Thanks to everyone who contributed to our successful second season!

I thought I’d post an official thank you to everyone who helped make the second season of the Northwest Author Series such a wonderful success.

Big thanks to Pat Duke from the Wilsonville Public Library for generously providing the space, the books, and “thumb’s up” for our series to happen.

While I’m thanking people from the library, I’d like to especially thank Malia, Burton, Andrea and Greg for their contributions.

Malia and Greg cheerfully set up our space and provide back-up support for our numerous requests. Burton creates our great poster and graphics. And Andrea handles publicity.

Pat also acts as liason with the Friends of the Library, who offer our speakers a generous honorarium. On behalf of all the authors, thanks!

I want to thank Theonie Gilmore, who is the Executive Director of the Wilsonville Arts and Culture Council, for articulating the idea for the series and inviting me to join the WACC board. Theonie attends the NAS regularly and is always ready to jump in and help when needed.

Special thanks to Ashleigh Rousselle, our student intern for the 2008-2009 season. Ashleigh was in charge of transporting the cookies and coffee from our sponsors. She also wrote up notes after each event for our blog and was an all-around big help. I know that she has benefited a great deal from attending all eight talks and I hope the information she’s heard serves her and her writing career in the long run.

I want to thank our presenters this season: Samantha Ducloux Waltz, Cynthia Whitcomb, Linda Kuhlmann, Christine Fletcher, Brian Libby, Carmen T. Berneir Grand, and Elizabeth Lyon.

Thanks to Jane Friedman at Writer’s Digest Books for providing our door prizes, which never fail to bring a smile to winners’ faces.

And thanks to Lamb’s Thriftway Bakery and Starbucks in the Wilsonville Town Center for supplying our refreshments.

Thanks for a great season, everyone. It would not have been nearly as successful without everyone’s contributions.

I am looking forward to steady improvement in 2009-2010. Speaking of, now would be a great time to make suggestions for speakers for 2009-2010. Please e-mail them to me (christina katz at earthlink dot net) before the end of the month.

I’ll post the application guides for the 2009-2010 season by May 31st and select the line-up by June 30th.

Hope everyone has a lovely summer!

Warmly,

Christina Katz

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CHRISTINA KATZ
The Northwest Author Series
http://northwestauthorseries.wordpress.com/
Sponsored by the Wilsonville Public Library, The Friends of the Wilsonville Public Library & the Wilsonville Arts and Culture Council
Created  and hosted by Christina Katz

Platform Primer for Aspiring Authors: NAS Welcomes Christina Katz January 25th, 2:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Oak Room, Wilsonville Public Library
Cost is $5.00, $3.00 for Seniors & Students

Even if you are not yet known and you don’t have a writing specialty, you will enjoy this lively presentation about how to name, claim, cultivate and explain your all-important writer’s platform from scratch. Becoming visible is more crucial to landing a book deal than ever, according to agents and editors in every facet of the publishing industry. Simply churning out a book isn’t enough. Aspiring authors need to develop a platform in order to get noticed. Based on her book, Get Known Before the Book Deal, Christina Katz, will help you see the bigger platform picture and then take the small steps every writer must in order to get known and land a book deal.

Christina Katz is the author of Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Build an Author Platform and Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids (both for Writer’s Digest Books). She started her platform “for fun” seven years ago and ended up on Good Morning America. She teaches writing career development from beginner through book deal, hosts the Northwest Author Series, and is the publisher of several free e-zines including Writers on the Rise, The Writer Mama and The Get Known Groove. Christina speaks at MFA programs, literary events, and writing conferences around the country. More at www.christinakatz.com.

The Northwest Author Series Call for Presenters for the 2008-2009 Season

The Northwest Author Series is a literary speaker series sponsored by The Wilsonville Public Library, The Wilsonville Friends of the Library and the Wilsonville Arts & Culture Council. The series is created, publicized and hosted by Wilsonville author Christina Katz. We are now scheduling our next season.

Our presenters last season included Marc Acito, Heather Sharfeddin, Cynthia Whitcomb, Shelly Lipkin, Sage Cohen, Susan Fletcher and Elizabeth Rusch. The series takes place the third Sunday of each month during the school year and features writing professionals who have a desire to share what they have learned with our growing suburban literary community.

We are pleased to be adding a salon feature to our series this time around. Refreshments will now be served after each presentation during the presenter’s book signing.

The theme for the upcoming season is How To Write Literary Forms. Presenters are encouraged to engage the audience in exercises or brainstorming throughout their 90-minute presentations. In your pitch, please convey how others might learn writing and publishing strategies you have mastered.

Final selections will be made by June 30, 2008 for the 08-09 season. We will contact those selected at that time to set a presentation date. Presenter pitches should follow our sample format.

Anyone who is interested in being considered for the upcoming season, which runs from September 2008 – May 2009, please submit your brief course description, a short bio and a headshot to Christina Katz (see e-mail address in the sample presentation).

The Friends of the Wilsonville Library offers our presenters a modest honorarium. We do not cover travel expenses. We are not looking for a presentation on writing personal essays for the upcoming season (as indicated by our sample pitch).

Thank you for your interest in the Northwest Author Series. I hope we will have a chance to enjoy your presentation.

Interested in applying? Please closely model your pitch after nas-sample-presentation-pitch.

Submissions instructions are included in the sample.