NJ Writers Group - The Spirited Goldfinch

Hi all !

Does anyone have cacoethes scribendi ?

It sounds like some kind of exotic disease, but actually it is Latin for an "insatiable urge to write". I hope all of you are blessed with this benign disease.

If you didn't have a chance to check out the last set of links I posted here, scroll down below a couple of posts to check them out.


Here are some additional internet resources.

http://www.internet-resources.com/writers/

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/links.html

http://www.stevens-arce.com/Links.html


http://www.artistresource.org/poetlinx.htm

http://www.google.com/Top/Arts/Writers_Resources/


PS - don't forget to add The Spirited Goldfinch http://www.lulu.com/content/5548827 to all of your blog and forum posts.

Good Luck in your writing endeavors !

February Meeting

We had a very inspiring meeting of our group a week ago Sunday at Valerie Shimoyama's apartment. Thank you, Valerie! Present were Valerie, June Saunders, Kerry Pobanz, Richard Panzer, Jerry Chesnut, Bob and Karen Beebe, and newcomer Russell Shen, invited by Valerie (welcome!).

Bob started off the meeting by sharing some responses he had received from people who had heard about the publication of The Spirited Goldfinch and about the existence of our group. Several writers, both published and nonpublished, wrote very encouraging messages, expressing a desire to contribute to the next edition of the journal (still this summer, hopefully!) and wanting to keep in touch. One writer, an English professor from Washington State connected to Free Teens, already sent in a short story he had written. Concerning the journal itself, we have currently sold over 30 copies. Slightly short of being a best-seller, but it's a start.

Then Jerry shared an update on his sort-of autobiography, which is growing more fictional as he brings us up to the present and into the future. Whether fact or fiction, however, Jerry continues to delight us with his inimitable style and way with words (e.g., "all shows led to the Friday Night Movie, the last stop before test patterns and pre-civilization.")

From there we heard from June on her latest chapter of "Into the Breach," entitled "First Blood." The Civil War has begun, young men are going off to war, while Gabriel stays back to wed Genevieve to protect her from the shame of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. In this chapter, June did a masterful job at conveying the conflicting feelings at work as they attempt to sort out their relationship.

Our next meeting is scheduled for this Sunday, March 15, 3:00-5:00 pm, at the Beebe residence (26 Amity St., Little Falls). Valerie is supposed to present some of her work. If, perchance, she is not ready, I will present one of my short stories. In this case, I will send it out by the weekend for you to read.

God bless you all! I look forward to seeing you Sunday.

The Spirited Goldfinch - Links for Writers

Hello all.
Do you like this map of NJ ? I thought I would add an image to the blog, just to see how it looks.


Here are a few web sites that might help in your writing.

This website updates it's main page twice weekly. This week's article is on the 10 most important web resources for writers. www.writetodone.com

http://www.languageisavirus.com/ you may find interesting. There is a section on how to overcome writer's block. Another entry is a character name generator, if you are looking for an appropriate name for one of your characters.

Also see:

http://preciseedit.com

http://www.planetebook.com/

http://www.triond.com/ - get paid (small amounts), for writing articles.


http://www.oneword.com/


http://www.webook.com/911writersblock

http://www.webook.com/WritingTips/index

By the way. Whenever you post anything on-line, regardless of whether it is on a blog, forum post, web site, etc., don't forget to include the following line:

http://www.lulu.com/content/5548827

and The Spirited Goldfinch, NJ Writer's Group, as well.


Happy Writing !

John Lombaerde

NJ Writer's Group

Hello all,

Every time someone posts to this blog, Google will search the page and add it to it's index.

Note: You can verify this by going to Google and do a search for "NJ writers group", then click on the top of the page under the "more" title, under blogs. You will see the latest posting there on the first page.

When you post here make sure to use words "NJ writers group" in your post and "The Spirited Goldfinch". You can highlight "The Spirited Goldfinch", and then click on the chain icon at the top of the editor to type in http://www.lulu.com/content/5548827 to make a "hot link" that will go directly to the purchase page where our anthology can be found.

Check the following link to verify. The Spirited Goldfinch

You can also add tags in the label section at the bottom of the editor as well to help the search engines find our page. Note: if you have forums or other blogs that you post to, put the previous information into the post. That will increase the links to our blog as well.

Happy Writing !


John Lombaerde

NJ Writer's Group: The Spirited Goldfinch

NJ Writer's Group: The Spirited Goldfinch

Click here,

or type http://www.lulu.com/content/5548827 into your browser.

The Spirited Goldfinch

Dear Friends,

It's been quite a while since anyone has posted something here, but it doesn't mean we haven't been busy. We've continued our biweekly meetings, hopping from home to home, getting to know each other and sharing each other's works. Now we have something to show for all our efforts. Our so-called anthology has just been published in the form of a literary journal, going by the name of "The Spirited Goldfinch," named after the state bird of our fair Garden State (that's New Jersey, for the uninformed). One hundred and twenty-one pages in length, it contains 8 works of both fiction and nonfiction written by six of our group's members. Rather than say more, let me just post here the introduction to what we hope will be a continuing periodical:

In December 2006 a circle of literary-minded friends began meeting on a bi-weekly basis in Little Falls, New Jersey. They shared a common passion for writing and a desire to use their creative skills to engage America in re-examining her role in the world as a nation of goodness.

Month after month, members of the group have been meeting in each other’s homes, sharing their literary efforts and exposing their work to one another’s constructive criticism. We encouraged each other to express his or her vision as a spiritual artist and to showcase his or her unique “song”. When enough material was generated, we decided to launch the first volume of a literary digest.

Being New Jersey-based, the Writers’ Haven, as the group decided to call itself, chose to name its first publication The Spirited Goldfinch. This conjures up the image of the New Jersey state bird singing a passionate song of the soul. Our first work is an anthology of writings from the group’s members with their diverse literary interests. In these pages the reader will find short story fiction, semi-autobiographical material, literary analysis, biblical exegesis and reflective essays on various topics.

For all the diversity of this collection, the group shares certain fundamental values that bind the material together. We believe in:

1. God – There is a benevolent, all-encompassing and all-loving Creator to whom we are beholden as children. Our status as God’s children makes us brothers and sisters to one another. We are one human family under God.

2. Spirituality – There is a spiritual reality and a need for spiritual insights in this age. We believe in an afterlife that reflects the quality of our life on earth.

3. Marriage and Family – Marriage between a man and a woman is the basic building block and most fundamental unit of society. Marriage is precious, holy, and the only fitting place for the expression of human sexuality. As such, marriage should not be easily abrogated. The families that result from marriage are human beings’ schools of love and a foundation for relating to others throughout one’s lifetime.

4. Service – Those who consider and live for the benefit of others bring joy to God, their fellow human beings, and themselves.

5. Unity – Because we are one human family under God, any distinctions based upon race, ethnicity, religion or nationality, are ultimately inconsequential in the light of our fundamental identity as sons and daughters of God and should not divide us or affect our essential unity.

We hope that the reader will find this introductory volume interesting, thought-provoking, inspiring, and illuminating. We invite others to join with us as we work to create a more heavenly culture.

Please feel free to contact us at http://njwritersgroup.blogspot.com/.

Well, that's where you are right now, so you needn't go any further. We invite interested parties to go to www.lulu.com to order a copy of The Spirited Goldfinch and check it out for yourself. We hope you will find it inspiring and uplifting. We invite you to contact us and give us your thoughts on the book.

Our plan is to come out with a second issue this summer. All aspiring or already successful writers are welcome to submit their work, be it fiction, nonfiction or poetry for review.

God bless you all until next time.

Writers' Haven

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer, despite the high gas and food prices, and that you have been able to get away somewhere. In any case, most of us will be "getting away" to DC next month for the Global Peace Festival.We had a great meeting last week at the Saunders' house. Present were both Alan and June Saunders, Kerry Pobanz, Richard Panzer, Dan Sladich, Bob Beebe and newcomer Carla Mahnken, who came with her recently published book on raising small children. We began with a discussion about Carla's book, which contends that for children to grow properly and keeping their creativity intact, they need plenty of positive reenforcement. Unfortunately, in our fallen world, parents or caregivers are prone to squash a young child's natural creativity and curiosity, making then overly sensitive to making mistakes. As such, their full potential as human beings is never able to develop.From that discussion, we moved on to Dan Sladich, who presented several of his poems that will be included in our upcoming anthology. These mostly-short poems explored the realms of human and divine love, the attraction of opposites, rejecting temptation, physical and spiritual love, purity, filial piety, empathy, patience, and many other topics weaved in among his seven poems. We had a good time trying to understand the meaning, both hidden and obvious, in these poems.Our next meeting will be held at the Sladich's this Sunday, July 27, 3:00-5:00. We will be discussing Kerry Pobanz's second submission to the anthology, "You Are the Same Person After Death", perhaps contrasting it with his other one, "We Are Destined to Become Different Creatures." Both are attached here. Also, we will discuss Jerry Chesnut's piece, "A Simple Life," which I sent out to you last time. I hope to finalize our anthology contributions. Everyone, except for two, has made at least one submission. We also received a short essay from Kate Tsubata entitled "What Marriage Has Meant in My Life." I hope we can get full participation in this first project of our group.Everyone seemed to be happy with June's suggested name for our group, "Writers' Haven", so we plan to go with that as our official name from now.