BIO:
Category Archives: Events and Speakers
August 23, 2021 Meeting with Laura Drake
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.
Summer Workshop
GRANBURY WRITERS’ BLOC
presents
ELIMINATING THE MYSTERY FROM
MYSTERY WRITING
People read more mysteries and thrillers than any other genre except romance. This workshop will teach you how to write your mystery. Topics include:
- What makes a compelling story?
- Brainstorming a page-turning plot.
- Writing a killer opening chapter.
- The difference between a mystery and a thriller.
- Maximizing suspense and conflict
WHEN: Saturday, June 12, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
WHERE: Langdon Center Concert Hall, 308 E Bridge St, Granbury, TX 76048
COST: $20.00 or Free for Granbury Writers’ Bloc members
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: https://granburywritersbloc.com/
April 2021 Speaker – Joy Massenburge
Blurb for “Speak Up, I Can’t Hear You!”
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY:
Joy K. Massenburge is the author of A Cry for Independence and A Heart Surrendered, African American Romance. She crafts the love stories of pastors and their kids. She was born the sixth child of a pastor. She married a football player turned pastor…they raised pastor’s kids; a son and two daughters.
As a pastor’s wife, she found her voice speaking at marriage and women’s conferences and retreats throughout Texas. She filled her speaking material with her poems, short stories, and devotions. She added narrator to her professional portfolio when she debuted in Michelle Stimpson’s “MAMA B: A Time to Speak,” audible book. She is also a contributing author for Our Daily Bread: Oh, Freedom edition.
She serves on the board of American Christian Fiction Writers. She is also the founding president of their ACFW-East Texas Writers.
She resides near Tyler, Texas. You can find her curled up on her back-porch swing reading a good book with her grandchildren, caretaking for two donkeys and a dog, or filling her five-acre country home with fifty-plus people for a Blue Bell ice cream party.
Amber Royer Will Speak at our August 24 Meeting via ZOOM

Have you ever received feedback that your reader doesn’t “connect with” the characters in your writing? Alternately, have you ever read a novel or series and become so attached to the characters that you were depressed when it was over because you couldn’t share any more adventures with them? Learn why people get attached to fictional characters and techniques you can use to create the kind of characters people get attached to.
July Meeting – Our Speaker
We are pleased that David Douglas will speak (via Zoom) at our July meeting on the 27th.
BLURB:
Enter Stage Right: Playwriting Basics
Are you more interested in writing dialogue and action than descriptions of settings? Do your favorite stories feature minimal characters and locations? Would you like to write something other than a novel, short story, or screenplay? Then join playwright and Stage Writers founder, David Douglas, for this presentation on the basics of playwriting, which will explore: the differences between stage plays and other forms of writing, the proper formatting of scripts, the role of the playwright in theatre-making, and a variety of other helpful resources that will cue your entrance into writing for the stage.
BIO:
David Douglas is a playwright, award-winning short story author, and the founder & director of Stage Writers — a Dallas-based playwright organization. He is also a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and a past board member of several writers organizations, including the Writers Guild of Texas and WORD (Writers Organizations ‘Round Dallas). His full-length play, Railbird, has received readings in the Original Works Series (Fort Worth Community Arts Center), First Impressions Festival (Imprint Theatreworks), and Play Readers Club (Our Productions Theatre Co.). His short plays have been produced by Rover Dramawerks, Sundown Collaborative Theatre, and the Dallas One-Minute Play Festival. When not writing twisting tales of romance and suspense, David loves watching classic and independent films, as well as attending and directing plays. Find him online at OddOccurrences.com.
May 18 Meeting via Zoom
Cathy Rueter, a former reporter and newsletter editor, has returned to her passion of freelance writing while pursuing a career as a Christian murder mystery author, speaker and grant writer. She is the founder of Fledgling Writers Community, geared toward new writers while welcoming ALL to the nest.
Originally from the Greater Grand Rapids, MI area, she now lives within the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex with her family. If she’s not at her desk, you can probably find her with her nose in a book and hanging out in her hammock on the back porch, or in the car traveling to various writer’s groups and conferences.
With a revamped website coming later this spring, connect with Cathy at: www.cathyrueter.com, www.facebook.com/cathyrueterwriter or the nest at https://www.facebook.com/FledglingCommunity/.
Writing with Rubber Bands: Creating Tension in Story
Tension in fiction draws a reader in and makes them feel various emotions for our characters. It puts them on the proverbial edge of their seats and creates a need to turn the page.
Working tension into our stories isn’t just for thrillers. Writers of romance, science fiction, historical, in fact, all genres—and even some non-fiction writing—need and are improved by this vital story element. Tension isn’t just stringing a bunch of words together and hope they stretch like a rubber band. We need to pull those bands taut and know when to release.
In Writing with Rubber Bands: Creating Tension in Story, we’ll explore what tension is, why it’s crucial, as well as the tips, techniques, and literary devices used to create it—without breaking a single rubber band. (*Full disclosure: only two rubber bands were harmed in the making of this presentation.)
Jaye Wells Will Speak at Summer Workshop
GWB is honored to have Jaye Wells speak at our Summer Workshop.

Promises and Payoffs
Good stories don’t happen by accident. To master the art of delivering satisfying tales, writers must learn how to effectively make story promises in Act One as well as how to deliver satisfying payoffs by The End. This class will explore the types of promises you must make from the first line of your story, demonstrate a variety of tools you can use to make those promises, and offer strategies to avoid cheating your readers out of satisfying payoffs.
Texas Independence Celebration
Summer Workshop Speaker
Our summer workshop is June 13. William Ledbetter will speak at the morning session.
William Ledbetter is a Nebula Award winning author with more than seventy speculative fiction stories and non-fiction articles published in four languages, in markets such as Asimov’s, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Analog, Escape Pod, Baen.com, the SFWA blog, and Ad Astra.
He’s been a space and technology geek since childhood and spent most of his non-writing career in the aerospace and defense industry. He administers the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award contest for Baen Books and the National Space Society, is a member of SFWA, the National Space Society of North Texas, and a Launch Pad Astronomy workshop graduate. He lives near Dallas with his wife, a needy dog and four spoiled cats.
His novel “Level Five” is now available from Audible Originals.
http://williamledbetter.com/