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2020 OWC Writing Contest to Focus on Mystery

October 30, 2020 By Jan

Crime scene

OWC Writing Contest in 2020 will focus on mystery. Submissions will be accepted from December 16, 2020, through midnight, PST, January 31, 2021. Submit through Submittable using the link on our website.

Fees are $10 for OWC members, $20 for nonmembers, $5 for high school or college students.

First Prize: A two-day stay at Colonyhouse or a virtual mentorship session with published author.

Second Prize: A virtual mentorship session.

Third Prize: A full critique of your submission by a published author.

Honorable Mention: 1-year OWC membership.

Submit here

Rules

10 pages of a mystery novel in 12-point times or similar typeface

Standard margins

No author name in manuscript

Attached manuscript named with title of entry

Use this link to submit to the contest

Judge

We are are pleased to have Valerie J. Brooks as our final judge. Valerie is a longtime member of OWC who has generously contributed her time and talents to developing writers. She is the author of an acclaimed femmes-noir series, as well as an in-demand workshop teacher. Watch for an upcoming workshop for OWC.

Contest winners will be announced and will read from their entries at our Virtual Contest Gala on Zoom in March 2021, date and time to be announced.

Contest Judge

Valerie BrooksAcclaimed author Valerie J. Brooks writes femmes-noir psychological thrillers where the women are badass and take center stage. The first in the Angeline Porter Trilogy Revenge in 3 Parts was a finalist for the Nancy Pearl Book Award and a winner in the International Readers’ Favorites Thriller Awards. New York Times bestselling author Kevin O’Brien called her second book Tainted Times 2 “a real nail-biter from first page to the last.”

After studying film noir in college, Valerie found her noir voice for fiction. She received an Elizabeth George Foundation grant and was the recipient of five writing residencies. Brooks teaches workshops and classes in how to write noir. She reviews mystery, suspense and thriller novels, podcasts, and streaming shows on her blog.

Brooks lives in the McKenzie River Valley in Oregon with her husband, Dan, and their Havanese pooch Stevie Nicks.

Tainted Times 2  Revenge in 3 Parts

Filed Under: OWC News

Join Us for Virtual Founders Day in 2020

August 19, 2020 By Jan

Val Brooks, Carol Cole, and Luca Har catch up at 2013 Founders Day.
Founders Day 2014

Many of us are missing the Annual Founders Day Celebration held each August at the Colonyhouse.

Through the years we’ve met other writers, talked of writing, listened to authors read their work, attended workshops and shared good food.

If you’ve participated in past Founders Day celebrations and you have a special memory of a past Founders Day please share it with us.

The deadline is September 5, 2020. Please limit your submission to 500 words. E-mail your reminiscence to marlenehow@comcast.net.

We will publish a special Founders Day Celebration Colonygram in late September.

As you reminisce about past celebrations please consider sending a check for $20 (our usual cost of Founders Day) to help with house-upkeep expenses during this time.

Filed Under: OWC News

OWC launches Instagram account

May 13, 2020 By Jan

Instagram logoOWC has officially launched on Instagram. Find us at @oregonwriterscolony.

Posts will appear on both Instagram and OWC’s FaceBook account. There are several poems there now, and more are coming.

Please send pics of you at your desk with a short blurb about your writing life under COVID-19. If you are launching a book or have an announcement, please send a pic of the cover and/or a pic of you and a very brief blurb. (Keep sending member news for the website to Send Us Your Member News.)

We have a couple of book announcements that will be going out this week.

Send your Instagram or Facebook submissions to info@oregonwriterscolony.org

Filed Under: OWC News

Eden Waits, by Maryka Biaggio

March 3, 2020 By Jan

Maryka BiaggioMaryka Biaggio is the author of a new book, Eden Waits, a work of historical fiction published by Sunbury Press.

Eden Waits is based on the true story of Michigan’s utopian experiment. In 1893, Abraham and Elizabeth Byers launch Hiawatha Colony, a product-sharing community designed to support its members through self-sufficiency. But can this cooperative community withstand internal strife, the harsh wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and the antagonism of the outside world?

Eden WaitsBuy Eden Waits

Filed Under: OWC News

Building Community: Rural Voices for Hope and Change: An Oregon Perspective, by Neal Lemery

January 28, 2020 By Jan

Nea LemeryNeal Lemery is the author of a new book, Building Community: Rural Voices for Hope and Change: An Oregon Perspective, a nonfiction book published by Happy House Press.

How are rural American communities working to build a better world? These are the stories of building a stronger rural America. These are the stories of a resurgence in diverse talents and work in progress to improve community services, relationships, and to further collective societal values and organizations. Active community involvement engages everyone to address social conditions and improve our collective lives.

Building Community: Rural Voices for Hope and ChangeBuy Building Community: Rural Voices for Hope and Change: An Oregon Perspective

Filed Under: OWC News

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Oregon Writers Colony is preparing for our Seventh Annual 2020 Stumptown Lit Authors' Showcase, which ... Read More
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Crime scene

2020 OWC Writing Contest to Focus on Mystery

OWC Writing Contest in 2020 will focus on mystery. Submissions will be accepted from ... Read More

OWC launches Instagram account

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OWC launches Instagram account

OWC has officially launched on Instagram. Find us at @oregonwriterscolony. Posts will appear on both ... Read More

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Oregon Writers Colony
501(c)(3) non-profit writers' organization dedicated to supporting writers through education and community-building.
Email: info@oregonwriterscolony.org
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010721 Target Marketing Target Marketing for Authors 120320 Pretty Chrysanthemum Pretty Chrysanthemum 112220 Tainted Times 2 Tainted Times 2 101320 Long Winters Night A Long Winter's Night 101320 Cat Conundrum Cat Conundrum 101320 Midnight Beach Midnight Beach 071820 American Bluebeard American Bluebeard

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