Savannah Writers Group

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE SAVANNAH WRITERS GROUP! We will have a meeting on Tuesday, 23 December at 7 PM at The Atlanta Bread Company. We don't expect a high volume of attendance for this next meeting, but you never know! We wish everyone all the best during the holiday season!

Hi, Friends! At our last meeting, the group decided on the Toucan Café for our holiday dinner. The Toucan Café is on the south side of Stephenson Avenue, east of the Carmike Movie Theater. The restaurant itself is not visible from the road, but there is a very large sign beside the road, marking the driveway. Dinner will be Tuesday, December 9 th at 7:00 PM. If you are coming, RSVP to Sally with the number in your party. If you can’t make it, please do NOT email her. Thank you. Hope to see you there! www. toucancafe .com Sally

Tuesday, 11 NOV we will welcome special guest speaker, Ms. Elizabeth Dewester. Dewester was born in Louisiana in 1942 and graduated from High school in 1960. She studied Nursing at Texas Woman's University and Hermann Hospital and later studied Dental Assisting. Dewester also received a BFA in Journalism/Communication from HIU in 1990. She received a grant to become a playwright under Sam Havens at St. Thomas University. Continuing her education still, Dewester became a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and more recently, an Anger Management Specialist. She published Eiffel and the Box Turtle in 2014.

T he Savannah Writers Group will meet Tuesday, 28 October at the Atlanta Bread Company located at the 12 Oaks Shopping Center. Our special guest speaker will be Mr. Preston Russell. Also, on Tuesday, we will welcome special guest speaker, Ms. Elizabeth Dewester. Dewester was born in Louisiana in 1942 and graduated from High school in 1960. She studied Nursing at Texas Woman's University and Hermann Hospital and later studied Dental Assisting. Dewester also received a BFA in Journalism/Communication from HIU in 1990. She received a grant to become a playwright under Sam Havens at St. Thomas University. Continuing her education still, Dewester became a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and more recently, an Anger Management Specialist. She published Eiffel and the Box Turtle in 2014.

The Savannah Writers Group will meet Tuesday, 28 October at the Atlanta Bread Company located at the 12 Oaks Shopping Center. Our special guest speaker will be Mr. Preston Russell. Preston Russell is a native of Tennessee and an alumnus of the McCallie School, Tulane University, and Vanderbilt Medical School. Retired from medicine, he is presently an accomplished writer, historian, and artist who lives in Savannah’s Historic district. His published works include: Savannah: A History of Her People Since 1733 , published in 1992 and currently in its fifth printing. The Low Country: From Savannah to Charleston , published in 2004 and currently in second edition. His currently revised work, Lights of Madness: In Search of Joan of Arc , was published in 2005 and is in re-release. His pending work, American Triumph, French Tragedy , is a product of twenty years of research on France’s vital role in the American Revolution. Dr. Russell will be amon...

The Savannah Writers Group will meet Tuesday, 14 October at the Atlanta Bread Company located at the 12 Oaks Shopping Center. This week is reserved for general business discussion and sharing your writing. Remember, if you want written feedback, please make copies of your material in the requested format (maximum six double-spaced pages), with enough to go around (at least ten copies). Also, make copies of the Critique Sheet for each reviewer. As usual, writers requesting feedback will share first. Those who wish to read without critique will follow as time permits.

+ On Tuesday, 26 AUG, we will hear from SWG member Edward Alban as he discusses his recent visit to the Iowa University Summer Writing Festival. He is our guest speaker for the SWG Meeting @ The Atlanta Bread Company. + On Tuesday, 9 SEP, the Savannah Writings Group will meet again @ The Atlanta Bread Company. We meet every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month! + On Thursday, 11 SEP, The Lucas Theatre hosts "An Evening with Lee Child" as a part of the Savannah Book Festival. + Then, on Tuesday, 23 SEP, when the SWG meets again @ The Atlanta Bread Company, we will hear from guest speaker John B. Severance. Severance is a Savannah author who molds historical biographies to young readers. His books include Gandhi: Great Soul ; Winston Churchill: Soldier, Statesman, Artist ; and Einstein: Visionary Scientist . Visit his webpage !

EDWARD ALBAN (Eddie to his friends) will be speaking on Tuesday, 26 August when the Savannah Writers Group meets @ 7 PM at the Atlanta Bread Company. Born in Ecuador, Eddie first came to Savannah in 1952. He earned an AB: University of Georgia, (Economics) and PhD: University of Georgia (Economics). Eddie is a retired teacher. He has been married to his "guardian angel" JoAnn Cool for 49 years. Teaching career: Auburn University (1969-73)           State Univ of NY at Potsdam (1973-76) Armstrong( (1976-79)                      Savannah State (1979-2000) He will be speaking about his June trip to the acclaimed Iowa University Summer Writing Festival.     

AUGUST 2014 Tuesday, August 12th: DINNER! The Savannah Writers Group will meet at 7PM at Fiddler’s Seafood! http://liveoakstore.com/fiddlers-menus Tuesday, August 26th: GUEST SPEAKER, EDDIE ALBAN The Savannah Writers Group will meet at 7PM at The Atlanta Bread Company. SEPTEMBER 2014 Tuesday, September 9th: The Savannah Writers Group will meet at 7PM at The Atlanta Bread Company. Tuesday, September 23rd: GUEST SPEAKER, JOHN " JAKE" B. SEVERANCE The Savannah Writers Group will meet at 7PM at The Atlanta Bread Company.

Do not forget that we meet every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month; however, we WILL NOT be at the Atlanta Bread Company on Tuesday, 12 August. Instead, we will be having our Summer Dinner. It will be held at Fiddler's Seafood. Please RSVP with Susan! Meetings at the Atlanta Bread Company will commence on Tuesday 26 August. At that meeting our own Eddie Alban has agreed to be the guest speaker. Details to follow!

Hi Sasha, Another round of creative writing courses begins in a couple of weeks at the Coastal Georgia Center.  Short Story starts Aug. 11, and Memoir begins Oct. 20.  Please share with your Savannah Writers Group membership.  Would love to see new faces and help support the local writing community. http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/ce/programs/personaldevelopment/writingclasses/ Many, many thanks!   ~Amy Paige Condon

J uly isn't over yet, folks! We have a meeting tonight. Here's a peek at the upcoming calendar. Don't forget to RSVP with Susan if you plan to attend our Summer Dinner gathering. JULY 2014 Tuesday, July 22nd:  The Savannah Writers Group will meet at 7PM at The Atlanta Bread Company. AUGUST 2014 Tuesday, August 12th: The Savannah Writers Group will meet at 7PM at The Atlanta Bread Company. Tuesday, August 26th: DINNER! The Savannah Writers Group will meet at 7PM at Fiddler’s Seafood! http://liveoakstore.com/fiddlers-menus

  Please respond to Susan’s email address: susan.thompson@armstrong.edu O ur Summer dinner will be held on Tuesday, August 12th @ Fiddler’s Seafood , which is located at 7201 Hodgson Memorial. We owe the restaurant a call beforehand with a number of seats needed, so please remember to RSVP or else we cannot guarantee you a seat! Remember, our dinner meetings are just for fun, getting to know each other, and socializing – we will not be sharing writing during this event. If you would like to attend the dinner meeting on August 12, at 7:00 PM at Fiddler’s Seafood http://liveoakstore.com/fiddlers-menus , email Susan, who has graciously offered to be our liaison with the restaurant.  Use the subject line “SWG Dinner” and include the number who will be attending.  Thank you so much, Susan! Yes, we will also meet  on Tuesday, August 12th at 7PM at The Atlanta Bread Company, as usual.

From Sally's Desk; Hello, Fellow Writers! I hope you enjoyed your 4 th of July weekend! I also hope that you will be attending our next meeting, Tuesday, July 8, a t 7:00 PM at Atlanta Bread Company, in the Twelve Oaks Shopping Center on Abercorn Street. This week will be devoted to discussing/planning our annual summer dinner in August, recruiting speakers, other business as needed, and sharing our works. If there is time, we may respond to a writing prompt, so bring your keyboard or pen/pencil and paper. As per our guidelines, those who desire written critique and who bring sufficient copies of their work and the Critique Sheet will be given first consideration. (Our guidelines ask for six to ten copies of each, but with our larger numbers lately, you may want to bring more – perhaps up to fifteen.) After that, readings just for enjoyment/sharing will be entertained. I have had extraordinary good fortune is securing several delightful spe...

Ann Beardsley has been a professional freelance copyeditor for 15 years, specializing in nonfiction but with occasional forays into fiction. She's also the author of Tilted Windmills , a historical mystery (which she would edit again, if she had time). She is currently writing the Historical Dictionary of NASA and the Space Program with several of her Mars One cohorts and self-editing her own Backyard Weather Forecasting: How to Be Your Own Weather Forecaster . Aaaaaand...she's our guest speaker tonight: Tuesday, June 24th!  I apologize. This update made it onto my blog and not the SWG blog... Woopsie!

W e've gone a tiny bit out of order here, but just to clarify, we have two speakers lined up this month! As I previously blogged, Ann Beardsley will join us on June 24th . We are also pleased to add to our line-up guest speaker Joanne Morton , who will join us at the next meeting on June 10th . Her book, Trickydame's Guide to the Universe is available for purchase online. Trickydame's Guide to the Universe

A t the last meeting, we enjoyed a terrific presentation from guest speaker (and SWG Member) Jim Waller , on his latest book Tybee Sunrise and on the genre of Southern Fiction. June is fast approaching. We will meet on Tuesday, June 10th, and then again on Tuesday, June 24th, when we will welcome guest speaker Ann Beardsley . ~ E diting your own work is like trying to pick out the darker grains of sand from all the others on the beach. First, you have to see the different grains--and that takes a magnifying glass. Then you've got to decide what to keep--this one's dark; no wait, this one's darker. Or is it? What about this one? Editing works much the same way--one change can cascade into a whole mess of complicated chain reactions, all of which you might then have to undo. But as writers, we don't want to do that. We just want to make our writing better, tighter, clearer (although in some cases, we might want our characters to speak less better, ...

The Savannah Writers Group is proud to welcome member Jim Waller as the guest speaker on Tuesday, 27 May. He will present on the topic of Southern Fiction and bring copies of his latest novel, Tybee Sunrise . *** New York City attorney Matt Ryan’s divorce is finally settled. To escape the pain of discovering his wife with another man and the bitter break-up that followed, he migrates south and settles on a little spit of sand and marsh called Tybee Island, the last in a series of small barrier islands connected like a string of pearls by a single highway, stretching eighteen miles from the mainland at Savannah. The lure of the area is the laid-back ambiance of the island and its people, and an ambivalent desire to reconnect with Carolyn, his college sweetheart, who married a Savannah banker when Matt dumped her ten years ago to marry Yvette, a wealthy young lawyer in her father’s firm. He has forgotten Carolyn’s married name and spends some time searching for her. Whil...

We are pleased to announce that we have one of our own presenting at the upcoming meeting of the Savannah Writers Group. We hope you will come listen to accomplished author and Children's Book illustrator Lynne Bendoly share about her whimsical, creative work.

Please join us on Tuesday, May 13th for the next meeting of the Savannah Writers Group! Remember, we meet every 2nd and 4th Tuesday!

Thought you all might find this amusing! Authors Anonymous (2014) PG-13 1 hour 35 minutes   In Theaters: April 18, 2014 MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some suggestive material) Genres: Comedy Distributors: Screen Media Ventures Synopsis: After a dysfunctional group of unpublished writers accept ditzy Hannah into their fold, the last thing they expect is her overnight success. While her career takes off, her eccentric and envious colleagues struggle to find their own way. A lonely pizza boy tries to deal with his growing crush on Hannah. An optometrist stalks a literary agent for his stay-at-home wife. And a military veteran starts selling his Clancy-esque masterpiece at a local hardware store. Tensions rise, rivalries form, and hearts are broken. Rej...

HOAG HEADLINES LUNCHEON, May 8: International bestselling author Tami Hoag will headline the Savannah Book Festival’s Spring 2014 event, noon, May 8, at The Landings Plantation Club on Skidaway Island. Hoag’s luncheon and signing is the first of the 2014-15 Festival’s expanded slate of author events that will take place throughout the year. Hoag, who has written more than 30 New York Times bestsellers—including crime thrillers Deeper Than the Dead and Secrets to the Grave—has more than 30 million books in print. Tickets for the Spring Event are $50.00 each and include lunch and a hardback copy of The 9th Girl, Hoag’s most recently published book. Tickets and information for the Hoag event are available online at www.savannahbookfestival.org . Don't forget! The next meeting of the Savannah Writers Group is Tuesday, April 22nd!