Get to know your fellow Colorado Springs Chapter members, meet your newly elected directors and discover what's planned for 2021. Our round table meeting will facilitate interactive discussion, getting to know fellow members, what they write, their backgrounds, strengths, and areas of expertise. We have a rich writing community with members who support each other in our writing endeavors. Join us in kicking off a new year with fellowship, discovery, and support to ignite a new year of writing success.

Beth K. Vogt believes God's best often waits behind the doors marked "Never." Having authored nine contemporary romance novels and novellas, The Best We've Been, the final book in Beth's Thatcher Sisters Series with Tyndale House Publishers, released May 2020. Other books in the women's fiction series include Things I Never Told You, which won the 2019 AWSA Award for Contemporary Novel of the Year, and Moments We Forget. Beth is a 2016 Christy Award winner, a 2016 ACFW Carol Award winner, and a 2015 RITA ® finalist. An established magazine writer and former editor of the leadership magazine for MOPS International, Beth blogs for Learn How to Write a Novel and The Write Conversation and also enjoys speaking to writers group and mentoring other writers. Visit Beth at BethVogt.com.

We think of tension and conflict as synonyms, but a little research reveals significant differences.

This workshop explores how authors create tension in both fiction and non-fiction to reveal inner unrest, striving, or imbalance in our characters.

Gail is a rural Iowa baby boomer, Gail Kittleson appeared at the local library counter every Saturday of her childhood to haul home a new pile of books. Later, she earned her MA in TESOL and taught English as a Second Language and college expository writing.

Over a ten-year period Gail's memoir, Catching Up With Daylight, evolved and led to her addiction to writing World War II fiction. Her Women of the Heartland brand brings to life this era's make-do women, and she loves cheerleading other writers. GailKittleson.com

Writers write. That's hard enough. Learning and perfecting craft, getting the words on paper. That's what they do. Or it used to be. They must still do that. But nowadays, with 3,000 new books published every week, they have to do more. Traditional publishers have lost the traditions and self-publishing has lost its stigma. For both types of publishing, the writer is called upon to orchestrate the publication and marketing of his or her writing.

How does one do that? What does it look like? How much time does it take? What does it cost? Who is there to come alongside you?
Gordon Saunders will help you begin to think about what this looks like for you by assisting you
1) to define your goals,
2) to check your responsibilities, your schedule, and your long-term calendar to see what's realistic for you, and
3) to clarify the budget you're willing to undertake to make your project a success.
Finally, whether this is all new to you or you're currently engaged in the process, he'll share a short list of curated resources that can help you begin the process of moving your writing to publication and market or to do it more effectively.

Gordon Saunders earned a Ph.D. from Duke University, a Masters of Theological Studies degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and a bachelor's degree from Wheaton College (IL). He taught university students for ten years, seminary and graduate students for more than thirty years, and adult students during that whole time in about two-dozen countries. He has read and graded an estimated one million papers. Additionally, he oversaw approximately three hundred missionaries living in more than thirty countries during part of his time in Europe. His book, To Give You a Future: God's Side of the Story, was translated and published in Russian and Romanian. Now Gordon lives at the foot of the Colorado Rockies and loves hiking while scheming and dreaming up stories about old and new worlds. He is the author of The Verduran Pentology (book 3 was released Oct. 2020 and book 4 will be available Feb. 2021) and Young America series (Book 3 will be available Apr. 2021). gordon-saunders-writer.com

When I was in elementary school and people started asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up my answers were: an astronaut, a police officer, a doctor, and the President.

Can you have a guess at my personality and giftings based on my childhood dreams? You betcha.

Whether you are writing a non-fiction article, diving into spiritual development, or seeking to craft deeper characters and conflicts, personality matters. Who we are shapes everything from our career choices, to our choice in spouse. Personality shapes how we rest, our word choices, and what irritates us. Using Myers-Briggs, the Enneagram, The Big 5, and Gallup's Strengths Finder, this class will dive into personality and temperament with a special focus on speaking styles and word usage, motivations, conflict, and spiritual struggles.

Stephanie is a survivor of motherhood, adopting teens from foster care, and breast cancer treatment with little kids. Whether it's deep or funny, she enjoys blogging, teaching, and speaking about falling in love with God and living the gospel in the midst of real life. An avid researcher of personality, Stephanie has spent the last 20 years trying to figure out how to thrive as an introverted mother with a large number of noisy, and extraverted, children. Her current project is a book on personality and rest.

Stephanie is a member of Word Weavers International, of the Catholic Writers Guild, and is an award-winning poet. She lives in South Carolina with her husband, eight children, and dog. Stephanie on Facebook.

When Remember how The Wizard of Oz movie changes to “living color” when Dorothy and Toto land in the fictional world of Oz? Munchkin land, the floppy scarecrow, and all the other characters and settings come to life. Would you like learn how to improve your observation skills and enhance your creativity so you can bring your fictional worlds to colorful life?

Wake Up the “Write” Side of Your Brain includes a little about research on the brain and creativity and then moves on to easy and fun art activities. These will open up new ways of looking at the world and enrich your writing. It's fun and relaxed, with no pressure to come up with something pretty; in fact, the process is the key to awaken our "Write" brains! Come be amazed at what you’ve been missing as you learn to see as artists see and explore your own creative abilities.

Bio
Kathy O’Neill is an art and Christian history teacher, writer, and speaker. Her degree in education includes concentrations in psychology and art. She has taught in Christian and public schools, as well as church and homeschooling groups. In her workshops, classes, and chapels Kathy helps children and adults see God’s hand in art, nature and history and discover their own creativity. She loves to prove that everyone can learn to draw.