Posts filed under 'Events Around Texas'
WLT Supports All Members Participating in NaNoWriMo
November is National Novel Writing Month!
The goal is to write 50,000 words by the end of November. (Learn more about this fun and painstaking goal at the NaNoWriMo website!)
Wrimos are almost two weeks into their novels by this point. We know it can get stressful. Maybe it’s starting to feel like the end is nowhere near? Well, we believe in our Wrimos! The goal may seem unattainable, but it is perfectly attainable.
The WLT is hosting NaNoWriMo related events all throughout the month. Feel more than free to stop by our office, meet other Wrimos, and write non stop!
NaNoWriMo
Friday the 13th Lockdown
Come join fellow Wrimos for a “killer” all-nighter on November 13 from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. here at the WLT offices. We’ll also snack, socialize a little, and play a game or two. The 12-hour lockdown is a great way to boost your word count.
Please:
- Be a registered NaNoWriMo participant
- Be actively working on a novel
- Be 18 or older – this is required by the Writers League insurance company
- Plan to stay the whole twelve hours – that’s why it’s called a lockdown!
- RSVP to receive the secret password.
Space is limited.
RSVP is first-come, first-served. Once we’re full, we’re full. After that, we’ll start a waiting list. If you RSVP and then can’t make it, please let us know so someone else can take your place. Please don’t show up without the password!
What you’ll need to bring/do:
- Bring potluck snacks to share during the long, long night
- Wear comfortable clothes, and bring a sweater in case it gets chilly
- If you think you’ll need a nap, bring a pillow/blankie
- Bring headphones – please make sure the sound doesn’t bleed through
- Arrive by 7 pm if possible. We’ll post the phone number at the door for emergency late arrivals.
No drugs or alcohol allowed.
What we’ll provide:
- Liquids – sodas, water, tea, and coffee, ice (there is also a soda machine in the building)
- Extension cords and surge protectors (though it wouldn’t hurt to bring one if you have it)
- Tables, chairs, and one small couch
- Access to the internet for folks who just can’t write without it
- Access to the Writers’ League library
Last Chance Write-In
November 30 from 9 a.m. to midnight. Use your final writing hours wisely by spending them at our WLT offices.
Additional NaNoWriMo Support
If you are a WLT member who receives the official NaNoWriMo Certificate of Completion, the WLT will give you 50% off of the submission fee for WLT manuscript contest.
Best wishes to our Wrimos!
Add comment November 10, 2009
WLT at the Texas Book Festival
The Writers’ League of Texas will be at the Texas Book Festival this weekend. We will be located at booths 122 & 123 in the exhibits tent on Colorado between 12th and 13th streets.
Four Reasons Why You Should Stop by the WLT Booth:
1) Consider this an opportunity to meet and mingle with other literati-lovers in Texas. We know we’d love to meet you. Stop by and say hi!
2) This serves as a nice time for you to meet our new staff: Publicity and Programming Manager Jan Baumer, Office Manager Bethany Hegedus, and Bookkeeper Kate Meehan. We’re delighted to have these intelligent ladies working with us. Come welcome them!
3) We’re lucky to have WLT members who will be in our booth signing their books, click here to learn more about the member book signings. Come get your book signed!
4) We’ll be announcing the 2009 Book Awards winners! The ceremony will take place 3:30 Saturday in Room E.026 at the State Capital Extension. Come honor the winners and finalists!
Add comment October 29, 2009
Master Class: Character in Fiction and Nonfiction
Successful Characterization with Tracy Daugherty
- Tracy Daugherty
1 – 5 p.m. Friday, October 30
at the Writers’ League office
611 S. Congress Ave., Suite 130$99 members / $159 nonmembers
One way to think about successful characterization in either fiction or nonfiction is to say that characters work best when they match the narrative situation. That is, in the short-hand that is literary craft, everything they do illustrates their core qualities and values. Within the narrative parameters you have established, everything about the character’s nature is clear to the reader.
Instructor and acclaimed author Tracy Daugherty will help explore strategies for creating successful characters in a narrative, whether it is fiction or nonfiction. Together the class will write and share work and ideas, and the instructor will provide published examples of characterization. The class will be in a lecture/discussion format.
Students will learn:
- a firm concept of characterization
- a sense of effective dialogue in fiction and nonfiction
- an understanding of tone, as it relates to characterization
- strategies for developing narrative situations that effectively illustrate character
- an understanding of how to build story from character, rather than the other way around
Interested? Register here.
Add comment October 27, 2009
The Writers’ League of Texas 2009 Bookish Brunch
Reservations extended until Wednesday, October 28th!
The Bookish Brunch
Honoring:
Texas Book Festival Authors
Click on their image and read the author’s bio.
Also honoring the 2009 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award Winners
9 to 10:30 am, Sunday, November 1
At the home of Frances Townsend & Ted Gilman in Austin
$40 WLT members/$50 nonmembers
Proceeds benefit the Writers’ League of Texas
For more information, please visit our Bookish Brunch page.
Add comment October 2, 2009
O. Henry Museum inaugural Short Story Master Class
Amanda Eyre Ward, author of Love Stories in This Town, will teach the inaugural Short Story Master Class at the O. Henry Museum, in Austin, Saturday, October 3rd and Saturday, October 17th. Students will leave the two-part class with a finished story that will be judged by a Texas Book Festival author for the chance to be acknowledged at the festival and published on the O. Henry Museum website. More information can be found by going here: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/ohenry/programs.htm.
Add comment August 26, 2009
Natalie Goldberg Book Signing
Natalie Goldberg Book Signing
Congregation Beth Israel
Wednesday, April 1, 2009, 7 p.m.
Best selling author Natalie Goldberg shares her wisdom on writing and
life in her latest book, Old Friend From Faraway: The Practice of
Writing Memoir.
Goldberg’s ground-breaking book, Writing Down The Bones: Freeing The
Writer Within (1986), cracked open the world of creativity and started
a revolution in the way writing is practiced in America. The book has
sold over one million copies and been translated into fourteen
languages. Since then she has written nine other books, including the
novel Banana Rose.
For more information, call Jennifer Smith, 454-6806.
Add comment March 25, 2009
Attention, Screenwriters!
Screenwriters won’t want to miss a free event in Austin on February 17: “Hollywood vs. New York: Three Writers’ Perspectives,” with Shauna Cross, Owen Egerton, and Stephen Harrigan.
The event is presented by the Future Forum and the Texas Book Festival. For details and information on reservations, here’s a link.
Add comment February 13, 2009
LBJ Future Forum Presents: Austin Authors & Screenwriters
In conjunction with the Texas Book Festival
Tuesday, February 17, 6:30 p.m.
LBJ Library and Museum
On February 17, the Future Forum will partner with the Texas Book Festival to present a discussion on screenwriting, featuring three local luminaries.
These novelists and screenwriters will reveal what it’s like to work for editors in New York versus the studios in L.A: Shauna Cross is the author of Derby Girl, a young adult novel she’s adapted for Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, Whip It, slated to be released in 2009; Owen Egerton is the author of the novel Marshall Hollenzer Is Driving and the story collection How to Best Avoid Dying and the co-screenwriter of Bobbie Sue, a comedy Warner Bros. bought last fall; and Stephen Harrigan shuttles adeptly between writing novels (The Gates of the Alamo and Challenger Park, among others) and writing scripts for film and TV. Novelist and sometime screenwriter Sarah Bird will moderate the panel.
The panel is open and free to the public and takes place on Tuesday, February 17. Registration is required. Please RSVP on the Future Forum website.
1 comment February 4, 2009
Arts Advocacy Day on February 10
Texans for the Arts
Texans for the Arts is sponsoring the state’s first ever Arts Advocacy Day in Austin. Arts supporters are invited to take part in a morning conference and lunch, and then meet with their legislators to discuss the importance of the arts in Texas. Texas currently ranks 49th among the states in per-capita funding (22 cents per person), and Texans for the Arts is supporting efforts to increase funding to $1 per Texan. For more, visit Texans for the Arts.
Add comment February 2, 2009
