Join us! Virtual Story & Art Comics Workshop

Register for this workshop to receive the link. This session is ideal for beginners who want to create their own comics. Join us for story and art prompts and for tips on publishing your books. ​

Registration fee: $50 per person (supports low/no-cost community programs)

Join us for a special event co-hosted with the ABQ Museum featuring Fulbright Scholar and ecological artist Basia Irland. Her illustrated talk will explore water-focused projects, including "A Gathering of Waters," connecting communities along rivers like our Río Grande, and her hand-carved ephemeral "Ice Book" sculptures embedded with native seeds for riparian restoration.

Following the 10:00 AM artist talk, we'll plant native riparian species under the guidance of Rio Grande Nature Center staff to promote habitat health and biodiversity.

When:  Saturday, October 18, from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Where:  Rio Grande Nature Center State Park - Education Building

No RSVP is required for the artist talk. However, space is limited for the planting project, so RSVP to reserve your spot!

Dear Friends of NMPW,​

It’s kick off time for more than just football.

The 2026 New Mexico Press Women Communications Contest kicks off October 15, 2025. The state contest is the first tier in the National Federation of Press Women’s contest. Entries are submitted through the National Federation of Press Women’s Communications Contest portal.

There are 63 categories offering a wide range of communication categories including writing, books, photography, graphics and design, radio and television, web and social media, advertising, public relation materials, communication programs, speeches, information for the media and collegiate/education. There is a place for everyone. 
The New Mexico Press Women’s Communications Contest is judged at the state level. A unique aspect of this contest is that first place winners in the state level contest are eligible to move to the national level of judging. Most other contests are regional or state level only. NM Press Women also gives out cash prizes to high point winners. 

You do not have to be a member of NM Press Women to enter but to be eligible to move to the national contest, one must be a member in good standing with the National Federation of Press Women. If you are not a member of our organizations, please join us in being impactful and inspiring during this uncertain media and communication climate.

A panel of a dozen or more out of state judges is carefully selected and matched with categories where they have expertise. The judges give thoughtful and useful comments even if they sting a little. The judges are there to help entrants get more proficient in their craft.

All work must have been published or broadcast between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025, to be eligible for entry. There is an early bird deadline of noon on January 21, 2026, after which a $25 fee will be assessed. Book entry deadline is noon on February 4 with a final noon February 18 deadline for all other entries. State level contest winners will be announced at the annual NMPW conference planned for May 1 - 2, 2026 at Isleta Hotel and Resort.
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As co-contest chair it is fun and inspiring to view the entries as they come in. Entries are individually vetted to make sure they are in the correct category and complete. New Mexico multi-media folks and wordsmiths are a talented, unique collection of storytellers. Find your best work and encourage your friends and colleagues to enter their work, photos or other published pieces. It’s fun and who knows, you could be the next national winner representing the best of New Mexico. 

Signed,

Carolyn Carlson, Co-Chair Communications Contest

Our “Meet the Authors” collaboration with Garcia Street Books will be taking a break after the November 1, 2025 event.  The reason is practical:  Garcia Street Books has many unsold books consigned by our authors, and they need their shelf space back, especially now that holiday merchandise is starting to come in.

This week, NMBA will collect any unsold books that were consigned more than 6 months ago, and work with the store to see that authors receive any money owed them for sold books.  (The store will handle these payments.)  NMBA will notify authors whose books we pick up, and you can decide what to do with them – reclaim them, leave them in NMBA’s back stock, or donate them.  We’re taking care of this for our authors, so you don’t need to contact the store yourself.

If you consigned books as of May 2025 or later, your books will stay, and you are responsible for checking with the store to determine whether they have sold.

“Meet the Authors” started over 2 ½ years ago, and we deeply appreciate Garcia Street Books’ support of local authors.  When you go into the store (and we hope you will;  it’s a local treasure), please thank them for giving NMBA authors this opportunity.
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Paula Lozar, NMBA Book Sales Chair

(London) – After 25 years of fueling millions of writers with the encouragement needed to finally finish their novel, in early 2025, NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month shut down. That left half a million writers around the world without a home.

But now a new organization, alongside bestselling authors like Madeline Miller, has stepped in to fill the voice. UK-based ProWritingAid, considered by many to be one of the best writing software providers in the world, is relaunching the event in 2025, alongside partners that include Scrivener and Kickstarter.

“Novel November” builds on the legacy of NaNoWriMo and adds a host of in-person sessions and the support of bestselling authors.

“Since NaNoWriMo shut down, we have had hundreds of users reach out to us and ask if there is a solution that we can provide to support them on their novel writing journey. We believe that our infrastructure will allow us to host a challenge that’s not only big and ambitious, but also safe, supportive, and accessible. We see this as a way to give back and celebrate the writing community that inspires us every day,” said Hayley Milliman, ProWritingAid’s Director of Community. 

Novel November will be a month-long writing challenge designed to help writers complete the first draft of a novel in a short 30 days with the assistance of the tools offered by ProWritingAid, community connection and the support of bestselling authors.

Writers can use ProWritingAid’s free tools to track their word count, measure their progress towards goals and earn badges to celebrate their achievements. The software integrates with numerous popular writing platforms including Word, Google Docs and Scrivener.

“Throughout the challenge, writers will have access to several free tools to track their progress wherever they write. In addition to easily tracking word count and badges that celebrate milestones they have achieved, they will also be able to see the pace they are on track for so they can speed up or slow down as appropriate,” said Milliman, who added they will have support along the way as well. 

“Writing can be lonely when you do it alone. We are working to make the process more fun by adding support and resources and creating a sense of community. There will be expert workshops, daily writing sprints and access to a supportive global economy leading up to, during and after the Novel November event,” said Milliman.

Beginning in October, the workshops offered will be centered around the prep work that needs to be done before writing a novel begins, such as generating story ideas and outlining. “Throughout November, we plan six co-writing sprints hosted every day. People will be able to hop on a ZOOM call and write in real time with people around the world. 

“We’ve found these writing sprints to be super effective for keeping people feeling like they are writing in community and making connections,” said Milliman. 

For the past five years, ProWritingAid has offered a free program of writing events to more than 100,000 writers around the world, including Fantasy Writers Week and Romance Writers Week. “When considering the structure for Novel November, we decided to bring on bestselling authors. This will offer a unique opportunity for participants to write alongside their writing heroes,” said Milliman.

Among the writer/mentor partners who have signed on to participate in the project: Madeline Miller, author, “The Song of Achilles,” Tomi Adeyemi, author, “Children of Blood and Bone,” and Rufi Thorpe, author of “Margo’s Got Money Troubles.” They will be available throughout October and November to help writers prep for the challenge and answer questions that come up as they work on their novels.

“We want people to have a place to turn if they get stuck,” said Milliman. 

The event won’t just be happening online. In November, there will be live in-person writing sprints and a story ideation workshop happening during Author Nation 25 in Las Vegas. They will be offered on November 4, 5 and 6.

In December, attention will turn toward what to do once your manuscript is complete. The focus of the December workshops will be on proofreading, editing and publishing. 
“I participated in NaNoWriMo for over ten years. I’m so excited to have the opportunity to bring an even bigger and better challenge to writers with Novel November,” said Milliman. 

ProWritingAid has a long history of running free, large scale, successful educational events for hundreds of thousands of people, including Fantasy Writers’ Week, Crime Writers’ Week and Core Writers’ Week. At each, the company had bestselling authors come in and teach people for free about the craft of writing. The same tactics will be followed during Novel November.

Registration for Novel November is open now. Sign up to participate for free at Prowritingaid.com/novel-november

About ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is considered by many to be one of the best writing software providers in the world. Since its founding in 2014, the company has been providing writers with tools that help with editing and style improvements.

The platform was built by Chris Banks, who originally designed it for himself as a tool that would help him stay motivated to write during his downtime after he broke a leg skiing. He wanted to write a novel about his experience traveling around South America.
When he shared the software he had developed with friends, they urged him to make it commercially available. 

ProWritingAid offers monthly, yearly and lifetime subscriptions. There is also a free version available. Learn more at ProWritingAid.com

Source: Writer Beware

Copyright is a complex subject about which there are many misconceptions.
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I was reminded of that this week, thanks to an email from an author who discovered that several of their books were included in one of the databases of pirated works used by the AI company Anthropic for AI training. The author wanted to know whether they were eligible to be part of the gigantic $1.5 billion settlement Anthropic has agreed to pay to compensate writers for its misuse of their intellectual property. (You can read more about the lawsuit, and the settlement, here.)