The third Thursday of every month is special.

One of the things I love to do is write. I do all sorts of writing, and of course there is my book that I am madly marketing. To keep the juices flowing it helps to have some company. Because I have had several long term house sits in this area I have been attending the Helensvale Writers group for quite a while now.

We have a monthly meeting, which lasts for only two hours, but we are able to get quite a lot accomplished in that time. At the moment we have been meeting in a private home because the Helensvale Library, our normal meeting place is in a temporary building while a new library is under construction. However, that should be up and running within the next few months and we hope to have our meetings there again.

This is a concept drawing of what the new builidng will look like, I copied this from their website. http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/library/t_library.aspx?pid=9920. Not only will it house the library, but have meeting rooms, and act as a Community Cultural Youth Centre. "The new centre will include a wonderful children’s area; reading spaces; a meeting room; space for special events and activities; 36 public access computers; a 200 seat auditorium; rehearsal, recording and digital media rooms; a Council Customer Service Centre and Divisional Councillor’s Office". It is going to be a wonderful addition to our Helensvale area.

Now, back to our little writing group. We worked out, that of the dozen or so who attended today,(there are usually one or two each month who can't make it)  seven of us have published books within this calendar year. That is a pretty amazing feat for just a small group. We also have the advantage of being quite a diverse little group, with extensive knowledge of publishing, both e-books and hard copy books.

We have a financial sponsor who helps to keep us in coffee and biscuits, and more importantly sponsors visiting speakers that come and talk to us. This is Elena Ornig. She runs an e-book publishing company called Hot Digital Books. She is also a writer herself, so knows the joys and frustrations of writing, the good, the bad and the maddening. She also has a world wide network of writers and publishers so we have plenty of advice at our fingertips. I think one of the beauties of our little group is that we share openly with the aim of advancing the skills and knowledge of the whole group.

Another of our members is getting an online book site set up. Rolando Rizzo is a semi retired business man, with a swag of business acumen, and he is calling his site Online Books.net.au.  He is looking for anyone who has written a book and wants to sell it to contact him. He is promoting hard-copy books, rather than digital books.  He is accumulating quite a lot of useful info for writers here too. Check out his site and maybe he can help you with selling your book if you have had one published.  Rolando has also published several books which are selling well.