Saturday, July 4
10:00 a.m. to noon

Panel of Novelists

Novel Extravaganza

A panel of novelists gives you the dirt on their genre markets. Bob Gassaway will reveal the secrets of the mystery market. Melody Groves will give you lowdown on westerns. Keith Pyeatt will give you a peek into horror, and Sandy Toro will tell the true story of historical fiction.

Bob Gassaway has worked as a writer and editor for newspapers, magazines and The Associated Press. He is co-editor of a non-fiction book called Dirty Work published in 2007 and now is writing his second mystery novel.

Melody Groves has a deep love for anything cowboy and Old West. As a re-enactor with the New Mexico Gunfighters, she “shoots” sheriffs and outlaws every Sunday in Albuquerque's Old Town.

Winner of three first-place writing awards, Groves is publicity chairman for Western Writers of America and public relations chair for SouthWest Writers. She writes for True West and New Mexico magazines, and albuquerqueARTS magazine. Her books include Arizona War and Sonoran Rage.(La Frontera Publishing), Border Ambush (Spring 2009), all historical novels, and Ropes, Reins and Rawhide: All About Rodeo (UNM Press), a guide to understanding the sport, and Praising the Bar: A Look at Historic Bars of the Southwest (UNM Press; Spring 2010).

Groves won SouthWest Writers' 2008 Parris Award.

Keith Pyeatt spent a decade living in an isolated log cabin he built in northeastern Vermont. He began that decade an engineer and ended up a novelist. One can only imagine what happened out there in those rural woods of Vermont that turned him, because he won't talk about it. It must have been scary, though. He writes horror.

Keith has been a proud board member at SouthWest Writers for three years, most of that time as an officer. His first novel to be published, Struck, is set here in Albuquerque and will be available in paperback July 10th. A second novel, Dark Knowledge, will be out as an eBook in October. Keith has a website and a blog. You can get to both sites through this portal http://www.horrorwithheart.com.

Sandra Toro is a full-time novelist, specializing in historical family sagas and contemporary thrillers. She has had a long career in government, the pharmaceutical industry, and television journalism. The published author of Reach for the Dream and Morning Star, she is currently putting the finishing touches on a novel of the Inquisition set in 16th Century Europe.

She has previously been the Co-executive Producer, with Lorne Greene, of The Night of the First Americans at the Kennedy Center, the Executive Producer of Up for Decision on PBS-TV and the associate producer of College News Conference on ABC-TV. She has also taught creative writing and English literature at the University of Nebraska in Kearney.

Tuesday, July 21
7 to 9 p.m.

Betsy James

Herding Words: Organizing the Novel

You can't make your relatives and inlaws behave. You can't put together a company picnic or find the mate to your good socks. How the heck are you going to organize a novel? Especially when it involves illicit shenanigans in the State Department, or on Planet Blexx where they have eight legs and god knows they lose their socks. Betsy James, who writes extremely complex novels and rarely mislays her car keys, will present strategies for keeping track of fictional worlds, whether realistic or imaginal. She will bring examples of organizational tools, if she can remember where she put them.

Betsy James has managed to get it together to write and illustrate sixteen books for young adults and children. Her latest novel, Listening at the Gate (Atheneum 2006), is a Tiptree Award Honor Book and a New York Public Library Best Book for the Teen Age. Visit her on the web at http://www.betsyjames.com.

Saturday, August 1
8:30 a.m.

New Member Breakfast

Board members will provide a bunch of breakfast goodies. We will also explain the range of services and benefits provided by Southwest Writers. Anyone who has not already attended a new member breakfast is welcome.

Saturday, August 1
10:00 a.m. to noon

Mark Rudd

Switching from Essay Writing to Storytelling
Four Years to Write a Short Memoir

Mark Rudd will discuss his process of writing "Underground: My Life in SDS and Weatherman," a memoir. He'll illustrate his editing and rewriting process with examples from drafts. He'll also read a passage from the finished work and answer questions.

Mark Rudd was one of the main leaders of the 1968 student strike at Columbia University. He subsequently became National Secretary of Students for a Democratic Society, SDS, and was one of the founders of the militant Weather Underground, which sought to over throw the government of the United State using violence. He was a fugitive until 1977. His recent book, "Underground," covers this period 1965-1977.

In 1978, Mark moved to Albuquerque and was an instructor at Central New Mexico Community College (TVI) until he retired at the end of 2006. He's been active in a variety of struggles in New Mexico: anti-nuclear, Native American land rights, solidarity with Central America, union organizing, anti-war organizing, environmental justice work.

Tuesday, August 18
7 to 9 p.m.

Pati Nagle

The Secret Handshake

Is there a secret handshake that will help a new writer break into professional markets? A trick to getting the best agent? A way to rise above the slush pile? Since 1986, Pati Nagle has sold short fiction pieces to national magazines and anthologies, and six novels to New York publishers. She reveals some of the secrets of maintaining a career ­ not to mention personal sanity ­ in the vortex of chaos that is publishing.

Pati Nagle was born and raised in the mountains of northern New Mexico. An avid student of music, history, and humans in general, she has a special love of the outdoors, which inspire many of her stories.

Nagle's stories have appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Cicada, Cricket, and in various anthologies, including collections honoring New Mexico writers Jack Williamson and Roger Zelazny. She has also written a series of historical novels as P.G. Nagle. She is a Writers of the Future finalist and finalist for the New Mexico Press Women's Zia Award. Her short story "Coyote Ugly" received an honorable mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and was honored as a finalist for the Theodore Sturgeon Award.

Her latest novel is the romantic fantasy The Betrayal, released in 2009 by Del Rey Books. She still lives in the mountains in New Mexico, with her husband and two furry feline muses.

Saturday, September 5
10:00 a.m. to noon

Keith Pyeatt

Small Presses - Are They for You?

Do you have a completed, polished novel or non-fiction book you'd like to have published? It's not always possible, or desirable, to get a contract with a major publishing house, especially in this market. Self-publishing isn't for everyone. Have you considered small presses?

Keith Pyeatt will discuss the different types of small presses, how to find appropriate ones for your book, what to look for, what to avoid, and what to expect. Keith has two novels being published by small presses. He will share experiences that led him to pursue this route to publication and reveal things he's learned along the way.

Tuesday, September 15
7 to 9 p.m.

Virginia DeBolt

Should You be Using Twitter?

Learn what Twitter is, how to use it, and the potential value it might have to advance your writing career. You'll see specific examples of how to sign up and use Twitter. You'll learn how to find writers and people who share your interests on Twitter. You'll get tips on how to incorporate Twitter into your writing and marketing life.

Virginia DeBolt is a former educator who has found a second/third career as a technical writer. She's written 7 books: four helped teachers teach writing, three delved into web design and development. Way back in 1994 she won an honorable mention award from SWW for a YA novel. Virginia blogs regularly on her own blogs at webteacher.ws and first50.wordpress.com. She's a contributing editor on technology topics for blogher.com. She's the Internet expert at ehow.com. Virginia serves as the TGB Elder Geek for timegoesby.net. She has researched and written about Twitter for all those web publications. Her understanding of the value of social media and social networking for writers can help you get started in Twitterverse.

Saturday, October 3
10:00 a.m. to noon

Steven F. Havill

MOMENTUM — how to get it and how to keep it:
easy ways to avoid the tarpits of writing

The talk focuses on the 'tarpits' that capture writers and hold fast, ruining any chance of finishing that novel manuscript. Havill offers fundamental tips for keeping momentum high, some of which may surprise you.

Raised in the grape-growing country of New York State's Finger Lakes region, Steven F. Havill moved to New Mexico in 1965, where he earned both bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of New Mexico. In addition to stints as a newspaper reporter, photographer, and editor, he has taught for 25 years at secondary schools in Grants and Ruidoso, NM, as well as writing classes at NMSU-Grants and Trinidad State Junior College. He earned an AAS degree in gunsmithing at Trinidad in 2006.

Havill's first novel, The Killer, was published by Doubleday in 1981. That was followed by 20 more, including the critically-acclaimed Posadas County Mystery Series published by Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Press.

One of Havill's hobbies is the history of medicine, and his historical/medical adventure Race for the Dying will be released by St. Martin's Press in October, 2009.

Also coming in November 2009 from Poisoned Pen Press is the thoroughly New Mexican mystery, Red, Green, or Murder.

Havill has offered writing workshops around the Southwest for many years, including a continuing series of weekly workshops at the Arthur Johnson Memorial Library in Raton.

After living in the New Mexico villages of Milan and Lincoln for many years, Havill and his wife of 40 years moved to Raton in 2002.

Tuesday, October 20
7 to 9 p.m.

Gregory Lay

Stand and Deliver: Overcoming Writer’s Block of the Mouth

To find readers, you must speak as eloquently as you’ve written. Some writers do all their communication with the written word – failing to reach potential readers because they aren’t comfortable speaking about what they’ve written. Whether you’ve got an audience of one (an editor or publisher) or an audience of many hungry readers, you want to be ‘final draft ready’ to talk about your writing. This program will introduce simple speaking techniques to help you come out from behind your keyboard and tell the world what’s in your writing!

GREGORY LAY has years of platform speaking experience, including teaching public speaking courses for college students and continuing education for adult learners. He’s presented more than 300 workshops from Washington DC to Hawaii, is a qualified professional member of the National Speakers Association, and past president of the American Society for Training and Development New Mexico Chapter. He’s a partner in World Champions’ EDGE, Inc., a company including World Champion and NSA Hall of Fame speakers that specializes in coaching top-level executives and competitive speakers world-wide.

Saturday, November 7
10:00 a.m. to noon

Mark David Gerson

The Heartful Art of Revision: An Intuitive Approach to Editing

Your first draft's done. You now have some sense of the story and, if it’s fiction, its characters. But it’s still rough and unpolished. It still needs work to get it into publishable form. Now what? Instead of going at your manuscript with a hatchet, why not consider a softer approach to editing? Let Mark David help you view revision in a new way, one that respects both your work and you as its creator.

MARK DAVID GERSON has taught and coached writing as a creative and spiritual pursuit for more than 15 years in the U.S. and Canada. Author of two award-winning books, The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write and The MoonQuest, Mark David has also recorded The Voice of the Muse Companion: Guided Meditations for Writers. Mark David is an editor, project consultant and script analyst and a popular speaker on topics related to creativity and spirituality. His screenplay adaptation of The MoonQuest is now in active development with Anvil Springs Entertainment.