Free Writing Lessons for Would-Be Authors to Begin at Warner Library in Tarrytown on June 21, 2014

“Writers' Forum,” a free group created to provide aspiring authors and budding journalists help in getting started, will meet at the Warner Library in Tarrytown on Saturday, June 21, 2014, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. No fees are ever charged.

Future meetings of the group will alternate every two weeks between Warner Library and the Grinton I. Will Branch of the Westchester Library System, located in Yonkers. The Yonkers meetings will take place on Tuesday evenings, beginning at 7 p.m.

Persons interested in writing fiction or nonfiction are encouraged to attend whether novelists, poets, playwrights, short-story writers, memoir writers, biographers or other types of journalists. 

Published authors will participate occasionally with talks and tips. Typical topics to be covered in coming programs include memoir writing, blogging, writing dialogue, entering contests, and finding a literary agent.

Lyn Halper is the Writers' Forum Program Coordinator

The June 21 meeting in Tarrytown will open with a brief talk by Lyn Halper, Writers' Forum Program Coordinator, about the mission and goals for the group. A few members will read briefly from work they have in progress. (At many meetings, attendees will be invited to submit samples of their work for critiquing by the group.)

A writing exercise will follow at the June 21 meeting with Halper reading a few opening lines from published literature. Attendees will then try their hands at writing opening sentences.

Halper is a retired clinical psychologist. She has a Masters Degree in Creative Writing, has written for many publications including literary journals, and she received a Pushcart Prize nomination from Fiction International. Her plays have been produced and performed in Chicago, Connecticut, and mid-west states. 

For many years she taught out of the Philosophy Department of Rockland Community College of SUNY and presently is with Cabrini Immigrant Services, Dobbs Ferry, NY.

Author Eileen Palma to talk at July 19 meeting

At the Saturday July 19, 2014 meeting, author Eileen Palma will relate how she found a publisher for her romantic comedy novel"Worth the Weight," released on April 28, 2014, and she will read passages from the book. The book has similarities to “You've Got Mail, ” a Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan movie, in that its two central figures are at first unaware they are professionally adversaries. 

Palma is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and she studied Advanced Novel Writing at Sarah Lawrence College’s The Writing Institute in Bronxville.

For more information about Writers' Forum, contact Program Coordinator Lyn Halper, lynhalper@aol.com.

The Warner Library, located at 121 N. Broadway (Route 9), Tarrytown, is at the corner of Wildey Street, www.warnerlibrary.org, 914-631-7734. Free parking is available in the library parking lot and on the street alongside neighboring Patriots' Park. 

The Brinton l. Will Branch of the Westchester Library System,www.ypl.org, is located at 1500 Central Park Ave., Yonkers, NY.

Photo of Eileen Palma provided by Syrie Moskowitz