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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 6:45 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: January 8, 2019 from 6:45-8:45 p.m.

Terry Pratchett. Douglas Adams. Christopher Moore. Some of the best-selling authors of fantasy and science fiction have made their names by writing incredible stories with a comedic bent. What does it take to write original, humorous work? What do you need to keep in mind when adding humor to genre fiction? What are some of the pitfalls to avoid? What are some of the pratfalls to embrace?

During this month’s meeting, we’ll get a brief history of comedic F&SF, learn best practices for writing comic fiction in general, tackle a few writing exercises to get in a comic frame of mind, and put some of these best practices to work in longer pieces.

Moderator: Ted Wenskus

Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: November 6, 2018 from 6:45-8:45 p.m.

Does the blank page intimidate you? Do you struggle finding the best words to use or feel your prose and characters need more substance? Are there moments you can’t see what to write next? Fear not. You’re not alone! All writers, from those new to the craft to experienced, best-selling novelists, struggle with how to start, what to write, and how to push onward to the last sentence of a story or novel.

During our October discussion, we’ll talk about how to overcome your writing roadblocks and share ideas on how to achieve your literary goals. We’ll share what might be causing us to resist writing, what might be sapping our creativity, or what might be getting in our way of writing what is in our hearts.

Moderators: Alan Vincent Michaels
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: October 2, 2018 from 6:45-8:45 p.m.

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 6:45 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: Eric Scoles
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: August 7, 2018 from 6:45pm-8:45 p.m.

For years, science fiction brought us visions of rocketing to the moon, journeying to alien planets, and voyaging under the sea. It has also given us utopian and stark, dystopian future societies in which nearly every care, whim, and convenience was given to us – or taken away.

Can you recall a time when we didn’t have telephones and computers that fit in our back pockets or on our wrists? What about video cameras, let alone those that fit into the rims of your glasses or that made nighttime images as bright and clear as those taken in daylight? How about self-driving cars and robots that didn’t need a human’s direct control? Do you remember what life was like before the Internet – before Google, Wikipedia, Twitter, and Instagram?

Have you ever asked yourself, “When will the future get here?” Well, the future is here and we’re living in it right now!

In our July 10 meeting, join us for a free-ranging discussion about technologies that used to be the dreams found only in science fiction writers’ books, TV shows, and movies. We’ll also talk about some of the designers, engineers, and futurists who took those ideas and made them reality.

Presenters: Alan Vincent Michaels
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: July 10, 2018 from 7-9 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.

In our May 1 meeting, we’ll discuss creating languages for fiction. How much depth do you need for your story, and how can you make a fictional language feel “real” to your audience? Do you just need a “naming language” so you can sprinkle in a few place-names? Do you need a few spoken phrases? We’ll talk about how to give your language a sound scheme that feels like a coherent whole so that it hangs together from the start, and we’ll discuss some of the common variants on syntax and word order that you can exploit so that your fictional language isn’t just a word-for-word cipher for English.

Presenters: Lynn Spitz and Hugh Sullivan
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: May 1, 2018 from 7-9 p.m.

Coming up at our next meeting on April 3: Our second panel on world building, focusing on science fiction worlds!

We’re back, wearing our metaphorical overalls, wielding our literary toolboxes, and tackling the foundations that support your science fiction story or novel. Our panelists will help you explore how to create science fiction worlds that are grounded in known science, extrapolating when necessary, but presenting an overriding and strong sense of place for your characters and your readers.

You are invited to share your world-building ideas and discuss topics ranging from avoiding wornout cliches and tropes to using hard physics and engineering in shaping your worlds. Then, take it to next level by extrapolating from the latest theories and discoveries that might not, yet, be found in textbooks. Remember, science can often be stranger than science fiction. So, why not start with science and see where your story will go?

Panel: Frank Glover, Alan Vincent Michaels, Hugh Sullivan
Moderator: Lynn Spitz
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: April 3, 2017 from 7-9 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:Ted Wenskus
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: March 6, 2018 from 7-9 p.m.