Retreat Registration Closed!!!
We have met our limit, and much as we’d like, we have no more space.
If you missed out this year, try earlier next year!
Any more registrations that come in will be put on a waiting list in case someone has to cancel.
Contact Reba Cross Seals at ten.e1337471058ulbdl1337471058iw@sl1337471058aesss1337471058orcr1337471058 if you want to be on the waiting list.
!!Save the Date!!
Mark Your New Calendar Now
Texas Mountain Trail Writers’
21st Spring Retreat
April 27, 28, 29, 2012
The Texas Mountain Trail Writers welcome you to their
21st annual retreat in the Davis Mountains of West Texas.
New Location! Mountain Trail Lodge & Outdoor Learning Center-between Fort Davis and Alpine
www.dmectexas.org — Check out the beauty!
Professional Published Speakers, Fabulous Food with
Fellow Writers, Awesome Scenery
Weekend Overview:
http://www.texasmountaintrailwriters.org/pdfs/2012_TMTW_Conference_Overview.pdf
Registration Form:
http://www.texasmountaintrailwriters.org/pdfs/2012_TMTW_Registration_Form.pdf
NOTE: UPDATE April 9: The Retreat Registrar’s email is back online! moc.l1337471058oa@16133747105891sel1337471058atylr1337471058uc1337471058
!!Save the Date!!
Three, count them! Three award winning multi-published authors highlight
2012 Writing Round-Up
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Suzy Spencer: Craft of Writing Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Marketing
Chantelle Aimée Osman: Writing and Publishing Flash Fiction
Unraveling the Mystery of Mysteries
Mike Blakely: Writing the Western Novel
Researching the West: Telling Fact from Legend
*******
Suzy Spencer
Author of four non-fiction books, Wasted, a New York Times best-seller and Violet Crown Award finalist; Wages of Sin recently re-released; Breaking Point, a Book of the Month Club, Doubleday Book Club, Literary Guild, and Mystery Guild selection; and The Fortune Hunter, called “riveting” and “blockbusting” by the Globe.
Suzy has free-lanced for ABC News, People magazine, the New York Post, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Los Angeles magazine, the Texas Observer, the Austin American-Statesman, and the Austin Chronicle and has appeared on Good Morning America, ABC World News, Primetime, Dateline NBC, and numerous shows on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and Court TV, as well as on Oxygen and the E! Channel.
Suzy holds a Master’s of Professional Writing and a Master’s of Business Administration, both from the University of Southern California, and a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Baylor University.
Her first memoir, Secret Sex Lives: A Year on the Fringes of American Sexuality, will be published by Berkley Books in October 2012.
Chantelle Aimée Osman
Prolific mystery writer in numerous journals such as Suspense Magazine, Brave Blue Mice, Powder Burn Flash, Twisted Dreams Magazine, Feathertale Magazine, Big Pulp Magazine and The Cynic Online Magazine.
Other magazines and journal that have printed her stories are Thrillers, Killers ‘N’ Chillers, Jersey Devil Press, Daily Flash Anthology, Foliate Oak Literary Journal, The Fringe Magazine and Vacation Anthology.
Chantelle is president and founder of A Twist of Karma Entertainment, a film development and consultation company, a business she learned from her work with production companies in Hollywood.
She is currently working on two mystery novels, one based on her experiences in Hollywood. She is also an Anthony Award nominee for Sirens of Suspense, a mystery blog, and a reviewer for the syndicated Poisoned Fiction Review.
Chantelle is an attorney, a graduate of Arizona State University College of Law, and holds degrees in Psychology, French and Art History, and speaks five languages.
Mike Blakely
The author of sixteen books, most of which are historical novels set in the American west. Mike lives on a ranch in Llano County, Texas and grew up living a modern wild west lifestyle.
Three of Mike’s western novels have been finalists for the Western Writers of America Spur Award, and one, “Summer of Pearls”, won the award in 2001. This novel was also a finalist for the Violet Crown Award given by the Writers’ League of Texas.
Mike is also noted for his collaboration with Willie Nelson for a western novel, A Tale Out of Luck, designed for the big screen, with Willie to play the lead role. A few of his other titles are Come Sundown, Moon Medicine, Comanche Dawn, Too Long at the Dance and Spanish Blood. In addition, Mike has co-edited an anthology of Texas history, Forever Texas: The Way Those Who Lived It, Wrote It.
Music is also in Mike’s blood as he is a performing song writer with eleven CDs to his credit. He grew up ranching, playing the guitar which he promises to bring, was a helicopter mechanic in the US Air Force, and graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in journalism. Some jammin’ and grinnin’ are likely to go on Saturday night.
Mike has served as president of western Writers of America, and sat on the board of the Ozark Creative Writers of Eureka Springs, AK.
The Texas Mountain Trail Writers are in full swing for another successful and fun writers’ retreat in the mountains of West Texas, our 21st year! Our new location is closer to Fort Davis this year, and will offer more spectacular views, photo ops, great food, and elbow-rubbing with other lovers of the written word.
Get the dates blocked in on your calendar, sharpen your pencil, or charge up your laptop.
We’re so excited over our great slate of professional writers, we’re singing out loud! Come join the chorus!
Retreat Homework… Er… “Writing Opportunity”
Almost as much fun as Early-Out Fridays!
Sharpen your pencil, and get started on your unusual homework, oops, “writing opportunity.” No hard teacher, no grades, just fun reading them aloud Saturday night to each other.
Our new location at the Davis Mt. Education Center (Mountain Trails Lodge) one mile south of Fort Davis is uniquely located between two cemeteries, one with many graves from the mid 1800s until 1940, and the other from 1940 until the present.
The oldest cemetery suffered great damage during last spring’s huge wildfire that received national attention. Because of that, most of the lovely wooden crosses were destroyed and the graves and rocks trampled in the chaos, but the old iron fencing and the stone work are still there to see. The atmosphere in both cemeteries is reverent and peaceful.
Another spiritual note of interest… living in the Mountain Trails Lodge, where we will headquartered, is a ghost.
Now don’t be worried! The Mountain Trails Lodge has two main parts. The old part used to be a tourist court (anyone remember those?). The tourist court part has been made into a restaurant, living quarters for the current owners, and laundry rooms. Be assured, the cabins where we will be staying are separate from the original building, and new.
But… many people have claimed to see a ghost in the kitchen area, and we will get the owners to tell what they know. Because of all these unusual circumstances, your local Retreat Committee decided to have fun with it and make your writing choices “spooky.” We have chosen three topics from which you can choose to write, designed to stir your imagination. These can be humorous or thoughtful, poetry or prose. Rules follow. Imagine and enjoy.
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This writing opportunity is also a way to get published through our in-house publication, Chaos West of the Pecos, which we offer each year.
The Texas Mountain Trail Writers are offering you three choices for homework this year.
In honor of this year’s unique location between two cemeteries, the topics from which to choose are:
Love in the Cemetery
Wanderings
Spirit(s) of the West
Rules for our after-dinner reading and inclusion in the Chaos West of the Pecos, 2012 edition of our annual printed book, are:
- Title of work, poem or prose, will be one of the above choices or a variation.
- This poem or story prose must be no more than 500 words.
- Extreme political opinion essays and explicit sexual submissions are not appropriate.
- Plan to read your work aloud on Saturday night, or if you are a current member and can’t attend, send it to a retreat coordinator who will select someone to read it for you if you wish.
- Strong flashlights will be furnished for outside reading if needed.
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