Here are the minutes for the HWA Oregon meeting held on July 20, 2025, featuring guest speaker Colleen East. Thank you to Colleen for sharing tips and inspiration for creating an author/artist website.

Business

1. Welcome
2. Chapter Updates
   1. Pleased to welcome Amber Finnegan as the chapter’s new Social Media Coordinator and Events Co-Coordinator. We look forward to working alongside you, Amber! Thanks for joining! 
   2. Moved chapter meetings and book club to 6:00 p.m.
   3. Still soliciting feedback on best days for meetings – can change in 2026
   4. Server ownership switched from Alan Lastufka to H. A. Spector
      1. Rationale
      2. Server Ownership policy
         1. “Server ownership will pass to the next set of officers after each election (or their designee if they wish to appoint a chapter member to “own/maintain” the server in their stead.”
3. HWA news
   1. HWA Oregon is now set up for a new process for chapter financial support from HWA.
   2. No new HWA newsletter in June or July but HWA is working on it.
      1. We’ll start providing some of our chapter updates and member announcements on the HWA Oregon website and Bluesky.
4. Upcoming Chapter Events
   1. July book: The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
   2. Next book club meeting: Sunday, July 27 at 6:00 p.m. on Google Meet
   3. Next chapter meeting: Sunday, August 17 at 6:00 p.m.
      1. This chapter meeting will be our first in-person chapter meeting (and will include an online option for part of the meeting).
      2. We will meet at the chair’s house (address will be emailed.)
      3. For the first part of the meeting, we will go over announcements, news, and upcoming events as well as member updates. The online portion will end and those in-person will be welcome to stay for a horror movie screening (movie TBA). 
   4. August book: Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca
   5. Next book club meeting: Sunday, August 31 at 6:00 p.m. on Google Meet
   6. Wednesday, October 1, 2025 starting at 6:30 p.m. come celebrate the book launch for fellow HWA Oregon member Kelsea Yu’s book “Demon Song” at Always Here Bookstore in Portland! 
   7. Friday, October 24 2025 from 6:30 to 8:30pm, HWA Oregon will be co-hosting a Halloween Party with Bold Books & Coffee at Bold’s storefront. Come dressed up, as we will be holding a costume contest with prizes, enjoying readings from our members and we will have an open-mic for attendees to share their real-life spooky encounters with the crowd! This event will be open to the public! Speaking of readings, I am looking for 7 readers to fill 7-5 min time slots for readings. If interested, please send an email to oregonhwa@gmail.com. 
   8. Beaverton City Library Halloween Event on October 25 from 1-3 p.m.
      1. Thank you, Frances
      2. Readings
      3. Sell your books
      4. Book signing

Colleen East

1. H. A. Spector introduced HWA Oregon member Colleen East, who recently launched a beautiful new website to showcase her art and published works.
2. Colleen gave a presentation about “Building Your Author/Artist Website,” with tips and inspiration she learned from Brittany Torres (www.torresfantasyart.com) at a talk at Norwescon 2025. She also provided other examples of author and artist websites with minimal but beautiful and informative designs that showcased their styles and work well.
   1. Highlights:
      1. Pick a neutral background color.
      2. Make everything on your website easy to reach, with links in navigation and in sections on the front page.
      3. Include contact information, including an email address.
      4. Include a photo of yourself, even if only one, to give visitors a visual connection to you.
      5. Colleen found Squarespace simpler to use and personalize than WordPress.
      6. The fonts you choose for your website say a lot about you, who you are, and what your work is like.
      7. Optimize for mobile, because more people will look at your website on mobile than on a computer.
      8. Know yourself and what you are trying to reveal about you and your work on your website.
3. Q&A
   1. What if I don’t have any publications to showcase; should I wait to create a website?
      1. You don’t have to wait; take the time to build a super basic website and build from there as your career ramps up.
      2. A website is like a business card, and something you can share with people, at any point in your career.

Announcements

• J.B. Kish: As a book coach, he was happy to learn that his first client has received a request for 50 pages after querying their book.
• Richard Leis: Willamette Writers Conference is coming up next week, and several of us will be there attending, teaching, and networking.
• Amber Finnegan: Received first contract with horror publisher to help with editing.
• H. A. Spector: 3 weeks left of MFA program! Panic revising, but will be done in time and is looking forward to graduating.