Monthly Chapter Meetings

Our Chapter Meetings are a time of connection and growth. Each month, we host speakers who educate, enlighten, and challenge us to grow through their training and experiences. Past speakers include librarians, historians, medical professionals, actors, audiobook narrators, law enforcement personnel, Facebook Group Coordinators, BDSM Masters, advertising and marketing professionals, Yoga Instructors, and – of course – authors!

We are a friendly group of authors – a mix of introverts, extroverts, and ambiverts – who are passionate about writing romance ! We do hope you will join us. Our Hospitality Committee is available to answer your questions and help you get to know more about us.

Meeting Fees

The Meeting Fee is $10.00 for members and $15.00 for visitors. Members can pre-pay their meeting fee here! Alternatively, you can pay for the entire year here. 

Not a member but want to join us? Did you know your first meeting is FREE? Complete this form, and our Treasurer will forward access information: https://forms.gle/LBWJrhYTXuirWmGB8.

 

 

 

 

Virtual Meeting Information

In 2020, the LARA Board chose to act with an “abundance of caution,” and moved to virtual Chapter Meetings. To save money and continue providing quality speakers, we have remained virtual with a minimum of two in-person meetings: our hybrid September Mini-Con and the End of Year Party.

Access instructions for virtual meetings are sent via email immediately after PayPal processes your meeting payment.

We look forward to meeting you.

Click here (or the Zoom logo) to install the app on your device.

 

 

 

 

Standard Meeting Agenda

 

 

9:00 am     Pre-Meeting: Board Meeting or Published Author Chat

9:45 am     Virtual Hospitality (Bring Your Own Coffee!)

10:00 am   Chapter Meeting

11:00 am   Craft or business presentation (see presenters below)

12:00 pm   Closing Remarks & Preview of Next Month

 

 

 

Upcoming Meetings

October 19, 2025

Pre-Meeting: PAC Meet Up

Speaker: Miranda Darrow

Topic: Sasquatch, Nessie, and Moth Man, Oh My! Writing about Cryptids

What story couldn't benefit from a Sasquatch sighting? We'll talk about what cryptids are, what they're not, and how fiction authors can use these local legends in their stories. Miranda Darrow will talk about some recent creature feature titles, with writing tips, common themes and tropes, for writing about Sasquatch, Nessie, and other creatures of local lore. This isn’t high fantasy creatures, but instead those alleged to walk among us on earth. We talk about setting, themes, tropes, and writing tips for writing stories with these fun features, with a special focus on romances with cryptid characters or subplots.

 Learn more about Miranda here: https://www.mirandadarrow.com/

 

 

November 16, 2025

Pre-Meeting: Quick Win Workshop

Speaker: Anne Rachelle

Topic: Bootstrapping a Book Tour

Workshop Description TBD

December 15, 2025

Debut Author Panel & End of Year Party

RSVP goes LIVE November 1, 2025!

 

 

January 19, 2025

LARA Member Check-In

February 16, 2025

Pre-Meeting: Meet & Greet, Board Meeting

Speaker: Sheila Redling and Tobi Doyle

Topic: Corralling your Characters

Are your side characters running amok? Have they taken over the storyline like a bunch of sugared-up second graders? Is your main character frozen in place, refusing to do your bidding? Or worse, have they become boring? Sheila and Tobi will help you regain control of your narrative and get your characters back into place by figuring out roles, motivations, and goals. Mary Sues must die!

Find out more about IGW here: StoryMagicCards.com and AskIGW.com

March 16, 2025

Pre-Meeting: LARA Board Meeting

Speaker: Dr. Christina E. Stephens

Topic: Empowering Authors Today

Unlock success through words and creativity in a competitive marketplace.

Biography:

Dr. Christina E. Stephens has been a leader in the strategic growth of companies for over 20 years. Her experience working for international organizations such as Darden Restaurants, Walt Disney World Resort, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, and Marriott International laid the foundations of a skillset which has equipped her to help businesses of all sizes and from all industries around the world. Dr. Stephens has earned her dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Management of Information Systems and Business Management with a specialty in Hospitality. She also has a Master of Arts in Integrated Marketing Communication and recently completed her Doctor of Philosophy in Digital and Strategic Communication with a focus on Organizational Communication. Christina is also a published author of a children’s book titled “Up the Forest Stream – Achievement-Based Conversations.” Her key industry skills are Team and Talent Development, Leadership, Finance and Budgeting, International Hospitality Operations, and Brand Strategy.

Find out more about Dr. Stephens:

 

April 20, 2025

Pre-Meeting: Quick Win Workshop

Speaker: Gail Chianese

Topic: Selling Direct

Workshop Description TBD

 

May 18, 2025

Pre-Meeting: Quick Win Workshop

Speaker: TBD

Topic: TBD

Workshop Description TBD

 

June 8, 2025

Pre-Meeting: Quick Win Workshop

Speaker: Judi Fennell

Topic: Look Who’s Talking

Characterization and Point of View go together like peanut butter and chocolate—bet you thought I was going to say peanut butter and jelly, but chocolate is better than jelly any day. It’s sharing those little details about your characters that bring them to life for your readers, as is the way they think and speak and act.

In this workshop, we’ll explore how well you know your characters and how much you should share with your readers, as well as how you share it. We’ll talk about point of view and deep point of view. We’ll talk about what they should and shouldn’t narrate—and how they should and shouldn’t narrate it. We’ll talk about what they can and can’t know. We’ll talk about how to build conflict from personality types and we’ll talk about when to info-dump and when not to.

Basically, we’ll talk. Just like your characters will then be able to, to each other and to your readers.

 

July 20, 2025

Pre-Meeting: Writing Sprints

Speaker: Kate Hall

Topic: Unfuck Your TikTok Strategy


I will help you improve your TikTok strategy and give you a greater understanding of short-form video as a whole.

 

August 17, 2025

Pre-Meeting: Quick Win Workshop

Speaker: Beth Atwater

Topic: Romance in Libraries. What now?

Wondering how to get your book into library patrons’ hands? This workshop will review the road from publisher to libraries for both print and digital materials. There will also be a FAQ handout and ample time to ask how libraries make decisions about which books to purchase. 

Beth Atwater is a lifelong romance reader and an award-winning librarian who specializes in Collection Development (or buying books). When she's not spending tax money on library books, she can be found teaching continuing education classes, reading, or binge-watching just about any series with a central romance.

September 21, 2025

Pre-Meeting: Virtual Check-In

Speaker: LARA Board

Topic: Updates & Election; Open Forum

 

 

Previous Meetings 2023

June 25, 2023

Pre-Meeting: 

Speaker: Milly Gray

Topic: Astrology for Writers

How to use the core principles of astrology beyond the sun signs to craft consistent and believable characters.

Milly’s website: https://grayplumeediting.com/

May 21 2023

Pre-Meeting: 

Speaker: Andie Wood

Topic: Organizing or Participating in an Anthology

April 16, 2023

Pre-Meeting: 

Speaker: Ines Johnson

Topic: Beats of Storytelling

 

March 19, 2023

Pre-Meeting: 

Speaker: Ann Rachelle

Topic: Working with bloggers and FB group admins

 

February 19, 2023

Pre-Meeting: Board Meeting

Speaker: Jessica Snyder

Topic: The Six Foundational Elements of Romance Fiction

 

January 15, 2023

9:00 am Board Meeting- everyone is invited

10:00 am General Meeting

11:00 am State of LARA for 2023- Deep dive into the upcoming year

 

July 16, 2023

Pre-Meeting: 

Speaker: Book Brush

Topic: BookBrush: New Features

 

Previous Meetings 2022

December 18 2022

Pre-Meeting: 

Speaker: TBD (IN PERSON)

Topic: 

 

November 20, 2022 (Virtual) 

11am to Noon PT with a brief Q&A immediately thereafter. 

Speaker:Tracee Garner

Topic: HEA for All e.g. Writing Outside of one’s Lived Experience

 

October 16, 2022 (Virtaul)

Pre-Meeting: 

Speaker: Eve Vaughn

Topic: Dark Romance

 

September 18, 2022 (Virtual Mini-Con)

Pre-Meeting: 

Speaker: Sacha Black    11am to Noon with a bit of time for Q&A

Topic:  The Anatomy of Prose: 12 Steps to Sensational Sentences

Sacha Black is a bestselling and competition winning author, rebel podcaster, and professional speaker. She writes educational nonfiction books for writers and sapphic books for Young Adults. She lives in Cambridgeshire, England, with her wife and son.

Speaker: Brittany Holland  12:30pm to 2:00pm with a bit of time for Q&A

Topic: Blurbs

Brittany Holland, also known as The Blurb Whisperer, pens happily ever afters with a modern twist. When she’s not writing blurbs or plotting her next book you can find her drinking Starbucks, watching Netflix or taking pictures on her iPhone. She loves traveling with her family, but southern IL is where they call home.

 

August 21, 2022 (Virtual)

Pre-Meeting: 

Speaker: Liz Pelletier

Topic: Tropes and Hooks

 

July 17, 2022 (Virtual)

Pre-Meeting: 

Speaker: Laurie Schnebly

Topic: Choosing the Fatal Flaw

 

June 26, 2022

Pre-Meeting: Virtual Hospitality & Member Check-In

Speaker: Jennifer Graybeal 

Topic: Goal Setting the Rest of the Year

Website: http://www.jengraybeal.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jentheeditor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.graybeal/

May 15, 2022

Pre-Meeting: Virtual Check-In

Speaker: Martha Alderson

Topic: Start Plotting Your Novel from the End

From my experience writing fiction and helping writers with plot, I’ve found that we often obsess over the beginning of our stories, developing detailed backstories and writing, revising and rewriting – and rightly so. Beginnings hook readers. At the same time, endings create fans, though often writers neglect to give their endings the same sort of time and attention either by stalling out before ever reaching the end or by slapping on an ending with the hope it works.

For now, forget the beginning of your story and turn your focus to the end. This approach of plotting from the end allows you to visualize the whole of your story rather than simply juggle a loose collection of its parts or scenes.

Whether you have a firm grasp of what happens at the end of your story to satisfy both the inner plot and the outer plot or simply a vague idea, come prepared to try out some new strategies.

You’ll be given time to experiment with some the foundational skills needed to:

• preform a task analysis of your outer plot
• deconstruct your main characters to satisfy the inner plot

Register for our May meeting.

Learn more about Martha Alderson.

April 24, 2022

Pre-Meeting: 

Speaker: Jacki Renee 

 Topic: “Developing Your Author Business Plan”

 

 

March 20, 2022

Pre-Meeting: 

Speaker: Stephanie Burdett – Author Services (AT NOON because she’s in Australia)

 

February 20, 2022

Pre-Meeting: Virtual Happy Hour

Speaker: Kilby Blades – “How to Uplevel Your Author Career”

Topic: 

Previous Meetings 2021

 

December 10, 2021

Pre-Meeting: Virtual Happy Hour

Speaker: Debut Author Panel

Topic: Join us as we celebrate this year’s Debut Author’s: Alexa Santi and Leigh Adams! We will meet Alexa (Leigh is going to record her session later) and get to know more about her author journey, debut title, AND what’s next!

 

November 21, 2021

Pre-Meeting: NaNoWriMo Write-In

Speaker: Brandon Leibowitz

Topic: How To Get Free Traffic To Your Website From Google

Click for more information about Brandon.

October 17, 2021

Pre-Meeting: BEN-P Q&A

Speaker: Stacy Gold, Award-Winning Author

Topic: Finding Your Author Voice (And How It’s Different from All the Other Voices in Your Books)

Click for more information about Stacy.

September 19, 2021

Pre-Meeting: Mini-Con Welcome

Speaker: Zoe York, Author

Topic: Romance Your Goals and Romance Your Plan

Click for more information about Zoe.

 

August 15, 2021

Pre-Meeting: Fun with Blurbs!

Speaker: Becca Syme, Author

Topic: Write Better-Faster with Becca Syme

Click for more information about Becca.

 

 

July 24, 2021

$1 for Members and $5 for Non-Members.

Pre-Meeting: Camp NaNoWriMo Write-In

Speaker: Akeisha Johnson

Topic: Creating A Safe Space to Talk About Race (SafeSTTARTM)

Click for more information about Ake isha.

 

 

June 13, 2021

Pre-Meeting: Content Planning Challenge

Speaker: Ally Robertson, Author

Topic: Filter Words and Showing vs Telling – How to make your writing more active and engaging

Click for more information about Ally.

 

Published Author Chat: TBD

Speaker: Ines Johnson, TV Writer turned Romance Novelist

Topic: The Beats of a Hallmark Romance

February 21, 2021

Published Author Chat: TBD

Speaker: Talia Hibbert, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author

Topic: The Intimacy of Third Person Click for more information! 

 

 

 

March 21, 2021

Board Meeting

Speaker: La Rhonda Crosby-Johnson, Author

Topic: Honoring Your Writing Process

 


January 17, 2021

Published Author Chat: Planning Your Writing Year

Speaker: Georgette T. , Owner, 3B Design Co

Topic: Why Do You Need A Content Creator?

 

*The Zoom meeting link will be sent via the LARA Confidential. Guests should reach out to the Chapter Secretary for the information.