Friday, December 5
5:30pm and go to 7:30pm
$12 at the door

The Lodge at Santa Fe

!Holiday Fiesta!

The annual !Holiday Fiesta! social gathering for all New Mexico book and literary people is coming up on Friday, December 5 at The Lodge at Santa Fe.

The Lodge is up St. Francis Drive, above the cemeteries and view of the mountains. We will get under way at 5:30pm and go to 7:30pm--mas o menos! The cost for each attendee is $12 at the door.

Finger food (more than last year), including salmon, buffalo wings, fruits, cheese and veggies, cider, and sangria! Reservations not necessary. We'll present three awards in recognition of people who've accomplished much to get the word out about New Mexico-produced books.

Saturday, December 6
10:00 a.m. to noon

Lisa Lenard-Cook

Seven Things I've Learned About Writing
(which comes out to approximately one every eight years)

Novelist/writing coach Lisa Lenard-Cook takes a humorous look at the most important things she's learned about writing so far.

Lisa is the author of The Mind of Your Story, a book about fiction writing published by Writers' Digest Books in April 2008.

Dissonance, Lisa Lenard-Cook's first novel, won the Jim Sagel Prize for the Novel while in manuscript. After its publication by the University of New Mexico Press in 2003, it was selected as a book of the year by such diverse libraries as the Tucson-Pima County Public Library and the Cincinnati Public Library. In 2004, the book was both a NPR Performance Today Summer Reading Choice and the countywide reading selection for Durango-La Plata Reads, and in 2005 it was short-listed for the PEN Southwest Book Award. Lisa's second novel, Coyote Morning, was published by UNM Press in 2004, was selected a Southwest Book of the Year, and was recently short-listed for the New Mexico Press Women's Zia Award.

Saturday, December 6
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
$20 for members
$30 for non members
No registration. Pay at the door.

Sherri Burr

SWW Workshop
Minding Finances for Writers
Copyrights, Contracts, Trademarks and other Financial Matters

Learn when and how to register copyrights and trademarks with the appropriate government organization. Workshop participants will learn to evaluate contract clauses that are beneficial and practice negotiation techniques to change the problematic clauses in article and book contracts. Further, the workshop will teach participants methods of tracking income and expenses for tax purposes. This workshop will combine lecture with small group work so that writers will emerged energized and more williing and able to manage their finances.

Sherri Burr joined the University of New Mexico School of Law faculty in 1988 after having received degrees from Mount Holyoke College, Princeton University, and the Yale Law School. She received tenure and promotion to full professor in 1994. An internationally renowned lecturer, Burr has spoken at universities in Barbados, Canada, Chile, France, Greece, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and South Africa. Burr has written eleven books, numerous scholarly articles, and hundreds of newspaper articles for the general public. She is the recipient of over a dozen awards for her writing, speeches and television show ARTS TALK, which she produces and hosts.

Saturday, January 3
10:00 a.m. to noon

Sarah H. Baker

How Not to Start from Scratch
(or, Why Didn't Someone Tell Me This Stuff?)

Author Sarah H. Baker shares some of her lessons learned on the road to publication. A few of the lessons are writing tips, but most of them concern selling manuscripts and working with publishers. Sarah's talk targets those not born into the writing world and is intended to be interactive, so bring your own hints to share.

Sarah Baker is the author of twelve published novels, has five more under contract, and has sold numerous novellas and short stories to publishers ranging in size from Echelon Press to Silhouette. Sarah writes romance as Sarah Storme, mystery as S. H. Baker, and erotica as Lydia Parks. Her latest book from Kensington, Addicted, is receiving rave reviews.

Saturday, January 3
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
$20 for members
$30 for non members
No registration. Pay at the door.

Irene Blea

SWW Workshop
The Secret: Not for Women Writers Only

There is a secret, a dialogue predominant among women. Irene Blea will reveal the secret, demonstrate it and extend it to writers. She will discuss the abstract and the visual elements of writing, how to use Visions Boards as a motivational tool, an outline for plotting your narrative and breaking through that thing that cannot get you started or to finish writing a published product. The secret has to do with the unconsciousness or the spiritual element of bringing to forth what is desired. It is a collage constructed with the objective of obtaining writing and publication goals. Blea will present two examples of how the boards assist her in goal definition and in "flushing out" the story.

Dr. Irene Blea was trained as a sociologist. She is an award winning scholar, poet and public speaker with areas of specialization on the Santa Fe Trail, race and gender relations. She is also a New Mexico Humanities Council lecturer with a one person dramatization of Dona Tules: Lady Gambler of Santa Fe and has written well over 30 articles and 7 books used to teach, or as reference material, in university classroom settings; her most recent textbook is The Feminization of Racism: Promoting Peace in America. Blea is also the founder of the Sandia Poets a senior citizen group that meets at the Meadowlark Senior Center on Wednesday afternoons and author of a chapbook she wrote for the poets entitled Santa Tierra, Santo Sol (Sacred Earth, Sacred Sun).