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DATE & TIME   |  July 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 Southeast Branch Library, 21 Watervliet Avenue, Dayton, OH 45420 See below for further instructions.
TOPIC   | Michelle Grajkowski: Talking Agenting

Talking Agenting

Our Business Program

Join Agent Michelle Grajkowski of ThreeSeas Literary Agency as she talks agenting–she’ll decide whether she speaks on what’s hot in romance and takes questions, or just takes questions.

 

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

From the moment Michelle Grajkowski first opened the doors to the 3 Seas Literary Agency in August of 2000, she has been living her dream. (What could be better than surrounding yourself with amazing authors and their exciting and imaginative books?) Since then, her agency has sold more than 900 books to all the major publishing houses, and has grown from one agent to three!

Michelle’s client list includes New York Times Bestselling Authors Katie MacAlister, Cathy McDavid, Kerrelyn Sparks and C.L. Wilson. She primarily represents romance, women’s fiction, young adult and middle grade fiction along with select non-fiction projects with a terrific message. She is currently looking for fantastic writers with a voice of their own.

When not curled up with a great manuscript, Michelle loves to spend time with her husband, children and her crazy puppy who refuses to grow up.

Visit Michelle at https://www.threeseasagency.com/michelle-grajkowski, or see her Query Manager.

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.  

 

 


DATE & TIME   |   February 19th, 2022 – Social at 12:00 PM, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm
LOCATION   |   Meeting will be Hybrid via Zoom and at The Forge Tavern 1375 Bethel Road, Columbus, OH 43220. See below for further instructions.
TOPIC   |   Optimizing Amazon Ads

The Art of Copywriting

Selling books is hard…
…especially if your prospective buyers don’t read the description.
Do you know how to hook a reader?
Typical descriptions convert at 1:30. That means you have to pay for 30 clicks to get one new reader. That’s expensive. With proper copywriting, you can get that down to 1:8 or better.
Would you rather pay for 8 or 30 clicks?
This presentation will be about the art of copywriting, but also what you need to know to “do the math” to understand if you’re profitable.
Data and Copywriting go hand in hand.

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 anyone has any questions, or prospective members who would like to Zoom with us, email cofwpresident@gmail.com

About Our Speaker

Brian D. Meeks is a writer with 19 novels and 6 non-fiction titles, including Mastering Amazon Ads and Mastering Amazon Descriptions. He has spoken at all four 20BooksTo50K conferences and built up many lifelong friends from the community. For seven years he’s made his living as an author and copywriter.

On Jan 2, 2022, he accepted a position as the Managing Editor of Blockster.com, a crypto new website. For the last couple weeks, he’s been building his writing team and is excited about this new writing adventure.

All of it began with a single blog post Jan 2, 2010.

Before that, he didn’t like writing.

DATE & TIME   |   January 15th, 2022 – Social at 12:00 PM, Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm
LOCATION   |   Meeting will be Hybrid via Zoom and at Hope Hotel (Building #823 in Area A), the room TBD (in the Conference Center, look for the COFW sign), 10823 Chidlaw Rd., Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH 45433. See below for further instructions.
TOPIC   | Priscilla Oliveras: Balancing Emotion and Pacing for Unforgettable Fiction

As authors we know that emotion is the key to engaging readers in the story, but we’re often urged to trim backstory and inner dialogue to focus on driving the story forward. This presentation provides practical tips to get that critical emotion on the page without bogging down your story. Balancing emotion and pacing can help you deliver the emotional impact your story needs to keep readers turning pages and push a scene or novel beyond competent to unforgettable. Bring your thesis manuscript pages to study/dissect during hands-on exercises.

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 or prospective member and wish to attend this presentation, use the field and button below to register, and the Zoom information will be sent to you approximately one week before the presentation.

If anyone has any questions, email cofwpresident@gmail.com

About Our Speaker

Priscilla Oliveras is a USA Today bestselling author and 2018 RWA® RITA® double finalist who writes contemporary romance with a Latinx flavor. Proud of her Puerto Rican-Mexican heritage, she strives to bring authenticity to her novels by sharing her Latinx culture with readers. Her books have earned Starred Reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist along with praise from O, The Oprah Magazine, Washington Post, New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Frolic, and more. She earned her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University where she currently serves as adjunct faculty while also teaching the online class “Romance Writing” for ed2go. A long-time romance enthusiast, Priscilla’s also a sports fan, beach lover, and Zumba aficionado, who often practices the art of napping in her backyard hammock.
Find out more and check out her events calendar at https://prisoliveras.com/books/, and follow her on Facebook www.facebook.com/prisoliveras or Twitter and Instagram via @prisoliveras.

Register – Non-COFW Individuals

For writers who are not checking out COFW to potentially become members, but who are interested in this workshop, the cost is $20.00.

Registration is closed.

DATE & TIME   |   November 13th, 2021 – Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm
LOCATION   |   Meeting will be Hybrid via Zoom and at The Forge Tavern 1375 Bethel Road, Columbus, OH 43220. See below for further instructions.
TOPIC   |   The Storyteller’s Toolkit

The Storyteller’s Toolkit is a plotting presentation that applies to all fiction genres and to authors in all stages of their publishing careers, particularly beginner and intermediate storytellers. The presentation addresses:

  • Story premise: Developing your story idea.
  • High concept: Adding layers to your story premise to make it more marketable.
  • Conflict: Enhancing your story premise with conflict.

The presentation will diagram premise, high concept, and conflict in a movie to demonstrate how the three elements work together to make a compelling story. At the end of the presentation attendees will be able to:

  • Craft a strong story premise.
  • Define high concepts and incorporate this element into their story premise.
  • Identify various types of conflict and incorporate one or more of these elements into their story plots.

Patricia Sargeant is the national best-selling, award-winning author of more than 20 novels. Her work has been featured in national publications such as Publishers Weekly, USA Today, Kirkus Reviews, Suspense Magazine, Mystery Scene Magazine, Library Journal and RT Book Reviews. She has also been interviewed on podcasts including Destination Mystery with Laura Brennan, Conversations LIVE! with Cyrus Webb, Read You Later with Lasheera Lee and Katara’s Café with Katara Johnson. Visit her at https://patriciasargeant.com/.

Presentation is free for members. For those members who cannot join us at The Forge Tavern, 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, use the field and button below to register, and the Zoom information will be sent to you approximately one week before the presentation.

For those members who cannot join us at The Forge Tavern, join us via Zoom. The password will be posted on the Central Ohio Fiction Writers Facebook page and in the COFW Google Group. If anyone has any questions, email cofwpresident@gmail.com

DATE & TIME   |   October 16th, 2021 – Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm
LOCATION   |   Meeting will be Hybrid via Zoom and at Hope Hotel (Building #823 in Area A), the Sabre-Phantom room, 10823 Chidlaw Rd., Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH 45433. . See below for further instructions.
TOPIC   |   Sexual Tension – Getting Away from Wham, Bam, Thank you, Ma’am

High heat sex scenes are popular like never before. But what makes a scene go from ho-um to cold shower-worthy? The key is sexual tension. Without that basic conflict – as with all stories – the momentum of the scene will falter and lose steam. Not what you want with your sex scenes!

In this class, students will learn first what creates sexual tension and then how to build it in their own stories for maximum impact. Dubbed by her editor as “The Queen of Sexual Tension,” Jeffe Kennedy will give away her secrets for drawing out the suspense, building expectations and finally delivering those crucial climactic moments.

Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author whose works include novels, non-fiction, poetry, and short fiction. She has won the prestigious RITA® Award from Romance Writers of America (RWA), has been a finalist twice, been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) as a Director at Large. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.

Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular SFF Seven blog, on Facebook, on Goodreads and pretty much constantly on Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Sarah Younger of Nancy Yost Literary Agency.

For those members who cannot join us at The Hope Hotel, join us via Zoom. The password will be posted on the Central Ohio Fiction Writers Facebook page and in the COFW Google Group. If anyone has any questions, email cofwpresident@gmail.com

The Hotel can be tricky for people who have not been there before. Turn into the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base like you are entering gate 12A, then immediately turn right into the Hope before you go through the pass and ID gate. The hotel sits far back on the right and cannot be seen from the road.

DATE & TIME   |   September 18th, 2021 – Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm
LOCATION   |   Meeting will be Hybrid via Zoom and at Hope Hotel (Building #823 in Area A), the Sabre-Phantom room, 10823 Chidlaw Rd., Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH 45433. . See below for further instructions.
TOPIC   |   Trope Your Way to a First Draft

In genre fiction tropes are marketing devices. Everyone has their favorite! But as writers you can use these tropes to build your characters, and conflicts – basically your first draft! Even better, your initial marketing blocks are baked into the earliest parts of the draft. Let Juliette Hyland show you how she uses tropes to figure out how to torture her characters before delivering their happily ever after!

Juliette Hyland believes in strong coffee, hot drinks and happily ever afters! She lives in Ohio, USA, with her prince charming, who has patiently listened to many rants regarding characters failing to follow the outline. When not working on fun and flirty happily ever afters, Juliette can be found spending time with her beautiful daughters, giant dogs or sewing uneven stitches with her sewing machine.

For those members who cannot join us at The Hope Hotel, join us via Zoom. The password will be posted on the Central Ohio Fiction Writers Facebook page and in the COFW Google Group. If anyone has any questions, email cofwpresident@gmail.com

The Hotel can be tricky for people who have not been there before. Turn into the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base like you are entering gate 12A, then immediately turn right into the Hope before you go through the pass and ID gate. The hotel sits far back on the right and cannot be seen from the road.