First Things First

Hello, Herders! Not surprisingly, the Library remains closed to group meetings and it will not be possible to have our June meeting there. Considering the Benton/Franklin 7-day rolling average of daily new coronavirus cases is currently at 35, and climbing steadily, I’m starting to think it makes sense for us to plan on alternatives to meeting in an in-person group setting for a while. So… let’s try Zoom!

I’ve scheduled a zoom meeting for 6:30 pm to 7:00 pm, Monday June 8. You can either use the link below, or cut and paste the Meeting ID and Password into the app if you have it installed. The free Zoom plan limits groups to 40 minutes, so I scheduled our meeting to be shorter than usual. If this works and you all are amenable to meeting via Zoom, I’ll arrange to get the plan that will let us have longer meetings for the future.

If you are not familiar with using video conferencing, and would like to try a dry run ahead of time, just let me know and I’ll arrange to have a one-on-one trial with you so you can make sure you know how it’s going to work.

So, for the meeting on Monday, contact Seiders (barbara.seiders@eigenseide.net) to receive the meeting ID and password.

I look forward to this new adventure!

Introductions and Your Great News

Since we will be short on time for the June meeting, I am not planning on having a discussion topic. That means we can spend the time getting caught up and sharing our great news! Speaking of which, we have so much good news! Thank you all for sharing!

Lenora shared some great news: she reported that she’s still looking down at the grass, not up. I’d say that’s great news! Also that she’s got a microphone now for recording and for starting up a podcast of her books. And a late entry – Lenora has had three poems accepted and published by Five Willow Literary Review, an online publication put out by Seattle’s Koon Woon.  You can find the poems here:

• http://www.fivewillowsliteraryreview.com

Lori Lucero has spent time during the stay at home period doing some journaling and has developed ideas for a new project.

DeeAnna Galbraith has shared her great news: The Wild Rose Press re-released one of her romantic suspenses on March 4. Two days ago they sent her a contract for the first book in her mystery series for their mystery line. The new book is due out at the end of this year. She is sixty percent done on the second book in the series.

Heather Villa shared her great news: she has a manuscript out with a couple of agents. And after being a freelance writer for 8 years, she now has a full-time job in communications for the local schools. \o/

I have some great news: I successfully escaped a short visit to Hotel Kadlec Sunday/Monday after losing part of my day to something called transient global amnesia. It was weird, and I’ve definitely lost a few hours from Sunday, but all is good now! The only thing is I’ve become an unreliable narrator in my own life story.

What’s your great news?

Discussion

Let me know what you’d like to discuss or what issues you’re having and we’ll line it up for July.

Marketing and Community Engagement

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Upcoming Events, Conferences and Workshops

June 4, 2020, 8 am – 8 pm EDT: For those of you on twitter, tomorrow is #PITMAD! It’s where you post a 240 character summary of your book, with the hashtag #PITMAD, and agents and editors who are interested in learning more about your story will “Like” your post. It’s open to all genres. You can find out more about it here:

https://pitchwars.org/pitmad

July 31 – August 4, 2020: SCBWI Online Summer Spectacular. Advertised as a digital event featuring the biggest and brightest stars in the children’s literature galaxy. They plan to host it on Zoom, with video recordings available the entire month of August. You can participate live or watch at your convenience. The line up looks pretty darned impressive. Check it out here:

https://www.scbwi.org/events/scbwi-summer-spectacular-2020

Next Meeting?

• July 13, 2020