June Speaker — Susan Grunin

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June 2022

Speaker: Susan Grunin
Topic: Hybrid Publishing
June 18, 2022, 10 a.m. to Noon

Susan GruninLocation: Map
Word of Life Church
6111 South Pointe Blvd.
Fort Myers, FL 33919

Note: Google maps or your GPS may direct you to the back of the building. The entrance to the parking lot is on South Point Blvd. between Quigley Eye Specialists and Buckets Restaurant.

The presentation will look at Using a Hybrid Publisher including:

  1. Defining a Hybrid Publishing Company
  2. The Three Models of Hybrid Publishers
  3. Key to Understanding the Differences between a Hybrid Publisher and a Vanity Press
  4. Ways to Tell is a Hybrid Publisher is Legit
  5. 8 Signs Your Publisher is a Scam
  6. The Guidelines for Recognizing a Legit Hybrid Publisher from the Independent Book Publishers Association (2018)
  7. What type of Author is Most Likely to Benefit from a Hybrid Publisher
  8. Deciding Whether to Use a Hybrid Publisher – It Isn’t for Everyone!

Dr. Susan K. Grunin is a retired college professor, who taught for over 2 decades for the University of Virginia (UVA) and a number of other colleges and universities. Dr. Grunin also authored a text book for the University of Virginia Graduate School. She is a retired Executive who has been an Executive Coach, a CEO, a Human Capital Consultant and who also worked for the Federal Government, where she served in various positions for the Federal Courts, including over 20 years as a Federal Law Enforcement Officer.

Susan is currently a member of the Gulf Coast Writers Association of SW Florida and is writing a series of children’s books, Life Lessons and Tales of Little MisFit.

More about Susan

GCWA 2022 Contest Winners

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GCWA

GCWA Contest Winners — 2022

Fiction/Children’s Stories (these categories were combined and judged together according to our guidelines, due to the low number of entries in each.
1st — Leah Miller — Terror in December (Children’s Stories)
2nd — Mary Charles — Counterculture ( Fiction)
3rd — Nancy Leake — Susie Spider Looks for a Friend (Children’s Stories)

Nonfiction:
1st — Deborah Burghardt — Dream Your Ink
2nd — Diane Parnell — A Slip of the Scalpel
3rd — Sally Basmajian — The Field

Poetry:
1st — Megan Dalziel — Maritime Muse
2nd — Debbie Watz — Bayou Sunset
3rd — Paul Anthony — Minimum Wage-Brianna

Youth:
1st — Nishini Fernando — Life is for the Living
2nd — Ryan Lee — A Soldier During the Great War
3rd — Keven Lacayo — Death

August Speaker — Mary Lou Williams

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August 2022

Speaker: Mary Lou Williams
Topic: The Art and Craft of the Personal Story
August 20, 2022, 10 a.m. to Noon
In person and Zoom meeting

Mary Lou WilliamsLocation: Map
Word of Life Church
6111 South Pointe Blvd.
Fort Myers, FL 33919

Mary Lou Williams is a retired teacher and a professional storyteller. She holds a masters degree in education from Columbia University.  She has served on the board of the Florida Storytelling Association and has produced local storytelling workshops and concerts featuring national tellers.  She is also a member of Toastmasters and has achieved the Distinguished Toastmaster award.  She has written a book of her stories called Ten Fractured Fairy Tales.  She is a member of The Storytellers of the Round Table, a quartet of storytellers that produce and perform storytelling showcases at the Sugden theatre in Naples and the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers and perform regularly at Brambles English Tea Room in Naples. She won first place in the Story Slam contest at the 2018 Florida Storytelling Festival and was a featured teller at the 2018 Stone Soup Festival, the official state storytelling festival of South Carolina.  She conducts seminars at the Renaissance Academy of FGCU.

Website: Story-Theatre.com

More about Mary Lou

Poets Meet Politics

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Hungry Hill Writing is pleased to announce our 2022
POETS MEET POLITICS INTERNATIONAL OPEN POETRY COMPETITION

We are especially delighted that PHILIP GROSS has agreed to judge for us this year.

We will be awarding: a first prize of €500 / $550
See our website https://hungryhillwriting.com for details of other prizes and how to enter

We invite entries, worldwide, for poems on any theme broadly related to politics.

SUBMIT ENTRIES HERE

For more details on the prizes, our judge, entry requirements and other competition details, please click the link above.

The closing date for entries is June 19th 2022.

Please feel free to forward this to anyone who you think may be interested in entering, and we look forward to seeing your work.

The Bedford Competition

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the bedford competition

Short Story Competition – up to 3000 words. Poetry Competition – up to 40 lines on any theme.

TBC is a non-profit group, all net proceeds going to Schoolreaders, Bedford, to help children ‘catch up’ and CHUMS a charity supporting mental health.
Short story judge, Tim Jarvis. Poetry judge, Jessica Mookherjee.

Details: www.bedfordwritingcompetition.co.uk
Prizes: £1000, £200 and £100

All entries go into the main competitions but if you are aged 17 to 25 or are a Bedford resident you qualify for extra prizes as well.

Entry fee: £7.50 or 3 for £15. Students, £5 or 3 for £10.
Closing date: 31 October 2022

SleuthFest Registration Now Open

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sleuthfest

The 2022 SleuthFest mystery writing conference is sponsored by The Florida Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and is back in person this year from July 7-10.

SleuthFest 2022 registration is open now.

  • Guest of Honor: MWA Grand Master Jeffery Deaver
  • Award-winning writing and forensic faculty: Tracy Clark, Tori Eldridge, & Royce Wilson
  • Agent and editor strategy and pitch sessions
  • Freddie’s Noir at the Bar on Thursday
  • Guest of Honor Gala on Friday
  • Fla-Mingle Cocktail Party on Saturday
  • Sharks vs Flamingos on Sunday
  • More than 30 workshops, presentations and panels from Friday to Sunday.

Paul McFarlane

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Paul McFarlane

Mr. McFarlane finished a 34-year federal career in 2015. He resides in Millville, DE with his wife, Karen; their two adult sons live in Maryland. He writes memoir, fictional mysteries and enjoys family history research. He facilitates weekly FreeWrites for two other writing groups and plans to offer these to GCWA members.

Black River Chapbook Competition

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Black River Chapbook Competition
The Black River Chapbook Competition is a semi-annual prize from Black Lawrence Press for a chapbook of poems or prose (including fiction, creative non-fiction, lyric essay, and prose hybrid manuscripts). Entries should be between 16 and 36 pages in length. The winner will receive $500 and publication.
Recent winners include: Nancy Reddy, Amy Sayre Baptista, Ashley Morrow Hermsmeier, Alan Chazaro, Christopher Locke, Veronica Montes, Danielle Rose, Ashanti Anderson, SJ Sindu, Gaia Rajan, and Lucy Wainger.
Entry deadline for the Spring Competition:
May 31, 2022
Black Lawrence Press accepts submissions and payment of the entry fee ($17) exclusively through our online submission manager, Submittable. All entries are read without identifying information by our panel of judges and editors.
Visit us online for complete submission guidelines. Submissions are accepted via Submittable now through May 31. We look forward to reading your work!

24-Hour Playwriting Project 2022

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Laboratory Theater
24-Hour Playwriting Project 2022: Jazz Era Cabaret
Oct 22, 2022 8:00 PM

That perennial favorite bucket list event known as The 24-Hour Playwriting project is back for Season 14! The theme for this season, usually a well-guarded secret, is Jazz-Era Cabaret. Directed and coordinated by Char Loomis, playwrights will be assigned a theme, a director, and actors. Within just 24 hours, you will see the fruits of their labor when we present all of their short plays to be judged by a panel of area theater and arts professionals. A hugely popular event!

One-performance only – October 22 at 8 pm.

Playwrights will receive themes and instructions at 8pm on Friday night. They’ll write all night long and then work with directors and actors to produce their work for your enjoyment on Saturday night, starting at 8pm.

Part of your Season Pass! Or purchase tickets for event — $20.

A hugely-popular event – book your seats as soon as possible. Seating is very limited.

The Laboratory Theater of Florida (View)
1634 Woodford Ave
Fort Myers, FL 33901
United States

May Speaker — DJ Kristoff

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May 2022

Speaker: DJ Kristoff
Topic: Writing with a message for young people
May 21, 2022, 10 a.m. to Noon
DJ Kristoff

Fiction in a Nonfiction World – The Evolution of An Author
How dinosaurs, Harry Potter, and Jack Canfield changed this writer’s course of history. It’s a major feat to write a book; it’s a whole other adventure to market it.D.J. Kristoff presents her journey from an award-winning science teacher digging dinosaurs in Montana to being inspired by the Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios to writing her first book and having Jack Canfield, coauthor of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, show her how to market it.

Kristoff offers her insights on how to write for middle-grade kids based on her world travels and real-life experiences that she brought back into the classroom. “Writing my book was an adventure in itself as I followed the threads of the storyline and researched my new discoveries.”

Other topics include writing with a message, marketing, and making your story relevant in a nonfiction world to sell more than books.

Currently living in Fort Myers, Florida, DJ Kristoff began her education career teaching eighth-grade science in Tempe, Arizona. There she founded and directed the Students for Environmental Awareness Club. Kristoff guided as many as 50 adventurous eighth graders hiking and backpacking into the deserts and wildernesses of Arizona and Utah, teaching geology, biology, anthropology, paleontology, and ethnobotany. Now, as a children’s author, she inspires middle-grade students to love nature and science with her magical books.