Category Archives: General

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

Harry Hall is our September Speaker

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.

Kathryn McClatchy Flash Fiction Contest

The Writers Guild of Texas (WGT) has sponsored a flash fiction story contest since 2015.

Cash prizes! Contest closes October 25. 1,000 words or less.

More information here: https://www.wgtonline.org/contest

July Short Story Contest Winners

From the July contest:

First Place  – The Game Is Rigged Against You by Gary Christenson

Second Place  – Fabulous by JJ Rushmore (withheld at author’s request)

Third Place  – Black Vultures Overhead by Gary Christenson

Permian Basin Writer’s Workshop

And here’s the website for more info:

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

Speaker: Colin Holmes

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.

Winners for the April 2022 Short Story Contest

From the April 2022 writing challenge, the top three stories are:

First Place – She Wore a Red Dress by Gary Christenson

Second Place – The Warrior and the Artist by Gary Christenson

Third Place – Obsession by JJ Rushmore

Summer Seminar – Granbury Writers’ Bloc

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.

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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.