Hello, Writers!
We have exciting news for you this month! Starting on August 21, BAWL will begin hosting an in-person critique group on the First and Third Wednesday of each month at Freeman Memorial Library from 6:30 to 8:00 pm CDT. Your hosts will be Kate Sanger and Kim Glaus Late.
Kate is a writer of speculative fiction, non-fiction, and poetry… and a lover of the Oxford comma. She teaches English and creative writing and has published over 90 pieces of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry,
Kim is an as-yet-unpublished author with hopes of having something published soon. She writes fiction and will defend her right to use two spaces after a period with her last breath.
A news announcement for the new BAWL Critique Group has been created on the website, as have Events for the Critique Group through the end of October. In addition, the feature this month is about the new critique group and is written by Kate Sanger. Folks, take your writing to the next level and come out and participate in this fabulous new opportunity. We look forward to seeing you there.
As a reminder, please send your news—about awards, publishing announcements, speaking events, and the like—to editorbawl@gmail.com for inclusion on our website's News page. We like to promote your accomplishments as much as possible.
Here we are, once again, in the sultry days of Summer. And guess what that means? It's time for the Sultry in the City event. This is a multi-genre conference located right here in Houston, Texas, from Friday, August 23rd to August 24th. The event is for writers, Readers, and Sponsors. A lot of writers! You can check out more about the event at the Sultry In The City website.
In keeping with the idea of sultry, let's think about holidays. You don't have to look hard to find a holiday for every day of the year. How about this one: Bookstore Romance Day. This is a holiday started by bookstores, and this is their sixth year.
"Bookstore Romance Day is a day designed to give independent bookstores an opportunity to celebrate Romance fiction—its books, readers, and writers—and to strengthen the relationships between bookstores and the Romance community."
Do you write romances? If so, you may want to check this out. If not for this year, then perhaps next year. Find more details about the holiday at the Bookstore Romance Day website or their Facebook page. There is a local celebration here in Houston at the Blue Willow Bookshop. The Blue Willow Bookshop is a local treasure and worth a visit regardless of the romance holiday.
A couple of additional updates:
There is no in-person speaker event this month. Debi Fairchild is working on scheduling one in September and one for October. The one in October will be the last one Debi organizes.
If someone would like to pick up this volunteer effort scheduling speaker events, please contact editorbawl@gmail.com. Debi has done a valuable service for BAWL in making these events happen this year. We are grateful and wish her all the best in her next endeavors.
The Write-Ins on Monday and Wednesday mornings at 9:30 am are going strong, as is the one held every 3rd Saturday of the month at 3:00 pm. You should join us. Write-in events can be immensely beneficial. Check our Events listing. Remember: the Zoom link for all the write-in events is always the same:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87293345121?pwd=RGFxVjA4Mkd2Z0FCY2J6b09EUSswdz09
And about this zoom link. If you want to input the information directly into your Zoom application here are the two pieces of data you need:
Meeting ID: 87293345121
Password: RGFxVjA4Mkd2Z0FCY2J6b09EUSswdz09 (those are zeros).
Take care of yourselves and stay hydrated!
- Kelley
