Ginnie Siena Bivona arrived in Texas at the age of 25, with her husband and a nine-month old son. A very long time ago. Ginnie is now the insufferably proud mother of five reasonably adult children and seven practically perfect grandchildren.

Through fate and good fortune she has had the pleasure of traveling all over this fair state, and would be hard pressed to pick just one favorite spot. While there are a hundred or more special places she loves to visit, Dallas is home both in address and in her heart. She is President of Atriad Press, and prior to that she served as acquisitions editor for Republic of Texas Press.

Ginnie is a published author; her first novel, Ida Mae Tutweiler and the Traveling Tea Party (pub date 2000) On March 7, 2009 a made for TV movie based on the book premiered, Bound By A Secret, stars Meredith Baxter, Lesley Ann Warren and Timothy Bottoms. It has been on TV three times since the first release and to date has a viewer count of about 6 million. It was #1 for the night on March 7 and #2 for the week against 73 ad based cable TV stations.

In addition, she has written two cookbooks, a humorous cookbook titled The Seductive Chef, A Cookbook & More for Lovers, and she co-authored Top Texas Chefs Favorite Recipes with Sharry Buckner. Her newest book is titled Notes from a Chameleon, Sort of a Memoir, a finally finished project that she has been living, writing and illustrating for the past 35 years. It was a finalist in the Eric Hoffer Awards 2008.

Visit her website at http://www.ginniebivona.com/

I know some of you have been looking for a critique group. George asked me today if I wanted to do a critique group board with him along the same lines as the group we used for the Anthology. We post stories and the people can add comments. Since Im not writing that much, we thought maybe some of you would be interested.

If you are interested, let me know and I can set up the board through gmail.

Hello, I am the coordinator of author friendly book festivals, an innovative type that has branched this year to two others because of their successful results. It costs the author little or nothing to attend. All set ups are free. It is a volunteer event that benefits authors and the citizenry putting it on.

Oct. 24th - 2009, set ups from 7:30 a.m. until 9. There will be people to help you unload and set up and take down. The event goes from 9 a.m. until 5 pm. at the Convention Center in Duncan, OK, The Simmons Center.

Best Author Display awards will be given as well as large cash awards to the winners (5) of the 8th grade essay contests from all Stephens County, home schooled and public schools included in this. First prize is $250.

The Hampton Inn has a block of rooms at a discounted price, $89. ($101.06 w/tax) for an author and spouse, an extra $10. for two individuals sharing this double bed room. BOK is the code word to get this room rate.

If you would be interested in being a part of probably 60-70 authors, contact me for a name registration with your ph. number/ address/ email address and genre of book.

Tonya Holmes Shook shookum@pldi.net 580-439-6912

http://okwriters.blogspot.com/ more information about this book festival.

POETRY CORNER

Poetry Group
3rd Saturday
10:00 am
Emily Fowler Library
502 Oakland St
Denton, TX

Open Mic Night
4th Wednesday
7:00 pm
Recycled Books
200 N Locust St
Denton, TX

CONVENTIONS

Convention                   Month    Place                    URL             

ConDFW                   Feb     Dallas, TX       http://www.condfw.org/
AggieCon                 March   Bryan, TX        http://aggiecon.tamu.edu/
Dreamin' in Dallas       April   Dallas, TX       http://www.dallasromanceauthors.com/conferences/
Texas Frightmare         May     Dallas, TX       http://www.texasfrightmareweekend.com/lifetype/
ApolloCon                June    Houston, TX      http://www.apollocon.org/
Conestoga                July    Tulsa, OK        http://www.sftulsa.org/conestoga/
Armadillo Con            August  Austin, TX       http://www.fact.org/dillo/
Mythcon                  August  Norman, OK       http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon37.html
Bubonicon                August  Albuquerque, NM  http://www.bubonicon.com/
Fencon                   Sept    Dallas, TX       http://www.fencon.org/
     A comprehensive list of other conventions    http://www.fencon.org/links.html#calendar
World Fantasy Con        Nov     Austin, TX       http://www.worldfantasy.org/ 

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