DATE & TIME   |   June 18th, 2022 – Social at 12:00 PM, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm or later–after the business meeting concludes
LOCATION   |   Meeting will be Hybrid via Zoom and Meeting Room 2A of Hilliard Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, OH 43026. See below for further instructions.
TOPIC   | Olivia Gaines: Writing Characters of Color

Writing Characters of Color

Our Craft Program

Join Olivia Gaines as she presents an hour-long workshop which teaches how to seamlessly integrate characters of social and diverse backgrounds into your story. Learn the best methods of describing skin tones, hair textures, and cultural dishes.

 

Participants will receive a link for a workbook a few days before the course. That link is not to be shared with anyone other than participants.

 

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

Presentation is free for members and prospective members who have not yet visited for two complimentary meetings. For those members who cannot join us in person, join us via Zoom. The password will be posted in the Central Ohio Fiction Writers Google Group, and on the members-only Central Ohio Fiction Writers Facebook page.

If you are not a COFW member and wish to attend this presentation via Zoom, email cofwpresident@gmail.com.

Per library policy, “Prepared food and non-alcoholic beverages are allowed in meeting rooms.”

Our speaker has graciously allowed us to record her presentation. Only COFW members will have access to that recording, for roughly a year.

 

About Our Speaker

Olivia Gaines is a USA Today Best Selling, Emma Award, and multiple award-winning author who loves a good laugh coupled with some steam, mixed in with a man and woman finding their way past the words of “I love you.”

Visit Olivia at https://www.ogaines.com/

DATE & TIME   |   May 14th, 2022 – Social at 12:00 PM, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm or later–after the business meeting concludes
LOCATION   |   Meeting will be Hybrid via Zoom and Community Room at the Woodbourne Library, 6060 Far Hills Avenue, Centerville, Ohio 45459. See below for further instructions.
TOPIC   | Peggy Jaeger: Writing the Second Acts Romance

Writing the Second Acts Romance

Our Craft Program

Join Peggy Jager as she walks us through romance with more seasoned characters.Animated Mockups

Using humor and life experiences, this workshop will discuss an untapped market in the romance industry: romantic stories with heroines and heroes over the age of 40 for romance readers in the same age group

 

We live in a society where life – and romance – doesn’t end at 35.  The death of a spouse, a divorce, choosing a career over marriage,  and dealing with grown children can all effect people in their late/middle years, typically 40-60. This workshop will explore several ways to deal with writing a romance story about this age group and for this age group market.

 

Things that will be explored will include, but not be limited to:

  1. Definition of late/middle age and the physical, psychological and emotional factors that effect this age group
  2. Starting over after divorce or death. The psychological and emotional issues that afflict the hero/heroine who have undergone either of these occurrences.
  3. Sex – the good, the bad, the funny! Body image issues, performance issues, sexual angst! All will be dealt with using humor, and current medical information in dealing with potential problems.
  4. Reclaiming individual sexuality when you have grown children and dealing with  the “eeew” factor from them.

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

Presentation is free for members and prospective members who have not yet visited for two complimentary meetings. For those members who cannot join us in person, join us via Zoom. The password will be posted in the Central Ohio Fiction Writers Google Group, and on the members-only Central Ohio Fiction Writers Facebook page.

If you are not a COFW member and wish to attend this presentation via Zoom, email cofwpresident@gmail.com.

Per library policy, “Prepared food and non-alcoholic beverages are allowed in meeting rooms.”

About Our Speaker

Peggy Jaeger is a multi-published contemporary romance author and Registered Nurse who happens to be in the Second Act of her life, so that credo of walking the walk and talking the talk is one she knows intimately. Realizing there is a  market for romance readers and writers who are also in the second act of their lives prompted her to develop this workshop to instruct, educate, and entertain readers and writers of romance of a certain age.

She writes romance stories about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them. If she can make you cry on one page and bring you out of tears rolling with laughter the next, she’s done her job as a writer.

Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, she brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she’s created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

When she’s not writing Peggy is usually painting, crafting, scrapbooking or decoupaging old steamer trunks she finds at rummage stores and garage sales.

As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go “What??!” 

DATE & TIME   |   April 16th, 2022 – Social at 12:00 PM, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm or later–after the business meeting concludes
LOCATION   |   Meeting will be Hybrid via Zoom and Hilliard Room of Hilliard Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, OH 43026. See below for further instructions.
TOPIC   | Kathleen Sweeney & Book Brush, New Images Authors Need (Kindle Vella, A+ content, Animated email signatures & more)

Book Brush, New Images Authors Need (Kindle Vella, A+ content, Animated email signatures & more)

Our Book Brush Program

Join Kathleen Sweeney from Book Brush for a fun live walk-through of the Book Brush tools. We’ll focus on some of the newest features including

  • Animated Mockups
  • Amazon A+ Content
  • Animated Email Signatures
  • Quick Images for Book Promo.
  • How to easily create your own Book Trailer.

Kathleen will share handy tips & tricks along the way and have time for Q & A, too.

Book Brush is an amazing image-creation software platform built just for authors to help them easily create professional-looking ads and images for social media and so much more. Book Brush offers the tools every author needs in his or her marketing toolbox to make it easy to embrace the marketing side of writing.

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

Presentation is free for members and prospective members who have not yet visited for two complimentary meetings. For those members who cannot join us in person, join us via Zoom. The password will be posted in the Central Ohio Fiction Writers Google Group, and on the members-only Central Ohio Fiction Writers Facebook page.

If you are not a COFW member and wish to attend this presentation via Zoom, email cofwpresident@gmail.com.

Per library policy, “Prepared food and non-alcoholic beverages are allowed in meeting rooms.”

About Our Speaker

Kathleen is the Manager of Marketing and Customer Service at Book Brush. She has over 19 years of marketing experience. She thoroughly enjoys working with authors and helping them create eye-catching images. She lives in central Illinois with her husband, three busy boys and two handsome cats. Her hobbies include eating tacos and turning socks right side out.

Learn more about Book Brush: www.BookBrush.com  

 

 

DATE & TIME   |   March 19th, 2022 – Social at 12:00 PM, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm or later–after the business meeting concludes
LOCATION   |   Meeting will be Hybrid via Zoom and Community Room at the Woodbourne Library, 6060 Far Hills Avenue, Centerville, Ohio 45459. See below for further instructions.
TOPIC   | Shari Heinrich & You all!: Brainstorming your Current or Future Creative Writing

Brainstorming your Current or Future Creative Writing

Juliette Hyland plots one of herbooks
Rachel Plots one of her books, now published with Harlequin Medical Romance

Our March program, Brainstorming your Current or Future Creative Writing, is back by popular demand. This program includes light instruction on brainstorming techniques. Members are encouraged to bring their favorite craft book to chat briefly about in the small group, especially if it helps them with brainstorming. You go home with the book you brought, unless you are offering it up to a new home.

Following the brief instruction offered by Shari Heinrich, we’ll spend the majority of the program in hands-on practice, broken into small groups. Those on Zoom, we will attempt to break users into groups of 4-5 (this will be our first time trying that). Last time we offered this program, several of our members worked on novels, such as Juliette Hyland plotting out Falling Again for the Single Dad (now available from Harlequin) and Shari Heinrich using the technique “unlikely combinations” to come up with the idea for one of her novels now in second draft stage, a young adult paranormal about a teenage shifter who is not the animal she expects.

poster boards for brainstorming
these poster boards cover different types of brainstorming

COFW will supply small poster board and markers, in case members find them helpful, along with several visual models of story structure. Donna MacMeans is supplying a host of sticky notes, which she encourages you to take home with you. You supply places where you are blocked, or want additional ideas, to brainstorm your plot, a plot hole, or anything else. Novel or short story, novelette or novella, it’s all fair game. Group members will take turns so that each person has a chance to make forward progress. After the first round of brainstorming, the room will decide whether to stick with the existing groups for the next round, or to mix up members. Participants don’t have to ask for brainstorming help, but if you’re staying for the session, we hope you’ll helping kick-start creativity for one of your COFW friends. Guests are welcome to attend this brainstorming session.

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

Presentation is free for members and prospective members who have not yet visited for two complimentary meetings. For those members who cannot join us in person, join us via Zoom. The password will be posted in the Central Ohio Fiction Writers Google Group, and on the Central Ohio Fiction Writers Facebook page.

If you are not a COFW member and wish to attend this presentation via Zoom, email cofwpresident@gmail.com.

About Our Speaker

Aurthor Shari Heinrich

Shari Heinrich writes young adult fantasy populated by characters full of sass and heart. She’s querying Queen of Wands, where teen thief Angela makes the unforgivable mistake of falling for her mark and activating the family’s curse to the ancient Egyptian goddess of retribution.

Contact Shari: www.ShariHeinrich.com

Shari will supply brainstorming techniques that Harlequin medical author Robin Gianna shared one of the times COFW offered this program, along with additional techniques.