June Work Rooms, Finishing Lines, and more BHWA news
plus a plug for 1000 Words of Summer
Hello to you all. Do you, like me, feel like you are carrying around a 10 ton rock at all times in the current era? I talk to a lot of writers, and it seems like many of us are swinging back and forth wildly from being unable to think clearly to being super-motivated to write as a form of resistance, survival, coping, and creating art—and everything in between. The weight of it all sometimes sends me into full-on nap mode. I am talking about deep 2 hour naps right smack in the middle of the work day. (I am job hunting too, which makes me even sleepier every time I try to write a cover letter.)
I do however, still manage stay awake and upright and sometimes actually get writing done in our Work Rooms. (I am writing this in Work Room right now.) Maybe you will too! So for the month of June, we will keep going with Work Room 3 days a week, and 2 hours each session. M, W, F, 11 AM to 1 PM EST. Here’s where to register! Join us and bring friends, coffee, and snacks.
If you are working on an ongoing project and looking for community, support, accountability, and a deeper understanding of your own writing process, there are still a few spots left in Finishing Lines, which starts this Saturday, May 31. We have an amazing cohort lined up and it’s not too late to join!
In other news, I will be a panelist in a Zoom webinar put together by Sea Change Capital Partners called Retrenchment & Reconstruction: Strategies for a Sector on the Brink, on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, 12:00pm - 1:15pm ET. You can register for the webinar here. I’ll be talking about my experience winding down NY Writers Coalition, and the challenges facing the nonprofit sector in the current hellscape. If this is your jam, join us.
And finally, do you know about 1000 Words of Summer? Created by novelist Jami Attenberg, it’s a writing challenge to write 1000 words a day for 14 days, starting May 31. There’s a huge community of people doing it and info is below! You can write 1000 words in Work Room, so that covers some of the days!
Don’t forget to participate in No Kings Day on June 14, which looks like it’s going to be the largest protest yet in response to the destruction of the fabric of our society.
That’s it for now!
I have done some of the mini-1000 Word challenges that Attenberg does. Thanks for the reminder about the summer one. Doing them is good for the brain and my writing. I am also reading her 1000 words book now and finding it very inspiring.
Oh cool! Hope you try it!