Blog Archives

Welcome New Member Thaddeus Dugan

11/29/2023

Today we welcome new member Thaddeus Dugan. We've asked him to tell us a little about himself.

Hi my name is Thaddeus A Dugan and I live in Topeka. I am a junior at Washburn University studying English/Writing with a minor in Philosophy. My debut collection of poetry surfaces in April 2024 through Anamcara press and is called A Record of Change. It explores the evolution of the soul through love, grief, and loss, all while never losing sight of my collective humanness. You can follow me on Facebook at Thaddeus A Dugan, Author.

Welcome, Thaddeus!

State Board Meeting - November 30

11/27/2023

The next board meeting of the Kansas Authors Club will take place on Thursday, November 30, at 9:00 a.m. via Zoom. All executive board members and district representatives to the board will receive the link via email. If you are a member who would like to attend as a guest, complete the contact form below.

WELCOME NEW MEMBER RL NEELY

11/22/2023

New to District 6 and the Kansas Authors Club this month is Rebecca Neely, who goes by RL Neely in her writing. Rebecca writes adult epic fantasy in her Witega series, which currently has two books.

Per her books' descriptions:

"Little Witega" is an enthralling first installment young adult fantasy series that transports readers to a richly imagined world torn apart by war, where a courageous young girl finds herself ensnared in the clutches of captivity. This captivating tale weaves together elements of adventure, romance, and self-discovery, creating a spellbinding narrative that will leave readers on the edge of their seats.

In "Soldier Witega," the captivating saga continues as Mylah awakens to a reality she never could have imagined. Captive and torn from the world she once knew, Mylah eventually finds herself in the hands of the Wlite. An enigmatic race fighting for freedom and justice in the war-torn land of Banloca or are they?

You can find Rebecca's books on Amazon and Thriftbooks.

November Program Recording Now Available to Members

11/20/2023

Our November program was informative and full of valuable information for those navigating today's world of publishing. The recording is now available to members (sign-in required). Bring your pen and paper! You will want to take notes.

November Program Description

“Scam or Opportunity”
Increasingly, authors find themselves the target of unscrupulous services that prey on dreams of creating a successful book. While there are many legitimate publishing and marketing services, there are also a lot of nasty, expensive scams. In this presentation by Thea Rademacher, a former social justice attorney and now CEO of Flint Hills Publishing, you’ll learn how authors are being targeted and how to protect yourself and your work. All attendees will receive a free PDF of Thea’s book, Authors Beware! Arm Yourself with Knowledge to Help Avoid Legal Pitfalls.

Thea Rademacher (Thee-a Rod-a-maker) started her professional career at Kansas Legal Services after graduating with honors from the University of Minnesota School of Law. Since then, she’s done a variety of different things which she now understands prepared her for her true calling—helping authors publish and speak about their creative work. Eight years ago, she started Flint Hills Publishing after her inspiring experience co-authoring A Drop in the Night, the Life and Secret Mission of a WW II Airman. Her company has published nearly 80 books—including a Spur Award winner—and she has presented to authors around the world about important and relevant legal topics.

Flint HIlls Publishing

Al Ortolani Reading in Pittsburg, KS on December 3

11/19/2023

Join Al Ortolani on Sunday, December 3 at 2:00 p.m. in the Pittsburg Public Library’s Meeting Room!

Al Ortolani nailed small town Kansas life in this thoughtful, well-crafted teenage odyssey. It had me eager to see what would happen next . . . right up to the evocative ending. Indeed, I was so captivated by protagonist, Danny Prego, and his hard-scrabble life that I was left yearning for a sequel.
—J.T. Knoll, The Morning Sun (Pittsburg, Kansas)

Event Page on Facebook

Applications for 2024 Volland Residencies

11/17/2023

The Volland Foundation is committed to providing time and space for creative practitioners of a wide range of disciplines to gather in a community setting for work, thought and exchange of ideas, and to experience immersion in a unique ecosystem and rural culture. In 2024, Volland will offer 14 residencies across the spring, summer, and fall seasons.

Click Here to Learn More

Preorder New Book by Member Stacy Thowe

11/17/2023

Author Stacy Thowe, from District One, is releasing her new novel Soap Opera Digest. It is currently available for preorder on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The novel is scheduled for release on December 15, 2023, just in time for Christmas!

November 18 - Monthly Program: “Scam or Opportunity”

11/12/2023

Save the Date!

Increasingly, authors find themselves the target of unscrupulous services that prey on dreams of creating a successful book. While there are many legitimate publishing and marketing services, there are also a lot of nasty, expensive scams. In this presentation by Thea Rademacher, a former social justice attorney and now CEO of Flint Hills Publishing, you’ll learn how authors are being targeted and how to protect yourself and your work. All attendees will receive a free PDF of Thea’s book, Authors Beware! Arm Yourself with Knowledge to Help Avoid Legal Pitfalls.

This presentation will be broadcast via Zoom.

Members should receive a link to this program via the monthly news note or from their district presidents. Members may also access the program link via our "member pages" (sign-in required).

Membership Recruitment Challenge

11/10/2023

As of October 20, we had 59 new members for 2023. Last year at this time we were at 22 new members. However, only 2 of the 22 members who have been listed as "recommended" by had more than one new member recruited this year. Therefore, the member recruitment award remains unclaimed.

Your mission: invite your writing friends to join Kansas Authors Club! Any member who joins between now and the end of 2023 gets membership through December 31, 2024. So recruit away!

We will announce the 2023 Recruiter of the Year in early January.

Join Today

Writing from the Center - Kansas Authors Club Zine Available

11/10/2023

updated: 11/10/2023

We are so excited about the inaugural addition of the KAC Zine. Thanks to our amazing members, we have around 100 pages full of great articles, stories, poems, and visual art. Thanks for your patience as we prepared this first issue. Good stuff is always worth the wait, right?

You are welcome to share a copy of our Zine with friends! The PDF is available for download for free from our new "Publications" page (link below and in the menu to the left). Instructions for purchasing physical copies of the Zine are also on that page.

For more details,

Visit our New Publications Page

Our cover image is by member Barbara Waterman-Peters

Curtis Becker
Editor
Writing from the Center

Writing News from Member Duane L. Herrmann

11/5/2023

In October 2023, three prose pieces and one poem by Duane L Herrmann were posted by Adirondack Center for Writing in response to their weekly writing prompts. Carrot Ranch blog posted three of his 99-word stories in response to their weekly writing prompts. Eight poems of his were posted/published in three publications:

Plus, one poem, Flames in Green, in the anthology, Poetry of the Wild Flowers, from Tiny Seed, that had been posted eariler on their site. He discovered a balance to all that. Since January 2010, he received at least 1,360 rejections of his literary submissions (most consisting of more than one piece), some pieces rejected by more than one publisher, some rejected then accepted by a different publisher (sometimes even in the same week!).

David Hann's New Book, Bluebirds to Tikal, Available for Pre-Order

11/3/2023

Discover why deer don’t like to be lassoed, what it’s like to drive down a mountain pass without power steering or power brakes after the engine quits, and learn what can happen when cultures clash in these stories of fun, fear, and folly.

David Hann’s Bluebirds To Tikal is a travel journal, of sorts. filled with tales of adventure and misadventure from central U.S.A. to central Asia. Coming in December from Anamcara Press, LLC! Preorders available now!

Pre-Order at Anamcara Press

Clyde Toland Winds Silver Medallion in Will Rogers Medallion Awards Competition

11/3/2023

A note from member, Clyde Tolland:

I recently received a Silver Medallion in the Will Rogers Medallion Awards competition. This is for volume one, American Hero, Kansas Heritage, of my Becoming Frederick Funston Trilogy and was in the category of Western Biographies/Memoirs. This volume previously received a Spur Award from the Western Writers of America.

2023 Will Rogers Medallion Awards

Clyde Tolland at Flint Hills Publishing

Amber Fraley's New Book, Kansas Genexistential, Released in December

11/3/2023

Coming December 6, Amber Fraley's new essay collection drops. With her trademark biting wit, Amber Fraley describes the foibles and follies of growing up a kid in the turbulent and strange decade of the 1980s, odd characters she encountered in the 1990s, and how GenXers are now handling midlife differently than their parents did. She also talks frankly about her late entry into the reproductive justice movement and what menopause is really like with equal parts humor and compassion. From the long, strange trip of the Reagan years to the Trump years, and the particular frustrations of being from the Midwest, Fraley’s view on life is refreshing.

"Grab this book and grab a recliner for the life of a Generation! Generation X, that is. Amber Fraley’s writing is brilliant, insightful, and funny! I just hope your recliner has a seatbelt. You will need it!"
-Andrew Evans, Pickleball Librarian

Leonard Krishtalka's New Book, Native Blood, Released in December

11/3/2023

Native Blood, the fourth novel in the series featuring private investigator Harry Przewalski, will be published Dec. 6, 2023 by Anamcara Press (Anamcara-Press.com
for preorder).

In the back-biting world of academia, a biological anthropologist studying indigenous genetics is found bludgeoned to death, his head lying in a pool of Native American DNA. The university chancellor’s son, an Athabascan native and archeology student, is charged with murder. He’d led a violent protest against the genomic studies of the first Americans.

PI Harry Przewalski becomes immersed in a tangle of deceit, personal vendettas, unethical research, and illicit affair, and the coverup of an archeological bombshell. Treachery surrounds a missing flint spear point, 13,000 years old from western Kansas, that threatens to upend careers and what we knew about the first Americans. Was the anthropologist killed over an explosive theory that the Americas were peopled at least twice from different continents more than 15,000 years ago?

Native Blood also tackles the intense conflicts between genetics, archeology, and the Native Americans’ own origin stories. It reveals anthropology’s long entanglement with race and racial theory, and the darkest shadows cast by the unspeakable treatment of indigenous peoples.

Membership Renewals Due - January 1, 2024

11/1/2023

Renew Today

Join Today

Welcome New Member Thaddeus Dugan

State Board Meeting - November 30

Request Zoom Link for State Board Meeting

WELCOME NEW MEMBER RL NEELY

November Program Recording Now Available to Members

Al Ortolani Reading in Pittsburg, KS on December 3

Applications for 2024 Volland Residencies

Preorder New Book by Member Stacy Thowe

November 18 - Monthly Program: “Scam or Opportunity”

Membership Recruitment Challenge

Writing from the Center - Kansas Authors Club Zine Available

Writing News from Member Duane L. Herrmann

David Hann's New Book, Bluebirds to Tikal, Available for Pre-Order

Clyde Toland Winds Silver Medallion in Will Rogers Medallion Awards Competition

Amber Fraley's New Book, Kansas Genexistential, Released in December

Leonard Krishtalka's New Book, Native Blood, Released in December

Membership Renewals Due - January 1, 2024

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