Confessions of a Research Junkie

The July meeting, held on July 20, 2024, featured Judith L. Pearson, award-winning author, dynamic speaker, and GCWA member, who shared insights and tips on finding research that brings your stories to life.

Judy Pearson presenting | Credit: Ginger Wakem

A few suggestions on where to look for unknown and hard-to-find materials are below:

  • Read the footnotes in Wikipedia for additional details and Newspapers.com, which includes papers from the U.S. and U.K. dating back to the 1500s.
  • Visit HathiTrust, a not-for-profit collaborative of academic and research libraries offering more than 18M digitized items.
  • Check out municipal libraries, Goodwill, antique shops, and University archives for other historical information.

Judy stressed the benefits of doing this extra work help to set the scene, define the era, and add tidbits around dialogue on topics being reported and advertised during that time.

If you were unable to attend and wish to watch the video, please email CZarria57@gmail.com for the link.

Member News!

  • John Siko received national attention from The Spotlight Network with Logan Crawford, Actor and Emmy award-winning Anchor, Reporter, Talk Show Host, and Comic, regarding John’s book, “Anatomy of a Wrongful Death Lawsuit” chronicling his wife’s tragic lack of care throughout Fort Myers, Fla. You can watch his informative podcast interview here. GCWA will be issuing a press release celebrating his continued success.
  • GCWA hosted 12 first-time attendees(!) to our July meeting. We will recognize our new members in the August GCWA Gazette.

 

 

Members mingling at July Meeting | Credit: Ginger Wakem

Business Items

1. GCWA Annual Writers Contest – Winners to be Announced Soon!

Judges have completed reading entries for the 2024 GCWA Annual Writers Contest across all three categories: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Winners will be notified by email and announced at the August 17th monthly meeting. A celebration is scheduled for September 21st at Lakes Regional Library, where contest winners will have an opportunity to read their stories to the public. (Library is located at 15290 Bass Road, Fort Myers, FL 33919)

2. GCWA Meeting Location – On the Move

We want to thank Word of Life Church for allowing Gulf Coast Writers Association to host our meetings here since 2022. The church will be undergoing  remodeling, and we are on the search for a permanent location. We appreciate everyone’s flexibility as we may select different locations based on availability and capacity in the meantime. Continue to check  Gulfwriters.org for the most up-to-date information.

3.Website Update

Ed Donlin shared the Website continues to be a work in progress and encouraged members to try out the new chat/forum feature. If you are having difficulty logging in, or have feedback on the site, please email Ed directly at: boatguyed@gmail.com for assistance.

4.Community and Conversation

Fourteen writers attended the post-meeting lunch at Buckett’s, where the conversation was varied and constant. Attendees included both old and new GCWA members. Buckett’s is a lively sports bar restaurant, and our GCWA group contributed

Published on

Category(s)Meeting Recaps

FacebookXPinterestRedditDeliciousWhatsappTelegramEmailPrintShortlink

MaryAnn CipressyAuthor posts

Maryanne is the owner of What’s Up SWFL and is a leader in Internet Marketing with experience, a track record of success, and most importantly of all working with each client on a case-by-case basis because every situation requires custom solutions.

Related Posts ...