Maggie King Shares Richmond, A Mecca for Writers:
If you’re a writer, Richmond,
Virginia is the place for you! The city is a mecca for writers of all stripes,
offering all you need to jumpstart your creative process: plenty of art and architecture to admire; wonderful
coffee from local roasters; parks; great watering holes; schools like Virginia
Commonwealth University, University of Richmond, and community colleges;
world-class museums; and libraries. There are even affordable places to live!
Richmond
boasts great indy bookstores like Fountain Bookstore, Chop Suey Books, and Book
People. The owners are always ready to host author signings and events.
History
abounds in Virginia’s capital city. And, if your interest is down-and-dirty
politics, visit the General Assembly during their session each winter. You’ll
get a wealth of writing material at the GA.
The Library of
Virginia’s collection is the most comprehensive resource in the world for the
study of Virginia history, culture, and government.
In Richmond, you will also have
the company of other writers: David Baldacci, Mary Burton, Patricia Cornwell,
Dean King, Mary Miley, Howard Owen, Virginia Pye, and David L. Robbins, to name
a few.
Tom Wolfe, the renowned author
and journalist who died earlier this year, was born and raised in Richmond.
Edgar Allan Poe spent much of his life in Richmond. The Poe Museum is
in the heart of Richmond's historic Shockoe Bottom district. The museum
documents Poe’s accomplishments with pictures, relics, and verse. Here you will
find the world's largest collection of his original manuscripts, letters, first
editions, memorabilia and personal belongings. The museum also provides an
overview of early 19th century Richmond.
Ellen Glasgow,
the novelist and Pulitzer prize winner who wrote about the changing world of
the South, was a lifelong resident of Richmond. A place to visit is the Ellen
Glasgow House, where the author lived from the age of 13 and did much of her
writing. Unfortunately, you can only view the house, as it isn’t open to the
public.
As a writer, you will find in
Richmond opportunities for networking, education, support, and improving your
craft.
James River Writers offers
literary salons and writing contests. Their annual conference is first-class. At
their monthly Writing Show, authors and other literary professionals share
their experiences with the craft and business of writing. Writers get to network,
learn, and expand their writing horizons.
Sisters in Crime is an organization that has 3,600 members in 48
countries worldwide. The Central Virginia chapter is a good place for crime
writers to network and get advice. At chapter meetings, you can learn from
experts on such subjects as terrorism, forensics, and private investigation. A
few years ago, we toured the city jail (quite an eye opener).
The chapter
has published many anthologies, giving opportunities to its members.
Virginia Romance Writers is a
chapter of Romance Writers of America. VRW offers networking opportunities, as well as
programs and workshops on craft. The organization has a wealth of information
about the ever-evolving publishing world.
At Richmond Young Writers,
boys and girls aged 9-17 can take after-school workshops in fiction, poetry,
creative nonfiction, journalism, comics, and other topics. In the summer, young
writers can attend week-long creative writing camps.
Writers can take classes at Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts Studio School; Visual Arts Center; Lifelong Learning Center;
and J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College.
Agile Writers,
Hanover Writers Club, Richmond Christians Who Write, Virginia Writers Club, and
various Writers Meetups are
available.
Convinced that Richmond,
Virginia is a great place to be a writer? Of course, lots of places in Virginia
can make the same claim, especially Fredericksburg and Charlottesville. I
started writing when I lived in Charlottesville. When I moved to Richmond in
2002, I continued to hone my craft. Richmond is where I first published and
continue to publish. I call this city my lucky charm!
Leave a comment on this
post for a chance to win an e-copy of Murder at the Moonshine Inn. Leave
a form of contact so we can find you.
***
Maggie King is the author
of the Hazel Rose Book Group mysteries, including Murder at the Book Group
and Murder at the Moonshine Inn. She has contributed stories to the Virginia
is for Mysteries anthologies and to the 50 Shades of Cabernet
anthology.
Maggie is a member of
Sisters in Crime, James River Writers, and the American Association of
University Women. She has worked as a software developer, retail sales manager,
and customer service supervisor. Maggie graduated from Elizabeth Seton College
and earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration from Rochester Institute of
Technology. She has called New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California home.
These days she lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, Glen, and cats,
Morris and Olive. She enjoys reading, walking, movies,
traveling, theatre, and
museums.
Instagram:
authormaggieking
(Images by Gamma Man and dgladfelter of VisualHunt; and
Wikipedia All info provided by Author)
And
John Rosenman’s Virginia:
Hi, I’m John B. Rosenman, a retired English
professor. In 1982 I was out of work in North Carolina. Luckily, I found a job
available at Norfolk State University fifty miles away (check out the
administration building to the left). I called four days before the deadline,
miraculously got the job, and moved there promptly with my wife and two
children.
Virginia Beach was like a rocket boost to my
creativity. To date I’ve published about 300 short stories and two dozen books,
most in the SciFi, Fantasy, and Horror areas. What is there about coastal
Virginia that jump-started my writing? Part
of it was that about this time, I discovered the small and independent press
which encouraged writers. I also discovered the Ocean Front Writers Group. I was
a member for 20 years and sold many stories and novels thanks to the critiques
of my new friends. Then there’s the excitement and freedom of the Tidewater
area with the Virginia Beach coastline and annual Neptune Festival, featured
below. Watch out for those waves!
I am the author of the ongoing Inspector of the Cross science-fiction /
adventure series, featuring an elite agent who fights for over 4000 years to
save humanity from aliens. Below to the left is the cover for The Turtan
Trilogy, the first three books in the series. If you want a condensed power
pack of the kinds of things I write, The Amazing Worlds of John B. Rosenman is
featured to the right. It’s a kind of boastful title, but don’t hold it against
me. My publisher picked it.
Virginia has so much to offer. Thomas Jefferson, our third president,
founded the University of Virginia, and Jane and I visited his stately home at
Monticello. We’ve toured such scenic and historic places as Jamestown,
Shenandoah National Park, and Skyline Drive. One of my favorite places is
Woodstock Park. It’s just a mile from our home, and below is a photo of Jane
and me at Woodstock to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. We
also like Luray Caverns, just west of Luray.
This cavern system is magnificent, especially if you like stalactites
and stalagmites.
I think Virginia’s variety has contributed to
the variety of my fiction. For example, I worked at an historically black
university for 29 years, and partly because of the school’s influence, I wrote
an African SciFi novel, A Senseless Act of Beauty. I got the title off a car
bumper! My young adult novel, The Merry-Go-Round Man is semi-autobiographical
and features three boys growing up in the 1950s. One of them is me.
In case you think I’m a solemn and stuffy
English professor, one of my novels was very controversial and cost me two
jobs. I also write all kinds of weird humor as well as erotic horror. Here’s the cover for Steam Heat, which is
more than a little steamy.
Thanks for reading! Here are some of my links. If you have any
questions, e-mail me at jroseman@cox.net.
JOHN B. ROSENMAN is a retired English
professor from Norfolk State University. He has published three hundred stories
in Weird Tales, Whitley Strieber's Aliens, Galaxy and elsewhere. He has also published two dozen books,
including SF novels such as Alien Dreams and A Senseless Act of Beauty
(Crossroad Press) and The Merry-Go-Round Man, YA (also with Crossroad
Press). Other SF novels include Speaker
of the Shakk and Beyond Those Distant Stars (Mundania Press), and the Inspector
of the Cross series with MuseItUp Publishing. John’s time-travel story
“Killers” received Musa Publishing’s 2013 Editor’s Top Pick award, and “The
Blue of Her Hair, The Gold of Her Eyes” won Preditor’s and Editor’s Readers
Poll award for SF/F short fiction in 2010. Some of John’s books are available
as audio books from Audible.com.
Two of
John’s major themes are the endless, mind-stretching wonders of the universe
and the limitless possibilities of transformation—sexual, cosmic, and
otherwise, as portrayed in his short story “Dark Angel”. He is the former
Chairman of the Board of the Horror Writers Association and the previous editor
of The Rhetorician and Horror Magazine.
Want More?
I offer one of the books featured in my part of this post-- participant's
choice-Just comment and leave a way of contact.
And that’s not all:
Subscribe
to my Newsletter & receive a free short story (click tab on my website
& follow instructions: www.johnrosenman.com
(All info provided and released by authors)
Virginia is for Mysteries is a fictional tour
guide though various Virginia landmarks, each of which provides a setting for a
tale of dark passions and murder.
As you “travel” vicariously through the state you’ll visit
notable sights that include the Cape Henry Lighthouse and Cavalier Hotel in
Virginia Beach; the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk; Henricus Historical Park
in Chester; Monticello in Charlottesville, and the Kent-Valentine House,
Hollywood Cemetery, Virginia General Assembly, and St. John’s Church, all in
Richmond.
All contributing authors are members of the Central Virginia and
Mystery by the Sea - Coastal Virginia chapters of Sisters in Crime, a national
crime writers organization. I’m proud to have my story,
“A Not So Genteel Murder,” set at the beautiful Kent-Valentine House, in this
stellar collection. 
Maggie is a member of Sisters in Crime, James River Writers, and
International Thriller Writers. She has worked as a software developer, retail
sales manager, and customer service supervisor. Maggie graduated from Elizabeth
Seton College and earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration from
Rochester Institute of Technology. She has called New Jersey, Massachusetts,
and California home. These days she lives in Richmond, Virginia with her
husband, Glen, and cats, Morris and Olive. She enjoys reading, walking, movies,
traveling, theatre, and museums.
