Kick Off Meeting

Our Fall/Winter guest speaker program kicked off Wednesday, Oct 1st, with FWA member and supporter Julie Ann Howell, founder and publisher of Peppertree Press, as our guest speaker. Julie Ann's great presentation on publishing and on Peppertree Press was warmly received by 20 attendees, 10 of whom are FWA members. Julie gave out four gifts, selected by drawings, at the end of her presentation. We will ask the popular Julie Ann back again in the future.

 Our winter residents began trickling in as several of our "snowbirds/sunbirds" returned for the first time since last spring. We had a short break following Julie Ann's presentation, and listened to two, short readings before wrapping up the evening.

We were fortunate to have Weslynn McCallister join us as well. Wes is a lifetime member of the FWA and one of the original founding members.

 Congratulations to Kerri Dieffenwirth for being a 2014 Nominee for Still: The Journal annual BEST OF THE NET ANTHOLOGY for her piece "A New Bitterroot." Winners will be announced in late October. Congratulations Kerri for the nomination.

Our next guest speaker will be Ryan G. Van Cleave, writer, speaker, & Professor at Ringling College of Art + Design, on Wednesday, November 19th. Ryan is the author of Memoir Writing for Dummies and The Weekend Book Proposal.

Next Sarasota Writers Group meeting will be Oct 15th. See you there.

Get Ready!

We welcome our first guest speaker of our fall/winter season, Julie Ann Howell, Publisher and Founder of Peppertree Press - A Sponsor of the Florida Writers Association’s yearly Writing Conference - who will address our group Wednesday, October 1st! Welcome back Julie, who has an interesting announcement for mystery writers
______________________________________________________________________

Readers will have a chance to meet more than 40 authors who have written books for just about every taste at the 22nd annual Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading on Oct. 25, The writers will be discussing and signing their books at this free event on the Bayside campus of the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. http://www.tampabay.com/features/books/times-festival-of-reading-to-feature-hiaasen-macomber-mandvi-stine/2197014

[Thanks to Kerri for the heads up]

“It was a cold and dreary day...”

No, it wasn't, but it was quite a bit colder than normal as we kicked off the Sarasota Writers Group meeting on Wednesday, March 6th. Inside the meeting room was nice and comfortable as always. We had a good turnout and a really great meeting. We were pleased to have Julie Ann Howell, President and Publisher of Peppertree Press and Peppertree Magazine, as our guest speaker.

Julie Ann's presentation on Peppertree Press and the evolving world of publishing was enthusiastically received. The comments and questions that followed added to her in-depth explanation of what new writers can expect, and should look for, when searching for a publisher. Peppertree Press's support of the Florida Writers Association (Peppertree Press is a Platinum Sponsor of the FWA Writers Conference) is greatly appreciated, and we certainly appreciate Julie Ann's great presentation. Julie Ann also awarded a beautiful coffee table photo book about Sarasota to Kat Levato for having the right ticket stub, and a coffee mug to first time guest Larry Burnett, who uniquely drew his own number. Amid the cries of “foul” and “fixed” (Do you really believe everything I write?”) Don Westerfield drew the last prize of the evening, a signed, hardback copy of Julie's book "Haunted Echoes." The Peppertree was the first to publish Don's poems in 2009 and gave him the confidence to go on writing. We are so glad he did.

New writer Rachel Fritsch returned, and we greeted first time guest, and coffee mug winner, Larry Barnett. A brief discussion about the new Critique and Comment blog (http://critandcom.blogspot.com/) where members can post writing they want critiqued, anonymously if they so choose, shows the idea has merit, but needs to be simplified. So, the procedure for posting on the “critandcom” page has been revised. Simply e-mail your writing to George Mindling at the special e-mail address on the blog page, and it will be posted exactly as it is received. Critiques can be posted as comment at the bottom of each blog. The restriction on keying in “special” codes has been removed, but that also means spam may appear on the page. Please let me know if anything out of order pops up in the comments section that needs to be removed.

After general comments about upcoming writing contests mentioned in earlier blogs, the meeting was turned over to Julie Ann.

Following Julie Ann's presentation, we took a ten minute break, then gavel-master Rod DiGruttolo resumed our regular meeting with a reading from Laura Heath. Laura's transition from a non-fiction writer to narrative non-fiction story telling is underway with a marvelous first attempt called The Bus, set in the jungles of Guatemala. Written as a short story, her first reading drew both applause and comments. We will hear more from Laura in the future.

George Mindling followed with two whimsical poems, not his specialty, but apparently the humor was well received as there was no booing. Peter Frickel then read his delightful “Country Cottage,” from his “Shoebox Anthology,” as always, his reading embellishing his already great writing.

Don Westerfield read two of his wonderful poems, “When a House, a Home,” and “The Human Race,” and Mary Byrnes followed with the second part of her non-fiction fiction called “Embellishments, Section II.” Mary's writing again held everyone's attention to the “embellished, true tale,” enhanced by showing photos of her beautiful mother in comparison to another beauty of her time, Amelia Earhart. Kat Levato read her short Love at Sunrise, followed by Joanne Phillips who read “Computer Conversations,” which told explicitly why she loves talking computers, as we wrapped up another great meeting. 

Patricia LaBarbera announced her two of her books will be available for free Kindle downloading this weekend from Amazon.  The Celtic Crow Murders, a cozy mystery will be available for free download from Amazon March 8 through March 10. World Castle Publishing will be releasing The Wolf's Daughter, her paranormal romance, on March 15. She plans to have the book available for free Amazon download on that day. See both book trailers at www.patricialabarbera.com. Patricia is also asking if anyone has a booth at the Venice Book Fair and is looking for someone to share space. Contact e-mail is editor@patricialabarbera.com. You don't want to miss the opportunity to read any of Patricia's work.

 We said goodbye to Lois Stern who is returning to New York for the summer, and eventually turned off the lights.

We'll see everyone on March 20^th, spring should be here by then.

George Mindling

Wednesday, February 20th, 2013, Part 2

Wednesday, February 20^th, another evening in our little corner of paradise spent with friends who love to write. With twenty-two in attendance, our “meet and greet” at 6:00 pm was a chance to catch up on all the social issues before we kicked off the regular meeting at 6:30pm. We welcomed new guest Rachel Fritsch, and again welcomed Pat Patterson who makes the drive all the way up from Punta Gorda, and Christine Burton, who drives down from Bradenton! We also welcomed back one of the original members of our group, Bart Stamper, who later read a sensitive, engrossing story that is worthy of its own posting. It is posted at http://fwasarasota.blogspot.com/2013/02/wednesday-6-20-2013-part-1.html.

The meeting started with thanks to AJ and Joanne Robinson of the Florida Writers Association who spoke at the last meeting. As I will try to have at least one meeting a month with special presentations, I am pleased to announce Julie Ann Howell, publisher and founder of Peppertree Press and the The Pepper Tree Magazine, will be our presenter at the March 6^th meeting. It will be a special event for those who contributed to the Remembrance of Ed Lyman. Plan to be here.

The results of the recent Englewood Dearborn Street Book Festival were announced and writers from our group won several awards! Congratulations to Don Westerfield for winning First Place with his Short Story, and to Ann Favreau who won Second Prize in the same category. Not content with winning Third place in the Poetry entry, Christine Burton also took First Place in Poetry. Congratulations to all the writers who won awards, and to all those who submitted writings to be considered.

Speaking of Literary Awards, the Royal Palm Literary submissions of the Florida Writers Association are open. For entry information, click on:

http://floridawriters.net/RPLA.html and for a blog about the RPLA themselves, check

http://floridawriters.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/the-royal-palm-literary-awards-contest-is-open-enter-now/.

Rod DiGruttolo once again handled the “gavel” and the meeting opened with Susan Davis reading the opening segment of her epic trip from Key West to Punta Gorda by bicycle. Most people have trouble driving across the Everglades on Tamiami Trail in a car, much less by bike! Susan gave new definition to a “bug with her printer,” so she read from a hand-written pad jotted down quickly one morning. More jotting, Susan, we want to hear more!

Kerri Dieffenwierth's great “Bear Bear” began with a “No Gators” warning and showed Kerri's ability to show, not tell, about the truths in life. The spiral notebooks bound for the trash pile caught everyone's ear.

Bart Stamper was welcomed back with his “Point Blank,” given its own special space on the blog. He said he was “Rusty, and so is this writing.” No, it's not, and neither is Bart. Welcome back. Great writing.

Joanne Phillips read next, but not from her book, Adventures of a Sea Hag, because it was recently published! Congratulations, Joanne. Instead, she read Don Westerfield's I'll Remember You. A Marine's wife will always be number two, but not in Don's writing. A really nicely done short story.

After a short break, we returned with a few announcements and Barbara Frickel read a short excerpt from the Encyclopedia of Great Writers, just to keep our egos in check. Chris Burton's razor-sharp “Poem to That One” showed why she took 1^st and 3^rd at the Dearborn Street festival. She followed her own poem by reading Kat Levato's timely “He Bled for You” which left several in tears, both because of Kat's great writing and Chris's powerful reading.

Andrew Parker continued his engaging and engrossing tales of “Blake Brimstone,” Brain Surgeon because Blake doesn't like the name Neurosurgeon. No descriptions I could write could accurately capture Andrew's writing, you have to hear it for yourself. Suffice to say if it were a screenplay, Johnny Depp would play Blake Brimstone. “A bunch of birds. Man, that was a lot of birds.”

Bill Elam continued with his old man in the autumn of his years anthology, when a man takes control of his life. “Her dance card was for him...”

Pat Patterson, with his unmistakable Mississippi drawl, caught everyone off guard with his reading of his first-novel-in progress titled “The Takers,” set in the year 1003 in Scandinavia. The discussion that followed his reading was intent and engrossing. His epic Viking tale has everyone's interest and curiosity, this is going to be a great story.

Ed Ellis followed with his marvelous Valentine poems for his grandchildren, then started on a piece written while drinking “sweet tea.” Ed never fails to capture the listeners, even evoking one comment, “What was in the tea?”

Lois Stern read an entry from her Tales2Inspire contest that stumped both her and the other judges. An engaging, well written story that simply did not “Inspire” the reader, and therefore did not satisfy the rules of the contest. Still, it was a lesson for all about why we write.

Cecile Bell quickly read her humorous piece about Humpty Dumpty as we once again ran over time a little, and our apologies to Laura Heath who will be at the top of the list for the next reading.

Remember, Julie Ann Howell, publisher and founder of Peppertree Press and the The Pepper Tree Magazine, will be our presenter at the March 6^th meeting. Don't miss it.

George

Peppertree Press Bookstore

 

Peppertree Press announces the Grand Opening of the Bookstore, January 26, 2013, from 6 to 9pm.  

Please RSVP to Julie Ann Howell or Teri Lynn France at (941) 922-2662 or (941) 444-7903