June Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, June 18th, WordWeavers held their monthly meeting. Charlotte Smith, Cindy Molder, Karen Welch, Mary Anderson, Mary Kincaid, Jennifer McMurrain, Barbara Shoff, Stacey Nading, Saralyn Miller, Sara Leslie and Marilyn Boone were all in attendance. We would like to send a very warm welcome to Cindy, Karen, Mary A, and Stacey. We’re so glad you came.

The WordWeavers and Bambino's are happy to announce the 2nd annual Into the Book festival will be held on September 14, 2013 at Bambino's from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm.

If you are a local author (Bartlesville, Pawhuska, Dewey, Nowata, etc) and would like to have a book signing table at our event, please contact us at Bville_WordWeavers@yahoo.com before August 19th. We have a limited number of spots. Any spots leftover after August 19th will be given to interested authors from around the area. We want this to spotlight local authors first, so please let us know ASAP.

Our anthology, Seasons Remembered is doing okay. During our recent promotional giveaway we got Seasons into the hands of 197 people. I know that may not have meant expectations, but anthologies are a hard sell. Keep in mind, that's a 197 people who may not have heard about us before and could possibly buy an individual WordWeaver's work.

We also sold 2 copies in person and had 1 Kindle sale. Here is the current rundown.

Author copies: 15

In Person: 75

Kindle: 15

Amazon: 12

Giveaway: 197

For a total: 314

We also reiterated the submission guidelines for the upcoming anthology. Each person was e-mailed a set of submission rules. Please refer to that for all of them, but here are the biggies.

1. E-mail your submission to Bville_WordWeavers@yahoo.com (not to Jennifer) before your deadline.

2. Print out the submission and critique, then return to the person during the meeting after the discussion.

3. If you can't make it to the meeting, e-mail the critique back to the person who wrote it, NOT TO JENNIFER. (I spent an obscene amount of time forwarding e-mails last year. The author's e-mail address will be at the top of the submission when I send it out. It's just as easy to send it to the author as it is to send it to me. If it is my submission, send it to JenniferMcMurrain@yahoo.com, not to my personal account. We want to make sure things don't get lost. This applies to everyone, no matter how long you've know me or what e-mail you previously have for me. Thanks.)

4. If we are critiquing your work, you NEED to be there. If everyone is taking the time to critique your work, you need to commit to the deadline you set and be at that meeting.

5. If you can't make it to the meeting where your work is being critiqued then you will need to pick up your critiques from Jennifer. (I will not deliver critiques this year. CALL before you come to my house.) Failure to pick up critiques may result in losing your spot in the anthology.

LilyBear House and Gilcrease Publishing will publish the new anthology as well as acquire Seasons Remembered. Neither LilyBear House or Gilcrease Publishing, will take royalties.

The rest of the time was spent critiquing works for our upcoming seasons anthology.

If you are a paid member of WordWeavers it's not too late to be involved in the anthology. E-mail me at Bville_WordWeavers@yahoo.com for the details.

Our next meeting will be July 16th at 6:30 pm at the Bartlesville Public Library, in meeting room A (upstairs). This is an open meeting and we hope to see you there. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at Bville_WordWeavers@yahoo.com.

Happy Writing,
Jennifer McMurrain
WordWeaver President

Seasons Remembered: A WordWeaver Anthology

Buy it today!

December Meeting Minutes

Bartlesville Wordweavers met on December 18, 2012 in the home of Denise Jarmola for a combined meeting and Christmas party.  We missed the members who were unable to attend.

Diana Purser gave the treasurer’s report. We currently have $410 in the account. A vote was taken to reimburse Diana for the paper she used to proofread final drafts for our anthology. It was agreed that Wordweavers would again sponsor a full category for the OWFI contest.

Brochures made by Heather Davis were available to look at. They provide information about Wordweavers and will be a great resource to newcomers interested in joining our group.

The book drive project in collaboration with CherryBerry has gone well and the date was extended to January 2, 2013. Money from the fundraiser will be used to buy books. Heather made the suggestion to purchase them through the school.

Denise reported on the OWFI meeting that she and Heather attended in Norman on December 2, 2012. Exciting news is that Denise was elected as the new president-elect for OWFI. She will take over as president after the 2013 conference on May 2-4. The contest will be transitioning to electronic submissions, though the traditional mailing option will still be available for this contest. The deadline is February 1. The goal is to be completely electronic by 2014. Concerning submissions, if something has been posted online it’s considered published unless it’s been posted for critiquing purposes only. New to the conference will be the opportunity to do a 10 minute reading from your book. Posters will be placed on easels about the book and the times for talks. Also noted was that affiliates to OWFI must come to at least one meeting during the year or they will be dropped. Scholarships are available to cover the cost of the conference and anyone can apply. Lastly, members are encouraged to enter the picture contest on the back of The Report.

For the Friends of the Library contest, Jennifer will offer help in running the contest as an FOL member. Wordweavers will not be collaborating with this contest.

Anthology sales are going well. For next anthology it was recommended to form a committee, allow more time to format, and give final edits back to the author.

Oklahoma Women Bloggers will launch in January. It’s preferred you have a blog but anyone can submit. Every month has a theme. It should be new unpublished material. Heather will be co-producing the Listen to Your Mother show in Oklahoma in May. It is now in 24 cities. Writings about motherhood may be submitted for review.

Many thanks go to everyone helping to make Wordweavers the best writing group around!  

The next meeting will be January 15, at 6:30 in the upstairs room at the library. We will be going through the submission process for the OWFI and Friends of the Library contests. Hope to see you there.

November 2012 Meeting

WordWeavers monthly meeting was held Wednesday, November 14 @ 6:30 p.m. The regular meeting day of the third Tuesday of the month was changed due to scheduled meeting room conflicts with the library.

First time attendees and new members were recognized and introduction of members was made.  Group pictures were taken for the anthology and scrapbook. Discussion about secretary duties took place.  It was agreed the minutes taken by the secretary would be included under title of VP. Marilyn Boone, current Vice-President agreed to accept position and duties of Secretary as well.

There were new pointers given on the operation of social media tool Facebook.

President, Jennifer McMurrian reported on the meeting with FOL and we should be receiving clarification about the guidelines and rules for the FOL writing contest.

Treasurer, Diana Purser gave a report.  I t was moved, seconded and passed that $10 will be expended for tonight’s photo shoot. It was moved, seconded and passed, that shipping for initial order of anthology will be covered by WordWeavers.

The anthology was discussed at length, a sample cover was displayed, and chapter placement sheets were provided.  Publication will be Tuesday, November 20^th 2012.

We had a very brief discussion of OWFI contest. We also discussed why members have not been receiving copies of newsmagazine.  We need to go to OWFI online and make choice to receive under our profile setting. 

Our December meeting will be at Denise Jarmola’s home Dec. 18^th, 6 p.m. and we will each bring a party tray of dessert or “salty” snack.

We reviewed Aubrey Cordoba’s children’s book, T.H. and the Missing Blanket. The group gave a few suggestions and agreed it has the potential of being a very marketable work.

We have been invited to assist Katherine Boulenger's Better Me, Better You project to get the word out for a K-6 grade book collection for donations of books to local grade schools.  We agreed.

The next meeting receiving new members will be the third Tuesday of January 2012.  We will focus on upcoming Friends of the Library and OWFI writing competitions.

Keep on writing,

Barbara Shoff

Remember if you write a page a day, before the end of a year you will have enough pages for a book. Then you get to start polishing.

August Meeting

At yesterday’s monthly meeting we met with Beth Degeer from Bartlesville Public Library to discuss plans and co-ordination of the upcoming Into the Book Festival.  Posters were provided to members for community wide placement.

Into the Book

A Festival for Readers and Writers

10 am to 4 pm

Saturday, September 15^th

Bartlesville Public Library

Keynote speakers:

Sonia Gensler

Author of The Reverant

2012 Oklahoma Young Adult Book Winner

Bill Wetterman

Author of Room 1515

Mystery and Thriller writer

In addition to our keynote speakers, 13 local and 16 area writers will be giving readings,

signing autographs, discussing their work, and answering questions.

President Jennifer McMurrian advised members we are on the waiting list for booth space for the County Fair, September 6^th.

Members critiqued stories for inclusion in the WordWeavers 2012 anthology which will be published in the late fall 2012.

Membership dues are $10 per year.

Regular meetings of Bartlesville WordWeavers are the third Tuesday each month at 6:30 p.m. at the Bartlesville Public Library.  Anyone interested in writing is invited to attend.

The next meeting is September 18, 2012

WordWeavers July Meeting Minutes and News

Tuesday, July 17th, WordWeavers held their monthly meeting. Diana Purser, Heather Davis, Marilyn Boone, Denise Jarmola, Lisa Anne Nichols, June Pritchard, Sharlene Martin, Sybil Copeland, Sarah Gagan, and Jennifer McMurrain were all in attendance. We would like to send a very warm welcome to Sarah. We’re so glad you came.

The WordWeavers and Bartlesville Public Library are happy to announce that Sonia Gensler and Bill Wetterman will be our speakers at the first annual "Into the Book" festival. We are honored to have such talent come to our event.

If you are a local author (Pawhuska, Dewey, Nowata, etc) and would like to have a book signing table at our event, please contact us at Bville_WordWeavers@yahoo.com before August 3rd. We have a limited number of spots. Any spots leftover after August 3rd will be given to interested authors from around the area. We want this to spotlight local authors first, so please let us know ASAP.

You will be hearing a lot more about this, we have big publicity ideas and would like to thank Frank's Signs for their generous offer to donate all things sign related for the event. Go check them out on Washington Blvd. They're just before you reach Dewey across for the camper dealership. Look for the lions.

Our authors are constantly churning out great material, Rita Durrett has released two new books: Shades of Gray an anthology of short stories and a novella called Night of the Raven. And Linda Derek has released her children's picture books: Chip's Sharing Day and One Large Peanut Butter Sandwich To Go.

Way to go, ladies!!

The rest of the time was spent critiquing works for our upcoming seasons anthology. You're not going to want to miss this anthology, one minute you'll be snort laughing, the next you'll be wiping away tears. We have so many talented writers in our group.

If you are a paid member of WordWeavers it's not too late to be involved in the anthology. E-mail me at Bville_WordWeavers@yahoo.com for the details. The next short story deadline is August 13th.

Our next meeting will be August 21st at 6:30 pm at the Bartlesville Public Library, meeting room to be announced. This is an open meeting and we hope to see you there. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at Bville_WordWeavers@yahoo.com.

Happy Writing,

Jennifer

The Tuesday, June 20, 2012 meeting of Bartlesville WordWeaver's was a busy one. We welcomed several visitors and new members on board.

Members discussed plans for the September 15, 2012 "Into the Book" Festival, a joint effort of the Bartlesville Public Library and WordWeavers.  It is geared to both readers and writers. The festival will celebrate the talent of many newly published authors in our area and provide a meet and greet for many of their fans. We reviewed a list of several published authors who have offered their names for consideration to speak.  The festival,which currently designed as a "come and go", is planned to begin at 10 a.m and run to 4 p.m with a lunch break. This will allow those with busy schedules to stop by during the day to, meet new area writers and get excited about Oklahoma's flourishing writing industry.  Of course, those who want to make a day of it are encouraged to do so.  There are several excellent restaurants within walking distance of the library.

WordWeaver members also reviewed and critiqued the first group of submissions for our anthology which will be published later this year and will be available as an e-book and print on demand.

If you are a thinking about becoming a writer, you already write and want help and support as you pursue your dream, or you just want to check us out, you are  invited to attend WordWeaver meetings which are held at the Bartlesville Public Library the third Tuesday every month.

Our next meeting is scheduled for July 17, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. We would love to see you there.