Welcome to FAW 2026!!!
Join FAW
Want to join Fremont Area Writers? Click here or the “Join Us” link on the menu bar above.
New Events
The Rules for the April 2026 Flash Fiction Contest have been announced. The theme is first love, the submission deadline date is April 6, and the judging will be at Half-Priced Books on Saturday, April 11.
The full rules can be found at the Contests and Submissions page.
See the Contests and Submissions page for non-FAW events. New CWC contest posted, deadline is May 1 and word limit is 300.
New, New, New!!!
The March 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/
Or click the sublink under the Writer Resources Menu Item at the top of the page.
Send Scott email if you want to be informed of new entries to this page, otherwise I won’t clog up your inbox. However, there is a CWC poetry contest. I think all members should have received an email about it, but I posted it anyhow on February 1.
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. The last meeting was Saturday, March 28, featuring poet Dr. Adrienne Danyelle Oliver on Poetry as Balm. Information is below. FAW members will get Zoom information for the next meeting on April 18 – 3rd Saturday of the month this month to make room for LitHop. 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 – April 2026
April starts with April Fools’ Day. No April Fools here, since I’m writing it way before April 1, and you are likely reading it after April 1. I do like April Fools. During the tech bubble I worked at Sun Microsystems in Menlo Park, where Meta is now. There was an April Fools tradition, with budget. Someone transformed the office of CEO Scott McNealy, a golf fan, into a golf course, complete with sand trap. One executive who like to scuba dive found his office moved into an aquarium in San Francisco. And several execs found cars had been moved into their offices.
Back then people, though busy, had time for fun. Today work seems to come for us wherever we are. Even those of us who don’t work traditionally are busy. It is not surprising. The number of calls on our time has exploded, from more books to read, more television to watch, and more charities and clubs asking for help. The number of hours in the day has not expanded to match. Someone should do something about that.
This affects FAW. We need volunteers to drive activities for our members. We’re lucky get Stephen Yuen as our new Membership Chair. Again, thanks! He’s replacing Anita Tosh, who did it for as long as I remember and Terry Tosh who helped after his term as president. We appreciate all that work which has gotten our membership to our current levels.
But there are other things we’d like to do which no one has time for. Open Mic, which was held in the Newark Starbucks pre-Covid, was popular, but we need someone to run it. There is interest in new critique groups. Want to start one? Anyone with ideas is welcome to attend FAW board meetings, which are held 4 pm on the Tuesday before the General Meeting. Just ask me for the Zoom link.
We’re lucky to have so many volunteers already, but we can use more. Some clubs are having trouble getting enough volunteers to run. We don’t have to worry about that, at least.
But there is one more thing that everyone can do which takes no time. Invite someone you know who is interested in writing to a meeting. It is free, it is educational and interesting, and the more the merrier.
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, March 14, 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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