An invitation to join “yet another book club” planted the seed one Vermont writer needed to grow an idea she had into something truly spectacular for herself and four other women. There is wine, the occasional goat cheese appetizer, and a lively blend of discussion and critique. But look closely and you’ll see there’s not a DaVinci Code, Kite Runner, or Bee Season in sight. Instead of analyzing the latest bestsellers, the group shuffles through papers deciding which piece to discuss first. Essays, short stories, poems, and even the occasional recipe or movie review are shared via email by a deadline, three days prior to each meeting night. The original works are all written, carefully read, and edited by members of what they simply call “writing group.”

When they started monthly meetings in each other’s homes, the five were an eclectic group of friends, acquaintances, and friends of friends who had at least two things in common: they were mothers, and they wanted to write more. None would have predicted that over the next 18 months their writing would have them crying about their grandmothers, laughing at their husbands’ antics, admitting their worst parenting moments, sharing their greatest regrets, and ultimately developing an incredible bond of friendship and support. From career and family challenges to the dreaded writer’s block they have all suffered (though fortunately never all at the same time), the women are there for each other in person every month and in cyberspace around the clock. Emails race among their computers, keeping the women connected and frequently laughing hysterically, despite sometimes frantic work schedules and frenzied home lives.

The women are all married and have school-age children, but otherwise are as varied as the pieces they write each month. In a single night they might read essays about a decadent night spent taste-testing chocolate or a Red Sox-obsessed husband, a short story about an infertile couple at the breaking point, copy for a website, and an account of what it’s like to eat sheep testicles in Patagonia. They’ve agreed to meet only if all five can attend and, like truly committed students, are proud of their perfect attendance. At a recent meeting we asked the women to describe their writing group in one word.

“Energizing. I can never get to sleep after a meeting.” Sarah Zobel, the group’s official founder—and, due to her self-admitted editing obsession, the quasi-leader—studied English and French in college and now is a freelance editor and writer. Married to Jamie, mom to five-year-old Sam and eight-year-old Peter, she can be counted on to bring her Webster’s to meetings. Her writing leans toward short stories. Writing group forces her to branch out, and she recently wrote an entire essay from the perspective of her car. She can be seen driving around Essex, Vermont, where she and the following three members of the group live.

“Crepuscular. Because we usually gather at twilight.” Karyn Vogel grew up in New Jersey, a place her tee-shirt claims “only the strong survive.” She studied animal behavior and has 18 pets, but grows nothing in the ground on the ten-acre “farm” she shares with her husband Jim, eight-year-old daughter Feora, and five-year-old son Bryce. She works from home—or more often the local coffee shop—as a computer programmer. She says everything she writes is true.

“Eternal. But in a way that is the opposite of dreadful, of course.” Lisa Young, responsible for Sarah’s ill-received invitation to join her since-defunct book club, studied journalism and worked as a television reporter and in public relations. After years of straight-laced writing she now sees the humor in just about everything, especially her husband Rob and children, eight-year-old Kathleen and five-year-old Ryan.

“Intricate. There’s so much more to our group than I ever imagined.” Susan Teare studied art history and worked in marketing and sales before deciding to commit to her favorite hobby, photography, full-time. As her freelance business grows, her husband Tom and children, eight-year-old Siena and six-year-old Kirk, are less frequently the subjects of her photography and writing. Instead of the creative pieces she’s naturally drawn to, Susan tries to focus on professional writing, her biggest challenge.

“Therapeutic. That about sums it up.” Millissa Frost, an English major, ran a catering business for years and is the group’s lone food writer. She lives with her husband, Tim, and six-year-old daughter Francesca in Underhill, Vermont. She has been voted most likely to write a cookbook, but often delights group members with delicious tales passed down through her extended Italian family.

MomWriter: What was it about a writing group that appealed to you?

Susan: Going back to work after being home with the kids, I could feel all the old insecurities about my writing creeping back. I decided it was time to do something about it, and the group came along at the perfect time in my life.

Sarah: I had been reading my own writing for so long I felt I was losing a fresh perspective. What I wanted most as a writer (besides being published!) was to have honest feedback from people who are essentially my target audience.

Lisa: Every job I’ve ever had involved writing, but after a few years at home, I was feeling more than a little rusty. I needed something to force me to get back to writing. There’s nothing like a deadline to get the creative juices flowing.

MW: Like most moms you are all very busy. How do you find the time to write?

Sarah: It doesn’t always fit in, and that can be frustrating. I just have to make time, usually early in the morning before anyone else is awake in my house. This is the first year both boys are in school full time. I’m looking forward to writing during daylight hours.

Karyn: We are only too busy to do things we don’t deem important enough. With the writing group, I have something to look forward to, and the deadline gives me the extra motivation to get over the hurdle of believing I’m too busy.

Lisa: It’s no secret I’m the biggest procrastinator in the group. I’ll honor the deadline, but I’ll pull an all-night writing session to do it. I find I can’t bounce back the way I did in college, so this is one of the problems I work on in writing group.

MW: How has being a mother affected your writing?

Millissa: You want to show your children there is a part of you that is more than what they may have experienced.

Sarah: It has definitely affected my sensibilities. In both fiction and nonfiction nearly everything I’ve written over the past eight years has something to do with pregnancy, mothering, children.

Susan: The things I've written about have been mostly about my childhood. Being a mom has brought out feelings about my childhood, like stories about my grandparents and growing up.

Karyn: I definitely get inspired to write about my kids. It’s the best way to remember some of the funny conversations we've had, things they’ve done.

MW: How do you decide what to write? Are there assignments?

Sarah: Frankly, I’m not always keen on having an assignment, but occasionally we decide we need the extra motivator. The time we decided to write about our grandmothers was really special. I chose my mother’s mother, who died when I was a newborn. It was a chance to finally get to know her.

Lisa: Being in this group means you are always trolling for writing material. There are great stories happening everywhere. When a family friend told me about her struggle to outrun Russian forces during World War II in Germany I asked if I could write her story. It was so emotional.

Karyn: One time we exchanged photos of ourselves and had to make up a story about the writing group member in the photo. That was very cool and forced me to write fiction for once. I basically wrote about the experiences I had when I was younger, so maybe I still haven’t written any true fiction. I’m sure that’s coming.

Millissa: We usually work without assignments. The running joke is that we all want archives. If there was a month you didn’t feel creative you could just go to your computer and pull up something wonderful to submit.

Sarah: They harass me about my archives, but to me all it says is that I’ve been writing too long without much success!

MW: Is it hard to critique each other’s work—are you honest?

Millissa: It was pretty much established from the beginning that we're honest.

Lisa: Once you have a baseline on yourself and each other, then you can really see the improvement. As we get to know each other it’s easier to make suggestions. It’s a very safe environment, and there is a lot of trust.

Susan: I’ll admit I can be sensitive, so some months I’ll say, “This is really a delicate issue for me.” Other times I’ll give the go ahead to really tear something up.

MW: What have you learned about yourself through writing group?

Susan: For the last 15 years I cringed when I had to write something, but at 40 I’m learning I don’t have to settle for anything. I can make changes and be a better writer. I’ve learned to have faith in my abilities.

Sarah: I’ve learned that I shouldn’t slam my own writing so liberally.

Millissa: For me it’s that it’s okay for me to do something for myself.

Karyn: I’ve realized that I love writing and could do this for the rest of my life. That I have interesting stories to tell about my life, and that when I take time for myself, I’m a much better mother/wife/human.

MW: Where do you see your writing group in 10 years?

Karyn: In Fiji, writing about scuba diving and the finer points of cooking fish over an open fire.

Lisa: It’s eternal. So we’ll still be meeting every month. Oh, and everyone will be published, of course.

Susan: We’ll be preparing to ship our kids off to college and entering a whole new era of writing group. We will have published a collection of the best writing group submissions from the past 11-plus years. Assignment titles might include: “The Teenage Years: A Mom’s Survival Guide,” “Entering Your Fifties with or without a Blow Dryer,” and, last but not least, “Menopause: Like It or Lump It.”

Millissa: We’ll be talking about how we can’t control our teenagers.

Lisa: Actually, we hope we’ll be taste-testing recipes for Millissa’s latest cookbook.

Sarah: Of course we’ll be whooping it up at yet another book signing for a writing group member!