Our next meeting is this Saturday August 7th. We’ll be discussing the importance of hitting just the right note in the opening of a novel.

Does your WIP have an opening that leaves readers dying to read more? Does the first line in your book have punch? Remember these first lines?

“Call me Ishmael.” ~ Moby Dick

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.~ A Tale of Two Cities

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” ~ Pride and Prejudice

“It was a pleasure to burn.” ~ Fahrenheit 451

“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.” ~ The Bell Jar

“Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.” ~ Back When We Were Grownups

We’ll be discussing the importance of first lines and paragraphs and how they set the tone of a novel. Bring your own work to share and/or a first line from a novel you loved. If you need help with your opening line, we’re there to help so please share.

We’ll have coffee & tea as well as snacks during the meeting for a nominal donation. Proceeds will be used to help fund our annual summer retreat so come hungry!

Hope to see you there!!!

EVA is proud to announce that it will have its annual writers retreat at the Monrovia Canyon Park Conference Cabin on August 22, 2010 from 8am-5pm.

The cabin is located at 1201 N. Canyon Blvd., Monrovia, CA 91016, and the cost is $25 for EVA members, $30 for non-members.  The focus of this year’s retreat will be on plotting.  Like last year, we will be having a potluck lunch, and will likely carpool up to the cabin due to the limited parking.

For more information on the retreat or to pay online, click here.

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EVA is proud to offer its first ever online class, Critique and Collaboration, taught by Anthea Lawson.  The class will run from October 10-23, 2010, and will focus on the basics of critiquing, recognizing and accepting your own strengths and weaknesses, the pleasures and pitfalls of writing together, how to get the most from  your critique partners, and ground rules that every critique group should have.

Anthea Lawson — aka Anthea and Lawson — are a husband and wife creative team living in the Pacific Northwest. Their first novel, Passionate, was released from Kensington books in October 2008, and was a nominee for the prestigious RWA RITA award for Best First Book. Their second novel, All He Desires, is available now!

Released November 2009, All He Desires “deftly combines danger, desire, and a deliciously different Victorian setting into a sexy version of Victoria Holt’s classic gothic romances.” -Booklist Reviews.

The cost of the class is $10 for EVA members, and $20 for non-members.

For more information on the online class, or to pay online, click here.

Our next meeting is this Saturday July 3rd.

Please bring one book you really liked & one book you weren’t so crazy about. Be prepared to discuss what worked & what didn’t work in each story. This is an excersize in craft, we recognize that opinions vary widely and that one person’s wall banger is another person’s beloved book. We want you to share what you learned with the group while respecting the author’s effort.

Please join us, and feel free to bring a friend (or two, or three).

Remember, guests are welcome to attend their first EVA meeting free!

For more information on EVA, please click here.

We’ll have coffee & tea as well as snacks during the meeting for a nominal donation. Proceeds will be used to help fund our annual summer retreat so come hungry!

East Valley Authors (EVA) meets the first Saturday of the month from 10:15- noon at the Azusa City Library located at 729 North Dalton Avenue, Azusa-(626)812-5232 www.ci.azusa.ca.us/library

Please join us for a wonderful workshop on creating memorable characters given by Debra Mullins.

Complicated Characters:

Every memorable story has a memorable character, and whatever is happening with the plot, it’s the character that people remember. But characters are more than just names on a page. Character is about who these people are. How will they react to the situations in which they find themselves? What do they need to learn in order to earn the prize at the end of the book? Basically, characters need to be just as complicated as real people, and we have to build them that way. Using examples to illustrate the points, this workshop is designed to help writers at all levels address the need to flesh out the cardboard stereotype character into someone who could be a real person you might meet on the street.

Debra’s Bio-
Debra Mullins is the author of thirteen historical romances from Avon Books. She has written pirates, cowboys and more recently, Regency and Victorian England. A member of RWA since 1992, she has been a Golden Heart Finalist, a RITA Finalist and a Holt Medallion Finalist. In 2003 she was the winner of the NJ Romance Writers’ Golden Leaf Award for Best Historical. Currently she is a finalist in the OCCRWA Book Buyer’s Best with TO RUIN THE DUKE.
In 2006 Debra married a California boy in a Disneyland wedding. A year later she moved to Orange County , where she continues her constant hunt for real pizza and still expects it to snow on Christmas. Her upcoming release, TEMPTING A PROPER LADY, is due out from Avon on June 8 of this year.

Just letting you know that the EVA newsletter for March/April is available for download through the Yahoo! Group or through the members section of this website!

Happy reading!

Based on the January meeting where the Board expressed a desire to jumpstart the 2010 year by challenging the chapter to be more aggressive in goal-setting and writing achievements/involvement, please rate your satisfaction/feelings regarding the direction the Board is taking in 2010. [Voter identity was hidden].

Poll results:
- Very Satisfied — Excited for the year ahead! : 10 Votes
- Somewhat Satisfied — I’m on board, but a little skeptical. : 1
- Satisfied — Nothing I haven’t seen or done before : 0
- Somewhat Unsatisfied — I’m really skeptical about this year, but will see how it goes. : 0
- Very Unsatisfied — I think you guys could do a significantly better job. : 0

Members, please log in before accessing the members only section of our website.  Be sure to note that there are new links up in our Web Article Recommendations as well as the latest edition of Happily EVA After.

The Web Article Recommendations are “tagged” by category, subject matter, or genre.  Happy reading!

The East Valley Authors produce a monthly newsletter called HAPPILY EVA AFTER.  To view the newsletter, you must be a member. 

After logging into the website, please visit our Newsletter Archive for the most recent issue.

Please contact the contest coordinator at your earliest convenience.

Thank you.

In 2009, members of EVA participated in the chapter’s first ever Book in a Year challenge! Of the numerous participants, five members managed to complete their manuscripts by the contest’s end.

We would like to extend a special congratulations to:

• Alison Diem
• Dolores Else
• Gail Francis
• Charity Hammond
• Beth Yarnall

We would also like to thank our members for their participation in this challenge, and look forward to helping each other take on the 2010 BIAY Challenge.

The Second Annual BIAY challenge will begin in March!  Check back for more information.

Will you be next year’s Book In A Year winner?  Accept the challenge.