writers helping writers
Vice-President
Chris Hamilton became active in social media during last year's Florida Writers conference. Since dipping his toe in the water, he's become an active blogger and is the FWA Virtual Writer's Group leader, and the conference blogmaster. See his Virtual Writers Group blog (pub-news.blogspot.com) for the latest on Writing in the 21st Century. Chris is also working on getting a series of detective novels published. He's got experience in marketing, public speaking, broadcasting, technical writing, and training.
Secretary
Shara Pendragon Smock has written Living with Big Cats and Hooking the Reader: Opening Lines that Sell, as well as a chapter in How I Got the Gig, a writer’s handbook. Prior to writing fun books, she wrote more than thirty computer software manuals and numerous features for online and print, including a column for The Sarasota Herald-Tribune. With Kathryn Taromina, Shara is writing Let’s Talk Dirty about Garbage, a book of America’s best stories from garbage collectors.
Shara's Website
Treasurer
Anne Linne' has owned Custom Crafted Software, Inc., since 1992. Her writing career consisted of numerous technical manuals, until 2007 when she wrote her first Christian romance, "Desires of her Heart," which won second place in the 2007 RPLA contest. Her latest achievement has been to complete the FWA Website. She has two daughters, Kaitlin, who also posed for the photo and Lesley who is graduating from college in 2010. She has been blissfully married to Doug, for 27 years.
Regional Director - South Florida
Dan Griffith had a full academic scholarship in engineering, but took his degree in business administration and another in education. He taught public school in Syracuse for 34 years before retiring to Florida in 1997. In Brevard, he led a languishing local poetry group in new activities and growth. Becoming a Florida Writers Association Regional Director in 2002, he recruited and trained other RDs and served as FWA president in 2005 to 2009. Dan enjoys outdoor sports, his big family, community advocacy for the aged, and studying the Bible. He writes in the genres of poetry and Judeo-Christian inspiration. Dan's delegated management style centers on training, authorization, and accountability.
Regional Director - Northeast Florida
After thirty-five years in public broadcasting working as a producer, director, fundraiser, and producer of the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, Vic DiGenti turned to his first love -- writing. He found inspiration in his household of feline critters and wrote three adventure/fantasies with a feline protagonist. His first two novels, Windrusher and Windrusher and the Cave of Tho-hoth (Ocean Publishing), have won multiple awards and attracted readers of all ages. His third in the series, Windrusher and the Trail of Fire, will be released in June 2008.
Vic DiGenti's Website
Regional Director - Hillsborough County
Holding an MS degree in computer science education, Eugene Orlando teaches computers at an adult high school in Tampa. He studied playwriting under a visiting guest artist at the University of South Florida. In Florida writing associations, he received three first place wins for unpublished novels and short stories, three second place novel acknowledgements, and three third place novel recognitions. He's received three honorable mentions in the Annual Writer's Digest Writing Competitions for short stories.
Regional Director - Central Florida
Andrew J. Robinson is a Civil Engineer by day and a writer/filmmaker by night. He has written three novels -- a murder mystery and two young adult/sci-fi novels. One YA novel, Lexa and the Gordian Maze of Terra, was published by Amira Press. He has written close to a dozen screenplays. His first script, Wiccans Lair, made into a motion picture by PC Productions, is seeking distribution. He’s married with one daughter age 16, which explains his why most of his stories and scripts feature strong female main characters. He met his wife doing community theatre, and they had a theatre-theme wedding.
Regional Director - North Carolina
David Pereda is an award-winning author and college writing instructor living in Asheville, North Carolina . He is the regional director of Florida Writers Association's Western North Carolina division and the founder of Asheville Writing Enthusiasts (AWE).
Find out more at David Pereda’s Web site: www.davidpereda.com