Merry Christmas and Joyful Holidays 2009

Greetings, members and guests,

I just want to extend my hope that each of you experience the holidays in a most satisfying way, and carry throughout the year the same joy of this season. If your season is difficult, I hope you might find one corner of your world where the light shines a little brighter, and reflect that light to others. It has been a joy of mine to get to know some of you better this past year, and I hope to meet many more new people in the coming year.

I'm looking forward to the new year and our kick-off speaker, Margo Hammond, former book editor for the St. Petersburg times and one of the Book Babes, the dynamic duo of reading recommenders who appear on WMNF radio on Wednesday mornings at 11:30am. (You can also listen to archived shows on the radio website: www.wmnf.org.)

Membership Note: This past year we show a net gain of 19 new members! Thanks to everyone for making our group a warm and friendly one, filled with writers excited about their craft.

John

Donna Cutting Introduces the Sexiest Man Alive

"Running makes me think of death." Yeah, let me give you a good therapist's number. "A cockroach crawled across his face, and he looked up to realize he had spent the night in a dumpster, his best sleep in months." And they didn't even leave the light on. The dark side of professional sports; what it's like to be a foster child; mapping Alaska in a wild adventure -- present books and future books, FWA members practiced their pitches under the expert eye of certified professional speaker Donna Cutting tonight, Thursday, December 10th.

Donna warmed up the group with a quick review of the Celebrity Experience, then covered some basics of presentation and why a writer might want to get comfortable in front of an audience. She broke the structure of a presentation into three parts: Opening, Body, and Closing. Sounds very similar to a 3-act play to me.

After each brave writer made their pitch, Donna provided feedback on their strengths and weaknesses, and was impressed with each person's preparation. Donna provided a handout that gave a concise list of the main objectives and points of each part of a presentation.

Oh, and the sexiest man? He spoke of the cockroach, but shall remain nameless. Guess you just had to be there!

Until next year,
John