Reviews & Testimonials
This webinar class (Shape of Words-Fiction)
has been a great experience. My congratulations to you for implementing
your concept of In the Company
of Writers. It is so encouraging, as a writer, to know
that you help provide practical, effective tools for me to use in my craft.
Thank you for your dedication to the business of writing.
And you can quote me on that!
F.W.
How can I thank you enough for this wonderful idea and the superb inaugural course? I am trying to earn a living in a day job and write my first novel at the same time, and Shape of Words is saving me from making many mistakes and has already brought my attention to important points that, as a novice, I would otherwise have missed.
K. J.
Detroit, Michigan
I very nearly deleted this mail, (from In The Company of Writers) but decided to take a quick peek. I am on my second dozen NY published novels and been around, but when I read your Q&A (Questions Writers Ask), you are dead on! There are way too many scams and sleezy publishers out there waiting to snag unsuspecting writers. Refreshing to see some good advice being given for a change. Congratulations! I will indeed do some forwarding of your material and wish y'all (I live in Texas) the very best.
Carpe diem,
Ken Hodgson
Author of SEASON OF THE BURNING SOULS, Nov. 2006
Five Star hardcover first edition mystery (latest book)
Dear Geri:
Congratulations on In the Company of Writers. What a great concept!
I so appreciated your support and encouragement through the early stages
of my writing career. I doubt I’d be a published author today if
not for the Georgia Writers Association. If founding the GWA and nurturing
it all those years had been your only life accomplishment, you could sit
back on all those laurels and say, “I did well.”
But now, I’m delighted to see that you’ve created yet another
garden for the growing and blossoming of writers. Thank you for your on-going
dedication both to the writing process and to those of us who write. Thank
you for sharing your life-time of expertise and enthusiasm.
I look forward to being a part of your newest garden.
With deep appreciation,
Fran Stewart
Writer, Editor, Speaker
Winner of the 2004 IPPY Award
Author of the Biscuit McKee Mystery Series:
Orange as Marmalade
Yellow as Legal Pads
Green as a Garden Hose
Blue as Blue Jeans
and
From the Tip of My Pen: a manual for writers
At age twenty-seven, I walked into a Georgia Writers Association meeting
with papers, ideas and ambitions spilling from the oversized satchel that
served as my portable filing cabinet during graduate school. My mind pinballed
in its usual manner when faced with an unknown literary group: would the
people be welcoming or standoffish, what resources would I find, would
I have something beneficial to offer in return?
As Geri approached me, I realized I had forgotten to wonder whether I would meet someone remarkable. And there she was – resplendent in a flowing white dress, chignoned hair and star-wattage smile. Even then, her arms were open. We’re so glad you came, she told me. Today’s speaker is a novelist who will discuss first-book advances and promotion techniques. Join us, she said, and I did.
Seven years later, I am still marveling at Geri’s personal and professional luminosity. She radiates the je ne sais quoi possessed by the best literary salonniers, and her poems carry a grace only surpassed by their author. As executive director of the Georgia Writers Association, she was expert and indefatigable; as a poet, she senses the humanity within our best held shells and cracks them open on the page with unsurpassed delicacy; as creator of In the Company of Writers, she carries her artistic vision forward via a live communication conduit and links likeminded individuals practicing a craft whose side effect is often solitude. In short, Geri generates connections – a crucial part of the professional writer’s care and feeding.
The launch of In the Company of Writers offers a thrilling opportunity to participate in a one-of-a-kind literary community and receive feedback from an elite group of accomplished writers selected by Geri herself. Members can look forward to an experience that offers versatility – whether you seek practical nuts-and-bolts advice (“How do I find a publisher?”) or a discussion of surrealism as a poetic technique in the twenty-first century. A virtuoso of literary resources, Geri will either answer your questions or put you in touch with someone in the literary profession who can. She fosters dialogue among writers at the highest level, and I am forever enriched from my time in her company.
Constance Baechler, M.F.A., Ph.D.
Professor, Poet
January 25, 2007