Our next meeting will convene in the 1st floor Pecan Room at the Hood County Library on Saturday, February 25th, a few minutes after 10:00 a.m. The Library opens at 10:00 a.m.

Our speaker will be Dr. Jake Brewer.

Topics: Workflow, in and out of one’s genre, and the relationship between plot and causality.

Bio:

I completed my undergraduate degree in English Literature, Creative Writing, and Film at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned my Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from Oklahoma State University. My doctoral studies were completed at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Now I’m at Tarleton State as an Assistant Professor of English, where I teach creative writing (especially fiction), renaissance literature, and film. My short fiction has been published in F(r)iction, The Hunger, and most recently on the podcast Tales to Terrify.

Monday, Sept. 26, at Langdon Center Studios…

Come and listen. His site: https://www.harryhallspeaks.com/

Bio:

About Harry

In school, most of us learned math, science, reading, and other lessons. Some skills became invaluable on personal and professional levels, sometimes both.

However, few of us leaned about public speaking.

Unlike almost any other discipline, we experienced public speaking on the fly, in the form of an oral test or presenting a book report. We studied, we read, we prepared-for the written assignment, but few of us invested in the speaking part, either because we didn’t know how, or the teacher didn’t give us class time to do it. So when our name was called, our hearts raced, our mouths dried, and we began, hoping to, ‘get through it,’ before taking our seat, not sure that we accomplished our speaking goals, which were mostly not even part of our thought process, anyway.

There’s a better way.

I taught public speaking for more than 20 at two colleges. I learned that connecting with the audience begins long before you reach the stage, that you can send so many negative signals to an audience before you begin making recovery almost impossible. You sabotage your speech before you’ve even said a word. As you proceed, you are chained to notes, your body language signals ‘I’m nervous,’ and you never connect.

Following just a few tips will send your public speaking to another direction. Learning public speaking fundamentals such as: how to begin and end a speech, ways to strengthen speaker/audience connection, how to use notes, and other strategies go a long way in helping you overcome Americans’ number one fear.

A basic session in public speaking will get you on your way to dropping the shackles of self-doubt and rid yourself of the intimidation of public speaking, and initial fear behind you, making you want to reach for next level, and beyond.

Topic: Do your characters fail to ‘come to life?’

We hope to see you there.

And here’s the website for more info:

Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop – Learn to write your best. Learn to sell what you write.

Topic: What I Learned While Getting My Book Published!

We hope to see you there – Langdon Center Studios (enter on Stockton Street) 6:30 p.m. on Monday 25 July, 2022.

We will have a short business meeting and then hear from Colin Holmes.

Before the pandemic, Colin Holmes toiled in a
beige cubical as the communications director for an
international electronics firm. A recovering advertising
creative director, he spent far too long at ad agencies,
and freelancing as a hired gun in the war for capitalism.

As an adman, Holmes has written newspaper classifieds,
TV commercials, radio spots, trade journal articles,
and tweets. His ads have sold cowboy boots and
cheeseburgers, 72-ounce steaks, and hazardous waste
site clean-up services. He’s encountered fascinating
characters at every turn.

Holmes began writing screenplays after working with
an advertising client who he thought had a story that
should be a movie. Deciding if he could write 60-second
commercials, he was stubborn enough to tackle a 120-minute movie script. His original screenplay became the feature film Edge of the World released in 2018.

While not his first novel, Thunder Road is the first to reach publication, a feat that occurred six months after his 60th birthday. As a multi-genre story, many agents passed, not knowing quite how to package the novel. The book was discovered by CamCat Editor, Helga Sheir as a
tweet Holmes posted during the #PitchMadness Twitter pitch fest.

Holmes lives just west of Fort Worth and writes novels, short stories and screenplays in an effort to stay out of the way of his far too patient wife. He is an honors graduate of the UCLA Writers Program, a board member of the DFW Writers Workshop and serves as the Director of the 2022 DFW Writers Conference.

He’s a long-suffering Texas Rangers baseball fan, and appreciates barbeque, fine automobiles, and unpretentious scotch.

We are pleased to announce that Will Clarke will speak at our summer seminar, Saturday, June 11, 2022.

Time: 9:00 a.m.

Location: Langdon Center, 308 E. Pearl, one block east of the Granbury Square. Come to the historic chapel/concert hall for the seminar.

Admission: GWB Members $10. Open to the public for $25.00.

His topic is: Story 2.0. Hacking the Operating System of the Human Mind.

Will Clarke is the author of several works of fiction, including The Neon Palm of Madame Melançon, Lord Vishnu’s Love Handles: A Spy Novel (Sort of), and The Worthy: A Ghost’s Story. His novels have been selected as The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and Kirkus Review’s Best of the Year. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife and family.

   Brandy Herr grew up in Euless and graduated from Penn State University with a major in public relations and a minor in theatre. After moving to Granbury in 2009, she and her mother founded the Granbury Ghosts and Legends Tour in 2010.

Brandy has always had an interest in writing, and her work with the ghost tour helped give her the opportunity she needed. Arcadia Publishing contacted her in 2013 to ask if she would write a book about the ghosts of Granbury. She published her first book Haunted Granbury February of 2014.

As an animal advocate, Brandy started writing children’s picture books about her favorite organization, Second Chance Farm. The first in the Second Chance children’s book series, Honey’s Second Chance, was published by Freedom Chaser Books in 2016.

Arcadia Publishing contacted Brandy again to adapt her Haunted Granbury for the middle grade reader in 2021 as part of their Spooky America Series. The Ghostly Tales of Granbury was published in August of that same year.

In addition to her writing, Brandy also provides editing and proofreading services and has several other writing projects in the works.

Brandy has been the guest on several local and national podcasts and has been a guest speaker at various libraries, schools, and festivals. She has been featured in conjunction with the Granbury Ghosts and Legends Tour and the Granbury Paranormal Expo/Spooky Spectacle on many TV outlets, including FOX 4’s Lone Star Adventures, NBC 5, The Daytripper and Good Morning Texas. Most recently she was seen in an episode of Cash Pad on CNBC.

BIO:

Our August 23 meeting features Laura Drake, a New York published author of women’s fiction and romance.

Meeting at: Langdon Center, 308 E. Pearl St., Granbury, 6:00 p.m.

Topic: Balancing Backstory from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.