B005FB4BDQ/ref=pd_sim_kinc_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2).

We had a very special guest speaker, Linda Boulanger from Treasureline Publishing, who presented a very informative speech on eBooks and ePublishing, not to mention the perks of going through a nontraditional publisher. I’m not going to try to sum up all the information she gave us, but remember if you have questions to use the e-mail address she gave us. If you were there and don’t know the address, e-mail Bville_WordWeavers@yahoo.com and I’ll send it to you.

Our next meeting will be November 15th at 7:00 pm at the Bartlesville Public Library in Meeting Room A (upstairs). Food and drinks are welcome in that room. I look forward to see you all there. Happy Writing ~Jennifer

Friday, September 23, 2011

September Meeting Minutes and News

Tuesday, September 20th, WordWeavers held their montly meeting. Jennifer McMurrain, Denise Jarmola, Rita Durrett, Barbara Shoff, Tawnya York, Heather Davis and Marilyn Boone were all in attendance.

During the first hour we discussed our current projects. Denise Jarmola has added her name to our e-book authors with her cozy murder mystery "Murder Goes to Church", which is available at Amazon.com. Don't forget Rita Durrett has three of her books on both Amazon.com and Smashwords.com.

Marilyn Boone shared information regarding the Nimrod Literacy Awards Conference, which is on October 22nd at the University of Tulsa, more information can be found here: http://www.utulsa.edu/nimrod/conference.html

Denise Jarmola shared some information regarding the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators - Oklahoma Chapter Conferences, more information regarding the group can be found here : http://www.scbwiok.org

Ladies Home Journal is doing their annual Personal Essay Contest, more information can be found on that here: http://www.lhj.com/community/books/2011-personal-essay-contest

If you're looking for a great writing exercise with critiques check out Pat Slippery's blog, where there is a weekly challenge: http://cleverfiction.weebly.com/index.html

Speaking of blogs as a group it's important to help spread the word about each other's writing, so here are links to all the blogs and websites of the WordWeavers. Please take the time to read, comment and share on your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Word of mouth is our best advertisement. Here are the links:

Heather Davis: http://www.minivan-momma.com

Denise Jarmola: http://devotionsfromtheresidentheretic.blogspot.com

Jennifer McMurrain: http://nightingalestories.blogspot.com
http://www.jennifermcmurrain.com

Rita Durrett: http://www.ritawritesromances.com

The rest of the meeting was spent critiquing.Our next meeting will be October 18th at 7pm at the Bartlesville Public Library in Meeting Room B (sorry no food or drinks). We will be critiquing work from Heather, Barbara and Denise. Hope to see you there, until then - Happy Writing.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

August Meeting News and Minutes

Tuesday, August 16th, WordWeavers held their monthly meeting. Tawnya York, Marilyn Boone, Ann Cleary, Diana Purser, Rita Durrett, Denise Jarmola, Jennifer McMurrain, Heather Davis, Roland Harrison, Shawn Hartok, June Pritchard and Sybil Copeland were all in attendance. A special welcome to Roland, Shawn, June and Sybil for stopping by, we do hope to see you at our next meeting. Having a full room warms our hearts.

During the first business hour we discussed more aspects of e-publishing. Rita has now added two more novels to her e-book resume, “Smugglers in Paradise” and “The Calypso Princess”. Both of which can be found on Amazon.com and Smashwords.com. Be sure to search for Rita Durrett, it’s the fastest way. Rita has also started her own webpage, go check out www.ritawritesromances.com, where you can reach chapters of her books. She has definitely made the most of her summer vacation.

We also discussed a few possible publication sites. Jennifer and Denise are still waiting to hear back from Glimmer Train on a couple of their short stories. They were supposed to hear back by July 31st and both are still pending. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this means they’ve made the short list for publication. Rita heard about a contest through Better Homes and Gardens, I will posts more on that when I get the information. Please send your thoughts and prayers to Diana who will be having surgery on September 6th followed by chemo.

June shared with us that she has decided to self-publish her memior through Trafford Publishing. We wish her the best of luck and will let you know the minute it hits the shelves.

The rest of the meeting was spent getting to know our visitors and critiquing.

Our next meeting will be September 20th at 7pm at the Bartlesville Public Library. I will post which meeting room tomorrow. We will be critiquing work from Rita, Tawnya and Denise. Hope to see you there, until then - Happy Writing.

July Meeting Minutes and News

Tuesday, July 19, WordWeavers held their montly meeting. Rita Durrett, Denise Jarmola, Marilyn Boone, Veronica Toothman, Heather Davis and Jennifer McMurrain were all in attendance.

During the first business hour Rita discussed her recent journey into publishing her books as e-books and placing them on Amazon.com. She has successfully uploaded “Keeping Secrets”. Please check it out today by going to Amazon.com and searching for Rita Durrett. Although it takes a lot of work, Rita proudly announced she had made enough money to buy a pizza. :o) Good for you Rita!

Denise Jarmola has volunteered to send our “Announcements and Acknowledgements” to the OWFI newsletter, so look for those in your upcoming edition. Most of our accomplishments for the year will be included since we haven’t submitted anything to them.

Jennifer McMurrain proudly showed off the newest member of WordWeavers. Annaley Michelle McMurrain was born July 8th and can’t wait to begin her new novel. ;o)

The rest of the meeting was spent critiquing and brainstorming.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

June Meeting Minutes and News

Tuesday, June 21, WordWeavers held their monthly meeting. Rita Durret, Diana Purser, Heather Davis, Ann Cleary, Jen Paul, Celeste Cleary, Tawnya York, Marilyn Boone, Denise Jarmola and Jennifer McMurrain were all in attendance. We would like to send a very warm welcome to Ann, Jen, and Celeste. We’re so glad you came.

During the first business hour we talked a bit about different places to query and send your work. OWFI has a quarterly contest with regards to a picture on the back of the newsletter. For more details look at your Summer 2011 OWFI newsletter or go to www.owfi.org to read the newsletter online. You must be a member of OWFI to have access to the newsletter and contest. Glimmer Train, a literary journal, also accepts short story manuscripts all year, but typically there is a reading fee. For the month of July you can send up to three short story manuscripts without sending a reading fee. For more information go to www.glimmertrain.com.

A hearty congrats goes out to Denise Jarmola, her short story, The Date, was published in the Summer 2011 edition of the OWFI newsletter and Heather Davis won 1st place with her humor article titled, Eating Fresh. You can find Heather’s article at http://www.humorpress.com/Results/HumorShowcase-Index.htm#Winners .

The rest of the meeting was spent critiquing, while enjoying some Thunder Cake, thanks to Heather. Thanks again Heather, it was delicious! Next month we will critique work from Rita, Denise, and Heather. Our next meeting will be July 19th at 7pm in Meeting Room A (upstairs, food and drinks welcome) at the Bartlesville Public Library. See you on the 19th.

Monday, May 23, 2011

WordWeaver May Minutes and News

Tuesday, May 17th, WordWeavers held their monthly meeting. Diana Purser, Rita Durret, Denise Jarmola, Barbara Shoff, Marilyn Boone, Tawnya York and Jennifer McMurrain were all in attendance.

During the first business hour it was decided that WordWeavers would continue meeting throughout the summer and to set our age limit to 18 and above, with the stipulation that they are no longer in school. As much as we hate to set an age limit, we feel it’s important for all our WordWeavers to feel comfortable when submitting their work for critique.

We also discussed much of the information we learned at OWFI. The most important of which is to not give up. More than one of our members was asked to submit a manuscript for possible publication, so we wish them luck. And if you haven’t seen it yet, there is an article about WordWeaver’s trip to OWFI in Sunday, May 22nd paper.

The rest of the meeting was spent critiquing, while enjoying a wonderful cake that Tawnya brought. Thanks again Tawnya, it was yummy! Next month we will critique work from Diana, Jennifer and Tawnya. Our next meeting will be June 21st at 7pm in Meeting Room A (upstairs, food and drinks welcome). See you on the 21st.

Monday, May 16, 2011

WordWeavers May Meeting

WordWeavers May meeting is Tuesday, May 17th at 7 pm at the Bartlesville Library in Meeting Room A (upstairs). Open to new members.

Monday, May 9, 2011

WordWeaver Winners and OWFI News


Bartlesville WordWeavers, Denise Jarmola, Jennifer McMurrain, Diana Purser and Tawnya York, all attended the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation, Inc. Conference this past weekend. The ladies attended workshops on different writing topics such as finding your writing voice and how to catch an agent’s eye. Several of the ladies attended one-on-one meetings with different agents and editors from around the country. Jarmola and Purser were both ask to send manuscripts for possible publication.

Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of the Cotton Malone series and hits like The Amber Room, was the key note speaker at this year’s conference. His message was one of optimism and continuing to push forward even when the rejection letters start to pile up. Other speakers included, New York Times bestselling author, William Bernhardt, romance writer, Gretchen Craig, cozy mystery writer of the a la Mode series, Wendy Lyn Watson, as well as numerous other authors, agents, and editors.

Saturday night an awards banquet was held and a number of WordWeavers walked away with writing awards:

Denise Jarmola won 1st Honorable Mention, out of 59 entries, in Nostalgia Prose with Meeting Grandfather.

Barbara Shoff won 2nd Place, out of 17 entries, in the Mazie Cox Reid Column category with her Turning Brown Thumbs Green column.

Jennifer McMurrain won 3rd Honorable Mention, out of 25 entries, in Picture Books with Pinky’s Adventure, 2nd Place, out of 67 entries, in Short Story with Footprints in the Snow, and 1st Place, out of 17 entries, in Contemporary Romance Novel with Winter Song.

Congrats to all the winners!!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

April Meeting Notes

Tuesday, April 19th, WordWeavers held their monthly meeting. Rita Durret, Barbara Shoff, Marilyn Boone, Tawnya York, Diana Purser, Jennifer McMurrain, Denise Jarmola and Heather Davis were all in attendance.

The first few minutes were spent congratulating the winners of the Friends of the Library Bartlesville Creative Writing Contest. WordWeavers basically swept the board with:

Fiction
2nd - Jennifer McMurrain

Non-fiction
1st - Denise Jarmola
2nd - Marilyn Boone

Poetry
2nd - Tawnya York

Stories for Children
1st - Jennifer McMurrain
2nd - Diana Purser

And of course our own Denise Jarmola won the Grand Prize for her Non-fiction piece!!!

There will be an awards ceremony Thursday (21st) at 7pm at the Bartlesville Public Library in Meeting Room A (upstairs). Rilla Askew, author of Harpsong and Bartlesville native, will be the key note speaker. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Officers were also elected at Tuesday’s meeting:
Jennifer McMurrain – President
Marilyn Boone – Vice President
Diana Purser – Treasurer
Barbara Shoff – Secretary

Other business included verifying all OWFI details and voting on an informational bookmarker for the library staff to hand out to interested parties.

The rest of the meeting was spent critiquing. Next month we will critique work from Barbara, Marilyn and Tawnya. Our next meeting is May 17th at 7pm in Meeting Room A (upstairs). See you on the 17th.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

April Meeting

WordWeavers April Meeting this Tuesday (19th) at 7pm at the Bartlesville Public Library in Meeting Room B (downstairs corner).



Hope to see you there!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Pictures from February's Meeting

Sorry the color's a bit off on these. I tried to fix them but everyone ended up looking like a smurf.

Rita, Tawnya and Marilyn


Diana and Jennifer


Denise and Veronica



Next meeting is April 19th at 7pm at the Bartlesville Public Library Meeting Room B (downstairs corner)

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

March Meeting Notes and Minutes

Tuesday, March 22nd, WordWeavers held their monthly meeting. Diana Purser, Rita Durret, Heather Davis, Marilyn Boone, Denise Jarmola, Barbara Shoff and Jennifer McMurrain were all in attendance. We would like to send out a very special welcome to Heather Davis. We're so glad you came.

The first hour was spent ironing out some OWFI conference details. We have four people confirmed to go and share in the hotel expense. If you are planning on going and would like to share the room, please let us know ASAP by e-mailing Jennifer at Bville_WordWeavers@yahoo.com. It will be a little cramped with more than four people to a room, but we'll make it work.

We will be reserving a table for the awards banquet on Saturday night. If you have extra people attending please let Jennifer know at Bville_WordWeavers@yahoo.com. We want to make sure there's room for everyone, including spouses and our friends from Kansas City.

We also agreed to sponsor a full category at this year's OWFI conference and Barbara Shoff graciously agreed to be our Press Secretary of sorts. She's going to make sure that we get the appropriate bragging rights in all the appropriate places. So thank you Barbara.

Heather brought up an interesting writing contest/exercise some of you might want to try called "Three Minute Fiction" sponsored by NPR. You can find more details regarding that on the NPR.org website. Speaking of websites, I encourage all of you to visit Heather's blog http://www.minivan-momma.com/ it's a snort-laugh good time.

A very special congrats to Denise Jarmola who had a book review published in Mia Magazine and has a hysterical piece coming out in the fall OWFI newsletter. Good for you, Denise!

The rest of the meeting was spent critiquing. Next month we will critique chapters from Diana, Heather, and Denise. Our next meeting is April 19th at 7pm in Meeting Room B (downstairs corner). See you on the 19th.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

March Meeting Update

The March meeting has been moved from the 15th to the 22nd due to Spring Break. It will still be at 7pm at the Bartlesville Public Library in Meeting Room B (downstairs corner).

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

February WordWeavers News and Minutes

Tuesday, February 15th, WordWeavers held their monthly meeting. Denise Jarmola, Barbara Shoff, Veronica Toothman, Rita Durret, Marilyn Boone, and Jennifer McMurrain were all in attendance.

We spent just a few minutes commenting on how great the chairpeople (persons?) have been for OWFI. A couple of us made some boo-boos that the chairpeople fixed for us. It was above and beyond what they had to do and we are thankful they took the time to clean up after us. We have 1 hotel suite booked for the entire conference and will take another head count March 15th. OWFI conference registrations are due on March 15th (or you'll have to pay a late fee) and you can request a meeting with an agent or editor starting on March 1st. I strongly encourage everyone to do this, it is excellent experience even if you aren't quite ready to submit your manuscript. I know even though mine wasn't ready for publication I got some excellent feedback from the agent I talked to.

The rest of the meeting was spent critiquing. Next month we will critique Chapters from Barbara, Rita and Marilyn. Our next meeting is March 15th at 7pm in Meeting Room A (upstairs). A quick poll revealed that everyone liked Meeting Room A better, it has more privacy so we don't have to worry about getting too loud, plus food and drinks are allowed in that meeting room. See you on the 15th.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

February WordWeavers Meeting

The February WordWeavers meeting is this Tuesday, the 15th, at 7:00 pm at the Bartlesville Public Library in Meeting Room A (upstairs). We are accepting new members and welcome anyone interested to come see what we're about. For more information e-mail Bville_WordWeavers@yahoo.com or call Jennifer at 918-907-0066. Hope to see you there.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

January Meeting Minutes and News

Tuesday, January 18th, WordWeavers held their monthly meeting. Denise Jarmola, Barbara Shoff, Veronica Toothman, Rita Durret, Twanya York, Marilyn Boone, Diana Purser, and Jennifer McMurrain were all in attendance. We do accept members all year around and interested parties are always welcome to sit in on a meeting.

Our main topic of discussion focused on the Oklahoma Writer's Federation, Inc. contest (OWFI). Everyone is really excited about OWFI and I hope if you weren't there you're working hard to meet the Feb. 1st deadline. It looks like the WordWeavers will be entering around 20 items to contest.

We are trying to get enough people to go to share a hotel room and keep costs down. Right now we have two definitely going and two tentative. We have two going with husbands that will have their own rooms and one that may only go half the time. If you're interested please give me a call or drop me an e-mail. We will also discuss some fund raising to help cover the cost of the hotel room at the next meeting.

Please remember that the Bartlesville Creative Writing Contest deadline is also Feb. 1st and it's prizes are a lot higher in value than OWFI. Plus the entry fees go to the Friends of the Library which is a great cause and they help the library out a lot. You can get an entry form online at http://www.bartlesville.lib.ok.us or pick one up at the library. WordWeavers won both the fiction and non-fiction categories last year so we have a reputation to defend.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, Feb. 15th at 7pm in Meeting Room A. That is the upstairs meeting room, not the downstairs corner were we usually meet. When you go in the front door take a right toward the elevator. You'll see some stairs (I wouldn't use the elevator unless you absolutely have to), go up the stairs, and the meeting room is the first door on the right after the entry bridge.

We will be critiquing Veronica's Chapter 1 of her current WIP, this is a rough draft so we're looking for content edits only, unless you just feel like grammar editing. We'll also be looking at Denise's Chapter 1 for Do-Overs. If there's time we will critique my chapter 1 of Love at Quail Crossings, if there's not time we'll critique it in March.

Veronica had a great idea, when submitting your chapter for critique, write the genre and intended audience. This will help us get a feel if it's audience/genre appropriate, plus it's something we all need to do anyway.

Again we are open to new members and you're always welcome to attend one of our meetings to see what it's all about. For more information you can e-mail Bville_WordWeavers@yahoo.com.

Hope to see everyone February 15th!
Happy Writing,
Jennifer

August 2022 meeting (hybrid)

 This month's meeting was held in the BPL meeting room as well as on Zoom. Members present: Jennifer, Glen, Marilyn, Rick, Sue, Natalie,...