APW Book Club – 11/22/25 Beautiful Daughter! by Maria Greenhalgh
Karen Lateiner is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: APW Book Club – Beautiful Daughter! with Maria J. Greenhalgh
Date: Saturday, November 22, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM Arizona
Join Zoom Meeting: The Zoom link has been sent to APW members
Beautiful Daughter! – ¡Te Quiero, Te Quiero Mucho!: A Story of Growing Up Different by Maria J. Greenhalgh
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A young mother hugs her baby girl and looks at her lovingly. She frequently tells her, ¡Te quiero, Te quiero mucho! (I love you. I love you very much!) This is a story of how that little girl goes through the stages of growing up to become her authentic self. She is different, not at all like the magical princess her mother expected her to be. The story is also about a mother’s love for her daughter and a parent’s journey to loving a child without the deeply rooted expectations set forth by culture and tradition. Beautiful Daughter is a book written for both children and adults to enjoy and shares the message of unconditional love and acceptanmce.
Maria will also spend a few minutes talking about her Kickstarter project in case any of you have considered running a campaign.
Bio: Maria J. Greenhalgh
Maria J. Greenhalgh is a bi-lingual author, a lifelong learner, wife, and mother of two. She writes children’s books in English and in Spanish. Maria left the corporate world to pursue her dreams, one of which was to become a published author. Literacy and love of nature, in particular anything ocean related, changed Maria’s life as a child.
She learned English at the age of ten, when her family immigrated to the United States. Maria fell in love with learning and credits her education for helping her find a career she loved, leading teams in the financial services sector. Now her focus is on inspiring children to love learning, as well as appreciate and take care of the world we live in. Her books also encourage adults to value and love the uniqueness of each child. With her newest book, she is hoping to inspire the youngest of readers to be advocates for marine life and for conservation. Her first book, Beautiful Daughter! – ¡Te Quiero, Te Quiero Mucho!: A Story of Growing Up Different focuses on unconditional love. It is available in English, Spanish, and in French.
APW Book Club – 10-25-25 Southern Woman by Kathleen Parrish
Karen Lateiner is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: APW Book Club – 10/25/25 Southern Woman by Kathleen Parrish
Date: Oct 25, 2025
Time: 01:00 PM Arizona
Join Zoom Meeting: The link has been sent to APW members. It is also listed in the Members only section. Otherwise, contact Karen Lateiner for the link.
Southern Woman by Kathleen Parrish
Kathy Whitaker works tirelessly to build a future for herself and her family in 1953 Cottondale, Mississippi. She’s turned Weaver Variety Store, inherited from Minnie Weaver, into a successful business, and despite her long hours, their family is thriving. Now, she eagerly waits for her husband, Towanna, to complete his last semester of medical school in New Orleans and return home to intern with a local doctor. However, two strangers arrive in town who threaten to upend her life: Richard Coswell, who claims to represent a large variety chain wanting to buy her store, and Ellen Mathe son, a single mother seeking a fresh start for herself and her daughter.
Kathy rejects Coswell’s offer but soon finds herself entangled in a legal battle when Coswell discovers the probate on her inheritance was never properly closed and fabricates a claim that could force her to sell. Worse, her new sales clerk, Ellen Matheson, claims to be Minnie Weaver’s long-lost, illegitimate daughter and only surviving blood relative, entitling her to a share of the Weaver estate.
Then Towanna calls home with shattering news. He’s been offered a five-year surgical residency—but only if he stays in New Orleans. Caught between Towanna’s dream of becoming a surgeon and the threats to her inheritance, Kathy must choose which path to pursue. Sell her store and give up her dreams, or risk losing everything that really matters.
APW Rim Country Chapter10/15/25 Carol Baxter using Kickstarter
RESCHEDULED: Connie Cockrell is inviting you to a Zoom meeting.
Topic: Carol Baxter on using Kickstarter to release her book, Oblee Olie Olee’s Roly Poly Rally Race.
Date: Oct 22, 2025
Time: 06:00 PM Arizona
Where: The chapel at Majestic Rim in Payson and on Zoom.
Join Zoom Meeting. Members have been sent the link. It is also in the members section. Nonmembers should contact Connie Cockrell for the link.
Topic: Entice angel backers for your book via Kickstarter
I am in pre-launch for my first Kickstarter campaign to fund my children’s picture book, “Oblee Olie Olee’s Roly Poly Pally Race.” I had an amazing mentor and did tons of research along the way. I am eager to share the backend work that perhaps you can replicate to showcase and fund your NEW creative project.
Bio: Carol Baxter has long followed the characters in her head down the winding paths of imagination. It only took five and a half decades for her to open the door and share the first of many stories with readers. Baxter is a mom, a nana, a wife, a successful grant writer, and a memoirist. She has garnered awards as a features reporter and for art marketing. She is currently the president of Arizona Professional Writers. Baxter feels fortunate beyond measure to live in a mountain chalet filled with music, dragons, a black hole where her desk used to be, and her personal Ray of sunshine.
Websites: https://www.gardenbugbooks.com/
https://www.talesofalifetime.net/
Musings: https://medium.com/@rainofstars.carol
APW Book Club 9/27/25 with Dr Dawn Filos
Karen Lateiner is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: APW Book Club 9/27/25 Tales of a Pet Vet with Dr. Dawn Filo
Date: Saturday, September 27, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM Arizona
Zoom: Contact Karen Lateiner or Jaimie Bruzenak for the Zoom link by 9/25. Guests are welcome. The link will also be posted in the Members Only section of the website for members, if you have misplaced the link.
Tales of A Pet Vet: Stories from the Clinic and House Calls by Dr. Dawn Filos (pen name)
Dr. Dawn Filos’s own menagerie of pets, including Willie the woolly monkey, primed her for a career as a veterinarian. With emotional honesty, Dr. Dawn shares her heartfelt, and often hilarious journey, from nervous novice to seasoned, self-assured doctor. This modern-day James Herriot finds her niche as a house-call vet, with unique, intimate access into the homes and lives of her beloved patients and their human families. She understands with all of her heart that no visit or emergency is too trivial to a pet parent. After reading Tales of a Pet Vet you will never see your own vet the same way.
BIO
Dr. Dawn Filos grew up in New Jersey, in a family of eccentric animal lovers, preparing her for a lifelong career spent with like-minded pet people. She spent most of her career in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Bucks County), where she remained after veterinary school for most of the last 32 years. She now splits her time between Scottsdale, Arizona and East Hampton, New York.
Her blog DrDawnThePetVet.com was originally started to augment pet first aid classes, and pet CPR courses she taught for years. It began as more informational and evolved to focus on the benefits of the human-animal bond, a topic which interests her and features prominently and often throughout the book. She has contributed several Medical Mystery pieces to the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, and hopes to pursue further writing in journals and other media, and is available for public speaking engagements. dawnfmauro@gmail.com 267-994-2415
APW Central Chapter Zoom meeting with Katrina Shawver 9/13
Susan Anderson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Writing Lean – Make Every Word Count
Date: Saturday, September 13
Time: 10 a.m. Arizona
Join Zoom: Members have been sent the Zoom link. It is also posted in the Members-only section of the website. https://arizonaprofessionalwriters.org/members-only/apw-virtual-meetings/ Contact your chapter chairperson well in advance of the meeting if you have forgotten the sign-in or have lost your invitation.
Nonmembers are welcome to attend and should send an email to Marie Fasano mafasano1 @ gmail.com or Jaimie Bruzenak calamityjaimie @ gmail.com requesting the link, Please request the link by Wednesday, September 10.
Topic: Writing Lean – Make Every Word Count. From newspapers to novels, it’s critical to be frugal with words for maximum impact. Katrina will share tips and tricks to make every word count.
Author Bio:
Katrina Shawver is an experienced writer, speaker and long-time history geek. As a journalist, she wrote for The Arizona Republic, Arizona Parenting, Phoenix Downtown, and other publications for many years. In 2002, she met Henry Zguda, a Polish Catholic survivor of German concentration camps, and soon offered to write his incredible story. She spent over ten years researching Poland, World War II, and the Holocaust. Her award-winning book, Henry: A Polish Swimmer’s True Story of Friendship from Auschwitz to America, is available in English, Polish, and Czech.
Katrina is a seasoned Toastmaster and has presented to many audiences. She served as a writer in residence at the Glendale Public Library in Glendale, Arizona. In previous lives she worked as a project manager in software support, a paralegal, a tax preparer, answered phones for a forensic psychiatrist, hiked the Grand Canyon three times, and still wishes sweet potato fries counted as a vegetable. For more information, visit katrinashawver.com.
APW Rim Country Chapter 6-18-25 with Karen Lateiner
Connie Cockrell is inviting you to a hybrid in-person and Zoom meeting of the Rim Country Chapter. Meetings are held at 1 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month via Zoom and in-person in the chapel at Majestic Rim.
Let’s show our support for our member Karen Schifman Lateiner and join her at the meeting on Wednesday. invite your friends who have questions about gender diversity. Karen has sensitive information as a mother.
Guest Presenter: Karen Shiffman Lateiner
Date: Wednesday, June 18
Time: 1 pm AZ
Where: The chapel at Majestic Rim in Payons and on Zoom.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84817400687
Meeting ID: 848 1740 0687
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kHieummIS
Topic: Timeless Dance: A Story of Change and Loss takes you on Karen Shiffman Lateiner’s compelling and sensitive journey to understand the gender transition of her remarkable son, fully embrace the woman he becomes and, just two years later,
grapple with her child’s untimely death.
Join her on an unusual tour of a mother’s mind as she reflects on her own history in coping with her child’s transition and family’s loss. At a time when transgender issues were still hidden, she and her family educated themselves and their
communities, turning their grief to advocacy. More than a memoir, this story of change and loss is a tribute to her child’s legacy, and to the love and support of family and friends.
Bio:
Karen Shiffman Lateiner, M.Ed. Throughout her personal life and professional career as a developmental psychologist and mental health clinician, she has actively advocated for safe and nurturing school and home environments for all children, especially for those at-risk for marginalization and bullying. Karen served on the Affirmative Action Committee and LGBT Task Force of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, as well as the Phoenix Task Force on Bullying.
APW Central Chapter Zoom Meeting 6-14-25 Carol Baxter
Susan Anderson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Carol Baxter – At the Intersection of Wordsmithing and Art, One Woman’s Journey
Date: Saturday, June 14, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM Arizona
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81862254003?pwd=KFVyqUyfiQcc9yHzQkoAieOnCmCftQ.1
Meeting ID: 818 6225 4003
Passcode: 979135
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbFsjuLHKR
Topic- At the Intersection of Wordsmithing and Art, One Woman’s Journey
Peer inside the mind of an award-winning author who wears (too) many hats. Carol Baxter will regale you with how she went from crafting stories in her head, to being a features reporter at the Payson Roundup Newspaper, to writing grants, to curating content for art supply companies, to website creation, to writing memoirs for people to give to their children and future generations, to trying to crack the first draft of a novel. Carol has a fun, quick, writing exercise planned. You can download the PDF and print it out on your computer: https://www.talesofalifetime.net/memoir-starter-questions-examples-musings-carol-baxter-blog/my-lil-memoir-zine
Website: www.talesofalifetime.net/
Linked In: www.linkedin.com/in/caroljeanbaxter/
Blog: medium.com/@rainofstars.carol
APW Book Club 5/24/25 with Dr. Dawn Filos
Notes from Karen Lateiner, Book Club Chair
Turns out our author for our May Book Group is not ready, however one of our new members, Dr. Dawn Filos agreed to present her book, Saturday, May 24 at 10 am via Zoom.
Reminder: APW Annual State Conference will be held Saturday, May 17th. Information and registration can be found on the APW website http://www.arizonaprofessionalwriters.org. I hope to see you all there.
Our Purpose: The purpose of our book group is to hear wonderful presentations, read amazing books by members, and support each other by writing reviews on Amazon and/or Goodreads. Please take some time to acknowledge our authors.
Karen Lateiner is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Tales of A Pet Vet with Dr. Dawn Filos
Date: May 24, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM Arizona
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84792846640?pwd=Qaf9qsoOeZ5xbbIQ95IubMz3zbPq2O.1
Meeting ID: 847 9284 6640
Passcode: 208050
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kjLmLAAh9
All are invited to attend.
Tales of A Pet Vet: Stories from the Clinic and House Calls by Dr. Dawn Filos (pen name)
Dr. Dawn Filos’s own menagerie of pets, including Willie the woolly monkey, primed her for a career as a veterinarian. With emotional honesty, Dr. Dawn shares her heartfelt, and often hilarious journey, from nervous novice to seasoned, self-assured doctor. This modern-day James Herriot finds her niche as a house-call vet, with unique, intimate access into the homes and lives of her beloved patients and their human families. She understands with all of her heart that no visit or emergency is too trivial to a pet parent. After reading Tales of a Pet Vet you will never see your own vet the same way.
BIO
Dr. Dawn Filos grew up in New Jersey, in a family of eccentric animal lovers, preparing her for a lifelong career spent with like-minded pet people. She spent most of her career in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Bucks County), where she remained after veterinary school for most of the last 32 years. She now splits her time between Scottsdale, Arizona and East Hampton, New York.
Her blog DrDawnThePetVet.com was originally started to augment pet first aid classes, and pet CPR courses she taught for years. It began as more informational and evolved to focus on the benefits of the human-animal bond, a topic which interests her and features prominently and often throughout the book. She has contributed several Medical Mystery pieces to the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, and hopes to pursue further writing in journals and other media, and is available for public speaking engagements.
dawnfmauro@gmail.com Dawn Filos 267-994-2415 via Zoom.
APW Book Club 3/22/25 with Fawzia Mai Tung
Karen Lateiner is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Mirror in the Sand by Fawzia Mai Tung
Date: Saturday, March 22, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM Arizona
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82608532051?pwd=RkNb8HPoPj2MnEeuia7xUfC3xqhsHY.1
Meeting ID: 826 0853 2051
Passcode: 855944
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcvUIUEdM7
Mirror in the Sand by Fawzia Mai Tung
About the Book
Why would a French-speaking Chinese/Taiwanese girl study medicine in Amman, Jordan in the 1970s? Why did she feel compelled to leave after 11 turbulent years? Amman, Jordan in the 1970s and early 1980s was mushrooming from a laid-back sleepy city into a modern metropolis. In her eleven years in the City of the Seven Hills, Fawzia too evolved from an accidental Chinese teenage immigrant into a journalist and a psychiatrist, mesmerized by its rose gold dust at sundown, its archaeological treasures littering the landscape, the generous hospitality of its people, yet also some of its harsher cultural baggage: male chauvinism, honor killing, and attitude toward psychiatric patients. Fired with youthful ardor for reform, she threw herself wholeheartedly into work, only to find herself burned once too many times.
About the Author
Fawzia Mai Tung is a retired psychiatrist, journalist, and educator. Born in a diplomatic family, she grew up internationally, eventually settling down in Arizona in 1995. Now a mother of seven and grandmother of ten, she has published a middle grade picture book, The Wonderful Tale of Donkey Skin, the first of a series of retold fairy tales. Mirror in the Sand is book 2 in her memoir series “Life of a Rooster”, now available in paperback (Amazon) and on Kindle.
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- Eagle hunter
APW Central Chapter Zoom Meeting 3/8 – Virginia Mohler
Susan Anderson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: “To Retire or Retread, That is the Question.”
Date: Saturday, March 8, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM Arizona
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81633563990?pwd=rGSwTTbQi414NCHk4nHbPzgs59rf25.1
Meeting ID: 816 3356 3990
Passcode: 415018 – You will need the passcode at sign in.
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcFBAgQFqq
To Retire or Retread, That is the Question
Author Virginia Mohler retired from teaching in June of 2020 after over 50 years in the classroom. She presently writes children’s books that inspire and encourage young minds, as well as history and humor for adults. Virginia writes a weekly blog on her website to inform and entertain. These funny stories and little-known historical facts are meant to encourage and uplift those of any age.
Arizona Professional Writers 