The Northwest Author Series Call for Presenters for the 2009-2010 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 third season.

Our presenters last season included Elizabeth Lyon, Carmen T. Bernier Grand,  Brian Libby, Christine Fletcher, Linda Kuhlmann, Cynthia Whitcomb, and Samantha Ducloux Waltz. In our first season, we welcomed 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 (September – May) and features writing professionals who have a desire to share what they have learned in a how-to format with our growing suburban literary community. Attendance at our monthly event averages between 30-40 writers, authors and aspiring authors all eager to learn as much as they can in each author’s one-and-a-half hour presentation.

Refreshments are served. Door prizes are given to two members of the audience and a grand time is had by all. If you’d like to hear from our hostess and some of our attendees, please scroll down to the next post and watch the video about our series by Bill Johnson.

Presenters are encouraged to include as much anyone-can-try-it how-to instruction throughout their 90-minute presentations. We strongly prefer a how-to presentation rather than a how-I-did-it presentation. Writers come to our series to learn new skills that they can turn around and apply themselves.

Final selections will be made by June 30, 2009 for the 09-10 season. We will contact those selected at that time to set a presentation date.

Anyone who is interested in being considered for the upcoming season, please submit your brief course description, a short bio, and a professional-quality headshot to Christina Katz (see e-mail address in the sample presentation). Presenter pitches should follow our sample format. Pitches that do not follow the format will not be considered.

The Friends of the Wilsonville Library offers our presenters an modest honorarium. Sorry, we cannot cover travel expenses.

Interested in applying? Please closely model your pitch after NAS Sample Presentation Pitch 2009.

Submissions instructions are included in the sample. Topics that have been covered include:

• humor writing
• platform development
• children’s writing
• book proposal writing
• freelance writing
• writing fiction
• self-publishing books
• screenwriting
• playwriting
• personal essay writing
• poetry writing
• researching children’s writing and young adult fiction

We would love to offer fresh topics in 2009-2010! So if you have something else you can offer in a how-to format, please submit a proposal.

Please note that all of our presenters for the Northwest Author Series are traditionally published authors. We won’t be repeating any of  the authors from the last two seasons next year.

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

Contact christina katz at earthlink dot net if you have any questions.

An Introduction to the Northwest Author Series

Thanks to Bill Johnson from Oregon Writers Speak for coming down to Wilsonville to kindly shoot and edit this video.

You can hear more Oregon authors speak here.

Samatha Waltz Speaks on Essay Writing for Publication on September 21st at the Wilsonville Library

How to Write and Market Personal Stories with Samantha Ducloux Waltz

Sunday, September 21, from 2:30 – 4:30 at the Wilsonville Public Library

Tell your story. Draw the reader in. Paint a whole world with words. In this ninety-minute writing workshop, you’ll have the opportunity to pull up a story from within, begin to polish it and decide where to submit it. You’ll get tips for creating successful leads, compelling plots, sensory-rich settings and convincing characters. You’ll have the opportunity to explore markets and discuss effective ways to place your personal stories. So bring a pen and your passion for writing. The power of your own words will surprise you.

Samantha Ducloux Waltz, an award-winning author, sold her first story at age eleven to the local newspaper, followed by First Fiction and Fiction awards as a teen for American Girl, and a stint as a guest editor for Mademoiselle. Currently she has stories in many anthologies including a number of volumes of the Chicken Soup for the Soul and A Cup of Comfort series. She has also been published in The Christian Science Monitor and The Rambler. Other writing includes a nonfiction book Parenting: Four Patterns in Child Rearing and a young adult novel Young Rebel written under the name Samellyn Wood.

Deadline Extension: Northwest Author Series Call for Presenters

Please note that I have extended the deadline for the Northwest Author Series to Friday, July 18th.

Please see the post below for all the details.

Thank you for your patience!

Susan Fletcher Speaks on Going Beyond Imagination: Writing Alphabet of Dreams

Susan Fletcher Speaks on May 18th at the Wilsonville Library

Topic: Going Beyond Imagination: Writing Alphabet of Dreams

From 3-5 p.m. at the Wilsonville Public Library In the Oak Room. Cost is five dollars at the door.

Susan will tell of her 5-year odyssey to write Alphabet of Dreams—her YA novel about a boy who has prophetic dreams, the teenage sister who tries to protect him, and a suspense-filled camel caravan journey across ancient Persia.  She’ll show pictures of the journey she took to Iran to research the book, and tell how her travels took her to places beyond what she was capable of imagining beforehand: to a picnic with a Kurdish family near the Iraqi border; to a caravanserai on the old Silk Road; to an ancient Persian village; to a camel trek in the desert, and more.  For the writers and aspiring writers in the audience, Susan will reflect on using a sense of place as inspiration for fiction.

Susan Fletcher is the author of nine books for young readers, including The Dragon Chronicles Series (Dragon’s Milk, Flight of the Dragon Kyn, Sign of the Dove); Alphabet of Dreams, Shadow Spinner; Walk Across the Sea, and Dadblamed, Union Army Cow. She has received two Oregon Book Awards and the Willamette Writers’ Distinguished Writer Award. Some other honors her books have received: American Library Association Notable Books for Young Readers; American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults; Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Blue Ribbon; and School Library Journal Best Books. Susan has an M.A. in English from the University of Michigan.  She has taught in the M.F.A. in Writing for Children program at Vermont College.

Writer’s Digest Books has been kind enough to provide door prizes for the event, which attracts writers and readers across the genres. Everyone who attends will be entered to win two out of three of the following:

FREE – Subscription to Writer’s Digest Magazine for one year
FREE – Subscription to Writersmarket.com for one year
$25 – Value to purchase Writer’s Digest Books!