I like to share good things with others, especially writers.

 Bobbie Christmas, editor and writer in Atlanta, GA has written some great books on how to write well. I have used "Purge Your Prose of Problems" for a number of years and can't praise the book enough.

All writers need to know how to write dialogue and this book has four pages about when and how to use it, as well as the proper punctuation for writing dialogue. Did you know you should give each speaker his/her own paragraph? Most of my students don't know that.


Recently I purchased another book by Bobbie Christmas. "Write in Style" is amazing! It has tons of good tips on ways to use the computer to help you edit your work.

Bobbie's trademarked Find and Refine method has been a great tool in finding the words I use too often in my writing. Two of those words are so and just. With Bobbie's Find and Refine Method, it was easy to make the needed adjustments to my manuscript. Because I use those two words in my everyday speech, I don't notice how often I use them in my writing.

I get no remuneration for recommending these books. I have only met Bobbie one time, but I find her books such a help I urge all of my writing students to add them to their library.

Order on Amazon.com:

Write in Style: Using Your Word Processor and Other ...

www.amazon.com › … › Writing, Research & Publishing Guides

Author Bobbie Christmas teaches writers like us how to use the Find function on our word processors to track down and eliminate unstylish usages and write tighter, stronger sentences. Not only that, she is witty, clever and easy to read. She doesn't hesitate to poke fun at herself, which makes her teachings easy to swallow.

We have Carol Crawford to help us with our memoir, essay, short story

Carol Crawford, writer and poet, mother and wife,
Director of the Blue Ridge Writers Conference, will teach at Writers Circle on July 9, 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

I hope all of you within driving distance of Writers Circle in Hayesville, NC will take the opportunity to be with us when Carol Crawford teaches a class for prose writers, fiction and non-fiction, that will help us prepare our manuscript for submitting to a journal or anthology, and that will give our work the best chance to be selected for publication.

Big Picture Revision

Never mind the commas – there are often bigger things to think about when you finish a first draft and begin the work of revision.  
In this workshop we will take a piece you have written and look at it with fresh eyes, finding its natural trajectory and structure.  We will clarify what’s confusing and emphasize what’s strong, so that you can write the story you want to write. 
"Please bring a short (1000 word) essay, story or excerpt for us to work on during the class."

 Carol's essays, fiction and poetry have been published in the Concho River Review, the Chattahoochee Review, the Southern Humanities Review, the Journal of Appalachian Studies, and others.  She is director of FLAG Adult Education and volunteer coordinator for the annual Blue Ridge Writers' Conference.  Carol is a graduate of Baylor University, and a native of Texas, but she lives in the north Georgia mountains now.

This is our first time to have Carol teach at Writers Circle, but I hope it won't be the last. While we seem to have a large number of poets as instructors, we want to also hold classes for non-poets or those, like me, who write both poetry and prose.

Register by calling 828-389-4441 to reserve your place, or mail your check for $30.00 to Writers Circle 581 Chatuge Lane, Hayesville, NC 28904