Posts Tagged With: detroit

Michigan Literary Network

Posted on January 14, 2015 by kaimann1

The Motown Literary Network has been live on blogtalkradio.com since fall of 2009, with nearly 10,000 downloads. Our 30 minute, weekly show airs Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. EST with a focus on everything related to the literary world, from the writing process to author highlights to the nuts and bolts of publishing. Although the show can be heard by listeners all over the world, and our guests may come from all over the country, our target audience is readers and writers in Michigan with an interest in the Michigan literary community. Established in 2000, Motown Writers Network and The Michigan Literary Network were created to strengthen Michigan’s Literary Community. Drawing readers, writers, authors, poets and more together, the networks’ mission is to connect readers to Michigan literary works, educate and connect writers and poets to resources, provide events and venues for authors to showcase their work and a lot more. To sign up for updates on The Michigan Literary Network, click here. Visit our website and help strengthen the Michigan Literary Network, by sending our information to other readers and writers!

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: #mwn, #readers, author highlights, authors, Blogtalk radio, detroit, listeners, Literary, Michigan, Michigan Literary, michlit, motown, network, poets, publishing, writers, Writing process | Leave a comment

Notes frm #MotownWriters @Meetup 1/10/15…Add yr own New Year Goals and Tips

Posted on January 10, 2015 by @SylviaHubbard1

New Year Literary Endeavors

Baby steps count too

mwn newer

Discussion outline of our January monthly meetup at The Detroit Public Library Main Branch. We meet every 2nd Saturday from 10am to Noon. Interested in Joining us next month, please feel free to come or RSVP at http://meetup.com/michiganliterarynetwork.

Please feel free to share this post with another writer, author, poet or group!

Writing Goals

Realistic Monthly Writing Goals

Word Count

Page Count

Publishing Goals

Set timelines.

Get a publishing buddy

Find someone who is ahead of the publishing goals and help them out to learn from them

Marketing

Offline – placing marketing material places in state and out of state

Visiting networking groups related to book or the writing industry

Supporting other authors and ppl in your book’s genre

Online

Social networks

Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google, Youtube

Produce one audio file and one video file a month

Produce one blog post a month

Get a free account at Hootsuite to make posting easier for yourself

Promotion

Find one event to speak at, perform at, teach at… online or off line.

Easy one… check out blogtalkradio and set up an interview for yourself

Get a blog to be featured on

Offline… check out churches, library or youth groups in the area to speak at about your genre, specialty or book

Overall

Get a buddy

Budget monthly

Do ONE thing in your goal sheet and then next month try to do two things and next month do three… and so on

Come back to Motown Writers and give us an update.

January group goal

Take one selfie of you and another writer. Post it to social media with a hashtag of #motownlit

Resources
http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/get-published-sell-my-work

Now add your beginning of the year goals and any tips you can offer to other writers! See you next meeting.

RSVP now at http://meetup.com/michiganliterarynetwork

Categories: MWN Events Only, Uncategorized, Writing Groups | Tags: authors, detroit, Education, event, face to face, Fiction, group, meetup, Michigan, nonfiction, poets, wayne county, workshop, writers, writing | 1 Comment

Michigan Male Authors: Help support #MotownWriters literacy efforts #RealMenRead #mwn #amreading #MotownLit #Detroit

Posted on November 22, 2014 by @SylviaHubbard1

Are you interested?

Please fill out the form to show your interest…

Categories: RealMenRead, Uncategorized | Tags: amreading, authors, books, boys, county, detroit, literacy, Literary, Men, Michigan, motown, reading, Twitter, wayne

How can the National Writers Union Help You? #Detroit Chapter #Writers #mwn #nwu

Posted on October 17, 2014 by @SylviaHubbard1

nwu

Categories: NWUDetroit, Uncategorized, Writing Groups | Tags: Advice, Advocacy, amwriting, bill of rights, contract, copyright, county, defense, detroit, grievance, group, Michigan, negotiation, netowrking, uaw, union, wayne, writers | Leave a comment

How can the National Writers Union Help You? #Detroit Chapter #Writers #mwn #nwu

Posted on September 17, 2014 by @SylviaHubbard1

nwu

Motown Network Author Feature ~ Christina DC Brownlow Reyes

Posted on September 2, 2014 by kaimann1

Where are you from?

I am originally from Conant Gardens, Detroit, Michigan
Tell us your latest news?

I am presently writing the sequel to The Man from Conant Gardens:The Master’s Legacy. It is called. “Laura Darling: The Rose between the Weeds”
When and why did you begin writing?

At 14years old. I was afraid at first because I was considered dyslexic, but when I wrote a short sci-fi story, which although I never finished, but my grandmother loved it, and told me, I found my niche, my talent.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?

In college, I had to write a short using one of the biblical stories as a theme, my college professor read out, and said that ”whoever wrote this has a lot of creativity, and that takes talent”
What inspired you to write your first book?

I was venting. My mother and I had words one day, so in order to get myself together, I vented by writing, and then I couldn’t stop.
Do you have a specific writing style?

I like telling stories in third person, but as if the person in the story, left memoirs behind, and someone is reading from them to someone else, Like the book, “Family” by J. California Cooper.
How did you come up with the title?

I did personalized it, because of the area I lived in, and because it had a certain flow to me.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

What happened to the children born from the Slave-owning Masters? Not just what happened to all the slaves? I want to narrow the spectrum that no one talks about? The illegitimate children who could never really claim their father’s name.
How much of the book is realistic?

There are a lot of historical facts inside. A lot of fictional facts as well, but the historical facts provides the timeline of slavery and the civil war.
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

No. Not really
What books have most influenced your life most?

Kindred-Octavia Butler, Uncle Tom’s Cabin-Harriet Beecher-Stowe, Jubilee-Margret Walker, The Known World-Edward P.Jones
If you had to choose, which writers would you consider a mentor?

J.California Cooper is a great mentor of storytelling, Octavia Butler ventures out of the norm and into a sci-fi and historical fiction, which is very crafty and risky, and .George McNeill give the historical readers the other side of the coin, meaning by show the whites in power having struggles during the antebellum times.
What book are you reading now?

Plantation-George McNeill. His book illustrates a different perspective, that life in the Big House has problems as well as the plantation itself.
Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?

Edward P. Jones and Robert Hicks are two historical writers, one White and one Black, that give the reader two different side of the antebellum era and Civil War. Historical readers, as all readers, need a two-headed coin to an argument or discussion.
What are your current projects?

Laura Darling; The sequel to The Man from Conant Gardens, and its conclusion; The Battle among Men

Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members.

My lifelong friend Everett Bryant
Do you see writing as a career?

Yes. I writing this series, hoping to see them in the movies/film
If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?

Nothing. Like a good cook, it has the right ingredients for all.
Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?

Just by daydreaming in my room. And then writing to make storytelling a reality.
Can you share a little of your current work with us?

Laura Darling, a free slave, and passing for a white man, revenges Conant Gardens after the Civil War, by committing an eye-for and-eye atrocities against the whites, until they realize that the negroes have a formidable alliance with someone the cant beat. The KKK backs off from attacking Conant Gardens until the turning of the century.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

Well, many don’t know that I am dyslexic, so to write an entire novel without help, is on its own a challenge, and finding the right words to say something well is always challenging, So by reading other authors work, I create my own toolbox of vocabulary just like they did.
Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

Kindred-Octavia Butler is a great crafter in her art of storytelling. She takes historical fiction and puts a taste of science fiction in with it. A good cook tries things, she is a great cook.
Do you have to travel much concerning your book(s)?

Just traveling to book different venues/conventions, mentoring on the writer’s craft, and meeting new authors.
Who designed the covers?

I use Various designers
What was the hardest part of writing your book?

Research. That takes time and patience.
Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?

Be your own master of description.
Do you have any advice for other writers?

Learn the ‘Writer’s Craft’, which is like a gourmet cook. A good cook Develops their own ingredients, (characters, writing style, words of description) and then tell a good defined story.
Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

Always Read books from other Authors other than your own work. By doing this you can brainstorm about the story you want to write, organize the way of telling the story, develop and build a toolbox of necessary elements ie. Vocabulary.