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  I've truly been blessed to meet, get to know, and even become friends with hundreds —possibly thousands— of writers over the last three decades. Many of those contacts have come through the Oklahoma Writers' Federation Inc ., SoonerCon , Yard Dog Press , and a score of other writing groups, writing conferences, and Sci-Fi conventions I've attended. Once upon a time, I was envious of how much more talent some of those writers possessed. I felt insignificant. I was a tiny drop of water in a giant sea. I was always struggling to keep my head above water, and always sinking farther and farther below more talented and more successful authors. When I retired from the theatre, nearly 35 years ago, I retired at a time when I was completely confident in my talent and abilities as an actor. I retired at a time when I was at my peak and knew I could have been a professional actor if I had pursued that career. Because of that confidence, I had the ability to walk away from

You have been spending way too much time with WAS. You thought he WAS your friend, your mate, your amigo. You WERE wrong.   He WAS a bad influence. He WAS TELLING your story. Was, Were, Is, Are, and To Be express a state of being. They TELL what something, or someone, IS.   They don’t SHOW what is happening.  They are dull, boring, overused, lazy, and—from this day forth—dead to you.  T hey are like Zombies. They will rise from the dead, infiltrating your document, the moment you relax your guard.   This calls for guerilla warfare.   It is time to wage war on WAS, and his buddies WERE, IS, ARE, and TO BE.  It is time to eradicate them from your vocabulary. Kill them.  Or, at least lock them up, in a deep dark dungeon, and throw away the key.   Your mission is to search your current WIP (work in progress), find WAS, and eliminate as many as possible. Then do the same with WERE, ARE, IS, and other TO BE verbs.   Instead of TELLING: H

10 am at University Lutheran Church, 914 Elm. Please park in the back. Festivities will begin at 10 am. Join us and bring guests. All meetings are free and open to the public. Milton Smith will share some insights on photography from a writer’s point of view. March white elephant/April poetry slam. April is National Poetry Month. Those who wish to participate should bring one wrapped white elephant object to the March meeting and you can unwrap someone else’s object. You have one month to write a poem about it to read at the April meeting. Maximum 16 lines. Everyone reads their poem and a certificate will be awarded to the best one. http://normangalaxyofwriters.blogspot.com/

Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, picture books or erotica, religious or super-natural books, the one thing they all have in common is STORY.   Even a non-fiction book needs to tell a STORY.   If it doesn't tell a story, then it falls into the boring, only going to be read as a requirement, academic text book category. Sometimes writers get so caught up in telling the story that we lose sight of what STORY is really about. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines STORY as: 1.       archaic a: history; to narrate or describe in story 2 :   an account of incidents or events b :   a statement regarding the facts pertinent to a situation in question c :   anecdote ; especially :   an amusing one 3. :   a fictional narrative shorter than a novel; specifically :   short story b :   the intrigue or plot of a narrative or dramatic work 4:   a widely circulated rumor 5:    lie , falsehood 6:  legend , romance 7:   a news article o