Holiday Magic for SSA
Members,
Friends and Children
December 18, at our regular third Sunday of the month forum, our Holiday Party featuring Norm Marini, past president of the Society of American Magicians, and winner of the Close-up Magician of The Year award as well as three time winner of the Stage Magician of The Year, will toss us into the forthcoming coming season with his spirit of magic.
Do come, one and all. Enjoy a fun social event, a great meal prepared by Tommy, The Four Points Sheraton's fabulous chef, and time to share ideas on writing with members, both old and new.
Don't forget you can park your car underground. There are 84 slots and an elevator beneath the hotel. Entrance on east side of the outdoor parking lot.
Bring a gift-wrapped book to exchange with someone else. The book can be one of your own or one you have especially enjoyed reading.
We will meet at The Four Points Sheraton at the usual time, Sunday, December 18th, from 11:30 to 2:00. Plan to bring your books for display and sale for Christmas. You will have a huge selection to choose from as this luncheon is a last chance opportunity to sell your book in 2005 until the conference.
Phone 546-9382 for reservations. We hope to see all of you there.
Final Alert for the Conference
January 27-28, 2006
The brochures are out. If anyone didn't receive theirs, please notify Penny at wporter202@aol.com. She will send you another and/or you can bring it up on-line by going to our website: www.ssa-az.org/conference2006.htm. The entire brochure and registration forms are here following a spellbinding waterfall photographed by our Write Word editor, Mike Rom.
We urge you to register early-classes do fill and so do interviews with agents and editors. Follow the "Wanted" link for cross-referencing-select the genre you have chosen for your manuscript, read the list of names of agents and editors interested in that genre, then go back and read about them in the bios attached to their picture. If there isn't a picture, at least their names will be there.
We are often asked, "Will the classes fill so I can't get in?" If we find a class is getting too full, we will urge late registrants to select another in the same time block and purchase the tape for the overcrowded class. This has rarely happened as we have two classrooms at the Holiday Inn that hold 150, and four that hold between 40 and 80.
This will be our 34th conference. We urge you all to attend. You will feel newly energized by 32 workshops that Wrangling With Writing offers. Add to that, four keynote speakers.
Come hear Richard Paul Evans, author of The Christmas Box, a self-published book that nobody wanted, that became so successful he formed and organization known as The Christmas Box International devoted to building shelters and providing services for abused and neglected children through which 13,000 children have been housed.
Drift and dream on Saturday evening to the readings of Billy Collins, 2001-2003 Poet Laureate of the United States, author of eight collections, the last three of which have broken all sales records for poetry. Included among the honors Collins has received are fellowships from the New York Foundation for the arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation.
You will hear Sam Swope, multi-published author of books for both adults and children. His first book, Araboolies of Liberty Street, was made into an opera, and the movie version of his second book, The Krazees, will star our all time favorite, Robin Williams. Learn about his teaching memoir, I Am a Pencil: A Teacher, His Kids, and Their World of Stories, named a Publisher's Weekly Best Book of 2004.
And laugh with Firoozeh Dumas, born in Abadan, Iran, who moved to Whittier, California in 1972 knowing exactly seven words of English. In 2001 she decided to write her memoirs for her children, but Random House was waiting. Funny in Farsi was on the SF Chronicle and the LA Times bestseller list, and she has recently opened her own, one-woman show, Laughing Without an Accent that will run for a full season in 2006 in Northern California.
Don't miss this wonderful conference. It's the best writers' conference ever.
(NOTE ON FORUMS: NO CREDIT CARDS-
processing fees are too high,
we do not make a profit on the luncheons-
what you pay is what the hotel charges us.
Also, if you R.S.V.P. please attend-SSA pays full fee if you don't!)
