Meetings
All LRWA meetings are held on the fourth Saturday of every month at 11:30 AM at the Coosaw Creek Country Club, Ashley Room unless otherwise stated. Interested and aspiring writers are encouraged to join us at any of our regular meetings! Non-members are welcome to attend two meetings before joining LRWA.
Times:
General Meeting: 11:30am – 12:00pm
Lunch/Networking: 12:00 – 12:45
Program Workshop: 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Location:
4110 Club Course Dr
North Charleston, SC 29420
Phone: 843 767 – 9000
Map
2018 Meeting Dates:
January 27
February 24
March 24
April 28
May 21 – Virtual Meeting
June – Special Events TBD
July – Special Events TBD
August 25
September 22
October 27
November 17
December 15 – Annual Holiday Party
Program Schedule for 2018
Click a link to go directly to a specific month:
JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |
January 27, 2018
Be Your Best Writing Self
Guest Speaker: N/A
Location: Coosaw Creek Country Club, Ashley Room
Times: Luncheon at 11:30 a.m.; Speaker at 1:00 pm
Workshop Blurb:
Make 2018 your best writing year with LRWA. We will be discussing personal goals, professional goals, and best self-care practices. Robin will demonstrate gentle stretching/yoga poses to combat the keyboard hunch. Come out and join us. Bring your questions, successes and struggles and start the new year with a positive, healthy eye on your professional goals.
February 24, 2018
Hooked
Guest Speaker: Amanda Berry
Location: Coosaw Creek Country Club, Ashley Room
Times: Luncheon at 11:30 a.m.; Speaker at 1:00 pm
Workshop Blurb:
Amanda Berry will discuss the book: Hooked by Les Edgerton. From the back cover: The road to rejection is paved with bad beginnings. Agents and editors agree: Improper story beginnings are the single biggest barrier to publication. Why? if a novel or short story has a bad beginning, then no one will keep reading. It’s just that simple.
Speaker Bio:
After an exciting life as a CPA, Amanda Berry returned to writing when her husband swept the family off to England to live for a year. Now she’s hooked, and since returning to the states spends her writing days concocting spicy contemporary romances while her cats try in vain to pry her hands off the keyboard. Her Marlene award-winning contemporary romance, L.A. Cinderella, will debut from Silhouette Special Edition in June 2010. One thing she requires of all her books is a happily ever after. Amanda lives in the Midwest with her husband and two children.
Amanda is a member of Romance Writers of America, Missouri Romance Writers, the Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal Chapter of the RWA, From the Heart Romance Writers, and Romance Divas. She is currently represented by Becca Stumpf of the Prospect Agency.
March 24, 2018
Multi-Author Anthologies
Guest Speaker: Amy Quinton
Location: Coosaw Creek Country Club, Ashley Room
Times: Networking at 11:00 a.m.; Speaker at 1:00 pm
Workshop Blurb:
Looking to participate in or organize a multi-author anthology either for profit or for charity? Amy Quinton discuss the tips and tricks of organizing a multi-author anthology that will help you get from idea to release on time and hopefully avoid common pitfalls along the way.
Speaker Bio:
Historical Romance Author, Mother of Boys, American Wife of an Englishman, Crafter, Reader, Camper, Bluestocking Belle
Amy Quinton is an author and full time mom living in Summerville, SC. She enjoys writing (and reading!) sexy, historical romances. She lives with her husband, two boys, and three cats. In her spare time, she likes to go camping, hiking, and canoeing/kayaking… And did she mention reading? When she’s not reading or traveling, she likes to make jewelry, sew, knit, and crochet (Yay for Ravelry!).
April 28, 2018
Consent in the Era of #metoo and #timesup
Guest Speaker: Savannah Frierson
Location: Coosaw Creek Country Club, Ashley Room
Times: Luncheon at 11:30 a.m.; Speaker at 1:00 pm
Workshop Blurb:
Alpha or Asshole? Why consent is not just about saying yest to sex.
In this presentation we will discuss:
* Consent and romance in the era of #metoo and #timesup
* Who is an alpha? Who is an asshole?
* A careful balance of fantasy v. reality
* Why the domain of consent should extend beyond the bedroom
* Why consent and communication go hand-in-hand
* Constant negotiation—Consent is NOT carte-blanche
* Tips to ensure consent remains enthusiastic throughout story
Speaker Bio:
Savannah J. Frierson realized writing was her calling her junior year of high school. She completed her first original work, Reconstructing Jada Channing, as her senior thesis at Harvard University, earning the 2005 Dorothy Hicks Lee Prize for most outstanding thesis concerning African or African-American literature. In 2007, Savannah released her first novel, Being Plumville, which earned Savannah SORMAG Readers’ Choice Awards in 2007 and an Emma Award nomination for Debut Author of the Year at the 2008 Romance Slam Jam Conference. She has also spoken at several book fairs, including the South Carolina Book Festival, Charleston’s Black Ink Literary Festival and Capital Bookfest, book clubs, radio shows, and classes about her work.
Savannah is dedicated to social justice issues, especially those concerning Black womyn. She is dedicated to ensuring representations of Black womyn are as full of breadth, life, and vitality as they exist in the world.
When not writing, Savannah enjoys engaging in social media until she’s either laughing or cussing at her screen; reading until her eyes grow heavy; singing until she’s hoarse; and learning until there’s nothing left to learn. Luckily, such a thing is impossible.
Savannah is represented by the wonderful Saritza Hernandez at The Corvisiero Agency and is also a PAN member of the Romance Writers of America.
May 21, 2018
Laying the Foundation
Guest Speaker: Violet Tempest
Location: Virtual Meeting via Facebook
Times: At your leisure through out the week of May 21st.
Workshop Blurb:
Time is valuable. As a writer, you only have a few moments to grab your readers’ attention and convince them that your book is worth their time. During this virtual monthly meeting, we will discuss one of the building blocks needed to hook your readers – great characters. Topics will include evoking sympathy in your readers, character growth, and introducing conflict for your characters. Join us in the discussion and learn how to lay the foundation for your novel with complex, sympathetic characters that hook your readers.
***This month’s meeting is a virtual meeting via Facebook. The presentation will be ongoing throughout the week of May 21st with discussion points posted to a closed Facebook group. Participants are encouraged to add to the discussion.
Potential and Existing members: Email Angela Mizell to request the link to the virtual meeting room on Facebook.
Speaker Bio:
“They’re all around us. All you have to do is look.” Violet Tempest enjoys researching the strange and unusual as she puts it, there’s more to life than meets the eye. Which probably explains why, when she puts ink to paper, she pens stories about the strange and unusual. Stories which she hopes will keep you turning page after page.
June 2018
TBD
Guest Speaker: TBD
Location: TBD
Times: 11:00 am- 12:00 – Meeting / 12:00 – Until – Writing
Workshop Blurb:
Speaker Bio:
July 2018
TBD
Guest Speaker: TBD
Location: TBD
Times: Luncheon at 11:30 a.m.; Speaker at 1:00 pm
Workshop Blurb:
Speaker Bio:
August 25, 2018
TBD
Guest Speaker: TBD
Location: Coosaw Creek Country Club, Ashley Room
Times: Luncheon at 11:30 a.m.; Speaker at 1:00 pm
Workshop Blurb:
Speaker Bio:
September 22, 2018
Character Development
Guest Speaker: John Hartness
Location: Coosaw Creek Country Club, Ashley Room
Times: Luncheon at 11:30 a.m.; Speaker at 1:00 pm
Workshop Blurb:
Speaker Bio:
John G. Hartness is a teller of tales, a righter of wrong, defender of ladies’ virtues, and some people call him Maurice, for he speaks of the pompatus of love. He is also the award-winning author of the urban fantasy series The Black Knight Chronicles, the Bubba the Monster Hunter comedic horror series, the Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter dark fantasy series, and many other projects. He is also a cast member of the role-playing podcast Authors & Dragons, where a group of comedy, fantasy, and horror writers play Dungeons & Dragons. Very poorly. In 2016, John teamed up with a group of other publishing industry ne’er-do-wells and founded Falstaff Books, a small press dedicated to publishing the best of genre fiction’s “misfit toys.” In his copious free time John enjoys long walks on the beach, rescuing kittens from trees and playing Magic: the Gathering. John’s pronouns are he/him.
More info about John can be found at: https://www.patreon.com/johnhartness and https://johnhartness.com/
Falstaff Books: https://falstaffbooks.com/
October 27, 2018
Writing Short
Guest Speaker: Bria Quinlan
Location: Coosaw Creek Country Club, Ashley Room
Times: Luncheon at 11:30 a.m.; Speaker at 1:00 pm
Workshop Blurb:
Longer form genres are catching on to what SFF writers have known for a long time: Writing short can be a fascinating and lucrative way to write. Bria Quinlan walks through the ways to get the most out of the fewest words.
Speaker Bio:
Quirky Girl and all around lovable klutz, Bria Quinlan, writes Diet-Coke-Snort-Worthy Rom Coms about what it’s like to be a girl and deal with crap and still look for love. She also writes books for teens that take hard topics and make you laugh through your tears…or maybe cry through your laughter. Some people call them issue books. Some people call them romantic comedies. Bria calls them what-life-looks-like. Her stories remind you that life is an adventure not to be ignored.
If these things are important to you: She’s a RWA RITA, RWA Golden Heart, & Cyblis nominee as well as a USA Today Best Seller, and natural blonde represented by the awesomely amazing Laird Lauren Macleod of the Clan…. Oh, wait. Of Strothman Agency.
More info about Bria can be found at: http://briaquinlan.com/
November 17, 2018
The Root of Character
Guest Speaker: Damon Suede (Pre-Recorded)
Location: Coosaw Creek Country Club, Ashley Room
Times: Luncheon at 11:30 a.m.; Speaker at 1:00 pm
Workshop Blurb:
All characters have pain in their past…a backstory which drives them inexorably into turmoil, jeopardy, and high-stakes choices. Fatal flaw, motivation, wound, scar, trauma, mistake, shadow, ghost…no matter what you call it, that inner void never stops sucking. Accessing your characters’ darkness and danger dramatizes scenes and maximizes emotional legibility. Join Damon Suede for a two-hour RWA Workshop in a Box which teaches you to tap your story’s power and bring any character to life.
Speaker Bio:
Damon Suede grew up out-n-proud deep in the anus of right-wing America, and escaped as soon as it was legal. He has lived all over: Houston, New York, London, Prague. Along the way, he’s earned his crust as a model, a messenger, a promoter, a programmer, a sculptor, a singer, a stripper, a bookkeeper, a bartender, a techie, a teacher, a director… but writing has ever been his bread and butter. He has been happily partnered for over a decade with the most loving, handsome, shrewd, hilarious, noble man to walk this planet.
Addictions: sweetness that isn’t sentimental, wit that isn’t bitter, strength that isn’t cruel. Allergies: professional victims, half-assery, clichés. Damon is a proud member of the Romance Writers of America and currently serves on its national Board of Directors. He also served as the 2013 president for the Rainbow Romance Writers, RWA’s LGBT romance chapter.
Though new to gay romance, Damon has been writing for print, stage, and screen for almost three decades, which is both more and less glamorous than you might imagine. He’s won some awards, but his blessings are more numerous: his amazing friends, his demented family, his beautiful husband, his loyal fans, and his silly, stern, seductive Muse who keeps whispering in his ear, year after year.
December 15, 2018
Annual Holiday Party!
Location: Coosaw Creek Country Club, Ashley Room
Time: 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 pm
Happy Holidays, everyone! There will be a gift exchange for those who wish to participate, ($10 limit, writing related), and some fun prizes. Can’t wait to see you all there!
