STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE

At Trinity Writers’ Workshop, we encourage our members to write and share their writing with other supportive members.  The groups’ critiques are a great help in the revision process. Another strategy we emphasize is submitting the writing projects for publication.

This is why we sponsor seminars like the Marketing Your Writing Seminar with Chuck Sambuchino which will be held on November 5th at the Hampton Inn in Hurst, Texas. Bringing his experience as an editor with Writers’ Digest and editor of the Guide to Literary Agents, Chuck will be sharing his marketing knowledge and experience and offering one-on-one advice to writers who are trying to get their projects published..  His blog is one of the more popular writing blogs on the internet. He also teaches at numerous writing conferences throughout the year.

My advice to anyone who has a completed writing project (or a work in progress) and is looking to get it published?  Reserve a seat at this seminar by signing up here. You can even get on the open-mike list to read your writing to the group and enjoy fifteen minutes of fame.

TWW also has offered an annual contest, The Babe Ruth Award, to recognize the person in the group who has received the most rejections during the year. Jack and Barbara Fryrear came up with the idea for the contest based on the fact that Babe Ruth was not only famous for the number of home runs he hit but also for the times he swung and missed.  Their assumption was this:  the more times you swing (submit) and maybe even miss (rejections) the higher your chances for a home run (acceptance/publication).

One person, Sheryl L. Nelms, has won this award every year since the 1980’s. The fact that Sheryl is also TWW’s most published writer is testimony that the idea behind the Babe Ruth Award works.

Sheryl is from Marysville, Kansas.  She graduated from South Dakota State University with a Bachelor of Science in Family Relations and Child Development.

She has had over 4,500 poems, stories and articles published.  Some of the magazines, anthologies and textbooks that have used her work are: READER’S DIGEST, MODERN MATURITY, KALEIDOSCOPE, CAPPER’S, GRIT, COUNTRY WOMAN, POETRY NOW, CRICKET, Strings, This Delicious Day, The American Anthology, Girls To The Rescue and Men Freeing Men.

Fourteen collections of her poetry have been published.  Some of them are: Their Combs Turn Red In The Spring, The Oketo Yahoos, Strawberries and Rhubarb, Rural America, Land of the Blue Paloverde, Friday Night Desperate, Aunt Emma Collected Teeth, Stalking Spirits, Secrets of the Wind, Howling At The Gibbous Moon and Greatest Hits 1978-2003.

Her most recent collection is Bluebonnets, Boots and Buffalo Bones.

Sheryl has taught writing and poetry classes at conferences, colleges and schools in Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona and South Dakota.  She recently taught workshops at Amarillo College, The University of Texas at Dallas, Tarrant County College, Abilene Christian University, Tarleton State University and the Society of Children’s Book Writers Conference in Arlington, Texas.  She was a Bread Loaf Contributor at the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Middlebury, Vermont. In South Dakota, she was a Writer-in-the-Schools with the South Dakota Arts Council.

She was the editor of OAKWOOD, the SDSU literary magazine.  She was a contributing editor to BYLINE, a national writers’ magazine and to STREETS, a national literary magazine. She was the editor of CRAWFORD’S CHRONICLES, an insurance trade publication.  She has been a staff writer for several newspapers and magazines.  For the past ten years, she has been the essay editor of THE PEN WOMAN MAGAZINE, the membership magazine of the National League of American Pen Women.

Currently, she is a member of the National League of American Pen Women, The Society of Southwestern Authors, Abilene Writer’s Guild and Trinity Arts Writers Association.

She’s also a painter, a weaver and an old dirt biker.

So, to meet interesting and talented writers like Sheryl, enjoy the support of a strong writing and critique group and attend valuable writing and marketing conferences, visit either or both the Tuesday night or Saturday morning sessions of the Trinity Writers Workshop. More information can be found at our website and our blog.

We look forward to seeing you.