April Meeting Roundup + Good News!

Another impressive monthly meeting happened this past Saturday, featuring our special guest speaker, Colleen Thompson. Colleen is a RITA-nominated author of twenty-six books, the most recent release being Lone Star Survivor (Harlequin Romantic Suspense). A former teacher and prolific writer, she spent the day with the members of RWA-SD sharing her knowledge on two very important topics.In our morning session, she offered advice for reinvigorating those sagging middles of stories that have lost their initial oomph. Some of her tips:

• Raise the stakes.
• Compress the timeline.
• Skip the boring parts.
• Make the characters' goals tied to their greatest weaknesses.
• And when all else fails, “put another bear in the canoe.”

In the afternoon, she told us all how to “get out of our own way” with a motivational discussion about all those ways in which writers can be our worst enemies, and ideas on how to overcome self-criticism, procrastination, and perfectionism. I filled my notebook with a number of Colleen’s inspirational quotes, but my personal favorite?“Make peace with your doubt.”As always, we handed out our monthly awards. The Members of the Month were Judy Duarte, Jill Limber, Teresa Carpenter, and Christine Locksy for their stellar contributions to the California Dreamin’ conference.Our Attagirl recipient was Golden Heart winner Shoshana Brown:And let’s not forget to celebrate all the good news our members shared:

• Tameri Etherton published two books this month: Developing Cassandra (as Niki Hart) and The Temple of Ardyn.
• Cynthia Diamond published Siren’s Song (Wyrd Love Book 1).
• Demi Hungerford published the first book in The Bowman’s Inn Anthology, a short story titled “Another Shot”.
• Georgie Lee has a new release from Harlequin Historical, A Debt Paid in Marriage. She also entered The Courtesan’s Book of Secrets into the Maggies.
• Beverly Nault’s The Kaleidoscope (Wild Rose) is available on pre-sale, with a May 13th release.
• Jackie Lee Allen’s The Rogue’s Revenge will be released in May.
• Michele Barber sent a synopsis and first three chapters to Brenda Chin.
• Regan Walker’s The Red Wolf’s Prize was nominated for a RONE Award. She also has a new release, To Tame The Wind, a prequel to the Agents of the Crown trilogy.
• Sydney Sterling sent a partial request to Brenda Chin, and entered Writer’s Digest’s Self-Published Book Awards.
• Pamela Moran has short stories published in the Sexy to Go anthologies, Volumes 1, 2, and 3. She’s also published Gavin’s Woman, A PSI Sentinel Novella.
• Ann Siracusa released All for a Dead Man’s Leg and All for a Fist Full of Ashes in print.
• Shirley Wilder released Too Many Cooks and Fly Me in print.
• Marie Andreas released The Glass Gargoyle.
• Kristin Rockaway was a finalist in Pitch Madness.
• Lotchie M. Burton released Nothing’s Sweeter than Candy in January.

Congratulations to all our members on their spectacular accomplishments, this month and every month!Don’t let a month pass by without attending an RWA-SD meeting. Next month, we’ll have a visit from the famous Jennifer Ashley. Check this space for more information about May’s meeting in the forthcoming weeks!