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The September meeting of the Cisco Writers Club was awards night!

Awards totalling $1,480 for the 47th Annual Cisco Writers Club Writing Contest were given out on September 7 at 7 p.m., at the Myrtle Wilks Community Center, 1498 I-20 in Cisco.

A lively crowd celebrated winning authors and 47 years of Cisco Writers Club contests to promote involvement in the craft of writing.

See complete list of winners on the Contest page. For those unable to attend, checks and certificates will be mailed shortly.

Start preparing now to enter next year's contest!

47th Annual Summer Writing Contest Now Closed

An Informative Evening at the August Meeting of the Cisco Writers Club

Online Resources for Writers, Compiled by Helen Cozart

Dr. Duane Hale Interviews Long-Time Cisco Resident Jim Webb

Karen Witemeyer Shares Laughs at June's Cisco Writers Club Meeting

CWC Celebrates Kelton, Anniversary

Planning for NaNoWriMo

Dr. Duane Hale Gives Local History Talk 

    One of the preeminent historians in the state, CWC member Dr. Hale spoke to an attentive crowd July 7, 2022, on "Local Historical Topics That Should Be Remembered."

     Born and reared near Cisco, Dr. Hale has long had a deep interest in the tales told by his elders.

Thoughts on Honoring Our Veterans

CWC member Marjorie Moffitt, new to this area, presented our June meeting, looking ahead to Flag Day, June 14, 2022.

     "I don't think we give enough thought to the sacrifices made by our veterans," says Marjorie, "but also to the special burdens born by their famiies. I want to address that."
     Marjorie invited area veterans to join us on this special occasion. Several did, and they and Marjorie shared stories from Eastland County service members.

Shann Tajiah: The Importance of an Author Bio

The Cisco Writers Club welcomed author Shann Tajiah on April 7, 2022, to the Hilton Center in Cisco to talk about creating an author bio.

     The author bio is the humble brag and elevator pitch combined. It is also the most uncomfortable bit of writing an author can face.

      But what if it didn’t have to be as difficult as it seems? Shann shared tips and tricks for writing a bio that reflects your unique personality and shares the most important bits about your author journey. Participants came away with a completed bio -- and a voucher for a free headshot!
     Shann Tajiah is an award-winning author and photographer. She is the author of Scraps of Love: Poetry from the Darkest Night, and the fantasy novella, The Shaloma. Her passion for writing and authors has led her to open the publishing imprint, Ithirial Rising Press, and she is currently studying to become a book and writing coach.

     When Shann isn’t writing, you can find her chilling in her hammock, and caring for her furred and feathered menagerie. You can keep up with her at www.shanntajiah.com.

Giving Thanks with Chuckles
by Ruth York

CWC members and friends met on the first Thursday of November for an early Thanksgiving meal. After a feast of smoked chicken, cream potatoes, fancy salad, green beans and carrots, an array of desserts begged for attention -- and got it.

Then came a collection of humorous and political cartoons assembled through the years by member Gloria Kojakanian, compiled into a slideshow. Some were old enough to be obscure; others could have been published yesterday. 

Carol Cook Talled Book Covers at CWC October 7

Cisco Writers Club was delighted to welcome humorist Carol B. Cook of Granbury. We will meet in the lobby of the Hilton Center, 309 Conrad Hilton Blvd., in Cisco. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m.

Carol discussed “Putting the Face on Your Story: Book Covers.” Writers intuitively know this is an important choice, and Carol has made that decision as an author repeatedly.

She is the author of six books of humorous short stories and essays and five books of poetry. She is a member of the Authors Guild, the Texas Marketing Guild, and the Poetry Society of Texas.

Writing since her youth, Carol continued as a young mother raising children, working for a living wage, and during the years she traveled across and lived in twenty-nine states and seven countries, continuing her writing on into retirement.

She honed her writing skills in community colleges, night schools, and writing classes for years without, she says, "ever earning a degree in anything."

45th Annual Celebration of Writing Awards 

Carrie Windham Inspires with Blackout Poetry

The Cisco Writers Club thanks Cisco Aviation for the delightful afternoon of flying winners in our Adventures in Writing  contest. First, second and third places were entitled to a flight in a private plane, originating in the Gregory Simmons Memorial Airport in Cisco. Sadly, only one of these young people, Haddie Brumley, was close enough to join us for the flight.

Pizza for all, however, still made the evening a time of fun and laughter. Families of all who entered are invited to participate. Obviously geography still exerts its inescapable presence in who shows up.

The Cisco Writers Club is delighted to welcome a new business to the neighborhood this year. Fresh on the scene is innovative Graph Publishing, LLC. As a source of music as well as books, Graph invests in the arts every day, and we are pleased to have them as the new sponsor of our 2019 Book category. 

When Your Very Personal Facebook Post Goes Viral

As writers who work hard to build a fan base, we might sometimes ponder what would it be like to "go viral."

It was Thursday, October 11, at 8:03 a.m., that Mattea Goff, stay-at-home wife and mom of two in Cisco, Texas, posted a simple set of stick-figure cartoons on Facebook. She had sketched the humorous stick family to convey to husband Kris the exhaustion many new moms feel, and why. She thought it might resonate with some of her friends, too.

It did. By evening her post had been shared 500 times. The following morning it had gone viral, with 100,000 shares, 67,000 likes and 41,000 comments. Friend requests poured in, media clamored for interviews, and the humorous explanation meant for her husband was popping up on websites in multiple countries and languages. 

Mattea has since given her cartoon family a new Facebook presence: STICK With Me - Home of #uselessnipples. (The cartoons explain all.)
 

Those viral stats have more than doubled. The new page, STICK With Me, has 5,000+ followers chuckling over Mattea’s growing library of stick-people cartoons.
 

Almost $1,500 in Prizes Awarded

Cisco Writers Club celebrated all those who submitted manuscripts in our 41st Annual Summer Writing Contest on Thursday, September 7, 2017. Significant cash accompanied several certificates as we handed out almost $1,500 in prize money.

For winners in the Adventures in Writing category, focused entirely on 15-year-olds-and-under, the prize was a flight in a small private plane, followed by a pizza party with the pilot and crew.

Names of winners are posted on the Contest page. Pictured above are Sleepy Gomez, Lucious Taber, Eli Brumley, and Katy Huth Jones.

We thank our distinguished judges and the generous underwriters of our 2017 contest, also noted on the Contest page. Without them, there is no contest.

'Tex' Thompson Workshop a Resounding Success

The lone grammar-ranger, Tex Thompson, saddled her horse and started her long ride west, visiting 9 cities in 17 days. Cisco was one!

As always, she explains the nuts and bolts in a fun, charismatic way. Her premise here:

"It's a truth every interviewee knows: there's nothing more tragic than missing out on your dream job because the interviewer can't see past the stain on your collar. In this high-energy, interactive workshop, we'll tackle the grammar and style mistakes that even experienced writers make, and highlight winning strategies for scrubbing them out of your manuscript. Don't give your reader even one easy reason to toss your work aside: come learn how to put the 'pro' in your prose!"

Cisco Writers Club hosted this FREE class for our community Wednesday, August 16, at the Myrtle Wilks Community Center. We thank Tex for generously sharing her expertise.

Follow Tex at thetexfiles.com and facebook.com/texianne.

WordLaunch Workshop:

This Language Called Poetry

In week seven of the Cisco Writers Club’s WordLaunch Workshop we welcomed author Sheryl L. Nelms to speak about writing poetry for the general market.

Sheryl L. Nelms lives in Clyde, but is originally from Marysville, Kansas. She graduated from South Dakota State University. She has had almost 6,000 articles, stories and poems published, including fourteen individual collections of her poems. She is the fiction/nonfiction editor of The Pen Woman Magazine, the National League of American Pen Women publication, was a contributing editor for Time Of Singing, A Magazine Of Christian Poetry and a four time Pushcart Prize nominee. She is married to songwriter Dan Pennington.

WordLaunch Workshop Series: “Fiction Addiction” July 2 and 16

The WordLaunch Workshop series continues through July, covering the nuts and bolts of writing short stories; articles; columns and short shots; and poetry. The July 9 workshop was a newly minted workshop, Adventures in Writing for young writers.

Our first young writer workshop July 9

Cisco Writers Club Sunday held a WordLaunch Workshop July 9 for kids ages 6-15. The workshop began at 1:30 at the Prosperity Bank community room, 418 Conrad Hilton Avenue in Cisco. It ended at 3:00 with a snack for the kids.

There was a $10 fee for the class, but parents got in free!

The workshop was led by children’s author and educator Nancy Sifford Alana of Granbury. She was eager to meet the young folks of Eastland County, writing, “This workshop will encourage youngsters to put words on paper in any form, but we’ll especially focus on poetry. I like to have fun, and I think the kids will, too.”

Nancy was born and raised in Lubbock, Texas, now living in Hood County. A retired teacher and elementary school principal, she received the Instructional Leadership Award in 2004 from Tarleton State University. She serves on the local school board and in community groups that focus on education and children's issues.

“I love to inspire children and young adults to read by introducing them to books that are entertaining and educational. My books provide the reader with entertaining stories intertwine with history. The characters model good manners, respect, and a love for learning.”

She brought copies of her books, The Lost Treasure of Lincoln County: A Great American Adventure, and Texas: Cowboys and Campfires. Nancy’s writing garnered national attention with the Will Rogers Medallion Award (2015) and the Mame Eisenhower Reading List (2014-15). Both books will be available for purchase.

“Be sure to tell those young folks to get ready, because I want to see some of them in that private plane!” says Nancy.

She was referring to the prize, courtesy of Cisco Aviation, that will be awarded to the top three young writers in this year's Cisco Writers Club 41st Annual Summer Contest. One category, Adventures in Writing, is specifically limited to children ages 6-15. To make it extra sweet, there is no fee to enter that category. Get all the details at www.ciscowritersclub.org/contest.

The WordLaunch Workshop series continues with "Fiction Addiction, Part 2" on writing short stories, by Bokerah Brumley, on July 16. July 23 brings Sheryl Nelms of Clyde with writing poetry.

Love words? Then sharpen your pencil for WordLaunch, a “how to” series of workshops beginning June 11, designed to help you achieve your writing goals.

May found Cisco Writers Club at the Assembly of Yahweh fellowship hall in Romney, Texas, south of Cisco.

After a delicious dinner we were delighted to hear the extraordinary Katy Huth Jones. This humble but accomplished woman can be described thus:

“Katy Huth Jones grew up in a family where creative juices overflowed and made puddles to splash in. A member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), she has published three children's books, one Young Adult (YA) historical fiction, five fantasies (so far), one poetry collection, and over 100 short stories, poems, and magazine articles.

“When not writing, Katy plays piccolo and flute in The Symphony of the Hills. She lives with her husband Keith in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. Their two sons, whom she homeschooled, have flown the nest and live creative lives of their own. Best of all, she is a cancer survivor (twice, so far).”

Besides best-loved books, Katy brought examples of articles, poems and stories that have appeared in Cricket, Highlights and a variety of other magazines. Her stack of rejection letters drew attention, too, illustrating the point: Never, ever give up.

by Ruth York

Rob Westman,writer and Abilene ISD videographer, and Kay Walton, painter, presented a stellar program at the Myrtle Wilks Community Center Auditorium Thursday, December 8.

He brought a few paintings by Kay Walton, also  of Abilene, that were used extensively in his recent documentary. The movie resulted from research to write a children's book about George Washington's life, his recognition of the "Providence" that had guided and protected him and his fellow patriots throughout his days.

The movie was shown at the Majestic this summer and was well received. CWC helped sponsor this December event.

This was not just a showing of the movie. It is a multi-media presentation about its inspiration, research and compilation. Clips of the documentary were shown.