Word Is: Business
This is a good time to find out what goes on when members of the Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network get together, since two local meetings will take place this week.
A typical evening features experts in writing and publishing discussing the nuts and bolts of how they succeeded in their profession.
On Monday, you will hear how one person journeyed from unknown writer to television documentary producer.
On Wednesday, you will listen to a physician and inventor who became a published novelist.
Patricia Frye, president of the west Ventura County chapter, said she needs to be around people who understand what she does.
While writers’ clubs also generate camaraderie among members, Frye notes a distinction. “People who know both organizations say that the writers’ club is more for the craft and SPAWN is more for the business,” she said.
Founder and director Mary Embree started the organization three years ago, with the goal of providing help beyond the writing process.
“It’s taking that next step after you have actually produced your masterpiece--and then what do you do with it?” said Embree, a Ventura author.
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Most of the 150 members are involved in a publishing or a writing project, so networking is an integral part of the sessions. The organization produces a newsletter, member directory and Web site--https://www.spawn.org.
Contact Embree at 643-2403 for more information, or drop in. The meetings are free to members and invited guests; others pay $5.
At 7 p.m. Monday, the west Ventura County chapter will feature Jamie Otis, who will discuss how he produced the television documentary “Secrets of the CIA,” which appeared on the Turner Broadcasting System late last year.
He will give tips on how to break into television as an unknown, although his experience is hardly typical. Before his success, he worked as a model, a hotline counselor and assistant to a professor.
Down to his last $100, Otis attended the International Film Festival Market in New York. While waiting in line to make a phone call, he had a serendipitous meeting with someone connected to Turner Broadcasting System.
It resulted in a $365,000 deal that changed his life. Now he is editing a feature-length film on his CIA documentary.
If you are interested in writing for the big or little screen, this may be the meeting for you. Contact Patricia Fry at 646-3045 or e-mail Matilijapr@aol.com.
The meeting will be held in the room above the Ventura Bookstore at 522 E. Main St. in downtown Ventura.
At 7 p.m. Wednesday, the east Ventura County branch meets in Newbury Park. Gordon Johnston, a physician and inventor, will present “It’s Never Too Late to Start a Writing Career.”
Johnston served in the U.S. Navy in World World II and in the Air Force as a medical officer in the Korean War.
He was a clinical professor of medicine at the UCLA School of Medicine and a consultant to the U.S. Naval Underwater Warfare Laboratory.
He holds technical patents and founded high-tech companies. He has also been an oncologist practicing in Ventura for 37 years.
Johnston’s first book, “Desert Winds,” is a fictionalized memoir of his childhood published last fall. He followed up with “Lethal Mutation,” a science-fiction thriller scheduled for release this month.
If you are intimidated by change, he might inspire you. For more information, contact Carol Doering at 493-1081 or e-mail rdoering@msn.com.
The meeting will be held at the Newbury Park Library at Borchard Road and Michael Drive.
MORE HAPPENINGS
* Today at 2:30 p.m: In Children’s Musical Adventure, which combines music and reading, children will learn how the instruments of an orchestra look and sound. The music will be Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf.” Barnes & Noble, 160 S. Westlake Blvd. Thousand Oaks, 446-2820.
* Monday at 7 p.m.: Ventura County sixth annual Poetry Festival presents “A Collage of Poetry” at Oxnard College. Competition winners will be announced, and award-winning poets Robin Metz and Steve Kowit will read from their published works. Letters and Sciences Clocktower Lecture Hall, 4000 S. Rose Ave., Oxnard, 986-5809.
* Tuesday from 3 to 5 p.m.: “Book Buddies” Reception will honor third- and 10th-grade students who wrote and illustrated the six children’s books on display. This is the second annual project that teamed Westlake elementary students with collaborators from Westlake High School. Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble, 446-2820.
* Thursday at noon: Book-signing by Vicki Leon, whose “Uppity Women of the Renaissance” profiles women of the Elizabethan era including Shakespeare’s wife, Anne, and his real-life sweetheart, Emilia Bassano. Borders Books and Music, 125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 497-8159.
* Saturday: Two appearances by Joan Steiner, author and illustrator of “Look-Alikes,” a new children’s picture book that features more than 100 hidden objects in a three-dimensional setting. The book won numerous awards including Parenting’s 1998 Best Book of the Year and Times Best of 1998. Steiner appears at Adventures for Kids from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m., 3457 Telegraph Road, Ventura, 650-9688, and from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble, 446-2820.
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Catch you next week.
Information about book signings, writers groups or publishing events can be faxed to Ann Shields at 647-5649 or e-mailed to anns40@aol.com.