Writers' Meetings Provide A Morale Boost!

Winner of last week’s drawing is Ashley, and I’ll be contacting her to send her the download of THE TEXAN’S IRISH BRIDE. Thanks to all those who commented.

Please comment again for another chance to win each week. I continually (so it seems) offer prize drawings for PDF downloads of my books.


Today was the monthly meeting of Yellow Rose RWA. What an energizing and inspiring meeting! Diana Cosby was our fabulous speaker. Her topic was research, especially for historical romance, but she also touched on creating a synopsis. I picked up pointers, even though I’ve been writing since Abe Lincoln was a kid. That’s one of the great things about writers’ meetings. No matter how long you’ve been writing or how many presentations you’ve heard on a subject, it’s always possible to pick up a new pointer or two and be reminded of others. Diana was so great that we invited her to come back next year and give a program on promotion. I’m looking forward to her next visit.

After the meeting, we reconvened across the interstate in a restaurant for one of the other things we do well—eat. We lingered over lunch talking a mile a minute about various aspects of writing. Imagine ten to fifteen women all talking at once. No, maybe a third to a half of us were talking at the same time and the others listening. I sat by different people at lunch than I had at the meeting, so I was able to catch up with several friends I hadn’t seen since the last meeting I attended.

Meeting with friends
provides a
genuine boost!

I’ve mentioned in other posts how much this sort of camaraderie, networking, and craft discussion helps writers. Those of us who write full time tend to hibernate in front of our computers. Online communication is great, but it doesn’t substitute for personal face time. Ever see Sandra Bullock in “The Net?” Scary! But those are not the dangers writers face, at least as far as I know. We do face isolation, depression/moodiness, writers block, and our writing becoming stale if we sit in our self-made caves and hibernate. We need this face-to-face interaction to balance us, refresh and relax us. Not only does joining with friends create the same endorphins as exercise and antidepressant medication, the effect lasts for up to three days! Go out with friends and quite literally give yourself a big boost.