Next HSW Meeting
Saturday April 12th at 11 am at
Raleys ONE Supermarket on Wedge Parkway in the Community Room
Agenda for April
Company Business
Shameless Self-Promotion
First Pages
Audio Books and How to Make One
Worl Building from a Professional Builder
Mop Up
LEARN ABOUT AUDIO BOOKS!
We are delighted to welcome this month’s speaker, Jim Patton, who will tell us all you want to know about audio books and how to convert your book to audio, preferably without emptying the bank account.
Jim’s Background…
A lifetime full of voices is channeled into unforgettable performances from award-winning narrator, Jim Patton – voices from his boyhood in Colorado, his hitchhiking travels across the US and Europe, his work adventures in Africa, the Middle East, and South America. From the many lives he has lived, he resonates with stories that showcase the main character’s life transitions, the hero’s journey.
Acting has been in Jim’s blood from his boyhood, from his high school theater days, from his role as Hamlet in college, to his performances in over 20 audio dramas. He is known for a classically American vocal tone, a wide range of vocal ages, and an ability to portray imaginative quirky characters.
In this presentation, he will talk about the various routes an independent author can take in publishing their audiobook, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each. He will also talk about narration styles and the narration process in creating an audiobook.
More information is on Jim’s website at: jimbpatton.com
So, bring your questions and come learn about audio books.
Learn more about World Building
Narrative Design is the same for a novel as it is for a game! From games like Baldur’s Gate 3 with its almost 2 million lines of dialog and both God of War & Ghost of Tsushima’s intensive, exploratory narrative, there’s more overlap than ever with games and novels, with games masterfully snaring its audiences with setting and design. There’s a lot to learn that can help you reach new audiences, or keep them reading once they’ve taken the hook, or hook them in the first place.
About Gregory Wunderlin:
Gregory is an author and game designer. He’s worked—and published—multiple products for Dungeons and Dragons, as a designer for Mythcraft, and has a slew of freelancing credits. He’s developed games and related worlds for almost two decades and currently works as the Head Writer for Camp Dragon, a table top gaming company, creating narrative content and worldbuilding for the company’s unique setting. He’s also a professional Game Master, meaning people pay him to run games. His Fantasy novel, The Soul of Chaos, has been praised for its worldbuilding by both Literary Titan and IndieReader.
FIRST PAGES
Matt will be doing First Pages at the April 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, April 11th. 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.
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
From the President:
WORST PAGE
I like to occasionally watch a movie that I know will be bad, but I watch it anyway. My reason is that I can learn more about plot, character, pacing etc. from a bad movie than I can from a mediocre movie. Why? Because it’s easier to see the extremes.
We’re going to analyze a first page in the April meeting that is the worst first page I have ever seen. Talk about extremes. Don’t worry. The page is not from one of our members. Don’t miss this educational experience. (and the good laugh you’ll get)
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 still 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. The After-the-Regular-Meeting (ATRM) critique group will gather following the meeting on April 12th. 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
If you haven’t paid your 2025 dues yet, they are now overdue. Please renew, especially if you are in a critique group and find it valuable. If you’re not sure if you’ve renewed, contact Rene at RPAverett@gmail.com and she will check your status.
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.
CHANGE CAN BE A GOOD THING…
Linda Enos
w/a Lynda Bailey
2025 is proving to be a year of change for me, both personally and with my writing. I’m in a serious hunt for a narrator, wanting to put at least two, possibly three, of my books onto audio this year. Changes are happening with our adult son which will be of benefit not just him, but his mom and dad as well. Change is also coming to my role with High Sierra Writers.
Since its creation, back in, I believe, 2014, I’ve been a part of HSW and before that, Unnamed Writers. I’ve been president, co-president, secretary and now critique group wrangler. For basically the past 25 years+, I’ve been involved in one form or another and feel it’s time for me to take a giant step back. Thus, I won’t be continuing as the wrangler for critique groups, effective May 1st.
This means we’re in need of someone to handle the duties of helping to form new critique groups and/or match writers with existing groups.
Is the work hard? No. Is it time consuming? No, but the position does require a certain level of participation. Emails need to be returned in a timely manner. Questions need to be answered and if you don’t have the answer, you need to find out who does. You should also have a diplomatic bent to your personality in case conflicts arise within or between groups. In my time as Wrangler, there’d never been a situation which needed my intervention, which was good as diplomacy really isn’t one of my stronger traits. 
If you’re thinking about becoming more involved with HSW, being the critique group wrangler is a great, low-pressure position to try out. If you have any questions, or want additional info, feel free to email me at Lynda.r.bailey@gmail.com.
Lastly, while I’ll be stepping away from “official” duties, I won’t be leaving HSW.
Y’all just ain’t gonna be that lucky. 
L.
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.
Last month, Mark Bacon released his next Nostalgia City Mysteries book, The Woke and the Dead, the fifth book in the series. Coincidentally, Mark was at the Left Coast Crime Mystery Convention when the book released. He was on one of the panels, so he had a chance to hold it up and say, “My new book.” Congratulations to Mark.
Here’s an edited version of the book description:
A public feud between Arizona governor Rod Gudgel and the Nostalgia City theme park ignites a deadly tale of murder, corruption, and political espionage.
When ex-cop turned cabbie Lyle Deming discovers a body during an LGBTQ event, the governor dismisses it as a random shooting, mocking the park’s inclusiveness with slurs and threats. PR director Kate Sorensen fires back, but the stakes escalate as more deaths follow.
With Lyle’s wit and Kate’s determination, they race to unmask the killers and outmaneuver a governor bent on shutting down the park—no matter the cost.
Mystery readers and anyone else who wants a good read, pick up a copy at Amazon here.