Guest Speaker : Upcoming Speakers : Meeting Schedule
Who's Invited? : Workshops : Critique Group

Monthly Meetings

OUR GUEST SPEAKER FOR SEPTEMBER 4TH, 2008

Ric Slocum, Professor of Drama, Our Lady of the Lake, will discuss Dialogue.

He was a professor of drama and interim dean of the College of Arts and Science from 2003 through 2004 at Our Lady of the Lake University. He then was director of the Division of Creative Arts from 2004 through 2005.

Slocum was a member of the Resident Company at the Dallas Theater Center, a designer and actor with the American Repertory Theater Company in Hollywood, Calif., and the artistic director of the 24th Street Experiment Theater Company.

Slocum graduated from Oklahoma City University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and Drama and received a Master of Arts degree from Trinity University in San Antonio.

UPCOMING SPEAKERS

November: "The Miracle of CSI: Integrating Police Procedure Into Your Writing" by Joe McKinney, horror fiction writer and San Antonio Police Homicide Detective
How would you like to know something about police procedure? Then try "The Miracle of CSI: Integrating Police Procedure Into Your Writing" at November's SAWG meeting.

Joe McKinney is a horror fiction writer and by day he is a San Antonio Police Homicide Detective. Much of his fiction utilizes his training and experience in forensics and disaster mitigation.

His first novel is Dead City (Kensington Press, 2006), an apocalyptic tale of zombies and survival horror. He said he plans to sign and give them away at the meeting. He participated on a panel, "Bloodsucking Friends: Vampires" at the ArmadilloCon in Austin this August.

He is also the author of Quarantined (LBF Books, 2009), a science fiction disaster story based on his training and experience which comes out in February. After that he has a collection of three horror and science fiction novellas entitled Peacekeepers (Magus Press, 2009) and another horror novel called Inheritance.

Joe has a Master’s Degree in English Medieval Literature from The University of Texas at San Antonio.

He currently lives and works in San Antonio with his wife, two daughters, and two psychopathic cats.

Visit Joe's blog »
December 4th: No speaker is scheduled. Instead we celebrate the holidays together with a pot luck dinner.
January 8th: We've moved the montly meeting to the 8th knowing that no one would show on New Year's Eve Day, the actual first Thursday of the month.

MEETING SCHEDULE

The San Antonio Writers Guild meets the first Thursday of each month at

7:30 p.m. at Bethany Congregational Church at 500 Pilgrim Drive in San Antonio. The first Thursday date is bumped to the second Thursday when holidays interfere, such as New Year's Day, Independence Day, and church holidays. The Board of Directors Meeting begins at 6:30 p.m., before the general meeting. The directors meeting is open to the general membership, but closed to visitors, except by invitation.

What Happens at a SAWG Meeting?
At the beginning of meetings we welcome new members, members share good/bad/funny news, guild business transpires, sometimes we raffle donated books. A program follows, most often presented by guest speakers on a wide range of topics of interest to writers. Afterwards, membership splits into groups for workshops.
Learn more about workshops »
View the programs archive » (coming in the future)

WHO'S INVITED

All persons interested in the writing profession are invited to the meetings of the San Antonio Writers Guild. Visitors are welcome to attend. If you like our group, we encourage you to become a member and attend future meetings.

WORKSHOPS

Workshops at the monthly meeting are divided into fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Each workshop has its own rules about how much is read, but generally a person's work is read and workshop participants offer friendly criticism and advice. Workshops are held after the business and program part of the meeting. Workshops are held 11 months of the year: January through November. (The December meeting is the Holiday Party.)

Fiction
A person must be a member to have their work read. Members sign up the month before to have their work read and critiqued. The piece must be no longer than 10 double-spaced pages in 12-point font (pica). Therefore, the piece is a short story, part of a chapter, or similar. The author needs to pick someone read his/her piece and the author can ask someone in the workshop to read it that day. The author should bring three copies of the piece, one for the reader, one for the author to follow along, and one for any member who is hearing impaired. With the author's copy, the writer can mark items that come to his/her attention during the reading. (If the reader stumbles while reading the piece, that indicates there might be a problem with the sentence structure. If the author can bring additional copies for other workshop participants to follow with, that's great, but not necessary. Just expect the other workshop participants to mark on those copies. The author can briefly "set up" the reading especially if the reading is a portion of a book, but shouldn't do any additional explanation before or after, especially if the piece is a stand-alone (complete short story) or the first chapter of a novel. The workshop participants critique the work after the reading and the advice is given on a "take it or leave it basis." Authors do not get a chance to respond to the advice (Writers don't get to respond to a reader's comments after the book is published. As an author, you can't go around the country and explain what's in the book)

Usually there are three pieces read at each workshop.

Non-Fiction
A person must be a member to have their work read. Each piece is up to five double-spaced pages. The author can bring enough copies so each person (usually from six to nine) can have a copy to follow along during the reading. The workshop members generally make notes on the copy and hand it back to the author. The author can read the piece and explain it. Advice given by workshop participants is on a "take it or leave it basis."

Poetry
A person must be a member to have their work read. Usually three poems from each person are read and there is time to read the poems from three or four people, which means from nine to 12 poems are read each night. After a poem is read, the workshop participants offer editorial and friendly comments. The workshop participants tell the poet how they saw the poem and the poet tells the workshop participants how s/he saw the poem.

Children's Literature
A person must be a member to have their work read. The workshop is currently without a leader and no children's literature group meets. If there are writers interested in forming a workshop group, one will be formed.

Learn more about workshops »