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
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84310351286?pwd=UDNpNTBrbHkrZGh2dGcxTElFaGRtQT09
Meeting ID: 843 1035 1286
Passcode: 477873
One tap mobile
+16699006833,,84310351286#,,,,*477873# US (San Jose)
+17193594580,,84310351286#,,,,*477873# US
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.
-
- 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
https://us02web.zoom.us j/82494669743?pwd=YWFpNU9BNTVRNFpraWQ4dWN0cFd3UT09
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.
-
- Karen Randau
-
- 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.
APW Book Club 1/28/23 – Mark Walker
Saturday, January 28 we will review Mark Walker’s book, My Saddest Pleasures: 50 Years on the Road
Date: Saturday, January 28, 2023
Time: 10 a.m. Arizona time
Zoom: The Zoom link will be sent out to book club members before the meeting. APW members or guests who would like to attend and did not receive the link should contact Karen Lateiner at kslateiner@gmail.com for the link.
ABOUT MARK WALKER
Award winning author, Mark D. Walker has been recognized twice by the Solas Literary Awards for Best Travel Writing. His new book is part of his Yin & Yang of Travel Series. My Saddest Pleasures: 50 Years on the Road, borrows its title from one of iconic writer, Moritz Thomsen’s works. It shines a sometimes-lovely, sometimes-piercing light on the countries he visits. In this captivating book, Walker reflects on his fifty years of travel miscalculations and disasters and how and why his travels changed over the years, as has who he traveled with.
Walker has received rave reviews from readers and reviewers such as Midwest Review. “My Saddest Pleasures” differs from most both in its size and in its succinct considerations of how travel changes not just self, but the environments that the traveler encounters. The combined flavor of wonder, new experiences, ecological and social reflection, and adventure brings with it a newfound opportunity to understand the traveler’s impact on a deeper level than most. Domestic and foreign experiences alike are outlined with these lessons in mind.
Please watch: Also, Mark would like participants to see an interview on the making of his book which just came out in Global Connections TV. This is his second interview and they’re seen on UN TV and in universities around the world. The 30-minute interview touches on why/how he wrote the book as well as important trends in the global publishing industry. Please watch this on YouTube before the meeting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IfdQ4D7DJs
January APW virtual meeting: 1-14-23 Dr. Kixx Goldman
Let’s start the year 2023 right. We invite all APW members to come to our January meeting!
Susan Claire Anderson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Arizona Professional Writers Meeting- Creating Character from My Heart with Dr. Kixx Goldman
Date: January 14, 2023
Time: 10:00 AM Arizona
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88985850285?pwd=VHh3Z3lKclFjbDBjRml4NEs1QmhHZz09
Creating Character from my Heart: Blessings and Therapeutic Outcomes
I’m excited and delighted to be speaking with you at your January meeting. I’d love to share thoughts about my writing process. I want to tell you how I create characters and some unexpected therapeutic outcomes, like healing from a traumatic memory. Let’s leave a little time for questions and chat.
Bio
Dr. Kixx Goldman, author, therapist, and storyteller, has a passion for writing fiction. Her recently published debut collection, Speak from Your Heart and Be Heard: Stories of Courage and Healing, is a tribute to human resilience. The characters in the stories show us how we can follow our intuition and find the courage to speak our truth, overcome challenges, heal and grow.
Please download and print the 4 handouts before the meeting.
- Handout 1 -Emotions, Telling the Story your Plot Doesn’t – fr. Donald Maass
- Handout 2 – Dimensions of Character
- Handout 3 – Aspects of Character handout
- Handout 4 – Windy on Character handout
Guests are welcome. Use the above Zoom link to join.
APW Book Group – 10/22/22 – Kathleen Parrish
Karen Lateiner is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
TOPIC: APW Book Group -Author Kathleen Parrish –Second Son
DATE: October 22, 2022
TIME: 10:00 AM Arizona
ZOOM: The link has been sent to Book Club members. If you’d like to join, contact Karen at kslateiner@gmail.com for the link.
ABOUT SECOND SON
Second Son: A Novel about the Deep South by Hermann Willis Logan, continued by Kathleen Parrish is available on Amazon.
The debut novel from Herman Willis Logan, continued by Kathleen Parrish, is filled with beautifully flawed characters struggling to survive the last years of the Great Depression and the epic panorama of World War II.
Trapped on a tenant farm in 1938 Mississippi, young Towanna Whitaker longs to get his education and “be somebody.” But the cotton harvest comes first, and his pa thinks an eighth-grade education is plenty for a cotton farmer. When his troubled mother abandons the family, Towanna must choose between his dreams of an education and helping his pa hold the family together. He gives up his education to care for the house and his baby sister, only to lose her in a tragic accident—one he might have prevented. Grief and self-loathing slowly give way to his family’s stubborn love and the shy overtures of Kathy, a local girl, but World War II arrives all too soon to tear them apart. Drafted into the army and deployed to Europe, Towanna must face death, loss, and his deepest fears if he’s to survive the war and find his way home.
“Second Son is an enthralling depiction of life in the Deep South during the final years of the Great Depression, and the hardships of World War II … fresh and deeply personal.” —Rick Adelmann, Best-Selling Author of the MG&M Detective Agency Mysteries
APW Book Group- 9/24/22- Elizabeth Graham
Karen Lateiner is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: APW Book Group -Elizabeth Graham Democrazy
Date: Saturday, September 24, 2022
Time: 10:00 AM Arizona
Zoom: The link will be sent to all members. It is also listed under the Members Only tab of the website. If you would like to attend and do not have the link, contact Karen.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth Graham had a top secret clearance at the age of seventeen with the CIA. She spent about twenty-five years living and working abroad: Soviet Union, then Russia, Central Asia, and other former Soviet pack countries. She was a consultant in war-torn Afghanistan, Rwanda, and Bosnia. Her real-life multi-cultural experiences in totalitarian and dictatorship countries gives her a great vantage point to comment on the Trump-era and how other countries view the U.S. racism, violence, and our democracy. She recently authored DEMOCRAZY, Version 2020 and is working on her second book.
Arizona Professional Writers 