Join LCW Welcoming Award-winning Novelist Shelley Adina Saturday, 10/17/15

Join Lancaster Christian Writers Saturday, October 17th, 2015, 9:30AM-12 noon (registration opens at 9AM) at Lancaster Alliance Church, 210 Pitney Road, Lancaster, PA (right off HWY 30 near Costco) in welcoming back Shelley Adina, bestselling Christian steampunk and Amish romance novelist, who was with us in 2013. She will be flying in again from CA for the Strasburg Railroad Festival and is taking time out to share another fiction workshop with us: Creating Communities With Character.

SPEAKER: Shelley Adina is an award-winning novelist, copy editor, and teaching writer in the MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University. She writese Amish women's fiction as Adina Senft. Shelley won the RITA Award® from the Romance Writers of America in 2005, and was a finalist the following year. She was a Christy Award finalist in 2009 for The Fruit of My Lipstick, a two-time Carol Award finalist, and has lately been an Amazon bestseller with the Magnificent Devices novels.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION: "Creating Communities with Character" You’ve created a hero to die for and a heroine to challenge him—but two people aren’t enough to carry the whole book. What about all the other people in your story world? In this workshop, you’ll learn how to create communities populated by compelling secondary and tertiary characters. Best friends, buddies, exes, families, and coworkers create foils and contrasts for your main characters, push the plot’s emotional complexity, build the story towns your reader wants to come back to . . . and become the main characters for the next book.
 
KEYSTONE CHRISTIAN FICTION WRITERS CONFERENCE: If you are a fiction writer, you will also want to check out American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) Pennsylvania Chapter's first one-day writer's conference at State College, PA on November 7th. Check out details at  http://acfwpennsylvania.com/keystone-christian-fiction-writers-conference/

CRITIQUE GROUPS: And don't forget to bring your latest work-in-progress from this summer for critique groups (ten copies up to 1500 words).

As always, more info can be found at our LCW blog: http://lancasterchristianwriterstoday.blogspot.com Or email questions or concerns to jeanette@jeanettewindle.com

Blessings,
Jeanette Windle
President, Lancaster Christian Writers

Mark Your Calendar For LCW's 2015-2016 Calendar Year Kickoff Saturday, September 26th: NOTE This is 4th, NOT 3rd Saturday

Wow, can summer really be almost over? I think I blinked and missed it! It was good to see many LCW members at Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference. Others took in St. Davids or Montrose Conferences. If you didn't make it to a conference, I trust your summer has at least included some writing time.

SEPTEMBER LCW KICKOFF: Regardless, do jump-start your fall writing by joining Lancaster Christian Writers 2015-2016 Kickoff on Saturday, September 26th at Lancaster Alliance Church, 210 Pitney Rd (off Hwy 30 across from Costco) from 9:30AM-12 noon (registration opens at 9). Please note this is the FOURTH Saturday, rather than the usual THIRD, due to a scheduling conflict (mine, actually. I will be ministry traveling over the next 2 1/2 months on three separate continents, but will be briefly back in Lancaster for 9/26).

SPEAKER:  LCW president Jeanette Windle (yes, that's me!) will be sharing one of most popular and practical workshops she taught at GPCWC: The A to Z of Writing a Sellable Article.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION: The A to Z of Writing the Sellable Article: Where to find material or choose a topic? What makes an attention-grabbing lead and headline? What to include and how to organize? A great conclusion or just petering out? Taught by a twenty-year-veteran missions journalist and editor, this workshop lays out in practical steps how to turn out consistently exciting, tightly written articles, no matter your theme or subject matter.
 
SPEAKER BiO: Award-winning novelist, missions journalist, editor and collaborative writer Jeanette Windle grew up in equatorial South America's guerrilla hot zones, has lived in six countries and traveled in more than thirty. Those experiences have birthed 16 fiction titles, including bestselling Veiled Freedom (2010 ECPA Christian Book Award/Christy Award finalist), Freedom's Stand, (2012 ECPA Christian Book Award/Carol Award finalist), and Congo Dawn (2013 Golden Scroll Novel of the Year) as well as non-fiction collaborative titles Hope Underground: The Chilean Mine Rescue and Forgiven: The Amish Schoolhouse Shooting, a Mother’s Love, and a Story of Remarkable Grace (Bethany House, Fall, 2015). 

OCTOBER MEETING: We have also confirmed as speaker for our October meeting on Saturday, 10/17 (yes, that is back to 3rd Saturday!) Shelley Adina, bestselling Christian steampunk and Amish romance novelist, who was with us in 2013. She will be flying in again from CA for the Strasburg Railroad Festival and is taking time out to share another fiction workshop with us: Creating Communities With Character.

FALL/WINTER CALENDAR: We still have openings for speakers November-June, so if you have a suggestion for either speaker or workshop, please contact me at  jeanette@jeanettewindle.com We also have openings to share a devotional (5-10 minutes) each month. This is your opportunity to share your own inspirational writing with the group, so please do contact me if you'd like to get on the schedule.

As always, email questions or concerns to jeanette@jeanettewindle.com

Blessings,
Jeanette Windle
President, Lancaster Christian Writers

LCW Welcomes Awardwinning Author ADINA SENFT 11/16/13 PLUS Contest and Other News

Whether your storytelling is fiction or non-fiction, you won't want to miss Lancaster Christian Writers' next meeting Saturday, November 16, 2013, 9:30AM-12 noon (registration opens at 9AM) at Lancaster Alliance Church, 210 Pitney Road, Lancaster, PA (right off HWY 30 near Costco). For this month's speaker, it was a delightful surprise to learn that ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) author Adina Senft (publishing also as Shelley Adina and Shelley Bates) would be in town all the way from Silicon Valley, CA, for a book-signing at the Strasburg Railroad Steampunk Unlimited event Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 16-17.  Adina graciously consented to duck out of the event long enough to share with Lancaster's local Christian writing community her fun-filled and practical workshop on presenting an effective setting to your reader:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adina Senft grew up in a plain house church, where she was often asked by outsiders if she was Amish (the answer was no), she made her own clothes, and she perfected the art of the French braid. She holds an M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania, where she teaches as adjunct faculty. Writing as Shelley Bates, she was the winner of RWA’s RITA Award for Best Inspirational Novel in 2005, and a finalist for that award in 2006. Writing as Shelley Adina, she is an Amazon bestseller for her self-published Magnificent Devices steampunk series, and was a Christy Award finalist in 2009. Three of her books have shortlisted for the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Carol Award for book of the year. 

A transplanted Canadian, Adina returns there annually to have her accent calibrated. Between books, she enjoys traveling with her husband, playing the piano and Celtic harp, and spoiling her flock of rescued chickens. These days, she makes period costumes and only puts up her hair for historical events and fun. Check out more about Adina and her Amish and steampunk novels at her websites: http://www.adinasenft.com; http://www.shelleyadina.com; http://www.shelleybates.com

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION: "World Building Through Your Characters' Eyes".

Building a setting is more than paragraphs of description of a Regency ballroom or the main street of a small town. It’s how your character sees your story world and how it in turn reflects her. It’s how the environment influences and changes your character—and how your character changes her environment—during the events of the story. In this workshop, award-winning author Adina Senft, who also writes as Shelley Adina, will show you how to build a setting from the top down and from the inside out so that your world becomes as much a character as your people. You’ll also get some tips on how to research a believable setting, even if you’re making it all up.

VOLUNTEER NEEDED TO CHAUFFEUR SPEAKER:  Our guest speaker will be staying at Limestone Inn Bed and Breakfast, 33 East Main Street, Strasburg, PA. A volunteer is urgently needed to pick Adina up at the inn (by 8:45AM), bring her to Lancaster Alliance Church, then take her back to Strasburg by noon (when she is due at the Railroad event). BONUS: Getting to pick the brain of an unbelievably talented and creative author coming and going. If you can offer chauffeur services, please email jeanette@jeanettewindle.com

DEVOTIONAL SPEAKERS:  Thank you, Donna Smith, for a wonderful devotional thought shared with our October group. If any LCW member would be interested in sharing a devotional message geared to writers God has laid on your heart(5-10 minutes) for the November meeting, please email jeanette@jeanettewindle.com

BOOK MANUSCRIPT CONTEST: Lancaster Christian Writers has received an invitation from Deep River Books (founded by Bill and Nancy Carmichael, founding publishers of Good Family Magazines, which included Christian Parenting Today, Virtue, etc) to submit book manuscripts for their 2013-2014 writing contest, first prize a publishing contract. Check out details HERE.

THANK YOU FROM MICHELE CHYNOWETH: Those in attendance at the October meeting had a delightful time with guest author Michele Chynoweth. Michele sends the group this follow-up thanks:

"Dear Jeanette and fellow Christian writers, I’d like to thank you for hosting me as your Writers Workshop speaker on Character Development this past Saturday; it was a delightful group full of enthusiasm and I really appreciated the opportunity.  I look forward to seeing you all again soon!

Meanwhile, if anyone would still like to purchase copies of my novels, The Faithful One or The Peace Maker, please visit my website: www.michelechynoweth.com or go on www.amazon.com.

Blessings,
Jeanette Windle
President, Lancaster Christian Writers
www.jeanettewindle.com