Regular meeting of July 23, 2008

There were a banner number of readers -- 21 -- for a high-summer meeting of the DFWWW last night. Two member news items stuck out:

Linda Lannerd Lands Agent

Linda announced that she has received a letter offering representation for her novel, MESSENGER UNAWARE, from Cherry Weiner, a well-established and respected agent working out of New Jersey. Ms. Weiner represents Mike Silvestri, Larry D. Sweazy, Robert W. Walker and others.

A Lee Martinez Brings In Concept Sketches for AUTOMATIC DETECTIVE

A Lee Martinez, meanwhile, showed off concept sketches for Blur Studios' animated adaptation of his novel THE AUTOMATIC DETECTIVE. Blur is currently shopping the project to studios. If the film is picked up, Dave Fincher of Fight Club could be producing.

New Free Class and News from member-author Candace Havens

This from Candy:

Hey Gang,
I have Rosemary Clement Moore (Prom Dates From Hell, Highway to Hell)
teaching a query class for the Write_Workshop.
(Write_Workshop- subscribe@ yahoogroups. com). As always, it's free, and
I happen to know this is a great class.

Also... I'm out in Beverly Hills covering the new TV season. It's been
an interesting six days, and I'll be here for about two more weeks.
You can read about my daily antics with celebs on my livejournal and
myspace blogs which you can get to through my website
candacehavens. com. You can also join the workshop from there.

Candy Havens
www.candacehavens. com
Charmed & Dangerous
Charmed & Ready (Aug. 2008)
The Demon King and I (Nov. 2009)
Dude, Where's My Dragon (July 2009)
Charmed & Deadly
Like A Charm

DFW Writers Conference date set for 2009

Planning is underway for the eagerly awaited follow-up to our successful inaugural conference back in February.

The 2009 DFW Writers Conference will take place May 1-3. We'll be back at the City of Grapevine Convention Center, which turned out to be an ideal facility for our event.

More details (pricing, hotels, etc.) will be announced as they become available, and a conference website will be announced soon.

Children's picture book and cover art contests

DRAGONFLY PUBLISHING WRITER’S AND ILLUSTRATOR’S CONTEST
There is a $10.00 entry fee for each contest. Artists may enter both contests if they desire.

CATEGORY 1: Children's Picture Book Contest
CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK CONTEST PRIZES:
1st Place: $100.00 (U.S.) plus a trophy and a possible book contract
2nd Place: $50.00 (U.S.)
3rd Place: $30.00 (U.S.)

CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK CONTEST RULES:
Children's Picture Book Contest submissions shall consist of one children's picture book manuscript formatted in storyboard layout for 20-22 illustrated pages.
See website for details: http://www.dragonflypubs.com/dfp/contest.html

CATEGORY 2:
Children's Cover Art Contest
CHILDREN'S COVER ART CONTEST PRIZES:
1st Place: $100.00 (U.S.) plus a trophy and a possible book contract
2nd Place: $50.00 (U.S.)
3rd Place: $30.00 (U.S.)

CHILDREN'S COVER ART CONTEST RULES:
Children's Cover Art Contest submissions shall consist of one (1) original 8x10 full-color front cover illustration and one (1) original 8x10 full-color back cover illustration for children's picture book: See website for details: http://www.dragonflypubs.com/dfp/contest.html

Back from the Agents and Editors Conference in Austin

We had an even larger contingent of members than we had expected at the Texas Writers League's annual Agents and Editors conference in Austin. In addition to the names Sonja mentioned in the previous post, members Ron Bates, Lorelei Buckley, Jeff Clark and Paula LaRocque attended. Eleven total. An impressive showing for the Workshop at the biggest conference of this kind in the state of Texas.

Great news for former Workshop member Jill Carolan. She entered the conference's manuscript competition, in the young adult novel category, and came down on Saturday for the announcement of the winners. And what do you know -- she won! Her prize was a 10-minute consultation with an agent. Way to go, Jill!

Former member Linda Rohrbough was also there, as a presenter. It's always great to see her again, especially since she's relocated to North Carolina.

At Wednesday's meeting, I'll discuss some of the things I learned at the conference and share my funny literary agent story (does that mean that I'm a real writer, now that I have one? Don't answer that.)

June 18, 2008 meeting

News:

The Writer's League Editors and Agents conference is this weekend!

Our DFWWW contingent will be Grace Roeber, Sonja Cassella, Steve Manning, Chris Moore, Kyle White, Kristen Lamb, and Darryl McGinnis. Have a good time everyone! Steve has promised the membership a presentation about the conference when he returns.

DFWWW Conference 2009

We have a date and a venue! The conference will again be held at the Grapevine Convention Center on May 1-3, 2009. The next conference meeting will be on July 2nd at 6 p.m., before the regular Wednesday workshop. Any who are willing to help out are welcome.

Refreshments Volunteers

We need a couple of volunteers to help manage the coffee supplies at our weekly workshop meetings. Please see Steve Manning if you're available.

Austin Writer's League Conference June 20-22

The following is from an email sent out by Writer's League this morning: Agent Meetings Still Available

As of the sending of this email, the agents and editor listed below have a limited number of consultation times available to new registrants of the 2008 Agents & Editors Conference. Check out the bios for agents and editors listed below online, and tell us your top 3 choices for formal consultation when you register online or by phone at 512-499-8914. Agents: Lauren Abramo Kathleen Anderson Emmanuelle Alspaugh Kimberley Cameron Daniel Conoway Jim Donovan Mary Evans Ronnie Gramazio Robert Guinsler Abigail Koons Alexandra H. Machinist Kirsten Neuhaus Rebecca Oliver Nicole Steen Uwe Stender Katie Sulkowski Sally van Haitsma Stefanie Von Borstel Natanya Wheeler Ted Weinstein Editor: Brooke Warner

Poetry Session Next Wed

Next Wednesday nite, June 18th, will be our regular poetry session for those interested. Poets will meet in a separate room to read and discuss original poetry.

The new words for the next poetry challenge are listed below. Remember, you don't have to write a poem with these words to participate in the poets group.

intention
display
heartfelt
ochreous
sunlight
dwarf
eye
scatter

Candace Havens offers Fast Draft and Revision Hell classes on-line

DFWWW member Candy is posting the FREE Revision Hell and Fast Draft classes on her Yahoo group. You can find out how to join in at her website. Visit www.CandaceHavens.com, run down the links on the left hand of the page, click on workshop, and find out what it's about.

Meeting Report: May 25, 2008

The loyal members of the DFWWW were called to order once again by the banging of President Steve Manning’s gavel at around 7 p.m. last Wednesday.

ACCEPTANCES

Darryl McGinnis has been consulting with Politico.com, helping with their stories regarding the merger of Delta and Northwest Airlines … Sonja Cassella received four new assignments at once from TrailBlazer magazine, for which she writes regularly … Del Cain received an acceptance with positive comments from the editor about his piece for the Fort Worth Business Press.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Saturday, June 21^st at 7 p.m. there will be an “open mike” poetry night for DFWWW poets at the Barnes and Nobel Euless. Consider this a call for readers and audience members; see Del Cain for more info or email del.cain@sbcglobal.net

There will be a 2009 CONFERENCE MEETING in two weeks , on June 11, 2008 at 6 p.m. before the regular workshop.