Upcoming Club Meetings

  • September Meeting

    • September 17, 2024
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, Rm 104, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte

    Mark de Castrique

    Revealing the Mystery of Writing a Mystery

    Edgar Award-nominee Mark de Castrique will share how he approaches the creation of his mystery novels. He'll examine the elements of a good story as they apply to the genre.  He'll discuss the three types of detectives – amateur, law enforcement officer, and private investigator – and this opinion on the strengths and weaknesses of each. Plotting in a mystery is key.  What makes a good plot?  Why do plots fail?  How can humor and homicide share the same pages?  Finally, Mark will offer his Point of View on POV and the ways POV shapes the story and impacts the reader.  It's all part of revealing the mystery of writing a mystery.

    Mark was born in Hendersonville, NC, near Asheville, and went straight from the hospital to the funeral home where his father was the funeral director and the family lived upstairs. The unusual setting sparked his popular Barry Clayton series and launched his mystery writing career.

    He is the author of twenty-three novels: seven set in the fictional NC mountain town of Gainesboro, nine in Asheville, four in Washington D.C., one science thriller set in 2030, and two mysteries written for Middle Graders and set in the Charlotte region.

    His novels have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. The CHICAGO TRIBUNE wrote,“As important and as impressive as the author’s narrative skills are the subtle ways he captures the geography – both physical and human – of a unique part of the American South.”

    Mark is a veteran of the broadcast and film production business. In Washington D.C., he directed numerous news and public affairs programs and received an EMMY Award for his documentary film work. Through his company, MARK et al., he writes and produces videos for corporate and broadcast clients.

    His years in Washington inspired his DC thrillers, THE 13TH TARGET, involving a terrorist plot against The Federal Reserve, THE SINGULARITY RACE, a winner-take-all quest for Artificial Intelligence, and SECRET LIVES and DANGEROUS WOMEN, featuring feisty and fearless ex-FBI agent Ethel Fiona Crestwater.

    Mark and his wife Linda have two daughters. They live in Charlotte, but can be often found in the NC mountains or the nation’s capital.

    If you have questions or thoughts,

    please contact membershipcwc@yahoo.com

    We look forward to seeing you!

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  • October Meeting

    • October 15, 2024
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, Rm 104, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte

    Mimi Herman

    How to Create Compelling Characters (Who Aren't You) 

    It’s easy enough to tell our own stories, but some of the best fiction is about characters who are nothing like the writers who created them. They’re younger or older, live long ago or in the future, have different interests and talents. In this talk, with a Q&A session to follow, you’ll learn how to create narrators and other characters who come alive on the page and remain with the reader long after the book is closed. Instead of describing your characters from the outside, you’ll learn how to abandon your assumptions and stereotypes so you can dwell completely within the people you’re writing about. It’s risky, challenging work, which requires a lot of empathy and understanding, but you’ll find your reward when you hear readers say, “I feel as if I’ve known your characters my whole life.”

    Mimi Herman is the author of The Kudzu Queen, A Field Guide to Human Emotions and Logophilia. Her novel, The Kudzu Queen, was selected by The North Carolina Center for the Book for the Library of Congress “Great Reads from Great Places” program, and has been long listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Her writing has appeared in LitHub, Michigan Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, Crab Orchard Review and many other journals. Mimi is a member of the Board of Directors for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs and a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist, a Warren Wilson MFA alumna, and a Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellow. She co-directs weeklong Writeaways writing workshops in France, Italy, Ireland and New Mexico. For more information visit her at www.mimiherman.com and www.writeaways.com.


    If you have questions or thoughts,

    please contact membershipcwc@yahoo.com

    We look forward to seeing you!

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  • November Meeting

    • November 19, 2024
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, Rm 104, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte

    Misha Lazzara

    Using Setting to Develop Conflict, Increase Tension, & Create Momentum

    In a meeting of my writing group not long ago, one of my colleagues mentioned how I have a knack for using settings to help drive conflict or amp tension. That’s all it took to make me realize how important setting is in my writing, how underused it is in the works of many writers. If you’ll share forty minutes with me, I’ll show you the secrets of how I accomplish that.

    Misha Lazzara is the author of Manmade Constellations, a late-stage coming-of-age novel that explores the tensions between honoring our values and beliefs while contending with the pitfalls of judgment and self-righteousness. She received her MA in creative writing from UNC Charlotte and her MFA in prose from NC State University. She lives in Charlotte with her husband and three children.

    If you have questions or thoughts,

    please contact membershipcwc@yahoo.com

    We look forward to seeing you!

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  • December Meeting

    • December 17, 2024
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte, NC 28211


    Flash Fiction Winners and Critique Group Organization


    December's meeting will, as always, be a "two-fur"--with two good reasons to meet with your friends at the Charlotte Writers Club. The first order of business will be to recognize and celebrate the winners of the Ruth Moose Flash Fiction Contest. As ever, the first, second, and third place winners will read their work.


    Come for the pleasure of hearing work well done; leave with a little inspiration for your own work in the Creative Nonfiction Contest which is open now. 

    From celebrating the Ruth Moose winners, we'll turn to the all-important business of getting members new and old into already existing and groups just forming. If you write, you know the truth: There's no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting. And there is nothing like active participation in a critique group, a gathering of supportive writers who face the same struggles, critical readers who can tell you what's working and what had gone astray, to help you improve your work. 

    Skeptical? Come to the meeting. Those who have been members of a critique group (or groups) will convince you that you're missing out on one of the most significant opportunities the Charlotte Writers Club offers to members!

    Join a group or start the group you want and need!

    If you have questions or thoughts,
    please contact     membership@charlottewritersclub.org

    We look forward to seeing you!

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  • January Meeting

    • January 21, 2025
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, Rm 104, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte

    Amy Landers

    Three Keys to Building an Effective Author Website: Craft a Digital Space Where You Can Know Your Audience


    In this presentation, Amy will share a simple approach to creating a website that attracts visitors and turns them into loyal fans. You'll discover how you can leverage storytelling and a "hub and spoke" model to foster a community around your work. This session is a must for authors looking to connect with their audience in meaningful ways. If there is sufficient interest, this short session will be followed by a more in-depth Saturday workshop.

    Amy Landers is a website designer, teacher, and writer. She came to marketing via a biology degree and a passion for sharing the stories of the natural world at the ABQ BioPark. For more than 15 years, she's been serving creators, purpose-driven entrepreneurs, and other changemakers through marketing, copywriting, and design services. When she's not at the computer, she loves to practice and teach about gardening. She and her family grow food and wildlife habitat on a small farm near Asheville, NC.

    If you have questions or thoughts,

    please contact membershipcwc@yahoo.com

    We look forward to seeing you!

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  • February Meeting

    • February 18, 2025
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, Rm 104, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte

    Jenifer Ruff

    The Basics of Self-Publishing


     Jenifer Ruff has published more than     fifteen  mystery, thriller, and crime fiction   novels. She is a hybrid author—one with self-   published and traditionally published books     and she has mastered the art of self-   publishing.  She’ll give you the knowledge to   know if self-publishing will work for you. Bring  your questions!

    USA Today bestselling author Jenifer Ruff writes dark and twisty mystery thrillers—fifteen books in all—including the award-winning Agent Victoria Heslin Series. Her writing has garnered numerous honors and awards: Pretty Little Girls won the 2020 Reader's International Favorite Thriller Award; Vanished on Vacation, the 2022 Global Book Award Winner (Thriller Category); and When They Find Us was an Amazon #1 Bestseller and #1 New Release.

    Jenifer grew up in Massachusetts, has a biology degree from Mount Holyoke College and a Master’s in Public Health and Epidemiology from Yale University. She adores peace and quiet, animals, and exercise, especially hiking. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina and the mountains of VA with her family and a pack of greyhounds. If she’s not writing, she’s probably devouring books or out exploring trails with her dogs.

    To learn more visit jenruff.com

    If you have questions or thoughts,

    please contact membershipcwc@yahoo.com

    We look forward to seeing you!

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  • March Meeting

    • March 18, 2025
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, Rm 104, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte

    Joy Calloway

    Crafting Beliveable

    Historical Characters




    One of the major challenges in writing historical fiction is creating characters that are both compelling to us today and true to the time period they're from. This craft talk will focus on research tactics and strategies that will help novelists build fully-formed historical characters--both fictional and biographical. It is often said that historical fiction done right will allow the reader to step back in time and feel what it would have been like to live in a time and space gone by. We'll explore how our characters can take us out of place if they're built incorrectly and also how they can truly immerse us in another era if done right.

    Joy Callaway is the international bestselling author of All The Pretty Places, The Grand Design, Secret Sisters, and The Fifth Avenue Artists Society. Joy lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband and two children. To learn more, please visit: https://www.joycallaway.com/


    If you have questions or thoughts,
    please contact membershipcwc@yahoo.com

    We look forward to seeing you!

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  • April Meeting

    • April 15, 2025
    • 7:00 PM
    • Providence United Methodist Church, Rm 104, 2810 Providence Rd, Charlotte


    Jay Ward

    How to Write Poems that Beckon-Grab-Intoxicate the Reader


    One of the most important (poetic) questions I’ve ever considered came to me back in 2016 when a workshop facilitator asked “why should the reader care about your poem?” The surface level answers were usually something like, "because I put my heart and soul into it," or "because the events in this poem really happened." The facilitator was asking something deeper, though. The reader has no connection to you and is not physically present with you; the reader has their own anxieties and happenings about which to be somber, furious, or otherwise preoccupied. What does it take to compel the reader to invest intellectually and emotionally in your poem? We’ll walk through some tips, strategies, and examples that have helped me in my quest to answer this question. A closely related question might be, how do you make the reader feel your presence on the page? We’ll discuss this too!

    Junious 'Jay' Ward is a poet and teaching artist from Charlotte, NC. He is a National Slam champion (2018), an Individual World Poetry Slam champion (2019), author of Sing Me A Lesser Wound (Bull City Press 2020) and Composition (Button Poetry 2023). Jay currently serves as Charlotte's inaugural Poet Laureate and is a 2023 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Ward has attended Breadloaf Writers Conference, Callaloo, The Watering Hole and Tin House Winter Workshop. His work can be found in Columbia Journal, Four Way Review, DIAGRAM, Diode Poetry Journal and elsewhere.

    If you have questions or thoughts,
    please contact membershipcwc@yahoo.com

    We look forward to seeing you!

    Show details