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OFFICIAL WRITERS CHATROOM

SCHEDULE 

Our mission is to present fun and educational chats for writers as well as readers. Check out the schedule and look for your favorite writers.

Celebrity Sunday guest chats start at  7 pm EST.

Wednesday open chats start at 8 pm EST.

Not sure what time that is for you?  http://www.worldtimeserver.com/

 

 

Date - Moderator

June 16, 2013 - Audrey Shaffer

Barbara Winkes, a psychologist/trauma counselor, left her native Germany to live with her wife in Québec City. Her debut novel Autumn Leaves and the follow-up, Winter Storm, published by Eternal Press, tell the love story between two women in a small town, where neighbors take an interest in the life of others.

The standalone thriller, Secrets, will be released in November 2013.

Barbara is currently working on the third part of the romance series, Spring Fever.

Find out more on her blog Word Affair: www.barbarawinkes.blogspot.ca
 

June 23, 2013 - Lisa Haselton

Best known for his work in mysteries, Hy Conrad was one of the original writers for the groundbreaking series, Monk. He worked on the show for all eight seasons, the final two as co-executive producer, and received three Edgar nominations from the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) for “Best TV Series.”

In a related project, Hy was executive producer and head writer of Little Monk, a series of short films featuring Adrian Monk as a 10-year-old. His latest TV work was as writer and consulting producer for White Collar.

Hy is the author of hundreds of short stories, and 10 books of short whodunits, which have been sold around the world in 14 languages. Hy’s first full-length comedy/mystery play, Home Exchange, premiered at the Waterfront Playhouse in Key West in 2012.

He co-authored a humor book called Things Your Dog Doesn’t Want You To Know (interview here on Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews blog) released in April 2012. The latest novel in his Abel Adventures Mystery, Rally ‘Round the Corpse, released in May 2012.

Hy was just awarded the honor of taking over the novel series based on the TV show Monk. His first book, Mr. Monk Helps Himself, releases in June of this year.

Hy splits his time among Key West, Vermont, and New York City.

 

 

 

June 30, 2013 - Glenn Walker

C. Hope Clark is founder of FundsforWriters.com, a well-known writer's reference for grants, contests, markets, publishers and agents for the serious writer. The website and newsletters have existed for a dozen years and been recognized by Writer's Digest Magazine in its 101 Best Websites for Writers for eleven of those years. 42,000 writers receive her newsletters each week. She's published in Writer's Digest, Writer's Market, Guide to Literary Agents (by Writer's Digest), The Writer Magazine, as well as multiple trades, glossy mags and numerous Chicken Soup books. She's interviewed often by both writing and business websites and speaks to writing conferences throughout the United States. Her book The Shy Writer: An Introvert's Guide to Writing Success, continues to sell steadily.

She is also author of The Carolina Slade Mystery Series. Lowcountry Bribe is the first in the series published by Bell Bridge Books. The mysteries describe federally employed Carolina Slade's sleuthing abilities throughout rural, rarely seen South Carolina settings, facing crimes not found in your typical mystery. Lowcountry Bribe is available on Amazon, B&N, http://www.bellebooks.com/ and your local bookstore. Read more about Hope and Carolina Slade at www.chopeclark.com , Hope's beautiful website.

 

July 7, 2013 -

Locavore Edith Maxwell's Local Foods mysteries published by Kensington let her relive her days as an organic farmer in Massachusetts, although murder in the greenhouse is new. A fourth-generation Californian, she has also published short stories of murderous revenge, most recently in the Fish Nets and Thin Ice anthologies.

Edith Maxwell's pseudonym Tace Baker authored Speaking of Murder, which features Quaker linguistics professor Lauren Rousseau and campus intrigue after her sexy star student is killed. Edith is a long-time Quaker and holds a long-unused doctorate in linguistics.

A mother and former technical writer, Edith lives north of Boston in an antique house with her beau and three cats. You can find her at @edithmaxwell, on facebook, and at www.edithmaxwell.com

 

July 14, 2013 -

Steve Ulfelder is the author of 3 mystery novels featuring unlikely hero Conway Sax: SHOTGUN LULLABY, THE WHOLE LIE, and PURGATORY CHASM.

Steve began his writing career with 20 years as a business and technology journalist, writing feature stories and opinion columns for Computerworld magazine, among others.

Steve spent the final six years of his journalism life as a freelancer. Most of his articles examined trends affecting corporate technology managers, but he also managed to write about race cars, job fairs, the Bahamas, the horrors of the office fridge, swimming pool design, romance in the workplace, and the joy of Pringles.

In 2006, Steve left journalist to write novels and focus on Flatout Motorsports, a company he co-founded that builds, rents, sells, and services race cars. He spends weekends with Team Flatout racing his Honda S2000 in Sports Car Club of America competitions.

Steve’s debut novel, PURGATORY CHASM, was published by Minotaur/Thomas Dunne books in 2011. It was nominated for the Edgar and Anthony Awards in the Best First Novel category, and was named Best First Mystery by RT Book Reviews. The second Conway Sax novle, THE WHOLE LIE, was published in 2012, and the third, SHOTGUN LULLABY, in 2013.

While Steve reads everything, mystery has always been his genre of choice. Influences and favorites include James Ellroy, Ed McBain, Robert B. Parker, Donald Westlake/Richard Stark, John D. MacDonald, Ross Macdonald, Gregory McDonald, Rober Crais, Don Winslow, Ken Bruen, Dennis Lehane, Lee Child, and probably a couple more McDonalds or MacDonalds.

Steve is a proud member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. He holds a BA in Creative Writing from Ohio Wesleyan University, and lives with his family in Worcester County, Massachusetts.

 

July 21, 2013 -

Dawn Ireland

 

July 28, 2013 -

J.M. Kelley

 

August 4, 2013 -

Bob Nailor, retired NW Ohio resident, is an author of several books and like his work career, is eclectic. Bob has been the proverbial Jack of All Trades having worked factory, baker, hotel clerk, bag boy, secretary, accountant, programmer and finally a systems manager to name a few.

His writing genre is somewhat non-specific with science fiction, fantasy, and horror but he also delves into romance, adventure, thriller, action, mystery and now Christian. He loves to write, cook, travel and enjoys the opportunities of doing conference and workshop sessions where he can interact with other writers. Visit him at www.bobnailor.com

       

 

August 11, 2013 -

 

August 18, 2013 -

 

August 25, 2013 - Audrey Shaffer

Critique Chat!

Wouldn't it be great to get a critique from a bunch of other writers? This is your chance!

We'll be doing critiques right in the chatroom for this chat. Details on how to get in on the action will be emailed to all subscribers the Friday before the chat. Make sure you're signed up for the mailing list, and get your short (300 word max) submission polished up! (Sign up for our mailing list here. ) DON'T submit until you get the email!

I strongly suggest you submit polished work. Most of our chatters are aiming for publication. To get there, you have to be able to handle honest critiques. I will not allow personal attacks, but problems in the writing will be openly discussed.

If you are not in attendance, your submission will be skipped. It's a waste of everyone's time to critique something if the author isn't there to hear it.

 

Fiction, nonfic, essay, query letter...it doesn't matter. I recommend trying to get an entire scene into 300 words. Full scenes get better crits.
 
Why only 300 words? More than that will scroll off the screen too quickly. People need to be able to read it, to give a good crit.

Get ready, get set...