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)
Visit the “Programs” page (to the left) to
learn about our next meeting and other writer related events.
FROM THE PREZ
I feel the need to apologize for last month’s letter. I seem to
have disseminated some misinformation. And
in this political climate it needs to be clarified. Last month I stated that the last batch of
canning had just finished, and everything could be put away for the
year. The next day my wife came home
with three boxes of pears.
I hope this clears up any misunderstandings.
It will be great to see all of you again. Don't forget we are
holding elections for 2025 officers. We don't have a formal speaker for this
meeting, but I have a few thoughts to share and hopefully it will generate some
discussion.
Your Prez,
Carl/Nathan
FROM
THE VEEP
We
did not receive any message from our vice president for this issue.
FROM YOUR EDITOR, WEB-MASTER, TREASURER
We
are getting close to the end of another membership year. I thank all sixty-four of you who have joined
or renewed your membership in and for 2024.
But 2025 approaches and most of us need to renew our memberships. It’s never too early to pay dues for the
upcoming membership period. And you are
always welcome to pay ahead if you want.
I believe we have ten individuals who already paid for the next year.
Don’t forget, membership does have some
benefits. Paid members with published
books are included in our catalog. You
are listed on our MEMBERS list on our website, complete with a link to your
Members Webpage.
As always, we realize that paying dues might pose a
problem for some. We are not all in the
same boat financially, and I’m sure many of us would help those who might have
difficulty in paying. But we need to
know if you are having difficulty. At
the same time, we need to be as discreet about it as possible, primarily for
your sense of pride. But if you are
having problems, contact someone and we’ll see what we can do.
As always, you can send dues to:
Spokane Authors
P. O. Box 18573
Spokane, WA 99228-0573
Or you can bring cash or check to a meeting. (If I remember to bring my “Square,” or
someone else does, there is the chance that we can charge your dues to a card.)
FROM THE PREZ (Previous)
If the year could
be condensed into a day then I would say to all of
you, “Good Afternoon.”
It is back to
school time, harvest time and craft fair time. Even though my garden got
started a month late, it is finally producing beans, beets, zucchini, garlic
and potatoes. The onions tapped out this year.
I was hoping to
have a speaker for our September meeting but as of this moment it doesn't look
like she will be available. However, I may have a backup.
Getting back to
craft fairs, I am hoping to partner with as many authors as possible in as many craft fairs as possible this year. So far I am signed up for
three...there's like eight this year.
Also, we have the
catalog and the Christmas Anthology which are due by the middle of the month.
Also, be mindful of the elections in November. Not just the national election
but also our own Spokane Authors elections.
As always,
looking forward to seeing you all again. I hope you are all in good health and
that everything is write in your world;) See you soon.
Carl/Nathaniel
The
Prez.
FROM THE VEEP (Previous)
Here it is,
almost the end of summer. The cooler
weather will allow us to spend more time hunched over the computer writing the
next Great American Novel. Yeah, sure,
do you feel it?” Me neither, but the
keyboard calls and like the rest of we writers; we will answer, and clicking
will be heard throughout the neighborhood.
Cool days will cause us to answer the keyboard call. With cooler weather also comes the call for
coffee, tea, or maybe a writer toddy.
Give me time and I’ll think of one that will enhance our writing… or so
we think. Can you tell I’m
procrastinating and not addressing the Christmas Anthology? Yes, I’ve thought of a title, Santa’s
Christmas Shorts. Now, that title
should tweak the imagination!
Our goal is to
write or have twenty-four shorts: averaging three to four pages each, or
seventy-two to ninety-six pages. I feel
the goal for us to have a good salable sized anthology would be to have 120 or
so pages. I think that is a nice size
for a seasonal anthology. Our drop-dead
date (DDD) is October 11th.
That should give us time to edit and do the things that need to be done
before it goes to the printer. We need
the book in hand prior to Thanksgiving and book selling and signing
opportunities.
For those of you
who would like to get together and toss around ideas and maybe write a little,
I talked to the County Library on Regal.
We can get a room with a white board and bust out and write about
Christmas and Santa Clause. I know you
have a creative sense of humor, let it be free.
Show the world just how creative we can be.
Bob Manion
The Veep
FROM YOUR EDITOR, WEB-MASTER, TREASURER (Previous)
So far at least, I seem to be on a
more normal schedule for sending out this issue of the newsletter. Ideally, it’ll go out tomorrow, the last day
of the previous month, or at the latest, Monday the 2nd of
September. Even that is well within the
time frame I try to meet.
It’s getting busy. We have Arts and Craft fairs coming up that a
lot of us will participate in as we try to sell some books. We are also trying to put a catalog together
to better promote our members’ books. We
are also pushing ahead with the idea of a Christmas themed anthology that
hopefully will be ready for the public in time for the Christmas shopping
season.
If you want to have your books listed
in the catalog, you need to be a paid member for 2024. We’ve also asked that you review your book
blurbs/descriptions and make sure they are short enough to fit within the catalog
format. (A good target would be between
50 and 70 words.) The same goes for
author bios, as we hope to include a short bio and picture of each of the
authors listed in the catalog. We’ve
asked that you provide blurbs, bios, and dues no later than the 21 of
September. If bios and blurbs aren’t
received, catalog “staff” will edit as needed to fit the page. If dues for 2024 aren’t received by that
date, no books for that member will be listed.
As mentioned, we are also working on a
Christmas themed anthology. Our
vice-president talks a little about it in his column. We are basically looking for short stories
ranging in length from 1500 to 3000 words or so. (I don’t think we’d reject something at 1375
words, or something at 3035, but…) Bob
mentions a final submission date of October 11, but it has been suggested we
should set an earlier deadline, perhaps around the middle of September, or to
coincide with the catalog cut off date. If one wants to write a Christmas based short
story, they should be able to do so in that time frame, and we will need time
to edit and format before publishing.
So, in reference to our
vice-president’s column, let’s find that magical writer’s toddy, take a sip,
and get those keyboards clicking.
Dave Mc
Spokane
Authors
Page revised 11/01/2024
DAM
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