Category Archives: General

General category for posts that haven’t been added to other categories.

Speaker – August 26, 2023

Charles Somervill is a retired Presbyterian minister. His educational background includes a Master of Divinity degree from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, an MA in psychology from Eastern New Mexico University, and a PhD from the University of Oklahoma. 

Since retiring Charles has taken up fiction writing.  His published works include Murder by Faith, The Granbury Murders: A Mark and Lori Mystery, The Granbury Assassin: A Mark and Lori Mystery, and The Granbury Witch: A Mark and Lori Mystery.

Non-fiction published works include Leadership Strategies for Ministers, and Stepfathers: Struggles and Solutions.

You can read reviews on books by Charles Somervill at Goodreads.com/csomervill or Amazon or Thrift Books.

On the Goodreads website Charles answers the following questions.

  1. How do you deal with writer’s block?
  2. What’s the best thing about being a writer?
  3. What’s your advice for aspiring writers?
  4. What are you currently working on?
  5. How do you get inspired to write?
  6. Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

We expect a good attendance from our membership to hear this accomplished author.

May Meeting: A Margie Lawson Revisit with Laura Drake

The Strategic Power of Deep Editing!

Learn my psychologically-based deep editing and you’ll power your writing and your scenes with emotion. 

This webinar covers:

  1. Deep Editing Tools
  2. Margie’s Four Levels of Amplification
  3. Effective stimulus response patterns
  4. Writing fresh faces and voices and visceral responses
  5. Emotional Impact on the POV Character

Saturday, May 20, Hood County Library, 10:00 a.m. – Noon

More information here.

Margie Lawson Spring Workshop

The Strategic Power of Deep Editing!

Learn my psychologically-based deep editing and you’ll power your writing and your scenes with emotion. 

This webinar covers:

  1. Deep Editing Tools
  2. Margie’s Four Levels of Amplification
  3. Effective stimulus response patterns
  4. Writing fresh faces and voices and visceral responses
  5. Emotional Impact on the POV Character

Join me, and you’ll make your writing NYT Bestseller strong!

Margie Lawson left a career in psychology to focus on another passion—helping writers make their writing bestseller strong. Using a psychologically-based deep editing approach, Margie teaches writers how to bring emotion to the page. Emotion equals power. Power grabs readers and holds onto them until the end. Hundreds of Margie grads have gone on to win awards, find agents, sign with publishers, and hit bestseller lists. Several have had their books turned into movies, and a few have drama series in development. 

A popular international presenter, Margie taught over 150 full day master classes in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and France, as well as multi-day intensives on cruise ships in the Caribbean. She’s taught close to 200 5-day Immersion Master Classes across the U.S. and Canada, and in seven cities in Australia too. 

She also founded Lawson Writer’s Academy, where you’ll find over 30 instructors teaching online courses through her website. To learn more and sign up for Margie’s newsletter, visit www.margielawson.com.

Speaker: Saturday, March 25

Our speaker will be Michael Dooley from the Department of English and Languages at Tarleton State University. 

Meeting: Hood County Library, Pecan Room, 10:00 a.m.

His intended topics are creating characters that people want to return to over and over, using appropriate dialect (correct in region and time). Also, the importance of research for faithfulness to actuality in plot construction.

Mr. Dooley’s CV:

-born and raised in South Florida

–grew up as a swamp stomper, beach bum, and traveler of this great country in a VW Beetle along with a German Shepherd named Emmylou

–spent 25 years as a carpet installer before finishing college

–currently in the 22nd year as an Assistant Professor of Composition and Research and Literature at Tarleton State University

–presented at regional and national creative writing conferences and festivals, original fiction for more than ten years, including for many years at Langdon Review of the Arts in Granbury, Texas

–published two collections of short stories—As the Wave Rose: Florida Tales and other Wandering Stories (2020) and The Water Stop Saloon: More Wandering Tales (2022), both published by Fine Dog Press

–currently working on a noir mystery entitled Murder at the Pennsylvania Hotel (hopefully released at the end of summer 2023)

–married to Kelli for close to 42 years now, one son and daughter-in-law, one granddaughter and one on the way, a smart Blue Healer, a cat that comes when you whistle, and a longhorn named Tip