First story of the new year

On Tuesday, I was lucky enough to get to attend a Bethlehem Writers Group meeting in person. What was once a commonplace 2-3 times a month activity is now a rare treat since I've moved away from my dear writers group.

For the last few meetings I've been virtually attending the meetings via Skype because the 7 hour round trip from Maryland is impractical in the middle of the week, but this week I wanted to be sure to attend in person.

You see, the experience of going to a BWG meeting is something that cannot truly be replicated via a computer. Skype is better than nothing but...it's not the same. This week I didn't want to miss any aspect of the meeting because I was workshopping a short story that is particularly dear to me.

I've been working on this story since June. It's written in a voice that is new to me, from a perspective that I can only imagine, but I like it. I am lucky enough to have friends who were willing to look at my story and fill in the gaps where my imagination was in error, but I had not yet shown it to my group. Because this story is so different for me, I didn't want to show it to the BWG until I was sure it was as good as I could make it. I wanted to hear their impressions on the story, and not their objections to any silly errors or inconsistency of voice on my part.

So, after seven months and a 3.5 hour drive, I finally showed my dear story to the writers group.

And they liked it.

It's amazing how much that means to me even after years with this group.

Of course, they had comments and questions and points for revision, but I feel good about my story right now.

I'm sorry to live so far from the BWG, but feel very grateful that I can still be an active member.