Next HSW Meeting
Saturday October 12th at 10 am at
Raleys ONE Supermarket on Wedge Parkway in the Community Room
Want to Know the Key to Effective Fight Scenes? Come to our September meeting!
Are you struggling to write authentic and engaging action scenes? At our next meeting, Matt Bayan is going to dissect the Anatomy of an Action Scene. The discussion will help you master the complexities of writing action-packed sequences that resonate with readers.
We’ll explore the structure of an action scene, how to maintain clarity amidst the chaos, and the importance of integrating character development into the action. Whether your scene involves a one-on-one confrontation or a full-scale battle, you’ll learn how to write fights that are both thrilling and meaningful.
This is a craft workshop, so Matt is asking you to bring in a short action scene you’re working on to analyze and improve. Please print it out, double-spaced in 12-point type. Or email it to Rene at RPAverett@gmail.com in text or Word format, and she will display it on the TV.
See you on October 12th at 10 am.
BOOK FAIR, ANYONE?
Up for discussion and suggestions at this meeting, we will be talking about HSW sponsoring a book fair in the spring. We’d like feedback from our members, and we’ll be reaching out to other writing groups in the Northern Nevada area. So, we’d like to know if you’re interested in doing it. More information will be presented at the meeting.
GROUP BOOK PROMOTION
Another project, an online group book sale, will be implemented this fall. If you’ve done one of these on Book Funnel or one of the other promotion sites, you know how they work. It’s a simple, not expensive, way for authors to leverage each other’s readers to expand their marketing reach. Rene will explain this plan and find out how many authors are interested at the next meeting. She will have handouts with details. Again, we can enlist local writers outside HSW.
GUEST OR TOPIC IDEAS!
If you have a topic area you’d like covered or know of someone you’d like to have as a guest speaker at an upcoming meeting, please drop a line to board@highsierrawriters.org
Critique Groups Update
Reminder: You must be a current PAID member of HSW in order to participate in one of our critique groups.
If you’d like to join a group or have general questions about critiquing, contact Linda Enos at lynda.r.bailey@gmail.com
MYSTERY WRITERS (and more) WANTED!
The Mystery and More group is looking for authors! If you write mystery, or any genre other than romance or children’s, let Linda know. She’ll put you in touch with the group leader, Ron, so you can learn more details.
HSW CRITIQUE GROUP RETURNING TO B&N
President, Matt Bayan, has reestablished the B&N critique group. For more info on how this group works, email Linda.
PLEASE REMEMBER…
If you have a few pages you’d like the HSW members to critique cold, don’t forget to send your submission (max of 6 pages, double-spaced with Times New Roman, or similar font, 12pt) to Linda at least 3 days before the monthly meeting so hard copies can be made.
FYI…
The After-the-Regular-Meeting (ATRM) critique group will gather following the regular meeting on October 12. Feel free to sit in if you’d like.
Don’t forget to contact Linda Enos at lynda.r.bailey@gmail.com with any questions or concerns!
Have you paid your 2024 Dues ?
Never has it been so inexpensive to join or renew at High Sierra Writers. Dues are only two dollars for the whole year! Yes, Matt lost his mind and set the renewal low.
You can pay your dues at a meeting (please bring exact amount $2), Rene has very little cash with her.
Or you can pay by check made payable to High Sierra Writers and handed to Rene (Treasurer) at the meeting or mailed to HSW at HSW Membership, PO Box 12241 Reno, NV 89510 (Please email the Board if your mail it.) Note: Please be sure to include your email address so we can add you to the newsletter mailing list.
Or you can pay via PayPal at paypal.me/Twobucks2024 – Enter the dollar amount you are paying. If you pay for more than one membership, please let us know the names for each and a good email address so we can send you our monthly newsletter.
Drop-in Critique Group at B&N
You asked for it, we’re doing it. Matt is hosting a drop-in critique meeting at the Barnes & Noble cafe on S Virginia Street from 6 PM to 8 PM. Meetings will be held on the FIRST and THIRD Wednesdays of each month, usually hosted by Matt Bayan.
Drop-in means no prep and no homework. Just bring 5 or 6 pages on which you want feedback and read them to the group. If you want, someone else can read your material out loud. If you’re really ambitious, you can bring hard copies, but that starts to look like homework and we really want to avoid work of any sort.
Your material can be a chapter or a passage you want to test, like an action scene, or dialogue, or something you’re just not sure about. Fiction or nonfiction.
You don’t need to be there for the whole meeting. If you can’t make it until 7 PM, no big deal.
You don’t have to bring material. These sessions are a great way to build up your editing muscles by analyzing work of other writers.
See you there.
HSW Writers’ Success Stories
High Sierra Writers has quite a few published writers in the group. We have a page featuring the various books grouped by author under genre. These are under HSW Authors link. As our authors release new books, we’ll feature them here. If you have a release coming up, send me your press release to RPAverett@gmail.com.
This month, we are featuring two releases by our members. First up, Ken Sutherland is on a roll and released the second book in his Chuck Donnegan mystery series in August.
The opening teaser starts with: “On the hottest day of 1971, Jesus walked into Tommy Aku’s Little Grass Shack and ordered a Zombie. Forty-five minutes later, he died on the street in front of me.”
In the exciting follow-up to Ken Sutherland’s HEARTBREAKER, retired LAPD Detective Chuck Donnegan lives up to his reputation as a relentless investigator whose battle against injustice and corruption won’t be stopped–even by a raging Malibu Canyon wildfire.
A daring, million-dollar diamond heist in 1955 left two people dead and Jesus Ramirez serving sixteen years in prison. Newly released, Jesus wants Chuck to prove him innocent. But he’s unceremoniously gunned down moments later, and Chuck vows to find the truth.
Tracking the original case unearths more questions than answers. Was Jesus framed? Why didn’t the detectives investigate the most likely suspect? Was the theft a cover for something even more deadly?
… The deeper Chuck dives into the crime, the more he believes Jesus’ story.
When another body is pulled from a blazing car, Chuck fears the murders won’t end until he stops the killer.
Or dies trying.
The Hollywood Diamond Murders is now available at Amazon.com.
The second released is a book years in the making, but it marks the debut novel for Nicole Frens. A thrilling speculative fiction, CryoShift takes the reader into the future with a man from the past.
Here’s the sales blurb for it:
He died in 2010. They reanimated him in 2123.
Joseph’s gamble paid off, and now he has it all – cool new tech and the ultimate life do-over.
When a family tragedy mucks up his plans for a normal second shot at living, he’s forced to
focus on triggering a supernatural ability instead.
Which is sort of cool. Sort of terrifying.
Definitely not how he’d anticipated spending his Life Take Two.
In a time when not everyone welcomes the New Revives, Joseph must discover where he fits in while opposing forces push him forward.
Caught between the love of his past and the thrill of the present, will Joseph unlock a power beyond belief and find his role in society, or will his hesitation cost him and his family everything?
CryoShift is a new release on Amazon.com and available in Kindle Unlimited.
Congratulations to both authors. As always, please read and review books by your fellow writers. We all need all the support we can get. Thanks.
Another Bonus for Ken Sutherland
Besides his newly released book, his first release, Balance, got a bit of a bounce when a publisher chose a section from it to be included in a short story anthology! In his recent newsletter, Ken wrote: I just got word from Living Springs Press that they are ready to publish their anthology, STORIES THROUGH THE AGES. It contains an excerpt from my novel BALANCE: The 200-Year Journey of Andrew Crawford. As it turns out, the backstory for Michael McGhee, one of the characters in that book, works well as a stand-alone short story. Look for STORIES THROUGH THE AGES this fall.
Ken will also have a new short story in the upcoming ACES anthology, which is a good reminder to get your short story submission to Dragon Crown Press for consideration for publication this year.