Nancy Pellegrini to speak December 14 at Central Chapter meeting
Imagine being paid to write in a foreign land! Like our late member Patricia Myers, who spent summers in Paris writing about the jazz scene, Central Chapter speaker for December, Nancy Pellegrini, spent decades writing from South Korea, China and Europe. She will share her experiences with members and guests.
DATE: Saturday, December 14, 2019
TIME: 10 a.m.
LOCATION: Shepherd of the Hills United Church of Christ, 5524 E. Lafayette Blvd., Phoenix.
LUNCH: A $15 lunch will be served.
REGISTRATION: Members and non-members are invited. Register for this event by sending an email Barbara Lacy or call 480-620-1358.
SPEAKER: Nancy Pellegrini
Nancy Pellegrini
Nancy Pellegrini, a journalist who spent decades writing from South Korea, China and Europe, will share her experiences with Arizona Professional Writers at APW Central Chapter’s December meeting.
Nancy wrote The People’s Bard: How China Made Shakespeare Its Own (Penguin), 2016 and more than 1,000 articles on performing arts in China. She copyedited and proofed Penguin manuscript, wrote United Nations policy papers, and created articles for publications like the Christian Science Monitor.
Nancy managed a Beijing-based North Korean art gallery and led 40 tours in the country. In her spare time, she volunteered at the Beijing Zoo on orangutan enrichment projects. Now in Phoenix, she has opened Nancy Pellegrini Editorial Solutions, LLC, an editorial solutions business offering writing and editing services, copy editing, rewrites, ghostwriting and feature stories.
Central Chapter Meeting, November 2019
November comes with a smile, a chuckle and many laughs!
Jodi Weisberg
Jodi Weisberg will show her comedy stripes and give tips on using humor in your writing at Central Chapter’s November meeting on Saturday, November 9, 2019.
Long time member and friend of APW, Jodi has a great background for humor. She is a retired attorney, worked as a journalist and as a stand-up comic. She is a former Bureau Chief and legal reporter for the Arizona Journal and has published about 1000 articles.
Jodi speaks on elder law and mental health issues … and of course, humor. She recently became a certified yoga instructor and a pet sitter.
Date: Saturday, November 9, 2019
Time: 9:30 a.m.
Place: Shepherd of the Hills, United Church of Christ, 5524 East Lafayette, Phoenix, AZ.
Lunch: A $15 lunch will be served. In your RSVP, let Barbara know if you are a vegetarian.
RSVP: Please RSVP to: Barbara Lacy.
Next meeting: Saturday, December 14, 2019. We will hear from a new member who will talk about writing from China.
Summary of APW Central Chapter October, 2019
Connie Cockrell, Rim Country Director
At our October APW meeting, APW member Connie Cockrell told us how she can write multiple series at the same time without mixing up her characters in a lively meeting October 12, 2019, at the Shepherd of the Hills United Church of Christ, 5524 East Lafayette, Phoenix, AZ.
Connie has written over 20 books in series as diverse as cozy mysteries, science fiction, Westerns, young women and historical.
Want to try some of her techniques?
• Start with a story board.
• Put small notes on a wall of the locations of the story and mini-descriptions of your characters. Add a location or character, update your wall as you work.
• Connie prefers action scenes to descriptive paragraphs..
• Then, write!
New to novel writing? Here is how Connie started: November is Novel Writing Month! Her daughter challenged Connie to enter the contest with her by writing the required 1,667 words per day! So she did . . .and at the end of the month she had her novel . But alas, her daughter didn’t. So Connie is the novelist.
Here is the teaser for next month: Our own Jodi Weisberg will show her comedy stripes and give tips on using them in your writing.
Jodi Weisberg
Save the date: 10 a.m., Saturday, November 9, 2019, Shepard of the Hills, United Church of Christ, 5524 East Lafayette, Phoenix, AZ.
In December, we will hear from a new member who has written from China.
New member Jody Sharpe
Jody Sharpe
Jody Sharpe’s interests are in writing novels about angels living as humans in a town where no one knows the secret. “Writing gives me peace and joy!”
New member – Susan Anderson
Susan Claire Anderson
Susan Clare Anderson, a new member in the APW Central Chapter, has an Associate Teacher Certificate and additional studies in Child Development She has experience working with children and strives to create books that are age appropriate and fun to read. In her books, she offers opportunities for children to sharpen their developmental skills along with colorful pictures and interesting characters in order to capture their imagination.
Her biggest interest is in anything artistic. Susan’s loves art of all kinds, and enjoys the different ways people find to express themselves. She sees art as unique and original, with the flaws providing character. She mostly enjoys spending time with her grandchildren writing, drawing and painting pictures. Her specialty is illustrating and writing Children’s Picture Books and hopes to release her first Children’s Chapter Book in early 2020! Please visit her anytime at susanclareanderson.com
2020 NFPW Communications Contest open for entries
The 2020 Communications Contest is open for entries for work published/created in 2019. See this page in the NFPW website for all the information. Arizona members will participate in the “at-large” contest as we do not currently have our own contest. See the At-Large page for information and to enter.
We invite all to check out the Communications Contest page. There are over 120 categories for work published in 2019. Entrants who are not a current NFPW member and who win a first place award in the “at-large” contest will need to join NFPW in order to advance to the national level. See the contest webpage for complete rules.
Rim Country Meeting October 9, 2019
Marsha Ward
Arizona Professional Writers Rim Country Chapter will host Marsha Ward, renowned Historical Fiction Writer at 1:00 p.m. October 9, 2019 at the Majestic Rim Retirement Home, Tyler Parkway Payson.
Marsha, an award-winning poet, freelance writer, journalist, editor, and novelist has over 900 pieces of published work, including her acclaimed novel series, The Owen Family Saga, and other works of fiction.
She will share how she researches her Old West themes.
Central Chapter Series Author Talks – October 12, 2019
Central Chapter Series Author Talks
Members and non-members of Arizona Professional Writers are invited to hear prolific novelist Connie Cockrell, Payson, AZ, tell how she manages to to keep her several series going at the same time.
The meeting will be from 10 a.m-1 p.m., Saturday, October 12, 2019, at Shepherd of the Hills United Church of Christ, 5524 East Lafayette Blvd., Phoenix, AZ.
A salad lunch will be served, $10. R.S.V.P required: 480-620-1358.
Connie says her life, which includes a 20-year Air Force career, time as a manager at a computer operations company, wife, mother, sister and volunteer, provides a rich background for her story-telling.
Cockrell grew up in upstate NY, just outside of Gloversville, NY before she joined the military at age 18. Having lived in Europe, Great Britain, and several places around the United States, she now lives in Payson, AZ with her husband: hiking, gardening, and playing bunko. She writes about whatever comes into her head so her books could be in any genre. She’s published 20 books so far, has been included in six different anthologies and been published on EveryDayStories.com and FrontierTales.com. Her book, Gold Dreams, won a 2019 new Mexico-Arizona Book Finalist Award.
Connie is always on the lookout for a good story idea. Beware, you may be the next one!
She can be found at ConniesRandomThoughts.com or on Facebook and on Twitter at: @ConnieCockrell or find her books on Amazon.
September 11 Rim Country Chapter meeting
Brenda Whiteside
The speaker, Brenda Whiteside, is the author of suspenseful, action-adventure romance who writes stories of discovery and love entangled with suspense.
Save the date- Central Chapter Meeting Oct 12
Save the date- Central Chapter meeting October 12. We will be meeting from 10-1 at the Shepherd of the Hills in Phoenix. Connie Cockrell, APW member and prolific author, is our speaker. More details will follow soon.
Arizona Professional Writers 