Next HSW Meeting
Saturday February 8th at 10 am at
Raleys ONE Supermarket on Wedge Parkway in the Community Room
A DIVE INTO DEEP POV!
Angela Canon will be facilitating a discussion about Point of View (POV). After a quick review on all POV types, we’ll look at the specifics of Deep POV and why as a writer using this perspective might be a good choice. Followed by an activity on how to spot errors in a Deep POV manuscript.
If you’ve ever slapped yourself up the side of the head when you realize your narrative character couldn’t possibly have seen something you just wrote a whole paragraph about, you need to be part of this discussion.
COLD READS ACCEPTED
If you have a cold read you’d like to have the attending members critique, please email no more than 6 pages, double-spaced, Times New Roman font (or similar) 12pt with one inch margins all around to Linda at least 2 days before the meeting.
If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, email Linda at Lynda.r.bailey@gmail.com.
See you on the 8th!
GUEST OR TOPIC IDEAS!
If you have a topic area you’d like covered or know of someone you’d like to have as a guest speaker at an upcoming meeting, please drop a line to board@highsierrawriters.org
Critique Groups Update
| Reminder: You must be a current PAID member of HSW in order to participate in one of our critique groups. If you’d like to join a group or have general questions about critiquing, contact Linda Enos at lynda.r.bailey@gmail.com MYSTERY WRITERS (and more) WANTED! The Mystery and More group is looking for authors! If you write mystery, or any genre other than romance or children’s, let Linda know. She’ll put you in touch with the group leader, Ron, so you can learn more details. MEMOIRISTS WANTED! We have an increased interest in starting a memoir-only critique group. If you’re a memoirist and would like more information about joining such a group, contact Linda. FINISHED GROUP ON THE HORIZON Starting in February, possibly March, we’re looking to form another Finished Group. If you have a completed manuscript and would like to get some “fresh eyes” on the entire story, contact Linda for more details. PLEASE REMEMBER… If you have a few pages you’d like the HSW members to critique cold, don’t forget to send your submission (max of 6 pages, double spaced with New Times Roman, or similar font, 12pt) to Linda at least 2 days before the monthly meeting so hard copies can be made. FYI… The After-the-Regular-Meeting (ATRM) critique group will gather following the meeting on February 8th. Please feel free to sit in and observe. Don’t forget to contact Linda Enos at lynda.r.bailey@gmail.com with any questions or concerns! |
Change in Price for 2025 Dues
Annual dues are $5 for 2025
Our dues are climbing back up for 2025 and will be $5 for the year. We need to pay for the coffee somehow!
You can pay them online using this payment link for PayPal: $5-for-25
or send a check to:
High Sierra Writers
PO BOX 17205 – RENO NV 89511
(Please let us know by email to board@highsierrawriters.org if you mail it in, so we can check the mailbox.)
Drop-in Critique Group at B&N
Matt hosts a drop-in critique meeting at the Barnes & Noble cafe on S Virginia Street from 6 PM to 8 PM. Meetings will be held on the FIRST and THIRD Wednesdays of each month.
Drop-in means no prep and no homework. Just bring 5 or 6 pages on which you want feedback and read them to the group. If you want, someone else can read your material out loud. If you’re really ambitious, you can bring hard copies, but that starts to look like homework and we really want to avoid work of any sort.
Your material can be a chapter or a passage you want to test, like an action scene, or dialogue, or something you’re just not sure about. Fiction or nonfiction.
You don’t need to be there for the whole meeting. If you can’t make it until 7 PM, no big deal.
You don’t have to bring material. These sessions are a great way to build up your editing muscles by analyzing work of other writers.
See you there.
| FIRST PAGES Matt will be doing First Pages at the February meeting. If you would like to get feedback on the first page of your work from the group, then send it to Matt (MattBayan@aol.com) before 6 pm by Friday, February 7th. The page should be double-spaced in Times New Roman or equivalent 12 pt type. Do not include your name on the page, but do include the genre. |
HSW Writers’ Success Stories
High Sierra Writers has quite a few published writers in the group. We have a page featuring the various books grouped by author under genre. These are under HSW Authors link. As our authors release new books, we’ll feature them here. If you have a release coming up, send me your press release to RPAverett@gmail.com.
In December, Angela Laverghetta (Angela Canon) released the second book in her fantasy series. Sorry, I missed this last month. The Hidden Druid picks up the tale of Imogen Wylde, a young woman who volunteered at the Carson City Museum and discovered an old sword that set her on a wild adventure. Here’s the blurb for it:
Hello again. Imogen Wylde here. Three months ago, my life was normal. Well, as normal as someone who can see the fae and ghosts can make it.
That all changed when Aengus—don’t call him Lancelot, he gets snippy—showed up at the museum where I work and stole Excalibur. Things only got weirder from there. Now I can wield magic—very badly—and it’s only a matter of time before The Leannan Sidhe shows up again to take the nearly uncontrollable power within me.
Maybe with the help of a fashionista Brownie, a coven of geriatric witches, and a living topiary—who happens to be my dad—I might be able to stop her and save the world.
That is if I can find an assistant to do the retirement home account books in time!
The first book was a fun, wild ride around Carson City and Virginia City in a way you’ve never seen them. Check this imaginative story out.!
AMAZON BOOK FORMAT CHANGES
In case you missed it or you haven’t visited Amazon recently, they are phrasing out the Mobi format for fixed layout new e-books. If you have your e-book uploaded already, the Mobi format is fine, but new versions or replacement versions will need to be in ePub. Mobi files will not be accepted after March 8th.
They state “we will no longer support MOBI files for fixed-layout eBooks. This change completes our transition away from the MOBI format, as we previously ended support for MOBI files for reflowable books on August 1, 2021. For publishing new fixed-layout and reflowable eBooks, please use EPUB, DOCX or KPF files. For horizontal episodic manga, use JPG images or an EPUB file.”
If you are creating picture books, they urge you to use Kindle Create, which requires a PDF file of your book’s layout for a fixed layout book. From this, you can create the Kindle Package Format book (KPF). Or if you are adding any images to your books, you would also use Kindle Creator. You can also create these files on other formatting programs and export them as an ePub.
If anyone is interested in a “show and tell” on how to use Kindle Create, let us know and Rene will do a presentation on it.
Also, the Vella format is shutting down on February 26th. If you already own Vella stories, you will have access to them, but if you haven’t purchased any episodes, they will not be available.