Minutes

Minutes Feb 2025

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Writers’ Mill Minutes, February 16, 2025

Cedar Mill Library, Beaverton and online Zoom

Fourteen participants attended online, and five were present in the library meeting room, for a total of nineteen. Zita led the meeting, and Sheila was an assistant host from her perch (with puppies) in Oklahoma. Matthew assisted with technology, which proved necessary when the Zoom screen in the library went dark at least five times during the meeting (our librarians will try to have this fixed before the next meeting). Jean took Minutes. Zita made announcements and introduced Judy to announce this month’s contest/ezine awards.

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announcements, inspiration, Writing

Two Writing Classes with Ruth Leibowitz

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Ruth gave a talk on Writing Prompts https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/17/the-world-abounds-in-prompts-using-prompts-to-stimulate-and-deepen-your-writing-by-ruth-leibowitz/ back in 2023. She is a very active member of the Writers’ Mill, and also of the writing community at large. This February she will be leading two writing classes over zoom. Highly recommended:

Cats Who Write, with Ruth Leibowitz

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Minutes

Minutes Jan 2025

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Eleven participants attended online, and eight were present in the library meeting room, for a total of nineteen (our thanks to our librarian for the total). Nora Perry led the meeting in Sheila’s absence (although Sheila was present online from England.) Librarian Christine Wong managed the technology with assistance from Matthew McAyeal and Nora. Jean Harkin, Sheila, and Nora took Minutes. Nora made announcements and introduced Judy Beaston to speak about the website and this month’s contest/ezine.

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childrens, help, middle-grade

How to Check the recommended reading age

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During the meeting in Jan 2025, Sheila read from “A Win for a Child and His Cat” and asked if the story would be suitable for children but also enjoyable for adults. The group seemed to think middle grade readers over age 9 would be right. Readability checkers online were  recommended, but some of these require you to create an account or pay after a certain number of uses. They also have lots of banner ads, so users should be careful where they click. : 

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bilingual, Book design, Guest Speakers, memoir, Research, self-publishing

Erika Giles on Memoir, Research, Publishing and more – Jan 2025

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Nora introduced our speaker, Erika Giles, who is a Writers’ Mill member and author of Becoming Hungarian, a Memoir. Amazon described this book as “a fascinating story of resilience and discovery that will inspire anyone who has struggled with their identity and tried to come to terms with the past.”

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Minutes, volunteer

Writers’ Mill Minutes December 2024

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Twelve people attended December’s Writers’ Mill meeting—perhaps the number was low due to Holiday commitments. But those who missed it missed a fun time.

The meeting began with the usual reminders: Online members can use headphones, captions, speaker view, and chat to better hear what’s going on, and should mute their microphones when it’s noisy. In person members should face the microphone, avoid chatting, and remember the microphone is always listening!

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anthologies, Minutes, publishing, self-publishing

Minutes 2024 11

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We had 5 in-person and 11 on-line members at Novembers “UPLOAD” meeting, and we did eventually get the technology to work. Apologies to anyone who had to wait to join – the library computer decided it needed to update, then it wouldn’t run zoom, then the spare machine… then… You get the picture. But the book was uploaded and will hopefully be released in the next day or so, ready for your Holiday purchasing.

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contracts, Guest Speakers, publishers, publishing, query letters, submission guidelines

Rudy Shur on Publishing

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Get Published and Don’t Get Scammed, from Rudy Shur’s talk on October 20th 20204

Rudy Shur has talked with many authors and writing groups in his long career. He’s learned that lots of authors get ripped off by people they thought were going to help. And he points out, the book world is a rather large marketplace—it can be hard to know who will really help.

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Writers helping writers