August - Karen Syed | Publisher, Echelon Press
Sunday August 15th | Time: 1:00 - 3:30
Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library

Please join us to hear from Karen Syed of Echelon Press as she talks about her experiences as an indie publisher as well as the state of publishing today. Learn more about her at www.klsyed.com. Learn more about Echelon Press at www.echelonpress.com.

About Ms. Syed
Karen L. Syed is the president and COO of Echelon Press, LLC. Every day is a new success story for her as she continues to grow herself and her business. She has seen eight of her own novels published (writing as Alexis Hart), along with numerous articles and short stories. As a former bookstore owner, she garnered a nomination from Publishers Weekly for their Bookseller of the Year award. She is committed to helping and encouraging everyone she comes in contact with to seek a healthier and more positive quality of life by reaching for their dreams.

Library information
Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library
7584 Leesburg Pike
Falls Church, VA 22043-2099
703-790-8088

More information on the library

Members: Please note the location (Tysons Pimmit) and day (Sunday)!

Minutes

July - Lynn Norusis | Managing Editor, Northern Virginia Magazine
Saturday July 24th | Time: 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Woodrow Wilson Library

Please join us to hear speaker Lynn Norusis, managing editor of Northern Virginia Magazine, as she discusses life as a magazine editor and the state of magazine publishing today. Learn more about Northern Virginia Magazine at www.northernvirginiamag.com.

Library information
Woodrow Wilson Library
6101 Knollwood Drive
Falls Church, VA 22041-1798
Telephone: 703-820-8774

• More information on the library
• Map

Please join us this coming Sunday, June 27, from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. (-ish) at Stacy's Coffee Parlor for an informal coffee klatch. No speakers or particular presentations will be held; this is just a chance to get together and chew the fat about all things writerly. Come and go as you please.

Stacy's Coffee Parlor
709 West Broad Street
Falls Church, Virginia 22046
(703) 538-6266
www.stacyscoffeeshop.com

Karna Small Bodman
Saturday May 22nd | Time: 1:00 - 3:30
Woodrow Wilson Library (Meeting Room 1)

Karna Small Bodman is a bestselling author who began her career as a television news anchor and reporter in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. She also did political commentary for the ABC network in New York. She was on the air for 15 years.

When Ronald Reagan was elected President, he named Karna as his Deputy Press Secretary. Later, she switched to foreign policy issues and became Senior Director and Spokesman for the National Security Council -- where she traveled to Arms Control Talks with the Soviets and Summit Meetings with various heads of state. When she left to accept a position as Senior Vice President of Hill & Knowlton Public Affairs Worldwide, she was the highest ranking woman on The White House staff.

Now she is writing novels "political thrillers--three are out now, published by Macmillan. Each involves a contemporary threat to our national security. When shown on The Today Show, they commented, "Instead of calling these books 'fiction,' perhaps we should call them 'faction'."

On extensive book tours, Karna has given over 200 speeches around the country and been a guest on some 70 radio shows, including Glenn Beck's program and several interviews on The Rush Limbaugh show.

Visit her at www.karnabodman.com

Minutes

2010

BeBe Willoughby
Saturday April 24th | Time: 1:00 - 3:30
Woodrow Wilson Library (Meeting Room 1)

During her 10 years with Delacorte Press and Dell paperbacks BeBe Willoughby acquired hundreds of manuscripts and helped to shape them into successful books. She worked with bestsellers like Judy Blume, shepherded at least one mystery novel to an Edgar Award, and helped to launch several writing careers while she worked to preserve others.

BeBe Willoughby will give you an insider's look at the goals and objectives of a professional editor, as well as the pressure they're under in such a fast-paced, competitive field and how they select the next potential best seller.

She will share an example of a sure-fire query letter, and the kind of insight into the business side of writing that just might help you get published.

Minutes

Melanie Rigney: You ARE a writer!
Sunday February 21st | Time: 1:00 - 3:00
Tysons Pimmet Regional Library (small meeting room)

Does all this talk of query letters and book proposals and marketing and social media threaten to block your creative process? This session will get your imagination going and remind you why you wanted to become a writer in the first place. Come and stretch your mind in painless, invigorating ways!

About Melanie Rigney
Aside from being one of the founding members of the NOVAWC chapter, Melanie Rigney is the owner of Editor for You (www.editorforyou. com), a publishing consultancy. She has nearly thirty years' experience as an editor and writer, six as editor of Writers Digest. In the past three years, her business has provided content and copy editing and manuscript evaluation services to more than 100 publishers, literary agents, and authors. She writes inspirational nonfiction and fiction and is copyeditor for The Delmarva Review.

Melanie Rigney is the co-author of When They Come Home, a book about parish programs for returning Catholics (Twenty-third Publications) . She also contributes to Living Faith, the Catholic devotional, and the blog Your Daily Tripod. She is writing an edgy Christian novel with the working title Fifteen.

Melanie is a former editor of Writer's Digest and has worked with hundreds of writers, publishing houses, and agents through her publishing consultancy. She is a popular speaker at writers' conferences.

NOVAWC Business Meeting & Officer Elections
Sunday January 17th | Time: 1:00 - 3:00
Tysons Pimmet Regional Library

The first club meeting of the year will be split into sections:

• a one hour business meeting where officers and interested club members will help set goals for the new year as well as address a list of club logistical challenges (including hosting the 2010 Virginia Writer's Club meeting)
• the remainder of the meeting will be used to elect new officers for 2010. All members in good standing are welcome to run for office!

2009

Patricia Daly-Lipe/Matt Iden
Sunday December 6th | 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Tysons Pimmet Regional Library

Patricia Daly-Lipe will provide a condensed version of the class on memoir writing which she has taught on numerous occasions. And Matt Iden will provide feedback on his attendance at the New England Crime Bake conference, including his success at meeting literary agents. We will also be discussing plans for the new year.

Frank S. Joseph
Sunday November 8th | 2:00 - 4:30 p.m.
Tysons Pimmet Regional Library

Join the Northern Virginia Writers Club on Sunday, November 8th, for a special presentation by journalist, editor, and author, Frank S. Joseph, as he discusses his experience as a witness to some of our country's most turbulent times-the 1960's. Mr. Joseph experienced first-hand the disorder in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention, the Detroit Riots, and Matin Luther King's march into Cicero, Illinois. He will also discuss his experience as an Editor at the Washington Post during the Watergate years. The meeting will be on Sunday, November 8th, from 2:00 to 4:30 at the Tyson's/Pimmitt Hills library.

Read more about Mr. Joseph at his website www.tolovemercy.com/frank_joseph_bio.html.

Jack Trammell
Sunday October 18th | 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Tysons Pimmet Regional Library

Author and poet Jack Trammell will be addressing our group at the October 18th meeting. Jack is a member of the Virginia Writers Club, a professor at Randolph-Macon college in Ashburn, a successful author with nine books to his credit, and the recipient of several writing awards. He is a frequent speaker on Civil War issues, and an educational consultant specializing in learning related issues. Go to www.geocities.com/jacktrammell/ or http://www.virginiawritersclub.org/trammel.html to read about him.

Meeting minutes

Open Mike
Sunday September 13th | 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
George Mason Library

The next meeting of the Writers Club will be on Sunday, Sept. 13th from 1-3:30 PM.

Please Note--this month's meeting will be held at the George Mason Library at 7001 Little River Turnpike, Annandale. Go to http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/gm/direct.htm for directions. (The Pimmitt Hills meeting room was booked-up over two months in advance.)

September's meeting will be an open mike session, as had been planned for July. Please register with Larry Buttram if you wish to be added to the list of readers.

The guidelines are as follows:

1. You must be a current member of the Northern Virginia Writers Club. You can join or renew your membership before the meeting in order to read.
2. Your reading must be your own work or that of another Club member. If it is the work of another member, you must have permission to read that work.
3. Your reading time will be a maximum of seven minutes. This will depend on the number of people who sign up to read, but, with over 50 members, there should be enough selections to fill the meeting. You don't have to take the full amount of time. If you have a poem that is only a minute or two long and you don't have anything else to read, that's fine. You are not required to fill the entire time.
4. What you read should be suitable for a general audience. In other words, no obscenity nor profanity.
5. After the reading, the reader can state if they would like comments/feedback. Any feedback given should be sensitive and constructive. In other words, no flaming or attacking of the work. Seven to eight minutes will be allowed for feedback--a total if fifteen minutes per each reader.

Meeting minutes

NOVAWC Writers Booksigning

The Northern Virginia Writers Club will be holding a multi-author book signing on Sunday, June 7th, from 4-6 PM at the Busboys and Poets restaurant in Arlington, Va. Currently seven authors have signed up for this event. The public is invited, and free snacks will be served. Busboys and Poets is located at 4252 S. Campbell Ave. in Arlington, Va. (Shirlington).

The writers attending are:

Larry Buttram
Austin Camacho
Misha Crews
Patricia Daly-Lipe
Solveig Eggerz
Veronica Li
Lina Zilionyte

To read the press release of the event, please click here [MS Word document]

Laura Strachan, Literary Agent
Sunday June 14th | 3:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Tysons Pimmet Regional Library
Tysons Meeting Room A

Laura Strachan is a principal with the Strachan Literary Agency, a boutique agency specializing in literary fiction and narrative nonfiction. She represents a range of established and new authors and enjoys discovering fresh new literary voices. Laura is a current member of both the Maryland and District of Columbia Bars, as well as the Author's Guild, and was cited in the Jan/Feb 2008 issue of Poets & Writer's Magazine as one of "21 Agents You Should Know."

Strachan Literary Agency is located in historic Annapolis, Maryland, a short train ride from mid-town Manhattan.

Dr. Arnie Grossblatt
Sunday May 10th | 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Tysons Pimmet Regional Library
Tysons Meeting Room A

Dr. Arnie Grossblatt is the Director of the George Washington University's Master of Professional Studies in Publishing. Dr. Grossblatt will be discussing the current world of publishing, especially due to recent consolidations and emerging technology. He will talk about what writers need to know about the business of publishing and how an article/book goes through the process from acceptance to marketing. He will also provide an introduction to the GWU Masters program.

George Washington University, Arlington campus, provides a 30 credit Masters with 2 tracks: Journals and Periodicals and Electronic/Digital publications. It has approximately a dozen faculty members.

Minutes of the May meeting.

P. M. H. Atwater
26 April | 2:00 - 4:30 p.m.
Tysons Pimmet Regional Library
Tysons Meeting Room A

P. M. H. Atwater: Dr. Atwater, L.H.D., Ph.D. (Hon.), is one of the original researchers of the near-death phenomenon. Several of her findings have now been clinically verified in prospective studies and appear in The Lancet medical journal (Dutch Study, 12-15-01). She has written seven books: Coming Back to Life, Beyond the Light, Future Memory, Children of the New Millennium, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Near-Death Experiences, The New Children and Near-Death Experiences, and We Live Forever: The Real Truth About Death. She has recently completed her eighth: Beyond the Indigo Children: The New Children and the Coming of the Fifth World.

She has also done the CD/DVD of "As You Die," which talks a dying person through death as it physically occurs, and the soul's separation. She is prepared to talk about life and death issues with an emphasis on spirituality; the perils, changing atmosphere, and tricks of the trade of writing; and how the field is changing. She was once a staff writer for the Idaho Department of Commerce and Development, and is past President of both the Boise Chapter of the Idaho Writers League and the state organization. Her background with the press, newspapers, magazine articles, and such is extensive.

She can be reached at P. O. Box 7691, Charlottesville, VA 22906-7691; (434) 974-7945; via email at atwater@cinemind.com; or through her website.

March 15, 2009 | 3:00 to 5:30 PM
Screenwriting workshop with Khris Baxter

Khris Baxter is a screenwriter, producer, and script consultant. He teaches screenwriting at Gettysburg College, The Writer's Center in Bethesda, MD, and private workshops throughout the Washington, D.C. Metro area. His body of work includes eight optioned screenplays and one produced film. He is a member of the Virginia Film Office and a judge for the annual Virginia Screenwriting Competition. He lives in Reston, Virginia.

Mr. Baxter be discussing the elements of screenwriting (i.e. story and structure) applied to fiction and memoir. He will also discuss adapting one's own work to the screen, be it fiction or non-fiction. Question and answer period to follow the presentation.

Minutes of the meeting

Handouts

• Cinematic Writing - Suggested Dialogue
• Third Person Objective
• Spec Format for screenplays

22 February 12:00 - 2:30 p.m.
Tysons Pimmet Regional Library
Tysons Meeting Room A

Novelist, screenwriter and playwright Thomas B. Sawyer will give a two-hour presentation on Character and Dialogue-Creating and Putting Unique Words in the Mouths.

Sawyer was Head Writer of the CBS series, Murder, She Wrote. He has written 9 network TV pilots and 100 episodes, and has been Head Writer, Showrunner or Story Editor on 15 network TV series.

His first novel was the best-selling mystery/thriller, The Sixteenth Man, and his books Fiction Writing Demystified and Storybase are Writer's Digest Book Club Selections. He has taught writing and UCLA, at other colleges and universities, at numerous major writers conferences, and online at Writers University. Now he is here to teach YOU! - http://www.ThomasBSawyer.com

January 25 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Tysons Pimmet Regional Library

We will elect officers and plan for next year, and everyone is invited to bring a sample of their first of the New Year writing to share with the group.

2008

December 7, 2008
3:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Holiday Gala at BusBoys and Poets
Located in Shirlington
4251 South Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA

Our next meeting will be a holiday gala. We will meet for tea on December 7th at Busboys and Poets, a restaurant, bookstore and gathering place in Shirlington. In this case, "tea" is the name of the meal, but we'll have coffee, cookings and dessert-type things as well.

We will also have a very exciting speaker: John Gilstrap, the acclaimed author of five thrillers, four of which were Literary Guild selections.

If you bring along your copies of his novels - I'm sure he'll be happy to sign them.

• SIX MINUTES TO FREEDOM
• SCOTT FREE
• EVEN STEVEN
• AT ALL COSTS
• NATHAN'S RUN

This event is open to all writers and friends of writers. For club members the good times, food and speaker are absolutely free, assuming you have paid your 2008 chapter dues ($15). It is also free for those who pre-pay their 2009 dues on or before December 7th. Everybody else needs to bring $6 with them.

Busboys and Poets is at 4251 South Campbell Ave., Arlington, VA, and we'll gather there on December 7th at 3 pm. I hope to see you there!

October 19, 2008
4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Regular Monthly Meeting

G.M. Malliet, author of Death of a Cozy Writer, the first book in the "St. Just Mystery" series, will talk about the process of writing a traditional mystery and the importance of setting to her stories. The book is an affectionate send-up of the traditional British mystery and was completed with the aid of the Malice Domestic Grant. Death of a Cozy Writer has proven very popular with the independent mystery bookstores across the country.

September 21, 2008
3:15 - 5:45 p.m.
Regular Monthly Meeting
Meeting Location: Large meeting room of the Tysons-Pimmitt Regional Library

We didn't want to have a speaker while we're busy trying to get reacquainted, but we'll still have a program... and you're it! The theme of our meeting will be "How I spent my summer vacation" and attendees will be invited to present news of their writing progress since June. Writers at all levels are welcome.

Refreshments will be served!