Writing Friends

MEET ELAINE L. ORR

Writing Friends

Writers beget writers. Wait, that's not necessarily true. Writers find other writers. Despite the perception that writers are loners, we seek each other out so we can share our work. If we're really serious about it, we want other writers to give us critical feedback (otherwise known as shredding our work). By the third draft, maybe heads will nod.

Leigh Michaels is not only one of the top category romance writers in the nation (30 million, published by Harlequin), she is also a teacher and nonfiction writer. A visit to http://www.leighmichaels.com/ will almost make you tired reading about her varied pursuits. She writes about writing, teaches on-line courses, and offers a terrific critiquing service. In 2011, Source Books began publishing her historical romances, set in the Regency Period. My favorite is Just One Season in London. My writing has benefited substantially from her reviews. If you are fortunate, you will find her as a teacher at a writer's conference.

Richard Peabody is one of the great poets of our age, and I was lucky enough to know him in high school -- and since then. He also nourishes other writers through the DC literary magazine, Gargoyle and by finding talent to write in a number of anthologies. He is fanatic about DC sports teams -- never dis the Redskins in his company. Rick's delight with baseball's reappearance in DC is clear from an article USA Today did about him when the Nationals came to Washington.

James W. Larkin is a poet, living proof that writers' groups are important for things besides sharing work. I met Jim, my husband, in a writers' group at the Ottumwa Public Library, shortly after I moved to Iowa. A lifelong Iowan, some of Jim's work reflects the pleasure and pain of a rural state. Other poems look at the turmoil in American society from the 1980s through the end of the century.

Miles D. Orr

There may be something to this "writers beget writers idea." Miles Orr wrote almost every day of his life. His children published some of his work in Portraits Through Poetry. Read his "Parent's Prayer" or "What Does the Future Hold?" A short book of Miles' poetry is available for Kindle at www.amazon.com.