The Critique Partners

Last week my critique partners and I had our first annual back-to-school get together. Most of our group (Me, Shelley, Hilda, and Cathy) has been together forever -- over ten years now -- and we were thrilled when Tonya joined us two years ago. We meet every other week, usually at a local Panera, and share chapters of our works-in-progress, writing woes, and family goings-on.

But summer... Summer is a tough time for our little writing group. We're all at various stages of our lives from empty nesters to tweens, but for some reason summer is really hard to schedule. Which is why we were happy to celebrate when all the kids went off to school.

We decided to do it up right and had a potluck breakfast -- complete with a writing-related gift grab -- at Shelley's house.

If you follow my Facebook page, you already know I debated what to bring for the potluck. Shelley had provide all the juices and coffee and a blueberry buckle, Cathy brought the egg and sausage casserole, Hilda brought all kinds of muffins, and Tonya made that gorgeous fruit bowl. I ended up bringing home fries. I ate too much, but it was all sooo good.

And lest you think it was all play and no work...here's the proof that we actually set our forks down for a bit to do some editing.

Here's Hilda with Rudy, Shelley's grand-dog, who really wanted to join the fun:

Hilda's working on an amazing historical and planning to self-publish another of her historicals soon. I can't wait till it's out and will definitely share the news when it debuts.

Here's Cathy working hard:

Cathy's working on a novella that will hopefully be out by Christmas. Her latest book, A Wedding Homerun in Loveland, Ohio just came out, and it's wonderful.

And here's her website if you want to look up her other books: http://www.cathyliggett.com/ 

Here's Shelley:

Shelley's working on her new Amish novel, and has a new book, Found, coming out in just a few days. Such a great book with quite the mystery! 

Shelley's website: www.shelleyshepardgray.com

Oh, and she and HarperCollins are currently giving away a NOOK -- check out

her website for more details.

Here's Tonya:

Because Tonya was apparently camera shy at our get-together, I pulled this pic out of the archives. This is Tonya doing a dramatic reading of Fifty Shades (complete with her Kentucky accent). Perfect example of how funny Tonya is, which comes across in her books, too. Her latest, A Charming Crime, came out a couple of months ago and her newest will be out any day now. 

Her website: http://tonyakappes.blogspot.com/

And here we all are. Next meeting is next week, which I'll miss 

because I'll be in Chicago (events listed on the Events tab above). I hope

one of them will have a Panera souffle for me!