By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org
When thinking about a fundraiser for the Grand Rapids Region Writers Group, the obvious answer to author Diana Lloyd was for the group to put out a book.
Like many organizations the GRRWG has been impacted by COVID and the social guidelines that restrict gatherings.
“We couldn’t meet in person,” Lloyd said, adding that the group use to meet at the Kentwood Peppino’s Sports Grille and Pizzeria, which is located near Celebration! South. “We lost our connection, we lost members. So we were trying to think of something that we could do to raise interest and money for the group.”
The money from the fundraiser would be dedicated to the Workshop for Writers program, which is scheduled for August. Started in 2019, the goal was to have one annually but because of group restrictions due to COVID, the writer’s group had to cancel the 2020 event.
With plans to host the 2021 workshop in the works, the GRRWG needed money to bring in speakers, Lloyd said, which lead to members looking for ways to fundraise.
“There were the usual suggestions, sell flowers for Mother’s Day or popcorn, but how do you do that all online?” Lloyd said. “I started thinking what are we? Writers. And what do we do? Write.”
So Lloyd suggested the idea of putting together an anthology of short stories to show the talent pool of the organization’s members. There were a few hurdles, such as finding an editor and coming up with a theme. Lloyd established the theme of “Lost and Found,” with all the stories centered around romance. Each member was asked to contribute a new, original story based on the theme with a total of nine stories included in the final book.
“The idea was that the book was to be released around Valentine’s Day because romance novels sell best during that time,” Lloyd said. But due to some delays, which included the original editor having to leave the project, the anthology’s release was pushed back to the end of March. GRRWG member and contributor Diana Stout volunteered to edit the anthology, which helped to get the project moving forward.
Lloyd said she believes people will be surprised by the variety of stories since romance provides a broad range of possibilities that can be based in the past, the present and/or the future and can also “be of this world or beyond.”
“I am a romance purest,” Lloyd said. “I read these stories and it got me out of my comfort zone and inspired me to look at things in a different way.”
It is the hope of the authors — which along with Lloyd and Stout include Jae Vel, Lisa Campeau, Martin Shoemaker, Natalia Baird, Patricia Kiyono, Rosanne Bittner, and WKTV Managing Editor K.D. Norris — that others also will be inspired as well.
“I hope people don’t read the word ‘romance’ and let that scare them,” Lloyd said. “There really is something in there for just about everyone: sweet, inspirational, spicy.
“I also hope Michigan residents, or at least people in the Grand Rapids area, will check it out and learn what our writer’s group is about and learn about some of our local writers.”
“Lost and Found” is available through Amazon. For more information about the GRRWG, visit the organization’s Facebook page.
