Rim Country Chapter June 10 Zoom meeting
Speaker Jan Cleere
We are inviting all members of APW to join us for our next meeting. Nonmembers are welcome too.
Join APW Rim Country for a virtual Zoom meeting on June 10 at 1:00 pm for a presentation by author, historian and lecturer Jan Cleere. Be sure to mark your calendars to save the date. The Zoom link will be forthcoming prior to the meeting.
Jan writes extensively about the people who first settled in the desert Southwest. She travels around the state presenting the stories of early pioneers who were instrumental in settling and civilizing Arizona Territory. Jan is a Roads Scholar with Arizona Humanities and her monthly column, “Western Women,” appears in Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star newspaper detailing the lives of Arizona’s early amazing women. Her freelance work appears in national and regional publications. Jan latest book, From Reveille to Taps: Military Wives on the Arizona Frontier is scheduled for release by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (TwoDot) in March 2021.
Research comes second nature to Jan Cleere who just completed her sixth historical nonfiction book, the stories of women who came west with their military husbands to live on early army posts. But whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction, every book requires research. What have you found helpful? Where do you find subjects or check important details of a location or time period? Jan will be sharing her research methods in locating important documents for her latest book but would also like to hear how others find resources necessary for creating storylines. Join in a round-table discussion of research tools and techniques that will benefit the writer of every genre.
RSVP to Marie Fasano The link for the ZOOM will be sent to your email address prior to the meeting.
President’s message – January, 2020
APW Anthology
As we welcome 2020, we are excited about our many new members coming to our programs in Phoenix Central and Payson Rim Country each month and hearing exceptional speakers.
One item in our history that we almost forgot about is our book, Skirting Traditions. Members of the Arizona Press Women put together this wonderful volume of Arizona Women Writers and Journalists with Brenda Warneka editing. Many of our members, who started the organization in 1953, are included as part of this history.
The book was a project of the Arizona Press Women, Inc. in affiliation with the National Federation of Press Women Education Fund. In 2012, it was approved as an Arizona Centennial Legacy Project by the Arizona Historical Advisory Commission. Profits from the sale of the book will fund scholarships for Arizona students at Arizona colleges and universities.
Recently, I reread several sections. In the first chapter of the book, member Jan Cleere writes of Sharlot Mabridth Hall who fell in love with the Arizona Territory and helped push it to statehood. Sharlot was one of the first inductee’s in the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame.
Member Marion Gold showcased member Pam Stevenson’s story of being one of the first women newscasters on KOOL-TV. Pam did ten interviews a week and has won numerous awards for her documentaries including News Women: 50 years of Change, which is a celebration of Arizona Press Women’s 50th Anniversary.
One of our goals this year is to reintroduce you to this fabulous historical book and encourage you to purchase it through your usual outlets, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc. and support our scholarship fund.
Keep Writing,
Marie A Fasano
President, Arizona Professional Writers
It’s all about research! February Central Chapter meeting
Jan Cleere
Research is everything! When writing historical biographical books like our February speaker, Jan Cleere, it is easy to see how essential research is. But every book requires research—even fiction. What have you found helpful? Where do you find subjects or check important details of a location or time period? Jan will be sharing her research methods and material sources but would also like to hear how others find resources necessary for creating storylines. Our meeting will be a time of learning and sharing. We hope you can join us!
All about angels- January Central Chapter meeting
APW Central Chapter hosted Jody Sharpe in January on the topic of “The Angels On The Writer’s Shoulders.” Writing about angels became healing for Jody after losing her daughter. The valuable lessons learned about moving forward have set her on a mission to tell stories with love and spiritual awakening, which she shared with the attendees.
Central Chapter Director, Barbara Lacy, said of the meeting, “I have been thinking about ‘my’ Angel ever since!” Two memories came to mind. Here’s one of them in Barbara’s words”
“..two things that happened because of Amazing Coincidence’s. . .that I never could have imagined.
“In 1977, my family and I lived on the Navajo Reservation. I was working on a book about Navajo plant use—being careful to leave out anything about sacred plants. I even had a publisher.
“Then, the Navajo Medicine Men’s Association heard about the book and, as men who were charged with protecting the Tribe’s sacred knowledge of plants, they banned my book. I had finished my project by then. . .and left the Reservation that week.
“Almost 10 years later, a woman professor from Illinois who came to the reservation every summer to research Navajo music, walked into the (now defunct) Navajo Press Bookstore to see what was new. Sitting on the counter was my manuscript!
“’Oh,’ she said, ‘Are you publishing Nanise?’
“’We want to, but we can’t find the author,’ the clerk said.
“My friend (or Angel!) pulled her address book out of her purse and gave her my Phoenix address! (I had met her the summer I stayed behind, after my family had moved to Phoenix, to finish up book details. She spoke Navajo and had been in the room when the Navajo Medicine Men banned the book and told me of their decision right after the meeting. I knew her for all of three days that summer and had no contact with her once I left the Reservation.)
“Did my Angel put the manuscript on the counter that day and direct my friend to the bookstore? Had that meeting almost ten years earlier been directed by my Angel?”
Next month we hear from Jan Cleere who researches interesting Arizona women and writes about them and will talk about sources for research.
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- Barbara Lacy, Central Chapter Director
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- Jan Cleere
More At-Large Communication Contest winners!
APW had several winners in the National Federation of Press Women’s At-Large Communication Contest. Two members won honorable mention for their entries.
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- Dianne Ebert Beeaff
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- Jan Cleere
Dianne Ebert Beeaff won honorable mention in the category- “Short Stories- Single Story,” for A Packet of Arthritis Pills in the Potomac Review Issue 62, Spring 2018.
Jan Cleere won two honorable mentions in the category- “Columns/General.” Jan won for her articles in Western Women columns that she writes for the Tucson Arizona Daily Star.
Congratulations to both!
NFPW is a nationwide organization of women and men pursuing careers across the communications spectrum, including print and electronic journalism, freelancing, new media, books, public relations, marketing, graphic design, photography, advertising, radio and television.
Author Jan Cleere to speak to Central District April 1, 2016
at the monthly APW Central District meeting. Jan will talk about what it took to write her proposal for the book as well as share her chapter outlines submitted to the publishers. Also, she will reveal what it takes to market a book in today’s publishing world. Bring your questions and writing friends.
