It hit me as I stepped up to the podium on that warm but breezy mid-spring afternoon and faced a larger-than-expected crowd - I did it! At last, the writing center I'd been dreaming about for so long was happening! There was a big cake with our logo on it, eight bottles of faux champagne in a cooler, and a table full of enticing appetizers. Flowers and balloons and a professional photographer. The noise level was at 11, and to get everyone's attention I had to bang on the podium. For a few minutes I talked about how many years I'd wanted to do this, what had stopped me in the past, and why this time would be different. The crowd was great - they laughed at all the right places, and, mostly fellow writers, supported me in every way. You can see the video here.
NWPC Board of Directors: Timothy Gager,
Robin Stratton, Michael Keith, and Christopher Reilley
It wasn't until two weeks had gone by that I realized... these published authors, these award winners, these poet laureates, these runners of poetry series and givers of workshops... these are my people - and yet, this is only half the population my Board of Directors and I want to reach.
We need the writers who are struggling to get published. The novelists who are stuck. The poets with a hundred poems they don't know what to do with. The people dreaming of writing their memoirs, if they only knew how to begin.
You see, because if we want to achieve this goal of having a place where writers can set up signings, book launches, and open mics and not have to pay anything and not have to give up a percentage of their sales, we need some kind of revenue - we need people to take our workshops. Please see our schedule of workshops here.
Our first workshop, "Starting, Finishing & Troubleshooting Your Novel," is one I gave a few years ago at the New England Mobile Book Fair. The response was so overwhelming that we had to schedule a second day, and even then the time ran out before we got to everyone. Several people told me it was the best writing workshop they'd ever attended. So if you or someone you know would like to take the definitive workshop for getting your writing back on track, please sign up!
For those who don't need to take a workshop, but want to use our center for your book launch or signing, please go ahead and contact us at newtonwriting@aol.com to set it up. Remember - it's all FREE !
Stay tuned for more updates on all the wicked fun literary events we have planned!
Robin Stratton
Robin, This is so wonderful! I wish someone would set up such a thing here, in south Orange County. We have to travel a long distance, to Long Beach or LA, to find anything similar.
ReplyDeleteRobbi,thanks for really understanding what we're trying to do here. We have a huge famous writing center in Boston - Grub Street - but to those of us who hate/fear/can't drive to Boston, a local center is really important.
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