Persist and Publish

Breaking into the Publishing World letter by letter.

CURRENT AND PREVIOUS MEMBER PUBLICATIONS AND AWARDS

Enza Caratozzolo

Enza Caratozzolo is a M.D. with a passion for fiction writing. She loves to travel and likes to learn languages by direct immersion into the local culture. Spanish is her next project and Spain is in her sight. She has been there four times, and plans a few more trips come next year. As a fiction writer she has completed one novel (now in the revision phase) and has a second one in progress. She’s also an enthusiast of short-story writing and flash-fiction. A self-learner whose passion for writing has become a full-time event, she’s now studying part-time for her Diploma in Literature and Creative Writing and aims to complete a BA in the same field.

Nancy (Conner) Holzner

Nancy (Conner) Holzner lives with her husband in the Finger Lakes region of New York state. She holds a Ph.D. in English literature from Brown University. Now a full-time author, Nancy has worked as a medievalist, high school teacher, editor, college admissions counselor, and corporate trainer. When she's not writing, she's probably listening obsessively to opera.

 

As Nancy Conner, she has written these technical and reference publications:

 

  • Zoho 4 Everyone, Que, 2009
  • The Internet Directory (contributor), Que, 2008
  • Google Apps: The Missing Manual, O'Reilly, 2008
  • WAN Optimization for Dummies, Blue Coat special edition, Wiley, 2008
  • FPGAs for Dummies, AMD special edition, Wiley, 2007
  • Unified Modeling Language (UML), Virtual Training Company, 2007 (CD-ROM course)
  • QuickBase: The Missing Manual, O'Reilly, 2007
  • eBay: The Missing Manual, O'Reilly, 2005
  • 20 Questions to Ask Before You Sell Your Home (Steven Holzner, coauthor), The Career Press, 2005

 

As Nancy Holzner, she has two novels forthcoming in 2009. Peace, Love, and Murder will be published by Five Star Mysteries in summer 2009. The first two books of an urban fantasy series will be published in fall 2009 and a year later in 2010. Details to come!

Kathy Kubik

Kathy Kubik received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from DePaul University in Chicago. She is the author of four poetry chapbooks, and her work was selected for the 2008 Her Mark Calendar (WomanMade Gallery) as well as the 2006 and 2007 Her Mark Calendars. She writes poems and short stories, and is also working on a novel or two.  In the past, she has  served as poetry editor for Verse Libre Quarterly (VLQ) as well as editor of Serenity Magazine. 

Her writing has appeared in a number of publications, including: The Mississippi Review, Aoife's Kiss, Lily, Hiss Quarterly, Poems Niederngasse, Wicked Alice, The Mad Hatters' Review, The Blueprint, Voices Magazine, T-zero Xpandazine, SaucyVox, ERWA, CleanSheets, Citizen32 the Women of the Web anthology (Sun Rising Press) and the Hurricane Katrina Benefit Anthology, Washing the Color of Water Golden (Sun Rising Press).  In 2005, Kathy was shortlisted for a Ragdale Fellowship.

Recently her short story Around the World was published in the July 2008 issue of MiPOesias.  You can click here for a free downloadable .pdf.  The issue will also be available soon through Amazon.  Her story begins on p. 68.  

Kathy placed first in the 2005 Frieda Stein Fenster Memorial Award for her poem, "After the Crash".



Kathy's website is:  http://www.kathykubik.com

Carol Malley

In 2006, Carol received second place in the Pen & Brush Inc. for her literary novel, The Sun Cut Flat.

 

In August, 2005, Carol won second place in a national editors and publishers competition for an investigative reporting piece she did on police deployment problems in Springfield.

 

Carol's literary short story, "Before and After" won the Carrie McCray Literary Award for Fiction in 2004.


In 2004, Carol was a finalist in the Yosemite Writers Conference in the fiction category. In 2005, Carol won the Editor's Choice Award at the SDSU 2005 Conference for her novel, The Sun Cut Flat.

In 2006, not one, but TWO of Carol's novels are finalists in the Frontiers in Writing contest:

THE SUN CUT FLAT was a finalist in the mainstream fiction category and THE LOST GIRLS is a finalist in the mystery category. 

Carol won Editor's Choice award at SDSU

Maruxa

I started my novel-in-progress a little more than three years ago, as a short story which would not stay short. Up to then, I had written only short stories, which I'm told is obvious in my novel writing.

I'm retired from the U.S. Civil Service and have been living in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, for the past 12 years. That's about how long I've been writing, too, except for occasional bits throughout my life, and bureaucratic reports--that style also is reflected in my writing.

My family here in Merida consists of four rat terriers, one parakeet, and assorted tropical fish. I've just started with an English-speaking/writing writers' group, and I teach elementary English to a small group of nuns. And I've been trying to learn guitar for about five years now, with little progress.

Mary Matsumoto

Mary Matsumoto has had over 200 feature articles published in eight different newspapers and her short stories have appeared in print and electronic journals. She has won awards along the way, such as the 1997 Media Recognition Award (presented by the American Cancer Society). Her writing is informed and enriched by the insight she has gained into the human psyche through her career as a professional journalist and her hundreds of personal interviews with people living in both rural and urban America. Matsumoto has held the position of music critic for a regional newspaper, as well as fulfilling a special assignment as sole reporter for four newspapers covering a state-level exhibition. In the area of non-fiction, she has completed a 170-page lay treatise on the theme of depression, dealing with the subject through the eyes of patients, and based on fourteen interviews and extensive research on the subject. She is formally educated in all aspects of fiction writing, is a regular and enthusiastic participant in various writers' groups. Portrait of Eva's Mother is Matsumoto's first full-length novel. A second novel, Forgiving Father, is now also completed and in the process of editing.

Maria Narkis

Maria is a previous member of the group, but still checks in with us from time to time.  She was recently published in Wax Romantic and her novel, Camilla's Critters, won fourth place in the URWA Great Beginnings Contest. She finished her third novel during the insanity that is NaNoWriMo. Read
about her at http://www.reading-writing.blogspot.com.

Maria's novel, Camilla's Critters won fourth place in the Salt Lake RWA Great Beginnings contest!!

Details at:  http://www.xmission.com/~utahrwa/gbfinalists.html

Her flash story, THE HOT DOG was recently published in FlashShot.  She has another story forthcoming later this month.

Her short story from an astronomy prompt the group did was released at the Wild Rose Press yesterday. It's doing quite well.  A link to it is below... She says "I owe P&P big time for this!"

Maria

http://secured.thewildrosepress.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=148&products_id=304

       

Hugo Roberts 

Hugo Roberts is an award winner and a finalist in a couple of writing
contests. He was born in Suriname (1942). From his 14th birthday on he
worked in Suriname, Holland, and the U.S.A. in various occupations. In
2002 he retired as a registered psychologist and started writing in Dutch
and English. He lives in Nepal, where he taught English in high school for
one year. Now he devotes almost all his time to editing and writing in
English: a novel and short story collection are in progress. Read more
about him and his work by simply looking him up on the Internet.

Sylvia Dickey Smith

Sylvia Dickey Smith is a best-selling mystery novelist. She hails from Orange, Texas, but now lives in Georgetown, Texas with her husband. She currently has two books published in her Sidra Smart mystery series: Dance On His Grave, and Deadly Sins Deadly Secrets,  and is working on the third, along with a contemporary romance. She spends her non-writing time conducting writer workshops and public speaking. In this lifetime she has lived two, totally different lives, and before that, she was a mermaid, complete with long golden curls and a tail to die for.

 


 

April 2005 - THE THIRD EYE won Third Place in the Novel category of the San Gabriel Writer's League annual contest (Writing Smarter).  There were applicants from 22 states - over 200 for all categories.  Congratulations Syl!!

May 2006 - Syl's second book in The Third Eye Series, KATE'S GHOST won First Place ($50) and the third book in the series, CATCH A FALLEN STAR came in Second Place ($35), both in the San Gabriel Writer's Leage annual contest.
This means all three books in this series have been winners!
 
Syl's flash fiction piece, "Day of the Iguana" was published in the January 2007 edition of Apollo's Lyre.  You can find it at the link below. 
http://www.apollos-lyre.com/id331.html
        
Syl also has a blog.  Her blog address is
http://sylviadickeysmith.blogspot.com
in case you'd like to check it out.

Gay Walker 

When writing became an all-consuming passion, refusing to take a
backseat to any of the other demands on my time, I was ready, and work
on THE LEARNER'S PERMIT began. I completed it in the fall of
2007, and I am in the process of looking for the right agent to
represent me and my "baby." In the meantime, I'm working on my Short
Story MFA, and I've begun work on my second novel, Photographs &
Memories--I have about 47,000 words written on the first draft as of
Thanksgiving (my guess is that I'm somewhere between half and 2/3 of
the way through this initial draft). I don't want to say much about it
yet, except that while I think readers will recognize my voice, it has
a very different feel than my first novel. 

THE LEARNER'S PERMIT was a semi-finalist in the completed novel division of the 2009 WILLIAM
WISDOM/WILLIAM FAULKNER WRITING COMPETITION, and her new novel was a
finalist in this years' writing competition in Hawaii (THE LEARNER'S
PERMIT was a finalist last year).

Gay has a story forthcoming in Issue 6 of the Mississippi Crow Literary Magazine, a print journal.



Click on the links below to learn more.

Gay's blog

Gay's website

Richard Weber




Born:  Richard Weber, Olympia, WA  March 26, 1935
Graduated Olympia High School, 1953
US Army, 1958 - 1960, Babenhausen, Germany
Bachelor of  Science, Physics, 1965
Bachelor of Arts, Mathematics, 1965
Engineer, Structural Mechanics, 1965 - 2009
Husband & father.  Wife: donna, screenwriter.  Daughter: Siri, graphic artist.  Son: Erik, musician & movie producer.
Writer, off & on 1952 - 2009

The first books I wrote were historical novels about Pacific Northwest early exploration and settlement.  These were never published.  Actually, they were never written either.  Only the assigned book reports for my high school US History class were actually written.  I never got around to writing the books, ...but I may.

As Assistant  Sports Editor for the Campus Crier, (Ellensburg, WA) I was paid to write (and edit).  This is so far the only money I have ever received for writing.  (Well, maybe not!)

I have co-authored several technical papers on constitutive modeling of turbine airfoil materials at high temperatures.  I was paid a salary for that.  But, I am not sure it counts since it was a group of us that wrote them. 

There were also technical reports published within the corporations I worked for --all very exciting reading.

Mainly I work on a novel.  It has been going on now for more than 10 years.  It is sort of an obsession.

It is a mixed genre novel since it involves some international intrigue, some personal tragedy and growth, some romance, and some bloody explosions.

Joy Ziegler

Joy Zeigler began her non-profit writing career several years ago, following
a revelation that toil did not become her. She left the wage-earning world
to her husband who, having grown up on a farm, believes hard work is a
fact of life. Joy completed her first novel, and is writing a second while
waiting to be discovered. She also enjoys penning flash fiction, and some
of her stories have appeared in ezines such as “Long Story Short” and “Crime Zine”. Joy lives in Magnolia, Texas with her industrious husband and three gifted if expensive teenagers. Recently, she returned to the world of toil as a Personal Trainer at a nearby fitness center. In her spare time, she enjoys spending quality time with her teenagers in front of the television and rare but romantic weekend getaways with her husband.