President’s Page

OUR PREVIOUS/MOST RECENT MEETING

Information about our most recent meetings is available via a link on the “Welcome” page. (To the left.) It’s usually there sooner that it is in the newsletter, whether sent via USPS, email, or posted here under “NEWSLETTERS.

Visit the “Programs” page (to the left) to learn about our next meeting and other writer related events.

FROM THE PREZ

April, month of pranks, garlic sprouting and mud. It's also the month to finish Winter projects and prepare for Summer. As the air freshens, hopefully so do ideas. I have lost count of the summer projects I have in my to-do list.

But I have a plan! I scratched them all out, except for the first one. When that's done, I'll unscratch the next one and so on.

April is also the start of spring craft fairs, thunderstorms, mowing of lawns and the

changing of the studs (tire studs).

All in all, a boring month. May will be rosier...and posier...and daffodillier;

Looking forward to all the spring literary projects that are taking root.

Your Prez.

Carl/Nathaniel

FROM OUR VICE-PRESIDENT

Frank Scalise will join us as our April speaker. He will share his experience and expertise on audiobooks. Frank is a former police officer and has written both fiction and non-fiction books based on his knowledge of law enforcement procedures. He now makes his home in central Oregon but is well known in the Spokane writing community and a veteran speaker to our group over the years. Frank has done many things to promote the authors in our area and has made time in his schedule to come and talk to us.

Our April guest speaker meeting takes place on Friday the 11^th at 2:00 p.m. in the clubhouse at Sans Souci West, located at 3231 West Boone Avenue. Able-bodied and semi-able-bodied members are encouraged to come early (around 1:30 or so) to help set up tables and to help tear down after the meeting is over. Last month, we had such good attendance that we had to set up more tables after the meeting was scheduled to begin. (Note: it will be easier to put away extra tables after the meeting is over than to set more up at the beginning. It’s good to see we are drawing in more interest all the time.

Don’t be April fooled! See you on Friday the 11^th or Saturday the 19th, or both. The Saturday meeting will be held in the basement of the social hall, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, 1104 W. Heroy Ave. Enter via the double doors facing Heroy Ave and watch for the signs directing you to the meeting room. If you have problems or the door is locked, please call or text our treasurer, Dave McChesney, and he will make sure you can get in. (Sometimes, the church members don’t know we are there and lock the door when they leave.) The meeting begins at 2:00 p.m., and we must be out of there by 4:00 p.m. Among other things, we will have a writing prompt

exercise.

Someone at the last meeting asked if we could post a schedule of speakers for this year. Lining up quality speakers for our Friday meetings takes a lot of juggling of both our schedule and that of the speaker. However,

I do have speakers lined up for most of the spring and summer. Next month, Cindy Hval, who writes for the Spokesman-Review and has done many things to help promote our group and writers in the Spokane area, will talk to us

about writing memoirs and other non-fiction. In June, Tina Hammond will talk about editing and how we can prepare our manuscripts for submission to an editor. At this point, July is still open, but I have been talking to several

people about sharing their expertise and experience with us. For August, we will hear from one of the members of the Rotary Club South, who works with children to encourage them to read. I don’t have anyone lined up beyond August yet but stay tuned.

Sue Eller

FROM YOUR EDITOR, WEB-MASTER, TREASURER

Usually, I don’t write this portion of the newsletter until it is time to send out. But early in the publication process I’m already involved in a rewrite. Somethings have come to mind that I believe should be included here.

You are all aware that our Saturday meeting for March didn’t go as planned. To remedy that, those of us who open up for our meetings will remember to bring signs showing where we meet, along with a phone number to call if you arrive and discover the door is locked. Aternately, my number is on the inside front cover of the newsletter and on our roster. The “768” number is my cell phone.

Recently I checked mail at the post office, enroute to deposit recent dues payments. I had hoped there would be more that could be added to that day’s deposit. Alas, the box was empty, so I was only able to deposit dues paid at our meeting the previous Friday. I try to check mail once a week, so I hope the next week is better.

We are into a new membership year, so if you haven’t yet paid for 2025, please do so as soon as possible. We don’t want to decrease and eventually eliminate member benefits simply because you haven’t paid. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s easier to mark someone as “Paid” for the year then it is to remove and later add them back in.

I try to list upcoming speakers as far ahead as I can, depending upon the information I get from our vice-president. Upcoming speakers will be listed here in the newsletter under “Upcoming Events,” and on the PROGRAMS page on our website.

Near the bottom of the inside front cover of our newsletter there is a link to our You Tube channel. I figured out why it wasn’t working, made a couple of small changes, and now it does. We’ll try to post links to new presentation videos, but all are available at that link.

As always, you can send dues to:

Spokane Authors

P. O. Box 18573

Spokane, WA 99228-0573

Or bring cash or check to a meeting. (If I remember to bring my “Square,” you can charge your dues to a card.)

FROM THE PREZ (Previous)

The year is marching on. Just around the corner we'll be eating corned beef and cabbage, pinching people that don't wear green, looking for mythical pots of gold, and getting sick eating lucky charms.

March is also a month of madness, basketball, amorous hares, melting snow, and mud. It's also the month planting our garden starts. (Those marching Hares need to eat well.) If you have a green thumb, you're safe from all the pinching.

March is also a great month to start or finish a book, short story, or downhill ski lessons. It's time to tune up your bicycle, motorcycle, go cart, minibike, or boat. It’s also time to buy a new pair of hiking boots so they are broken in for a summer in the great outdoors. 

March is a great month any way you look at it.

MARCH ON PEOPLE!

Your Prez.

Carl/Nathan

FROM OUR VICE-PRESIDENT (Previous)

Our March meeting takes place on Friday the 14^th at 2:00 p.m. in the clubhouse at Sans Souci West, located at 3231 West Boone Avenue.

Our guest speaker this month is Ben Van Voorhis. Ben is a writer, editor, and musician from Santa Clarita, California, now living in Spokane. He holds an MFA in fiction from Eastern Washington University and is the former managing editor of Willow Springs. A

recipient of the PEN/Dau short story prize, his fiction and other writing has appeared in Nimrod, Salamander, The Masters Review, and Best Debut Short Stories 2024. He is the current editor of ArcUser, a magazine for users of geospatial technology. He also runs community writing programs for teens and adults at Spark Central and occasionally teaches English at Gonzaga University.

Next month, Frank Scalise will join us and share his experience and expertise on audiobooks. Frank is a former police officer and has written both fiction and non-fiction books based on his knowledge of law enforcement procedures under more than one author name. Frank will be the speaker at our April 11^th meeting.

Last month at our Saturday meeting we did an exercise on writing a book review. This month, March 15^th, I will be at the one-day Central Valley HS Band Boosters Spring Craft Fair. The Saturday meeting will still be going on at St. Francis of Assisi Social Hall at 1107 West Heroy Avenue.

The video of Erik Schubach's presentation at last month’s meeting is now live on our YouTube channel. The link is:

https://youtu.be/l_5pGx-hW_Q?si=I2BGNlb1G6Tc20Hp

See you on Pie Day!

Sue Eller

FROM YOUR EDITOR, WEB-MASTER, TREASURER(Previous)

If you send your dues via USPS and don’t hear from me in a reasonable amount of time, contact me. On occasion, things get lost in the mail. Recently we received dues that had been mailed nearly two months ago. I always send an email (or mail a receipt) to acknowledge receipt of your dues.

I send the latest roster to current and recent members with each issue of the newsletter. Use it to see if you are paid up and if we have your contact information listed correctly.

As always, you can send dues to:

Spokane Authors

P. O. Box 18573

Spokane, WA 99228-0573

Or bring cash or check to a meeting. (If I remember to bring my “Square,” you can charge your dues to a card.)

Dave Mc

Page revised 04/05/2025 DAM

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