Guest Speaker : Upcoming Speakers : Meeting Schedule
Who's Invited? : Workshops : Critique Group

Monthly Meetings

OUR GUEST SPEAKER FOR JUNE 4TH, 2009

August 6
Stewart Smith discusses
"Acts of Submission-Electronically"

Stewart Smith will discuss finding markets on-line.

The program at the July 2 meeting will demonstrate the use of the Duotrope on-line database in the process of submitting a short story for publication.

Stewart Smith is SAWG's program director and we all know he enjoys reading and writing a good science fiction yarn. Once you've got something written, you want to get it published.You can use the Duotrope website to find markets.

UPCOMING SPEAKERS

Programs planned for the monthly meetings of the San Antonio Writers Guild:

August: Chris Roberson

Topic: "Everyone Else is Crazy: Finding the Process that Fits." It would be a general discussion about the different approaches to the writing process I've encountered, and the need for each writer to figure out the one that best suits their temperaments.

Chris Roberson’s books include the novels Here, There & Everywhere, The Voyage of Night Shining White, Paragaea: A Planetary Romance, X-Men: The Return, Set the Seas on Fire, The Dragon’s Nine Sons, End of the Century, Iron Jaw and Hummingbird, Three Unbroken, and Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II, and the comic book mini-series Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love. His short stories have appeared in such magazines as Asimov’s, Interzone, Postscripts, and Subterranean, and in anthologies such as Live Without a Net, FutureShocks, and Forbidden Planets. Along with his business partner and spouse Allison Baker, he is the publisher of MonkeyBrain Books, an independent publishing house specializing in genre fiction and nonfiction genre studies, and he is the editor of anthology Adventure Vol. 1. He has been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award four times—once each for writing and editing, and twice for publishing—twice a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and three times for the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Short Form (winning in 2004 with his story “O One”). Chris and Allison live in Austin, Texas with their daughter Georgia. Chris and Allison live in Austin, Texas with their daughter Georgia.

“Chris Roberson is one of that bold band of young writers who are taking the stuff of genre fiction and turning it into a whole new literary form -- a form for the 21st century. A talented storyteller, he has a unique ear, a clever eye, an eloquence all too rare in modern fiction.”
- MICHAEL MOORCOCK

“…highly talented…”
- NICK GEVERS, Locus Magazine

“…an exciting new writer…”
- JONATHAN STRAHAN, The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Two

For more, visit: www.chrisroberson.net

September: Damien Broedrick

Topic: "On Being a Writer and Critic"

Damien Francis Broderick is an Australian science fiction and popular science writer. His science fiction novel The Judas Mandala is sometimes credited with the first appearance of the term "virtual reality".

Broderick holds a Ph.D. in Literary Studies from Deakin University, Australia, with a dissertation relating to the comparative semiotics of scientific, literary and science fictional textuality. He is a Senior Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne.

Broderick lives in Melbourne, Victoria, and San Antonio and Lockhart, Texas, with his wife, tax attorney Barbara Lamar. He is the science fiction editor of the Australian popular-science magazine Cosmos.

Five of Broderick's books have won Ditmar Awards (including the non-SF Transmitters, which was given a special award); the first, The Dreaming Dragons, was runner-up for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. He has also won the Aurealis award four times. In November 2003, Broderick was awarded a grant for 2004-05 by the Australia Council to write fiction exploring the technological singularity. In March 2005 he received the Distinguished Scholarship Award of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts.

Broderick's best-known works as a futurist and science writer are The Spike (1997; revised 2001), a nonfiction book about the technological singularity; The Last Mortal Generation (1999) on the prospect of radically extended youthful longevity; and Outside the Gates of Science, on the scientific evidence for some anomalous or paranormal phenomena (2007).

His most recent critical studies, x, y, z, t: Dimensions of Science Fiction (2004) and Ferocious Minds: Polymathy and the New Enlightenment (2005) were released by a small US press, Wildside. Several of his books feature cover art by Swedish transhumanist Anders Sandberg, including Earth is but a Star (2001), Broderick's anthology of science fiction stories, and thematically related critical discussions, concerned with the far future.

His most recent novels are the diptych Godplayers (2005) (selected in the annual Recommended Reading List from Locus), and K-Machines (2006) (winner of the 2007 Aurealis Award for year's best sf novel), and, with Rory Barnes, a comic noir crime novel, I'm Dying Here: A Comedy of Bad Manners (2009), first released in very limited numbers as I Suppose a Root's Out of the Question? (2007). With his wife, Barbara Lamar, he wrote the near-future sf thriller Post Mortal Syndrome, serialized on line by Cosmos magazine (2007). He edited a book of original essays on the far future, Year Million (2008), which was favorably reviewed by Nature, the Wall Street Journal, etc.

Broderick has also written radio plays, both adaptations of his own stories (including a 90-minute version of Transmitters) and original works. His commissioned drama Schrödinger's Dog, first broadcast in 1995, was Australia's entry in the Prix Italia; and his novella adaptation of the radio play, published the following year, was selected for Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction collection for that year. His work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Lithuanian and Russian.

In 2009, he returned to short fiction, with five stories published or scheduled in Asimov's magazine and several others elsewhere.

October: John Picacio

John Picacio was born on the 3rd of September, 1969 in San Antonio, Texas.[1][2] As of 2007, he still lives and works in San Antonio, together with his fiancée, Traci.[3] He earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992, and illustrated his first book - Behold the Man: The Thirtieth Anniversary Edition by Michael Moorcock (Mojo Press) - in 1996. In May, 2001 he ended his career in architecture to became a full-time illustrator.[2]

He advocates his own method of gaining attention - sending physical samples to art directors of books and magazines - since:

"Even if an artist has a good website, it's a good idea to send out a physical reminder of their art so that art directors can keep it around." [4]

His early work featured in many annuals and art compendiums, including Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, as well as magazines such as Realms of Fantasy.

Picacio has since produced design work and - particularly - cover art for many notable SF, Fantasy and Horror books printed by many different publishers, from some of the longest-established and largest American SF&F imprints (Random House/Ballantine Books/Del Rey; HarperCollins/Eos; Roc Books; Tor Books), to more recent, independent publishers (Golden Gryphon Press; MonkeyBrain Books; Night Shade Books; Tachyon Publications; Earthling Publication and iBooks).

Picacio cites a "mutual respect" between himself and his art directors, who tend to give him "space to create" his artwork, which he sees as part of an interaction with the reader, "communicating with a smart and sophisticated audience".[4] He works particularly well with fellow-Texan Roberson (author and MonkeyBrain publisher), and the editorial director of Prometheus Books' science fiction imprint Pyr Lou Anders. He has provided covers for several of Roberson's solo efforts - from one of his earliest self-published titles, the 2002 Clockwork Storybook title Any Time at All to his 2007 X-Men novel - as well as providing dozens of covers for almost the entire output of MonkeyBrain Books.[5] For Anders, Picacio has provided covers for several anthologies from multiple companies since Wildside Press's 2001 Outside the Box.

Picacio's illustrations have been selected numerous times for Cathy and Arnie Fenner's prestigious Spectrum Annual, the yearly "Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art" showcase for fantasy and sci-fi art, which both honours established artists and provides a resource for art directors and illustrators to refer to. In 2001 and 2006, he was awarded the International Horror Guild Award for Best Artist, and was Artist Guest of Honor at the 2003 ArmadilloCon.[2]

In 2005, he won both the World Fantasy Award for Best Artist and the Chesley Award for Best Paperback Cover (for James Tiptree Jr.'s Her Smoke Rose Up Forever). In 2006 he won the Chesley Award for Artistic Achievement and in 2007 the Locus Award for Best Artist[6]. He has also received Hugo Award nominations for Best Professional Artist in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

His work has also appeared on innumerous award-winning and nominated titles, including Jess Nevins's Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana and the Chris Roberson-edited anthology Adventure Vol. 1, both from MonkeyBrain.

November: Michael B. Druxman

Michael B. Druxman has been writing his entire life and is still remembered up in Washington State where he graduated from the University of Washington. He is a machine when it comes to writing! 20 years in Hollywood as a screenwriter, promoter and film historian prepared Mr. Druxman to become the professional writer he is. He is the author of 6 produced stage plays, 7 non-fiction published books and several produced screenplays. Mr. Druxman knows his craft and is passionate about communicating the best of what fiction writing can be in almost every genre.

A few of his stage, TV and movie credits include: Dillinger and Capone (1995), Cheyenne Warrior (1994), Keaton's Cop (1990), Jolson (1987-88 and 1997). Mr. Druxman also wrote and directed a horror film filmed in Ireland titled The Doorway: starring Roy Scheider. This is a supernatural thriller/black comedy. He is presently working on several new screenplays and another novel. Mr. Druxman completed a musical with his son in 2007 titled Hail On The Chief which was given a reading at the Stella Adler Theater in Hollywood.

The Center Press is proud to have published three works by Mr. Druxman including How To Write A Story...Any Story: The Art Of Storytelling, Cheyenne Warrior: The Original Screenplay and Nobody Drowns In Mineral Lake which is Mr. Druxman's first novel. His second novel, Shadow Watcher, was published in early 2008.

December: Our holiday party, so no speaker is scheduled.

MEETING SCHEDULE

The San Antonio Writers Guild meets the first Thursday of each month at

7:30 p.m. at Bethany Congregational Church at 500 Pilgrim Drive in San Antonio. The first Thursday date is bumped to the second Thursday when holidays interfere, such as New Year's Day, Independence Day, and church holidays. The Board of Directors Meeting begins at 6:30 p.m., before the general meeting. The directors meeting is open to the general membership, but closed to visitors, except by invitation.

What Happens at a SAWG Meeting?
At the beginning of meetings we welcome new members, members share good/bad/funny news, guild business transpires, sometimes we raffle donated books. A program follows, most often presented by guest speakers on a wide range of topics of interest to writers. Afterwards, membership splits into groups for workshops.
Learn more about workshops »
View the programs archive » (coming in the future)

WHO'S INVITED

All persons interested in the writing profession are invited to the meetings of the San Antonio Writers Guild. Visitors are welcome to attend. If you like our group, we encourage you to become a member and attend future meetings.

WORKSHOPS

Workshops at the monthly meeting are divided into fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Each workshop has its own rules about how much is read, but generally a person's work is read and workshop participants offer friendly criticism and advice. Workshops are held after the business and program part of the meeting. Workshops are held 11 months of the year: January through November. (The December meeting is the Holiday Party.)

Fiction
A person must be a member to have their work read. Members sign up the month before to have their work read and critiqued. The piece must be no longer than 10 double-spaced pages in 12-point font (pica). Therefore, the piece is a short story, part of a chapter, or similar. The author needs to pick someone read his/her piece and the author can ask someone in the workshop to read it that day. The author should bring three copies of the piece, one for the reader, one for the author to follow along, and one for any member who is hearing impaired. With the author's copy, the writer can mark items that come to his/her attention during the reading. (If the reader stumbles while reading the piece, that indicates there might be a problem with the sentence structure. If the author can bring additional copies for other workshop participants to follow with, that's great, but not necessary. Just expect the other workshop participants to mark on those copies. The author can briefly "set up" the reading especially if the reading is a portion of a book, but shouldn't do any additional explanation before or after, especially if the piece is a stand-alone (complete short story) or the first chapter of a novel. The workshop participants critique the work after the reading and the advice is given on a "take it or leave it basis." Authors do not get a chance to respond to the advice (Writers don't get to respond to a reader's comments after the book is published. As an author, you can't go around the country and explain what's in the book)

Usually there are three pieces read at each workshop.

Non-Fiction
A person must be a member to have their work read. Each piece is up to five double-spaced pages. The author can bring enough copies so each person (usually from six to nine) can have a copy to follow along during the reading. The workshop members generally make notes on the copy and hand it back to the author. The author can read the piece and explain it. Advice given by workshop participants is on a "take it or leave it basis."

Poetry
A person must be a member to have their work read. Usually three poems from each person are read and there is time to read the poems from three or four people, which means from nine to 12 poems are read each night. After a poem is read, the workshop participants offer editorial and friendly comments. The workshop participants tell the poet how they saw the poem and the poet tells the workshop participants how s/he saw the poem.

Children's Literature
A person must be a member to have their work read. The workshop is currently without a leader and no children's literature group meets. If there are writers interested in forming a workshop group, one will be formed.

Learn more about workshops »