Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers (SASP) began in 1998 when Chuck O’Conner, Elmer Freeman, Joe Meiners, and Dan Vollmer, Spokane area authors formed a club in order to share their knowledge and experience with those interested in writing and alternative ways of publishing. Today, SASP is a large non-profit organization dedicated to anyone with interests in any aspect of writing and art. Members now include aspiring (and successful) authors, poets, journalists, illustrators, editors, publishers, printers, writing instructors, and many others. Monthly luncheon meetings provide inspiration and education by way of knowledgeable and entertaining guest speakers, and the cheerful camaraderie of people sharing common interests and goals. Membership is open to all who love writing, art, and interesting people.

Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers meets the first Thursday of each month, September through May, in the banquet (back) room of the Old Country Buffet

5504 N. Division St.

Spokane, WA 99208

(509) 484-5026

Speakers’ presentations begin at NOON. The room opens at 11:00 AM to allow members and guests to dine, converse, join, pay dues, browse, and perhaps buy other member’s books that are on display. Generally a short business meeting is held, either before or after the formal presentation. New members and guests are introduced, members relate their accomplishments, and various door prizes are awarded.

All members and guests are requested to buy lunch upon entering the establishment, and to leave an appropriate tip for the waiter/waitress.

Members need to be present to win door prizes.

Current membership benefits include a listing on the SASP website, www.spokaneauthors.org. Many members provide short biographies and links to external personal websites, creating more marketing exposure. Current members may list and describe their published works on the SASP website and offer their work for sale at meetings.

Guest speakers at our monthly meetings inform, inspire, and entertain members and guests with a variety of topics, all designed to provide knowledge pertinent to writing and publishing.

SASP members are encouraged to purchase or trade completed works of and with fellow members. They are also encouraged to donate examples of their work for use as door prizes. Those who win other members’ works are expected to provide a review of that work.

Dues for SASP membership are $15.00 per calendar year. Dues may be paid directly to our Treasurer at our monthly meetings. Alternatively, you may remit your dues to:

Spokane Authors & Self-Publishers

P. O. Box 18573

Spokane, WA 99228-0573

2010 Officers

President:

Dave McChesney (509) 325-2072

daveeva@comcast.net

Vice-President:

Bob Weldin (509) 327-2897

minersquest@comcast.net

Secretary:

Robert Pillsbury (509) 842-6803

rvpsasp07@comcast.net

Treasurer:

TBA

Public-Relations:

Russ Davis (509) 768-6206

info@graydogpress.com

Newsletter Editor:

Jim Parry 509) 325-9922

parry9922@q.com

Web Master:

TBA

Advisory Board:

Jolene Feher (509) 489-0544

fehersong@yahoo.com

Gail Mangano (509) 535-1434

mamamia3224@comcast.net

Bob Manion (509) 448-2901

gunnerbob@comcast.net

OUR NEXT MEETING!

Please join us on Thursday Sept 2 at 12 noon. We’ll be at our usual location, Old Country Buffet, 5504 N. Division St., Spokane, Washington.)

This month’s guest speaker will be Shirley Penna-Oakes. She will speak about “stories, true or false, and the importance that they play in family histories.” Her talk is titled Is that Really True?”

Ms. Penna-Oakes was born in Spokane and raised in Oregon by her Italian dad. She has been married to her high school sweetheart for 41 years, and has two daughters, six grandchildren, and one great-grandson.

She began recording the stories that her grandmothers, one Italian and on Irish, would tell her when she was 8-years-old. Shirley is an active member of a number of genealogical societies and is the past president of the Easter Washington Genealogical Society. She has taught beginners’ classes for genealogy at Mead High School and Spokane Falls Community College. She has also lectured at the state and regional levels in WA, OR, MT, and CA., and was chairperson of the 1992 Washington State Genealogical Conference in Everett. Shirley was recently chairperson of the Walking with Ancestors guided tour and barbecue at Fairmont Cemetery, and is also the compiler/publisher of a number of genealogical research booklets.

Ms. Penna-Oakes is now compiling the History of the Pleasant View Cemetery (Ford, WA) and the stories of its residents, with co-author Mary Morgan.

The President’s Page

July 2010

OUR LAST MEETING

At our August meeting, Karen Estes spoke about writing and self-publishing her book Plane of the Ecliptic. Her detailed explanation of the process she underwent in dealing with iUniverse was informative and well received by those in attendance. The information she provided is sure to help others in deciding how and where to publish their work.

Russ Davis introduced us to Andrew Corder who is now the senior editor for Gray Dog Press. Andrew will be taking charge of most of the day-to-day publishing efforts, while Russ will concentrate more on the marketing end of the business. We also met Stan Penny, who formerly worked in law enforcement. He is hoping to write about his experiences.

Lee Moore proudly showed us the special handmade card she is making for her grandson Scott. Chuck Lehman told us a little about his new book, and, as well, put in a plug for the cover designer (of all his books), Greg Lehman. Paul Lecoq announced that August 27^th would see the release of his book, Cruel and Unusual Punishment at Auntie’s Bookstore. Lastly, Jim Parry told us that up to six authors from Gray Dog Press would be at River Park Square near Made in Washington. Authors will be on site between 11 A.M. and 2 P.M. from the 12^th through the 17^th of August.

Once again we had a bumper crop of door prizes, all donated by SASP members. Russ and Andrew donated two copies of the latest Spoke Write. They were won by Ana Alvarez and Bob Manion. Karen Estes provided a copy of Plane of the Ecliptic, for which Soul Karriem had the winning number. Jim Vasquez re-donated a copy of a book he had won a year or so ago. Paul Lecoq took home a copy of Patrick McManus’ The Double Jack Murders. Lastly, Maggie Alvarez (attending with her parents) and Damon Bauer each won a pack of Lee Moore’s handmade greeting cards.

We also mentioned that many members still need to write and submit a member’s bio for the web-site. A call also went out for reviews for members books, again for posting upon the SASP web-site. Please forward bios and reviews to Dave McChesney at daveeva@comcast.net.

A call for guest bloggers:

Recently a Live Journal Friend posted some comments and questions about self-publishing. The remarks were not unkind or prejudicial, but were written from the viewpoint of one published in the more traditional manner. His basic argument was that the process of obtaining an agent, selling the manuscript to a publisher, and the many revisions required along the way help produce higher quality work. My reply was that self-published authors can (and should) take advantage of every opportunity to fine tune and perfect their work before it goes to print.

Rather than keeping up a dialog about this in the comments of his post, I plan to post my thoughts on self-publishing in the next few days. If any of you would like to present your ideas on the process, send them along to me and I’ll post them. Perhaps a little insight as to why you decided to self-publish might be enlightening as well. I’ll also include one or two as a part of subsequent President’s Pages on our web-site. I’d suggest no more than 250 – 300 words, about a page in standard format. You can send your thoughts on the matter to me at daveeva@comcast.net.

You can get to My Live Journal at http://vespican.livejournal.com/ . Then click on “friends” and scroll down, or you can go to http://eriksdb.livejournal.com/1263452.html to see the original post.

Write on,

For What It’s Worth

by Jim Parry

Recently I was alternating my reading (which I often do) between The Shallows by Nicholas Carr and the July/August issue of Smithsonian Magazine when, lo and behold, I found myself perusing nearly identical material. The article in the Smithsonian was titled From Print to Pixel and was written by Kevin Kelly; whereas, Carr’s book’s subtitle is What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains; both of which should give you some idea of their content.

Each gives a fascinating history of the written word per se. Kelly reminds us that our country was founded on the written word (the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and, to some degree, the Bible). He takes us further back - to the 11^th century when spaces between words were first added to written language. This was also a time in which reading silently to oneself was considered an extraordinary talent. Before the invention of the printing press (= mass produced books), only one in 20 adult European males could write. But afterwards, of course, reading, writing, and the spread of information exploded. Since books were now inexpensive, common people began to write opinions “opposed to the prevailing consensus” and started wasting paper writing “frivolous” stuff. (The first romance novel appeared in 1740.)

And now there’s another revolution afoot: Words and images moving all over the place on all sorts of screens. Kelly thinks of this as mostly a good thing (millions, if not billions, of people now write everyday; the amount of time people spend reading has nearly tripled since 1980; more than a trillion pages were added to the World Wide Web during that time period). He says simply that “Books were good at developing a contemplative mind. Screens encourage more [immediate and] utilitarian thinking.”

Kelly sees us soon holding electronic tablets in front of us as we walk which will give us tons of info regarding anything we point them at. He believes that in the near future “a person, artifact or fact does not ‘exist’ until it has been [scanned and] linked” and that every aspect of people’s lives will be tracked, leading to “an unexpectedly objective and quantifiable view of themselves, one that no book can provide.”

But Carr thinks losing a “contemplative mind” would be catastrophic for the human race. He writes:

Greater access to knowledge is not the same as greater knowledge.

An ever-increasing plethora of facts and data is not the same as greater knowledge.

Breadth of knowledge is not the same as depth of knowledge.

Multitasking is not the same as complexity.

We used to shape our minds with deep reading and contemplation, but now it’s shaped by

rapid-fire facts, words that scroll by quickly, and split-second scenes.

So both writers believe computers will drastically change our way of thinking – about who we are and how we act and react, our very being. Carr thinks it’s for the worse; Kelly believes it will just be a different way of thinking.

Yesterday, I found several in-depth reviews on the Internet – so now I’m really confused.

Jim

News

Listed below are acknowledgments of our member's accomplishments, book signing dates, locations, and other items of note:

Recent Newsletters now on Site

The ten issues of our recently revived SASP Newsletter are now posted and available on the web-site. Simply go to the Newsletter Tab on our home page and click on the month you are interested in. All the content of the e-mailed or “snail-mailed” versions are there, although the format has changed somewhat.

New “LINKS”

We’ve recently added several “general interest” links on the web-site page of the same name. Amongst the new links is one to a “writers how to” site by Australian science fiction and fantasy writer Richard Harland.

See it at:

www.writingtips.com.au

Upcoming Events

B.J. Campbell will be signing her book CLOSE CALLS: THE TRUE TALES OF COUGAR BOB at Auntie’s on Sat. Aug. 28 from 1-3 PM, & at Hastings on 29^th Ave. Sat. Sept 4 from 1-4 PM.

Kudos

Our very own Dave McChesney has recently won second place in the adult fiction category of the Author! Author! “Whisper!” Great First Pages Contest [What a title!] with his book Sailing Dangerous Waters!

A Local Publisher

Recently, Ditto’s Print and Copy Center has expanded to become Gray Dog Press. Besides publishing SPOKE WRITE: The Spokane/Coeur d’ Alene Journal of Art and Writing, Russ Davis and his crew offer three levels of printing and publishing for local writers. Depending upon the writer’s desires and the marketability of the work, Gray Dog Press will print self-published work, publish in partnership with the author, or publish totally at their expense. For more information, go to:

www.graydogpress.com

A Most Generous Offer

Writer Kirt Hickman has generously provided SASP with several “how to” articles on various aspects of writing. We are now posting one of Kirt’s articles on the WRITER’S TOOLS page of the web-site each month. Each will remain for approximately one month or until replaced by the next. Kirt’s book, REVISING FICTION: MAKING SENSE OF THE MADNESS has been released. An autographed copy has been received by Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers and won by James Vasquez at our October meeting.

This month we will be running another one of the articles Kirt sent us. If you would like copies of any of the articles, contact daveeva@comcast.net

A New Publishing Company

Hello Spokane Authors & Self-Publishers. My name is Bob Griffin. I have just started a small publishing company that will be publishing fantasy, science fiction and horror stories. Below is my company's first press release. If anybody is interested in submitting their works of fiction, please visit us at

www.absentwillowreview.com

New Hampshire Authors Launch

Publishing Company.

Rochester, NH - New Hampshire authors Rick DeCost and Bob Griffin are proud to announce the launch of their publishing company and its online presence. Absent Willow Publishing LLC is an independent book publisher that will provide its readers with high quality stories of horror, fantasy and science fiction. Its online efforts include The Absent Willow Review, which plans to publish stories in the horror, fantasy, and science fiction genres while allowing its readers access to the magazine anywhere in the world. Additionally, Absent Willow Review will publish paperback anthologies from their collected works. “We are huge fans of the genres we publish,” remarked Griffin. “We started this company to find great works of fiction and to locate the next generation of great writers.” With its online magazine spotlighting new works and its print publications soon to be available through Amazon.com and other retailers, the Company is planning to renew interest in short works of fiction. “For new and established authors of short fiction in the horror or fantasy vein, the market is light,” DeCost added. “We are hoping to change that.”

Rick Decost & Bob Griffin

Absent Willow Publishing LLC

PO Box 66

Rochester, NH 03866

MFA Opportunity

Spalding University’s four-semester, brief-residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing combines superb instruction with unparalleled flexibility. At the beginning of each semester, students and faculty work together at a 10-day residency (in Louisville or abroad), after which they return home to correspond one-on-one through an exchange of 5 packets between the student and the faculty mentor for the rest of the semester. Students study fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, writing for children and young adults, screenwriting, or playwriting.

Request brochure FA35 by email: mfa@spalding.edu, by phone: (800) 896-8941, ext 2423, or see our website: www.spalding.edu/mfa.

And Yet another Contest

The second annual "Scare The Dickens Out of Us" ghost story contest offers $1000.00 first place, $500.00 second place and $250.00 third place prize money this year for a new, original ghost story up to 5000 words. Any genre is welcome.

This literary contest is a fundraiser for the Friends of the Dr. Eugene Clark Library in Lockhart, Texas, the oldest continuously in use library in Texas. Entry fee is $20.00. The contest is privately funded, all entry fees go to the Friends for Library projects.

Full rules are available at www.clarklibraryfriends.com or .org. Entries will be accepted from July 1 to October 1 2010.

We are also supporting a "Junior Scare the Dickens Out of Us" ghost story contest with a $250.00 first prize. This is for ages 12-18 and requires a $5.00 entry fee.

And thank you. We appreciate your time.

Roxanne and Gretchen Rix, contest coordinators "Scare The Dickens Out of Us" 2010

SASP 201O Speaking Schedule

(as of August 21)

Sep. 2---Shirley Penna-Oakes---(guest), "Genealogy." She's from Out Reach, part of the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society. (booked)

Oct. 7 ---C.K. Crigger---(guest), talking about “The Hook” in writing fiction (booked)

Nov. 4---Jess Walter---(guest), may be available to speak on his latest book. Says he will speak if we can work out a time, but his publicist is running him ragged promoting his new book. (not booked yet)

Dec. 2---How about a Christmas Party where we honor our members who have published a book or completed a manuscript during 2010? They might each read a short excerpt. Also, we need to elect officers for 2011.