Meetings are usually the first Monday of the month, with the exception of September and sometimes January, where they fall on the second Monday. Meetings are being held this year at Bickford Cottage on 42nd and Maine beginning at 7:00. Meetings run from and hour and a half to two hours.
New members are always welcome. If you'd like to come check us out before you join, that's perfectly fine. If you do join, the membership for the year is only $15.00. This includes educational meetings, a monthly newsletter (Doc Preston does a fantastic, fun newsletter that you'll really enjoy), the company and advice of fellow writers, and an opportunity to participate in the Dial-a-Writer through QSFA. Where else could you get this great deal for fiftenn dollars in 2009! Dues can be paid to Carol Hillebrenner at a meeting or mailed to her.
We have been working on making our meetings educational as well as fun. After a short business meeting, we usually have a speaker or a presentation given by one of our members.
For our October meeting we had Cleve Barkley tell us about his book, Death's Dark Shadow. It detailed his father's experiences as a soldier in WWII. It was a fascinating lecture. His book is available at The Great Debate Bookstore, owned by Randy Stocker. Randy was generous enough to let us use his store for our October meeting.
At our November meeting, Dorothy Bizer gave us a fun workshop about the use of words. She even incorporated some of the new slang words like "bling" and "tramp stamp". Who says Dorothy, who is in her 80's, is not with the times!
Our December/Christmas meeting was held at Vicky Mitchell's home. Carol Hillebrenner had a fun writing activity using puns. She even stumped Dwain Preston, our pun collector, on some of them. We had a white elephant gift exchange, which is always a lot of fun.
One of our members, Tracy Broemmer had some great news. She had self-published a couple of books in the past, but was finally picked up by a "real" publisher. The title is Luther's Cross. It is available at the Great Debate Bookstore. We wish her lots of luck!
Our January meeting will be held at Bickford Cottage on 43rd and Maine. The date is January 5th and the time is 7:00.
We will be discussing our next big project, a March writers' conference entitled WORDSTOCK. We welcome new ideas for presenters and already have some ideas of our own. We hope to have it at The Great Debate Bookstore from 10:00 - 2:00 on the last Saturday in March. As we firm up the details, we will have more specific information.
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DIAL - A - WRITER:
The QWG began the Dial-a-Writer, hosted by the Quincy Society of Fine Arts, several years ago. Each month, one of the members of the QWG reads an original poem, short story, or shares a song. You may access the Dial-a-Writer by dialing 228-ARTS and punching in the code 380# to hear the monthly selection.
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The current officers of the Quincy Writers Guild are:
Vicky Mitchell - President
(vicmitch1@comcast.net)
Dwain Preston- Secretary
(docp5422@sbcglobal.com)
Carol Hillebrenner-Treasurer
(chillebr@adams.net)
Feel free to contact any of us about the QWG. You can contact me with questions about the newsletter or this website by emailing or calling 222-3628.
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*If there's anything you'd like us to include on our website, please contact Vicky. I'd especially appreciate writing websites that you've found interesting.