Meredith Kaiser

Writing is what I’ve always wanted to do. I’m not a comedian, but sometimes when I bring my writing to the workshop, the group gets rowdy with laughter. We have to close the door to keep from disturbing others. To me that’s a highlight of being part of the group.

Doris Fields

I’ve written a novel about a Southern family that has two endings, neither of which is the right one. All my characters have secrets. What they don’t know about each other causes problems, but if they knew everything, there’d still be problems, just different ones.

DiAna DiAna

I published my first book, Curlers & Condoms . I am a cosmetologist and writer, therefore I write about funny things in my salon and the AIDS work that I did for 20 years. My next book will be a collection of strange stories, a non fiction this time. I love my writer's group, wonderful people with great stories to tell. Come join us.

Beth Cotten

My true name is Elizabeth Cotten. My pen name is Liza Spencer; derived from my first name and my husband’s first name. I was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, but from the age of four I lived in California until I retired and moved to Columbia, South Carolina in January of 2003. I now consider Columbia my home. The best years of my life thus far were the 49 years I spent married to my husband who passed away in October of 2007. Approximately 17 of those years were spent as a defense investigator; 11 as a licensed private investigator and six as criminal investigator for the San Diego Public Defenders Department. I hold a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology that promoted my employment in the field. I found it to be a very rewarding career.

I was influenced to write because I have a love for the written word and because I have always been successful throughout my life with written assignments- in both my education and career. Writing my doctoral dissertation provided excellent experience in the areas of research and writing skill. From the time of my childhood, I have been an avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction. My preferred choice of genre is the fictional novel, but I am also interested in learning about short story writing.

My weaknesses in writing include procrastination and discipline. I do not write daily, as many writers do and I seem to write more easily when I am under pressure and have a deadline to meet. I took a course in novel writing about 12 years ago which helped me to write the first three chapters of a novel. Life circumstances interrupted that endeavor and I now have the time and desire to pursue writing again.

Brian Butler

I've been editing and revising my dark, urban fantasy novel, D1SORD3R, for much longer than it took me to write it. The more I work on it, the more it haunts me. I'm reminded of what Winston Churchill once said about writing a novel: "To begin with, it was a toy, an amusement; then it became a mistress, then a master and then a tyrant."

And a tyrant it has become, occupying every spare moment of my life. To stay sane, I have taken small breaks to pen several short stories--although one has been growing into a novella on its own accord.

I also have another suspense novel, which I am smack dab in the middle of writing and hope to have complete by the end of the year. I have outlined eight more book ideas, so I don't see the madness ending anytime soon.

Ilmars Birznieks

Born by the Amber Sea, the Baltic, I still have a Latvian name, Ilmars Birznieks, although I am an American citizen and have lived in the States over sixty years. From early youth I was inspired by a Latvian writer, Alexanders Grins, whose long-sentenced, patriotic novels are imbued with elaborate fantasia.

I dabbled in art now and then, writing a poem or a short story or two in Latvian as a teenager. But since my ambition was to study medicine, I did not consider writing (particularly fiction) seriously. Only when my freshman English professor suggested that I should write stories, I considered it as a possibility.

Now after a long career in academia, not in medicine but languages (life has its surprises!), I finally turned to writing novels and short stories. I have published two novels, The Forgotten Promise and The Invisible Hand and have several novels and short stories lingering on the shelf. People who have read my work have found it interesting, "can't put it down" creations. But, alas, that is the opinion of common readers, not hundreds of agents and publishers.

Coming soon!!

Alright guys....The blog is nearing completion and soon you'll get to meet all the participating members of the Columbia II Writers Workshop. We're going to post introductions next week and these intros will tell you a little about each of us. After that, we'll have weekly post on writing related topics.

Topics could include, but aren't limited to....

Great Writing Books
Craft Information
News and Information from the SCWW Conference!
News and Information from the South Carolina Book Festival
News and Information from other conferences that we attend
Good News Posts
Bad News Posts
Contest Information
Samples of our Work
and...LOTS OF OTHER FUN STUFF!

We look forward to hearing from you and hope that you will make comments on our posts so that this can be an interactive forum!

Tell us what you think of the new blog....