Eight one-hour workshops will be offered to help writers of all levels improve their craft.  Participants may choose one each session to attend. The first four are offered the first afternoon session; the latter four the final session.

Robin Jones Gunn’s workshop, “How to Get Unstuck,” is one she taught in Nairobi at the LittWorld Conference recently. She explains what to do as a writer when inspiration fades and life seems to hijack all your good intentions. What should you do to get going again? This workshop will give you some of the tools needed to put your writing back on the right path and move you forward.

Minding OCW’s Business
by Sue Miholer

At the October 17 business meeting, the OCW membership approved the board’s motion to create the position of business manager to handle the required business dealings of the organization. I am honored to have been appointed by the board to become the OCW business manager. Many of my responsibilities are those I oversaw as membership secretary, but the new position also includes signing contracts as a representative of the organization, overseeing the finances (the treasurer continues to write all the checks and communicates that information to the accountants), as well as other business-related functions.

OCW Economic Outlook 

We creative people would like to spend all of our time writing new stories, devotionals, books, poetry, and wonderful articles. However, life also calls us to be responsible in all areas of our lives, even with money.

One of my writer friends, who regularly sold short stories to Redbook when it featured fiction, was an indifferent housekeeper. If she were to let you in her house, you would see a mess of stuff, including dirty dishes, apple cores, and stacks of papers and clothes everywhere. She never knew where her money was and was very slow to deposit checks. All she wanted to do was write.

Another successful writer, who wrote and sold many books and articles, managed to keep a pretty neat house, though it might be messy  a few days before a deadline. She managed her money well. Both were creative, wonderful writers.

Your OCW officers are trying hard to keep our “OCW house” neat and effective, as well as supply opportunities for you to benefit from creative conferences and contacts with top people in the writing and publishing fields.

Psalm 90:17: Establish the work of our hands, O Lord

Sitting at an OCW conference next to Geni White, you’d never guess she spent eight years living in Dubai working as an undercover Mennonite missionary.

Or that the past three years, she’s been battling colon cancer.

Geni White, who lives in Eugene, wrote her first book at age nine and it was “100 percent plagiarized.” She was heartbroken when her mother said it couldn’t be published.