January Social Attendees
The January 2025 Kansas Authors Club Social was held on Tuesday, January 15, at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom. Six members were in attendance. Tracy Million Simmons opened the meeting with some quotes from writers about the New Year.
"We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential." – Ellen Goodman
"New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions." – Mark Twain
What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. –Zig Ziglar
Members then discussed New Year’s Resolutions, specifically in regard to writing goals.
- Member Connlyn Sinclair (Lawrence) said his goal in 2025 was to actually finish some of his writing projects. He’s got three works-in-progress that he would really like to get to the end of this year.
- Member and former Kansan, Ginger Zyskowski (Seattle WA) talked about her recently published book, Shattered: One Woman’s True Story of Trauma, Coercive Control and Survival.
- Nancy Julien Kopp (Manhattan), of Writer Granny’s World, said she set a goal to write a little bit more this year. Last year she apparently “slacked off” a bit!
- D5 President Sandra Taylor (Towanda) shared that she was in the midst of book launch planning. Her in-person launch will take place at Reliant Bookstore in El Dorado on January 27, from 4-6pm. That will be followed by a book launch on Zoom on February 5. Member Linzi Garcia (Emporia) will be helping Sandee with the virtual book launch. Sandra’s book, More Than an Attractive Face, is book 1 of a 4-book series. The 2nd book in the series is currently with a beta reader. She has a goal that it will be published mid-summer, and a plan for book 3 to be available at the end of the year. Book 4 is planned for 2026. Sandra said her goal this year is to be more intentional with the amount of writing and the type of writing she is doing. It’s time for it to be more than just a hobby.
- District 4 Board Representative Mike Durall (Salina) shared that his newest book is filled with heartwarming stories from the Kansas Plains.
- Kansas Authors Club Manager, Tracy Million Simmons (Emporia) said she had not made resolutions this year. Instead, she had selected a focus word: BALANCE.
After some discussion, Tracy shared reminders about submitting member book news to the state website and the new consolidated guidelines for 2025 book awards.
Sandee shared that the 2025 Writing Retreat Committee had selected a theme and were very close to having a logo ready for the fall event, which will take place at Rock Springs Ranch on October 3-5. The question of which district was hosting this year was asked. Tracy explained that the planning of the annual fall events had been pulled under the supervision of the state board for the last two years. As a plan to alleviate the toll on convention organizers, conventions and writing retreats are planned to be held every other year. It remains the goal to recruit committee members and event chairs from across the state. Those who had attended the events at Rock Springs Ranch in the last two years agreed that the site was an improvement from hotels with convention centers, primarily due to continued rising costs for rooms and food. Tracy and Sandee reported that Rock Springs has been wonderful to work with and that attendees, overall, have had positive feedback.
Sandee shared that the 2025 Writing Retreat Committee had selected a theme and were very close to having a logo ready for the fall event, which will take place at Rock Springs Ranch on October 3-5. The question of which district was hosting this year was asked. Tracy explained that the planning of the annual fall events had been pulled under the supervision of the state board for the last two years. As a plan to alleviate the toll on convention organizers, conventions and writing retreats are planned to be held every other year. It remains the goal to recruit committee members and event chairs from across the state. Those who had attended the events at Rock Springs Ranch in the last two years agreed that the site was an improvement from hotels with convention centers, primarily due to continued rising costs for rooms and food. Tracy and Sandee reported that Rock Springs has been wonderful to work with and that attendees, overall, have had positive feedback.
The group spent the second half of the hour sharing readings from their work.
Mike said, “People used to get together before television and the internet and talk about things.”
Prior to closing, Nancy mentioned that these gatherings were a good example of writers helping writers. She said as she listened to the discussion, there was a lot of feedback that included ideas for books to read, actions to take. Nancy’s most recent blog post is titled, Writers helping Writers.
Sandee said that the biggest value of gatherings like this are the little tidbits learned from other members.
- Connlyn read an excerpt from a fantasy detective story set in magical Kansas.
- Nancy read a poem she’d written commemorating January 27, National Holocaust Day, after a visit to a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia.
- Ginger read a selection of poems from her book, Shattered.
- Sandee read an excerpt from her novel, More Than an Attractive Face.
- And Mike shared that he had been visiting archives and was enjoying the experience of simply asking the staff to bring him a box to explore. A recent box had the title of “clubs & organizations” and Mike read a selection of topics discussed by the Spring Valley Literary Society of Salina from the late 1800s.
Mike said, “People used to get together before television and the internet and talk about things.”
Prior to closing, Nancy mentioned that these gatherings were a good example of writers helping writers. She said as she listened to the discussion, there was a lot of feedback that included ideas for books to read, actions to take. Nancy’s most recent blog post is titled, Writers helping Writers.
Sandee said that the biggest value of gatherings like this are the little tidbits learned from other members.
The Kansas Authors Club Social takes place on the 2nd Tuesday of every month, via Zoom, starting at 7:00 p.m. All members of Kansas Authors are welcome to attend. There’s plenty of room on zoom, and you don’t have to add time for driving! For larger gatherings, the “rooms” feature of Zoom will be used to divide the group into suitable sizes so that everyone gets a chance to share without making the meeting too long.
Save the date for the next gathering, February 11, 2025.
Save the date for the next gathering, February 11, 2025.
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