General Meeting--April 22, 2023
Zoom "Using Scivenir" with Guest Speaker Justine Covington Scrivener is a word-processing program and outliner designed for authors. Scrivener provides a management system for documents, notes and metadata. This allows the user to organize notes, concepts, research, and whole documents for easy access and reference (documents including rich text, images, PDF, etc. *Bring you laptop |
General Meeting--February 18, 2023
Zoom "Deep POV" with Guest Speaker Karen Witemeyer Breathe life into your narrative by learning to write with deep point of view. Learn techniques that will absorb your reader so completely, they will no longer simply consume the details of your story but will experience it right alongside your characters. |

General Meeting--January 14, 2023
"Marketing"
with Guest Speaker Cathy McDavid
Don't have a large promotion budget for your books? No worries. There are plenty of no cost or low cost options. This "guided discussion" by Author Cathy McDavid
is highly interactive and structured for sharing of ideas.
"Marketing"
with Guest Speaker Cathy McDavid
Don't have a large promotion budget for your books? No worries. There are plenty of no cost or low cost options. This "guided discussion" by Author Cathy McDavid
is highly interactive and structured for sharing of ideas.

General Meeting--November 19, 2022
"Writing Suspense & Getting Ideas"
with Guest Speaker Betty Webb
Betty Webb is the author of the best-selling Lena Jones mystery series (Desert Redemption, Desert Wives, etc.) and the humorous Gunn Zoo mysteries (The Panda of Death, The Otter of Death, etc.). Lost in Paris, her new mystery series, set in1922 France, will be released in Spring of 2023; Found in Paris, in spring 2024. At the beginning of her career, Betty worked as an artist in Los Angeles and New York City, but eventually became a journalist. She spent 20 years as a journalist, interviewing everyone from U.S. presidents, astronauts who walked on the moon, Nobel Prize-winners, and polygamy runaways. In between her frequent trips to Paris, she lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Conference--October 14, 2022


General Meeting(in-person)-- September 17, 2022
"Research"
with Guest Speaker Dana McNeely
Inspired by the Bible stories of Elijah, Dana wondered why the prophet came to stay with the widow of Zarephath and her son. Who were they? What was their life, before? How did the boy change after he died, saw the other world—and came back?Those questions led to Dana doing in-depth research and writing RAIN, in which she built her dream world of adventure, danger, and romance. Peace and quiet, however, have remained elusive. Watch for WHIRLWIND, a second novel in the series, coming February 2023.
*As a bonus, Dana will also share highlights from the National ACFW conference.
"Research"
with Guest Speaker Dana McNeely
Inspired by the Bible stories of Elijah, Dana wondered why the prophet came to stay with the widow of Zarephath and her son. Who were they? What was their life, before? How did the boy change after he died, saw the other world—and came back?Those questions led to Dana doing in-depth research and writing RAIN, in which she built her dream world of adventure, danger, and romance. Peace and quiet, however, have remained elusive. Watch for WHIRLWIND, a second novel in the series, coming February 2023.
*As a bonus, Dana will also share highlights from the National ACFW conference.

General Meeting(in-person)-- May 21, 2022
"Your Plot or Mine"
with Guest Speaker Pamela Tracy
The Beginning, Middle, End, and Ins and Outs of Plotting your book:
This hands-on workshop starts by cementing you in the everyday ' world (with a hook beginning), emphasizing how 'everyday/ordinary' can change in a moment, and how most writers are full of everyday experience that with the turn (okay, quite a few turns) of a pen can become a novel. It works on what chapters should contain, research, and how to plot and write an entire book.
"Your Plot or Mine"
with Guest Speaker Pamela Tracy
The Beginning, Middle, End, and Ins and Outs of Plotting your book:
This hands-on workshop starts by cementing you in the everyday ' world (with a hook beginning), emphasizing how 'everyday/ordinary' can change in a moment, and how most writers are full of everyday experience that with the turn (okay, quite a few turns) of a pen can become a novel. It works on what chapters should contain, research, and how to plot and write an entire book.

General Meeting(virtual)-- April 16, 2022
"Commas Running Amok"
with Guest Speaker Pamela Osback
As a college professor of English, commas give me no grief. Do they give you grief? They don't need to. Also, what is the difference between proof-reading, editing, and revising? Let me help you with the very basic of writing tools and even show you how to look at the page as a whole with attention given to word choice, place, and more.

General Meeting--March 19, 2022
"His Personality Ladder"
with Guest Speaker Laurie Schnebly Campbell
Every hero needs to move through five steps, comparable to climbing a ladder with a few detours here and there, along his journey from Mr. NOT YET Right to Mr. VERY Right. Of course, the heroine has her own ladder to climb in parallel stages...until the end, when they reach the ultimate triumph together. There's even a ladder for the villain, although in most books he never makes it to the top!

General Meeting--February 19, 2022
"Voice"
with Guest Speaker Mary E. Lambert
Mary was born and raised in Arizona. As a child, she had two main ambitions: to be a teacher like her grandma and to write books like the ones she loved. After completing a bachelor’s degree in English literature, Mary graduated from Covenant College in 2006 and took a job teaching junior high at a Tempe charter school. Sixteen years later, she is still in the same classroom! In 2014, Mary finished her M.F.A. in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her debut novel, Family Game Night and Other Catastrophes (Scholastic), was published in 2017, followed by Distress Signal (Scholastic) in 2020. When the global pandemic forced her out of her classroom and she was stuck working from home, Mary adopted a rescue dog. Ollie Duke is her constant companion and main source of distraction when she is typing away on her latest work-in-progress.
"Voice"
with Guest Speaker Mary E. Lambert
Mary was born and raised in Arizona. As a child, she had two main ambitions: to be a teacher like her grandma and to write books like the ones she loved. After completing a bachelor’s degree in English literature, Mary graduated from Covenant College in 2006 and took a job teaching junior high at a Tempe charter school. Sixteen years later, she is still in the same classroom! In 2014, Mary finished her M.F.A. in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her debut novel, Family Game Night and Other Catastrophes (Scholastic), was published in 2017, followed by Distress Signal (Scholastic) in 2020. When the global pandemic forced her out of her classroom and she was stuck working from home, Mary adopted a rescue dog. Ollie Duke is her constant companion and main source of distraction when she is typing away on her latest work-in-progress.

General Meeting--January 22, 2022
"Starting on the Write Foot"
with Guest Speaker
Tina Swayzee McCright
Tina is a multi-award-winning author of romantic mysteries. When she isn't writing, she enjoys beach vacations with her husband, The Irish Charmer, and playing with her granddaughter. She was president of the Valley of the Sun Romance Writers, has a B.S. in Communications, and an M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction. Although she was an educator for twenty-five years, she believes her greatest accomplishment was raising an amazing daughter.
* Tina sold to Harlequin Love Inspired three days after she spoke to CWOW
_________________________________________________________
![]() |
![]() Check out some of the prior speakers CWOW is pleased to have hosted here! * visual courtesy of http://cliparts.co/meeting-pictures-cartoon |