Last month, the board approved a Texas chapter, which became the 15th local ASJA chapter. From Houston to Austin to San Antonio to Dallas, we’re 28 members strong across the Lone Star state. Most of us work full-time, and we’ve freelanced for more than 10 years. More than half of us write non-fiction books and also dabble in content marketing or copywriting. One of us specializes in ranch, farm and equine journalism.
As recent Texas transplants, my co-president, Susan Johnston Taylor, and I wanted to start a Texas chapter because we’re keen to make connections and build a writing community down south. Susan moved to Austin from the West Coast this spring, and I’m headed back to Houston (where I grew up) from Brooklyn in August.
For Susan, ASJA has helped her career from the get-go; within weeks of attending her first ASJA conference, she landed a gig that paid $3 a word plus expenses. She wants to pay it forward by helping other members make connections and work smarter.
In my 13 years in New York, I built a close-knit community of writers and editors. We’ve shared sources, bounced ideas off each other, read each other’s copy. I wanted to replicate that in Texas. Virtual connections are great, but there’s something to be said for the energy generated when you get a group of writers together in a room. I also wanted to plug in to local writing events – readings, conferences, retreats – and what better way to learn about and participate in enrichment events than alongside fellow ASJAers?
Susan and I are excited to kick off our programming this fall. We’ll get the whole group together at least once a year, and look forward to networking at happy hours, learning new skills together, sharing local resources and recruiting even more Texans to ASJA.