Texas Non-Fiction Writers had a great first year, growing from zero to over 300 members and hosting a gratifyingly successful writers’ retreat. Thanks for your participation and support.

It’s time for the change that we’ve been talking about. We’re migrating Texas Non-Fiction Authors to a larger, more advanced venue: Creative Non-Fiction Writers at www.cnfwriters.org.  The move positions us to bring you more content, more features, and more events. At the forefront of the change is our belief that a broader membership will bring more online interaction—a true community of non-fiction writers.

The new Website is impressive. Better look and feel, better text editor, more features, and more content. Annoyances such as automatic log-outs and prior administrative approval of posts have been eliminated. And there has been a philosophical change: when a member posts an item (in present lingo, a “blurt”), it goes straight to the front page. Our home page is a members’ blog—an electronic commons where every member is entitled to stand on the soapbox.

We are relieved to have all-new newsletter software. The old program drove us nuts. With any luck, you will no longer get crazy e-mails in your in-box, and we will be able to regularly push new content to your desktop without your having to remember to check the Website.

We’re letting you into the site early, before we have posted all of the content—we’ll be busy into spring loading articles by authors, editors, publishers, publicists, and other industry professionals, and we’ll be adding regular ongoing columns from other great sources. You’re seeing the birth of a site that will constantly grow and improve.

We still plan to host a Texas writers’ retreat this fall. We’ve scheduled it for October 23 and 24 at the Cibolo Nature Center in Boerne. We’ve adjusted the format of the retreat—it will be smaller, less structured, and more interactive. It’s not practical to host the event under the aegis of CNFW, so we’ll do it as a separate event aimed at Texas non-fiction writers. We hope to see you there. More about that in a month or three.

Now, though, is the time for you to get yourself moved over to Creative Non-Fiction Writers. Given that we are a non-profit, we would like to be able to continue to offer free memberships, but (as you’ve known all along) it just isn’t possible over the long term. We are, however, able to extend a one-time exclusive $15.00 membership discount to existing TNFW members (and anyone else who stumbles on this information). For you, the standard $24.95 CNFW membership fee will be reduced to just $9.95—a pittance, even in this recessionary climate. It’s a limited time offer, so sign up now for a membership in www.cnfwriters.org.

Here’s how to get your $15.00 discount: On the checkout page, enter the coupon code “tnfw”. Your discount will appear on the next screen.

Get moving! We look forward to seeing you on the new site.