Fair and Festival Update

Englewood’s Dearborn Street Book Festival is almost here!

DATE: February 18/2012 PLACE: Pioneer Park, W. Dearborn St.

We hope you are planning to participate. Here’s how to reserve a spot:

1. Make your check of $25 to: SUNCOAST WRITERS/BOOK FESTIVAL

2. Send your check to:

DIANA HARRIS

1760 PARKER DRIVE

ENGLEWOOD, FLA. 34223

We are really excited about our book festival drawing near. We feel there is great interest being generated in it. We have gotten good PR so far and will be getting more. This year we will have a large banner across SR # 776 for several days before the festival, thanks to our main sponsor The Englewood SUN. Englewood’s two libraries, Elsie Quirk and Englewood Charlotte, also sponsors, have printed fliers and they have been distributed around town. The Suncoast Writers Guild is sponsoring the Writers Contest. There will be music by “SAX on the Beach.” Cafes are nearby for food take out.

SET UP TIME for the Authors will start at 9 am. The Festival will go from 10 am to 3 pm. Authors will be furnishing their own table/chairs and are free to decorate their tables or space as they wish. Tents are acceptable as we have plenty of room. There will be Porti-Potties in the Park. Leashed dogs are permitted as long as they are picked up after.

LOCATION: PIONEER PARK, is on W. Dearborn Street in the 300 block located between Mango Bistro and the Amherst Train Station shop. You will see a sign saying Book Festival at the front of the Park but please circle the block and enter the rear of the Park from the next street over, GREEN STREET. There will be a volunteer there to direct you. There is ample parking at the rear of the Park. Look for the check-in table and you will be guided to your spot.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to e-mail me (diharris@comcast.net) or call me at (941) 474-5837. See you all soon.

Diana Harris

Venice Book Fair Date Changed

The Venice International Book Fair and Writers Festival has been changed from Feb. 11 to April 7. More information to come.

Saturday Morning Workshop

Some of our folks are unable to attend day or evening workshops and presentations because of job and family commitments. Here's a chance to attend a Saturday morning session. South County residents should take special note.

On Saturday, November 6th at 10:30 a.m. the Suncoast Writers Guild will be holding a meeting on the second floor of the Elsie Quirk Library on Dearborn Street in Englewood.

The speaker that day will be Gaile Harpan, a local writer who has published several children's books. Gaile's presentation will cover a wide variety of writing-related subjects such as how to turn an idea into a published book, tips on marketing your book, and turning your writing hobby into a small business for tax purposes and for foundation work.

She will also talk about the advantages of joining writing groups and attending writing conferences. For those who haven't done so yet, Gaile will also discuss book-signings: how to prepare for them, and what to expect.

For additional information about Gaile's talk or about the Suncoast Writers Guild contact Ann Favreau at favra1@comcast.net or Ed Ellis at edellis20@fusemail.com.

Posted by
Russ Heitz

NPR: Another Market For Local Writers?

A member of our local FWA group and director of the Suncoast Writers Guild in Englewood, Ann Favreau recently shared with us an email she received from Guild member Kathy Nixon. It may open the door for some of us to yet another possible market for our
work--National Public Radio--especially if you enjoy writing personal essays. Here's Kathy's account.

"Following the advice of our guest speaker on other ways to publish, I wrote a three minute essay about taking my grandchildren to an ancestral burial ground. I contacted the local public radio station. [In our area that would be WUSF-FM in Tampa-Ed.] The editor loved it and we arranged a time to record when Randy and I were visiting the grandchildren. The [NPR editor], Martha Woodroff, was so easy-going that she made the whole experience a real high point of the vacation. You can go to http://www.wmra.org/, click on Civic Soapbox (My Grandchildren's Half-told Family Story) and listen to the essay or click on Civic Soapbox blog to read it."

What makes this possibility even more interesting and potentially profitable is that our local NPR station (WUSF-FM) has recently purchased a radio station here in Sarasota and will be expanding their programming in our immediate area. That means they will also be needing a lot of material to fill their new daily schedules. And, yes, they DO pay you for your work. This is not a freebie.

If you have any short personal essays that could amuse, inform, enlighten or inspire NPR listeners, contact Sheila Rue, WUSF-FM's Program Director at srue@WUSF.org. Sheila should be able to direct you to the proper contact within the organization.

Give it a try. It won't cost you more than a stamp-less free email. And GOOD LUCK!

Posted by
Russ Heitz
http://www.russheitz.com/