Longtime Tampa Writers Alliance member and past-president Ann Cook will discuss her recently-published mystery novel, "Trace Their Shadows," at the group’s monthly meeting Wednesday, April 3, at 7 .m. in the John F. Germany Main Library, 900 N. Ashley Dr., Tampa. The public is invited to attend free of charge.

Cook wrote the novel, her first, with the encouragement and help of the TWA Critique Group. She will explain its acceptance by two different New York agents, its torturous 10-year odyssey, and its eventual publication last November as a Mystery Writers of America presentation of iUniverse.

Cook’s heroine, Brandy O’Bannon, is a young newspaper reporter in the Tavares-Mount Dora area of Florida who sets out to investigate rumors of a ghost in an aging mansion and the disappearance there of a woman 45 years earlier. Although Brandy stumbles on a skeleton, a murder, and unexpected danger, she also finds unexpected romance. She copes with eccentric suspects, tries to save the century-old house from developers, and discovers a secret that explains both ghost and murder.

Themes developed in the mystery novel include the need to protect Florida’s fragile natural environment and its historic buildings, as well as the enduring bond between mother and child.

A retired Hillsborough High School English teacher, Cook is remembered by many TWA members as the model for the Gerber baby. She will sign books following her presentation.

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Pulitzer-nominated investigative reporter Fawn Germer of Tampa will describe how she developed and wrote her current best-seller, Hard Won Wisdom: More Than 50 Extraordinary Women Mentor You to Find Self-Awareness, Perspective, and Balance, at the monthly meeting of the Tampa Writers Alliance Wednesday, May 1, at 7 p.m. in the John F. Germany Main Library, 900 N. Ashley Dr., Tampa. The public is invited to attend free of charge.

In her talk, "Writing Hard Won Wisdom," Germer will discuss what she learned and what the women were like during the Hard Won Wisdom experience. She will also share tips on interviewing and be available to sign copies of her book. A former staff writer for the Miami Herald and editor for the Tampa Tribune, Germer has received many journalism awards and has worked as a Florida correspondent for both the Washington Post and U.S. News and World Report. She has written for Working Woman, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, and the American Journalism Review and has taught as an adjunct journalism professor.

Described by Publisher’s Weekly as "The sleeper hit of the season," Hard Won Wisdom has been featured on Oprah Winfrey. It includes depth interviews with primate researcher Jane Goodall, former U.S. Surgeon-General Joycelyn Elders, columnist Ellen Goodman, Cherokee Nation leader Wilma Mankiller, actress Frances McDormand, political commentator Cokie Roberts, Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, and many others. Their insights are distilled into guiding principles which include, "Be passionate, know your value, take risks, don’t define yourself by your failures, walk alone if you must, and pave the way."

More than a book in some respects, Hard Won Wisdom is a personal approach to success coaching for women that has become a career in itself for Germer. In addition to speaking nationwide, she does individual coaching and consulting and is preparing a companion workbook and an audio CD. Her website includes a women’s career survey and tools for interactive feedback.

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Writers can "change their self-talk tapes" to "program their careers as writers" according to motivational speaker Mary Kinney Alpaugh, who will address the Tampa Writers Alliance Wednesday, July 10, at 7 p.m. in the John F. Germany Main Library, 900 N. Ashley Dr., Tampa. The public is invited to attend free of charge. The group’s regular "first Wednesday" meeting date was changed due to the July 4 holiday.

Frauds and scams – of interest to all of us, but especially interesting to mystery and crime writers – will be the subject of a presentation by a detective from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office at the next monthly meeting of the Tampa Writers Alliance Wednesday, August 7, at 7 p.m. in the John F. Germany Main Library, 900 N. Ashley Dr., Tampa. The public is invited to attend free of charge.

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Richard Matthews, Tampa Review editor,
to discuss 'Getting Published' on September 4 
  

Tampa-area motivational speaker Mary Alpaugh, R.Sc.P., has been asked back to the Tampa Writers Alliance for a follow-up session to her successful “Personal Visioning” seminar presented to TWA in July. Part Two will be “Expanding the Writer's Vision,” to be held Wednesday, November 6, at 7 p.m. in the John F. Germany Main Library, 900 N. Ashley Dr., Tampa. (Click for Map) The public is invited to attend free of charge.

The program will include a guided meditation, analysis of what’s working and not working in the writer's activities, an exploration of whether there is an "inner child" sabotaging one's work, how to avoid such phenomena, and "action steps" to take charge of one’s writing.

Alpaugh has been a pheasant plucker, duck gutter, and deer skinner, a filmmaker, television producer, and claims adjuster.  She has served as a teacher from pre-school, with Operation Headstart, to the University of Pittsburgh, teaching science fiction literature in the early 1970's, while still an undergraduate.  She has been a Religious Science practitioner for 12 years during which she has developed into a teacher of religious philosophy and a motivational speaker on “Personal Visioning,” which she defines as learning to avail oneself of all th e power in the universe. Using these principles, she has developed motivational materials especially tailored to writers.

Many TWA members will remember the speaker’s late husband, Craig Alpaugh, a successful Tampa playwright.

“Is your manuscript finished and rejection letters getting you down?” asks local author and editor Barbara Cronin Harrington. To help writers in this dilemma, Harrington will conduct a workshop on the latest innovations in print-on-demand books without inflated prices and will share her positive experience with this new technology at the Tampa Writers Alliance meeting, Wednesday, December 4, at 7 p.m. in the John F. Germany Main Library, 900 N. Ashley Dr., Tampa(Click for Map). The public is invited to attend free of charge.

The author of a novel, Give Him Back to God, and Laugh Lines, a 30-year collection of true boners, boo boos, and blunders, Harrington cites horror stories of authors spending thousands of dollars to self-publish their work in her presentation, titled “Print-on-Demand for Pennies.”

”How does $2.00 for a 140 page book sound?” she asks, adding,  “And you can order as few as 48 books to get this price and not have to stockpile your books in your house.”

In addition to marketing her own books, Harrington conducts workshops on writing, publishing, and marketing and is the owner of Shadow Publishing, a writer-for-hire and line-editing service. She was formerly a casting director in major films, (Cocoon) and radio talk show host of TAKE ONE TALK.

Give Him Back To God, Harrington’s “sinsational” and controversial novel, deals with the bungled murder of a married Roman Catholic priest in Port Richey.  The priest¹s molestation as a boy in a seminary in Italy sets the pace for this timely tale and helps explain why some molestation victims make mistakes later in life–in this case, a mistake that cost a man his life.