DMACC West’s Celebrate! Innovation Week
February 16, 2012
DMACC’s third annual iWeek, March 5-8, will focus on The Power of Imagination. Featured keynote speaker will be Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. Mary Kay Shanley will be present the keynote Monday, March 5, at 6 p.m. in Ellipse [commons area], and will repeat her presentation at 2:30 Wednesday in Room 121E. Her topic: Write Yourself Right Out of the Box. To outsiders, the art of writing appears to be mysterious, complex and elusive. How do you weave thoughts, plots and internal stories together? Does it take a jackhammer to destroy writer’s block? What could possibly erase the fear of failing that causes some not to even try writing? Good questions, but most important to consider: cultivating the ability to free your creative, innovative Writerly Self and the wisdom to trust you’ll produce quality. For more information: http://www.dmacc.edu/iweek
PAL 2012 Update
February 9, 2012
February 8: Is this a writer's chair or a reader's chair?
Update: PAL of Central Iowa 2012
The Published Authors’ Liaison of Central Iowa continues to be an active group with the mission of sharing information and assisting one another with promotional support. Check out our growing list of members:
Jan Blazanin
FAIREST OF THEM ALL
A & L DO SUMMER
Eileen Boggess
MIA THE MEEK
MIA THE MAGNIFICENT
MIA THE MELODRAMATIC
Sharelle Byars Moranville
http://www.sharellebyarsmoranville.com
A HIGHER GEOMETRY
THE SNOWS
OVER THE RIVER
THE PURPLE RIBBON
THE HOP*
Colleen Bradford Krantz
http://colleenbradfordkrantz.wordpress.com
TRAIN TO NOWHERE: INSIDE AN IMMIGRANT DEATH INVESTIGATION
Wendy Delsol
STORK
FROST
THE MCCLOUD HOME FOR WAYWARD GIRLS
FLOCK*
Jill Hathaway
SLIDE
Rebecca Janni
http://www.rebeccajanni.com
EVERY COWGIRL NEEDS A HORSE
EVERY COWGIRL NEEDS RIDING BOOTS
JAMMY DANCE
Mike Manno
MURDER MOST HOLY
END OF THE LINE
Wini Moranville
THE BONNE FEMME COOKBOOK
Lisa Morlock
TRACK THAT SCAT
Sarvinder Naberhaus
BOOM BOOM
Dorothia Rohner
EFFIE’S IMAGE
NUMBERS IN A ROW
Susan Schmid
LOST TIME
Mary Kay Shanley
SHE TAUGHT ME TO EAT ARTICHOKES
THE MEMORY BOX
RHYTHM OF THE SEASONS—A JOURNEY BEYOND LOSS
WHEN I THINK ABOUT MY FATHER
OUR STATE FAIR—IOWA’S BLUE RIBBON STORY
Sparkle Abbey (Mary Lee Woods and Anita Carter)
DESPERATE HOUSEDOGS
GET FLUFFY*
KITTY, KITTY BANG, BANG*
Kimberly Stuart
BALANCING ACT
BOTTOM LINE
ACT TWO
STRETCH MARKS
OPERATION BONNET
Kali VanBaale
THE SPACE BETWEEN
Jennifer Wilson
http://www.jennifer-wilson.com
RUNNING AWAY TO HOME
*Denotes a future release.
AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: SHARELLE BYARS MORANVILLE
February 8, 2012
What genre do you write in? What books have you written? What are they about?
I write fiction for all ages. Coming March 20, 2012, from Disney Hyperion is The Hop–a novel for young readers about knowing what’s important and fighting for it. It’s a “green” book–a good book for Earth Day–about toads and gardens and ponds and kids. I also have an adult novel about ready to go to my agent.
My other books are The Purple Ribbon (a family lap book), Over the River (a novel for young readers about a girl’s relationship with her daddy and other family in the aftermath of World War 2), A Higher Geometry (a love story for teens about about a mathematically gifted girl growing up in the 1960s), and The Snows (a four-generation family saga for teens and adults).
Tell us about yourself?
I grew up deep in the heart of rural southern Illinois where the stars blazed bright at night and there was not much to do but dream. Although I haven’t returned since college except for visits, paradoxically, I’ve never left. Like Anna, in A Higher Geometry, I love math, but somehow ended up with a doctoral in English Lit. Since high school, I’ve flipped burgers, nannied, done social work, taught, managed a corporate IT staff, advocated for children, and written. Currently, I write and teach.
What are you working on?
I’m working on an adult novel: rural and dark. And I working on a children’s novel, cosmopolitan and bright-spirited.
What are three random things others wouldn’t know or guess about you?
I’m a little compulsive about my pedicure, probably, and have a deep affinity for bright coral polish.
I hate “dead dog” books and movies. If the dog dies or gets killed in the story, it’s not for me.
I love the smell of borage on my hands when I come in from the garden.
Monday, February 7th, 6:30 pm, BOOK LAUNCH FOR OPERATION BONNET
January 14, 2011
BARNES & NOBLE BOOK FAIR FEATURING 2 PAL AUTHORS
November 23, 2010
Waukee residents Jan Blazanin and Wendy Delsol are participating in a Barnes & Noble Book on Sunday, December 5th to benefit the Waukee Public Library.
Waukee Public Library Barnes & Noble Book Fair
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Sunday, Dec. 5, 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. Barnes & Noble, 4550 University Ave.
A percentage of your Barnes & Noble purchases will be used to purchase new items for the library!
Can’t attend our bookfair?
Visit, BN.com/bookfairs to support us online from 12/5/10 to 12/10/10 by entering Bookfair ID 10240877 at checkout.
Fun WPL events happening at B&N during the book fair:
1 p.m. Storytime with Maryann
2 p.m. Author Jan Blazanin will be signing her book, “Fairest of Them All.”
3 p.m. Author Wendy Delsol will be signing her book, “Stork.”
THE WRITE STUFF: AN IOWA AUTHOR FAIR
October 14, 2010
Kali VanBaale author of THE SPACE BETWEEN
PAL members Kali VanBaale, Kimberly Stuart, Rebecca Janni, Susan Maupin-Schmid, Jan Blazanin, Eileen Boggess, Mike Manno, Victor Verney, and Wendy Delsol took part yesterday in The Write Stuff: An Iowa Author Fair. The event is sponsored by the Iowa Center for the Book in conjunction with the Iowa Library Association‘s annual conference.
Kimberly Stuart author of STRETCH MARKS AND ACT TWO
Susan Maupin Schmid author of LOST TIME and Rebecca Janni author of EVERY COWGIRL NEEDS A HORSE
Jan Blazanin author of FAIREST OF THEM ALL and Eileen Boggess author of MIA THE MEEK, MIA THE MAGNIFICENT, and MIA THE MELODRAMATIC
Mike Manno author of MURDER MOST HOLY and END OF THE LINE
Victor Verney author of WARRIOR OF GOD
Wendy Delsol author of STORK
AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT — MARY KAY SHANLEY
September 16, 2010
Author Spotlight—Mary Kay Shanley
October 2010
What genre do you write in? What books have you written? What are they about?
I write in too many genres. Not because I’m brilliant, but because I am scattered. My first four were for women, including, a national-best seller about friendship. Finding a decent degree of success in the genre, I left it. The next three books were for McGraw-Hill and Barron’s. Two high-school-to-college transition books for kids and one for parents. I don’t know which group needed help more. Our State Fair—Iowa’s Blue Ribbon Story chronicles the first 150 years of America’s greatest fair. Published by the Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon Foundation, this coffee-table book it is just plain fun to read and visually gorgeous because Paul Micich from Norwalk art-directed the project.
Tell us about yourself.
I began my career as a newspaper reporter in The Register and Tribune’s heydays. Rubbed shoulders with Pulitzer winners. Got run over by biker riders in the newsroom. Went to parties after the first edition of The Register rolled off the press at midnight.
I left when Baby No. 1 was due, vowing I’d be back. But those babies kept arriving and by the time the last one was in kindergarten, I’d moved into free-lance writing. Not a bad place to be in Des Moines—home of Meredith Publishing.
I never intended to become an author, but after a good friend (Karen Van Hon) died of cancer, I was asked by a company that published perpetual calendars to write a book about friendship based on Karen. I told the publisher I didn’t know how to write a book and she didn’t know how to publish one. Apparently that didn’t matter, because She Taught Me to Eat Artichokes has enabled Karen’s gentleness to touch hundreds of thousands of people. I never intended to write Book No.2, but on book tours, people kept asking about the next book.
Our three children live in either LA or Pasadena, my husband works at Von Maur in a second career. (I said he couldn’t be home during the day, what with my office being here.) And I continue keyboarding away.
What are you working on now?
A memoir. After teaching memoir at the University of Iowa’s Summer Writing Festival for nine years, the late Barbara Robinette Moss (Change Me into Zeus’s Daughter: A Memoir) suggested I try writing one myself. It’s hard.
Name three random things others would not know or guess about you.
I had jaw surgery when I was 48. Once back out on the streets, friends walked past without recognizing me.
I have been cleaning out the back basement for three years and the back basement isn’t even big.
I love teaching in workshops as much as I love writing.
STORK nominated for the ALA’s Best Young Adult Fiction Award
September 9, 2010
Exciting news. The ALA, American Library Association, included Wendy Delsol’s Stork in its nominations for Best Fiction for Young Adults. It’s among some impressive titles: Suzanne Collins’s Mockingjay, Alice Hoffman’s Green Witch, Carolyn Mackler’s Tangled, Rick Riordan’s The Red Pyramid, and the mysterious Pittacus Lore’s I am Number Four.
The final list will be determined at the ALA’s Midwinter Meeting in January of 2011.
Launch of The Modern Dickens Project
September 1, 2010
by Kali VanBaale, Literary Advisor
In seemingly perfect harmony with September’s national Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month, I’m proud to announce the launch of the Modern Dickens Project.
THE WHAT:
Inspired by Charles Dickens’s serial novels of industrial London a century before (OLIVER TWIST, A TALE OF TWO CITIES, you may have heard of them…), The Modern Dickens Project is a serial novel contest designed to showcase untold Iowa stories by undiscovered Iowa writers. The novel itself is being written by a series of one-chapter contests held for 12 consecutive months.
THE HOW:
At midnight of Sept. 1, 2010, an opening chapter, written by our guest Iowa author John Domini, was posted on The Modern Dickens Project website. Any writer who is an Iowa resident or has a strong connection to or interest in Iowa, is then challenged to continue the current story. Participants have until midnight of Oct. 21 to write and submit a chapter draft that builds on the previous chapter. (The Editorial Board is allowing extra time for the first contest.)
A winner will be selected and notified on Nov. 1st, and they will receive a $100 honorarium and an author spotlight on the MDP website. A lightly edited version of their winning chapter will be posted to the website on midnight of the same day and the contest will open again for Chapter 3, (with the standard 21 days to write and submit for the remainder of the contest) and so on and so forth, chapter by chapter, month by month, for twelve months, resulting in a collective thirteen chapter novel. Complete submission dates are outlined on the homepage of the website: www.moderndickens.org
Any winning author who is interested and/or able is invited, but not required, to read portions of their winning chapter at various Des Moines bookstores and coffee shops, scheduled and hosted by the MDP team.
There is no entry fee. I repeat, NO ENTRY FEE. We wanted this contest to be open to anyone with a vested interest in our state, without financial limitations or constraints.
After the yearlong project concludes, the Modern Dickens editors will work with the winner of each chapter to polish the pieces, with a release date for the completed novel December 2011. The team is currently working with several interested local publishers and also plans to release it first as an e-book.
THE WHO:
The MDP is the true brainchild of creator Chris Draper, a Van Meter native and Des Moines businessman. Our editorial board is comprised of a very lovely and brilliant group of ladies who bring a wide-range of experiences and taste to the judging table. (And they work for free! But that’s not why I called them lovely…) First, we have Rachel Vogel, a recent Drake University grad from the journalism/magazines program. She is our Managing Editor and handles our day-to-day correspondences, questions, fires, etc…Tracey Kelley and Murl Pace round out our board, both of whom bring extensive editing and fiction writing backgrounds to the table when selecting a winning submission each month.
Chris will also read submissions and give input throughout the process, and the five of us have worked collectively on our aggressive project timeline, marketing, promotion and other odds and ends. I serve as Editorial Advisor and did most of my work leading up to the open of the contest.
Chris’s end goal of this project all along has been to eliminate the need for anyone to ask the question, “Why Iowa?” He believes that our product is our community’s ability to pull together, and his hope is for us to be one of those projects that embraces re-looking at how we think of things. And I speak from experience here, the man’s enthusiasm and vision is contagious.
THE WHERE: The opening chapter is an all-Iowa flavored whodunit with a mix of current social issues tailored to our state. The story opens in the Iowa State Capitol where a young female Iraq war veteran receives a death threat via text message. She’s in town for a controversial gay wedding of an acquaintance, and carries more than her share of baggage from her past. Right on the heels of the threat, she’s pulled into a murder in the East Village area. Where it goes from there is up to you undiscovered writers out there!
As John Domini so perfectly said: “This is a mystery, but it’s not just a mystery. One hopes it’s somehow funny and a discovery on a level other than whodunit. The good mysteries all have that.”
John’s opening chapter and complete submission guidelines can be found at www.moderndickens.org.
Email any questions to Rachel Vogel, Managing Editor rachel@moderndickens.org
or
Chris Draper, Executive Director chris@moderndickens.org
This project supported in part by
Wendy Delsol
reads from her debut YA novel:
Stork
MONDAY, OCTOBER 18TH
6:30-7:30 p.m.
Des Moines Central Library
First floor meeting rooms 1 & 2
1000 Grand Avenue
Des Moines, IA
(515) 283-4000
Praise for Stork:
“Skillfully written and quite engaging.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Mixing folklore with romance, humor and a gutsy heroine, Delsol has created a fresh new take on the YA Paranormal.” —Eileen Cook, author of What Would Emma Do? and Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood.
“Unpredictable, masterfully put-together, and such fun.”—Nancy Werlin, author of Impossible and Extraordinary
“Mystical and moving – but full of laughter, too.” —Beth Fantaskey, author of Jessica’s Guide to Datingon the Dark Side and Jekel Loves Hyde
“Interesting myth use, enjoyable YA romance. Norse lore & elementals in a contemporary world.” —Melissa Marr, author of the Wicked Lovely novels
Candlewick Press
ISBN-10: 0763648442
ISBN-13: 978-0763648442
Age 12 and up
*books available for purchase that evening.
