October Speaker Meeting (members only)

Wednesday, October 26 @7:00pm
Chinook Middle School Library  

2001 98th Ave NE  

Bellevue, WA 98004

The Writer as Marketer: Using Social Media and Digital Tools to Build a Platform, Connect with Readers and Grow Your Community Online

Speaker: Colleen Lindsay (Business Development: Penguin Group)

These days, it isn't enough to just write a compelling novel. Agents and editors are looking for writers who are also engaging potential readers online, building strong virtual communities and using social media to build a platform before they've even gotten published. Tonight we'll talk about how to get started in this scary new digital world, best practices for using social media, balancing the personal and the professional online, and - most importantly - what you do to make sure that your writing doesn't suffer in the process. Q&A session to follow! 

This meeting will be open to PNWA members only (no guests).  Please bring your membership cards.  Guests will be welcome at our next meeting in November.

October 8 book signings

Please join us this Saturday, October 8, from 1:00 - 3:00pm at our Writers' Cottage location for a book signing event featuring several talented PNWA authors!  The following authors will be on-hand to sell and sign copies of their books:

Robin Hess

Aida Kouyoumjian

Julie Bergman

Wendy Hinman

Erika Mitchell

Anne Leigh Parrish

John Trudel

We would love to see you there!  The Writers' Cottage is located at 317 NW Gilman Blvd, space #8, Issaquah, WA 98027.

Albert Sampson, past president of PNWA, passes away

Albert L. Sampson, 73, a longtime local educator, has died (August 26) of lung disease. Sampson's lifetime career was in education and communications. He taught advertising and public relations for more than 20 years at the University of Washington's School of Communications.  He retired in the mid-90s and taught public relations and other classes at Argosy University, Seattle University  and the School of Visual Concepts.

In 1993 he joined the board of directors of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association and served for 12 years. Although he was not a writer himself, he taught English literature and was an excellent editor and brought an extra perspective to his work with PNWA. When PNWA's president at the time was forced to resign due to ill health, Sampson stepped in to help the organization. He served two terms as president.

Sampson was a founding member of 74^th Street Productions, a book publishing company in Seattle.  He was a popular proofreader for authors and students writing doctoral dissertations.  During the 1990s, he also served the Seattle Repertory Theatre for three years on its marketing committee.  

He will be greatly missed. 

Fall Workshop Series

There is still time to sign up for our October workshops!

• Oct. 15:  Plan Your Plot & How to Craft a Winning Title, with Jason Black
• Oct. 22:  Structuring the Novel, with Megan Chance

Further details and sign-up forms are available on our homepage (www.pnwa.org).

PNWA member Alison M. Gunn, Ph.D., creativity and writing counselor, offers online and in-person workshops for writers and writer wannabes. She specializes in working with writer's block, and has been working with beginning and published writers for 20 years. 

Her self-published book Writing to Persuade: Proven Techniques that Convince Others to Listen to You, Take You Seriously, and Change Their Minds is available from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1463529864/

Alison can be contacted at collaborative-writer.com

PNWA member Sharon Johnson (writing as Shannon Winslow) announces the recent release of her debut novel. The Darcys of Pemberley, a sequel to Jane Austen's masterpiece Pride and Prejudice, follows Darcy and Elizabeth into their married life and tells the story of the courtship of Miss Georgiana. It has been described as a purist's sequel, receiving high marks for its faithfulness to the original novel and for its distinctly Austen-esque style. The Darcys of Pemberley is available in paperback and all e-book formats.  For more information, visit www.shannonwinslow.com.

PNWA member John Trudel will be giving away two signed copies of his new book, God's House, to PNWA members.  For details, visit http://johntrudel.com/NewsPrize.html.  John also has several upcoming events:

* October 7: Sponsored By Chapters Book and Coffee, Newberg, OR, a signing at the Newberg "First Friday Art Walk," 6-8pm.  

* October 8: Multi-Author Booksigning Event for PNWA at the Writer's Cottage in Issaquah's Gilman Village, 1-3pm. The address is 317 NW Gilman Blvd, space # 8, Issaquah, WA 98027. (Cash only, or buy your book first off the Internet, bring it along, and I will sign it.) www.pnwa.org

* Late October/Early November: My publisher, CreateSpace, will start the mass promotion for God's House with a press release to some 20,000 media outlets. If you want your local press or TV stations included, please send me contact information (or have them do so) and I'll personally make sure they are on the list. Contact. Media.

* December 6: The Willamette Writers Book Faire, on the first Tuesday, 6:30pm, at the Old Church,1422 SW 11th, Portland, OR. www.willamettewriters.com

PNWA member Anne Leigh Parrish's first book, a collection of short fiction titled All The Roads That Lead From Home, was released Oct. 1 by Press 53. The eleven stories in the book were previously published in some of America's top literary journals, including American Short Fiction, The Pinch and Storyglossia. No less an authority than Michael Curtis, the legendary longtime fiction editor for The Atlantic Monthly, has said: "Anne Leigh Parrish has written a collection of stories that deserve a place on the shelf next to Raymond Carver, Tom Boyle, Richard Bausch, and other investigators of lives gone wrong." Parrish, of Seattle, will be among the writers whose work will be spotlighted at PNWA's Writers' Cottage event on Oct. 8 in Issaquah. Order All The Roads That Lead From Home at http://www.press53.com/BioParrish.html or at Amazon, and read more about Parrish and her work at anneleighparrish.com.

PNWA member Steven Hughes announces his historical novel, The Sign of the Eagle, has been accepted for publication by Sunbury Press.  It will be released sometime between the end of March and end of September, 2012. Sunbury Press is a traditional small press (not a vanity press) which will publish the novel as a traditional trade paperback and ebook (Kindle and Nook). They are distributed by Baker & Taylor and Ingram and will be available on Amazon.com. The book will also be distributed in the United Kingdom and Western Europe. The novel will be published under the pen name of Jess Steven Hughes. For further details on the story, visit www.jessstevenhughes.com.

CLASSES/WORKSHOPS:

Poetry Off the Page

Susan Lampe, PNWA member, and Elisabeth Schenk, owner of Earth Artisans Art Gallery in Tenino, Washington (near Olympia) will host a one-day workshop with Washington State Poet, Nance Van Winckel, "Poetry Off the Page", Sunday, October 9th, from 11 am to 4 pm at Earth Artisans Gallery in Tenino. Nance combines art with text off the page in a workshop to "help you explore and generate exciting alternatives for your own words to 'live' in the physical world." She is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently No Starling (University of Washington Press, 2007) and teaches at Eastern Washington University and Vermont College of Fine Arts.  Workshop is limited to 12 participants, so register early.  Cost is $55, payable at time of arrival.  To reserve space, contact Susan Lampe at 360 264 7468 or lampes@scattercreek.com, or Elisabeth Schenk at 360 264 2787 or earthartisans@scattercreek.com.

Connections 2011

The Skagit V alley Writers League in association with the Pacific Northwest Writers Association present "Connections 2011," November 12, 1-5pm, at the Mount Vernon Community and Senior Center, 1401 Cleveland, Mount Vernon, WA 98273. The event is free, Register at skagitwriters.org or with Ann: (360) 445-2507, brittain@nase.org

PROGRAM:

The Virtuoso Sentence: Acquiring the Techniques of the Masters, by Pricilla Long:

This session is designed to set you on a path toward developing virtuoso skills in sentencing, whether you are just beginning or quite experienced and well published.

Stone Soup: Creating Something out of Nothing, by Jane Alynn:

To an empty pot we'll add a pinch of uncertainty, to simmer into a hearty stew. Writing exercises will engage the dialectic mode of thought, add experiment, saving finishing touches for later.

Publishing Options for Novels & Poetry/Story Collections, by Terry Persun & Andrea Hurst:

Today's new electronic genres provide authors new outlets for their work as well as many publishing options like self-publishing, audio, multi-media, working with large and small publishers or co-ops.

Do-It-Yourself Book Promotion in the Northwest, by Diane Duthweiler & Gail DiRe:

Two veteran of Western Washington's book land media worlds share their insider knowledge about who to target and how to do it.