We have moved our first-of-the-month meetings to first Tuesdays, and they start at 7 pm. The location is St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Fort Valley, across the street from Fort Valley State University. We share tips, events, and publishing advice. But mainly, we share writing that we have been working on. Bring several copies, and you can read yours and get feed back. I am a member of St. Luke's, which hosts these meetings, and I will be there to open the doors. You are welcome to come!
       Anna Holloway, for the group

The FV Writers Group at St. Luke's will get together October 16 at 7 pm for our monthly time of just sitting and writing. The gathering will be at Panera Bread in Warner Robins. We also need to know how members feel about changing the first meeting of each month from Monday to Tuesday.
      On another note, I'm thinking about using this blog as an advice column. As an adult, I lived far from my parents. They were in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and I was in Fort Valley, Georgia. We didn't have email or social media. But they never stopped giving me advice, and I have their advice today in the form of letters. I am thinking of using this blog to share my own advice that seems important. It would be for my children but also for others who can use it. I would not share anyone's personal examples or issues, but instead I'd try to find examples from my past experience.  I plan to work on this idea some more at Tuesday's Write-in.

We're meeting at 7 pm, Monday, October 1, at St. Luke's in Fort Valley. It's the first-of-the-month meeting where we share and critique. People bring blogs, essays, poems, fantasy & graphics, sci-fi, memoir, short stories and fiction in general. This time, I'm bringing the assembled ingredients of a murder mystery party I developed for my church. We put it on last Friday. I'm trying to decide whether to write another one.
A big decision will be whether to start meeting first Tuesdays at St. Luke's instead of 1st Mondays.
Stay tuned to find out the result!
- Anna

Tonight (August 21) at 7 is our monthly write-in at Atlanta Bread Co on Watson in Warner Robins. We'll have pictures for prompts or you can work on your own idea.
Saturday (August 25) 10 am - 4 pm is our first Writers Group Retreat to be held at the 1890s Retreat House in Fort Valley. It's $30, and we'll have to get your reservation right away so enough lunches can be prepared.
At the end of September, our Fort Valley Writers Meetup at St. Luke's site will be discontinued. After that, you can stay informed via this blog or via the Facebook page, @writerspursuit .

1st Mondays we meet at 7 at St. Luke's Episcopal in Fort Valley to get feedback on our writing. (It helps to bring some copies). The meeting coming up is August 6. Since our Writing Group Retreat is August 25 (10 am-4 pm at the 1890s Retreat House in FV), we'll spend time talking about that, too. If you want a sincere group of writers to give you feedback on your writing, please join us!
Over time, we've shared chapters from fantasy graphic novels; scenes from personal memoirs; blogs on family, gardening, birds, and other topics; chapters from mystery novels and main stream novels;  poetry, and more. I know I have gained both valuable suggestions and the impetus to continue writing from being part of this group. Reminder: We previously were Fort Valley Writers Meetup @ St. Luke's, but we are moving away from the use of Meetup as a communication tool. Instead, we will use this arh-editing.com blog site, @writerspursuit on Facebook, and, of course, word of mouth.

A couple of members of the Fort Valley Writers Group stopped in at the Indie Writers Book Festival July 21 at the Between Friends coffee shop on 96 in Warner Robins. The books represented there ranged from sci-fi to fantasy, to novels, including some set in Georgia, to Queer Speculative Fiction, to poetry, to essays and short stories, and beyond. I hope I am not leaving anyone out, but I recall meeting R.C. Qualls, Chrissie Tomlinson, Kelsey Jordan, Allen Gee, A.K. Meek, Winsphere Jones, Jennifer B. Duffey, G.J. Fortier, Elliot Cooper, Jaimie E. Miller and Paul Sinor. Most can be found on Facebook or their own websites. All of the books and marketing paraphernalia looked intriguing and professional.

I got R.C. Qualls's Cosmic Egg for Breakfast and Six More Short Stories for a friend who loves science fiction. I couldn't resist Winsphere Jones's Legends of the Black Crow because he is a black author and the book is set in Victorian America (New Amsterdam) with an alternate history. I got Allen Gee's book of essays, My Chinese-America.  I'm interested in that subject as it is, but talking with Dr. Gee and looking at the recommendations on his book jacket, i learned that his main professor in graduate school was an author I've always considered to be one of the best, James Alan McPherson. And Dr. Gee is writing McPherson's biography! I definitely will have to read that.

The Indie Writers Book Festival had a lot to offer, and I hope there will be another one next year. Who knows, maybe members of our writing group will be there with their own books!

Six of us met July 2 in St. Luke’s Parish Hall, FV. We shared a personal blog post, pages from a memoir, a poem, and a chapter from a fantasy/graphic novel. Our new communication outlets are @writerspursuit on FB and this blog, Fort Valley Writers Group blog at arh-editing.com. We plan to share writing to be discussed several days prior to the August 6 meeting using email. The next Write-in is 7 pm July 17 at Atlanta Bread Co., WR.

Charlotte Moore, who lives in Perry, has three mystery series going, sold on Kindle: Hunter Jones mysteries, Kate and Kylie mysteries, and Laurel Grove mysteries. Charlotte is a retired journalist. 

Charlotte Moore, local author of Middle Georgia-based mysteries published on Kindle, will  be attending the Fort Valley  Writers' Retreat on August 25.
Milton Davis, Atlanta-based author and publisher of speculative black fiction, also will attend. Both writers will describe their writing and publishing experiences.
The retreat will be at the 1890s Retreat House near the Post Office in Fort Valley, and it will last from 10 am to 4 pm. The cost of the retreat plus lunch is $30.
Stay tuned for pictures of the guest writers and information about their books!
Anna Holloway