CAPA Meeting

This past Saturday morning Barbara and I went to a CT Authors and Publishers Association meeting in Avon. Dolores met us there. The three of us are writers and have been published in one way or another.

I probably should identify my friends. Barbara and I went to high school together, have been friends since that time and I just happened to marry her cousin. Dolores is a poet I have known for about four years. Both women have creative minds and personalities.

Upon our arrival, we signed in and were given name tags (thank goodness). We found some seats close to the front then went for the goodies.

I began recognizing faces from the Millrace Bookstore this past August. It didn’t take me long to find DeEarlon (Joe Wactowski), author of Heaven’s Wave. I explained to him how the two "speed bumps" in his book spoiled the story for me. The story concerns the Mayan predictions for 2012 and bounces back and forth between the 1500s and the present. However, he gave the college president in the story the name of Wilson Woodrow and, later on in the story, had a military captain named Kurk and a sergeant named Sgt Scott. When Capt. Kurk said, “Send them up Scotty,” I wanted to slap the author up side the head. Otherwise it was a fairly captivating story. Joe is no Dan Brown, but he tried.

The first part of the program was introducing new members and guests, and listening to success stories. There were several stories of recent publication. At the break we were able to talk to several people and make excellent connections. The nice thing was that the members sought us out and wanted real conversations about what it is we do in the writing business.

The speaker was Adele Annesi who spoke on the importance of “Branding” and “Platform”. Basically hone in on your subject and know for whom you are writing. One woman took an adult subject and wrote a story for children: a story about identity theft. This is her 25th published book, so I guess she knows what she’s doing!

We were invited to join several members at the Wooden Tap in Avon for lunch, but we declined the invitation this time. Maybe when we go back in November. We can attend three meetings without joining. After that, it’s expected you will join, although they say they have never thrown anyone out yet.

As we were leaving Joe rushed over to me and asked if I had noticed the errors in the book. Indeed I had. He was pretty distraught and said that when he read the galley it was perfect. Then, for some reason, the publisher sent the book back to an editor and that’s where the errors happened. He said the book would have a second printing immediately and the errors would be fixed. I offered that this was his magnificent chance to fix the speed bumps. The look on his face told me he was in love with those facets of his story and probably will not change them. The Wilson Woodrow was just something cute he thought up and the Capt. Kurk thing was because he’s a Star Wars fan. He’s the author.

Once I move and the dust settles in my life, I will join. I look forward to being part of their booth at the Big E in the Connecticut Building where I can display my books of poetry and sell them.

So often those of us who write anything do so in a vacuum. Not so much poets like Dolores and me, since we go to critiquing workshops and do a lot of public reading. Barbara, on the other hand does work in a vacuum and said she got a lot out of being at the CAPA meeting. One good reason for joining.