Whew, I almost put the wrong date in my post. I typed 2026 but fortunately caught it. Time is flying but not that fast. But it is time for the monthly get together of the IWSG blog hop. As usual, thanks to our founder, Alex J. Cavanaugh and all the IWSG admins who do so much. Find the entire list of participants here.
This month's optional question:
In this constantly evolving industry, what kind of offering/service do you think the IWSG should consider offering to members?
Good question, but not sure of the answer. I've learned so much from IWSG and met so many amazing writers, many of whom feel like close friends. I've been thinking of some things being done in my other writing groups. I'm not sure if they are things that would work for IWSG.
One is a write-in, held on Zoom at certain times where writers meet and just write together. Participants come and go as they need. Sometimes the moderator starts the write-in with a short spiel about something writing related. Sometimes the write-in starts with participants sharing what they're working on. One group does this one day a week. Another group does it every weekday.
A second thing one of my groups does is have once monthly review parties. There are different ways to organize these, but the goal is to help other writers get reviews for their books.
Last month an amazing thing happened. I was privileged to meet L. Diane Wolfe in person. She was a guest of Pennwriters in Lancaster PA where she led workshops and took pitches from hopeful writers. She is even more wonderful than I expected. What energy! Everyone loved her. She was kind, funny, knowledgeable, and just a light wherever she went.
The entire conference was great fun and very informative, but Diane was one of the biggest highlights for me.
I'm still working steadily on my newest fantasy series. I hope to have the first draft done by the end of the summer. It's a really, really rough draft.
My exercising is going well and the warm weather always motivates me. And the swimming pool is open. I've been jogging at least two days a week and walking at least three days. My jogging is soooo slow that my younger self wouldn't even have called it jogging, but it works my muscles so much better than walking.
TV and streaming is so boring for me right now. I'm rewatching Fringe for the third time because I can't find anything I want to watch.
Do you have any ideas for IWSG moving forward? Have you made some forever friends in this group? Have you had a chance to meet any of them in person?
