Milwaukee Writers Workshop

We will be going over the second part of Catherine's novel, so everyone who is attending for that part of the session, please bring your commentary. For the workshop, I'd like to do a bit more of a learning session for those interested. I'll be bringing in some materials on various aspects of critiquing, polishing, querying, and other bits related to the publishing process. I know some of you are equally as familiar with this process as others, so please feel free to bring your own materials to share with the group. Also, this is not meant as a comment on the performance of the group; there are simply a number of people new to the both the group and to critiquing for publishing. I'd like to be able to provide useful information for them, so they can give us equally good feedback on everyone's stories. I believe Pat L and Terry were next for story submissions, so please send those over to me as soon as possible.

This session we will be going over the following items: 1. "Megan Dye's Desert Rain Garden" (part one)
2. "Catharsis"
3. "Meeting Apollo"
4. "Burnt Barbecue on Tuesdays" We'll do them in that order, so please be prepared. If you're not coming for the novel critique, you can show up at 2:00. We'll be starting promptly at 1:00 for the novel, and 2:00 for the short stories. Because we're getting more people in the group on a regular basis, we'll have to be very conscious of our time spent on the stories. I will be bringing a few copies of our critique rules, but I'd like everyone to have a look over them again. I look forward to everyone being there, and I hope to see a few new faces I met over the past week or so. As always, email me if you have questions. Boone Edit: sorry for the confusion with the times for those of you who read this and wondered.

We'll be working on the second half of Tom's piece, Otto Steck and then doing some exercises. I have a few ideas, and I may even post an article I found that is quite useful and interesting. If I do, please read over that, and we'll discuss it in tandem with the workshop that afternoon. I've been looking into a possible change of venue and time. Would everyone be ok with starting the sessions sometime closer to noon or 1pm, rather than the 3:30 start we have now? If so, then that opens more possibilities for venues. Please let me know; I'll repost this discussion in the Google group for a more flow-friendly discussion. Hope to see everyone there.

Another year gone with the group. We've done a lot of good things this year - expanded our sessions, began critiquing novels, started up this website - and we plan to do more in the coming year. I'm happy to see some of the new faces, and I truly hope to bring in even more. As we begin to expand in membership, we may need to start scouting out new locations for a meeting place. Sven's is cozy and warm, but we may begin to outgrow it, which isn't too hard. I've considered moving it a bit more centrally in the metro area in order to coax some of the folks in West Bend or Menomonee Falls out of their homes to join the group. We shall see. One of the main reasons I chose to start on this day is because the previous Sunday to this (the 6th) is my wife's birthday, and I don't want to plan around that, so we'll just be moving the meeting to the 13th. We'll be doing a novel critique again. Tom will be submitting something. We'll also be doing two stories, but we've yet to see those. I'll update here (or you can just check the Google group for more info).

I'm switching it up this month because of the fact that we did four stories last month, and I think people need a break. We won't be doing a novel, either, to allow those who did NaNo a bit of time to polish and perhaps submit in the coming year. I'll update the event with the stories that will be presented as soon as I know them. If you're interested in submitting a story for this critique, please let me know or post it on the forum.