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.

Malcolm Wood: The Outline

Speaking at this month's meeting is Malcolm Wood. Malcolm is a most familiar figure at West Side Writers. For the past three years he's assisted his wife, Mary, in management and organizational activities at West Side Writers and for the past eight years he's presided over its fiction critiquing group. Malcolm's very much personally involved as well, counseling attendees and members, often advising fresh faces to "remember the first rule of writing— write!"

Not one to ignore his own advice, Malcolm has penned a series of economic analyses, several short stories, and seven suspense novels. Selected chapters from the latter, along with advice to writers, and other of his writings can be found at his website, malcolm-wood.com. Malcolm's eighth novel, MTA and Rapid Transit, is currently under review by members of the fiction critiquing group and is expected to be completed shortly.

The subject of Malcolm's talk this Saturday will be Outlining Your Novel. This presentation, he explains, will cover the "process of organizing and structuring a novel so that you tie up all the loose ends and write efficiently." Included will be techniques for controlling point of view, setting, chronology and sequence of events. Malcolm notes that the use of an outline can be beneficial to all genres of writing, even to some forms of non-fiction writing. For attendee's perusal, Malcolm will bring outlines he employed recently in his own writing.

As is customary, critiquing groups will meet at 9:15 a.m. and at 10:45 the general meeting with Malcolm's presentation will begin.

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