Salutations, Scribblers! Between the Winter Park Art Festival, the Junior Achievement Bowlathon, and seeing To Kill a Mockingbird at the Orlando Reparatory Theater, I barely had the energy for the great St. Patricks Day party I attended this weekend. But what a great time it all was! Hope you had fun in the beautiful weather, as well.
Please join me on Saturday, March 31st at 7 pm at Urban Think! Bookstore for a reading of Red Wax Rose. So many of you have attended the readings at the Kerouac House and Rollins College, as well as the AAUW luncheon, that I am overwhelmed with your kindness and support. But if you have not yet had a chance to celebrate with me, and get the book, or if you would just like to hang out with us again, please come out.
Celebrations:
The Scribblers did well at the Mt. Dora Festival of Literatures annual writing contest again this year. Poet Terry Godbey won first place for Dim Doorways, and then scored the Chester Anderson prize for My Grandmother Can See Her Husbands Grave From her Front Door. Way to sweep, Terry! Alice Friedman won first prize in the Creative Nonfiction category, with your Scribbler, Darlyn Finch, taking the second spot. Kudos, Alice! Come on out to the Bland Library in Mt. Dora next Saturday, March 24th at 2 pm to hear the first-place winners read their works. You will be glad you did.
Romance Readers at Heart gave Finding Sarah a Top Pick! Congratulations, Terry Odell!
The Top Pick rose indicates a keeper. This is one book you don't want to miss! Here's what the reviewer said: FINDING SARAH is the kind of book that will keep you up half the night, because it is just that good! ....FINDING SARAH is the smoothest of reads, and as I said, nearly impossible to put down. Sarah is a most sympathetic character and you will root for all her problems to be solved! ~Heather Hiestand
Finding Sarah Cerridwen Press ISBN: 978-141990782-1
Being robbed at gunpoint was not part of Sarah Tuckers business plan. Neither was falling in love with the detective who arrived to solve the case. For police detective Randy Detweiler, a routine robbery investigation turns into the biggest challenge of his career when he falls in love with the victim and ends up having to save more than her business.
Terry Odell http://www.terryodell.com/
Short stories from The Wild RosePress
http://www.wildrosepublishing.com/authors/terryodell.htm
Finding Sarah, February 15, 2007http://www.cerridwenpress.com/
The West Orange Times will be running Ami Ahlstedts 1500-word article Tragedy to Triumph in their Thursday March 22nd issue (it may be pushed to the 29th if something else ends up taking center stage, but she is shooting for the 22nd). It is the against-all-odds story about Benjamin McCluske, AP, LMT, who became paralyzed from the neck down in 2001. He fought his way back to a normal life--through alternative medicine, a sunny outlook and a healthy sense of humor--continued his education, and became an Acupuncture physician in 2006. He just opened his office in Winter Garden in the beginning of this year. Buy the paper, or read it online at http://www.amiahlstedt.writernetwork.com/. Congratulations, Ami!
A Prophet's Burden: The Raven Returns, by Ryan Tilley, is a 211 page paperback which features a prequel and a sequel to "The Raven," forty-seven humorous poems, and ninety-two children's poems. Most of the two hundred total poems rhyme and many double rhyme. It retails for $19.95 and is sold at:
amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, booksamillion.com, and publishamerica.com
Scribblers Sharing Info:
Writing With the Psalms, a Writing Retreat On Saturday March 24, from 9:00 AM until noon.
We will listen to and pray psalms and canticles from the Liturgy of the Hours, reflect on their beautiful, ancient words and imagery, then respond to them by writing. All writing will be personal, only to be shared on a voluntary basis. This is for anyone who has an interest in writing, no experience required, and exploring the beauty of the psalms as Holy Week approaches. Bring your favorite pen, pencil, paper or notebook.
For more information, or to register, please contact Ned Kessler, who will serve as your presenter through the morning. The event is FREE and open to the public. (nedkessler@earthlink.net; 407 332-8951).
St. James Cathedral is at 215 N. Orange Avenue in Orlando. Parking is available in the St. James lot on the Northwest corner of Robinson St. and Orange Ave.
We have three very busy new Scribblers from Melbourne. Meet them here, and keep up with them if you can!
Wednesday, March 21st, Mary Brotherton will be among a panel of judges at the children's writing contest at Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School of the Arts in Merritt Island.
Saturday, March 24th, Mary Brotherton will read to children at the Book Blast held at the Melbourne Square Mall.
Wednesday, March 28th, the Florida Writers Association Melbourne Area meets at the West Melbourne Library located at 2755 Wingate Blvd. at 7pm. Participants do not need to be members of FWA to attend the monthly meetings. The March workshop will focus on punctuation before attendees' works in progress are read for editorial review. For more information, check out http://fwamelbourne.blogspot.com/.
Shara Smock and Mary Brotherton are conducting interviews with garbage haulers across the nation as part of their research for their un-named book expected to be published in 2008. This book is currently being called simply, "The Garbage Book," and will be both informative and humorous. You can get more information at http://www.garbagebook.com/.Shara Smock will appear on an upcoming edition of Brighthouse' Focus TV, as the channel is highlighting local authors.
Valerie Allen, author of "Suffer the Little Children" and member of the Space Coast Writers' Guild has developed a marketing plan for an authors' co-op and getting rave reviews. Briefly, Valerie is offering her services and networking skills for any author who is interested in her Page One project. For only $25, any author who provides her with 100 flyers with details about a book , Valerie will provide a professional presentation binder to key members of the writing and publishing community. This includes acquisitions librarians, agents, editors, buyers, magazines and others she feels may be influential in making purchasing decisions. Valerie emails members of the authors co-op each month with a report of where the binders have gone and any response she may have received as a result. For full details or more information, email her at VAllenWriter@cs.com.
Shara invites you to check out her website: http://www.sharasmock.com/ It has the news (& jpg) about the book coming out Apr 1, as well as details, reviews, previews of Hooking the Reader & Living with Big Cats, my two main ones in print right now. I haven't added a jpg for it to my site yet, but the current issue of Literary Liftoff that comes out tomorrow has an article I wrote, "What's Your Hook?" Let's see... Mon. I've been asked to tape a 15 min segment for Focus TV (channel 15 on Bright House Thursdays 6:30-7). So once I tape it Mon. eve, maybe they will know when it'll be aired. If they don't yet know, I expect it'd be on the schedule within two weeks. Oh -- the hot project in the works. Mary Brotherton and I are writing Cars in the Cave, Coke in the Couch. The book's tag line is America's Best Garbage Stories. You could certainly list that and also say we have details at http://www.garbagebook.com/ and www.myspace.com/garbagebook. We're interviewing garbage haulers nationwide and have many amusing stories already. Tomorrow night I'll likely update the garbagebook website to include our title we just decided on, and to let people know that in addition to wanting to speak with the haulers, we're also interested in having people email us to say they would like to be on a follow up list for advance orders. We don't have a price yet, so we'd only be asking to know who's interested, no obligation.
Signed,
Shara
Calls for Submissions:
Margaret Andersen of Maggie Mae Magazines has asked if anyone wanted to take the challenge to write a piece around 200 to 300 words about God/Jesus without ever using His name. She said she would be willing to use some of them for Take Time to Tend the Spirit column in her magazine if you wanted to submit it to her. Her e-mail address is maggiemae@magazine.net
Thanks for your attention!
Darlyn Finch
Scribbler
http://www.sunscribbles.com/ (Remember to always refresh each page of the website for frequent updates.)
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