In response to a last-minute scheduling conflict with the speakers for the next two months, Thea Rademacher and Ruth Maus have switched places. Ruth Maus will be our presenter at Saturday's District 1 zoom meeting at 1:00 p.m. She will be helping members learn the format and elements to include (and not to include) in a query letter to get your manuscript noticed by literary agents.
Thea will present her program on copyright and legal issues for authors at our August 21 meeting.

Saturday, July 17, 1pm via Zoom

D-1 member Thea Rademacher will present a program at this Saturday's zoom meeting on copyright for authors. The attorney and author, owner of Flint Hills Publishing, will also be presenting at this fall's KAC Writing Workshop and Conference.
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Anyone wishing to attend this Saturday's 1 p.m. meeting can email D-1 President Anne Spry for the zoom link.

Lois Ruby, author of 21 historical novels for young adults, will speak at the D5 Zoom meeting July 10 at 1:30. Her book Steal Away Home was named an IRA Young Adults' Choice and a Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies. It has been adopted as part of the curriculum by school systems in Tennessee and Georgia. Lois served as a young adult librarian for the Dallas Public Library. She lived in Wichita for thirty years and has set some of her books in the state.
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Join us Saturday, July 10 at 1:30. Registration is required.

Email President Duane Johnson to request Zoom Link for Attendance.

This Saturday at 1 p.m. the District 1 zoom meeting will feature a veteran voice talent/author/editor talking to members about the pros and cons of doing your own narrations of audiobooks.

His presentation this Saturday starts with the question, “Should you narrate your own audiobook?” He will explore the types of books that should be narrated by the author and those for which a professional should be hired. He will then recommend a narration test to help the author determine if he or she has the stamina to narrate a book.
“Then we explore the audiobook creation process, costs and options for working in a studio or creating an in-home studio, and end with some recommendations for online research,” says Craig.

And he should know.
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On the strength of his voice alone, Craig started his career as a radio announcer in 1978. After three years in radio, he went on to do TV and radio commercials as a part-time addition to his business writing career. He has also done training film narration.

​Anyone wishing to join in the district meeting may get a link by emailing D-1 President Anne Spry prior to the meeting Saturday.

Recording Available for Viewing by Members - Click Here​
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Come get answers from the guy who knows about indie publishing! Grant will be answering questions about writing, book production, and marketing! He'll be talking about successes, as well as pitfalls to avoid. Grant is the winner of the 2019 J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award and the "It Looks Like a Million" Design Award. 

Join us live on Tuesday, June 22, to get the most from this excellent program!

Learn more at www.grantoverstake.com

The author of two award-winning indie novels, Wichita native Grant Overstake began a notable journalism career at age 18 as a parttime reporter for The Wichita Eagle. He graduated from the University of Kansas journalism school where he won the William Randolph Hearst Award, considered the Pulitzer Prize for college journalists. At age 24, he joined The Miami Herald, a paper that shaped many best-selling authors. Grant returned to the Sunflower State to edit weekly papers in Johnson City, Oswego, and Hillsboro, Kansas, earning numerous KPA Awards.
 
Grant’s first novel, Maggie Vaults Over the Moon (CreateSpace 2012) was named National Book of the Week by Publishers Weekly. The audiobook was performed by Audie Award-winner Tavia Gilbert. Maggie recently was named one of the best track and field novels of all time by Citius Mag. The story was reissued by Grain Valley Publishing as a new title on June 1, 2021, with a new foreword by Olympic Champion Katerina Stefanidi, and chapter questions by sport psychologist, English teacher and coach, Dr. Melissa White.
 
The Real Education of TJ Crowley (Grain Valley Publishing 2018) was picked to be a Candid Conversations Book Club selection by the Wichita Public Library and was the recipient of the J. Donald and Bertha Coffin Memorial Book Award for the best Kansas book, as well as the “It Looks Like a Million” Design Award for the same title from the Kansas Authors Association at its annual convention. It was the first time that a novel won both top awards.
 
Grain Valley Publishing Company produces award-winning books with teams of freelance editors and designers working virtually from around the nation; publishing through the digital printing and distribution platform, IngramSpark.

May Author Talk:
Roy Beckemeyer

Stage Whispers

Winner:
2019 Nelson Poetry Book Award


Recording Available for Viewing by Members - Click Here​
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Roy will talk about the writing of his poetry book, Stage Whispers. Discussion will include how the chapters and layout came about, and how the poems were assigned to the chapters. He will read from the book as part of the discussion.

Don't forget to support our Kansas Authors! Buy a book. Review a book. Send a note of appreciation about a book. You can order Roy's book from publisher, Meadowlark Press, or wherever you buy books!

If you want to learn about writing, editing, or publishing, then you’re invited to attend Saturday’s (May 22, 2021 - 1:30pm) District 6 meeting of the Kansas Authors Club. It’s free and open to the public.

The Zoom meeting will have five speakers. Tracy Million Simmons, founder of Meadowlark Press, and Cheryl Unruh, editor of 105 Meadowlark Reader: A Kansas Journal of Creative Nonfiction, will share their vision of gathering true Kansas stories.  The first issue of the journal highlights 35 talented Kansas writers from 25 counties.

Virtual attendees will also meet the other three prolific writers, all Kansas Authors Club members, and learn how they created their essays for submission for the spring issue. Each story is an authentic Kansas experience. The speakers, their home base, and essay titles, are: Miriam Iwashige, Partridge, “A Pandemic Privilege”; Julie Stielstra, Ellinwood/Chicago, “Barton County”; and Ginger Zyskowski, Seattle (formerly Hutchinson), “A Kansan and His Machines.”

There will be time for questions and answers.
105 Meadowlark Reader may be purchased at your local book store or at 105 Meadowlark Reader.

To join the 1:30 PM (CST) meeting, or to become a part of a community of Kansas writers, contact Jim Potter, president of District 6, at jim@copintheclassroom.com or 620-899-3144.

Rosie and Steve Williams, Topeka authors, will present this Saturday’s District 1 KAC program. The memoirists will focus their zoom presentation on the pitfalls and potential rewards of co-authoring. They know all about that after collaborating on “Nine Pairs of Boots in Vietnam: Steps to Healing Every Veteran Needs to Know.”
Steve carried his untold story like a heavy backpack of unprocessed emotions for 50 years until Rosie helped him get it out of his head and heart and onto paper, finally. But it was wasn’t easy. Their process can help other co-authors.
​If you'd like to sit in on the zoom session Saturday at 1 p.m., send an email to Anne Spry and she'll send you the link.

If you have ever considered entering the murky realm of co-authoring you'll want to hear what Stephen and Rosie Williams of Topeka have to say. They're presenting at the May 15 District 1 zoom meeting at 1 p.m. The couple launched their book, "Nine Pairs of Boots in Vietnam: Steps to Healing Every Veteran Needs to Know," during the pandemic and have been promoting it as part of the state veterans group Stephen coordinates, Point Man Ministries.
Information on the link to the zoom meeting will be posted later.

Prisca Barnes directs Storytime Village and has written a children’s book on The Dockum Sit-ins, the first successful student-led sit-ins of the civil rights movement which happened in Wichita in 1958. She will speak about writing racially inclusive books for kids, followed by a writing prompted exercise for participants.

April Author Talk: Ronda Miller

Author of: 
I Love the Child




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Winner: 2020 Kansas Authors Club Children's Book Award


Recording Available for Viewing by Members - Click Here​
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Ronda will be talking about education vs. entertainment, the importance of layered messaging, finding and working with an illustrator, inclusivity, and her objectives in writing this book.

Don't forget to support our Kansas Authors! Buy a book. Review a book. Send a note of appreciation about a book. You can order Ronda's book from her publisher, Kellogg Press, or wherever you buy books!

Members of District 7 of Kansas Authors Club will be meeting at the Clarion Inn, 1911 E. Kansas Ave., Garden City, at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 17 for their Spring Convention.

They invite other interested writers/authors to join the meeting to hear Janice Northerns, Liberal, review her new book Some Electric Hum.

Northerns, a native of Texas, is a retired professor of literature. She and her husband taught English and Creative Writing at Seward County Community College. Her poems range from Texas to Kansas. She will also entertain questions from the audience.

​Please bring to the group any item of interest that you have produced recently, poetry or prose, to share with the group. For more information and to reserve a place at the meeting and luncheon, please contact Sheryl Brenn, Levant, at 785-443-1066.

It's not often you see a whole life that's gone into a book, but here we have just that. Janice Northerns lives this life intensely, and lives intensely in language. At the core of this book are the raw elements of birth, love, and death; while surrounding them are sophisticated yet impassioned readings of the violence of history, class, and social codes. These are poems to be read both largely and closely, for the stories they tell, and for their turns of poetic craft. You don't just read this book, you enter it.
--William Wenthe

D5 is hosting Amy Sage Webb-Baza at their regular monthly meeting Saturday, April 10 at 1:30.

​Amy Sage Webb-Baza teaches at Emporia State and judged KAC’s 2020 Flash Fiction contest. She will speak about writing effective flash fiction, followed by a writing exercise for participants in writing flash fiction and sharing what they've written.
 
Please join us for a fun exploration of flash fiction. This form is rewarding to practice and fun to read. Writing flash fiction also offers techniques that can enhance prose of many lengths and types, including short stories, novels, nonfiction essays, and memoirs. Flash fiction even overlaps with and informs poetry. All writers will find some inspiration for their projects in this form.


Registration is required. To register for the April 10 presentation at 1:30, please click the button below.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

2021 Theme Categories:
"Writing through Difficulties"

Featuring: 7 additional categories in prose and 7 additional categories in poetry

All Kansas Authors Club members are eligible to enter, regardless of residence. 

All writers living in the state of Kansas may enter, regardless of membership. 

We recommend you review the contest guidelines before entering. 

Entries accepted April 1 through June 15.

Awards will be announced at the annual convention in October. 

April Author Talk: Ronda Miller

Author of: I Love the Child

Winner: 2020 Kansas Authors Club Children's Book Award


Recording Available for Viewing by Members - Click Here​
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Ronda will be talking about education vs. entertainment, the importance of layered messaging, finding and working with an illustrator, inclusivity, and her objectives in writing this book.

Don't forget to support our Kansas Authors! Buy a book. Review a book. Send a note of appreciation about a book. You can order Ronda's book from her publisher, Kellogg Press, or wherever you buy books!

May Author Talk:
Roy Beckemeyer

Stage Whispers

Winner:
2019 Nelson Poetry Book Award


Recording Available for Viewing by Members - Click Here​
​​
​
Roy will talk about the writing of his poetry book, Stage Whispers. Discussion will include how the chapters and layout came about, and how the poems were assigned to the chapters. He will read from the book as part of the discussion.

Don't forget to support our Kansas Authors! Buy a book. Review a book. Send a note of appreciation about a book. You can order Roy's book from publisher, Meadowlark Press, or wherever you buy books!

   Denise Low, a former Poet Laureate of Kansas, will speak on Zoom this Saturday, March 27 @ 1:30 PM (CST).
   Whether you write poetry or prose, Professor Low will read poetry from her newest book, Wing, and explain how the two genres are alike and different in order to show and tell.
   Denise Low, Ph.D., has taught creative writing at the University of Richmond and the University of Kansas, and she founded the creative writing program at Haskell Indian Nations University, where she taught 25 years.
   Denise will be joining the meeting from her home in Healdsburg, CA.
   If you're interested in attending this free virtual event, contact Jim Potter, jim@copintheclassroom.com or 620-899-3144.