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On June 1, attendees will reveal their very short story or long poem with fewer than 1,000 words, based on the prompts selected during the May R-SPEC meeting.

Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels

Location: Zoom (Please join us about 10 minutes before the regular 7 p.m. start time to ensure you're connected.)

Meeting Time: June 1, 2021 from 7-9 p.m. ET

Note: R-SPEC presentations on topics of interest meetings may be recorded, and a link to the recording posted on our website.

On May 4, attendees are invited to challenge themselves to write a “very short story” or long poem with fewer than 500 words. This can be exciting and, perhaps, a bit daunting. During the workshop, we’ll explore the answers to these burning questions and many more: What is flash fiction and microfiction? How do I start? What about character and plot development? What do I leave in? And what must I leave out?

As a group, we’ll decide whether we write collaboratively, solo, or a combination of approaches. We’ll also pick a set of writing prompts (words, phrases, descriptions) and then create works that incorporate those items.

It will be interesting to see how many different ways there are to write about the same topics, proving that old and new ideas are just grist for the mill. What you create will be fresh and original.

Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels

Location: Zoom (Please join us about 10 minutes before the regular 7 p.m. start time to ensure you're connected.)

Meeting Time: May 4, 2021 from 7-9 p.m. ET

Note: R-SPEC presentations on topics of interest meetings may be recorded, and a link to the recording posted on our website.

Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Nancy Kress once wrote: “Endings carry tremendous weight with readers; if they don’t like the ending, chances are they’ll say they didn’t like the work.”

Yet writing a truly satisfying ending can be quite challenging. What makes some endings work and other fail spectacularly? And what are some of the best practices to get them right?

At our September 4 meeting, we’ll talk about good and bad story endings, with a bit of ugliness along the way. If you have a favorite or hated ending, bring it (or both) and we’ll discuss why the ending did or didn’t work. Then, we’ll put some best-practice techniques and your creative ideas to work in a writing exercise that puts the ending in your hands.

Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: September 4, 2018 from 6:45-8:45 p.m.

Attendees are invited to read from their current or in-progress works or to share their writing roadblocks. (An older or sold story or poem is also welcome, especially if you'd like feedback on it.) Please bring a short piece or a portion of a longer work – fewer than 1,000 words, if you can, but no more than 2,000 words, if you can't break the scene – so everyone has sufficient reading time and attendees have time to provide their feedback.

Please try to arrive before 7 p.m. to put your name on the reading list.

After the readings conclude and time permits, we'll go around and share with the group what we're currently reading.

Moderator:Alan Vincent Michaels
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: June 5, 2018 from 7-9 p.m.

Infodumps plague writers and readers. Click the title to commiserate.

Will spec-fic fans dump facebook for Shatner's new site? Click the title for more.

Yup. Jetpacks. Not cheap, but available and lasting much, much longer than the 26 sec. of previous attempts. Click the title for more.

President Alicia Henn posted a link to this (well-written) article by Roy Blount, Jr., addressing the question of whether authors should receive payment for audio rights as a result of Kindle 2 (and other similar devices) converting text versions of works to speech.

An interesting question. My initial impression is that having your device read your book aloud is no different than having a friend read it to you. That seems like a fair use of the product that you have purchased. However, Blount presents a strong case for author compensation as a result of Kindle readings. Click the title to see why.

These are a series of books by Richard K. Morgan set hundreds of years in the future in which we have colonized other worlds on distant stars courtesy of found technology - technology found on Mars. The technology is a combination of faster-than-light broadcasting, personality recording, and body reproduction such that one's personality is beamed to a distant location faster than light and "decanted" into a new body, the initial people there having traveled by spaceship to set up the receiving stations and such. Anyway, our main character is sort of a private eye named Takeshi Kovacs (TOK-eh-shee KO-votch) who is drawn into intriguing situations. In the first book, it's pretty much a film noir story set in the future with cool technologies. It works, and is a good ride. In the second and third books, Kovacs winds up solving the riddle of the "Martians" whose technology we use to enable quick space travel. Broken Angels is the better of the second and third books in many ways, but both are good rides with lingering film noir characteristics. All in all, I recommend these books for a good ride. They aren't "literary," but are well done and fun. Mind you, I listened to these, and the reader was very good, which makes a big difference.