Like Us and Win!

During the month of November (2010) the Chico Writers Group will be holding a drawing to win a hardback copy of Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris and a paperback copy of On Writing by Stephen King.

 

Here are the rules:

• Only available to persons living in the continental United States, void where prohibited.
• Entrants must have a Facebook account, be 18 years of age or older, a human being (sorry, pets, cartoon characters, and other non-human entities are not eligible) and "like" us (http://www.facebook.com/ChicoWritersGroup). 
• When we hit 1,000 total fans in the month of November, we will draw a name and that person will receive the two books.

That's it!

And coming in December, we'll run another contest, so stay tuned for more information.

Additional rules and restrictions:

• In the event the person whose name is drawn is not a resident in the continental United States, another individual will be chosen.
• We will notify the winner via Facebook private message.
• The member has 14 calendar days to respond to the message, providing us with their USPS mailing address and phone number (never shared with anyone).
• Should the winning member fail to respond within the specified period of time, another member's name will be drawn.
• The books will be mailed via PaperbackSwap.com, standard rate media mail service with delivery confirmation. Recipient need not be a member of PaperbackSwap.com.
• In the event the total fans does not reach 1,000 by midnight Pacific Coast Time, November 30, 2010, this contest will be null and void.
• The administrator of the group, the "Chico Writers Group" on Facebook, reserves the right to block and/or remove any individual from the group should the individual appear to be spamming or otherwise attempting to interfere with the group's members and or goals.

Contact: For further information, clarification, and questions, please contact us via Facebook or write to us at TheChicoWritersGroup@gmail.com and include "FACEBOOK" in the subject line.

Good luck!

Ready, Set, Go! NaNoWriMo Tips

In less than four short days, National Novel Writing Month will be upon us. In thirty-days, writers around the world will be attempting to write 50,000 words all for the glory of saying "I did it!". If you are one of the crazed that will be joining in this event, here are some tips to help you make the most of this endeavor:

• Cordon off your work area.
  • If need be, stop off at your local animal shelter, offer to house a dog, the meaner the better (or perhaps the more loyal to it's caretaker) for the month and set up a kennel just at the door/opening to your work area to keep visitors at bay.
  • Post Do No Disturb signs liberally about your work area.
  • Offer to water potted cacti for the local nursery for the month on the condition you can take the cacti with you, then set it about your work area. This is something most anyone, even those with the blackest of thumbs can do, seeing that much like camels, cacti don't require a whole lot of watering.
• Stock up on beverages, protein powered snacks, and yes, chocolate.
• Change your answering machine/voice mail outgoing message. Remember to issue a threat to anyone attempting to contact you if it has nothing to do with getting your novel done.
• Flatly turn down all offers for Thanksgiving unless they are willing to feed you without disturbing you, your headphones, and whichever medium you are electing to use to write your novel.
  • A word to the wise, do not offer to host Thanksgiving dinner at your house. Only an insane person (yours truly) would even contemplate such a ridiculous thing.
  • On that note, also don't be tempted to hit the stores, shopping centers, malls or any other commercial wasteland of consumerism. Yes, there are incredible Black Friday deals, but you were going to run over to that POD (publish on demand) site online and have your novel printed and bound as a gift for each and every one of holiday "shop for" list, weren't you?
• If you are responsible for the care and feeding of children, it's perfectly acceptable to stock up on frozen and instant-meal-in-a-box dinners, they are more nutritious than the stuff that our mother's fed us and easy enough for even a five-year-old to make. Heck, that dog you brought home from the pound? Put 'em to work! And while you're stocking up, don't forget to get some for you too.
• Collect, buy, borrow, steal the following books:
  • Unabridged dictionary
  • Rand McNally Global Color Maps
  • 2008, 2009, 2010 Writer's Market Editions (preferably the deluxe edition)
  • Thesaurus
  • And/or several Encyclopedia Britannica volumes
• Put the aforementioned books under your desk and use them as a footrest. You won't be needing this, you are writing, not researching, not editing, not proofing - just writing!
• For those of you with a needy spouse/partner/mate, for $14.50 you can alleviate that concern. Just follow the link here [mature, open-minded, humor-filled folks only, please]
• Be sure to get plenty of exercise as that keeps the blood circulating in your cranium and fingers. Remember that dog? Grab up a rubber ball and toss it around. That'll do it. Now get back to writing!

Cheers and the best of luck! Let us know how your venture is going by leaving a comment. Care to pick up a few supporters along the way? Leave your NaNoWriMo screenname with your post and let the real fun begin.

Brand New Day

Fall 2010

New Policy Changes - effectively immediately
The Chico Writers Group was founded in January of 2008 and has been going strong ever since. We've changed quite a bit since we first started and are presently in the process of changing our format to meet the needs and wishes of the current membership. This is an incredible, bold move and yet one that we are greatly excited about. For the time being, until we iron out the kinks, make sure that our plans for changes work as well in application as they did in conception, we won't be entertaining any new members.  Come January 2011 we will decide on whether the revisions need more time and work or if we will begin accepting new members.

Look for more news and information here in the future regarding the outcome.

[Revised Wednesday, October 6, 2010]