WELCOME to Writers On The Storm, The Woodlands, Texas chapter of ACFW

Welcome authors! Wherever you are on your writing journey, you have come to the right place. Writers On The Storm, The Woodlands, Texas chapter of the American Christian Fiction Writers is a great place to connect with fellow local writers in person at our monthly luncheon meetings,* to learn from multi-published authors and seasoned professionals and industry leaders, and to utilize all the great resources ACFW has to offer its members. Please check out what we're about.

Chapter One: Writers On The Storm

The Woodlands, Texas chapter of the American Christian Fiction writers got together for our very first meeting on Saturday, September 6th, 2008. I'd contacted every local person I knew, who had at some point expressed even an iota of an interest in writing, to invite them to an exploratory get together. The goal was to find out if there was enough appeal to join a new chapter. Our premier meeting, through no fault of our own, was literally on the eve of Hurricane Ike, yet our private room at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen was maxed out with eager writers. Eager, and maybe a tinge on the crazy side. Therefore, it seemed appropriate to name our group, "Writers On The Storm." And so, a chapter was born. We were absolutely "blown away." 

Our thrill was short-lived however. Hurricane Ike wrought widespread devastation and heartache to our area of Texas. Though the next meeting would be months later, the enthusiasm, much to our surprise, was still there, and continues today.

Our luncheon meetings at Lupe Tortilla's

Many members joined with a hope and a dream to someday be published and now they are. Our chapter president, Annette O'Hare began with an idea for a YA mystery featuring Weimaraner puppies. Though Puppy Caio was not her first published book, the book is part of her latest series, "Max Tales Mysteries." Her first series was the Bolivar Lighthouse Series, a three-book series published by Pelican. Since 2008, Annette has continually served on the board in various officer positions.

My first book, Misfortune Cookies, was published by Barbour in 2008, the first in what would become a popular seven book series. A devotion published by Simon & Schuster followed in 2009, and since then, even more books. www.lindakozar.com I distinctly remember bringing some of my first pages to the meetings for group critique.

Our first speaker was award-winning, multi-published author Kathleen Y'Barbo Turner, (Y'Barbo at the time). She has been a continual support to our group since then, and we are honored to have her serve as our Vice President in 2021.

Like Kathleen, award-winning, multi-published author Janice Thompson stuck with us from the beginning, serving as President in those early years and teaching workshops on multiple occasions. 

There are many more stories of WOTS writers who shared the news of their first publishing contract to the cheers and hurrays of fellow members, and others who  decided to follow a new option (yes, we witnessed the birth of indie), to publish their books independently. Of course now, most of our authors who are traditionally published also publish independently.

Over the years, our group members have traveled and roomed together at national ACFW conferences, gone on writing retreats, writing field trips to the National Museum of Funeral History and the Texas Prison Museum, hosted our own local mini-conferences, gone on multi-author speaking tours, hosted story contests and published two compilation books of winning entries. Our speakers are always interesting, always informative, and par excellence. But this year, thanks to our new vice president, will surpass all the years before. We have an all-star lineup beginning with our own Janice Thompson in January (see our 2021 speaker page for details).

In addition to our regular luncheon meetings, our ZOOM @ NOON series will launch on January 30th. The Zoom meetings are at no cost to our chapter members.  

However, beginning with our FEBRUARY MEETING, members of other ACFW chapters will have the option to join our chapter for a one-time fee of $5 in order to access the entire Zoom series in 2021.

Non members of the chapter and ACFW national are also welcome to view our monthly Zoom series meetings for the low fee of just $10 per meeting for incredible speakers.

WOTS chapter Members: FREE

Members of other ACFW chapters: One-time fee of $5 to become a member of our Woodlands, Texas chapter.

Non-members: $10 per ZOOM @ NOON meeting in the series.

We hope you connect with us soon. If you have questions, leave a comment or email us:   thewoodlands@acfwchapter.com

*Monthly luncheon meetings are temporarily suspended to to risk of Covid, but will likely resume in 2021