Welcome to Urban Christian Fiction, Tashala. Tell us about the Virtuous Woman Book Club. Our book club’s first meeting was held on October 22, 2005 in my living room. We started with about 6 women who attended consistently. Starting a book club was a brand new experience for me as I had never attended a book club meeting. However, God gave me instructions and I simply implemented what He was leading me to do. We now have about 40 to 50 official members around the United States. We meet at private venues or restaurants in the metro-Atlanta area. We have three organized chapters in three states. The founding chapter is right here in Atlanta, while the other two chapters are in Birmingham, AL and Richmond, VA. All chapters meet monthly and we all usually read the same selection. This year we implemented a Wild Card Month which allows individual chapters to vote on their choices. This was great fun for us. Because we have women who read along with us and are not official members of a chapter, we publish a quarterly newsletter called EMPOWERED to keep everyone in the loop. It also allows our members who enjoy writing to develop and showcase their gift.That's awesome, we certainly live in a time when we need to EMPOWERED and it's a wonderful newsletter. What types of books do you like to read. Our group enjoys reading Christian Living and Christian Fiction books. However, we are open to read any book with a solid, inspirational message. Our rule of thumb is that our reading selections must uplift and empower.
How do you make your book selections and how can an author get your attention? We receive suggestions from our members and I personally go book shopping quite a bit. However, if we have a book we are unsure of we will allow our advanced reading group to read it and provide us with feedback. If an author would like for us to consider a book, he or she should e-mail me at t.quick@thevwbookclub.org
Tell us about a recent Christian Fiction title you enjoyed and why? Our group has enjoyed so many great Christian Fiction titles lately; however the group is still talking about Sherri Lewis’ My Soul Cries Out.
My Soul Cries Out was an awesome story. A real breakout novel in my opinion. What types of stories would you like to see more of in Christian Fiction? I personally would like to see more stories that deal with family and marital issues. A good mystery novel might be exciting as well.
Oh, you'll love my novel Secrets and Lies, but we can chat about that when it comes out.
You host an annual retreat. Tell us about that. Each year we retreat with a great book to a really cool destination. The book is usually a Christian Living book that inspires us to be better women. The first retreat our book club went on was to Pura Vida USA in Dahlonega, GA and our book selection was by Dr. Bridget Hilliard, Grace for Dream Fulfillment. There were only five of us, but we had a blast. We had a great view of the mountains, brain-numbing spa treatments, and major bonding time! We discovered that weekend that we had some writers in our group. Last year we retreated to Wild Dunes Island Resort in Charleston, SC with about 35 women from all over the US. Our book selection was Women Risktakers by Dr. Patricia Bailey. During the trip, we were reminded that a risk is required to fulfill our dreams and walk in our destiny. We left encouraged and excited. We are planning our 2009 Retreat for Gatlinburg, TN and are renting a huge cabin for our group.
I want to go!!!
Please share anything else you’d like the readers to know about your book club. We are hosting an Author’s Appreciation Luncheon to celebrate our book club’s Third Year Anniversary. We are honoring Natasha Munson, Kesha Nichols, and Yolanda Marshall. We appreciate all authors who write inspirational books that uplift and empower the reader. Without inspirational authors our book club would have nothing to read. Therefore, we have chosen to celebrate them on this special occasion. More information and ticket purchases on our website: http://www.thevwbookclub.org/ or contact Tashala at t.quick@thevwbookclub.org
You can also visit the website and click on "Our Publication" to access EMPOWERED and subscribe. It's a very well done newsletter.
Thank you so much Tashala for stopping by and telling us about Virtuous Women Book Club.
3 comments:
I ab-so-lutely enjoyed reading about this book club. You ladies are where I would like Reader's Paradise to be. Praise God we are heading in that direction we just haven't arrived yet!!!
Virtuous Women when you talked about the retreat something you said resonated with my spirit. "Only 8 of us went but we had a blast" You know its only 8 of us and 6 active. When events are planned or even BOM discussions sometimes of our 6 I only see 2 or 3 but you made it alright. Thanks for saying that and letting us know the size of the book club doesn't matter people are people no matter what.
Missy,
It's always about the people. Last weekend our writer's group met and we have 22 members. Well I only had confirmed 5 and I knew we had 2 guest. We never cancel meetings, but with the low attendance and the problems getting gas here in Atlanta, I kept thinking I should have cancelled it. Well needless to say, we had the best meeting. One of the best in a while. There were a total of 10 people there and we just had some good craft discussion and some powerful prayer and lots of good news. Sometimes God does big things with small groups. We just have to let go and let him have control.
Thanks for stopping by!
You are absolutely right Rhonda my pastor always says Laverne if you cannot minister to 2 there is no way God will give you more. So I now take whatever number He gives me - hee-hee
Stay In His Grip!
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