Screenwriting · Screenwriting by Gail Jenner For many writers, the idea of tackling the art and...

Volume XIX | Issue 1IInn TThhiiss IIssssuuee::

President’s Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3The LAURA Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52010 WWW Catalog Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-11Writers Sources and Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

NewsletterSpring 2009

www.womenwritingthewest.org

Screenwritingby Gail Jenner

For manywriters,

the idea oftackling theart and sci-ence ofscreenwrit-ing seems in-timidating.In reality,

writing a screenplay is an excitingway to re-evaluate, even learn moreabout, the art and science of novelor story writing.

I’ve found an analogy that Ithink expresses the relationship be-tween these two genres. I comparescreenwriting to novel writing toparallel poetry writing to short storywriting. Does that help?

But it’s an exciting road trip, Iguarantee it! And the benefits aremany: in my limited experience(thus far), I have discovered thatwriting scripts intensifies a writer’sfocus; improves a writer’s use of dia-logue; helps a writer shift from“telling” a story to “showing” a story;and sharpens a writer’s ability to dis-cern the essential elements of apowerful story.

Basically, a script is broken intothe 3 same basic story parts everystory must have: Beginning, Middle,End. But the fact is, a script is

roughly 90-130 pages and every pageequals one minute of a movie. Thatmeans that EVERY scene mustMOVE the plot forward and have aclear purpose for being included;there can be no scenes that exist justfor the pure pleasure of examininglife, for instance. In fact, moviesthat do take off on rabbit trails,rarely make it into the “keeper” cat-egory of films. I think that’s becausethe audience “knows” where a storyneeds to go and when it drifts, it’sdisconcerting or disappointing orfrustrating.

Most screenwriters follow somegeneral rules, but as in everything,these are not hard and fast, merelyguidelines by which to begin theprocess. If we say our story is 120pages, then the Beginning or Part Iof the story equals about 30 pages,the Middle or Part II equals about60 pages, and Part III or the Resolu-tion equals about 30 pages.

As in any kind of excellentwriting, revision and more revisionis critical. EVERY word in a scriptmust be consciously and carefullycrafted. There is no room to moverandomly from scene to scene. Thisis one of the reasons that even try-ing one’s hand at script writing canbe a great edge on which to honeone’s writing craft in general. Likepoetry, the writing must be terse andclear.

There are a host of excellentbooks to help the beginning screen-writer, especially when examiningwhat makes a film work and workwell. Some of my favorites are: Cyn-thia Whitcomb’s The Writer’s Guideto Writing Your Screenplay (also herSelling Your Screenplay is excellent);Stuart Voytilla’s Myth and theMovies: Discovering the Mythic Struc-ture of 50 Unforgettable Films; RobertMcKee’s Story (often considered oneof the bibles of screenwriting); andfor those looking to convert a novelor story into a script, RichardKrevolin’s How to Adapt AnythingInto a Screenplay. Of course, thereare many other great teachers, eg:Linda Seger and Syd Field, but Ihave studied under both CynthiaWhitcomb and Richard Krevolinand found their materials “userfriendly.” I’ve also taken courseworkunder David Freeman and HalCroasman, both well-known storygurus.

The most important tip anyonecan give, however, is that any aspir-ing screenwriter must READ scripts.They are easy to download and youcan also find them at B&N or otherbookstores. Formatting is critical; Ihave started using Final Draft, butthere are other software programs,too. Registering a completed scriptis also critical; the steps and infor-

Continued on page 2

Spring 2009 •• Women Writing the West • 22

mation on that can be found atWGA (Writer’s Guild of America).

When reading scripts, considerthese suggestions:• Write down a list of every single

scene – then write a one-sen-tence summary of what hap-pened in each.

• Count the separate story strandsor plot lines (major characters,minor characters/conflicts, etc).

• Look for structure, including actbreaks and scene lengths/struc-ture.

• Look at when the hero is intro-duced, the villain, where theyfirst meet, when they have theirface to face confrontation. Lookfor the inciting incident thatkicks the story into action.

• Look at the balance between ac-tion and dialogue.

• Look at the formatting, includ-ing narrative vs. dialogue.

• Look for subtext vs. on-the-nosedialogue. Sub-text has oftenbeen said to be the critical dif-ference between a good andgreat story.

• Look for what has been in-cluded or left out; examine whatyou think are the “story ques-tions” and how they are the re-solved?

• Look at how the conclusion/res-olution occurs: what unex-pected twists or payoffs occur?Be sure and note anything that

seems “unresolved.”As a step into the film world, a

great place to begin is by enteringcontests. There are hosts of themnow, but a few still remain at thetop: the Nicholl, Scriptapalooza,and the Chesterfield are three of themost prestigious. Winners, even fi-nalists, get a chance at representa-tion or a sale through such contests.I’ve been fortunate enough to finishas a semi-finalist and quarter-finalistin several, including the Chester-field…..of course, thus far, I havenot sold a script. But I hang ontowhat Cynthia Whitcomb says:“Write dozens of scripts. That wayby the time you’ve sold your first,you’re well on your way to building acareer!”

One question most of us have iswhether a screenwriter must live inHollywood. It’s not imperative;many outstanding writers live out-side LA. On the other hand, if writ-ing for television or working withproduction companies is part of thegoal, then living near the “center ofthe film universe” is probably neces-sary. And the schools that featurefilm departments include USC andUCLA, a great place to start a ca-reer! But there are other cities out-side Southern California that arebecoming noted for film festivals,including the Austin Film Festival.As the world of independent filmcompanies grows, the world outsideHollywood for working in film growsas well.

That said, it is never too late totake a stab at writing for the film in-

dustry. After all, it is the 6th largestindustry in the state of Californiaand even in this dismal economy, itis doing relatively well. Isn’t it re-markable that Hollywood sufferedlittle during the Great Depression!

So, maybe it’s time to rethinkwriting a script. As I said, it’s a great‘road trip’ through the world of storywriting. If you want to learn more,just google screenwriting and hun-dreds, if not thousands, of sites andlocations will pop up. Also, with theupcoming Women Writing the Westconference coming to LA andUCLA, there will be another oppor-tunity to look into screenwriting.

— Gail’s first novel, ACROSS THESWEET GRASS HILLS, was the2002 WILLA AWARD WINNER forOriginal Softcover Fiction fromWomen Writing the West. She co-au-thored three regional histories, WEST-ERN SISKIYOU COUNTY: GOLDAND DREAMS; IMAGES OF THESTATE OF JEFFERSON; and THESTATE OF JEFFERSON: THEN &NOW. This year BLACK BART:THE POET BANDIT was released.Gail has written for a variety of publi-cations; presently she writes for Jeffer-son Public Radio’s historical series andco-authors a historical column for thelocal paper. She is married to fourthgeneration cattle rancher, Doug Jenner,of Etna, CA. They have three chil-dren. Two are married and there arenow five grandchildren. The couplelives on the original family homestead.

Screenwriting Continued from page 1


By Sheila Wood Foard2009 WWW President2010 WILLA Chair

If you could only pack one thingwhen you moved to a new land,what would it be?

That was the icebreaker ques-tion in the first session of a collegeclass I took several years ago.

My classmates’ answers were agrandmother’s handmade quilt, afamily photo album, a great aunt’srecipes, a Bible, and other treasuredheirlooms. My answer was a laptopcomputer. With frowns and out-bursts, several in the group disap-proved.

I don’t recall what year it was.Twenty-five or thirty years ago? Noone in the class owned a laptop, noteven me, although I dreamed ofbuying one. It was way before every-one carried cell phones or hotels in-stalled WiFi. No one then had twoor three email accounts or surfed theInternet or knew about iPhoto, Websites, blogs, chat rooms, Twitter, orFacebook.

So I was left to defend my an-swer simply, detailing how impor-tant writing was in my life. Myclassmates argued that other itemswere more precious. Besides that,they said, I could take a journal andpencil if I wanted to write. I ex-plained that I no longer drafted any-thing by hand, and I cited the

advantages of word processing,rather than merely writing. I men-tioned that a laptop computer alsohad a dictionary and an encyclope-dia.

I convinced no one. A laptopcomputer, in their opinion, was notso valuable that I should want totake it on a long journey to a newland. The course instructor finallystopped the discussion after ac-knowledging I could take whatever Iwanted. This had only been an ice-breaker to introduce ourselves toeach other. The instructor followedthe course description for the rest ofthe semester, whatever it was. Idon’t remember anything about thatclass after the first day. But I hadcome to a startling conclusion,which I do remember. Writers aredifferent!

Years later, that conclusion wasconfirmed when I moved to a ruralarea, a small town in the Ozarks. Mynew neighbors looked at me withsuspicion after I told them that I wasa freelance writer. One woman was-n’t sure what to make of the wordfreelance. She asked, “Just what doyou do?” Another woman had moreempathy: she knew why I was awriter—because I liked seeing myname on a book cover.

And several well-meaning peo-ple labeled me a recluse, questioningwhy I stayed home so much. Would-n’t I prefer taking a job as a grocerystore cashier or substitute teacher atthe K-12 school where I could bewith people? They didn’t under-stand my blunt answers to thosequestions any more than I under-stand how they could ask them.

Yes! Writers are different! Andthat is why they join writers’ groupslike Women Writing the West.They need to associate with otherswho discuss writers’ block, query let-ters, book reviews, self-publishing,critiques, editors, and historical re-

search; others who understand; oth-ers who are as different as they are.They need to be part of a globalcommunity of writers who write be-cause they must (writing is part oftheir DNA!) and not only becausethey love to see their byline on astory. Of course, it’s fun to see one’sname on a book cover, but mostwriters, including me, have laboredlong and lovingly over pieces thatdo not sport their byline. So whereis the glory in that writing?

When a writer is part ofWomen Writing the West, she or heis not a recluse. Frequent posts onthe listserve, tours of our blogs, andtrips to our conferences help us stayin touch, making our writing livesfar from lonely. We are with peopleevery time we turn on our comput-ers to check our email. Daily orweekly, we connect with otherimaginative WWW writers, creativethinkers who pack their laptop com-puter when they journey to a newland.

After all these years, a laptop isstill at the top of my list of things totake when I travel. I’m packingmine when I head to UCLA for theannual WWW conference in Sep-tember. How many of you will bethere, too? I want to get to knowyou. In fact, I’m planning an ice-breaker for the Green Dots sessionand for other small gatherings:

If you could be any writer, livingor dead, who would you be?

Think it over and give me youranswer in California.

— Sheila Wood Foard, an e-instructorwith the Institute of Children’s Litera-ture, writes the West in the loft of herlog home in Missouri. She also takesfrequent virtual tours to farawayplaces. Her young adult novel, Har-vey Girl, won a WILLA LiteraryAward in 2007.

President’s Letter

Long Journey to a New Land


By Alice Trego 2009 WWW President Elect2009 WWW LAURA Awards Coordinator

Two yearsago, in

2007, Presi-dent ElectKathleen Ernstpresented aseed of an ideato the WWWBoard of Direc-tors. Her pro-

posal, a short story contest, offered athreefold foundation: showcaseWWW members’ writing talents,celebrate the short story form, andadd another benefit to membership.

One other component of theshort fiction contest stipulated that,unlike the WILLA Literary Awards,only WWW members are eligible toenter their previously unpublishedstory that features a female protago-nist, and set in the American West,past, present or future.

All screeners and judges, it wasdecided, are recruited from outsidethe WWW organization and theychoose the top ten stories. The topten stories are then forwarded to theeditors of Women Out West maga-zine, which is a continued collabora-tion with the publisher, Susan R.Stoltz, who is also the owner ofRockin SR Publishing. The maga-zine editors choose the winningstory and the two finalists. Thesethree stories are then published inseparate upcoming issues of the mag-azine.

During the contest’s first year in2008, President Elect Sheila WoodFoard guided the new project,ironed out the wrinkles. WWW had25 entries. The results of the 2008contest proved to be beyond select-ing only three entries, so editor/pub-lisher Susan R. Stoltz elected to

include two Honorable Mentions, aswell. Carol Buchanan’s first-placefor “Fear of Horses,” second-placewinner Suzanne Lyon’s “In theFlesh,” and Cynthia Becker’s third-place story, “Working Girl,” will beincluded in upcoming issues.

Maxine Neely Davenport’sHonorable Mention “Sweet Java”and Linda Sandifer’s story, “TheRanch,” will be included in upcom-ing online issues.

Additionally, decisions regard-ing the name of the Women Writingthe West short story contest andwho would coordinate developedinto The LAURA Award in honorof renown author Laura IngallsWilder, and the WWW PresidentElect would continue coordinatingthis competition.

The LAURA Award continuesits journey into the 21st century,using modern technology by becom-ing an electronic contest. Guide-lines for the 2009 contest have beenplaced on the WWW web site,www.womenwritingthewest.org, andentries are received via e-mail. Pay-ment is made using the PayPal sys-tem on the web site.

This year’s deadline is May 15,2009 because of the early confer-ence date, wherein The LAURAAward winners will be announced atthe UCLA Conference Center. En-tries can be e-mailed as a Word doc-ument to [email protected] andthe $15 entry fee can be paid viaPayPal on the WWW web site.

Entries are arriving daily. Shallwe expect yours shortly?

The LAURA Award: Short Story Contest Named As It Enters Second Year

For those of you who arenot watching the blog on

www.womenwritingthewest.org here

is what you may have been missing.

Each month our members have their

new releases with synopsis published.

Here is the list dating from January 1,

2009. Be sure to visit and read the

fascinating synopsis of each.

The Sky Took Him: An AlafairTucker Mystery by Donis Casey

What Do You Do With the Yolks? by Carol Devlin

Diary of a Murderby Jean Henry Mead

Walking Nature Home: A LifeJourney by Susan J. Tweit

A Flickering Light by Jane Kirkpatrick

Winds of Change by Gwen Ramsey

Trail of Storms by Marsha Ward


Friday Pre-Conference Tour WWW members will facilitate our Friday bus tour ofHollywood/Beverly Hills, which includes Grauman’sChinese Theatre, Hollywood Walk of Fame, RodeoDrive, film stars’ homes. Cost: $53.

Throughout the ConferenceThe WWW Registration Table will be open as will theConference Bookstore. De Neve Dining Hall ticketsavailable at Front Desk.Friday Afternoon Panels Panel 1: Tips on California’s Leading Collections:Peter Blodgett, Huntington Library, Curator of Manu-scripts of the American West; Theresa Salazar, BancroftLibrary, Curator of the Bancroft Collection of WesternAmericana; Genie Guerard, Head, UCLA ManuscriptsDivision, Dept. of Special Collections, and Dace Taube,USC Regional History Librarian.Panel 2: Homelands: How Women Made the West.An Autry National Center Traveling Exhibition,2010-2012: Preview PowerPoint by curators VirginiaScharff, Women of the West Chair, Autry NationalCenter of the American West/Professor of History, Uni-versity of New Mexico, & Carolyn Brucken, Autry As-sociate Curator for Western Women’s Historyexhibitions and programs.Green Dots meeting for first-time conference attendees.

Alternative ActivitiesVisit conference bookstore, by appointment meet withKathie Fong Yoneda, Master Pitch Coach; Teresa Foga-rty, Independent Book Publishers Association; PaddyCalistro, Angel City Press, or take a Walking Tour ofUCLA campus.The Friday evening WWW/Autry Joint NetworkingBuffet will feature guest Autry National Center-spon-sored keynote speaker, Lisa See. The Winners of theWWW LAURA Awards for the short story competi-tion will be announced during this event. And, now aWWW tradition, some of our 2009 WILLA AwardWinners and Finalists will give readings.

Saturday Panels & WorkshopsPanel 3: Book Publishing in the 21st Century withTeresa Fogarty, Independent Book Publishers Associa-tion; Paddy Calistro, Angel City Press; Jessica Tribble,Poisoned Pen Press.

Workshop 1: Kathie Fong Yoneda, Story Analyst/De-velopment Exec, veteran of major film studios, leader ofmore than 160 workshops, master pitch coach, willspeak on “Books to Film: Do’s and Don’ts,” and critique3 attendee pitches.Workshop 2: Harryette Mullen, UCLA Professor ofCreative Writing and African American Studies. Stu-dents describe her as amazing,” “interactive,” and“tough.” Her poetry and short stories regularly appear onK-12 required reading lists, and in leading literary jour-nals and anthologies. Mullen has received grants fromthe Texas Institute of Letters (she grew up in FortWorth), the Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, andvarious other arts-oriented foundations, Rockefeller andGuggenheim among them.WILLA Finalists Luncheon: Kathleen Ernst, WILLAChair; Keynote Speaker to be determined.WILLA Winners Banquet: Kathleen Ernst, WILLAChair; Keynote Speaker, Helena Maria Viramontes, anative of East Los Angeles and youngest of eight, hascleared unimaginable obstacles to become a professor ofCreative Writing, Cornell University; celebrated ex-plorer of her Chicana roots in novels, short stories, es-says, histories, lectures, and social activism. A smidgenof honors that garland her works are grants from theFord Foundation and National Endowment of the Artsand awards from American Association of HispanicsJohn Dos Passos Prize for Literature, and Comision Fe-menil de Los Angeles.

Sunday Session Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About WWW:Annual Business Meeting with President Sheila WoodFoard, and introduction of new 2010 board membersSunday Tour - Two-hour tour of the internationally-renowned Getty Center; board the bus with your lug-gage, return stops include UCLA and LAX.Please note that everyone must check out on Sunday,September 13. The campus will not be able to extendone room for this night as they expect students to bereturning to campus on Sunday.Conference questions: Contact Harriet Rochlin, Program Chair, [email protected], 310-474-7679

NOTE: These panels and speakers are subject to change.Visit the WWW Web site, www.womenwritingthewest.org,for updates.

Women Writing the West Conference“The Wider West”

September 11-13, 2009Held on the UCLA campus • Private tooms on campus

15th

Annual


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• Please contact me about selling my books in the conference bookstore: Yes ( ) No ( )

• Appointment with publishers or pitch coach: Yes ( ) No ( )

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CONFERENCE FEES: (Registration includes one luncheon and two dinners. You may request vegetarian or veganmeals at the conference registration desk.)

• Early Registration$195 – WWW member (postmarked by June 30, 2009)$220 – Non-member (postmarked by June 30, 2009)

• Registration After June 30, 2009$215 – WWW member $245 – Non-member $165 – Registration at the door (Saturday only; no meals included)

• Guest Meals$35 – per guest Friday WWW/Autry Networking Buffet # guests ___$35 – per guest Saturday WILLA luncheon # guests ___$40 – per guest Saturday evening WILLA banquet # guests ___

• Friday Morning Tour (NOT included in registration fee)$53 – per person; guests welcome # persons ___

• Sunday Getty Tour (NOT included in registration fee)$25 – per person; guests welcome # persons ___

Make checks/money orders payable to Women Writing the West. Copy and send this form to: Ann Parker

P.O. Box 1164, Livermore, CA 94551OR make full payments via PayPal on the Women Writing the West web site: www.womenwritingthewest.org

Conference Registration deadline: August 30, 2009 (Absolutely NO refunds after this date)Conference questions: Contact Harriet Rochlin, Program Chair, [email protected]

Please make room reservations directly on this form. The WWW room rate is $113/single or $123/double occupancy and includes breakfast on Saturday and Sunday. Conference attendees will be staying on the UCLAcampus in private rooms. • Indicate roommate name here: ____________________________________________• Indicate room nights here: ____Thursday ____Friday ____Saturday

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Promoting Your Work on TwitterBy Jean Henry Mead

When theprice of

gasoline reachedsuch astronomicalheights that Icould no longerafford to travel thestate for signingparties, I turned tothe Internet,

where there are plenty of promo-tional sites. Some free, some not.

I tried MySpace, Facebook,Grouply, Goodreads and any num-ber of online sites, which can befrustrating for someone electroni-cally challenged. I then discoveredTwitter.com, a worldwide communi-cation center where writers reallyshine. Although you‘re limited to140 characters per message, or 20-25words, it’s good training in brevity.You can advertise your latest book,complain about the economy, telleveryone what a great day you’vehad or grouse about the weather.

It helps to have at least one blogsite in addition to your website toadvertise your work. Then, by past-ing your site URL into your Twittermessage, you can entice people tovisit your blog site. Your messageswill look something like one of myrecent “tweets”:

Why did they hang “CattleKate?” http://awhh.blogspot.com/

Anyone currently on Twitter,and the least bit curious about Cat-tle Kate, clicked on my URL, whichaccessed my site. I’ve had as many as85 hits in one day. Not too bad for anew blog site. My fellow “tweeter”then hopefully read my article andbrowsed the rest of my blog, takingnote of my latest book. Your siteshould contain not only your latestreleases, but your brief bio, ordering

information, etc. Long URLs may beshortened by accessing Tinyurl.com,which will reduce your blog addressto a minimum.

The best thing about Twitter isthat you can reach readers aroundthe world. Last month I received amessage from someone in Sydney,Australia, asking about my historicalnovel, Escape. He wonderedwhether it was a true story. I tweetedhim back saying yes, it was based onactual events. He said he wouldorder the book. Hopefully, he did.

Twitter is also a way to meetother writers, editors, publishers, li-brarians and agents. When you no-tice someone on Twitter that you’dlike to know, click on their site andthe “follow” button. They will thenreceive a message that you wantthem on your list. They can eitheraccept or reject the invitation. Oth-ers will do the same with you. Andfor that you earn Twitter grades,which lets you know how wellyou’re connecting with other peopleand potential readers.

I joined Twitter in May of lastyear and started out at zero, likeeveryone else. I’ve since worked myway up to 97.1 out of 100 by invit-ing people to follow me and bytweeting (sending) some 3-5 quickmessages daily about my books, arti-cles and blog sites. The processsounds silly but it works. And mybook sales have increased becausemy name is out in the worldwidepublic eye along with my work.

An added source of keepingtrack of your contacts is to install asite meter that tells you not onlyhow many people visit your site, butwhere they’re from and how longthey stayed. It’s an invaluable tool togauge how your Twitter messages aresucceeding as well as who is inter-ested in your work.

Blog tours are also a great wayto promote your books. Those whoown blogs host you for a day or twowith interviews, reviews and articlesyou’ve written about your work. Ihad a two-week tour last Decemberto promote my latest novel, A Vil-lage Shattered. By providing some ofyour blog hosts with articles aboutyour book and genre, and otherswith interviews and reviews, youcan gain a larger audience and newregular blog followers. Hopefully,along the way, you also gain newreaders. It’s a lot work but wellworth the effort.

The best advantage to onlinepromotion is that you can conduct itin your pajamas in the middle of thenight. If you’re a people person andenjoy meeting your readers, by allmeans supplement your online pro-motions in person. For a shy writerlike me, online tweeting and blog-ging is the way to go.

Anyone who would like furtherinformation about Twitter or blogtouring, feel free to contact me at:[email protected].

— Jean Henry Mead’s latest release,her twelfth book and fourth novel,Diary of Murder, was released inMarch. She’s currently working on thetrue story of the “Cattle Kate” hang-ing. She began her writing career inCalifornia as a news reporter and hasserved as a photojournalist, magazineeditor and small press editor. Her mag-azine articles have been published do-mestically as well as abroad.


Please use one form for each book listing. Must be received by June 1, 2009.

� Yes, I am a current WWW memberCheck One: � NEW LISTING— $40 � SAME LISTING — $30

• “Same Listing” means the listing is identical to the listing placed in the previous year catalog;i.e., there are NO CHANGES from the 2009 catalog.

• Authors renewing a “Same Listing” must supply category, name, title, and first copyright year.

CATEGORY

(Check One)

AUTHOR’S NAME(as it should appearin the catalog)

BOOK TITLE

ISBN # (include dashes)

PUBLISHER (imprint/publisher if applicable)

FIRST COPYRIGHTYEAR

DESCRIPTION Maximum of 30 Words

(Please print clearly. No clarification calls will be made.)

HOME STATE (Required - See back page index)

Your Mailing Address

Your E-Mail Address

Your Website

Fee for the Affiliate Focus listing $25.00 is included in my check #__________ which totals$__________. Total number of listings &/or ads paid with this check: __________.

Keep a copy of this order for your records.MAIL completed Affiliate Member Focus order and payment to:

Women Writing the WestPenny Sidoli, Catalog Editor3340 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93109

EMAIL: [email protected]: See rates above. Payment must accompany or follow within the deadline. INQUIRIES: (805) 687-0879 or email [email protected]

COPY FORM AS NEEDED FOR A MAX OF 5 TOTAL CATALOG LISTINGS.

Last name First

2010 WWW Catalog Listing Application

Juvenile:__Picture Book__Middle Grade__Nonfiction__Young Fiction

Nonfiction:__General__Biography/Memoir__Specialty Nonfiction

Fiction:__General__Mystery__Romance

Anthology:__Anthology

Poetry:__Poetry

Other:__(Describe)


DEADLINE JUNE 1, 2009

View Affiliate Member Focus on page 15 of the current catalog at http://www.womenwritingth-ewest.org/pdffiles/2009wwwcatalogpart2.pdf

� Yes, I am a current WWW member

AFFILIATE MEMBER FOCUS LISTING $25

Affiliate is for WWW Members Only. The Affiliate Member Focus is a listing of contact and applicableinformation suggested for members who write for periodicals or media other than books, or memberswho have out-of-print books or writer-members who are not currently published. The Affiliate Mem-ber Focus is also recommended for members who speak publicly, lead workshops or edit professionally.If you’d like to get your name “out there” and wish to include a listing with a few words about yourWork in Progress, that’s also permissible.

• The Affiliate Member Focus is featured on special page. • The maximum character count for the Affiliate Member Focus listing cannot exceed

140 characters, including spaces. The text should include name, specialty & contact information – exactly provided below. See pg. 15 of the current catalog for examples.

2010 WWW CatalogAffiliate Member Focus

LISTING TEXTMAXIMUM 140 CHARACTERS including spaces. Please print clearly.

Home State (Required. See back page index)

For our records: Your Name

For our records: Your Mailing Address

For our records: Your E-mail

Fee for the Affiliate Focus listing $25.00 is included in my check #__________ which totals$__________. Total number of listings &/or ads paid with this check: __________.

Keep a copy of this order for your records.MAIL completed Affiliate Member Focus order and payment to:

Women Writing the WestPenny Sidoli, Catalog Editor3340 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93109

EMAIL: [email protected]: See rates above. Payment must accompany or follow within the deadline. INQUIRIES: (805) 687-0879 or email [email protected]



View current catalog at http://www.womenwritingthewest.org/catalog

POLICY—Ads must be in good taste and in keeping with the mission of the organization, which is to pro-mote the writing of the Women’s West. WWW reserves the right to refuse any ad. Ads will be placed inthe catalog as space allows. We will try to place ads in the requested category section in the catalog; how-ever, this is dependent upon the number of ads received and layout requirements.

Author must be current member of WWW. A member publishing company may submit any book by oneor more of their authors. Advertisements may be submitted by mail or by e-mail attachment.

SEND completed ad order (from page 1) and payment to:

Women Writing the West

Penny Sidoli, Catalog Editor

3340 Cliff Drive

Santa Barbara, CA 93109

EMAIL: [email protected]

If sending order form by email, payment must follow within the deadline.

AD ORDER INSTRUCTIONS

• On CD. Grayscale. 300 dpi. Mac Postscript embedded fonts. jpg or pdf . Plus one hard copy.

• No magazine or newspaper clips. Clippings will not be accepted for printed ad submittal.

• Submit advertising copy as an electronic file in grayscale only. No RGB or PMS colors.

• Advertisements may be sent by regular mail. Use a CD only. (CD-R/CD-RW.) We do not accept floppies, 3-1/2” disks, nor zip disks.

• Ad order may be emailed as long as the file is under 10 MB.

• Grayscale only.

• Ad must be in high-resolution electronic format (300 dpi).

• If fonts are submitted, they must be Mac compatible. NO PC FONTS – the catalog is built on a Macand PC fonts do not transfer. It is recommended to embed ALL fonts. If not, then default substitutionmay occur. No faux bold or italic fonts. If a PC file is sent, the file must be a .tif, or .eps AND thefonts MUST be converted to paths or embedded in the file for the Mac to read it.

• pdf or jpg files are preferred, however, make sure it is high resolution (300 dpi). Web site jpg files (72dpi) are not suitable for print. No gifs.

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Juvenile:__Picture Book__Middle Grade__Nonfiction__Young Fiction

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� Yes, Author is a current WWW member


by Dianne Hartshorn

As womenwriting

about the West,we have an ap-preciation ofthose who havegone before us.When begin-ning our re-search, either

for fiction or non-fiction, we spendtime reading books or visiting historicsites to make our stories as authenticas possible. This research allows us toknow who and what we are writingabout before we write! Visiting muse-ums and historic sites will help you ac-quire a taste of events that transpiredin the past. To gain an overall knowl-edge of a time or a community, how-ever, let your local cemetery be yourguide.

While a cemetery can be a greatsource of names fashionable for thetime period you’re writing about, con-sider what is beyond the informationyou discover by walking among thestones. What about the informationyou can find when reading throughcemetery records?

The size of the community wherethe cemetery is located may determinewhere this information is housed.Larger, metropolitan cemeteries mayhave records on the grounds. Smallerand unused cemeteries may haverecords allocated to local history cen-ters, museums or libraries.

As Director of the EvergreenCemetery Benevolent Society in Col-orado Springs, Colorado, I utilizecemetery records quite often. Throughthese old records I can find a myriad ofinformation not available elsewhere.For example, until the early 1900’s thecause of death would be listed, butafter this date there was a change dueto privacy issues. I also can locate aperson’s place of origin in older

records. This is helpful if you are re-searching one particular person. I alsouse this information to research acommunity. For example in Ever-green Cemetery we have places of ori-gins from all over the world. Althoughmany of the early residents came fromback east, England and Scotland werealso well represented. This gives us agood overview of the makeup of com-munity and citizens during that timeperiod.

Looking further into cemeteryrecords, you will find causes of death.This information can be used for vari-ous purposes. First you can learn thenames of diseases and maladies thatwe no longer hear about. Now youhave the authentic terms for the timeperiod you are writing about. Usingthe sources in Evergreen, you will findthe majority of deaths were attributedto tuberculosis, consumption or vari-ous other terms for this disease. Therewere very few deaths from gunshotwounds or accidents. This shows thatColorado Springs was not one of thoseshoot-‘em-up western towns.

In the early days Colorado andColorado Springs were known world-wide for their curative qualities forthose suffering from TB. Sanitariumswere built to house the influx of peo-ple coming to the area for the cure.Many came here and died.

In addition to the many whodied from TB, a large number of in-fants are also buried in our local ceme-tery. This indicates not only a highmortality rate for infants but also forthe mothers bringing their little onesinto this world. Many of those whodied from TB as well as many infantswere buried in the potter’s field sec-tion of Evergreen. The potter’s fieldsection of the cemetery is the originalcemetery, with some graves dating tothe 1860’s.

In time Potters Field became theplace where the poor, nameless, andthose with no family were buried.

Within this section lie the remains ofover 1200 pioneers. Many are in un-marked graves. A number of themarkers were wooden and have rottedaway over the years, some were dam-aged by vandalism, and some of thegraves were never marked in the firstplace.

I spend a great deal of time atEvergreen Cemetery and Potter’s isone of my favorite areas for a couple ofreasons. First, it is the oldest section.Second, it is in the most natural state.No manicured lawns and trees. Justthe wild grasses and cacti our greatgrandparents would have come incontact with. To stand at the corner ofthis section and look out across thearea, viewing the scattered remainingtombstones, one can almost feel thepresence of the departed souls, hopingtheir stories will be shared. The Ever-green Cemetery Benevolent Society isin the process researching and compil-ing the stories of many of those silentsouls to bring their stories to life sothey will not be forgotten.

— Dianne Hartshorn is a 5th generationColorado Native. Blessed with the oppor-tunity to spend summers camping on thefamily homestead, in Buena Vista, Col-orado, she gained an appreciation andpassion for Colorado History, created bywomen. Coming from a long line ofstrong, independent pioneer women, herfocus is to bring to life the unique historyof other women pioneers. That passionhas led to creating a successful world widebusiness, Blanche’s Place, which provideshistoric clothing and historic inspired fash-ions. Dianne is the founder and Directorof the Evergreen Cemetery BenevolentSociety in Colorado Springs, and respon-sible the annual Evergreen CemeteryWalking Tour. Recently she attended anextensive stone restoration class inChicago, and is looking forward to handson work in repairing the tombstoneswhich date back to before Colorado was astate. Dianne also co- founded A PerfectEra, specializing in living history presen-tations and events along with the Col-orado History Directory. Dianne iscreating a series of nonfiction pieces onlocal history.

Using Cemetery Records for Research


by Doris McCrawWWW Newsletter Editor

Words are sa-cred. They de-serve respect. Ifyou get the rightones in the rightorder, you cannudge the worlda little. TomStoppard.

Most cre-ative people have those resourcesthey refer to again and again. Inmost writing fields you will hearpeople speak of Robert McKee’sStory, Julia Cameron’s The ArtistWay, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Birdand Natalie Goldberg’s WritingDown the Bones.We all have ourhandy dictionary, thesaurus, Strunkand White’s Elements of Style andmanuscript formatting book. Afterthose basics we each have our ownspecial books and web sites that wereturn to again and again. I have no-ticed that each discipline has itsown set of instructing works.

For the screenwriter there isLinda Seeger’s Making a GoodStory Great,Michael Hague’s Writ-ing Screenplays that Sell andScriptwriting Magazines. Eachbrings a different aspect of theprocess to the reader. There aremany other books and classes on-line and at workshops and universi-ties.

For the poet there are WritingPoetry by Barbara Drake,The Po-etry Handbook by Mary Oliver andWriting Poems by Robert Wallace.

For the fiction writer we have somany options. Each sub-genre hasit’s own set of how-to books thatgive basic style and structure. Stillthere are some books that seem tocross any genre in the fiction world.

Some that I have heard of include:The Hero’s Journey by JosephCampbell, The Way of Story: thecraft and soul of writing by Cather-ine Ann Jones and Finding YourWriters Voice by Thaisa Frank.

To the above list we can add di-aries, newspapers and the oral his-tory of our families and friends. Asan oral storyteller and historian Imake use of as much firsthand mate-rial as I can find. There is somethingabout hearing the story in the origi-nal voice that allows me to get in-side the head of the character.

I would suggest that when look-ing at the resources we have at ourdisposal we also look to the booksand magazines that are not normallyused for our discipline. For the fic-tion writer a work on creative non-fiction may give you a new idea formaking your book unique. If charac-ter development is slowing youdown read a book on acting or takea acting class. One of my favoritecurrent books on acting is ThePower of the Actor by Ivana Chub-buck. Her study of character, backstory and goals, to be used by theactor, helps to create a deep and richlife for any character.

When I read, I study the au-thors’ style and story. Each authorhas a voice that people respond to inmany different ways. It doesn’t mat-ter if it is fiction or non-fiction thereis something to be learned fromother writers. Why do some peopleenjoy a King novel and others aGrafton? What is it about a Parkerand his style that is different from aKoontz? All the above are best-sell-ing fiction writers. These are ques-tions I try to answer as I enjoy theauthors works whether fiction ornon-fiction. Sometimes I can forgiveerrors if the story is great or be dis-mayed at a well written but ulti-

mately boring story. This also is alesson. The worst book can teachyou, even if it is how to not writesuch a bad book.

Additionally we belong to or-ganizations such as Women Writingthe West, Western Writers of Amer-ica, Romance Writers, SouthwestWriters and other local and regionalgroups. We gather to support eachother and learn, and in turn pass iton.

For each of us perhaps the great-est resource is ourselves. We eachbring our own story and life to thecharacters we put on paper. If we arewriting a non-fiction it is still thatlove of the story that has moved usto bring it to the rest of the world.We use resources that resonate withus to birth the best story possible toshare with others. With each con-secutive story we continue to learnand share a part of ourselves. That isthe gift we have to give and the re-source we leave for future genera-tions.

— Doris McCraw is an oral story-teller, writer, actor/casting director andcoach. She just finished a murder mys-tery script for Red Herring based uponthe Titanic. In her spare time she hastaken over the newsletter and has beengiving birth to the current edition.

Writers Sources and Resources


WWW Board and Committees

Executive BoardPresident – Sheila Wood FoardPresident Elect – Alice D. TregoPast President and 2009 WILLA Chair – Kathleen ErnstVP Conference – Harriet RochlinConference Co-Chair – Mara PurlVP Marketing – Sherry MonahanSecretary – Gayle GreshamTreasurer – Ann Parker

WWW BusinessSheila Wood Foard, (573) 323-4827; e-mail: [email protected]

WILLA Literary AwardsKathleen Ernst, (608) 836-9218; e-mail: [email protected]

Newsletter Committee Editor – Doris Gardner-McCraw, (719) 579-0945; e-mail: [email protected] Editor – Mary Trimble, (360) 387-0757; e-mail: [email protected] Design – Jenny Hancey (303) 816-0396; e-mail: [email protected]

Marketing CommitteeDirector – Sherry Monahan, (919) 577-6399; e-mail: [email protected] Coordinator – Alice D. Trego, (801) 573-5309;

e-mail: [email protected]

Catalog CommitteeEditor – Penny Sidoli, (805) 687-0879; e-mail: [email protected]

Assistant Editor – Arletta Dawdy, e-mail: [email protected]

Web Coordinator – www.womenwritingthewest.orgDonna Druchunas – e-mail: [email protected]

Yahoo Groups CoordinatorPriscilla Maine – e-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]

Administrator & InquiriesJoyce Lohse – (303) 773-8349; e-mail: [email protected] – Gwyn Ramsey; e-mail: [email protected]

Catalog:Full page $400Half page $275Quarter page $175Contact Penny Sidoli at (805) 687-0879

Newsletter:Full page $250Half page $160Quarter page $90Contact Doris Gardner-McCraw at (719) 579-0945

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Teresa BodwellJacque BoydPaula Boyd

Danalee BuhlerV. June CollinsVirginia CornellSandra DallasLiz DuckworthHeather Durham

Lee EmoryW. Michael Farmer

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Laurel Anne HillLynna “Prue Heart The Wanderer” HowardGail L. JennerJane KirkpatrickPriscilla A. Maine

Cynthia Leal MasseyMary Lou MidkiffJan Falke OlsenNell Brown PropstDottie Ramsey

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Eastern Cowgirl Fern RobbinsHarriet Rochlin

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Sustaining MembersThese members have chosen to

contribute dues beyond the regular annual dues to help WWW sustain its activities for the benefit of all members.We thank them for their generosity.


Susan Stoltz- Livingston, MT – [email protected]

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* Carol D. Guerrero-Murphy – Alamosa, CO - [email protected]

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WWW New MembersMid-December 2008 to April 2009 * = joined at the Sustaining Level

A Southern California Committee meeting: WWW 2009 Conference. Left to right. Fran Noble, Pam Tartaglio, Allyn Shapiro, Linda Mocilniker, Margaret Brownley,and Harriet Rochlin.Also attending the meeting but not in photo are Laurie Lathem and Penny Sidoli. Each left with an assignmentand sense of excitement about the upcoming conference in LA this September.


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Screenwriting · Screenwriting by Gail Jenner For many writers, the idea of tackling the art and...

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