JM Reinbold is the Founder and Director of the Written Remains Writers Guild, located in Delaware but with a membership that extends beyond the state. JM is a champion of all writers, and developed the Guild as a teaching/learning and networking environment for professional (and semi-professional) writers in various genres.
Smart Rhino Publications published the anthology Someone Wicked: A Written Remains Anthology back in 2013, highlighting not only the work of members but the fiction of selected friends of the organization. Smart Rhino will also publish another Written Remains anthology, A Plague of Shadows.
JM agreed to answer some questions for us regarding the Guild--and we hope you'll learn something from her dedication to the writing profession!
What was the genesis of the Written Remains Writers Guild? What exactly does "written remains" mean?
Way back in 1995, a year before I graduated from Neumann University, I founded the Written Remains as an open writers group so that writers I’d met and worked with in college could continue to meet after we graduated. The name--The Written Remains--has a dual meaning. First: It refers to the written word. Written words remain in some form, physical or digital, long after the author of those words has departed this world. Second: The Written Remains refers to the grand visions of stories that exist in writers’ minds and what actually appears on the page are the written remains of those grand visions.
Someone Wicked is actually the second Written Remains anthology, and a third anthology is in the plans, another Smart Rhino publication? What are your chief intentions for publishing stories by Guild members?
Our members are all accomplished writers. Some are under-published and, if not under-published, then their work hasn’t always received the attention and recognition it deserves. My chief intention in publishing stories by our Guild members is to create opportunities for publication for our members, to produce unique/unusual anthologies of high-quality writing, and to market them vigorously in order to bring our members’ work to a national/international audience.
How has Written Remains helped you improve your own writing and enhance your career?
We have a couple of writing groups within the Written Remains. There are some very talented writers in those groups and they have read and critiqued my work, given me good suggestions for improvement, and challenged me to continually grow as a writer. In addition, I teach workshops and classes sponsored by the Guild. Having to teach someone else how to do something is possibly one of the best ways to gain a deeper understanding of the material. Our Guild members are a huge resource of writing, editing, and publishing knowledge, and that’s just scratching the surface. We all learn and benefit from that knowledge. Also, as Guild Director, Written Remains is my platform. I’m always amazed at how many people know who I am, what I do, and have read my stories because of my work with the Guild.
Thanks, JM. We're looking forward to the next Written Remains anthology!