In spirit of National Novel Writing Month, two local organizations partnered together last weekend to bring awareness to writing and the craft of wordsmiths in the Chippewa Valley.

In a conference room in the Eau Claire L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, authors and community members came together to share their advice and experiences with writing. Local authors from the organization Chippewa Valley Local Authors (CVLA), held Write Here, Write Now to bring awareness to local writers and share support in the literary community.

The event kicked off with a Q&A panel from local authors Julie Court, Dennis Miller, Steve Nelson and CeCelia Zorn who answered questions by audience members who came to learn more about how to improve their writing process from published authors.

Eau Claire local, Teresa Huber, came to the event to support her friend Court, one of the panelists answering questions and talking about her book entitled “Incredible Life Makeover.” Huber said having these types of events helps people meet fellow writers and gets others motivated to do more writing.

“It was amazing how many people raised their hand saying that they were writing a book,” Huber said.

This was the first year of the event and it was co-sponsored by Chippewa Valley Writers Guild, (CVWG). There were five different presentations and receptions throughout the day, bringing in experienced writers who were able to share what they have learned with beginners in the craft.   

Huber said it was good to hear the advice from authors who had been through the process of writing and publishing a book.

“I liked how they talked about each part of the book,” Huber said. “I was able to look at my idea of writing a book and what I could possibly do if I wanted to pursue this.”

Bill Callaghan, the moderator for the event and president of CVLA, said the group hopes to expand this event in the future to celebrate local authors at the Confluence Center for the Arts.

Callaghan said the intention of this event was to not only to bring awareness to local writers  but to also increase the organization’s membership.

He said it was an opportunity to promote their books and acted as a dress rehearsal for bringing this to a bigger scale sometime in the future.

He said the organization does events throughout the year to promote their books and bring awareness to local authors of this opportunity.

“Authors will find us through word of mouth,” Callaghan said. “Also, an event like this we have already heard from people in the audience who want to be a part of our organization and who are looking for help in promoting and marketing their books. That’s what we do.”

With Eau Claire having that reputation for it’s local art, Callaghan said that literary art is important and the two organizations are helping to make it more receptive to the community.

“We are driving it,” Callaghan said. “We are redefining and pioneering literary art awareness in the Chippewa Valley.”

Huber said she liked that there was something local to Eau Claire that could help writers and was good to hear the advice from others.

“It was sort of nice to come down here and just to hear people’s ideas,” she said.