Festivities begin at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 10, rain or shine. (We’ll be cozily ensconced indoors in case of bad weather.) The price is the same as last year: $30 per person ($35 at the door), including wine with dinner. (Vegetarians need not worry; there will be plenty for you to eat.) A cash bar will provide pre-dinner libations. Pegasus Restaurant and Taverna is at 130 South Halsted Street in Chicago. There is valet parking and also a parking lot across the street. Public transportation via the El is nearby. Use the PayPal “IWOC Party” button below to reserve — you don’t need a PayPal account — or download the flyer to send a check to the office. Don’t miss this event! It wouldn’t be the same without you.

July Meeting Reprise
IWOC’s July speaker, Amy Guth, is digital news editor for books for the Chicago Tribune’s Media Group, host, ChicagoNow radio at WGN Radio, and Managing Editor at So New Publishing. Guth gave a lively and entertaining presentation for an appreciative audience. She spoke about the online writing scene, using examples from her own background to tell how she parlayed a freelance career, using networking and online gigs among other techniques, into better and better situations, culminating in her present positions. If one googles Guth, one finds that she is on Twitter, LinkedIn, and a myriad of other sites. Her extensive — and varied — activities have provided her with numerous opportunities, and that fact wasn’t lost on the audience. Guth’s example gave more than one writer new resolve to get his or her name out there in the digital media.

June Meeting Reprise
Guest speaker Gary Glenn, an avid sailing enthusiast, spiced his carefully crafted presentation on how he grew his business in a down economy with nautical metaphors. Though at first blush it might seem that the how-tos of creating a thriving high-quality embroidery business would have little transfer to making a success of an independent writing endeavor, that proved not to be true. Glenn emphasized delivering top quality, giving the customer/client what he or she wants on time, and being able to shift strategies — “tack in a different direction” — when the situation warrants. Glenn accompanied his remarks with an entertaining visual presentation that reinforced the strategic details. Glenn's comment that he chose the embroidery business because "I knew absolutely nothing about it, and I wanted to learn" inspired more than one writer to ponder the possible rewards of learning about a new field of writing that might be in demand in this recessionary economy. Altogether, it was a very successful evening, and the audience left with the feeling that, with careful planning, they could stay the course and even venture successfully into uncharted waters.

May Meeting Reprise
In May, IWOCers and guests gathered to get answers to vexing writing problems they had enountered and to share their own tips on how they had found ways to jump the hurdles presented by work slowdowns, problem clients, billing, and other tricky issues almost all writers face. Led by moderator Jeff Steele, the excellent panel of our own experts included Michelle Beuscher, Diana Schneidman, and Stewart Truelsen. Tips on how to weather the current economic downturn included: “Don't get too comfortable with the current market. Always be on the lookout for something new/the next hot thing” (Truelsen) and “Make cold calls, as many as 50 a day” (Schneidman). From Steele: “Always give clients exactly what they want.” And from Beuscher: “Pitch to magazines that tie in with your background.” Inevitably, there were questions about how to handle slow- or no-pay clients. Suggestions here ranged from “Get upfront money” to “Use letters of agreement (or contracts)” to Place your efforts with clients who (you know) will pay.” Overall, it was a spirited and helpful meeting, and many attendees voiced the opinion that we ought to do this a lot more often. (Picture caption: back left to right: Jeff Steele, Stewart Truelsen; front left to right: Diana Schneidman, Michelle Beuscher.)

April Meeting Reprise
IWOC’s social media chair Jay Rodriguez spoke to a packed house at the April meeting. The audience came to hear how they could use Facebook to promote their businesses, and they were well-rewarded. In a fast-paced screen presentation, Rodriguez detailed the making of a Facebook fan page that can lure clients to our websites. (Rodriguez stressed that without a website, a fan page is not nearly as useful for business promotion.)

Facebook is the second-largest website in the world, trailing only Google, with more than 4M active users, so it is an ideal venue for writers to brand themselves. Rodriguez suggested that we make sure our websites are ready for the traffic before we build the Facebook fan page. Among his other tips: add a blog to your website, create a marketing calendar, get acquainted with people whom you do not know who visit your fan page, put relevant material on your fan page to generate discussions, sign up for Google analytics to learn about the traffic to your page, and so much more. He also gave us a preview of the soon-to-launch IWOC fan page. Everyone was thrilled with the terrific amount of imformation, and we left with a new resolve to launch our own Facebook fan pages.

March Meeting Reprise
Journalist, author, and former IWOCer Bob Knight told an eager crowd of members and guests what we wanted to hear: how to control writer’s block from the get-go. Knight suggested that — counter to what many writers do when they can’t get started — we should concentrate on getting the perfect opening paragraph. According to Knight, getting the lede (or as non-journalists spell it, the “lead”) right, will actually save time, even if we spend forever getting through that one paragraph. He suggests that, once well started, the rest of the piece will fall into place like a stack of dominos. (Well, maybe a slowly falling stack of dominos.) We’ve all heard the axiom “know your audience,” but Knight gave it a self-starting twist: pretend it’s your mother. What would she want to know? Somewhat surprisingly, he disparaged use of an outline as a get-started technique, unless the writer has mountains of material to cover. Knight also gave us a myriad of tips on how to make our writing sparkle. Use strong verbs and ax some of the modifiers, he urged. Ditch passive voice. Keep the piece moving. Avoid wordiness. Heads nodded at these admonitions, but during the question period, the audience gave Knight a bit of back-talk about the merits of an outline. Overall, though, his tips struck the right chord, and we went happily off to dinner.

January Meeting Reprise
IWOCers and guests kicked off the new year with an amusing and entertaining January program. At the meeting, University of Chicago whiz kids Alexander Asiman (left) and Emmett Rensin (right) launched the U.S. book tour for their contemporary take on classic literature — and a few not-so-classic ringers — whittled down to 20-tweet size. We refer, of course, to Twitterature: The World’ s Greatest Books in Twenty Tweets or Fewer, a book that has already caused alternate horror and delight in England, a range that probably roughly equates to the British national sense of humor. Now Penguin has released Twitterature in this country and we were the first to experience Homer’s Odyssey at warp speed. Reading alternate tweets, Asiman and Rensin dispatched Odysseus’ ten-year journey in two pages and less than five minutes. Sample: “Circe a nut job. Time to go, but the boat is broken. Can’t afford a AAA tow. I’ll push it. Circe turned my men into pigs. PIGS. Had a laugh.” And so it went. Not even Helen Keller escapes parody in Twit, though we aren’t going to risk stoning by quoting any of the tweets. Between readings, the authors told how they wrote the book, got an agent, and then secured a publisher. So we learned a bit about how the book was launched as well as having a good time. LOL.

IWOC Workshops/Seminars  IWOC periodically offers workshops and seminars to help writers advance their skills and/or to introduce them to new fields of writing. These professional development events are open to the public as well as to IWOC members. Nonmembers can get a reduced member rate if they join IWOC on or before the date of the workshop. Watch this space for upcoming offerings.

IWOC Greet-Meet-Eat Local Get-Togethers

IWOC welcomes nonmembers at these informal gatherings. Come and network with fellow writers in your community. It's best to get in touch with the contact person first, though, in case of a time or venue change.

First Thursday of every month: IWORP Monthly Breakfast (Independent Writers of Rogers Park). The Rogers Park and North Side IWOCers meet at 9:00 a.m. at the A&T Grill, 7036N. Clark St., Chicago. For more information, call Esther Manewith at 773/274-6215.

Fourth Tuesday of every month: IWOOP Monthly Lunch (Independent Writers of Oak Park). Join near western suburbanites at noon at Poor Phil's, 139 Marion Street, Oak Park. For more information, call Barbara Dillard at 312/642-3065 or e-mail her at bdbusiness@sbcglobal.net The Far North Group and the Streeterville Group are currently inactive. If you're interested in reviving them — or starting another group — check out your directory and find others who live in your area. It's easy to do via e-mail, and the get-togethers are a great way to get to know other IWOCers better. If you get a group going, notify webmaster@iwoc.org so we can post notices of your meetings.

Notices of Events of Other Organizations

Illinois Women's Press Association (IWPA)
Next event TBA.
email iwpa@comcast.net.

International Association of Business Communicators (IABC)
Next event TBA.

Contact: Kathy Short, 773-262-2433, info@iabcchicago.com
Website: www.iabcchicago.com