Spring Ahead

Although we're ahead of the curve in Florida, May is traditionally the month where Mother Nature paints the landscape with a rainbow of flowering plants. For me, spring means raking the last of the leaves from my oak trees and wondering if those roots snaking through my yard would look better if I painted them green.

Spring is nature at it's finest. Hopefully, as writers we can learn from it and add fertilizer to our blossoming plot ideas, mulch our first drafts, and grow our expectations. Okay, these springtime allusions may be a bit overripe, but you get the idea. FWA is here to help your mental landscape with this month's regional meetings, and much more.

• River City Writers meet on Tuesday, May 8 at 7:00 p.m. at the SE Branch Library, 10599 Deerwood Park Blvd. Contact group leader Gregg Golson for details. 
• Amelia Island Writers gather at Books Plus in Fernandina Beach on Tuesday, May 15 at 6:15 p.m. Group leader Maggie de Vries has the answers to your questions. Call her at 904-321-6180.
• Learn to write dramatic scenes that pop off the page at this month's Clay County Writers meeting, Wednesday, May 16 at 6:15 p.m. at the Fleming Island Library. FWA Regional Director Vic DiGenti presents, "Let's Make a Scene," in which participants will learn how to write compelling scenes using a simple 3-part formula. And they'll have the opportunity to write their own scenes. Group leader Maureen Jung has more details.
• Sohrab Homi Fracis will help you get "Short Story Savvy" at this month's meeting of Ancient City Writers, Saturday, May 19, 10:15 a.m. at St. Augustine's Main Library. Fracis was the first Asian to win the Iowa Short Fiction Award for his book, Ticket to Mintos: Stories of India and America. He'll discuss both the craft and markets for short fiction.
• First Coast Christian Writers, an affiliate of FWA, meet each Thursday at 6:45 p.m. at the West Regional Library. FCCW President Lynn Rix has details on the meetings.
• Ponte Vedra Writers assemble on the last Saturday of the month, May 26, at 10:30 a.m. at the Ponte Vedra Library. Marketing consultant and author Tony Timbol makes a return appearance, this time presenting "Your Book Needs Word of Mouth! A Primer on Using Facebook and Twitter for Marketing." Learn how to best use social media to help you market yourself and your books.

More Happenings in the World of Writing

• Florida Sisters in Crime chapter meets Saturday, May 5 at 10:00 a.m. at the SE Branch Library. Attorney Kate Mesic, a member of the Florida Association of Women's Lawyers, is the guest speaker. 
• Children's Book Writers meet tonight, May 1st, 6:30 p.m. at the SE Library. Fran Keiser will be speaking on "Finding Your Book's Niche." Learn how to identify, target, and reach your niche market.
• North Florida Writers meet at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, May 12 at the Willowbranch Library. Linda Schilling Mitchell's new book, Dear Miss Schneider, Please Excuse Walter..., provides glimpses into the lives of Depression-era students and parents through a series of written excuses. The meeting is open to the public. 
• The First Coast Romance Writers also meet on May 12, 10:15 a.m. at the West Regional Library on Chaffee Road. They promise a workshop blitz on four subjects with four different speakers: Heather Nickodem, "Polishing a Contest Entry," Ava Milone, "Dialog & Point of View," Beth Szabo, "Feeling the Power of Writing," and Abigail Sharpe, "Facing Your Fear."
• Need more romance? Visit with the Ancient City Romance Writers, Saturday, May 26 at 12:30 p.m. at the SE Branch Library. This month's guest speaker Maria Geraci will address, "How to Write a Better Book – Finding Your Sweet Spot."
• Don't miss the May 15 deadline for FWA Collection #4, My Wheels. Get your submission in on any topic involving wheels of any sort. Julie Compton will select the top ten for the front of the book. Click here for guidelines.
• Entry fee for submitting to the Royal Palm Literary Awards is still $40 per entry, but that increases to a pricey $60 on June 1st so spring forth with your entry. Visit the FWA website for all the details.
• If you're dazed and confused about the various digital formats, but you have a manuscript you want to turn into an ebook, there's an answer for that. Sign up now for the July 14 workshop, "E-Publishing, The Future is Now," a 3-hour, comprehensive session with six pros who will walk you through it from beginning to end. Presented by the Florida Heritage Book Festival, the workshop will be held at Flagler College's Ringhaver Student Center in the Gamache-Koger Theatre. Early bird fee is only $50 (includes continental breakfast) through May 31, $60 through July 2, and $75 at the door. Online details and registration here.
• We were sworn to secrecy, but now can announce that Pulitzer Prize-winning crime writer Edna Buchanan will receive this year's Lifetime Achievement Award at the Florida Heritage Book Festival's Literary Legends Banquet on Friday, September 14. Buchanan has been with The Miami Herald since 1970, winning numerous awards for her reporting. She's written true crime nonfiction based on her crime reporting before turning to fiction. Read more about her here, and details on the banquet here.
• And speaking of the Florida Heritage Book Festival, this year's Writers Conference has been expanded to a day-and-a-half and moved to World Golf Villages. Registration is now open, so visit the website and register while the early bird fees are still in effect.
• One more plug for the Book Festival—Jeff Lindsay will kick it off with an opening night keynote talk. Not familiar with Lindsay? Maybe you're more familiar with the long-running Showtime series Dexter starring Michael C. Hall as a Miami-Dade blood spatter specialist who also happens to be a serial killer. But he only kills people who deserve killing. Lindsay is the author of the novels upon which the hit TV show is based. He's had a long and varied career which saw him doing stand-up, doing a solo singer-guitarist gig on the coffee house circuit, voice-over artist, steel worker, detective, sailing instructor and greeting card salesman. Oh, and he's also written 22 plays, TV sitcoms, and feature films with his wife Hilary Hemingway (yes, that Hemingway). Information about his appearance here.
• The Annual FWA Conference, "The Magic of the Pen," kicks off on Thursday, October 18 with a day-long "Celebrity Workshop" featuring internationally-renowned author R. J. Ellory. Sponsored by and benefiting the Florida Writers Foundation, Ellory walks us through "Writing Wrongs: A Workshop on Crime Fiction and Thrillers." Although a resident of the UK, Ellory's books are set in the United States. His books include A Simple Act of Violence, A Quiet Vendetta, and A Quiet Belief in Angels. Visit the FWA web page to learn more about Ellory and register for the workshop.
• Writer's Digest Popular Fiction Short Story Competition will begin accepting entries on June 1 in six genre categories. Deadline is September 14 and stories should be 4,000 words or less.
• Oak Tara Publishers is looking for great love stories for its next collection, Tell Us About...
• Penguin Group USA created Book Country a while back as a site where aspiring authors could post their writing and receive peer reviews and critiques. One of the early users was Kerry Schafer who began posting chapters from an unpublished novel. The chapters attracted dozens of comments but no nibbles (the story was about geriatric vampires in a nursing home) from agents or editors. She tried again with a new novel, Between, and this time caught the attention of literary agent Deidre Knight who was browsing the site for anything of interest. After reading the first ten pages she asked to see the mss and later signed her on as a client. She's since sold a two-book deal to Ace Books for Schafer. So lightning does sometimes strike in the most unexpected ways.

A word about Kaye Coopersmith. As many of you know, Kaye passed away unexpectedly last month. I knew Kaye before she became an FWA Board member, before she was tapped to head FWA's Editing Service, and before she was awarded the FWA Vice President's Award for being the "Welcoming Hands of FWA." As an FWA member since 2002, Kaye was at every FWA Conference I attended, volunteering for any job that needed doing, working long hours to ensure the conference's success. Her smile and enthusiasm was a fixture at conferences and the Tampa area writers groups she was so actively involved with. She will be missed. Here's a link to Kaye's memorial page.

Bobbie Christmas, known for her column, Ask The Book Doctor, volunteered to take over as head of the editing service. If, by chance, you had a manuscript in the editing system, please let Bobbie know so she can track it down and complete the editing service. You may contact Bobbie at Bobbie@zebraeditor.com.

Until next time, keep writing and I'll see you on the book shelves,

Vic

Victor DiGenti

FWA Regional Director

What's Happening in NE Florida?

Thinking about heading to the mountains to cool off? Before you do, check out all the meetings and happenings for NE Florida writers.

• River City Writers meets on Tuesday, June 14 at the SE Branch Library, Gate Parkway and Deerwood Park Blvd., at 7PM. Contact group leader Gregg Golson, gtgolson@comcast.net, for details.
• Publishing coach Rik Feeney talks about "How to Get Published in 60 Days," and other approaches to completing your book project at this month's Clay County Writers' meeting, Wednesday, June 15 at 6:15PM at the Fleming Island Library. Group leader Maureen Jung, mjung@wordspringconsulting.com, has all the latest info,.
• Ancient City Writers of St. Augustine have a special guest speaker you will want to meet and hear. Longtime entertainment journalist Leslie Halpern has interviewed hundreds of celebrities as a writer for The Hollywood Reporter, Daily Variety, Just for Laughs, and dozens of other print and online publications. She will discuss how authors can overcome their fear of interviewing important people, and their own fears of being interviewed. The group meets at 10:15AM at St. Augustine's Main Library on Saturday, June 18.
• Amelia Island Writers meet on Tuesday, June 21 at Books Plus in Fernandina Beach. Gather round the book stacks at 6PM for a discussion of writing and publishing. Contact Maggie deVries for more information, maggie1948@yahoo.com.
• FWA Affiliate, First Coast Christian Writers, meet each Thursday at 6:45PM at the Webb-Wesconnett Branch Library. Contact Tracy Redman, tlsl72@yahoo.com, for details.
• The final FWA meeting of the month falls on Saturday, June 25 as the Ponte Vedra Writers gather at 10:30AM at the Ponte Vedra Library to hear writing instructor and SF author, Sandra McDonald. Sandra is the award-winning author of three SF novels (Tor Books) and a collection of short stories. She was also a winner in the 2010 Lambda Literary Awards. If you missed last year's UNF Writers Conference, you'll have a chance to hear Sandra's reprise of her packed workshop, "7-7-7 – 7 Skills, 7 Exercises, 7 Minutes," in which she'll share seven essential ingredients for improving your writing in her own masterful way.

Other Writer Meetings:

• Florida Sisters in Crime meets Saturday, June 4 at 10:30AM at the SE Regional Library. Special guest is Betsy Moore of the Jacksonville Medical Examiner's Office.
• Writers for children, YA and middle grade readers take note that the Jacksonville chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCWBI) meets on the 3rd Saturday of the month at the SE Regional Library from 1 to 3PM.
• You're one day late to take advantage of the early bird registration fee for the UNF Writers Conference, August 5 - 7. Beginning today through July 8, the cost increases to $349 for the 3-day conference, which includes a full day of workshops, intense critique workshops in a variety of genres, lunches, an author reception, and a Sunday afternoon epublishing workshop. Check it out here.
• The Florida Heritage Book Festival recognizes Florida authors Randy Wayne White and Peter Matthiessen with Lifetime Achievement Awards. The duo will be honored at the September 23 Literary Legends Awards banquet at the World Golf Village Renaissance Center, kicking off the 2-day festival. Among the line-up of outstanding authors appearing this year are Robert Olen Butler, James W. Hall. Mary Anna Evans, Les Standiford, Elizabeth Stuckey-French, James O'Neal and many others.
• FWA's 10th annual conference promises to be bigger and better than ever. SOAR! 10 Years of Reaching New Heights will celebrate the achievements and amazing growth of FWA from a germ of an idea birthed here in NE Florida by Glenda Ivey, to a multi-state organization with more than 1,100 members. Although the conference is set for October 21 - 23, you might want to take advantage of the Florida Writers Foundation special workshop on Thursday, October 20. The FWA Foundation, which supports literacy projects in the state, presents New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry's popular workshop, "Writing Lessons from A Bestseller." Berry's day-long workshop focuses on the craft of writing and covers "The Four C's of Story Structure," effective dialogue, POV, Steve's "10 Rules of Writing," and more. Keep checking the FWA Network and FWA website for details on how to register.
• Ancient City Romance Writers meet on the 4th Saturday of the month at the SE Regional Library at 12:30PM. Contact Kathy Bain for details, kathynbain@comcast.net.

Kudos to FWA Members:

• Congratulations to Nancy Murray, winner in the 2011 International Book Awards for YA Fiction for her book, The Night the Elephants Cried – A Story of the Tsunami. The novel is based on a BBC news report of elephants trumpeting three hours before the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami hit.
• Tony Tymbol announces the first in the Cybil Raven Chronicles series, Cybil Raven: Miracle at St. Rita, will be available as an ebook in early August. Tony and his co-author, Crystal Craven, are offering the short introduction to the series as a free pdf at the website. BTW, Tony is one of the epublishing instructors at the UNF Writers Conference epublishing seminar on Sunday, August 7.

In case you missed my last Novel In A Day workshop at UNF, another is planned for Saturday, June 18. The day-long workshop provides you with all the basics needed for your novel, from plot and structure to character development and dialogue. It's part of the UNF Continuing Education's Learn Jacksonville program. Look for registration information here.

Until next time, keep writing and enjoy life.

Vic

Victor DiGenti

FWA Regional Director

Don't Fall Back

Today marks the unofficial passing of summer, a transition into fall. To be more precise, we now have only four months to complete our 2007 goals. I'm not quite there yet, but closing in on most of my goals. How about you? Do you have written goals? Are you completing a manuscript? Looking for freelance jobs? Sending out query letters? Creating a marketing plan? Whatever's on your plate, keep in mind the saleman's motto to Plan your work and work your plan. Don't despair if you've fallen behind because you still have four months until 2008 so make them count. And don't do like some cats I know and snooze away the day.
Fall is an exceptional time for writers with more conferences and writing opportunities. Those opportunities begin with our own monthly FWA Writers Group meetings and the upcoming annual conference in November. Look below for highlights of this month's WG meetings and other items of interest.

NEWS FROM NE FLORIDA FWA WRITERS GROUPS
Remember you don't have to be a member to attend any of our meetings, but if you find them of interest and helpful, the speakers valuable, and most of all, if you keep coming back, then we expect you to join the other 150 FWA members in NE Florida. Membership is easy, only $45 per year with loads of benefits. Go to http://www.floridawriters.net/ for details.
Central Jax WG - Meeting on Tuesday, September 11 at 6PM at the SE Regional Library, WG Leader Judy Connolly welcomes poet and author Bonny Barry Sanders. Bonny will provide insights into both of her writing worlds, discussing the process of submitting poetry to journals and magazines, as well as finding a publisher. She'll also talk about her recently published historical novel, Kiss Me Goodbye. Bonny is also the author of the Royal Palm Award-winning poetry collection, Touching Shadows. Contact Judy at judy.connolly@comcast.net for details.
Ancient City Writers Group - This large and active chapter meets at the Main Library in downtown St. Augustine on the 3rd Saturday of the month. Their next meeting is Saturday, September 15 at 10AM and will feature author Jay Humphreys. Since 1999, he has served as Communications Director for the St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches Visitors and Convention Bureau. Jay is also the author of Seasons of the Sea, a non-fiction book which became a hardcover bestseller, and Uncle Sam's, a WW II novel set in St. Augustine which received the 2005 best Adult Fiction Award from the Florida Publishers Association. He will address the problems writers encounter when moving from non-fiction to fiction. Contact Mike BonDurant, Mikebd1@bellsouth.net, for more information.
Amelia Island WG - Meets on the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 6PM at the Florida House Inn in Fernandina Beach. Jim Morgan leads this group and you may address questions to him at drjpm1999@yahoo.com.
Ponte Vedra WG - Our next meeting is Saturday, September 22 at 10AM at the Ponte Vedra Library. Non-fiction writres will find this meeting to be of particular interest since our speaker was formerly a Senior Editor with John Wiley & Sons, one of the leading business publishers in the world. He has edited exclusively in the non-fiction area. His national best sellers include Multiple Streams of Income by Robert Allen and both The Resume Kit and The Perfect Cover Letter by Richard Beatty. Mike will present an overview of all the steps involved in preparing your first book proposal and in turn submitting it to a publisher for consideration. Topics to be covered include types of book proposals, preparation, submission, contract negotiation and advances.

NEWS YOU CAN USE

• One more time: Don't forget to register for the 6th Annual FWA Conference, Nov. 9 - 11 at Walt Disney World's Coronado Springs Resort. NE Florida is the home for the largest number of FWA members so let's represent our region well. Go to www.floridawriters.net for the conference schedule and to register.
• September seems to be a good time for writer's conferences. Here are two happening simultaneously — It's a bitter little world, baby-at least it is at the Second Annual Florida Noir Festival. The festival, which celebrates the noir film and literature of the Sunshine State, will take place Saturday, Sept. 15, 2007 in Panama City, Florida at Gulf Coast Community College. The Festival will include noir script and novel competitions, panels, presentations, readings, and film screenings.
• The Gulf Coast Writers & Storytellers Conference is the same day and place and will feature workshops, lectures and panel discussions. Go to http://www.gulfcoastwritersconference.com/ for details.
• The Amelia Island Book Festival, October 4 - 7, has added bestselling author Stuart Woods to its list of presenters. Woods will be the closing speaker on Sunday afternoon, joining Claire Cook (Must Love Dogs), and Tim Dorsey (Hurricane Punch) as featured authors. Saturday and Sunday sessions are free, except for lunch, and Just Write It, Friday's day-long series of writing workshops require a ticket. Friday afternoon's Books by the Beach Party at Sliders Restaurant is free and features many area authors. Go to www.bookisland.org for the complete schedule.
• For more than 20 years, the First Coast Writers Festival was a fixture on the First Coast. But that may be a thing of the past. Produced by Florida Community College Jacksonville, festival organizers recently announced that due to statewide budget cuts the festival's budget has been eliminated. We share their disappointment and hope it returns in the future. In the meantime, Dr. Dana Thomas says they will continue to host the writing competitions. The contests cover most genres of writing– novels, short fiction, poetry, playwriting, and this year they've added memoirs. Check out the wedsite for deadlines and submission requirements, http://www.fccj.org/wf/.
• The St. George Island Writers’ Retreat on St. George Island, Florida, is set for November 12-16. Adrian Fogelin, author of award-winning novels for young adults (she is also featured at the Amelia Island Book Festival), once again serves as author-in-residence at the Fiction Among Friends Writers’ Retreat, offering daily workshops on various aspects of writing, as well as private consultations with the writers who attend. Complete details about the retreat, rates and terms are available at www.fictionamongfriends.com, or by phoning Perky Granger at 518-623-9305.
• The Jacksonville Public Library will kick off the 5th Jax Reads on Wednesday, September 5th, at 6:30 p.m. on the first floor of the Main Library with a dramatic performance by noted actress, Phyllis McEwen, in Zora Live!. This year's Jax Reads book, is Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston. The September 5 presentation is the first of a month-long series of lectures, book discussions and other activities in all Jacksonville branch libraries.
• If you're attending the Riverside Arts Festival this coming weekend, September 8 & 9, look for The Writer's Tent featuring many area writers who will be talking about and signing their books. I'll be there on Saturday along with Randy Cribbs, Rita Malie, Terri Ridgell, John Robinson and Jane Wood. Sunday's authors include Andrew Bachman, Allen Bohl, Mary Kohnke, Rita Malie, Jim Morgan, Nancy Murray, and John Robinson.

Some writers hate to edit their perfect prose, which is why editors were invented. Here's what Ernest Hemingway had to say about editing, "The best books are those that leave out the most."

That's it for now. Keep writing, and I'll see you on the book shelves.

Vic

Victor DiGenti

FWA Regional Director

www.windrusher.com