Do you like learning and talking about the writing craft? Are you interested in short story and flash fiction? Writing short can be hard. I love short story and flash and include some tips and resources you may find helpful. I also talk about the bigger picture of the novel. Do you struggle with beginnings, middles, ends of a story? Do you struggle with plotting, scenes, or nailing the endings? I will address such topics off and on in my new writer’s tips and resource bulletin called Writers Talk.
Get my cheat sheets, along with links to their corelated Medium Articles. Such as my Villain Profile, Negative Character Arc Sheet, Finding Your Character’s Flaw Sheet, and the brainstorm sheet. Challenge The Archetype — Create Female Villains That Rock The Protagonist World! But that is not all. I have more goodies planned, plus I have a thank you bonus for joining me set to arrive the next day.
” In working with Juneta I realized things about my story that I hadn’t recognized, issues with pacing and tension, plot points that didn’t make sense..” ~Mark Ingram Vella Author of Steve Saves The World
“I kept abandoning each one and coming up with new ideas. Juneta Key held my feet to the fire, made me choose one world to work on, and helped me plot three books in that world and possibly a fourth! “ ~Megan Stewart Fantasy Author of Where Are My Pants?
I started a new newsletter for writers, since I have spent so much teaching the writing craft for the last three years. I have lots of stuff to share and talk about. If you decide to join feel free to hit reply and tell me hi or ask me question. Hope you enjoy.
Join my Writers Talk Newsletter and get a story level checklist as a bonus, plus a few extras. A writing tips and resource bulletin for writers.
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience, or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.
June 7th question – If you ever did stop writing, what would you replace it with?
Well, I don’t really want to think about having to replace it. I don’t know. I’d rather think about making more time for it and focusing more on write, publish, repeat aspects. I enjoy helping writers, so maybe that—just don’t know, can’t really imagine it. It’s part of who I am now. Pivot, retry or try something new is what I hope I would do but writing related. Guess we never really know what life holds for us, but I hope writing is always in my future.
One of our dear members, Chemist Ken has passed away. You will be missed, Ken. Website of Ken Rahmoeller — fantasy author, chemist, and lover of all things Hogwarts
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience, or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.
April 5th question – Do you remember writing your first book? What were your thoughts about a career path on writing? Where are you now and how is it working out for you? If you’re at the start of the journey, what are your goals?
Well, I have not finished the first book. Recently, I pulled it out and reread. It was not as bad as I thought it was when I gave up on it. I will probably pull it out one day and redo it and finish.
I rather speak of where I am now. I am in this for the long haul. I have been writing since I was a young adult. I have pursued writing as a career since 2011, half-heartedly occasionally, but I had a lot of learning and growing to do as a writer and a businessperson.
I published for the first time in 2018 and started Stormdance Publications, creating theme-anthologies with another writer. We are still publishing anthologies. In fact, we are getting ready to release Grumpy Old Gods Volume 6. My Amazon Page.
I have several series planned with my first series coming out end-of-year or early 2024. I outlined the first book in short form on Medium, and I am now revising and expanding. You can read the short form below on Medium. I also have a Paranormal Cozy Mystery series planned set in the same world. I’m excited about that too.
Something new I am doing is I try to re-evaluate my processes, personal, writing, and business quarterly, for what is working and not working. I have learned when I have a really productive day, the next day usually is not as productive, or a lot less productive. It allows me to see what I am doing and not doing, and learn. It helps me see what I need to change to improve my productive and achieve my goals.
I am a perpetual learner in the art of fiction craft, so that alone is a journey in my process as a writer. I am a course-a-holic and it gives me much joy.
We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
—Ernest Hemingway
I believe this quote with all my heart. There is nothing we cannot learn or improve upon.
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience, or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.
They inspired ME to start my Midlife Ghostwalker series project. These short form episodes are a outline for the first book and short story in this series. It was a Medium experiment I did. Some things could change in the novel, such as names, arrangement, and more stuff, magical hijinks and fun added.
The IWSG Book Club Presents: Falling Down Rabbit Holes by Toi Thomas, images by Ronel Janse van Vuuren
It’s the year of the Rabbit.
So, what does that mean for the IWSG Book Club?
Well, did you see that Tubi Superbowl commercial?
This next book club phase is all about discovering rabbit holes in your reading. We want you to discover or re-discover the joy of reading through exploration.
As an additional tool provided by the amazing Insecure Writers Support Group, the book club will never lose sight of its original objective to help writers hone their skills. Plus, we still like having the option to spotlight the talents of this dynamic group. So, while some things will never change, it’s time to shift gears and remember why we all started this journey- the joy of reading.
We’ve decided to place the book club in a position of comfort and support, giving each member a chance to shine their own light on what matters most to them as a reader. We are keeping our craft books and member spotlight books but will only be hosting discussions every three months. This is a perfect opportunity for those who’ve wanted to participate in a group read in the past but simply didn’t have time to join in. As always, we set up our discussions in a way that’s easy for anyone to participate in, even if they haven’t read the books. We are returning to our three-question format because people seemed to like it better. Sometimes the discussion is a good place to ask questions and learn more before committing to reading the book(s) if you haven’t already.
In addition to quarterly discussions, we’ll offer monthly activities and encouragement for members to pick and choose from, and perhaps, fall down a rabbit hole or two.
Each month we’ll offer a themed reading challenge where you call all the shots. All we do is provide the theme and some suggestions (which you are welcome to ignore). This is another opportunity to be part of the crowd but on your own terms. You pick your genre, your platform, your medium- it’s up to you. You could take the challenge each month or join when the theme calls you. (Sooo hoping to see some memes on this one!)
Each month we’ll host a discussion called, “What are you reading?” This will be an opportunity to talk about the books you are excited about, apprehensive about, or reading for work/education. Tell us all about it. We want to know. Perhaps we’ll add one of your books to our TBR or provide you with some encouragement to get through a tough read. So go ahead, get on your soapbox, and let us know, “What are you reading?” (Wouldn’t mind seeing a few memes here either.)
Last but definitely not least, in the grand IWSG tradition, we’ll host a monthly check-in poll allowing members to update the group on their reading progress. Perhaps they are taking the Goodreads Challenge, the book club challenge, or some other personal challenge or goal. Tell us all about it and we’ll be there to root you on.
Our first quarterly read is starting a little late but that’s okay. We have to start somewhere. For those interested in our quarterly spotlight reads, the first official discussion will be on April 27, 2023 (Yes, that’s 2 months, not 3 months, away). The featured titles are:
So, whatever it is that you are or aren’t reading, The IWSG Book Club is here to offer you encouragement. Remember, you can participate as little or as much as you like, but we truly hope to see you around. We wish you all the best with every rabbit hole you dive into. -Thank you. Toi
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience, or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.
February 1st question –If you are an Indie author, do you make your own covers or purchase them? If you publish trad, how much input do you have about what goes on your cover?
I have done both. I love making covers. I’m not bad at it, but it is time consuming getting it right and genre specific. It requires research of the genre, finding and purchasing the right images, and then getting the program to do what you need it to do to make the cover look good and comparable to other book covers in the genre. Things don’t always work the way you imagine them or the program just won’t do it sometime. I will probably buy my future because really just don’t have time, unless I am not happy with what is offered to me.
I created the book cover for my flash fiction collection on Amazon. It is a collection of flash fiction in my world of Moon Hollow, and fantasy series Magic Born or Magic Cursed? The shorts of ideas of a story that I am building the series on. Some of the things and ideas will change in a novel, but the characters and their essence will remain the same. I have the discover draft finished for the origin story short, and have started planning the first book in series.
Currently I am working a series I will release this year, 2023. Midlife Ghostwalker: Katje Storm a paranormal women’s fiction. It has been a lot of fun to write. I am in the process of revising and expanding an outline I wrote for the novel on Medium. You can learn about that here. I am also working on the short story that will be a free story to my newsletter and optin.
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