Tim Zaun: Focusing on the Future

Tim Zaun's interests run wide: politics, business, entrepreneurship, the environment, technology. At one time it was dentistry— that's what brought him to Cleveland in '84. But over the years he began thinking about his life differently. With the new millennium and new operational rules came a new way of looking at the world. Speaking about his major concerns encountering 21st-century America became his passion.

This new world with its new rules and new games is scary— but it's exciting too, he says. It's one where a person has to be more self-reliant. "There's a paradox to that. You have to rely on yourself, but you can't do it all by yourself. You need the help of others. It takes initiative. You have to put yourself out there." Tim further discounts a person's age as at all relevant to succeeding in this new century. "Whatever your age, you're not too old. It just takes creativity and initiative."

In a world where a lot of people would call themselves independent thinkers, Tim Zaun is one who is both both genuine and existentially authentic. Barring necessity, he prefers to work for himself. "Take back the power that's yours," he recommends, "and make your own life." He's an avid reader of current thinkers on the art of business, then also leads discussions on such books at Lakewood Library. He gathers the best ideas available to him, cooks away all but the necessary, and delivers the distillation of those to us.

Readers of CoolCleveland.com will find his name familiar from his frequent contributions there. Tim's also been published at GreenBiz.com in California; Cleveland Business Connects, Presentations of Minnesota, Ohio magazine, Inside Business, and other magazines focusing on communications and technology. To have a look at his wide range of interests and what from them he sees worthy of promotion, consult his lengthy and ever current blog, timzaun.com.

Tim will be speaking on the morning of Saturday, the 18th at West Side Writers. His topic will be Profitable Freelance Writing: A 21st Century Perspective. Come have a look at the future.

Fantasy Writer Mandy M. Roth Speaks on Marketing & Promotion

West Side Writers' Halloween month speaker is paranormal romance author Mandy M. Roth. Her stories, though often characterized as dark and twisted, though charactered with werewolves and vampires, faeries, gods and shape-shifters, though probing erotic and sensual relationships between male and female, generally have happy endings. One of Mandy's several series, Immortal Ops, consists of fantasy novels whose primary audience is men.

True to her genre, Mandy writes as night closes in, from around eight o'clock in the evening until three in the morning. Indeed, her personal tale began one sleepless night back in July of 2003. Quite bored and with nothing to occupy her mind, she sat down at her computer and began typing. Four weeks later she'd finished her first novel, Daughter of Darkness. While starting on a second book, she shopped out the first, sending it to five or so different publishers. "By January 1st," she says, "I had a contract in hand from New Concepts Publishing." Shortly after, Mandy conjured up three more books in the same series— all within three or four months. Her current count stands at 23 novels. Apparently, dark of night works for her.

Mandy's website at www.mandyroth.com— for adults only— offers more information about her and her many books and other projects. She blogs at mandyroth.com/blog.

The topic of Mandy's talk will be Budget Friendly Ways Authors Can Promote and Market Themselves. Per normal, our general meeting is on the third Saturday (October 18th) from 10:45 a.m. until noon. The Fiction and the Poetry critiquing groups meet at 9:15 a.m. The Nonfiction Writers critiquing session meets immediately following the general meeting at noon.

Kris Sinnenberg on How to Get Published

Our speaker this month is photojournalist Kris Sinnenberg. Kris has worked for ABC News in Washington DC on shows such as Nightline and This Week With David Brinkley, and in the Education Department of the London Zoo. She also had Secret Service clearance at the White House and spent a year behind the scenes with a S.W.A.T. team. She is the photographer for the award winning book Aero and Officer Mike: Police Partners.

Her topic will be "Tips on How to Get Published". Sinnenberg will also talk about her journalism experiences in network news and local newspapers and about building a portfolio of your work.

This month's general meeting will be held on Saturday, September 20th from 10:45 a.m. until noon. The Fiction and the Poetry critiquing groups meet at 9:15 a.m. The Comedy Writers critiquing session meets immediately following the general meeting at noon.

Author Enablers column

Book Page, distributed in many libraries, has a column entitled "The Author Enablers" where Kathi Kamen Goldmark and Sam Barry answer questions on writing and publishing. Questions along with your name and hometown can be emailed to AuthorEnablers@aol.com