Carol Osmond Brown Celebration of Life
Date change – March 7
Carol Brown’s son, Bryan, has booked the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix on March 7, 2021 at 1 pm for Carol’s celebration of life ceremony. Bryan is in the process of putting it all together now. The space that is booked is a large outdoor space but with a 50-person limit due to Covid. (10 of those will be reserved for family.) The celebration will be live-streamed, which will allow more APW friends to participate.
Bryan is hoping to have some stories or testimonials from some of his mom’s friends. These can be prerecorded in advance. He will edit it together for the event.
Please send memories, stories, testimonials to Bryan Lee Brown bryanleebrown@gmail.com Photos are welcome. Also, let Bryan know if you’d like to attend, live or streaming so he can send the link.
Please pass this on to other friends who might not see this. Thanks for your help!
Reminder – Communications contest
The deadlines for the Communications Contest are coming up. There are MANY categories so check it out!
See the earlier blog post for details and links to the NFPW website. APW members enter the At-Large contest.
January 9 Central Chapter with Marie Fasano
Join APW Central Chapter’s virtual meeting on Saturday, January 9 at 10 a.m. Featured speaker is our own APW President, Marie Fasano who will talk about interviewing for article writing.
Guest speaker: Marie Fasano, APW President
Topic: Interviewing for Articles
Date: January 9, 2021
Time: 10:00 AM Arizona
Both members and guests are invited to attend the Zoom meeting. If you did not receive the Zoom link, contact Barbara at lacyarts@gmail.com
Marie A. Fasano has been writing articles for over 40 years. She says the best part of her work has been interviewing people who have completed extraordinary tasks in their lives. Her articles have been as diverse as stories about places pilots fly for getaways and doing the PR for Air Shows to focusing on individuals who have helped others overcome challenges. Marie has enjoyed highlighting authors for the Payson Book Festival as PR Coordinator for five years. Currently, she writes a column for the Payson Roundup Newspaper titled “Roaming the Rim.” Her column is about anything that strikes her fancy. Some of her previous columns have been about nurses, the homeless, drones, sex education in the schools, telemedicine, and RBG.
Come join Marie to discuss the task of interviewing.
Christmas cheer!
Buckshot Dot aka Dee Strickland Johnson
Buckshot Dot gave us permission to post one of her uplifting Christmas songs!
“Buckshot Dot”* © 2012, ® 2020
Sing me the songs of the Prince of Peace,
Of joy and of firelight bright,
Of holly and ivy and mistletoe,
Sweet children whose songs delight.
Don’t tell me stories about lost love,
Tell me only of love that lasts.
Let us go dancing all through the streets,
As in all of our Christmases past.
Chorus: Tell me the tales of Christmas,
AKA “Dee Strickland Johnson”
President’s Page – November/December 2020
Happy Holidays to all members!
We are thankful for the treasures and friendships we have received this past year and we all look forward to 2021 with hope and promise. This has been a difficult year for many folks. Most of us have stayed close to home to be safe. Hopefully, this gave you an opportunity to write more novels, articles, newsletters and blogs.
I had some health issues in the last month and am now getting back to the real world. It hasn’t stopped me from taking part in several meetings of Central and Rim Country, hearing great guest speakers each time. It’s so easy to turn on the computer and be with wonderful, intelligent, articulate folks at these gatherings. Our members are terrific!
Our new APW Book Club, hosted by Karen Lateiner, is thriving with highlighting members books and having very lively and interesting discussions. Feel free to join us the last Saturday of every month. Contact me at mfasano.apw@gmail.com for the Zoom url.
Jaimie Bruzenak has kept us informed on our website and FB page. She can add you and your books to our new section called Holiday Bazaar to showcase our members’ books and websites. If you want to be included send your information to Jaimie at calamityjaimie@gmail.com.
We will be looking for some new officers for 2021. If you have any interest in taking a more active part in this thriving organization let me know. Our Bylaws are on the website under the members section. Here you can get an idea of what each position entails.
Here is another reminder to enter the NFPW Professional Contest under the At-large section. Several members have already entered their books, newsletters and articles. Go to NFPW.org for more information.
The APW Conference plans for April 2021 are going forward. We will look at the health of our community as we get closer. More information will be sent as our plans come together.
To close 2020, I wish each APW member the best of health and happiness.
Keep writing,
Marie A. Fasano
APW President
December 12 Central Chapter with Carolyn Neithammer
Are you a foodie?
Whether you love to eat or to write about food and cooking, join Central Chapter’s virtual meeting on Saturday, December 12 at 10 a.m. with author Carolyn Niethammer. She’ll talk about her latest book, A Desert Feast: Celebrating Tucson’s Culinary History, and her 50-year career of writing about Southwest food.
Date: December 12, 2020
Time: 10 a.m.
Zoom: Members and interested guests will be sent the Zoom link prior to the meeting. If you do not receive the link, email your request to Barbara Lacy at lacyarts@gmail.com
Carolyn Niethammer Bio:
Carolyn Niethammer learned to love and understand the West growing up in small-town Northern Arizona. She has spent her life writing about the foods and people of the Southwest in award-winning ethnobotanies, cookbooks and biographies. She began her career out of college as a newspaper reporter, then in the late Sixties spent a year going “back to the land” in Northern California where she learned about edible wild plants. For her first book, she traveled throughout Arizona and New Mexico interviewing Native American women on their use of wild plants. Other books followed on edible wild plants, Southwestern food, and Native American women. Her one novel is based on the life of a well-known Western cook.
Why She Knew the Story of how Tucson Became the first US UNESCO City of Gastronomy was Hers to Tell
Her latest book, her eleventh, is A Desert Feast: Celebrating Tucson’s Culinary History. In it she tells the 8,000 year story of how the residents of the Santa Cruz Valley subsisted on wild foods, learned to grow corn and eventually became expert farmers, and how today’s residents still grow and eat some of the same foods that nourished the local people so long ago. Carolyn has been writing about Southwest food for more than 50 years, so she had a good base of knowledge to tell the story of why Tucson received the UNESCO City of Gastronomy designation. But the most fun, was learning all the things she didn’t know.
December 26 APW Book Club meeting
Karen Lateiner, host of the APW Book Club, is inviting you to join the December meeting.
Topic: Special Needs Children – The Angels On My Shoulder by Jody Sharpe
Time: Dec 26, 2020 10:00 AM Arizona via Zoom.
Special Needs Children – The Angels On My Shoulder by Jody Sharpe
This memoir is about the special students and others who over the years graced my life with just that, their grace. As a child I witnessed bullying of a child with special needs who was not allowed in regular school at the time. My heart remembered and I was fortunate to be chosen to help other children with special needs during high school. These two experiences set a path for me to travel finding a fulfilling, soulful and lifelong career.
Jody Sharpe had a rewarding twenty-five-year career as a Special Education teacher. She feels her work with the special students inspired her own life’s journey of self discovery.
Jody’s latest books include Special Needs Children The Angels On My Shoulder and children’s book, When The Angel Sent Butterflies. Sharpe’s award-winning series, The Mystic Bay Series include The Angels’ Daughter, To Catch an Angel and Town of Angels.
Writing about angels became healing after losing her daughter and then her husband. The valuable lessons she learned about moving forward and loving life in the now have set her on a mission to tell stories in novels and her memoir with love, humor and spiritual awakening. Enlightening readers to contemplate the precious life and memories we are given is Jody’s greatest hope.
Important links:
- You can purchase an e-book at Amazon (also a link for a paperback copy).
- Learn more about Jody and her books at JodySharpe.com.
- If you are a member and would like your book to be discussed at a future meeting, email or call Karen Lateiner: kslateiner@gmail.com, 973-997-7204
- Zoom link: APW members have been sent the Zoom link and will receive a reminder a few days before the meeting. If you are not a member and would like to attend, email Marie Fasano at mfasano.apw@gmail.com Put “Dec 26 Zoom link” in the subject line.
December 5, 2020 APW Board meeting agenda
All members are invited to attend.
Date: Dec. 5, 2020
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Place: ZOOM (Contact Marie for the link)
Topic: APW Board of Directors Meeting
Agenda
Call meeting to order- President’s Report – Marie Fasano
Minutes from the May meeting- Secretary – Brenda Whiteside
Treasurer’s Report- Cheryl Kohout
Vice- President’s report- Bobbie Bennett
Membership Report- Connie Cockrell
Central Chapter report – Barbara Lacy
Rim Country Chapter report – Connie Cockrell
Southern Chapter report –
Webmaster report- Jaimie Bruzenak
Old Business:
Skirting Traditions Distribution of Book and new storage – Marie
Scholarship Committee
New Business
New APW Book Club- Barbara
Plans for April 2021 convention- Bobbie
Discussion of scheduling virtual meetings
Committee to select New Officers 2021-2022
Other Business
New APW Book Club!
After a lively discussion during our October meeting, a few members expressed interest in forming a book group to read and review each other’s books. Book group meetings will be held virtually at 10 am on the 4th Saturday of every month. Karen Shiffman Lateiner has agreed to coordinate the group. If you are interested in participating, please email or call her: kslateiner@gmail.com, 973-997-7204.
The first meeting will be – Saturday, October 24, at 10 am. Timeless Dance: A Story of Change and Loss by Karen Shiffman Lateiner is the first selection. It is available in Kindle or paperback on Amazon. If you are unable to obtain it, please let Karen know and she will arrange for you to get a copy.
The November selection will be Surrender by Marylee MacDonald, and December’s will be one of Jody Sharpe’s books.
Looking forward to seeing you at the launch of our APW Book Group. Contact Karen to join and stay tuned for further details.
Karen
973.997.7204
Karen Shiffman Lateiner, M.Ed.
Author,
Hike and Write Facilitator
Gender Diversity Educator
NFPW 2021 Communications Contest opens for entries
NFPW Communications Contest opens for entries The National Federation of Press Women’s 2021 communications contest is open and accepting entries. The year 2020 has been a year of constant changes, surprises and the unexpected. Many of our members have been documenting this year via methods including the written word, photographs, books, campaigns and presentations. Now is the time to recognize some of those efforts by entering the NFPW communications contest. Entries for the 2021 contest must be published or broadcast in some format between Jan. 1, 2020 and Dec. 31, 2020. The NFPW professional contest is a two-tiered contest. Entrants first enter a state level contest in the state they live in or are a member of, People living in a state without a state contest, are encouraged to enter the at-large contest. When entries warrant in the at-large contest, the contest may be split into regions to create a more level playing field. First-place winners in the state-level contest and the at-large contests are eligible to move to the national level of judging. To be eligible for compete in the national level, the entrant must be a member in good standing with the National Federation of Press Women. Unless the affiliate contest requires membership to participate, the entrants can join NFPW once they learn of their winning status. The deadline to join to compete in the national contest is March 15, 2021.
APW members submit their entries in the at-large contest. You do not need to be a member to participate though you must join NFPW if your entry can advance to the national level.
The 2021 contest is available here.
The professional contest deadlines are:
- Early entry deadline — January 27, 2021 at noon in the entrant’s time zone (the first entry submitted by an entrant after this deadline will be charged a $25 fee)
- Final book deadline — Feb. 3, 2021 at noon in the entrant’s time zone
- Final contest deadline — Feb. 10, 2021 at noon in the entrant’s time zone
- Winners must be NFPW members — March 15
- National winners announced and honored at NFPW conference — June 11, 2021
There is also a high school contest.
Arizona Professional Writers 