SJWG Member Roundup for May 2015

Compiled by Jessica A. Walsh and Glenn Walker

There is so much talent in the South Jersey Writers Group, and as we've mentioned in the past, so many bloggers. And many of these bloggers produce content on a fairly frequent basis, so we thought it would be a cool idea to highlight some of each month's more intriguing and interesting blog posts and present them here.

Please give a click and a read, and we hope you will like the samples enough to become regular readers. Check them out!

Jennifer M. Eaton wraps up her wonderful series Lessons from a Manuscript Red Line, so much to learn here!

MK England's great two-part feature on the pros and cons of fan fiction can be found here and here.

Ron Geraci compares cooking to writing here.

Marie Gilbert took a look at church, trains, the film Ex Machina, and also found time to interview Snake Blocker.

Barb Godshalk ponders motherhood in her special Mother's Day post here.

Amy Holiday of Hypothetical Press reviewed the Young Adult books Vagabonding, Still Just Grace, Fangirl, and No Passengers Beyond This Point at her blog here.

Victoria M. Lees talks about revision over at her excellent Adventures in Writing blog, and you can read that post here.

Rosanna Martella talks about Our Macrobiome on her blog right here.

Patti O'Brien rails against traffic and traffic radio in this post.

Robin Renee remembers B.B. King by reminiscing about interviewing him in 2004 in A Few Words with B.B. King.

Randy Ribay shares a personal story about a recent tragedy in Nobody Taught me to Mourn.

Kevin Stephany had a busy month reviewing several books and plays performed in the South Jersey area, including Bonnie and Clyde: A New Musical at Burlington County Footlighters.

Loretta Sisco uncovers the truth of James Franco and Jonah Hill in True Story for Biff Bam Pop in this post.

Vince Sparks writes about ageism in this post.

Rich Voza shares Chapter 16 of Dreamlands.

Glenn Walker continues reviewing "Marvel's Daredevil" on Netflix here.

Jessica A. Walsh holds the first-ever Cracking Nut Contest. Enter by June 1 for a chance to win one of two prizes.

Janice Wilson shares a song that soothes her and reflects on personal motivation and missions in Mission (almost) Complete.

Mieke Zamora-Mackay shares exciting news of her new venture teaching private knitting classes in Handmade Love & Joy.

We hope you liked this month's selections from SJWG member blogs, and will not only read more at their respective sites, but also come back here next month for more. Don't forget to Like the South Jersey Writers at Facebook, Follow us at Twitter, and check us out on Pinterest. Thank you!

Biff Bam Pop! at the SJWG

By Glenn Walker

The internet is a funny thing. The internet is bringing our world closer together, making communication easier. You can get to know people, build friendships and relationships, having never met the people involved. I have known Andy Burns for six years, talk to him nearly every day, consider him one of my best friends - all thanks to the internet - but never met him face to face until just this past week.

Even though Andy lives and works in Toronto, he's well known to the members of the South Jersey Writers Group, not just through me, but seeing as a half-dozen of our members write for his pop culture website Biff Bam Pop!, Andy has achieved something of rock star status among our little group.

As I said, we had never met until last week. When I picked him up at the airport, he got in the car and we shook hands, then kinda laughed and rolled our eyes. This was not a first meeting or an introduction. It wasn't even a blind date. Andy and I have known each other for years. We were soon talking as if we had last talked hours before, which though electronically, we had. He settled into our home for a week as if he was family, more than a friend or colleague.

When he attended the May general meeting of the SJWG as my guest, he felt like family with our little group as well, and what was even cooler, the friendships were bound even closer when we went out to a bar later that night. As the days went by, Marie Gilbert took Andy on a ghost hunt, as well as a tour of historic Philadelphia. With Loretta Sisco and her husband we attended a viewing of the new Poltergeist remake. French fry fanatic me took him to all the cool places to eat like the British Chip Shop for the best fries, got him a real cheesesteak, and all of us got together for a breakfast at Collingswood's Pop Shop.

By the time we parted after that last breakfast, we were all family, despite having never met before last week. So the internet is not such a bad thing, it builds friendships and connections not just here in South Jersey, but also as far away as the mean streets of Toronto.

Andy Burns is a verified expert of the television series "Twin Peaks" as evidenced in his book Wrapped in Plastic. Twin Peaks. His pop culture website Biff Bam Pop! can be found here, you can Follow him on Twitter here, and Like the site on Facebook here.

Among the South Jersey Writers who are also members of Biff Bam Pop! East are senior writer Marie Gilbert, whose work includes reviews of "The Walking Dead," "Penny Dreadful," "American Horror Story," and "Orphan Black" among others; Loretta Sisco, who dazzles us with tales of horrors and serial killers; Robin Renee, our mistress of music; Jim Knipp, our official "Game of Thrones" reviewer; and Sarah Hawkins Miduski, who will be taking on the upcoming "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" TV series. And then there's that Glenn Walker guy, associate editor and contributing writer at Biff Bam Pop!. He reviews "The Flash," "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," and "Avengers Assemble."

We loved hosting Andy, and we're hoping to get together again in person real soon, perhaps a trip to Canada next. Until then, thank you, internet, and thank you, Andy!

SJWG April Blogfest

Every third Sunday of the month the South Jersey Writers' Group gets together for a work session dedicated to the art of blogging. If you noticed in the SJWG Social Media Database (seen here and here) many of its members are also bloggers. This month, once again, we have decided to put our money where our mouths are, so to speak, and promote here, on the SJWG Blog, what we accomplished at this monthly work session.

Loretta Sisco spotlighted her cat Ozzy on her blog/website The Mirth and Madness of My Mind (and Other Musings). You can read this terrific love letter here.

Writer/editor Patti O'Brien returned to her blog A Broad Abroad with a post about her recent car accident. You can read it here.

Marie Gilbert worked on an upcoming piece for Intertainment Hub.

Marie, Loretta, Jenny, Joanne, and Kahlil hard at work.

New member Howard Kleinman used the friendly peer pressure of the write-in style work session to get him working on rewrites for his novel.

Kahlil Weston of Mad Writer Publishing continued editing on a book set for release later this year.

Joanne Costantino crafted a new post for her blog The Life we Claim we Didn't Sign Up For.  

Jenny Barnes revised chapters of a novella she has been working on.

Glenn Walker helped out a couple new members, and also wrote and posted an entry for two of his blogs. He reviewed the Logan's Roadhouse franchise in Florida for French Fry Diary, and a recent episode of "Arrow" for Welcome to Hell. Please click on the links to check them out.

And that's just some of the creative magic that happened at this month's Blogfest work session…

More SJWG Storyteller Cards

We had such a great experience during our February meeting with Jason Tagmire and his Storyteller Cards (check it out here) we thought we would share more of our impromptu 25-word stories along with the cards that inspired them.





Here's Sarah Hawkins-Miduski's card and story from that night.

And here are two from Vince Sparks.

Jennifer M. Eaton posted her card and story to Instagram, you can see it here.

The Storyteller Cards were great writing prompt tools, and we highly recommend you check them out. Look what we did in just one session!

Top Five Reasons to Go to the Philadelphia Writers' Conference 2015

C'mon, Jim, just one conference, it'll make you feel good...

By Jim Knipp 

It’s all Krista Magrowski’s fault.  This whole infatuation with the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference started with her innocent little statement of “the Philly conference is happening soon, you should check it out.”

I checked it out.  And within two years of that first conversation, I was on the Executive Board, building registration sites, and generally doing nothing but breathing, eating, and sleeping Philadelphia Writers’ Conference for six months out of the year (the other six months are spent dreaming about the next conference.)  That first conference was five years ago, and I think I love it more every year.  And this year I’m especially excited.  I’ll give you five reasons why.

Our speakers. Both our opening and our keynote speaker are nationally recognized talents and I really can’t wait to hear what they have to say.

uh...dude, that was a cheetah...

Opening speaker Sara Shepard caught a tiger by the tail a decade ago when her debut novel Pretty Little Liars hit the shelves.  And she’s ridden that tiger like Harold and Kumar through thirty novels, two television series, and enough awards to need a second or third mantle.

Speaking of awards, every year The American Society of Magazine Editors gives out the National Magazine Award.  It’s basically the magazine version of the Pulitzer Prize.   Our Keynote speaker, Stephen Fried, has two of them.  TWO!  It’s like he won the first and decided he needed a matching piece to balance out his book shelf.  Stephen as won these by writing about subjects as varied as supermodels to restaurateurs; from the joys and trials of being a husband and father to the trials and lies surrounding the pharmaceutical industry.

Dan Stabb

Our Workshops. In addition to our regular standbys The Novel, Short Story, and Poetry, we also will be offering Playwriting, three separate genre workshops (Mystery/Thriller, Young Adult, and Romance), plus a great assortment of features, including an hour with Sara Shepard to talk about her experiences selling pieces to Hollywood and an exciting course about developing your improvisational skills to help your writing.

Melinda Emerson

Most exciting for me is a three-day workshop on Social Media with “Small-Biz” lady Melinda Emerson.  While we’ve offered social media workshops before, they’ve always been shorter affairs, and I’m looking forward to seeing how much more in depth we can get by giving Melinda three hours to walk through these most necessary of tools.

Could it be you?

Agents and Editors.  As writers who want to market our work, and who know how hard it is to get the attention of an agent or a marketplace, the chance to sit down with an agent or an editor is damn near priceless.  And at the PWC, you’re offered that chance!  On Friday afternoon, we have five minute “speed dates” were you can pitch your work or even just discuss some of the challenges you face or the ideas you have.  The market last year seemed to finally open a little, and it was great to sit at the registration table and hear some of the chatter from the agents (or even better, help track down a conferee who an agent wanted to speak to again!).  Markets seem to be trending as open again, so I can’t wait to see who I’ll be helping towards success this year.

Critiques not following guidelines get reviewed by Carl;  you don’t want your piece reviewed by Carl.

Critiques.  Most of us belong to critique groups where our peers offer feedback on our work.  How would you like nationally recognized, Asimov and Tor published Fran Wilde to critique your short story?  Or maybe have your blank verse checked out by Ken Pobo, the Linback Award-winning PhD who teaches at Widener University.  Or how about international bestseller Suzanne Palmieri (The Witch of Bourbon Street) or the award-winning Solomon Jones (Pipe Dream) giving your novel excerpt a read through?  All of our three-day workshop leaders have agreed to critique work.  You won’t get that opportunity anywhere else.

Networking.   During my first conference, I met Don Lafferty who essentially is the midwife of my blog, KnippKnopp.  I met Kelly Simmons who said four words to me (“that was fu**ing awesome”) that keep me going to this day.  During the second conference, I met Jonathan Maberry, who let me interrupt his breakfast to give me additional imput on the piece I submitted for critique.  And the networking isn’t limited to board members and workshop leaders.  I’d need four extra hands to count the friends I’ve made, the advice and input I’ve been granted, and the energy I’ve gained by just meeting other writers, sharing in their stories, and seeing how similar they were to my own.

Wait, isn’t that this many?

Cost.  The price of admission (minimum $270) seems high.  If you compare to other conferences, you’ll find the PWC is right in-line (and in many cases lower), then comparable conferences.  But I understand when there are bills to pay, it may not matter and scraping together that cash can be tough. 

To that end, the PWC board has done a few things.  One, we extended the student discount to all students.  So if you’re attending a local college, you can attend for 50% of the price.  Two, we’re keeping the writer’s group scholarships.  The SJWG scholarship has already been awarded, but if you’re part of  another writers group that hasn’t been issued code, talk with the group, register them, and claim their code.  Finally, we’ve initiated a group discount policy.  If you register with seven others as a group, you get 20% (that’s up to $60) knocked right off the top.

And if you can get nine dressed like this, I’ll make sure you get the best seats at dinner

I truly believe that all of the things I mention above: the critiques, the camaraderie, the exposure are invaluable.  For the years before I joined the board, I always considered the conference an investment.  I really hope you see it that way too, and I hope to see you at the Philadelphia Writers' Conference!

About today's guest-blogger: 

Jim Knipp is a writer only in the sense that he very occasionally gets to actually write things.  He has been not-writing like this for over thirty years and most recently can be found posting ridiculous things on his blog, KnippKnopp, or guest writing for the very patient folks at BiffBamPop!.  In addition to not-writing, Jim is an HR Project Manager at Comcast, the Registrar for the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference, and a member of exceedingly seedy standing at the South Jersey Writers’ Group.

Loner in the Garret: A Writer's Companion

Guest blog post by Jennifer R. Hubbard 

Last year, I gave a talk for the South Jersey Writers’ Group called, “It Was Sunny Just a Minute Ago: Weathering the Storms of Writing and Publishing.” It focused on an aspect of this business where I’ve needed a great deal of support myself, and have found myself encouraging others: the mental and emotional aspects. 

Writers spend a fair amount of time and energy coping with rejection, writer’s block, sudden changes in fortune, ups and downs. We try to quantify the qualitative, predict the unpredictable and control the uncontrollable. Even when we recognize how much of this is out of our power, that our power lies in our ability to tell our own stories, it’s easy to say, “Just sit down and write.” Doing it is another matter.

Out of all this came my latest book, Loner in the Garret: A Writer’s Companion (edited by SJWG’s own Amy Holiday!). There are so many good books on the craft and business of writing already. I wanted to focus on this particular side of it, on cutting through the emotional obstacles and mind games. I wanted to produce a book that would provide short bursts of inspiration, suitable for pre-writing-session reading. I wanted to provide the kind of reassurance to others that has helped me along the way: the simple knowledge that the path is unpredictable and rarely smooth, and it’s okay to keep going anyway.

We’re not alone.

Synopsis: Sometimes the most difficult part of writing is not coming up with a plot or the perfect turn of phrase. It’s getting motivated to sit down and start, or having the confidence to go forward, or finding the courage to move past the sting of rejection. Loner in the Garret: A Writer’s Companion provides inspiration and encouragement for that mental and emotional journey. Covering topics as varied as procrastination, the inner critic, fear, distractions, envy, rejection, joy, and playfulness, it charts the ups and downs of the writing life with honesty, gentle suggestions, and a dash of humor.

For more: http://jenniferrhubbard.blogspot.com/p/publications.html

Bio: Jennifer R. Hubbard (www.jenniferhubbard.com) is the author of three novels for young adults, several short stories, and a nonfiction book about writing. She lives near Philadelphia with a very understanding husband, a pile of books and chocolate, and a tyrannical cat.

Latest Member Publication: Workplace Woes by John Leone

By Jessica A. Walsh

We are pleased to announce that South Jersey Writers' Group member John Leone has recently published his latest book, Workplace Woes: A Day at the Office.

A collection of four short screenplays, Workplace Woes is about office life at an imaginary company called McFrugal LLC and the characters who work there. If you have any experience whatsoever working in an office setting, you have no doubt encountered people like the cringe-worthy characters in this book.

I had the privilege to speak with John about Workplace Woes and his past work experience that inspired him.

Although John said he's had more job titles than can be imagined, he preferred "outside sales", calling on customers and trying to sell them products. "As most customers complained about their work, my job often entailed being an attentive listener, like a friendly bartender, but without the alcohol," he explained. "Consequently, I came to the realization that obnoxious bosses and annoying co-workers were not a unique phenomenon, but are universal and quite often funny without meaning to be."

All of John's characters are based on real people, although some are slightly exaggerated. And even though John is now retired, he admits that he actually misses his old obnoxious bosses and annoying co-workers. He also misses some of his old customers, but gets to enjoy the occasional lunch to keep in touch.

In addition to the occasional lunch, John enjoys spending his time writing, babysitting his grandchildren (whom he started writing for in the first place) and taking art classes. Although he did not illustrate Workplace Woes, he does hope to illustrate future books.

John is also the author of a series of children's books called Sharklock Bones about a talking shark detective. Although Workplace Woes is the first PG-13 book John has published, it wasn't a difficult shift for him since he considers his Sharklock series as books the whole family can enjoy. "But [writing] the children's books [is] more fun. That's probably because I never grew up."

John is currently finishing up book #11 in the Sharklock Bones Series, which all contain an underlying message about marine and ocean ecology. "They hopefully encourage younger readers to be more aware of steps we must all take in the future to keep our waterways healthy," he explained.

Workplace Woes is available on Amazon (paperback and Kindle), as well as Barnes & Noble. You can also find John (and Sharkie) at the Trenton Book Fair being held May 1st and 2nd.