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Hawaii Writers Guild's Member Newsletter
Co-Editors: Joy Fisher & Cecilia Johansen
We are pleased to announce the inaugural issue of our
Membership Newsletter
Welcome from our President
Aloha writers, friends of writers, and future writers, e komo mai.
The trade winds blowing across our islands whisper stories, poems, and tales of the past into our waiting ears. Many of our members capture these messages, anchoring them in writing to be shared. Perhaps you have listened and pulled in a passing thought or tune. Maybe you have dredged into research for non-fiction, or leapt onto the stage to create drama. Whatever your genre, we love learning about your writing experience. This, our inaugural issue of Hawaii Writers Guild’s Member News, showcases some of our members and their work.
I wish to give heartfelt thanks to the editors of this newsletter, Joy Fisher and Cecilia Johansen, for all the work and commitment that has gone into making this possible.
Mahalo,
Carol McMillan, Ph.D.
President, Hawaii Writers Guild
The trade winds blowing across our islands whisper stories, poems, and tales of the past into our waiting ears. Many of our members capture these messages, anchoring them in writing to be shared. Perhaps you have listened and pulled in a passing thought or tune. Maybe you have dredged into research for non-fiction, or leapt onto the stage to create drama. Whatever your genre, we love learning about your writing experience. This, our inaugural issue of Hawaii Writers Guild’s Member News, showcases some of our members and their work.
I wish to give heartfelt thanks to the editors of this newsletter, Joy Fisher and Cecilia Johansen, for all the work and commitment that has gone into making this possible.
Mahalo,
Carol McMillan, Ph.D.
President, Hawaii Writers Guild
Welcome from our Co-Editors
Joy Fisher
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Cecilia Johansen
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Welcome to Member News!
In the beginning, when Hawaii Writers Guild first set up its website, a space was set aside called Guild News. The Guild was young, morphing and growing, and Guild News was the perfect place to record the history of that growth. Stories about our annual dinners were recorded on the Guild News site, as were stories about our public readings, when we began having them. It was a good place to record the accomplishments of our organization as we charted a course toward becoming a 501(c)(3) federal nonprofit corporation. When we learned we had achieved that goal, on Valentine’s Day, 2020, Guild News was the perfect place to bruit the news of that success.
Eventually, however, the need for a place to focus on our members, rather than on the organization, began to make itself felt. As we grew, members joined from more and more distant places. We were no longer a small, close-knit group from the Big Island of Hawaii. New members lived on other islands; some members lived on the mainland part or all of the year. Last year, we welcomed our first international member, a woman from Bosnia, thousands of miles and several time zones away.
And then there was COVID-19, and suddenly even those of us on the Big Island stopped seeing each other in person as we sheltered at home. Luckily, we had some talented members who showed us how to bridge the gap by taking our in-person activities online. We acquired a YouTube Channel and began producing shows featuring our members and their writing and online workshops that gave tips about various aspects of writing skills. Writing workshops and our monthly business meetings switched over to Zoom.
But, for the most part, socializing in person, just chatting over coffee, sharing news of our lives, even of our writing lives, halted. COVID-19 is beginning to abate, but even as in-person socializing begins again, the geographical distances between us remain. Member News is our effort to build and maintain rapport among our members, wherever we live, however far apart we are.
The goal of this newsletter is to focus on news by and about our members rather than on news of the Guild.
We will have special feature stories about unique or first-time activities of our members. In this issue, for example, we are featuring a story about the Volcano Writers’ Group, which decided to publish a book together—and did it! We also have a short feature about how Guild member Virginia Fortner became a woman who wrote history during the Covid-19 epidemic. And another feature about Santa Claus, e.g., Guild Member Donald Kennedy, winning an award for his second book: Kids Say the Darndest Things to Santa Clause: 25 Years of Santa Stories.We hope features like this will inspire you to try new adventures with your own writing.
In each issue, we also hope to have an opinion column by a member about some aspect of the genre they work in that they have especially strong feelings about. For example, in this issue, we have two Genre Corner columns, one by a member who found her niche when she discovered “episodic writing.” Read all about it in this issue’s Genre Corner by Lehua Wells. The second Genre Corner column in this issue is about “punk haiku.” Never heard of it? Amanda JS Kaufmann will tell you how writing it got her through a mid-life crisis. If you have an idea for a future Genre Corner column, please let us know. We will work with you to help you perfect your idea.
And, of course, we plan to have stories and pictures of our new members, so you have a chance to “meet them” soon after they join. We also plan to keep tabs on our members’ new publications so you don’t have to wait to hear about their accomplishments until our annual dinner.
These are the ideas we’ve come up with so far. If you have other ideas about what you want included in Member News, please let us know. If we hear from you, we’ll have a Talkback section in our next issue with your emails and suggestions. And if you have an idea for a better name for our newsletter, let us know about that, too. Member News says what we mean, but you may have a name that says it with style. Please send us your suggestions.
We want to hear from you!
Joy and Cece
(click a name to email either one of them)
Welcome to Member News!
In the beginning, when Hawaii Writers Guild first set up its website, a space was set aside called Guild News. The Guild was young, morphing and growing, and Guild News was the perfect place to record the history of that growth. Stories about our annual dinners were recorded on the Guild News site, as were stories about our public readings, when we began having them. It was a good place to record the accomplishments of our organization as we charted a course toward becoming a 501(c)(3) federal nonprofit corporation. When we learned we had achieved that goal, on Valentine’s Day, 2020, Guild News was the perfect place to bruit the news of that success.
Eventually, however, the need for a place to focus on our members, rather than on the organization, began to make itself felt. As we grew, members joined from more and more distant places. We were no longer a small, close-knit group from the Big Island of Hawaii. New members lived on other islands; some members lived on the mainland part or all of the year. Last year, we welcomed our first international member, a woman from Bosnia, thousands of miles and several time zones away.
And then there was COVID-19, and suddenly even those of us on the Big Island stopped seeing each other in person as we sheltered at home. Luckily, we had some talented members who showed us how to bridge the gap by taking our in-person activities online. We acquired a YouTube Channel and began producing shows featuring our members and their writing and online workshops that gave tips about various aspects of writing skills. Writing workshops and our monthly business meetings switched over to Zoom.
But, for the most part, socializing in person, just chatting over coffee, sharing news of our lives, even of our writing lives, halted. COVID-19 is beginning to abate, but even as in-person socializing begins again, the geographical distances between us remain. Member News is our effort to build and maintain rapport among our members, wherever we live, however far apart we are.
The goal of this newsletter is to focus on news by and about our members rather than on news of the Guild.
We will have special feature stories about unique or first-time activities of our members. In this issue, for example, we are featuring a story about the Volcano Writers’ Group, which decided to publish a book together—and did it! We also have a short feature about how Guild member Virginia Fortner became a woman who wrote history during the Covid-19 epidemic. And another feature about Santa Claus, e.g., Guild Member Donald Kennedy, winning an award for his second book: Kids Say the Darndest Things to Santa Clause: 25 Years of Santa Stories.We hope features like this will inspire you to try new adventures with your own writing.
In each issue, we also hope to have an opinion column by a member about some aspect of the genre they work in that they have especially strong feelings about. For example, in this issue, we have two Genre Corner columns, one by a member who found her niche when she discovered “episodic writing.” Read all about it in this issue’s Genre Corner by Lehua Wells. The second Genre Corner column in this issue is about “punk haiku.” Never heard of it? Amanda JS Kaufmann will tell you how writing it got her through a mid-life crisis. If you have an idea for a future Genre Corner column, please let us know. We will work with you to help you perfect your idea.
And, of course, we plan to have stories and pictures of our new members, so you have a chance to “meet them” soon after they join. We also plan to keep tabs on our members’ new publications so you don’t have to wait to hear about their accomplishments until our annual dinner.
These are the ideas we’ve come up with so far. If you have other ideas about what you want included in Member News, please let us know. If we hear from you, we’ll have a Talkback section in our next issue with your emails and suggestions. And if you have an idea for a better name for our newsletter, let us know about that, too. Member News says what we mean, but you may have a name that says it with style. Please send us your suggestions.
We want to hear from you!
Joy and Cece
(click a name to email either one of them)
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Contents
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Vertical Divider
Featured Stories
New Member Spotlight
Here are eight new members who joined in 2021. Click on any name to go directly to that member.
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Genre Corner
Recently Published
Here are eight members who have published this year so far. Let's give them all a hand! Click on any name to go directly to that member.
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