Author: Web Mistress

DATE  |  January 18th, 2024

TIME  |
  • 12:00 pm, Networking
  • 12:15 pm, Introductions & Incentives
  • around 12:30-12:45 pm, Business meeting (we are not sure how long Intro & Incentives will take)
  • 1:30 pm, Speaker


LOCATION   |   Meeting will be Hybrid via Zoom and Community Room at the Burkhardt Library, 4704 Burkhardt Ave., Dayton, OH 45403. This is in the Dayton Metro Library System. See below for further instructions.
TOPIC   | Rene Gutteridge & The Writer’s Identity. Presenting via Zoom.

The Writer’s Identity

One of the biggest moments we can experience as writer is to use the word to describe ourselves: I am a writer! But if we’re not careful, this can become a slippery slope of our core identity. Why is it so unhealthy to tie our identity into writing? It seems logical that we are, in fact, writers. Weren’t we born to write?

In this class, Rene will explore how to keep your identity strong and protected while navigating the extremely tumultuous world of rejection and rebound called the writing life. Learning to separate your identity from your occupation can be the single most important move in keeping you emotionally strong for the long haul.

 

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.

Dayton Public Libraries do allow food and drinks.

 

About Our SpeakerRene Gutteridge is a white woman with shoulder-length straight brown hair. This is a headshot in front of a slightly blurred green background.

Rene Gutteridge has been writing professionally for over twenty years, with expertise in fiction, non-fiction, comedy sketches, novelizations and screenwriting. She is the multi-genre author of 24 novels plus several non-fiction titles. Her indie film SKID won deadCenter’s Best Oklahoma Feature, and her novel My Life as a Doormat was adapted into the Hallmark movie Love’s Complicated. She is co-writer on the feature film Family Camp, a Movieguide award winner and a Dove Award nominee for 2023. She is also a Screencraft finalist in true crime. Rene is co-director of WriterCon in Oklahoma City, senior contributor at Writing Momentum and is the head writer at Skit Guys Studios.

Contact Rene at her website. She’s got a page for Tips for Writers, too.

DATE  |  November 16th, 2024

TIME  |
  • 12:00 pm, Networking
  • 12:15 pm, Introductions & Incentives
  • around 12:30-12:45 pm, Business meeting (we are not sure how long Intro & Incentives will take)
  • 1:30 pm, Speaker


LOCATION   |   Meeting will be Hybrid via Zoom and Community Room at the Burkhardt Library, 4704 Burkhardt Ave., Dayton, OH 45403. This is in the Dayton Metro Library System. See below for further instructions.
TOPIC   | Beth Morrow & Self-Care for the Creative Soul: How to Create a Mindfulness Practice to Support Your Writer Self. Presenting in person, so long as weather permits travel, otherwise, via Zoom.

Self-Care for the Creative Soul:

How to Create a Mindfulness Practice to Support Your Writer Self

If you’ve ever dreaded facing the page, struggled with critical self-talk, writer’s block, or procrastination, you know there’s more to the writing process than getting words on the page. Learning to tune into the rhythms, flow, and habits of our unique process through mindful practices can help us avoid burnout and navigate the emotional challenges of embodying our creative self.

Bring your journal and join me for this interactive workshop where we will cultivate an awareness and appreciation of what fuels our creative souls through:

  • journaling,
  • meditation, and
  • mindful breathwork.

We’ll use exercises and prompts designed to discover and clarify what your creativity needs most for a sense of peace, connection, and ease. You’ll return to your writing refreshed and restored, with a list of strategies and resources to support you in bringing your most authentic self to the page.

 

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

Presentation is free for members and prospective members who have not yet visited for two complimentary meetings.

We encourage you to be in person if you can! This speaker will be at the library, ready to help us develop a practice to keep  us healthy and creative as we write.

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.

Dayton Public Libraries do allow food and drinks.

 

About Our SpeakerBeth Morrow is a white woman with brown hair. She's wearing a purple top with white sleeves, and clasping her hands in namaste.

Beth Morrow, M.Ed., is a teacher and author who loves to explore the intersection of meditation and an embodied creative life. Her journey to mindfulness teaching began with learning yoga through videos then joining a studio for deeper study. Introduced to Zen meditation through a workshop, the profound spiritual and emotional healing she experienced lingered for over a decade and led her to earning a yoga teaching certification. Longing to return to meditation for healing after her husband’s death, the lack of meditation opportunities around her prompted her to leave the middle school classroom and become a meditation teacher herself. 

She has since studied yoga nidra, Taiji, (Tai Chi), and reiki, and is completing work for her 500-hour meditation certification from the Radiance Sutras School of Meditation.

Beth currently teaches meditation and restorative and yin yoga in venues in Columbus, Ohio. Creating safe, comfortable spaces that invite students to slow down and relax into the innate wisdom of the self through the breath is what she loves most. 

Contact Jules: You can find her

 


The October 19, 2024 program is by romance writer Siera London. Find all the details at cofwevents.org

DATE  | October 19th, 2024

TIME  |
  • 12:00 pm, Networking
  • 12:15 pm, Introductions & Incentives
  • around 12:30-12:45 pm, Business meeting (we are not sure how long Intro & Incentives will take)
  • 1:30 pm, Speaker

LOCATION   |    Zoom and a room on the first floor of Hilliard Branch, pass the coffee stand, turn left, first hall on the right, one of the rooms on the left, Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, OH 43026. See below for further instructions. Speaker will be via zoom.
TOPIC   | Siera London: Scenes & Sequels

Scenes & Sequels

This Session

Goal, motivation, and conflict aren’t enough. Great storytelling includes characters who battle and triumph—a dynamic mix of internal and external conflicts to reach their ultimate goal.

But unputdownable fiction is more than a GMC chart. How your character reacts to each challenge creates a three-dimensional persona whose fictional journey communicates a message of our human existence that resonates through a wide cross-section of readers.

Join USA Today Bestselling Author Siera London as she explores scene and sequel structure in popular fiction.  

 

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

This program 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. Please note, the link spans from the moment we open the room to the social half hour through the business meeting and this program.

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

 

About Our Speaker

Siera London, USA Today best-selling author, is a black woman with curly black hair. She is wearing a white sweater and wearing a pendant.

Siera London writes about Sassy, Sensual heroines and the Alpha Males that love them, flaws and all. She is the author of twenty-two contemporary fiction novels and novellas. She is a native Floridian who served 22 years in the United States Navy as a registered pediatric nurse practitioner and nursing clinical instructor before deciding to focus on her writing career. Her debut novel, Chasing Ava, was an Amazon Best Seller in the contemporary romance and women’s fiction category.

Siera currently lives in the northern Virginia with her husband and their color patch tabby kitten named Frie. Her love of coastal towns and bustling cities shines through in her sassy and sexy storytelling.

She is a pet lover at heart. She would gladly welcome more furry friends into the household; however, she had to guilt her husband into the tabby.

When she’s not writing she loves to get lost between the pages of a great book and travel.

Learn more about Siera at her website.

Jen Devon is a white woman with brown hair, tied up towards the top of her head. She wears glasses as wide as her face, and a white blouse with blue flowers.

DATE & TIME: September 14th 2024

  • 12:00 pm, Networking
  • 12:15 pm, Introductions & Incentives
  • around 12:30-12:45 pm, Business meeting (we are not sure how long Intro & Incentives will take)
  • 1:30 pm, Speaker

LOCATION   |   Zoom and Community Room at Vandalia Branch of the Dayton Metropolitan Library.

Dayton Metropolitan Library, Vandalia Branch
     Location Address: 330 South Dixie Drive.
     Room: Community Room

SPEAKER   | Jen Devon, via Zoom
TOPIC   |   Voice in Dual POV Romance 

Voice in Dual POV Romance

This session

In this workshop, Jen will talk about the ways she:

  • Enhances characterization via POV techniques
  • Differentiates character voice and internal monologue between multiple narrators / main characters
  • Tailors the narrative to a particular POV
  • Determines which character’s POV a chapter should be
  • Deepens POV

Get ready for a program that feels more like a casual conversation. Jen will talk about her own strategies and techniques. No dry lecture, no mandate from on high “this is how you do it”. She’ll settle in, talking about things that work for her, while encouraging us to be mindful of our own writing identity, so that we can adapt it to our own vibe, needs, and aptitudes. 

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

This program 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. Please note, the link spans from the moment we open the room to the social and introductions through the business meeting and this program.

Dayton Public Library System allows food and drinks.

About Our Speaker

Jen Devon is a white woman with long brown hair. She wears glasses as wide as her face, and is wearing an off-white sweater.

I’m Jen. I’m a former ecology academic turned professional photographer turned software support pro moonlighting as an author. I’m a lifelong lover of scary movies and romance novels, both of which I was probably first exposed to far too young. But the pre-teen heart wants what it wants, and my angsty little Xennial heart wanted terror and lusty pining. I think Ripley and Hicks should have kissed, Ben Solo deserved better, and Disney should’ve given Elsa a girlfriend.

I love: campfires, Hot Tamales, sour cream as a French fry condiment, the smell of used bookstores, World of Warcraft, single-origin coffee, my 85mm f/1.8G camera lens, public radio, Hefeweizen, slipper socks, boardgames, marching bands, hiking, traveling with my family, fun hats, and people who don’t take themselves too seriously.

I’m married to a hot nerd who I met on the Internet, and now twenty years later we’re raising three bright, feminist, kick-ass kids. We also have two ill-mannered rescue mutts – I’d have a whole pack of them (dogs, not kids) if I could, but there’s only so much room on the bed, you know?

I’m an adult-diagnosed ADHD’er, an outgoing introvert and occasional foulmouth (apologies to my mom, my dad, my kids’ teachers, and the hosts of any panels or podcasts I’m a guest on), a Gandalf stan, thrift store enthusiast, nonsense repudiator, kindness evangelist, and unapologetic dirt-lover. I think the world would be a better place if everyone read romance novels.

Learn more about Jen at her website.

 

Join COFW 8/17/24 for "How to Attract Book Clubs to You and Your Book," by DiAnn Mills.

DATE  | August 17th, 2024

TIME  |
  • 12:00 pm, Networking
  • 12:15 pm, Introductions & Incentives
  • around 12:30-12:45 pm, Business meeting (we are not sure how long Intro & Incentives will take)
  • 1:30 pm, Speaker

LOCATION   |    Zoom and Hilliard Room of Hilliard Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, OH 43026. See below for further instructions. Speaker will be via zoom.
TOPIC   | DiAnn Mills: How to Attract Book Clubs to You and Your Book

Book Clubs and Your Book

This Session

Writers love to have their books featured by book clubs. We’re excited for, passionate about, and longing for readers to enjoy a new adventure. We might think that should be enough for book clubs to jump onboard our book, but we can thrill them even more by offering ways to enjoy the book within a book club.

In our time together, we will dive into the following topics to make sure each writer is professional and organized:

  • Rule #1: Write a Good Book.
  • What is a Book Club?
  • What Do Readers Look for in a Book?
  • How Do Writers Select the Best Book Club Fit for Their Book?
  • Where do you find Book Clubs?
  • The Mechanics of Getting Organized.
  • How to Create a Book Club Kit – Step by Step.
  • Resources to Make the Writer’s Job Fun and Easy.

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

This program 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. Please note, the link spans from the moment we open the room to the social half hour through the business meeting and this program.

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

 

About Our Speaker

DiAnn Mills is a white woman with short-cropped reddish brown hair. She's wearing a green long-sleeved top and sitting on a bench.

DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She weaves memorable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels with threads of romance. DiAnn believes every breath of life is someone’s story, so why not capture those moments and create a thrilling adventure?
Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards, Golden Scroll, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests.
DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, an active member of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers, Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Mystery Writers of America, the Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild, and International Thriller Writers. DiAnn continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.
DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is active online and loves to connect with readers on: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads, BookBub, YouTube, or LinkedIn.

Learn more about DiAnn at her website.