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For our next Meetup, our group discussion will be Creating Conflict. Speculative Fiction opens wonderful options for creative conflict far beyond the standard Man vs Man, Man vs Nature, etc. Exploring those options can develop new ways to bring bold new conflicts to your work.

If you wish to submit something for critique, do it early. It must be listed in Files at least 7 days before the next meeting on November 10th.

We can accept only the first three submissions.

They must be less than 10,000 words and should be in RTF (Rich Text File).

Come and join us! Have friendly, like-minded folks advise and help you with whatever is troubling you about whatever you're working on. We can help you and you can help us--it's a win-win situation!

And you'll have fun too!

Join us for a reading from Catherine Lundoff at Dreamhaven bookstore!

Ms. Lundoff is the editor of the fantasy and horror anthology Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories (Lethe Press, 2008). She is also the author of the erotica collections Crave: Tales of Lust, Love and Longing (Lethe Press, 2007) and Night's Kiss (Lethe Press, 2009) as well as over seventy published short stories. She is a Golden Crown and Lesbian Fiction Readers Choice Award winner, a two-time Spectrum Award short fiction finalist, a contributor to Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy: An Encyclopedia and a writing instructor at The Loft Literary Center.

Come, relax, browse the books, and relish the fine conversation!

(SPECULATIONS is a co-production of DreamHaven and SF MINNESOTA, a multicultural speculative fiction organization that also sponsor DIVERSICON, an SF convention, the 18th edition of which will be held July 30-August 1, 2010, in the Best Western--Bandana Square, St. Paul, with Guest of Honor WILLIAM F. WU.

For further information, contact Eric M. Heideman, eheideman@dhzone.com)

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED. See below for our three stories for this month.

We will have an ongoing discussion on techniques for making your characters come alive. How much energy do you empower your protagonist with?

Just a reminder on the guidelines for submitting an item for critique:

1) You should post the piece in Files at least 7 days prior to the next meeting. (Last date for submissions would be Tuesday, October 6th. This is to give everyone time to print it out and critique it.)

2) Please keep the submission under 10,000 words.

3) We can accept a maximum of three submissions per month.

4) The submission should be in Rich Text File (RTF) for general accessibility.

5) If there are no submissions to critique, we will have open readings. You can bring a short piece of something you're working on for comments.

We have the following stories for critique, accessible from the Files Section:

The Birthday Girl, chapters 4-6, by Sue Hansen (chapters 4-6 for critique, but 1-3 included just in case you want to read it)

Nightfall on Daylight, chapter 11, by Zach Schuster

Widow Brigade, chapter 4-5, by Douglas V

For the folk-engineers in the group. We will look at the elements of manufacturing your own paperback - from loading your manuscript into a publishing format to literally trimming and binding a book during the meeting. Terry Faust will answer questions and refer really tough ones to Michael Merriam.

The SF Writers' Workshop will immediately follow September's regular Monthly Meetup. However, because we organizers goofed and didn't schedule a time & place with enough notice this month, we will NOT follow our normal submission schedule.

Instead of submitting stories in advance this month, interested workshoppers are invited to bring one of the following to read aloud for instant feedback from the group:

1) A scene/snippet (1-2 pages maximum) of a work-in-progress that's giving you trouble. A character that seems flat, dialogue that sounds wooden, a plot twist that feels clunky or obvious, a bit of world-building that doesn't seem alien or fantastical enough, a place where you feel "stuck" and can't get past it, etc. Critiquers will help you brainstorm on ways to solve the problem.

2) A story opening you'd like reactions to. Critiquers will weigh in on whether it captures their attention, sets the stage, and starts at an engaging point in the story.

If you'd like to participate, no file upload is necessary this time. Just bring your pages to read them aloud for the group's reactions. If you're not comfortable reading aloud, never fear; you will find many members willing to stand in as designated reader.

See you there, and keep writing!

-Jaye