Cheesy Promotional Post: Five Ways to Make Readers Happy This Christmas

 Do you have friends or family who like to read?

Then buy them a WriteOn Joliet anthology (you thought I was going to recommend the BryonySeries books, didn't you)?

WriteOn Joliet is a welcoming, diverse group of writers of varied skills, interests and experience. The group includes professional journalists, fiction novelists, bloggers, screenwriters, musicians and poets.

A local writer approached me in 2011 and asked me to start this group with her. After telling her "non," multiple times, she found a core group of half a dozen writers and reapproached me with all of them.

She has since moved on (married, children, single mom, and now a nurse, yes during COVID - she's awesome), but Tom Hernandez stepped up, and we've continued to grow, although WriteOn has met on Zoom for most of the year.

Because of Tom's suggestion, WriteOn Joliet has published an anthology every years. This is the first year we were not able to host a release party (complete with free chef-created food), so I'm pushing a little harder to let people know about us.

The anthology is a fundraiser for WriteOn Joliet, and all proceeds stay within the group. We've used the money for speakers, workshops, and marketing our writers.

Except for the "baby cheetah" special edition anthology, all of our anthologies are called "Write Where We Are." That means all the pieces are where we, as writers, currently find ourselves in our respective writing journeys.

Readers will find poems, essays, short stories, novellas, novel excerpts of varying styles. Any reader should be able to find at least one piece to enjoy. Those who purchase the book can have the satisfaction of knowing they've helped writers become more effective in communication, whether they seek to inform, inspire or entertain.

And, yes, you will find excerpts from some of my books, too. 

The only anthology not yet on our website is the newest one, released in the last couple weeks. You can find it here.

For the other WriteOn Joliet anthologies, go here.

And if you want to buy all of them, message us writeonjolietgroup@gmail.com, and I'll work out a discount with you.

Open Mic Night 2018 2: Duanne Walton (ME!)

BryonySeries Throwback Thursday: WriteOn Joliet's First Meeting

This was part of a post from February 6, 2012.


Several weeks ago, a local writer, Kristina Gardner Skaggs (see her short story, Dead Serious, www.bryonyseries.com/Harold_Masters.html and her interview at http://bryonyseries.blogspot.com/2011/09/meet-kristina-skaggs-author-of-dead.html) approached me about assisting her with a new writer’s group. 


A few conversational emails later, we finalized time, date, and location: 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., the first and third Thursdays of every month, at the Three Rivers Arts Council (TRAC), 413 Mondamin Road, Minooka. 

To our delight, five local writers turned out for that first meeting last week We shared our interests, heard some readings, set some goals, directed each other to helpful sites, and brainstormed our official title. 

Since that time, we've moved to the Joliet Public Library at 3395 Black Road in Joliet, published three anthologies (with another out later this year), expanded membership, held a few workshops, and branched into marketing.

This past month, we hosted our first display at the Joliet Public Library's downtown branch at 150 N. Ottawa St. in Joliet. The display comes down after our meet and greet from 6 to 8:30 p.m. tonight, so if you haven't seen it, this is the last opportunity.

Some of our members (including me) will be present with books we've written, along with our three WriteOn Joliet anthologies (along with our latest, "Cheetah Stories"), so please stop out and say, "Hi."

In short, we're here to support local writers, AND we're helping local writers produce the very best reading material possible for readers, voracious and otherwise.

For more information, visit writeonjoliet.com. 

Of Sandwiches and Baby Cheetahs

A couple months ago, a writer commented to me about the difficulty of finding story ideas.

I sent back a replay about finding story ideas anywhere, including random thoughts. I gave a long line of ideas as they as the flew out of my thoughts culminating with "a baby cheetah appears on your porch and asks for a sandwich."

In the early days of WriteOn Joliet, my former co-leader started offering an optional writing assignment a month to get people's creativity flowing, a tradition we've kept. So for our August meeting, I suggested this silly topic.

One member wrote hers early and misunderstood the topic. She substituted "monkey" for "cheetah."

Another member also wrote his early and posted it on the WriteOn Joliet Facebook page. 

One of my sons, who doesn't belong to the group, loved the idea, may write a piece, and now wants a baby cheetah. 

So even if you don't like to write, if you'd like a hilarious time listening to the pieces (while drinking some excellent coffee from the Book and Bean Cafe...and sandwiches!), pop into our Aug. 16 meeting. 

We'll be there from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Joliet Public Library, 3395 Black Road in Joliet.

I don't have a stock photo of a baby cheetah to post here. But I can promise you plenty of gifs are out there (I've been sending them to my son).

But here's an illustration of a sandwich. 

Because you know, if you give a writer a sandwich, he/she's gonna want a baby cheetah to go with it.

Sorry. Had to. ;)

Illustration by Christopher Gleason for "Staked!"