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The East Texas Writers Guild held its annual summer conference Saturday at Tyler Junior College. Speakers were invited to teach a variety of topics that centered around writing.

Among the speakers was Maya Golden, an Emmy-nominated and Associated Press award-winning multimedia journalist.

“When I was younger, I wrote a lot of poetry. I wrote short stories. I had a very active imagination, I was a big day dreamer and I didn’t know quite where to channel it,” said Golden. “Then I went into journalism, and I really loved being a storyteller. I found that I enjoyed sharing other people’s stories so much.”

Golden said she created a local organization called the 1 in 3 Foundation in Smith County, which led her to find more stories to tell.

“We provide counseling services to survivors of sexual violence that have little to no income, so if they can’t afford to see a counselor we connect them with them. One of the things I was noticing as I was working with the organization was just how many survivors were struggling, but there were so few tales about overcoming sexual abuse,” Golden said. “There was a lot of self-help but not a lot of candid stories. It really prompted me to write ‘The Return Trip,’ my book that’s coming out in November, but it also motivated me to learn all that I could about being a writer.”

Golden touched on topics such as how to grow a social media presence in order to promote books, and other marketing tips as well.

“There is very much a business side to it,” said Golden. “You are creating, it is a creative outlet. You are putting so much energy into description, characters and dialogue and that’s such a beautiful process but there is a business to it. Publishers want to sell books. Independent authors want to sell books. I really hope that they come away with the understanding that yes, there’s the joyous part of writing but there’s also a business side of marketing, sharing your work and building your platform that takes time. If you do it, and do it methodically and pace yourself you can do it in a way that sets your career up to be successful.”

The conference also featured actor Brad Maule, who is best known on the ABC television soap opera “General Hospital.”

“Do you know where you go when you die on a soap opera?” Maule joked with the guests. “Nacogdoches.”

Maule has also appeared in television shows like “Charlie’s Angels” and “Three’s Company” and was nominated for “Best Actor” for the Louisiana Film Price in 2023.

ETWG President April Coker said Saturday was a great opportunity to network.

“We get to network with each other, and learn,” said Coker. “We keep our social media updated, and we try to reach out through there. We just reach out in our own little circle of friends, and tell them about the guild.”

Coker also had a raffle organized where door prizes were handed out to different winners. Lunch was provided to those in attendance and speakers Jodi Thompson and Renee La Viness closed out the afternoon with subjects dealing with “terrible writing advice” and editing tips and tricks.

“We just all learn so much from hearing other writers,” said Coker. “And from getting these speakers from our annual conference who are more experienced and more successful than the average person in our guild, gives us a lot of ideas and inspiration to keep going.”

For more information about the guild, visit www.etwritersguild.org.