APW Central Zoom – 1-13-24 Words are Power with Jacque Hillman
Susan Anderson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: APW Central – Words Are Power!
Date: Saturday, January 13, 2024
Time:10:00 AM Arizona
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Meeting ID: 892 5501 1123
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Words Are Power: Jacque Hillman, book editor and CEO of The HillHelen Group, says the right words zing into the readers’ minds. She shows how she plugs her writers into their power and how top writers view their success, sharing five tips to access the energy of words.
Bio- Jacque Hillman, of Mesa, Arizona, is senior editor and CEO of HillHelen Group Publishers LLC. A top writer and editor at The Jackson Sun for 23 years, now she edits and publishes books for authors nationwide. She also writes for her clients.
Hillman co-authored Captain of the Tides: Gunner Morgan, with Charles D. Morgan, a novel about his grandfather, US Navy hero, Charles “Gunner” Morgan, 1865-1959. The book won the Military Writers Society of America 2022 Bronze medal. Kirkus Reviews says: “An impeccably researched and engaging tale of an authentic war hero.”
Hillman edited and published the award-winning book, Why Can’t Mother Vote? Joseph Hanover and the Unfinished Business of Democracy by Bill Haltom. Joseph Hanover was a Polish Jewish immigrant from Memphis, who kept together the votes needed to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment in the Tennessee legislature. The book is up for the American Book Fest Legacy Award.
She’s a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association, the Historical Novel Society, the National Federation of Press Women and the Mesa Art League. During her years living in Jackson, Tennessee, she was named a 2014 Sterling Award Winner: 20 Most Influential Women in West Tennessee. She served as president of Business and Professional Women of Tennessee. She is co-founder of the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Heritage Trail.
APW meeting 11/15 “How to do a Book Launch” with Gale Kittleson
Connie Cockrell is inviting you to a hybrid in-person/virtual meeting! We will meet in person as well as on Zoom!
The Rim Country APW will meet on November 15th, 1pm, at the Payson Library. Our guest speaker is Gail Kittleson. She’ll be talking about “How to do a Book Launch.” She’ll have books available for sale and signing. This is an open meeting, so curious-new-to-writing authors of all kinds are invited to attend.
Topic: How to do a Book Launch with Gale Kittleson
Date: November 15, 2023
Time: 1 pm AZ time
Location: Payson Library at 328 N McLane Rd, Payson, AZ or
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Meeting ID: 853 4788 2563
Passcode: 243400
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Bio: Writing has always been both a joy and a survival tool for Gail Kittleson. When she instructed college writing classes, attending a writing retreat motivated her to pen a memoir. A decade later, this debut publication paved the way for writing historical fiction. Gail’s make-do characters, usually World War II era, rise above adversities to make a difference. She loves to encourage other authors through her workshops. She and her retired Army Chaplain husband enjoy grandchildren and creating a Northern Iowa cottage garden. In winter, they retreat to the beautiful Ponderosa forest of Arizona’s Mogollon Rim. You can learn more about Gail at http://www.gailkittleson.com
APW Book Club 10/28/23 with Bobbie Scopa
Please join us for the October meeting of the APW Book Club. Bobbie Scopa will talk about her book, Both Sides of the Fire Line: A Memoir of a Transgender Firefighter.
Topic: Both Sides of the Fire Line: A Memoir of a Transgender Firefighter by Bobbie Scopa
Date: October 28, 2023
Time: 10 a.m. Arizona
Join Zoom meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88383180755?pwd=a1FlaDZ6M2JuVFhZYjJBYlhWR3Y2dz09
Meeting ID: 883 8318 0755
Passcode: 739048
Bobbie will talk about how she got to the point of writing her story and making it public. It was a long and circuitous route. After not talking about her gender issues for years when she was young, then in her marriage, then after transition while working as a firefighter. Now after 65 fire years, she was now going to make her story public. Writing her story took only a few months to put on paper. The stories were already in her head. She just had to sit and start typing. It wasn’t a cathartic process like some friends thought it might be. But rather it was just an important story that needed to be told.”
BOBBIE SCOPA is a retired firefighter/chief, author, podcast host, and public speaker. She has forty-five years of firefighting experience and has received numerous professional awards and industry recognition, including Firefighter of the Year (1990) from the Professional Firefighters of Arizona; the Governor’s Award, State of Arizona (1990); a Certificate of Appreciation from the City of New York for work performed at the World Trade Center in 2001; and the Unit Citation Award for efficacy in the US Forest Service (2014). She was a featured speaker at the US Forest Service’s Pride Outside diversity, equity, and inclusion event in June 2021. She is a popular keynote speaker for leadership and diversity. She is also the host of the podcast BobbieOnFire that has had over a million downloads and is the author of Both Sides Of The Fire Line. Scopa divides her time between Puget Sound, Washington, and Scottsdale, Arizona.
APW Book Club 9/23/23 with Elaine Auerbach
Karen Lateiner is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: APW Book Club: Dirty Linen: How Women Sued The Reader’s Digest and Changed History by Elaine Auerbach
Date: Saturday, September 23, 2023
Time: 10:00 AM Arizona
Zoom: The Zoom link has been sent to Book Club Members. All are invited. Email Karen at kslateiner@gmail.com for the link.
Dirty Linen: How Women Sued The Reader’s Digest and Changed History by Elaine Auerbach is the story of the landmark 1970s sexual discrimination lawsuit against the well-known magazine and publishing empire. It is a tell-all peek behind the doors of the ivy-covered tower that was home to what was then the world’s best-selling magazine. The lawsuit changed the communications industry forever. This personal tale of the fight for gender equality is both a look at how far we have come and how much there is still to do.
Elaine Auerbach
Elaine Auerbach’s broad experience includes writing for and editing books, magazines, newspapers, television and corporate communications. She spent 13 years as an editor with Reader’s Digest and more than 30 years at PepsiCo, Inc. She lives in Kingman, AZ. Elaine will talk about the process of writing and publishing her nonfiction book and the challenges of first person history.
Dirty Linen: How Women Sued the Reader’s Digest and Changed History is available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and via Amazon. Elaine has hard copies available for this group at $10 plus shipping, which is less than what Amazon charges. Contact her directly to order: elaineauerbachauthor@gmail.com
Heads up: For our October 28 meeting, we will review Both Sides of the Fire Line by Bobbie Scopa
APW Virtual Meeting 9/9/23 – Howard Gershkowitz
Susan Anderson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: APW Virtual Meeting 9/9/23 – “Time Management for Authors” with Howard Gershkowitztz
Date: Saturday, September 9, 2023
Time: 10:00 AM Arizona
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Meeting ID: 843 1035 1286
Passcode: 477873
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Meeting ID: 843 1035 1286
Passcode: 477873
In this presentation, Howard gives tips for how to make good use of our time so that we have time to do more writing and focus on the things that matter. He includes a list of resource materials (books, blogs, websites) that he has found helpful over the years, as well as copies of the forms he uses to keep track of his writing projects, submission deadlines, etc. His goal is to share what he’s learned as a writer over the last fifteen years that helped him keep himself on track.
HOWARD GERSHKOWITZ: Howard lives in Arizona, though he hails from New York City. A Graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey, he moved to Phoenix in 1981 to become a financial advisor. He enjoys volunteering in the community, traveling with his wife, Lisa, and watching his two grandchildren grow up.
He’s kept a journal for nearly forty years, accumulating a lifetime of material for fiction and poetry. He began submitting and publishing his work 12 years ago, and to date, more than three dozen poems and eight short stories have appeared in print or in online e-zines. His debut novel, The Operator, was published in 2018 by All Things That Matter Press. His second novel, Not on My Watch, was published in 2021, by the same publisher. Most recently, he was awarded first prize in the Tempe Library/ASU Creative Writing contest for his short story, ‘The Painting.” His poetry chapbook, “Observations and Distractions,” is available for a limited time by contacting Howard at gershwriter@cox.net.
APW Book Club 6/24/23 with Nancy Marshall
Karen Lateiner is inviting you to the June APW Book Club meeting on June 24 at 10 a.m. with Nancy Marshall’s new book, A Dry Hate.
Topic: APW Book Club – A Dry Hate: Power vs. the People with Nancy Marshall
Date: Saturday, June 24, 2023
Time: 10 a.m. AZ time
Zoom: The Zoom link has been sent to Book Club members. All are welcome to join, however. Contact Karen at kslateiner@gmail.com
ABOUT THE BOOK
A Dry Hate began the morning a friend called Nancy Marshall to say, “They’ve thrown Jason in jail! What do we do?” A practicing attorney, Marshall offered to bail him out. Realizing that four activists had been jailed without justification, and defending one of them pro bono, Marshall decided to put the story into writing.
But the book goes way beyond that one arrest and trial. Nancy learned about the extent of abuse of power in the period of roughly 2000-2012, and she has included a lot of stories that have been “inspired by historical events.”
Nancy hopes that A Dry Hate: Power vs the People will have a broad readership with book and discussion groups and in high school and college classrooms. She has a deep and abiding belief that by continuing to educate ourselves, to think and talk about ideas and events, we will become a stronger democratic society. By opening ourselves to the interchange of ideas and knowledge we will be more able to combat propaganda, lies, abuse of power and threats of violence.
The book is available on Kindle.
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- Nancy Marshall
APW Book Club – 4/27/23 with RuthAnn Hogue
Date: May 27, 2023
Zoom Meeting link has been sent to members. If you’d like to attend, contact Karen Lateiner kslateiner@gmail.com for the link. Guests are welcome.
APW Virtual Meeting 4/19/23 – How to do audiobooks
Connie Cockrell is inviting you to Rim Country Chapter’s Virtual Meeting on April 12. The topic will be “How to do audiobooks” with author Karen Randau. The Zoom link is posted below.
Topic: How to do Audiobooks with Karen Randau
Date: Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Time: 1 pm Arizona Time
Zoom link: Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 824 9466 9743
Passcode: 965559
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdBJdsj0a
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Karen Randau is a lifelong writer—for as long as she can remember, she’s processed all of her major life events by writing about them. She earned a journalism degree from the University of Texas, but one semester on the school newspaper convinced her she didn’t want to be a journalist. Instead, she worked in marketing communications, first in the high-tech industry and then for 27 years for an international non-profit that helps people in developing countries pull themselves from poverty.
She began writing novels after she confessed a particularly strange thought to a co-worker and asked if the co-worker thought Karen was going crazy. The co-worker said, “No, I think you have a novel in you that is screaming to get out.”
Her first five books were published by Short On Time Books in Karen’s Rim Country Mystery series. She decided to go indie for the next three series and now has 13 published books. The most recent is From Chaos, book 2 in the Peach Blossom Romantic Suspense series, which reached an overall rating on Amazon of just under 2,800 and was in the top 10 in several categories. She worked with a producer through ACX to develop an audiobook for book 1 in that series, Into the Fog. That book is a current finalist for a Selah award.
For audiobooks, she’s tried everything from letting her publisher handle the whole process, to trying to narrate and produce it herself, to working with a professional narrator. She learned a lot along the way about production, distribution, and marketing audiobooks, which she’ll share with us on April 19.
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- Karen Randau
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- Kayla Walsh Mystery Suspense Trilogy
APW State Board Meeting 3/18/23
APW State Board Meeting
Saturday, March 18 at 10 a.m. via Zoom. All members are invited to attend. Regular business plus planning for the State Convention. Contact Connie Cockrell for the zoom link. connie.cockrell@gmail.com APW Book Club 2/25/23 – Robert Hershberger
Karen Lateiner is inviting you to a Zoom Book Club Meeting
SAVE THE DATE!
Topic: Diary of an Alzheimer”s Caregiver by Robert Hershberger
Date: Saturday, February 25, 2023
Time: 10 a.m. AZ time
Zoom: The Zoom invitation will be sent out to book club members the week before the meeting.
SUMMARY
This book is based on a diary about Deanna (Dee) Hershberger’s journey through Alzheimer’s disease from September of 2010 until her death on March 1, 2015 kept by Robert Hershberger, her husband and primary caregiver. It begins with a short introduction about Dee’s life before she contracted Alzheimer’s disease. It covers how she gradually lost her short-term memory while maintaining most of her physical and social abilities during the first two years of the journey. It then shows how she lost long-term memory, experienced psychotic episodes, had uncontrollable violent behavior, lost physical abilities, became incontinent and suffered from undetected illnesses through the last two years. It ends with the last two months of Deanna’s life when treated inappropriately in a psychiatric ward of a Phoenix hospital and caring treatment in an excellent memory care facility also in Phoenix. The book concludes with a brief summary of Dee’s life and a short note on ethics.
The diary also offers yearly reflections and advice that might help caregivers, family members, medical personnel, psychologists, church members, ministers, deacons and persons in families with a history of Alzheimer’s disease understand what to do and what not to do about extremely difficult behavior when caring for a person with Alzheimer’s disease.
The author hopes that readers will gain a compassionate understanding about people who contract the disease and those loved ones who become their primary caregivers. It can be a tough slog regardless of one’s best hopes and intentions.
Arizona Professional Writers 