SCWA / The Quill / April 2023

April 2023

Message from the President

BOXED OUT

I started my career as a sportswriter. Once a week, I was the featured columnist on the sports page. My editor called my column "Kasie at the Bat."
 
In the column, I was allowed to comment on sports world happenings. Twenty-two years ago, I wrote about Dale Earnhardt's death at Daytona. I remember it vividly. The word coming through headsets and scanners and whispers and wails sewed us together in a tapestry of sponsored grief: Interstate Batteries and Budweiser and Napa Auto Parts. We stood in elongated shadows and wept.
 
Being a sportswriter felt easier than writing fiction. It also felt more fun.
 
I'm in the middle of my career, so I'm pretty busy. And there's a lot of paid stuff to do and just as much obligatory stuff to do. I try to prioritize the fun stuff. I'm not exactly sure when writing stories stopped being the fun stuff.
 
I've attended six chapter meetings in a row with no new pages. I've even rewritten this message six different times with six different topics:

• Being "above the fold" and getting your stories read.

• Competing for eyeballs and writing "newsworthy" stories.

• Finding your way out of writer's block with self-imposed deadlines.

• Being the reason people buy the newspaper (or attend the conference) and building a following.

• Effectuation and starting from a means-based approach (what do I have that I can use?).

And this topic, which seems to be part confession, part cry for help. Maybe I need to stop attending critique groups and go back into my writing cave and write. Maybe I need a better hero, a Dale Earnhardt. Maybe I need to make time to write. Again. Prompts could help. Maybe some writing exercises. Send your home remedies to kasie@clemsonroad.com.
 
Don't fall victim to below-the-scroll fatigue. This issue of The Quill has LOTS to offer. Keep reading.

Kasie Whitener
President, SCWA Board of Directors

Events and Education

Joining the SCWA Fall 2023 Conference will be Janisse Ray, Halle Hill, Susan Boyer, and Charlie Lovett, among numerous other authors, editors and publishers.

FALL CONFERENCE SET FOR NOV. 3-5

SCWA’s annual writing conference returns to Columbia this Nov. 3-5—but with a difference.

As in the past, the conference will feature top authors. This year’s lineup includes National Book Award winner Jason Mott, the author of Hell of a Book and The Returned; Janisse Ray, celebrated Georgia author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood; Ashley Poston, New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Years Slip and The Dead Romantics; Susan M. Boyer, author of a dozen popular Lowcountry mysteries; and Columbia author Claire Jimenez, whose just-published novel, What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez, is a USA Today must-read title.

This year's gathering will feature more talks, more master classes and more panels, along with sought-after editors and agents such as Amy Collins, who partners with Writers Digest.

We're also widening our net to include all kinds of storytellers, from novelists to screenwriters to poets to journalists.

Best of all, we're keeping the registration price low – $235 for member early registration, the same price as last year!

More than 15 speakers and instructors will attend the jam-packed event, including NPR Best Book Award winner Julia Franks, New York Times bestselling author Charlie Lovett, award-winning poet Glenis Redmond, investigative journalist Phoebe Zerwick, Hub City Press publishers Meg Reid and Kate McMullen, short story writer Halle Hill, civil rights photographer Cecil Williams and mystery writer Deb Richardson-Moore.

Conference-goers can pay for critiques from agents and editors, attend panels on writing and publishing, promote and sell their books, participate in queryfests and slushfests, and read their works during Saturday's open mic.

You'll receive an official invitation later this month and details and registration information will be posted on the SCWA Events Calendar. Join us in a celebration of the South's best storytellers!

Paul Davis, VP/Events and Education

CONFERENCE SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT: SUSAN M. BOYER

As a young girl in South Carolina, Susan M. Boyer dreamed of becoming a writer. She spent her Sunday afternoons in the library, checking out as many books as she could. "I explored a great many genres … always returning to my first love, mysteries," she says.

That love stayed with her.

In college, she studied computer programming. But eventually, she started writing mysteries.

Her debut novel, Lowcountry Boil, won the 2012 Agatha Award for Best First Novel and the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense.

In a dozen years, she wrote 11 novels featuring Liz Talbot, her Lowcountry sleuth, prompting Speakers International to write: "Boyer may be unstoppable in conjuring mystery as she travels the social circles and back roads of the fascinating Southern landscape."

Now she's launching Carolina Tales, a series of loosely collected stand-alone novels about a group of multi-generational Southern women who face life's challenges together. The first book in the new series, Big Trouble on Sullivan’s Island, drops this month.

Boyer will discuss mystery writing and her new project at SCWA's fall conference. If you're a mystery fan or writer — or you want to know how to successfully market a series — you'll want to hear her speak.

Don't miss her book launch for Big Trouble at Wine & Design, presented by Fiction Addiction bookstore (next door to Wine & Design) in Greenville on Tuesday, April 11, from 5:30-8 p.m. The event is free. Grab a ticket (you can order a copy of the book, too) at Eventbrite: Susan Boyer Launch Party.

POETRY EVENTS SET FOR APRIL AND MAY
 
On April 13, SCWA will celebrate National Poetry Month with two remarkable poets: Candice Kelsey and Natalie Marino.

Kelsey is a Georgia poet, educator and activist. A former law student, her work has won praise and prizes, including the 2021 Two Sisters Micro Story Contest, the 2020 Rebecca Laird Poetry Prize, and the 2019 Common Ground Poetry Contest.

Marino is a California poet, pediatrician and mother. Her work has appeared in Barren Magazine, Bitter Oleander, Literary Mama, Midway Journal and Oyez Review. Her micro-chapbook, Attachment Theory, was published by Ghost City Press in June 2021.

The celebration continues on May 4 with talks and readings by poets Kelli Russell Agodon and Jenna Le.

Agodon's most recent collection, Hourglass Museum, was short-listed for the Julie Suk Poetry Prize for the best book of poems published by a small press. She's the co-author of The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts for Your Writing Practice.

Le is a New York physician and the daughter of Vietnamese refugees. Her first book, Six Rivers, was a Small Press Poetry Bestseller. Her second collection, A History of the Cetacean American Diaspora, won second place in the 2017 Elgin Awards.

South Carolina poet Arthur Turfa will host the two 7–8:30 p.m. virtual events. The talks are free for SCWA members and $25 for nonmembers. To register, go to SCWA Events Calendar.

NOT TO BE MISSED

The University of South Carolina hosts a handful of authors and poets each year as part of its Open Book event. The events are free and open to the public at 6 p.m. in the Campus Room of the Capstone Building in Columbia.

The poet Natalie Diaz will speak on April 5.

Born and raised in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California, Diaz has become one of the nation's most decorated and prominent contemporary poets. The New York Times Book Review called her Pulitzer Prize-winning second collection, Postcolonial Love Poem, "one of the most important poetry releases in years."

The New York Times bestselling author Richard Powers will speak on April 12.

Powers is the author of over a dozen books, including The Echo Maker, which won the National Book Award, and The Overstory.

The Open Book is hosted by Elise Blackwell, the author of five novels, most recently The Lower Quarter. For more information, visit USC Open Book Series.

Membership

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: LARRY COBB

Each month, we spotlight a SCWA member who is selected at random from our membership database.

In April, we recognize Larry Cobb. Originally from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, he moved to North Carolina to serve in the United States Marine Corps. After his discharge, he moved to Jacksonville, where he met his wife, Carolyn, to whom he has been married nearly 35 years. Cobb now is retired, and they both volunteer with the neighborhood Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).

Shortly after they moved to Columbia in 2014 for Carolyn's job, they attended a book fair at the convention center, where they learned about SCWA. As a result, they joined the Columbia III Chapter and have been members ever since.

Larry enjoys writing 1900s historical fiction and has published three books: Body at the Edge of the Woods, Letters in the Attic and Shenandoah Autumns.

Thank you, Larry, for your service to our country and for being a loyal SCWA member!

FREE MEMBERSHIP WINNERS

Congratulations to Jayne Bowers of Camden, S.C., and Kathleen Johnston of North Augusta, S.C.! Their names were drawn at random from the list of SCWA members who paid their membership dues by midnight April 1. As winners, the dues they paid for this membership period have been refunded to them.

IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY PAID YOUR DUES ...

Don't forget the grace period ends April 30 and after that date, your membership will lapse. We appreciate you and want to keep you in our SCWA family.

NEW MEMBER ORIENTATION

In March, we held our first New Member Orientation. We discussed an overview of the board structure, events and education, various membership topics, how to find the right chapter for your needs, and more.

The next session will be Wednesday, May 3, at 6 p.m. via Zoom. The board has suggested we open it up to anyone interested in attending, so if you’d like to join us, just send email us at SCWAMembership@gmail.com and we'll put you on the list. Before the session, you'll receive a Zoom link.

Members who recently joined will be sent a personal invitation.

Got a question? Feel free to contact us at SCWAMembership@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you.

Raegan Teller, VP/Membership

Questions or suggestions about SCWA membership?
Email SCWAmembership@gmail.com.

Marketing Committee

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

SCWA’s Marketing Committee would like to know what other literary organizations you belong to and where you get your writing news.
 
We’re interested in forming alliances with other groups and want to know who you follow.
 
Please email board director Robin Condon at momofella@hotmail.com to tell her some of your favorites. Even if it’s just one or two, your information is valuable to us. We appreciate it.