Welcome to FAW 2025!!!
Join FAW
Want to join Fremont Area Writers? Click here or the “Join Us” link on the menu bar above.
New Events
See the Contests and Submissions page for non-FAW events. Just posted is information about a Flash Fiction contest with interesting prompts. Dead line is December 1. The November Write-in will use these prompts, so attend (November 8, see below) for some practice.
Congratulations to Terry Tosh on the 2025 Jack London Award
Here are pictures from the award ceremony for the Jack London award for service to FAW, won by Terry Tosh for his long service as President of FAW. Congratulations, Terry!
Congrats!
Congratulations to Samuel Rodriguez, whose award winning flash fiction contest entry, “The Inspirational Ghost” can be read in the October Ink Spots.
New, New, New!!!
The Contests and Submission Page is available at https://cwc-fremontareawriters.org/contests-and-submissions/
Or click the sublink under the Writer Resources Menu Item at the top of the page.
The most recent entry is about a Scary Story/Poem contest at the Fremont Wellness Center, due October 20.
Send Scott email if you want to be informed of new entries to this page, otherwise I won’t clog up your inbox.
President’s Message – December 2025
I was wrong last month about that being my final message of the year. A certain editor around here is an over-achiever. FAW takes December off, except for the holiday party Saturday, December 13 at 6 pm. FAW members will get directions. We’ll have food, we’ll have activities including our now traditional pub quiz, and we’ll have a white elephant gift exchange. Watch your email for details beyond what is in this issue of Ink Spots.
December is the time we are out looking for presents for those in our lives. I wondered what CWC icon Jack London would want. So, I asked ChatGPT. It first gave me outdoor gifts, so I specified writing gifts. Number one was:
A Modern Writer’s Studio Cabin
A minimalist, prefabricated writing studio — solar-powered, nestled among redwoods — soundproofed and lined with shelves of his favorite authors: Kipling, Nietzsche, Whitman, and Darwin. A place where the only company is silence and the smell of pine.
Number 5 was
A Custom Anthology: The Fire Within — The Writings That Shaped Jack London
A beautifully bound collection of the books that lit his imagination: Leaves of Grass, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Capital, Moby-Dick, and The Odyssey. Each paired with essays and annotations connecting their influence to his own work.
I think ChatGPT is getting kickbacks from Amazon. I asked about presents for other writers. Then I asked for ones someone could afford. The best was time to write. We writers are lucky. Except for a computer we’d have anyway, writing doesn’t cost us a lot. Except time. The gift of time might be the best of all. It might be alone time to give to someone to pursue a hobby. Or it could be time with someone. Or it could be a gift to yourself.
Hope everyone has a great holiday season, and see you in the New Year.
Keep writing and thinking,
Scott
The December 2025 Ink Spots Newsletter is now available on the Newsletter Page.
You can submit your Shout Out to Ink Spots on the Newsletter page also, using a handy form. Have a story you’d like to submit to Ink Spots? You can submit it using the Shout Out form too! Don’t worry about formatting, Ink Spots will take care of it.
All FAW members will receive Zoom information the Tuesday or Wednesday before the next meeting. Our last meeting was November 22 and featured Erin Swann on “Writing Characters with Emotional Resonance.” Information is below. The next meeting is Saturday, January 24. Not a member? You can join FAW today on our Join Us page. But anyone can attend by requesting Zoom information from Scott Davidson.
Want to join FAW? You can also do it on-line, at our Join Us page. Fill out the form and then pay using PayPal or your credit card.
See books by FAW Members on the Bookshelf page. Updated 3 April with books by Cherilyn Chin and Amber DeAnn
What is the Writers Salon?
From Tony Pino
Every fourth Monday evening, the Fremont Area Writers Group holds a Writer’s Salon. Yet the word “salon” is not used in the daily vernacular of ordinary Americans like you and me—with one exception: the neighborhood beauty salon.
So, what does salon mean in our monthly context?
In response to this question, I am reminded of the film, Midnight in Paris, in which prominent artists of the Post-World-War I era—Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali et al—met at midnight to share and exchange artful ideas and commentary. The protagonist of this film, Gil Pender, is a Hollywood writer who becomes a time-traveler when he is invited into this bygone era by no other than T. S.Eliot. The imagined venue of this film—the sumptuous apartment of Gertrude Stein—can be a metaphor for our writers’ group meetings, where we meet online, share ideas, and support each other in our efforts to achieve “clarity and grace”* whether it’s story-telling, essay-, technical- or report-writing, poetry, or any other communication we might consider. We don’t purport to be Hemingways, Steins or F. Scott Fitzgeralds—we’re just friends trying to get to the next paragraph.
Please consider joining us on the fourth Monday of the month at 7:00-PM and listening or commenting on our colleagues’ work. BTW: If you haven’t already done so, see Woody Allen’s film, Midnight in Paris. It’s worth the time.
The next Salon is Monday, September 28. All FAW members will get notified.
2025 FAW Picnic
The 2025 FAW picnic was held July 12 at Newark Community Park. A good time was had by all.
Attendees gathered around. Photo by Ken Reed. Thanks, Ken.
Cake thanking Terry and Knuti for many years of service on the FAW board.
See more pictures at the Past Events page.
New!: The FAW Bookshelf is now available. See the books FAW writers have published. If you are a member and your book is not there, send a jpeg of your cover, a link to where the book can be bought and a one sentence summary to Scott Davidson.
Come to the Zoom Write-in, second Saturday of Each Month.
Our next write-in will be Saturday, November 8, 2 PM. The flyer is below. All FAW members will get Zoom information. Not a member? Get Zoom information from Scott Davidson
See all the Shelter in Place (SIP) notes here. Click on the one you want, or scroll down to see them in reverse order.
We made it up to SIP Note 55!!! Since we’re not sheltering any more, we’re done! (Hooray!)
Send questions and comments about the FAW Website to Scott Davidson
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Now Held Online
fourth Monday of the month.
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