May Speaker: Birma Castle

Birma Castle was born and raised in Central Mississippi a very long time ago on Christmas Day. She has 3 children, 6 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren which makes all the other things in her life have meaning.

Currently she is President of the Beaumont Poetry Society and has been for many years.

She is Chair for the Poetry Society of Texas Summer Conference which will be held in Beaumont this July 16-19th.

Birma has been the Director of the 4 day Lucidity Poetry Retreat in Eureka Springs, AR for the past 8 years.

She has won many First Place Awards in the State which publishes 1st places in a Book of the Year anthology.

She has been a featured speaker in Austin, San Antonio, Beaumont, Henderson, and several PST Summer Conferences.

Birma’s most prized award was not for a poem, but from the honor of having The Poetry Society of Texas dedicate its 2010 Book of the Year to her. The Student Awards Book was also dedicated to her in 2014. She was very pleased to receive The Life Membership Honor for service in 2013.

Birma believes that positive thinking goes a long way in making your life what you want it to be, and hers is very full.

April Meeting

Group member Sylvia Ney will discuss Giving Agents, Editors and Publishers What They Want. Hope to see you there.

March Speaker: JENNIFER P. WILLIAMS

JENNIFER P. WILLIAMS is a wife and working mom of two. She spends her days working as an auditor, and her nights writing about life and parenting on her eponymous blog, Jennifer P. Williams. She is the Co-Director of the Southeast Texas Listen To Your Mother Show, and a two time BlogHer Voices of the Year Honoree. Her first short story was published in the literary anthology Precipice, Volume III. Her writing has been featured on Scary Mommy, Bonbon Break, and Mamapedia. The two favorite compliments she has received about her writing is that it is honest and real, but she delivers it all with a sass and grace indicative of her down-home Texas style.

February 9th Meeting

“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.”
― Dr. Seuss

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Members, please bring your work-in-progress (WIP) for a session geared toward revision and submission preparation. This will be our last meeting at the clubhouse. Beginning in March, we will meet at Miller Library. Hope to see you Monday might at 6:30.

January Meeting and A Few Notes

 Writing is its own reward.
- Henry Miller

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Thank you for electing me to serve as your president for 2015. I hope we can all work together to encourage one another, improve our writing and increase membership participation.

I am thrilled to have Kathy Haskins as Vice-President, Merrilyn Williams as Secretary, Sylvia Ney as Treasurer and Carol Weishampel as Publicist. Thanks to those wonderful ladies for offering their valuable time.

I am also excited about what's ahead, including a few changes. Please plan on attending the meeting Monday night to learn about our ideas. Registrations will be updated and annual dues collected.

Also, think about what inspires you and be prepared to share.

Let's welcome 2015 together at our next meeting, January 12... same place, same time. See you there. ~Laurie

A Farewell Message

My term as president of TGCW is coming to an end. I want to thank you ALL for sharing your trust, and struggles, as we formed a family. I also want to thank each of you for the EXTREMELY generous Christmas gift. It has been my honor to serve as your president. I am so grateful for the opportunity you gave me. I have enjoyed watching you grow as confident writers, and a successful writers group.

So, what does it take to make a successful group?

First and foremost, it takes you, the members. It takes your enthusiasm, dedication, participation, and your loyalty. It also takes a strong and capable board, and the efforts of volunteers.

These last two years you have been served by some amazing volunteers.

Your Vice President, Laurie Kolp, has worked tirelessly for two years to seek out and “book” speakers for each meeting. Her efforts have brought us strong speakers with valuable information to share. She also helped to organize two writing workshops, all while dealing with her mothers’ illness, eventual passing, and numerous publications including her beautiful book Upon the Blue Couch  (not to mention raising three amazing children). She somehow manages to smile, to share a kind word with everyone she meets, and to go out of her way to help keep TGCW on track. We look forward to her term as our new President.

Your Treasurer has been Debra McElwee, a dedicated and detail-oriented woman who has helped keep our head above water despite a small bank account. Her efforts in filing and finalizing our “nonprofit and tax exempt” status as well as managing our monthly budget have added nicely to our stability as a group. I only hope I can successfully fill her shoes next year.

Lanell Stuart served as secretary our first year, and did a WONDERFUL job keeping accurate records of our meetings. Unfortunately, she had to give up the position after that first year - due to health problems. Lisa Black took up her duties for the second year and secured our meeting location at the apartment complex. While I have enjoyed getting to know Lisa and watching her grow as a writer, work and personal responsibilities have prevented her from being at some of our meetings. We have missed both of these ladies and hope to see more of them in 2015. Merrilynn Williams, a very talented and vigilant author, will be taking over the office of secretary. We are delighted that she is willing to serve as our record keeper.

Much of our spotlight in the public eye has come from our wonderful publicist Kathy Haskins. She set up and maintained a website for the group for the last two years. She has also been great about using her wit and intelligence to seek out individuals, spread word of our meetings, and invite new members. I’m excited to see what she plans for us as our new vice president.

Carol Weishampel - who never ceases to amaze me as an author, a friend, and a humanitarian -will be taking over as our publicist. She often seems to be everywhere at once. She manages to care for a large family, travel several months at a time, publish a new book almost every year, often presents new tips and opportunities for other writers, and generously contributes to our processes and plans.

I look forward to many more years with these amazing women, and watching our writing family grow. So, your goals for 2015:

1)      Bring your unique skills, talents and insights to share with the group.

2)      Invite friends, strangers, and coworkers to a meeting.
3)      Increase your word count, number of people reading/critiquing your work.
4)      Try something new such as entering contests, trying for different submissions, attempting a different genre, and attending workshops/conferences.

Thank you again for everything. Happy holidays and HAPPY WRITING!

Sylvia Ney
President
Texas Gulf Coast Writers 

November 10 Meeting

Group share, discussion, workshop, and critiques. Come with your publications, questions, work, whatever you want to share/learn from each other. This months meeting will be intended to learn from and encourage each other.