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Critique Group Will Resume April 11th at 7:00 p.m.

The critique group began in Kat Crawford’s living room many years ago. Do you recognize anyone?

Here’s some good news to celebrate. The critique group will start up again in April. It will be a hybrid meeting combining in-person and zoom. The first meeting will be on Thursday, April 11th at 7:00 p.m. For those meeting in-person, we’ll be at the same location as our regular monthly meetings at Omaha Christian Center. O.C.C. is located at 4215 N. 92nd Avenue, Omaha, NE 68134.

Important information: Omaha Wordsowers Critique is a closed group because we want to protect the copyright on your manuscripts. Email Lollie at lolliehofer@yahoo.com with your email address or send it in a message on the Wordsowers Facebook page. She’ll send you an invite to join the group. Please understand, this is the only way you can be admitted to Omaha Wordsowers Critique.

At April’s meeting, we’ll go over the critique and submission guidelines established by Kat Crawford several years ago. The critique and submission guidelines are pinned on the page so you can read them prior to the first meeting. Please don’t feel overwhelmed. We’ll walk you through the information and work with you until you’re comfortable with the guidelines.

Please don’t submit your manuscripts to be critiqued until after the April meeting. You’ll then have until the first Thursday in May (May 3rd) to submit.

If you have any questions, contact Shari at sharisworld43@gmail.com or Lollie at lolliehofer@yahoo.com

For those joining us via Zoom, your zoom invite will be on the Omaha Wordsowers Critique page as well. Be sure to sign-up before 4:00 p.m. on meeting day to give the administrators time to let you into the group.

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Speakers and organizers at the first Wordsowers Conference in 2013. Front row: Angela Meyer, Kat Crawford, and Teresa Tierney. Back row: Tara Rye, Lee Warren, and the late Pamela Sonnenmoser.

Lee Warren did the math. At the end of 2024, somewhere around November/December, Wordsowers will be twenty-five years old. Throughout the year we’ll post pictures and reminisce about the good old days. We’ll invite some of your favorite people to be guest bloggers on this website and speakers at some of the monthly meetings. We’ll end the year with an Anniversary/Christmas party in December.

Congratulations Wordsowers Christian Writers Group. Happy Twenty-fifth Anniversary.

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Questions for You Regarding the Critique Group

Wordsowers may reactivate the critique group. We have three questions for you. First question: Is this something you would be interested in doing? Second question: What days/times (evening hours) would work best for you? Third question: Would you prefer in-person meetings or Zoom meetings? You can leave your answers in the comments below or send a message via Facebook at this link Facebook . Thank you.

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Heartland of American Christian Writer’s Network is hosting a writers’ conference in November. Here is the link for information regarding the conference: Christian Writers Conference – HACWN

Several Wordsowers writers have spoken or attended past conferences. This year Cheryl Paden and Kathy Nickerson, Wordsowers members, will be speakers.

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Here’s to the Future of Wordsowers

New Wordsowers Leadership

Prior to the COVID pandemic, Wordsowers Christian Writers Group was a thriving group who met regularly in Omaha, NE. During the pandemic, they met via Zoom. Although thankful for the Zoom meetings as a way to stay connected, over a period of time their numbers dwindled. Many folks expressed a desire to meet in-person once again.

Starting in January 2023 they decided to try hybrid meetings, a combination of in-person and Zoom. Their numbers slowly began to build over the months. In June, due to health reasons and an extra busy schedule, Jeanie Jacobson and Shannon Christmas stepped down from their leadership roles after serving faithfully for many years. That left one person in leadership, Lollie Hofer

Just when Wordsowers needed her the most, Kat Crawford, one of the founding members, came to Omaha for a visit. She spoke at the July meeting in an effort to inspire the group and give some direction for the future. One thing became clear, if there was to be a future, others would have to step into leadership roles. Folks were encouraged to pray and seek the Lord’s will on behalf of Wordsowers.

At the August meeting, those in attendance expressed a strong desire to continue the monthly meetings. Several people mentioned how they valued the fellowship, encouragement and teaching they received. Hybrid meetings would continue as long as there were people who attended via Zoom. As a result of others responding to a call to serve, the new leadership team was announced. Team members are Debbie Crom, Pat Karent, Shari Woodstein, and Lollie Hofer.

Wordsowers is excited about the future and all the good things God has in store for a group of writers who desire to bring Him glory in all they write.

Here’s to a thriving future.

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snowy roads

Due to inclement weather we are cancelling Wordsowers January meeting tonight. The snow/rain is supposed to continue throughout the day off and on and with temperatures going below freezing, the roads could get bad and we have people who drive from a bit outside of Omaha. We want everyone to stay safe!

We will resume our meetings in February.
We miss you all. Stay safe and warm!

New Wordsowers Leadership

It is fall time and change is in the air.

A new leadership team is forming. Are you ready to meet them? Stay connected via newsletter, website, and FB page to hear the upcoming announcement about our new team and their plans moving into 2020 and beyond.

In the meantime, as you have opportunity, communicate to Kat Crawford, Jeanie Jacobson and Teresa Tierney your many thanks for all they have done over the years to lead Wordsowers locally and through the annual conference.

As the new leadership makes plans, the Annual Wordsowers Writers Conference has been put into hiatus for 2020. Be sure and come to our monthly meetings and critique groups to continue growing in your craft and to stay connected to other writers.

Today we have Jennifer Slattery sharing with us today.

Sometimes we forget we’re called. When pressure comes or ministry events don’t turn out as we hoped or expected, we tend to make much of ourselves and little of Jesus. Only when we, like Paul, can say, in the depths of our hearts, “I am a slave of Christ,” can we rise above outward successes and failures and the ever-shifting opinions of man.

I have a dear friend who’s an equally humble and gifted writer. She’s never signed with a publisher or seen her name in a byline of a national magazine. But she writes truth with the transparency, and grace of one chosen and empowered by the Risen Lord. However, she doesn’t often remember this. She tends to allow her insecurities and doubts to overshadow God’s authoritative voice.

When this occurs, I remind her that she’s called, chosen, lavished with grace, and given everything she needs to fulfill all God has planned. Whenever I introduce her, I especially love stating her role as a writer, after which she’ll drop her gaze and sputter something about me being too kind.

I’m not. I’m simply calling out the truth. She became a writer the moment she took her first steps of obedience, regardless of the words penned on a page. The same holds true for every speaker and ministry leader commissioned by Christ. Our calling isn’t dependent on the size of our readership or how many Instagram followers we have. It’s determined by the will and pleasure of our Sovereign Lord.

I love how the apostle Paul introduced himself in his letters. He almost always began by asserting who he was in Christ. He told them, and likely himself, that he was “called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” (1 Cor. 1:1).

We are as well.

We are called: summoned by God Himself and gifted with salvation.

We are apostles: messengers sent on mission, commissioned by Christ to represent Him to a broken and hurting world.

We’re called by theléma, God’s preferred will. His preferred not decretive will. In other words, this is something we accept or reject. We submit or rebel.

 It’s possible to waste the life and talents God has given us. It’s possible to be so set on a particular direction or opportunity, we completely miss the amazing things God has in store. It’s possible to stand on the fringe of the abundant, filled to overflowing life Jesus promised without experiencing the full joy and depth of it. When we choose surrender, however, no matter what we encounter, no matter the opened and closed doors, we find deep intimacy with Christ, our true prize, and therefore realize we have every reason to rejoice.

To lead, write, and speak well, with the power and authority granted us by Jesus Christ, we must anchor ourselves in God’s love and grace and fully commit to His call, regardless of where He leads.

Identity, not just who we are, but who we think we are, determines behavior.

So remember and hold tight to this:
You are called.
You are sent.
You are empowered.

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Jennifer Slattery is a writer and international speaker who has addressed women’s groups, church groups, Bible studies, and other writers across the nation. She maintains a devotional blog found at Jennifer Slattery Lives Out Loud and on Crosswalk. She has a passion for helping women discover, embrace, and live out who they are in Christ. As the founder of Wholly Love Ministries, she and her team partner with churches to facilitate events designed to help women rest in their true worth and live with maximum impact. Connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. When not writing, reading, or editing, Jennifer loves going on mall dates with her adult daughter and coffee dates with her hilariously fun husband. Contact her HERE to book her for your next women’s event.

Hometown Healing:

She’s home again, but not for long…
Unless this cowboy recaptures her heart

Returning home with a baby in tow, Paige Cordell’s determined her stay is only temporary. But to earn enough money to leave, she needs a job—and her only option is working at her first love’s dinner theater. With attraction once again unfurling between her and Jed Gilbertson, can the man who once broke her heart convince her to stay for good?

Buy your copy HERE.

There is no school for caregivers. So where does the caregiver turn for help? I struggled through the first year of my husband’s “No Hope” rare cancer diagnosis in 2003. Through that time, I developed a new strength and a new title, The Lionhearted Kat.

I also created a lionhearted motto to keep me going and to share:

“Be Bold! Stay Strong! Spring to action!”

My husband survived the rare cancer, Pseudomyxoma Peritonei (PMP). He lived seven years from the day he first saw a doctor and then died suddenly of a heart attack.

That first near-death experience brought reality to our home.

Gary often said, “Life is short and then you die. It is what you do with the minutes in between that count.” He used those last seven years to help make a difference in the lives of others. He also encouraged me to write, write, write.

At the beginning of Gary’s illness, I searched libraries and bookstores for help. I can still feel my desperation in a Barnes and Noble store when I said to the teen clerk, “I need a book for caregivers.”

“I’m not sure what that is, maybe try self-help.”

I found nothing. Later I wrote and published, “Capsules of Hope: Survival Guide for Caregivers.”

A rare cancer moved me to supply a need for others.

Not all of life is death and dying—today I’m determined to find something ridiculous to write about. A tidbit of laughter to share with others.

Above all I know this:

Nothing I write will be read by others and possibly make a difference in their lives, help them to find help and hope unless I share it or submit it.