Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - After many years of meeting at the International Friendship Club, this month the Puerto Vallarta Writer's Group moved to Biblioteca Los Mangos.

According to Doug Danielson, a prolific author of published novels, short fiction and freelance non-fiction articles for numerous publications:

"The idea to start a writers group in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, originally emerged sometime in 1989 during a conversation between Anthony Duncan Williams and Gordon Robbins. (Our collective memories get fuzzy at this point. It was a long time ago and some of us are older than we would like to believe.)

In the beginning, the meetings seemed more like 'Writers Anonymous' frequented hit-or-miss by ex-pat 'recovering writers,' and sometimes no one would show up at all. The group even disbanded for a short while when someone absconded with the group’s meager funds collected to purchase books for a writing reference library.

It was a struggle, but slowly and surely we got our act together and began meeting with a purpose, to better our writing. Early on, the Puerto Vallarta Writers Group was very small, sometimes only two or three people, meeting in the courtyard at Casa de Tequila, a noisy place.

The leadership came from members who took turns selecting a topic, sharing something learned from a favorite book on writing, or reading a work in progress. We were an eclectic bunch. (Still are today.) Our interests in writing and literature covered a broad spectrum and we had no permanent meeting place.

Don Gallery joined the group in 1996, sometimes finding only Dan McCool at the appointed time and place. Before coming to Puerto Vallarta, Don was active in Round Table West, a group of writers meeting at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, so he knew how such groups should operate and the experience gave him the vision to see what the group could become.

In addition to Don, the founding members included colorful writers like Dan McCool, a teacher and journalist who wrote for Vallarta Voice and Guadalajara Reporter; French Canadian Bertrand Boudreau who had ridden his bicycle around the world and wanted to write about his sometimes hair-raising adventures; New Zealander Maggie Stoffels who wrote hilarious short stories about her Mexican experiences; Steve Wood, who had written a bestseller on computers and Pat Henry who was struggling to write about her solo voyage around the world in a small sailboat.

Slowly, very slowly, the numbers grew, as did interest in topics for specific programs. We thought we had found a permanent home when we moved to the back room upstairs at Oro Verde. It felt like a 50’s coffee house, until the coffee grinding machine cranked up once too many times in the middle of an important reading.

Wayne McLeod, Alex Curtis, Jeannie Hearth, Duncan Williams, Bruce MacDonald, Tom Colvin, Susan Quinn, Rick Rykes, Doug Danielson, David Lyons, Ginger Tindal, a Brit named Stewart Howard and literary agent Sally Conley, would drop in from time to time to see what was happening, and most became regulars."

Moderated by the ever-charming Don Gallery since 1996, the group has held internationally acclaimed Writer's Conferences for the last six years.

Don says, “A lot of folks who live on the boats come to our meetings. We are in a unique location and cruising writers and traveling vacationers often have interesting stories to tell. Writer’s groups, found all over the globe, afford a kind of fellowship from one port or locale to another. As well the Puerto Vallarta Writers’ Group is sought out by the diverse body of folks who love the work and play of words and enjoy the chance to share the achievements and angst of their craft."

Today, the Puerto Vallarta Writers Group has more than 250 individuals on its email list. Some thirty people regularly attend Saturday meetings during the off-season (summer months), and the ranks swell to over eighty attendees during high season when visitors return to Puerto Vallarta for the winter.

Occasionally there is standing room only, with retuning writers coming to meetings during their stays in Vallarta and newcomers seeking out the group to see what it is like. A solo writer from New York in town for only two weeks will enjoy the group for social contact with people of like mind. Another will sail into town on his boat, making the marina his home for a month, and seek out the location of the Writers Group.

Meetings are held at Biblioteca Los Mangos from 10:30 am to 12 noon every Saturday morning. The library is located at Avenida Francisco Villa #1001, Col Versalles, Puerto Vallarta. Tel: (322) 224-9966.