From the President
March 2010
 Greetings fellow writers
I have to say that the February meeting was an outstanding success. We had a record number of new visitors attend and a fabulous response to our guest speaker Joanna Penn.
Joanna’s talk on creating your author platform to market your books, even if you haven’t written one yet, was nothing short of inspirational. Her presentation was delivered so enthusiastically that it was impossible not to be engaged and excited about the possibilities to reach a dramatically wider audience via social media and online marketing.
From those new to the social media buzz there were many questions about twittering and blogging and why one would even do that! Joanna swiftly responded to most questions thrown at her, only limited by the lack of time available.
I received a lot of enthusiastic feedback after the meeting, including the following from a first time visitor, Amelia Willmer:
After reading a snippet in the local paper I went along out of curiosity to the meeting on 20 February. The experience exceeded my expectations and I look forward to the next meeting.
And from our editor Bill Turkington:
I was impressed with Joanna, her enthusiasm was infectious and she (almost) convinced me about blogs! It would be good to have her back for a workshop.
GCWA Vice President Angelika Heurich and I have submitted a grant application to RADF to fund a proposed workshop to be presented by Joanna Penn in May. If you have not added your name to the expression of interest list yet, please make sure you do so at the next meeting. This is sure to be a very popular workshop and numbers will be limited.
 Lastly I would like to remind you that Joanna has kindly provided a page for us on her blog with links to some of the resources and websites she mentioned during her talk: www.thecreativepenn.com/goldcoast/ and, that she is offering a discount for GCWA members on her Author 2.0 Online Course until mid March, so contact her ASAP if you are interested in enrolling in this program.
Don’t forget to encourage any children you know to enter our children’s writing competition, and help spread the word about the benefits of our association by taking some of our new flyers and sharing them with your friends and acquaintances. For those not ready to leap in and join us right now, they can easily subscribe to our eNewsletter to keep up with what’s happening and come along to meetings on a casual basis if they wish. (The subscribe form is on our website: www.goldcoastwriters.org.au/subscribe.)
Looking forward to seeing you at another meeting soon and sharing some exciting news about our 20th Anniversary Celebration.
Jeannie May Barker
February 2010
 Greetings fellow writers
It’s hard to believe that two months have gone by since the last edition of e-Writeabout. A break from the newsletter over the holiday season was great, but now there’s so much more I need to tell you in this edition!
2009 Christmas Party
Firstly, I have to mention the Christmas party and commend all the volunteers who contributed to making it such an enjoyable occasion. The food was fabulous, the atmosphere wonderfully festive and the entertainment provided plenty of amusement. A special thank you must go to our Christmas Party elf and Santa who charmed us all.
You can view the photos on our image gallery.
Nike Bourke
 I found our January guest speaker particularly inspiring. Nike Bourke from Olvar Wood Writers retreat provided a fascinating glimpse into her creative ‘studio’ and shared some of the techniques she uses to inspire her writing.
We hope to bring Nike back later in the year to present a workshop so please make sure you add your name to the expression of interest form at the next meeting if you would like to attend.
Check out the Olvar Wood website for more information about their upcoming retreats and worskshops: www.olvarwood.com.au
Writing Competition
We have just launched our first competition for the year – the 2010 Children’s Writing Competition. I hope that you will all support this competition by helping to spread the word and encourage young people to enter.
Please see the competition page for more information.
Australia Day
We participated in the Australia Day Celebration at Evandale Parklands by presenting a writing challenge in the park. Visitors were asked to express what Australia Day meant to them in words or pictures.
One of the highlights was seeing so many people embracing the spirit of the day by dressing up for the occasion. Flags, funny hats, printed T-shirts and crazy wigs were seen in abundance.
Sunni Clothes Hoists provided a couple of Hills Hoists (the great Aussie icon) to display the ‘artworks’ much to the puzzlement of some passers by and the Animal Welfare League donated ‘Aussie’ style clothing which were later donated to Set Free Care.
Thank you to Grace Ermer for suggesting we participate in this event; to Caren Sattler for organsing the clothing; and to all the members who helped ‘man’ the GCWA display on the day: Angelika Heurich, Donna Mroz Turcic, Carole Sulzer, Bill Turkington, Caren Sattler, Ceresse Gardner, Marion and Starla Martineer.
Looking forward to seeing you all at the February meeting. Joanna Penn’s talk is not to be missed!
Jeannie May Barker
December 2009
What a fabulous meeting we had in November! It was inspiring to hear our members share some of their writing at the Open Mike session. A great variety of topics and styles were presented and I would like to congratulate the following people for their participation: Robert Young, Donna Mroz Turcic, Richard Grant, Margaret Cornwell, Peter Jones, Caroline Glen and Angelika Heurich.
I encourage everyone to take advantage of the opportunity to participate in an Open Mike session when they get a chance. Yes, it can be daunting to get up there on stage, but the opportunity to practice speaking about your writing and reading out loud to a group of your peers is well worth the test of your nerves.
 Book Launch - Audie-Marie Pennefather launched her book “A True and Strange Story” The Life of Tueane Ann Tibbo to an attentive audience. A fascinating glimpse into the life of this talented artist whose unpretentious paintings were made popular in the sixties.
Member of the Month - Jill Smith was chosen as the recipient of our inaugural Member of the Month award. Jill has been an active member of the Gold Coast Writers’ Association for many years and her support of the recent initiative to create a history of the association was recognised with a certificate at the November meeting.
Jill will be our featured member on the GCWA website for the month of December and in our newsletter.
Online Networking - GCWA is now on Twitter, FaceBook and YouTube!
You can follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/gcwriters become a fan on FaceBook www.facebook.com/GoldCoastWritersAssociation or check out our video channel on YouTube www.youtube.com/goldcoastwriters
  
If you have created a book trailer video or have a slideshow promo you would like to share on the GCWA YouTube channel, please let me know.
Christmas Party – Our final meeting for the year is also our annual Christmas Party. Santa will be making an appearance and you will be entertained by some of our multi-talented members. If you would like to volunteer to be a part of our Christmas Jam entertainment, please contact Angelika Heurich or Grace Ermer.
On behalf of the committee I would like to wish all our members and their families a happy and joyous Christmas and a bright and prosperous New Year.
Jeannie May Barker
November 2009
Greetings fellow writers
My thanks to everyone who has welcomed me so warmly to the committee this year and now as president of the association for 2009-2010. I look forward to an exciting year of challenges and hopefully many successes for both the association and our members.
For those who don’t know me well my background is in education, instructional design, marketing, social media, web and graphic design. I write non-fiction, have been published in several print and online magazines and am currently co-authoring a book. I look forward to sharing my experience and using my skills for the benefit of the association.
 October meeting - We were very fortunate to have the entertaining and talented Peter Watt speak at the October meeting. The depth of his research and his passion for Australian history was truly inspiring. Peter also shared exciting news about a TV series based on two of his books, so keep an eye out for ‘Frontier’ in the future... hopefully it will air in Australia as well as the rest of the world.
Please make a note to buy tickets in the raffle at the November meeting as we have two extra special prizes of signed copies of Peter’s books to give away.
 Brainstorming - We have implemented a new feature for meetings: a mini brainstorm session. At the October meeting the topic was ‘Ideas’ and members were invited to brainstorm their ideas for the association on a large sheet of paper. One of the ideas was ‘do something different’ – I think the brainstorm session qualifies for that! Another idea was to hold a ‘poster design’ competition, and yet another was the GCWA history collaborative e-Book project.
To see the full list of ideas, to comment on them or to add your own, see the Brainstorm topic on the GCWC forum or email me direct if you prefer.
A new topic will be brainstormed at the next meeting so please come along ready to share your thoughts and ideas!
Member of the month – A new feature on the GCWA website will be our monthly featured member. Featured members will be chosen for their active contribution to the association: interacting at meetings, contribution to the newsletter, involvement with the online community website, etc. Di Morris has volunteered to interview the recipient of this honour and Ceresse Gardner will take a great publicity shot for you (or you can supply your own image if you prefer). Our first featured member will be announced at the November meeting.
Lastly, I’d like to personally welcome Bill Turkington to the committee as our new
e-Writeabout editor. This is a new challenge for Bill and I congratulate him for taking it on.
Best wishes
Jeannie May Barker
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