Book signing opportunity: Local indie authors are encouraged to participate in Authors in the Park, spotlighting local authors, Thursday, March 12, 11 am – 2 pm, Phillippi Estate Park, Sarasota. Authors of all genres are welcome and encouraged to take part in this book signing event spotlighting local authors. We will heavily promote the event through traditional and social media, with flyers, and through other channels throughout the community to encourage members of the community to come out and support us.
The cost is only $30 per space and may be shared by two authors. Authors need to bring their own tables and chairs; tents are welcome but must be securely anchored. Set-up begins at 9 am and authors are asked to be set up and ready to greet guests by 10 am.
Tunes, Trucks, and Treasures (formerly the Brown Bag Concert Series) features food trucks and a different musical act each Thursday in February and March. Authors are welcome to participate any Thursday. Sophisticated Swing will perform on March 12. All proceeds benefit the restoration of the Keith Farmhouse on the Phillippi Estate property. Tunes, Trucks & Treasures is presented by Sarasota County Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources.
AUTHORS MUST BE REGISTERED BY MARCH 1ST
For more information and a Registration Form please contact Ramona Fields at ramonalovesdogs@verizon.net or 941-544-7549
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Sunday, February 23, 2020
February 19th, 2020
This week’s meeting gave us an opportunity to learn about Marketable Writing as presented by Ed Ellis. With questions and comments from the listeners, Ed took us on a journey through his Writing for Marketable Writers. From explaining the difference between a model and a plan to reaching our desired outcome. Although not all listeners agreed on all points, they did see options presented they’ve not always considered. Informative and thought-provoking, the presentation opened avenues for thought and options unfamiliar to all of us. Ed has put his presentation in pdf format and offers it to anyone who would like a copy. Email Ed or Rod, emails are listed to the right side of this post, with a subject line of Marketable Writing and we will send you a copy.
Thank you, Ed.
With time remaining in the evening, we opened the floor for reading. First up was Don Westerfield. Usually, Don brings us poetry, but occasionally he comes up with an entertaining piece of prose in his unique style. Always welcomed by the listeners, we look forward to Don’s work and settle in knowing we will enjoy what’s about to come; he didn’t disappoint us this week. Entitled, The Alien, Don entered the realm of humor and science-fiction in one fell swoop. Somewhere in a jungle of undisclosed location, a young woman suffers the loss of her husband to be. His untimely death leaves her distressed and sure she will never become a lover or mother; she will never know the joys of womanhood. Her fears are accentuated by the crashing arrival of a spherical object crashing through the canopy of the jungle and coming to rest a short distance from her mourning hut. The interaction of the young woman with an alien being is remarkable as she has little or no fear of the unknown due to her circumstances. The ending comes in an unexpected and awakening conclusion. Don’s next book may well contain this story and is worth waiting for.
Another sci-fi writer took the stage as Ian Schagen read a continuation of his tale of a starship’s journey across the galaxy. After being hijacked by a violent splinter group of colonists who’d signed on to establish colonies on previously uninhabited planets, the starship captain is awakened from wrongly enforced hyper-sleep by a minor malfunction alarm. Discovering he’d been forced into hibernation only a few light-weeks earlier, he turns the behemoth starship around and returns to the planet whereupon the rebels have established a fortified colony. Accomplishing the impossible, he guides the monstrous ship through the atmosphere and uses the atomic hyper-drive engines to attack the rebel outposts. Are his efforts successful? I guess you’ll have to wait until this tome is complete and published. Look for it in the future.
We returned to Castro’s Cuba with Jeff Kutcher as he read more about his friend, Amauri. Baseball is popular in Cuba, and games are commonplace. Amauri and his brother compete in one such game but must cut their time short as they must meet with their father. As they walk to the meeting, Amauri’s brother confides as to how he would someday like to live in the United States. The revelation is shared by the brothers but would not be popular with their father, a General in Castro’s army. Cuba has always been a tourist destination for Europeans especially those from Spain. In this episode, a pair of Spanish tourists are duped and robbed by an acquaintance of Amauri and his brother. How does that sit with the brothers? We wait for the next installment.
We meet again on March 4th and look forward to seeing you once again for discussion and reading your work for critique or help. The readers for this meeting will be led off by Bruce Haedrich and Sue Haley, both choose to defer their turn this week so others would be able to read. Until the 4th, KEEP ON WRITING, and we hope to see you at the Firehouse.
Monday, February 10, 2020
February 5th, 2020
Another beautiful evening in Nokomis, Florida and a great meeting at the firehouse with the Sarasota Writer’s Group. The evening started off with a book giveaway; Bruce Haedrich brought in four copies each of his Dan Marin Mystery books and invited all of us to take those we wished to read for free. His only prerequisite was we write a review of the books we take to read. I hope to read a lot of great reviews.
We welcomed Keri Dieffenwierth back after an absence as she healed from a surfing accident, we missed her. Jim Kelly was in attendance; he was honored by the Suncoast Writer’s Guild in Englewood for his work with students in the local school system. Jim has introduced elementary school students to poetry for several years now and many have shown a true gift for it. Congratulations, Jim, great work!
With 22 in attendance and 12 writers wishing to share work with us, we moved directly to the reading portion of the meeting. Peter Frickel opened the session with a piece he calls The Vixen Pub. A man remembers the time he spent with an old flame as they are reunited. This reunion has a surprising twist as the evening wears on. His old love is not as she once seemed. Look for this piece on Peter’s web page or on Amazon in the future.
After his book giveaway, Bruce Haedrich shared an original piece documenting 175 Million years of change by giving a personality to The North American Plain. Speaking as the plain, Bruce takes us through the millennia as seen by the virtual eyes of what is now a large section of North America. Unique and informative, his piece might be the best simplification of tectonic plate movement I’ve ever heard.
A change of pace in Scott Anderson’s work is seen in his 3 poems presented here. First; Pride and Gluttony depicted the sins of a proud glutton as his confession unfolds. Second; Envy and Greed come to the fore in a second confession and the reader can feel compassion for the unforgiven. Third; Lust rears its ugly head as base instinct rules in the life of one seeking forgiveness.
Who knows what will come out of Ed Ellis’s mind when he takes up the pen? A true story with a well-learned lesson enthralled us as Ed and a buddy take a ride on their brand-new Harleys into the California mountains. All goes well on the way up the mountain, after a stop for refreshment the return trip gets exciting when his buddy misjudges a turn and crashes. Thrown from the bike, he lands upon a rattlesnake. The upset snake shows its displeasure by burying its fangs in the biker’s leg. Ed was adamant it was the leg, not his ass that was bitten. If it was the ass, it would have been ‘TOO BAD.’ Ed uses poor judgment in sucking blood and venom out of his friend’s leg when the paramedic mentions how cavities in one’s teeth would be the same as being bit. Both men spent time in the hospital receiving antivenom.
Chapter 6 of Barb Marvin’s mystery novel, her fifth or sixth book, follows an unnamed character out Fruitville Road in Sarasota. Development springs up in an area he chose to hide secrets, anger rises as he flees the area set on getting retribution for losing his valued secret place.
Everyman, Don Westerfield’s poem about the average person’s life hits a nerve for every person who hears it. Poignant, none escape the insight of this poet. My Poem as a Painting, his second offering, puts words in a new light with a comparison of art forms. Great work, Don, can’t wait for more from you.
What was it like to be a slave on a slave ship? Jim Kelly gives us a possibility in his poem Darkness. Listen carefully and you can taste the fear, shiver with cold nights, sweat in stagnant heat, and breath secondhand air as the imprisoned cargo is swept away to the unknown.
Castro’s Cuba is home to a growing lad. Jeff Kutcher tells of Amauri nearing the age of 15. He has an appointment with his father to discuss his future. An older brother has a job and lives an independent life, what does the future hold for Amauri? Sleep eludes him as scenarios fill his young mind on the night before the meeting.
Tales2Inspire is a creation of Lois Stern. Lois read a winning tale from her latest edition entitled The Swan by Linda Bond. Linda read us the rough draft before leaving the area last year. A kitchen remodel job causes excess anxiety in a woman who seeks to find calm in watching the swan on a lake behind her home. Well written and deserving of publication, this story shows how the simplest things can bring calm to a hectic life.
Already hard at work after publishing his two-volume work about the Distinguished Career of Winfield Scott Hancock, James Kelly has begun another saga, this time it takes place after the civil war. Entitled, McKenzie’s Plan, it follows the life of a career officer and his family.
Another chapter in Jane Forgey’s Life Altered memoir brings a story of an early snowfall resulting in a rare snow day off from school in November. Fun for kids, but what about Mama and Daddy? Keep it coming Jane, most enjoyable.
Moving away from his Si-Fi genre, Ian Schagen brought us a poem entitled Life Drawing. An art class is presented with a nude model posing for their assignment. Once the artwork is complete there are as many interpretations of shape and scale as there are students. Perception is studied in this wonderful offering. Great job Ian, looking forward to more from you.
That’s about all for this week, folks. Remember, Ed Ellis will present his program MODELS FOR MARKETABLE WRITING at our next meeting, February 19th. Ed says it’s about an hour or so, depending on how long the question and answer portion takes. Until then, KEEP ON WRITING!
We welcomed Keri Dieffenwierth back after an absence as she healed from a surfing accident, we missed her. Jim Kelly was in attendance; he was honored by the Suncoast Writer’s Guild in Englewood for his work with students in the local school system. Jim has introduced elementary school students to poetry for several years now and many have shown a true gift for it. Congratulations, Jim, great work!
With 22 in attendance and 12 writers wishing to share work with us, we moved directly to the reading portion of the meeting. Peter Frickel opened the session with a piece he calls The Vixen Pub. A man remembers the time he spent with an old flame as they are reunited. This reunion has a surprising twist as the evening wears on. His old love is not as she once seemed. Look for this piece on Peter’s web page or on Amazon in the future.
After his book giveaway, Bruce Haedrich shared an original piece documenting 175 Million years of change by giving a personality to The North American Plain. Speaking as the plain, Bruce takes us through the millennia as seen by the virtual eyes of what is now a large section of North America. Unique and informative, his piece might be the best simplification of tectonic plate movement I’ve ever heard.
A change of pace in Scott Anderson’s work is seen in his 3 poems presented here. First; Pride and Gluttony depicted the sins of a proud glutton as his confession unfolds. Second; Envy and Greed come to the fore in a second confession and the reader can feel compassion for the unforgiven. Third; Lust rears its ugly head as base instinct rules in the life of one seeking forgiveness.
Who knows what will come out of Ed Ellis’s mind when he takes up the pen? A true story with a well-learned lesson enthralled us as Ed and a buddy take a ride on their brand-new Harleys into the California mountains. All goes well on the way up the mountain, after a stop for refreshment the return trip gets exciting when his buddy misjudges a turn and crashes. Thrown from the bike, he lands upon a rattlesnake. The upset snake shows its displeasure by burying its fangs in the biker’s leg. Ed was adamant it was the leg, not his ass that was bitten. If it was the ass, it would have been ‘TOO BAD.’ Ed uses poor judgment in sucking blood and venom out of his friend’s leg when the paramedic mentions how cavities in one’s teeth would be the same as being bit. Both men spent time in the hospital receiving antivenom.
Chapter 6 of Barb Marvin’s mystery novel, her fifth or sixth book, follows an unnamed character out Fruitville Road in Sarasota. Development springs up in an area he chose to hide secrets, anger rises as he flees the area set on getting retribution for losing his valued secret place.
Everyman, Don Westerfield’s poem about the average person’s life hits a nerve for every person who hears it. Poignant, none escape the insight of this poet. My Poem as a Painting, his second offering, puts words in a new light with a comparison of art forms. Great work, Don, can’t wait for more from you.
What was it like to be a slave on a slave ship? Jim Kelly gives us a possibility in his poem Darkness. Listen carefully and you can taste the fear, shiver with cold nights, sweat in stagnant heat, and breath secondhand air as the imprisoned cargo is swept away to the unknown.
Castro’s Cuba is home to a growing lad. Jeff Kutcher tells of Amauri nearing the age of 15. He has an appointment with his father to discuss his future. An older brother has a job and lives an independent life, what does the future hold for Amauri? Sleep eludes him as scenarios fill his young mind on the night before the meeting.
Tales2Inspire is a creation of Lois Stern. Lois read a winning tale from her latest edition entitled The Swan by Linda Bond. Linda read us the rough draft before leaving the area last year. A kitchen remodel job causes excess anxiety in a woman who seeks to find calm in watching the swan on a lake behind her home. Well written and deserving of publication, this story shows how the simplest things can bring calm to a hectic life.
Already hard at work after publishing his two-volume work about the Distinguished Career of Winfield Scott Hancock, James Kelly has begun another saga, this time it takes place after the civil war. Entitled, McKenzie’s Plan, it follows the life of a career officer and his family.
Another chapter in Jane Forgey’s Life Altered memoir brings a story of an early snowfall resulting in a rare snow day off from school in November. Fun for kids, but what about Mama and Daddy? Keep it coming Jane, most enjoyable.
Moving away from his Si-Fi genre, Ian Schagen brought us a poem entitled Life Drawing. An art class is presented with a nude model posing for their assignment. Once the artwork is complete there are as many interpretations of shape and scale as there are students. Perception is studied in this wonderful offering. Great job Ian, looking forward to more from you.
That’s about all for this week, folks. Remember, Ed Ellis will present his program MODELS FOR MARKETABLE WRITING at our next meeting, February 19th. Ed says it’s about an hour or so, depending on how long the question and answer portion takes. Until then, KEEP ON WRITING!
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