Bartlett Christian Writers

In January, I met with a few of our core members who have consistantly shown interest and been present at several meetings. These members have graciously accepted an invitation to serve as Board members for Bartlett Christian Writers. 

Londa “Suzy” Hayden – President – Leads all meetings. Coordinates all upcoming events and activities with the assistance of Board members. Provides goals and agendas for special events....

This year has a been an exciting one in which I believe the Bartlett Christian Writers has made strides in learning our craft. Although, we only got to meet 10 months out of the twelve, I still feel we were able to accomplish a few goals. Some of us got our work contracted and published, while others actually started writing down their stories for the first time and submitted them to the chapbook projects for a first time publication effort. 

Well I skipped a lot of months here, but things get busy in life. If you will move on over to the photo galery, you can see photos of special events we've been involved with this year. We have our annual workshop in July and our annual Christian Writers Retreat every October. There are some great photos of each of those events. You can get a glimpse of the beautiful amphitheater at the Decatur Trinity Christian Church and see why I always love using their facility for...

Many of us shared poems and other writings for positive feedback. Some of these will be included in our next chapbook project, Vol. III.  Suzy led a short discussion on the basics of poetry, which reviewed the different kinds of meter with number of feet, stressed and unstressed words or syllables, and the acceptable patterns and formats. Authors were encouraged to revise and edit their pieces before our chapbook project final submission date on April 14th....

Our January meeting brought in seven or eight new members and visitors. We had about 18 people in all, which is way more than I ever expected for a January meeting. Tracy Crump offered a presentation on "Writers Rights." She offered her insight and knowledge about negotiating your rights in a contract with a publisher. It was very informative and helpful.

Kudos to Jeri McBryde - For her fifth work being accepted by Chicken So...

Whoa! So sorry to be so late in posting here. It's been months, but we've been a very busy group. Since last May, we have held our 2nd workshop "From Self-Editing to Self-Publishing" with Bradley Harris and Susan Riechert, and our 2nd writers retreat. We had the Faith Editor for the Commercial Appeal come speak with us about his journey in writing. September was our quarterly brunch with a presentation from our newest member, Matthew Bryan about his book  "...

Our May meeting was awesome with Bryan Davis sharing very moving and inspiring stories of how God directed and guided him in his writing career. Bryan has been operating by faith since before he first got published and God has blessed him above and beyond what he ever expected. He was a blessing to be around and I personally felt honored to be in his presence. He offered a lot of practical information for other writers to develop their own literary careers, and helpful ideas...

Both March and April meetings were a whirlwind of success. 

In March, we learned marketing techniques and strategies for how to sell and plug our books from Marketing Guru, Sharen Rooks.

In April, Bradley Harris gave us a great presentation on how to work with an editor, which is something you definitely want to know how to do before you publish anything. Bradley was very generous with his time and in sharing his expertise by offering an extensive handout to...

We had one new member join us today. I would like to welcome Malita Freeman. She lives with her husband and children in the Raleigh area and has been an aspiring writer most of her life. She homeschools her six year old son.  Tracy Crump critiqued and reviewed our CS devotionals, which are due to be submitted in two weeks.  We got some valuable feedback and tweaked our final drafts. Tracy gave us lots of good information on the inside workings of CS as well. After our break time, we...

There really isn't much to report here. We had a small group, but 2 new members attended. I would like to welcome Shari Hunt and Becky Parsons.  I hope they will continue with us.  Critiques were constructive for each of those preparing submissions for Chicken Soup for the soul. A few people read aloud some other pieces as well. The chap book project was not finished by then. We did a writing exercise and then finished off with prayer requests.