Meetings are held on the 3rd Saturday of the month
(10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.)

Sycamore Hills Park Community Center
(635 West Avon Rd)
Avon, Connecticut

Connecticut Authors

and

Publishers Association

Guests Welcome

Members are treated to wonderful speakers on a myriad of subject to do with all aspects of writing and publishing.
Below is a list of upcoming guest speakers.

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Former Guest Speakers

Brian Jud

Whitney Potsus

Beth Bruno & Trudy Seagraves

Scott Watrous

Sherry Cohen

Chris Amorosino

Upcoming Guest Speaker
Schedule

November 15, 2008
Nikoo & Jim McGoldrick - "Marriage of Minds - Authorship, Composition & Creative Writing.

Writing under the name 'Jan Coffey', Jim and Nikoo McGoldrick have spent their lives gathering material for their mystery novels. Nikoo, a manufacturing engineer and Jim, who has a Ph.D. in sixteenth-century British literature, wrote their first full-length novel, a historical romance, in 1994. Since then, Jim and Nikoo have written twenty-five novels and a work of nonfiction, and they are presently focusing their imaginations on producing romantic suspense thrillers with a decidedly technological slant. www.JanCoffey.com.

December 15, 2008

CAPA Christmas Party

January 17, 2009
Sophfronia Scott - The Book Sistah

Sophfronia Scott grew up in Lorain, Ohio, a hometown she shares with author Toni Morrison. Her father was a Mississippi-born steelworker who never learned how to read and her mother was a stay-at-home mom who always made sure there were books in the house. As a result of her mother’s attentions, Sophfronia was able to read long before she started school . That early push set her on an academic path that led her straight to Harvard. Initially she dreamed of becoming a doctor until one of her writing teachers informed her, “You know, you’re good enough to get paid for this.” This revelation motivated her to change majors, from Biology to English, in her junior year.

Just one month after graduating in 1988 Sophfronia went to work for Time Magazine. She started off as a researcher but, in early 1990, she and colleague David Gross conceived a cover story that came to be known as “Twentysomething”. They became the magazine’s youngest cover story writers and in the process sparked a worldwide social examination of the phenomenon then known as Generation X.

Steady on her course, Sophfronia moved to People Magazine in 1995 where she immediately began organizing the constellation of celebrities. She wrote about the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, George Clooney and John F. Kennedy Jr. for the ever-popular special issues: The 50 Most Beautiful People, Sexiest Man Alive and The 25 Most Intriguing People. By 2000 she started separating the fashion icons from the fashion victims as People’s Style Watch editor. She also represented the magazine in numerous television appearances on CNN, “Entertainment Tonight” and E! The Entertainment Network.

Most recently Sophfronia served as senior entertainment editor for Teen People, but she left that post in January 2003 to focus on achieving “true success by her own standards.” She has started her own company, Creative Coaching Plans, and worked with scores of individuals using the same proven model that she has used to help them work towards achieving true success by their own standards. Sophfronia is also a well-received speaker, presenting speeches such as Using Your Natural Talents and Values to Achieve True Success to professional associations nationwide.

Sophfronia’s first novel,“All I Need to Get By,” was published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2004 and has been on bestseller lists and the topic of much discussion at book clubs across the country. The novel continues to receive accolades and Sophfronia herself was nominated for the African American Literary Awards as best new author.

Desiring to combine her coaching skills with her knowledge of the publishing industry, Sophfronia in 2005 launched The Book Sistah, a brand under which she creates programs and provides coaching for aspiring authors. Her e-newsletter, Ask The Book Sistah! reaches thousands of writers weekly via email.

Sophfronia resides in Newtown, Connecticut with her husband, Darryl, and their son Tain. She practices yoga and loves gardening. These days she’s happily at work on her next novel, tentatively titled “A Family of Widows”.
 

February 21, 2009
Bernard Murstein - 

Will This Book Get Published?

Dealing with Agents and Commercial and Author-Subsidized Publishers

Internationally known psychologist-historian, who held an endowed chair at Connecticut College, Fulbright Chair at the Université of Louvain, he was designated a 20th Century Distinguished Psychologist by Papeles Psicologos del Colegio of Spain. I was elected a Fellow of three divisions of the American Psychological Association, past president of the Society of Personality Assessment, and Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology in Clinical Psychology.

He has written 9 books among 164 publications. Several books have been the Behavioral Sciences Book Service Main Selections; some were translated into Portuguese and French. I have lectured throughout the United States and in Canada, England, France, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Belgium, Greece, Spain, and Morocco. I have also been interviewed on many TV programs (e g. Phil Donahue Show) and by numerous newspapers. A recently completed book of essays titled, Is Sex Tax-Deductible?, will be published in October, 2008. Other recently completed books include the first volume of my memoirs (Growing Up Jewish—sort of— in the Bronx: 1929-1956), and Murstein's Socially and Politically Incorrect Dictionary.

March 21, 2009
CAPA'S 15th Anniversary Celebration

April 18, 2009      Gina Panettieri
Writing Winning Query Letters.

Gina Panettieri is President of Milford, Connecticut-based liteary agency,
Talcott Notch Literary. She's worked in the publishing industry for 20 years
as both agent and editor, and has headed up Talcott Notch since 2003. The
agency represents both fiction and nonfiction, specializing in mysteries,
thrillers, suspense and young adult and middle-grade fiction, and in health,
parenting, finance, career and business in nonfiction. However, their list
is eclectic, and they represent a wide range of subjects. Leading authors
and best-known projects include The Connected Child by Dr. Karyn Purvis, Dr.
David Cross and Wendy Lyons Sunshine, the #1 adoption book in America for
two years running, The Darkest Night by Ron Franscell, a top ten true crime
paperback published by St. Martin's Press, Breaking the Cosleeping Habit by
Dr. Valerie Levine, Made Here, Baby! by Bruce Wolk, new in May from Amacom
Books.

Gina is also an author in her own right. Her first book, The Single Mother's
Guide to Raising Remarkable Boys, was published in 2008 by Adams Media. 

About the talk: 

Writing Winning Query Letters. Editors and agents will tell you, without a
really compelling query letter, your project will likely never be read.
Agents receive hundreds of queries a week, and typically can only request 2
or 3 percent of projects, so what makes a select few stand out from the
crowd? Learn the secrets of crafting a great query, and picking the right
agent or editor to send it to, and the top ten Do's and Don'ts that can make
or break your query. Don't be overlooked and condemned to the unpublished
list just because your query lacks that certain something! Learn to craft a
letter that represents your work at its very best!

Former Guest
Speakers

Jerry Labriola

Peggy Gaffney

Tom Campbell

Ron Pramschufer

Stephanie Reife

Dick Margolis