I’ve been busy over the last three months and especially overwhelmed the last month. I’ve been working on a website and a new Facebook for SLO NightWriters.
I didn’t create either site. I made changes/additions to the website that Aaron Kondziela built and I’ve just started adding photos to the Facebook site that Natalie Borgardt 
created. I also linked the sites.
I’ve learn a lot, but I am not in Aaron’s or Natalie’s league.
I made a big mistake three weeks ago and my site was off line because of it. I was trying to upgrade four websites behind the scene, using FileZilla. I was out of my league and I managed to mess up two of the sites.
I called my “guru”, Christine Taylor. She wasn’t annoyed; she even complimented me saying, “most people couldn’t get that far into the system to make a mistake.”
Christine couldn’t fix the problem, however she backed up my site so I wouldn’t loose anything. Christine had to call her “genius”, her brother Warren Taylor.
I am extremely grateful for his help and Christine’s.
Warren is a writer and has two websites of his own to take care of:
As a writer, I especially enjoyed the first website.
Video: bordersmedia
Anne Schroeder is the multi-award winning author of Ordinary Aphrodite and Branches on the Conejo: Leaving the Soil after Five Generations. She also has published many short stories and essays. You can learn more about her at:
http://www.readanneschroeder.com/AUTHOR.html
For the January SLO NightWriters meeting Anne Schoeder spoke on “Point of View.” I was extremely impressed by her presentation and her presentation skills. She was very well prepared and a great speaker. Her thorough understanding of the subject made for a educational delight. Even her title was great:
HELP! I’M A PRISONER OF P.O.V.: Understanding P.O.V.
She included a three-page hand-out with her presentation, which I’m going to put into a computer file along with some notes I took; both will be great for future reference.
As a listener, I feel like Anne was able to plant a small P.O.V. seed. With time, her handout and my notes I think that seed will germinate and my writing will improve as I begin to grasp P.O.V. Who knows maybe that seed will grow and grow and point of view will become a oak tree instead of the seed pod of a dandelion plant.
THANK YOU ANNE!
Photo by: 
Dennis Eamon Young
The Friday Night Writers’ Group met for the first meeting of the New Year. We didn’t have the full group, but it was warm and cozy. Last night we discussed our goals for 2010 and I was amazed at the diversity of the suggestions for achieving the goals.
Most of us stayed after to talk and reconnect. I love the group and I am proud to be their leader. I look forward to what we will achieve this year individually and collectively.
FRIDAY NIGHT WRITERS’ GROUP ROCKS!
Another GREAT party. I don’t know how they did it, but this year the entertainment was better than last year.
It is a very nice club to belong, too. They are very active and the members are nice.
Check out their website:
http://www.slonightwriters.org/
The “Hunk” is Roland
Photo by: Dennis Eamon Young
The project is moving along. I hope to have a schedule of the classes beginning in January. Here’s what the first three pages of the presentation look like.
I’m still having a couple of problems, i.e. centering the title and adding it to the slide master, which I’ve already done for the date, trademark, page number and the arrows. I’d like some fancy stuff, too; but, I’m not knowledgeable enough to even know what I’m missing.
I have a first draft of the PowerPoint presentation. Sue Hardy helped me yesterday with some of the aesthetics of the program. Here’s the first two slides:
There are some problems with the slides, i.e. the sound not working and the red border not making a box on the second slide, etc. But, I will work these out with the help of my PowerPoint guru, Sue Hardy.
I’m working on a three part project for next year. First, I’m writing up a presentation on giving classes for SLO NightWriters. Second, I’ll pitch it to the board, and finally I set up a class schedule and oversee the classes.
The project is on “Technologies for Writers.” I wish I had thought of the title, but it came from Susan Tuttle, president of SLO NightWriters. I wish I could say I was writing the whole presentation myself, but KritiqueKritics (Christine Taylor and Jim Leonard) are helping me. And, I am so glad I’m NOT teaching all the classes. I can say, the idea was mine, though. It takes a group to bring anything good to fruition.
I think this project will help every member of SLO NightWriters and I’m looking forward to it.
After I get this project up and running, I have two more in mind for next year. I’m coloring this green because the projects have to do with money–more about that in a future blog.
You can’t win unless you enter. I entered my work in two contests and submitted my work to one place this year.
Turns out, I won in both contests and the only place I sent I work to published it.
What is the worst someone can say?
“No!”
“No thank-you.”
“Not at this time.”
“I like it, but …”
I don’t want those words to stop me!
What’s the best someone can say?
“YES!
“You won!”
“We want to publish it.”
Of course, everyone likes these words better. Who wouldn’t?
Speaking of those words–last night I received a second place award in the San Luis Obispo Nightwriters, 20th Annual, 500-Word Short Story Contest. It was the first time I entered their contest and I won for a longer version of my “It’s Not A Dream.”
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