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

http://www.janblazanin.com

FAIREST OF THEM ALL

A & L DO SUMMER

Eileen Boggess

http://www.eileenboggess.com/

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

http://www.wendydelsol.com

STORK

FROST

THE MCCLOUD HOME FOR WAYWARD GIRLS

FLOCK*

Jill Hathaway

http://www.jillhathaway.com

SLIDE

Rebecca Janni

http://www.rebeccajanni.com

EVERY COWGIRL NEEDS A HORSE

EVERY COWGIRL NEEDS RIDING BOOTS

JAMMY DANCE

Mike Manno

http://www.mikemanno.com

MURDER MOST HOLY

END OF THE LINE

Wini Moranville

http://chezbonnefemme.com

THE BONNE FEMME COOKBOOK

Lisa Morlock

http://www.lisamorlock.com/

TRACK THAT SCAT

Sarvinder Naberhaus

http://www.sarvinder.com

BOOM BOOM

Dorothia Rohner

http://www.dorothiarohner.com

EFFIE’S IMAGE

NUMBERS IN A ROW

Susan Schmid

LOST TIME

Mary Kay Shanley

http://www.marykayshanley.com

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)

http://www.sparkleabbey.com

DESPERATE HOUSEDOGS

GET FLUFFY*

KITTY, KITTY BANG, BANG*

Kimberly Stuart

http://www.kimberlystuart.com

BALANCING ACT

BOTTOM LINE

ACT TWO

STRETCH MARKS

OPERATION BONNET

Kali VanBaale

http://kalivanbaale.com

THE SPACE BETWEEN

Jennifer Wilson

http://www.jennifer-wilson.com

RUNNING AWAY TO HOME

*Denotes a future release.

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.

Waukee residents Jan Blazanin and Wendy Delsol are participating in a Barnes & Noble Book on Sunday, December 5th to benefit the Waukee Public Library. 

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

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.

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.

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 18^TH

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.