January 6th, 2012

Do you know of any writing groups in New Jersey?

I'm created a database for the New Jersey affiliate of FindAWritingGroup.com on Yahoo so folks looking to connect with other writers can find each other.

If you're a member of, or know about, any writing groups in The Garden State, please let me know. it doesn't matter if it's a statewide organization or a handful of people meeting at the local B&N or library, they all get an entry.

I'm looking for the name of the group, where they meet (including town and county), when they meet, website address, genres they accept, membership fees, and of course a group contact and email.

I've created a poll so folks can fill in the info here, or if you prefer, please let me know as much as you can in a comment or by email: jon@acatofninetales.com.

Poll #1808741 If you know of a writing group in New Jersey, please answer what questions you can.

Name of writing group?

County, town


Genres (if more than one or two, put 'Most')

The group meets at (give address)

Meeting dates and times eg: 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month 7pm - 9pm

Membership fees?

Group contact and email

Additional info

If you don't have all the info, please fill in what you can. If you can provide a group website or contact info, I can take it from there.

Many thank in advance for your help .

Progressive Blindness

The story overall is set in modern-ish times with a nonspecific location (this is backstory; the character could easily be shifted to pretty much any country).

The character in question is a young-ish (twenties to thirties, possibly?) who notices she's starting to lose her eyesight, but hides this from her superiors to keep her job. I need something that progresses so it's believable that she would still be able to hide it, and still (even if it's a lucky shot at close range) shoot someone who threatens to shoot her, but within the next couple of years she would be using a cane to get around (though I guess some of that could also be attributable to her finally admitting to her vision loss). [ETA: It is perfectly okay if the cause of her blindness would also cause her death - the story is set in a sort of earth-like afterlife; she dies of unrelated causes not long after the shooting - a year or two at most, though the timescale is not all that imporant.]

I've looked into macular degeneration (starts too old), cataracts (too easily treatable; I'd prefer something irreversible), glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, Leber's congenital amaurosis (starts too young?), and a tumour on the occipital lobe. I'm still not sure if one of those might work or if there is a possible condition I might have overlooked?