Recently, I received the opportunity to ask some questions of the
president of the local writing group, Pikes Peak Writers. J.T. Evans, President, Author, jack-of-all-trades, was more than happy to converse with me about the Pikes Peak Writers and their upcoming conference.
Thankfully he was able to take time out of his hectic day to answer these
questions for all of us, so please give him and the Pikes Peak
Writers some of your time to find out more about this truly awesome
group at large in our community!
CB: How long have you been
the president of the non-profit organization Pikes Peak Writers, And
what has it been like?
J.T.: I joined Pikes Peak
Writers (PPW) as a member in late 2008. I worked my way up in the
organization from chair mover and auction guard to being a presenter
at a Write Brain and helping out around conference where I could to
becoming PPW's webmaster in 2012. In late 2012, I was invited to join
the Board of Directors because the president needed to step down
because of Real Life getting in the way of her volunteer efforts. In
the January board meeting of 2013, I was elected vice president of
the group with the understanding that I was to stay in that role
until later in the year when a planned transition would happen for me
to become president. In September of 2013, that transition happened.
I've been president of another
non-profit in the past, and I've volunteered for a handful of
non-profits as a teenager and young adult. These volunteer efforts in
the past have almost always been rewarding in their own unique ways.
My volunteer efforts for PPW have been nothing short of astonishing.
I work, usually on a daily basis, with the best group of people I've
ever had the privilege of being around. The level of dedication,
effort, intelligence, caring, and true passion everyone around me
exhibits without fail blows me away. This drives me to maintain my
high level of energy, drive and devotion to PPW, so we can constantly
improve and move forward to what the future brings.
CB: What's the reason or
philosophy, if you will, behind being a non-profit organization?
J.T.: Honestly, it's a
natural fit. We're here to help educate people on the art, craft,
science, and business of writing. This education starts where basic
English classes at high school or college leave off and continues
throughout the career of the writer. Our goal is not to make every
writer a multi-volume, best-seller published author because that's an
unreasonable goal. It would be great
if that could happen for everyone,
but the truth of the matter is that this is a rarity in the writing
community. Our goal is to assist every writer in accomplishing
whatever goals they set for themselves.
Being a non-profit
does put more financial restrictions on what we can and can't do and
how we go about things, but it also opens the door to many more
opportunities, as many businesses and other non-profits in the area
are willing to give us assistance (such as free meeting space) from
time-to-time.
CB: How does Pikes Peak
Writers make it's presence known in the community and what do you do
to help struggling writers?
J.T.: We have quite a few
ways to make people aware of us. In traditional means, we advertise
our conference in newspapers around the region, and we also advertise
in target magazines when we can afford to do so. In the newer
methods, meaning social media, we are very active on Facebook,
Twitter, our blog,
and our website.
We also have a great Yahoo Group
for facilitating email-based communication.
We use all of the above communication
methods to reach out to people regarding our monthly and annual
events. Each month, we host at least three free events. These are our
Write Brains, Open Critique, and Writer's Night.
Write Brains are two-hour long
educational sessions where an expert or experienced person teaches
the attendees about the craft of writing, the business of writing, or
some part of how things really work, so writers can execute these
real life circumstances more accurately. We've recently partnered
with Delve Writing
to record and broadcast our Write Brains over the Internet. Online
viewing does require an RSVP because there are a limited number of
“seats” in the software. However, showing up in person does not
require an RSVP. More information about upcoming Write Brains can be
found here: http://www.pikespeakwriters.com/events/write-brains/
The Open Critique is a session where we
gather a group of writers together to review the other writers'
submissions and give immediate feedback on the writing. There are a
limited number of submissions we can go through in a night, so if you
want to submit something, you have to RSVP. Attending to just give
feedback and meet some fellow writers does not require an RSVP. More
details about our Open Critique can be found here:
http://www.pikespeakwriters.com/events/open-critique/
Our Writer's Night is a place where
writers can gather, meet each other, enjoy a drink or two, and
discuss whatever writing-related topic they wish to bring up in an
open and friendly environment. It's great fun, and everyone always
walks away inspired to write and learns quite a bit from the informal
discussion. To find out about Writer's Night, you can go here:
http://www.pikespeakwriters.com/events/writers-night/
As far as our annual events go, we tend
to have 2-3 special events that are either a half- or full-day in
length. Some of them are free, but most require some form of payment
to offset our costs of renting space and bringing in speakers. These
special events cover a wide variety of topics, but they are always a
deep dive into the topic. Our attendees come away with a head full of
knowledge and a spirit full of drive to implement what they've
learned.
Of course, our Big Event of the year is
the Pikes Peak Writers Conference...
CB: What can you tell us
about the Pikes Peak Writers Conference?
J.T.: Wow. Where to
start? We have so many exciting things lined up for our attendees.
I'm really looking forward to every keynote speaker we have lined up.
We have a great steampunk-themed dinner for Friday Night set up.
There's the on-site writing contest. We also have something Sooper
Sekrit planned for attendees to compete in that will be an incredible
hoot. Our Saturday Banquet is always a great time with good friends.
We have over 80 sessions to pick from throughout the weekend.
Attendees get to pick an agent or editor to pitch their completed
novel to. There are just so
many great things going on this weekend, I can taste the excitement
and eagerness already. We have so much going on and so much planned,
I'm just going to point people to our PPWC section of the web site
for more details: http://www.pikespeakwriters.com/ppwc/
CB: What kind of people do
you expect to be interested in attending? (What kind of person is
this conference intended for?)
J.T.: We're mainly a
fiction-based conference. We do have some topics applicable to
non-fiction writers, but for the most part we cover fiction from any
and all genres in our presentation. We have workshops for writers of
all levels of writing experience. Anyone ranging from having just
written a short story to having published an entire epic fantasy
series will find themselves welcome at PPWC, and everyone always
learns a great deal of things from our workshops.
In addition to the learning and growing
of knowledge in the sessions, PPWC is a great place to meet new
people, network, and just enjoy being around people like themselves.
It's nice to be able to talk about writing without getting strange
looks from people when you mention all of the horrible things you do
to your characters.
CB: Where is the conference
taking place and what are the dates it will run?
J.T.: The conference is
at the Marriott in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The main days are
Friday, April 25th through Sunday, April 27th. We do have an add-on
day on Thursday, April 24th that can be added as part of the
conference as a whole, or just as a stand-alone day.
CB: Where can interested
parties get more information, such as finding out who the Keynote
Speakers are?
J.T.: If you're
interested in finding out more about our keynote speakers, faculty,
agents, and editors that will be at the conference, you can visit our
conference faculty page here:
http://www.pikespeakwriters.com/ppwc/conference-faculty/
As always, we have a really exciting
lineup of people for the 2014 conference. My hat's off to our
programming and faculty coordinators for getting such an amazing
group of people to come into our doors and talk to our attendees.
CB: Speaking of
PikesPeakWriters.com, what resources are available to writers on the
site?
J.T.: The website has
tons of information about all of our PPW events and efforts. The top
three sections of the web site are about conference, our writing
contest (check back at the PPW web site in August for the re-opening
of next year's conference), and our events.
We also have a section on our site for
the people that keep this amazing machine growing. We also have a
good selection of resources for writers about the craft and business
of writing.
As always, if someone spots something
missing from the site, I welcome feedback. Feel free to email
webmaster@pikespeakwriters.com
or use the “Help Us Improve” feedback form that is on every page
of the site.
CB: Was there anything else
you wanted to say about Pikes Peak Writers, or about the Pikes Peak
Writers Conference?
J.T.: Pikes
Peak Writers has truly given me a home where I can comfortably hang
out with like-minded people. Some of the best friends I have today
have come through PPW. I still remember my first Write Brain back in
August of 2008. I was greeted with warmth, welcomed to participate as
if I'd been there from day one, and treated like an equal despite my
obvious inexperience in the writing community and craft. This is how
we still treat people. One of my goals is to ensure this is how we
always treat every person that crosses our threshold: new and
returning members.
CB: Well
I certainly appreciate you being able to pull yourself away from the
business that is your day to answer some questions for us. I hope
this year's conference is as awesome as ever!
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