COVID-19 Update
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Carrollton League of Writers has decided to cancel in-person meetings and speaker events until further notice. In the meantime, we are continuing to meet on Thursdays at 7PM through Zoom and Google Hangouts.
If you are interested in joining one of our online meetings, please e-mail CLW at CarrolltonLeagueOfWriters@gmail.com. |
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Meetings are held every Thursday from 7 PM - 9 PM
Discussion and Critique Groups
Meet every Thursday (except the 3rd Thursday of each month) at
The Church of the Nazarene
1529 E Hebron Pkwy, Carrollton, TX 75010
Guest Speakers
Hosted the 3rd Thursday of each month at Marshall's BBQ.
1855 E Rosemeade Pkwy, Carrollton, TX 75007
http://www.marshallsbarbq.com/
Note: Events are free to attend. Purchase of a meal is encouraged.
Website: https://www.clwriters.com
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June 18, 2020
Topic: Plot and Short Stories
CLW Is excited to welcome back, Amber Royer!
Amber is the author of the high-energy comedic space opera Chocoverse series (Free Chocolate, Pure Chocolate, and Fake Chocolate). She teaches creative writing classes for teens and adults through both the University of Texas at Arlington Continuing Education Department and Writing Workshops Dallas.
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She is the discussion leader for the Saturday Night Write writing craft group. She spent five years as a youth librarian, where she organized teen writers’ groups and teen writing contests. In addition to two cookbooks co-authored with her husband, Amber has published a number of articles on gardening, crafting and cooking for print and on-line publications. They are currently documenting a project growing Cacao trees indoors.
For more information, visit: http://amberroyer.com/
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July 16, 2020
Topic: TBD
Alex Temblador is a novelist and freelance writer. Her novel, Secrets of the Casa Rosada, was published by Arte Publico Press October 31, 2018 and has received accolades like the 2019 NACCS Tejas Foco Young Adult Fiction Award, MG/YA Discovery Prize Winner of the Writers League of Texas Book Awards 2018, the Texas Library Association’s TAYSHA’s list, and Kirkus Reviews’ Best of YA Books 2018. Her second novel, Half Outlaw, will be published in 2022.
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She has taught creative writing, freelance writing, and publishing courses and seminars with WritingWorkshops.com and Writer’s League of Texas. She is also the brains and moderator of LitTalk at Interabang Books, a quarterly author panel series in DFW.
For more information, visit: https://www.alextemblador.com/
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SHORT STORY CONTEST WINNERS
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CLW is excited to announce the winners of the 2020 short story contest. The winning entries will be read at upcoming CLW meetings. Congratulations winners!
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First Place
Author: Sandra Payton
Title: Leaves Are People, Too
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Second Place
Author: Ed Wooten
Title: Defining Moments
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Third Place
Author: Steve McCluer
Title: The Vampire Interviews
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Deadlines for the 2020 CLW anthology are approaching quickly!
- Author bio and picture - August 3rd
- Title(s) and genre to CLW by - August 3rd
- Finalized story - October 1st
CLW members should check their e-mails for an update from the Anthology committee with details about submitting author bios and pictures.
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ANDREA AMOSSON DISCUSSES HER LATEST NOVEL
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Andrea Amosson has been an active member of CLW since late 2018 and is currently a member of the Discussion Group.
She brings a wealth of craft related knowledge and experience to the group (including extensive knowledge of beekeeping!) and we are blessed to have her as a member of CLW.
Andrea's responses to the membership spotlight questionnaire are below.
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How long have you been a CLW member?
I started attending CLW meetings in November 2018 and became an active member at the beginning of 2019.
What do you enjoy most about being a CLW member?
I enjoy the true friendship, the camaraderie, and fun I find in CLW. The group offers weekly info talks and monthly presentations that help us learn more about our craft and other authors. I also value the opportunity to spend time with people who love literature and writing. Writing can be very lonely, so it has been great for me to have found a supportive, honest and healthy group to share this journey.
What type(s) of writing do you enjoy?
I love to write short stories and novels and I’ve written contemporary, realism, adventure, absurd, magical realism, historical, and speculative fiction genre short stories (I think I am not forgetting any). In novels, I’ve written contemporary and historical; and I am loving historical fiction, so the book I’m working on now is also a historical novel. What is common in all my work is that I create female protagonists in different situations, but all of them are strong and strive to improve their lives.
What are your goals as a writer?
I would like my work to be translated into English and available for my non-
Spanish speaking friends and family. I also suppose that I need an agent. I have not needed one so far because I submitted directly to publishing houses (except for my latest novel, where I was invited by them to submit); but I feel that to better advance my writing I might need to find one (even though I am not actively looking, so I do not know how it will happen!).
What motivated/inspired you to become a writer?
My life growing up in the Atacama desert, in northern Chile, for sure. One of our favorite pastimes as kids was to tell stories. It was not long before I started writing those stories down but most of my childhood I was just telling them. During my teen years I discovered the great masters of Latino-American Literature and could not stop reading. When I was in Journalism school I started writing short stories, and after that I gave in to the written word. This is the way I express myself in the world, it is like breathing. I write because I love
it, it makes me feel accomplished and self centered. The publishing of my books has been the icing on the cake; I did not think it would happen, but it did and staying true to myself and the subjects I wanted to explore and write has helped in the publishing path, I think. I am most happy when I am writing, my family can attest to that.
If you have a current work in progress, please tell us a little about it.
I am working on a historical fiction novel, based in Chile in 1940. I again have women as its main characters and I am understanding the facts around life and being a woman in Chile at that time. It is challenging because we have to deduct most of the information regarding women in the past, since it was not documented as men lives were, as they were in the public eye, but women were in the private, domestic areas. That was out of discussion, out of sight.
Do you have any published works? If yes, please provide details. If no, would
you like to or do you plan to publish?
Yes, “Rictus” was my first novel, published in Chile in 2010. Then “Cuentos encaderados” is a short story collection published in Chile in 2014. Then came “Las Lunas de Atacama”, my second novel published in Chile and here in 2016. Along came “Érase una vez Laurides”, a short story collection published in 2016 here in the US. Finally, “Las mujeres de la guerra”, my latest novel published in 2019 in Chile. “Cuentos encaderados” was translated to English and published here in 2015 as “Told from the hips”; and a bilingual edition came out in 2018.
Who is your favorite author? Why?
I have many and they keep piling up! Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, Elena Poniatowska, Rosa Montero, Gioconda Belli, and many more. In the English speaking language, I like Harper Lee, JD Salinger, Paul Auster, Evan McEwan, Jane Austen, Virginia Wolf and more. I also like authors from the Dominican Republic diaspora like Julia Alvarez and Junot Diaz.
I love poetry too: Gabriela Mistral, Alfonsina Storni, Blanca Varela, the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. As single books, I really like Sostiene Pereira (Pereira Mantains), by Antonio Tabucchi; and “Las ciudades invisibles” (Invisible cities) by Italo Calvino. From the European tradition, I like Herman Hesse and Franz Kafka. And some Russians like Tolstoi.
Contemporary authors from Chile, Alejandra Constamagna, Andrea Jeftanovic,
poet Malú Urriola.
I am hoping to access more books from countries in Africa, and Asia. I am very curious and do not have enough time! (And I am sure that I am forgetting way too many authors).
What is your favorite hobby outside of writing? Or when you’re not writing,
what do you enjoy doing?
I love taking walks with my family, I like to color with soft pastels, and reading of course. I also like to decorate.
If you could have any super power, what would it be?
Tele-transportation, so I could blink and show up in Chile, or elsewhere, without having to be on a plane for 10 hours!
Please share a “fun fact” about yourself.
I am afraid of the forest.
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