Virginia Festival of the Book

Bethany, Anne, and Carolyn.... 3/4th of BACCA Literary. Sadly, Claire couldn't make it this year. — Bethany, Anne, and Carolyn…. 3/4th of BACCA Literary. Sadly, Claire couldn’t make it this year.

What a wonderful way to welcome spring! “Creativity within Constraints” was the theme of our Publishing Day: Meet (or Create) Your own Writing Group presentation on March 21st… and it was FUN!

After introductions, Anne stepped the audience through a hilarious fill-in-the-blanks word game!

A writer group is a partnership between CARS and MOUSTACHES that is designed to help BEAUTIFUL writers reach his or her PUPPY.

It is a step-by-LOLLIPOP process that creates clarity and PINETREE-filled moments.

Here are some of the mental, emotional, and IRRITATING benefits of writer groups:

Discovering your inner OVEN and allowing it to play.

Celebrating a transformative MEZZO SOPRANO experience.

Learning the art of HYPERVENTILATING.

Learning how to change CURIOUS thinking.

Learning how to express yourself HALTINGLY.

The relationship between a writer and their writer group transforms BUZZARDS and enhances the members’ VOLUMES.

True, it takes a commitment of time, and LEPRECHAUN, and BELLYBUTTON. And the writer group doesn’t always turn into friendship — it turns into something more powerful and AROMATIC.

A writer group is a great way to meet WEASELS and learn more about yourself, your DAY, and your WOODPECKERS.

After the laughter died down, Bethany hosted a mixer where attendees could meet each other and take the first steps to a creating a new writing group.

Writers meeting Writers at the Meet (or Create) Your own Writing Group event

We’d handed a questionnaire to each participant at the beginning of the event to help shy writers break the ice I joined in and met writers from all over the world.

I met new writers tiptoeing into the writing group process and long-time pros who’d just moved to Charlottesville and wanted to make contacts.

Question asked at the end of the event included

How does an existing writing group select a new member?

Where can I meet other writers?

Bethany telling a writer where to find other writers

Anne and Bethany did a bang-up job giving thoughtful and meaningful answers.

The only thing more fun than our 2015 Festival of the Book event was planning it!

The members of BACCA Literary — Carolyn O’Neal, AM Carley, Bethany Joy Carlson, Claire Elizabeth Cameron planning BACCA LIterary’s 2015 VaBook session.

Hope to see you next year at the 2016 Virginia Festival of the Book!

BACCA’s Back! Virginia Festival of the Book 2015

BACCA Literary Is Back at VaBook!

Yes, we’re presenting again in 2015, and on PubDay – the best day of the entire festival. Uh-huh. (We’re a bit biased.)

Come spend Saturday morning with us in the James Monroe Room at the Omni Hotel in Downtown Charlottesville, Virginia. We start at 10am on Saturday, 21 March 2015. As I write this, there’s snow on the ground, but odds are overwhelmingly in favor of a charming spring day when you visit with us at the Virginia Festival of the Book.

What will we be doing this year?

Glad you asked. We’re coming to talk about writer groups – how to be in one, and how to find or create one.

When we did our session last time, we chatted with the Festival guests before and after our remarks about writer groups. It was a lot of fun, and good ideas came up. But there was something missing: More interaction with the Festival guests.

So, this time, we’re creating opportunities for Festival guests to meet one another and chat briefly, right in the middle of our session. Visitors to our session may possibly meet the future members of their new writer groups. And everyone will definitely have opportunities to learn more about writer groups, and what they can do to hone writerly and analytical skills. And cat-herding skills. Okay, maybe not that last one.

Shy, Introverted, Both?

Arrgh. So are some of us.

I know, I know. A Festival session with “activities.” The blurb for our session actually includes these words: “BACCA will guide Festival-goers in a fun and educational, hands-on mixer that will break the ice and start the process of building a writing community.”

It’s enough to make you run for the hills, isn’t it? Reconsider, please. Get an extroverted writerly friend to join you, and come join us. We’re gentle, promise. You might enjoy yourself. We look friendly, right?

BACCA Literary Founding Members: Carolyn O’Neal, AM Carley, Bethany Joy Carlson, and Claire Elizabeth Cameron, after planning BACCA Literary’s 2015 VaBook session.

— A M Carley writes fiction and nonfiction, and is a founding member of BACCA. Her company, Chenille Books, helps nonfiction authors get their books completed, polished, and out into the world.