Newsletter of the Society of Southwestern Authors                                   Vol. 34, No. 5 October-November '06


Upcoming Events

   October 15
Forum @11:30-2PM
Sabbar Shrine
Rhys Bowen,
" Creating Good Characters-The Mystery Solved"
(see article)

   November 19
Forum @11:30-2PM
Sabbar Shrine
Matthew Sanford,
"Writing with Mind and Body"
(see article)


To R.S.V.P. Forum
Leave Phone Message
at 546-9382
before noon the
Wed. before the Forum
$20 paid at the door

Creating Good Characters-The Mystery Solved!

   October's forum has many new things going on: we will be in our new location at the SABBAR SHRINE TEMPLE (see directions below), we will learn who placed in the SSA writing contest and listen to the first place entries, then Rhys Bowen will be featured.

   Learn all the clues to a successful writing career from an author who has been nominated for every major mystery award--Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, Barry, Macavity--and has won seven of them. Mystery writer Rhys Bowen will be our luncheon forum speaker on October 15th during her first visit to Tucson in a very, very long time.

   Rhys will share her expertise in creating memorable characters--from her contemporary mild-mannered constable in a quaint Welsh village to her feisty Irish lass determined to become a private investigator in turn of the 20th century New York City. Her novels are populated with all sorts of unique folks: battling Welsh ministers and a postman who reads the mail before delivery, Irish gang hoodlums and society matrons--all are observed and drawn with colorful localisms and the right touch of dryly sharp Brit wit.

   Born in Bath, England, Rhys started her career with the BBC on radio and TV plays, moved on to children's picture books, young adult books, historical romances and sagas. She's lived and worked in England, Australia, and the San Francisco area. Then she decided to write the kind of books she loved to read. As Rhys says on her website: "The kind of mystery that gives the reader a great sense of time and place as well as a rattling good story."

   You can learn more about Rhys and her novels at her website: http://jqh.home.netcom.com.

   This is an opportunity for writers of all genres to learn from someone who has vast experience from publishing over one hundred books. Don't miss the October 15th forum and Rhys Bowen!


Writing with Mind and Body

   Our November speaker, Matthew Sanford, will talk about "Writing with Mind and Body." While writing is obviously an inward, mental process, the important role that the body plays--in creativity, in the clarity of one's thoughts, and in the text itself--is easy to overlook. In this talk, Matthew explores what it means to bring the mind-body relationship more directly into the writing process and forward onto the page.

   Matthew Sanford is a visionary, philosopher, yoga teacher, and author of the critically acclaimed Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence (Rodale: 2006) (Editor's Choice - Reader's Digest, June 2006). At the age of thirteen, he survived a devastating car accident that killed his father and sister and left him paralyzed from the chest down. Twenty-seven years later, Sanford is a nationally recognized yoga teacher, a pioneer in adapting yoga for people living with disabilities, and a renowned public speaker. He is also the founder of Mind Body Solutions, a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to the practical notion that minds and bodies work better together. He is the creator of the innovative stress-management program entitled Bringing Your Body to Work and does a wide range of workshops for healthcare professionals. Sanford received a Karma Yoga Award from Yoga Journal in 2003 and the Judd Jacobson Award in 2005.

   For more information, please visit www.matthewsanford.com or mindbodysolutions-mn.org.

FORUMS HAVE MOVED TO THE SABBAR SHRINE!!!
(450 S. Tucson Blvd.,
one-half block south of Broadway on Tucson Boulevard,
Mapquest directions )

11:30-2 PM, third Sunday of Month

Must R.S.V.P. by Wednesday before Forum - 546-9382
$20 paid at the door includes lunch and Forum

(NO CREDIT CARDS-processing fees are too high)
If you R.S.V.P. please attend-SSA pays full fee if you don't!




SSA BOOK FAIR - Nov. 11, 2006

   Please come to the Foothills Mall on November 11th to support the SSA authors that will be there selling their books. The fair will begin at 11:00 a.m.
   It's Veterans Day and the official release date of our book, Duty, Honor and Valor: A Salute to Veterans of All U.S. Wars and Military Service. Many of the authors who contributed stories to this book will be on hand to talk to the public and autograph the book.
   Radio Station KTUC (1400 am) will be doing a remote broadcast from the book fair from one p.m. to three p.m.
   There will be good music, fun and prizes and Foothills Mall has a wonderful food court. So, come early, stay late and bring your family and friends.

Download Order Form


Successes

E.W. Bonadio's "Kind and Gentle Stranger" received commendation as one of the finalists in the Tom Howard Winning Writers - Short Story Contest for 2006. "Kind and Gentle Stranger", also titled "Armond's Grave" is a short story of an honest man wronged by a trusted friend during Napoleon's occupation of Spain. Set in a time many years after his death and from the grave, he reveals the story to the traitor's unsuspecting relative. An excerpt from the story is posted on his web site: www.ebonadio.com
He also has two new books published: New-Age Renaissance Man is a humorous memoir of a •50s inner city brat who struggled to break out and reach for middle class Nirvana. Later on in life he comes to understand the term ethnic baby boomer.
Marin and the Dragon's Golden Treasure is a 56 page middle grade children's book, with illustrations. It tells the story of a boy who bravely confronts a mighty dragon in order to save his village from ruin. Both books are published by iuniverse, a Barnes and Noble Inc POD publishing service. They were published in August 2006 and are available on-line at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers, as well as directly from the author's website-www.ebonadio.com

Jan Cleere was a finalist for the 2006 WILLA Literary Award for her book, More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Nevada Women. Professional librarians judge the WILLA, named for Willa Cather, for the Women Writing the West organization. More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Nevada Women also received second place in the Arizona Press Women's 2006 Communications Contest in the nonfiction book category. Jan has been inducted into the Nevada Women's History Project Roll of Honor for her "significant contribution in the preservation of Nevada women's history." Her latest book, Outlaw Tales of Arizona: True Stories of Arizona's Most Famous Robbers, Rustlers, and Bandits, was released in July and she has been speaking to organizations across the state regaling them with tales of Arizona's more notorious citizens. Her appearance schedule may be viewed at www.JanCleere.com. She is now working on another book featuring Arizona's extraordinary young girls. Arizona Girls: True Stories of Inspired Girlhood is scheduled for release in the fall of 2007. Jan's books are published by The Globe Pequot Press.

Richard W. Coan's Horatio, The Loyal Friend of Prince Hamlet was just published by AuthorHouse.
In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Horatio is a trusted friend who serves as a sounding board for the prince. But who is Horatio? How did he meet the prince? How does he view the people and events in the royal household? And what does he seek for himself in life?
In this novel, we see Horatio as a sensitive scholar who dreams, falls in love, and struggles with fear. As a student in Wittenberg, he develops a friendship with Hamlet and Marcellus. He follows them to the royal castle in Elsinore but realizes he does not belong in that mysterious and sinister setting. Intent on aiding and protecting the prince, he has disturbing encounters with a shrewd and devious courtier and struggles to prevent the disaster that appears to lie ahead.
You can order Horatio (1) through a book store, (2) on line at www.authorhouse.com or (3) by phone: 888-280-7715

Mary Goodman will have a photographic exhibit at Handmaker Jewish Services on Rosemont Boulevard (off of Grant, the building is directly in back of Extended Stay America). The exhibit is open to the public on October 26 until November 30 from 8am to 5pm and has a variety of subjects. "I hope that many of you will get there and I'd appreciate feedback!"

Willma Gore has been chosen Accomplished Elder of 2006 by the Northern Arizona Council of Government's Area Agency on Aging (NORCOG). She was honored at a luncheon at the Prescott Resort on Sept. 26.
Willma was nominated by Lin Ennis of Sedona who said, in part, "Since moving to the Village in April 2004, Willma Gore has established five writers' workshops, taught Write to Sell" classes at Sedona Adult Center and the Cottonwood's Women For Women Learning Center, and launched a blog to help writers around the world. Several members of her current groups have won contests Gore suggested and/or found publication for their own columns in The Villager, monthly newspaper for Village of Oak Creek. Willma's "Sassy Senior" Column has appeared monthly in The Villager since Summer of 2004.
Now at 84, Gore's how-to book, Just Pencil Me In-Your Guide to Moving & Getting Settled After 60 is reaching movers from college students to seniors across the country and her humorous novel Something's Leaking Upstairs took her on an six-appearance book tour in California in April of this year. www.willmagore.com.

Fran Marian has successfully self published her first novel, The Rug Broker, and reports sales and feedback have been brisk and fun. Here's one story she wants to share: A friend in Philadelphia wrote to say how much she enjoyed the story, commenting it was particularly absorbing. Why? While driving to the beach one weekend, she'd placed a loosely capped water bottle and the book in a tote. The book arrived twice its size and as wavy as the ocean, but not a drop escaped the tote. Undeterred, (Friendship is a wondrous thing!) her friend whipped out a hair dryer and read The Rug Broker in two sittings. Fran says this feedback has given her the courage to publish more books and begin marketing in a wider circle. Watch for her signings at local bookstores in the fall.

Rebecca McEldowney announces the availability of Soul of Flesh: A Novel of the Hungarian Revolution. Soul of Flesh swings between 2006 Palm Beach and 1956 Budapest, with a story combining CSI, high society, and the terrifying dungeons of the Hungarian secret police. McEldowney has been invited to speak about her book at the 46th Hungarian Congress in November. All her novels are available through Antigone's bookstore and on-line: www.rebeccamceldowney.com.
Rebecca also announces the publication of Guardian Devils, a dark comedy of cosmic proportions, by Windstorm Creative LLC.
Ferdy is a bumbling devil with a cushy assignment: Stop Episcopal Bishop Monica Laparro from becoming a saint. Then Monica receives the Stigmata--and national attention.
Adelaide Siren is Monica's longtime friend, a playwright so driven to excel that even her blood type is A. Her envy for Monica's fame is driving her to murder--or at least her next Tony.
Can Ferdy stop Adelaide from doing something stupid? Of course not.
It's no wonder Ferdy's boss wants to eat him.
"Warm, funny, and hardly heretical. C. S. Lewis, only more hip."

Myrtle Nord is scheduled to speak on "Writer's Rights" at the Mystery Writers Meeting on December 9 at a 10am Workshop. Reservations: Phone: 544-4173 or e-mail: marciamar4@earthlink.net.
Home Town Buffet, River/Oracle. Cost: $14.00 for workshop and lunch or $16.00 to include P. M. speaker. Exact change required.

Jennifer J. Stewart's article about cycling with her daughter, "El Tour Memories: A First Time Rider Looks Back at Her Inaugural Ride," appeared in the August/September issue of Tail Winds.

Bob Wagner's "A Business Matter" was published in Rage Machine Magazine #3, June •06 and "Dare I Lay Me Down to Sleep?" appeared in Fall Issue #10 of Night To Dawn magazine.




The Write Word
published bi-monthly by the Board of Directors
of The Society of Southwestern Authors
P.O. Box 30355, Tucson, AZ 85751

President
Chris Stern: cstern@us.ibm.com

Vice-President
Dale Adams: 2dale@dakotacom.net

Treasurer
Carol Costa: starlit@theriver.com

Recording Secretary
Bob Nordmeyer: RnRNord@aol.com

Member Chair
Penny Porter: wporter202@aol.com

Corresponding Secretary
Ruth Beach: rbeach930@theriver.com

Conference Co-Chair
Barbara Stahura: barbara@clariticom.com

Directory Editor
Sam Turner: clearskys@cox.net

Conference Interview Chair
Sharon Landeen: SLLandeen@theriver.com

Forum Program Chair
Chris Stern: cstern@us.ibm.com

Member at Large
Dewanne Hopson: RomeTucSan@aol.com

Writer's Contest
Mary Ann Hutchison: douglashutchison@comcast.net

Write Word Editor
Mike Rom: (520) 410-1294 (beep)
e-mail: writeword@ssa-az.org


SSA Home Page:

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Webmaster
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Deadline for next issue is the 21st day of November