Welcome to FAW 2026!!!

Three Latest Page Updates

Click on the link to go to the latest news.

Evelyn LaTorre Elected CWC Secretary!

Evelyn LaTorre, our long-time CWC representative, was just elected as Secretary of the California Writers Club Board. Congratulations Evelyn!

FAW Member Renewal Closed

But you can still join us at the Join Us page.

Join FAW

Want to join Fremont Area Writers? Click here or the “Join Us” link on the menu bar above.

New Events

FAW member Carol Hall‘s film project is progressing. In March, the 2-minute sizzle reel for The Jeweled Bird was shown at The Chinatown Film Festival in Los Angeles and won for Best Trailer and Audience Choice Award. Information on the project can be found here. This include information on a crowd funding campaign for a proof of concept. She has obtained a fiscal sponsor, From the Heart Productions, which makes contributions to the project tax-deductible.

The 10-minute proof-of-concept film is a portion of the movie that shows what the entire movie is basically about. It will also showcase the quality and the tone of the full-length film. This POC can be entered into major film festivals like Sundance, Tribeca, and South by Southwest as a short to gain credibility and attract name talent and investors. It can also be submitted to studios and other producers to partner with on the feature film. In addition, since the short stands by itself, it will be offered to schools, libraries, anti-human trafficking organizations, faith-based organizations, and Asian American groups.

New, New, New!!!

The August 2026 Ink Spots Newsletter is now available on the Newsletter Page.

The Contests and Submission Page is available at https://cwc-fremontareawriters.org/contests-and-submissions/

A new pair of contests from Gotham Writers is listed there.

Or click the sublink under the Writer Resources Menu Item at the top of the 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.

Speakers

All FAW members will receive Zoom information the Tuesday or Wednesday before the next meeting.FAW Our last speaker, on September 26, was Margaret Lucke, who talked about “Anatomy of a Short Story.” Information is below.

Members will receive Zoom information. Not a member? You can join FAW today on our Join Us page. But anyone can attend, free, 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.

President’s Message – October 2026

As you read this, you probably have seen the preparations for Halloween in the stores. As I write this, in early September, I have also seen the preparations for Halloween in the stores. And by the time Halloween comes, the Christmas decorations will be up.

As writers we can use a description of the environment our characters move in, such as a store, to give clues as to the time of year. But what to do when Halloween decorations go with air conditioning and shorts? This is even more of a problem if your story is set in a place with real weather, unlike the Bay Area.

This is one more example of why I love to write. We have so much freedom. We can set the date by using traditional decorations at traditional times. Or we can write humor as our characters notice how out of sync the stores are with the calendar. Or we can write gloom, perhaps with store decorations triggering a character to remember better times with a loved one in that very store.

So many possibilities! And we just have to write them. And get someone to read them. Getting readers for early versions of your story is important in improving its quality. The quality of mine improved thanks to members of my critique group, who even pointed out things about the story I missed. So, maybe we should set up some critique groups.

There are no FAW-sponsored ones, and I’ve heard people express interest. Anyone want to volunteer to run one? I volunteer to set up a Zoom link if that is how the members of the group want to work. The one I was in was for fiction, but FAW includes lots of poets and perhaps we can have a poetry critique group also.

Anyone interested? Let me know. You have my email.

Keep thinking and writing!

Scott

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, February 23. All FAW members will get notified.

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, October 10. Details are below All FAW members will get Zoom information. Information is below. Not a member? Get Zoom information from Scott Davidson