FWA Palm Coast Chapter

Self-publishing success

cspeno — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 13:12:08 +0000

Hello FWA Palm Coast!

Here’s an interesting story from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal on self-publishing success. Click here to link to the story.

The November Chapter Meeting Will be Held at Mike’s CVP Office (read below)

Jeff Swesky — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:19:52 +0000

For those of you who are staying in town for the holiday, we will be meeting this Saturday for our November chapter meeting. As agreed at the last meeting, we’ll be meeting at Mike’s ClearView Press Inc. office at our usual time, 10:00. His address is 405 North State Street, Bunnell, FL 32110. Being that Mike is setup for wireless internet, we’ll be able to work on updating and improving our various social networking sites.

We hope to see you on Saturday. Until then, have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Palm Coast Representing at the 2011 FWA Annual Conference

Jeff Swesky — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:06:31 +0000

Five members of the Florida Writers Association Palm Coast Chapter had attended the 2011 FWA Annual Conference in Lake Mary last weekend, including chapter co-leaders, Michael Ray King and Jeff Swesky. Also attending were first-time conference goers, Bridget Callaghan, Claudia Chianese, and Lisa Martino.

Both Claudia and Michael had short stories published in the FWA Anthology, Let’s Talk, which was released during the conference. Although the Palm Coast chapter had approximately ten entries as finalists in the 2011 Royal Palm Literary Awards, when the winners were announced during the conference’s RPLA banquet, Jeff came away with the sole prize for the chapter, taking 2nd place in the unpublished short story category for his suburban nightmare, The American Scream.

From left to right: Lisa Martino, Jeff Swesky, Bridget Callaghan, Claudia Chianese, Michael Ray King

Change in meeting dates for September and October!

Jeff Swesky — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:42:34 +0000

Palm Coast Writers,

Because of some writing events Mike and I will be attending in the next couple months, we need to push back our 4th Saturday Chapter meetings by a week for the months of September and October. There will be no meeting this coming Saturday! Please note the new meeting dates:

September 24 chapter meeting ==> Willl now be held on Saturday, October 1st (same time and place)

October 8th critique meeting will be held as scheduled

October 22nd chapter meeting ==> Will now be hold on Saturday, October 29th (same time and place)

Thank you,

Jeff Swesky

Writing and Critiquing | Words Etc Writing – Exploring communication on all levels….

cspeno — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:33:51 +0000

Writing and Critiquing | Words Etc Writing – Exploring communication on all levels…

Found some good posts from other blogs to share with you on writing and critiquing. Enjoy!

The path to writing…

cspeno — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:23:43 +0000

Last week we shared a story of Lisa Martino, one of the FWA/Palm Coast writers. This week we have another story from Claudia Chianese. Claudia was inspired by FWA and their mission of Writers Helping Writers. Here is her story:

Claudia Chianese, Author of Acerbic

In 2007, my husband and I retired to Florida from New Jersey. I had worked in sales, training, and management for Avon Products, Inc. for fifteen years. I also taught at Sussex County Community College from 2000 until we moved to Florida.

Immediately, Bob had some complicated health issues, following by the housing and stock market dive, giving us reasons to believe that “Retirement is highly overrated.” I feel the same way about sweating.

Then, one day while driving to Altamonte Springs, and stopped at a traffic light beside a 1985 Ford truck, I was caught up in the world of Cheetah Girl, the driver. She wore a top ripped in the right places, serious fake nails and elaborate makeup. Her leather-faced mom, a former woman of the jungle, sat next to her. Both were smoking. It was a call to write.

An announcement for Florida Writer’s Association meeting appeared in the newspaper. I phoned and Ronnie Hart graciously explained the FWA mission of Writers Helping Writers and invited me to attend, which I did. With the group’s encouragement I wrote and acquired some skill. When Jim Thompson spoke at the Palm Coast meeting on marketing and on-line networking, I attended and met Michael King and Jeff Swesky. Michael encouraged all writers to enter RPLA and “Let’s Talk Anthology.” I did, and was pleased to learn that I have been selected for the 2011 collection.

“Acerbic.” my submission, is a dialogue between two women in a doctor’s waiting room. It is an outgrowth of personal experience where I was subject to scurry behind a nurse like a Geisha girl in The Ancient City. I laugh every time I rewrite it and hope you will too, — not rewrite it, laugh. I am thankful for this vocation to write and now have something to talk to myself about.

Thank you FWA!

And thank you, Claudia, for sharing with us. Our best wishes as you continue with your writing. You can find Claudia on Facebook or connect with her at the next FWA/Palm Coast meeting. If you’d like to share your story, visit my blog at think link and leave me a message.

FWA Palm Coast spoke — and you listened!

cspeno — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 23:37:19 +0000

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Last week we invited our members to share their stories. I am excited to have our first “success story” from one of our members – Lisa Martino. I think it is important for all of us to remember that each small step we take to challenge ourselves adds to our journey of success. Whether you’ve made a decision to make a career move, return (or start) school, start a writing project or whatever else moves you, you are sure to find something new about yourself along the way. Discovery is success.

Kudos to Lisa for sharing her story. I hope everyone enjoys her personal trek through the world of writing. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

Lisa Martino - Self-proclaimed writer!

Originally from Staten Island, NY, my husband and I moved to South Florida, Connecticut, and finally settled in Palm Coast. I held many interesting jobs in my life, but the longest career was a medical transcriptionist for 14 years. As a medical transcriptionist, my skills as a proofreader, editor, and writer were sharpened as well as knowledge of medical terminology. However in 2006, I felt I had peaked and needed more.

Soon afterwards, I enrolled in Daytona State and obtained an AAS degree in Information Technology along with an AA degree with honors. Then, I began working as a medical transcription teacher at a technical school and enrolled at UCF to continue my education. I obtained my B.S. in Technical Education and Industry Training with a minor in English, then applied for an English teacher’s temporary certification for the State of Florida. I worked as a 9th grade English teacher for a year and a half until just recently while in the Master’s degree program for Career and Technical Education. I will complete this goal in 2012. I was recently hired at WyoTech as a Business Communications and Business Computer teacher.

During my classes at UCF, I became acutely aware of my creative writing skills. Encouraged by professors, I began exploring this side of me, and now I cannot stop. I became part of the Palm Coast FWA Writers Critique Group and absolutely love them! I joined FWA and submitted two flash fiction stories to the RPLA competition. They have been instrumental in fostering my passion for writing encouraging me and guiding me. So much so that I was brave enough to email a trade magazine regarding an article idea, sent her a writing sample, and it was accepted. My article will run in the fall. I am now officially a professional writer. Thank you, FWA.

And thank you Lisa for sharing with us. Best wishes to you as you continue on your path through writing success and beyond..

Be sure to leave a comment about Lisa’s story and let me know if you’d like to feature your success story here.

Thanks for reading!

Christine Speno//

Freelancing Tips — some things you may not have thought about! | Words Etc Writing – Exploring communication on all levels….

cspeno — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:23:33 +0000

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Freelancing Tips — some things you may not have thought about! | Words Etc Writing – Exploring communication on all levels…..

Hello FWA Palm Coast Writers!

Sherry Zander of Writing4Effect and I recently exchanged guest posts. Last week I wrote for her blog about working from home and this week she wrote this post about freelancing. If you’ve ever thought about doing freelance work, you are sure to find something here to interest you. Be sure to visit Sherry’s blog often. She offers lots of great advice on her blog and has a page devoted to writing jobs. Check it out!

Thanks for reading!

Share your success here!

cspeno — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:46:04 +0000

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After posting about Janis Owens, it occurred to me that many of you may want to share your success stories with us through our blog. If you have something to share, please feel free to share it with me via email at cspeno@cfl.rr.com, and we’ll put a post together to share with the group — and the blogging world. Be sure to send a photo to go along with your ideas if you like.

It would be terrific if we could get more involved in this blog!!

Thanks for reading!!

Spinning Cracker tales | StAugustine.com – an inspiration to us all

cspeno — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:41:08 +0000

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Spinning Cracker tales | StAugustine.com.

I thought the group might enjoy this piece from today’s St. Augustine Record about Janis Owens and her Florida Cracker success! It is nice to read of writers who meet challenges and achieve success. This makes me want to complete my longtime project of my family’s cookbook/memoir. Check out her blog too!

You can do it, you can do it!!!