by Sandy Novy Chvostal
A newspaper reporter contacted me awhile back to get some information on OCC. “What makes your Chapter so successful?†she asked me. “Everyone I’ve talked to says OCC is one of the leading RWA chapters in the nation.â€
The answer (like so many answers unfortunately) is complicated. Obviously, our success involves a variety of factors including our location in such a highly populated area, the bylaws that we operate under, the advantages provided by having a large membership and the variety and quality of the programs we support. But in my opinion, OCC’s greatest strength is our ability to evolve–to take advantage of the generosity and expertise of our volunteers to stay ahead.
In the upcoming months, OCC will be evolving once again as we focus on improving our website, and we want to thank all the members who are lending their expertise to this project. Goals and plans for a total redesign include a Members Only section that will include an email roster and allow members to update their own information; published members’ bookcovers featured on the home page in a revolving fashion that changes every time the page is pulled up; a booksellers’ page to feature covers and also facilitate communication between authors and booksellers; and a page for trailers. A MySpace page is also being created for OCC, which will be linked to occrwa.com; and our yahoo groups are being updated for better ease of use.
In conjunction with these changes—and because our fabulous editors are stepping down—our printed newsletter will be phased out. Published authors are requested to notify co-president Sue Phillips at suephillips503@yahoo.com about any book releases to be put on the Bookseller/bookshelf page and items for “Look at Our Members†should be sent to Sue as well.
Questions? Concerns? Suggestions? Copy me with those at Snovy617@aol.com.
OCC December Meeting
Saturday, December 8
Brea Community Center
Order your books now for the meeting!
CHERRY ADAIR
Afternoon Speaker
White Heat
Ballantine Hardcover
Hot Ice
Ballantine Books
SUSAN SQUIRES
Morning Speaker
One With The Shadows
St. Martin’s Press
MARIE FERRARELLA
Capturing the Millionaire
Silhouette Special Edition
Doctor in the House
Harlequin Next
LAURA WRIGHT
Rich Man’s Vengeful Seduction
Silhouette Desire
If you plan to purchase books at our monthly chapter meeting, please pre-order them by Midnight Tuesday, December 4
To place an order, go to http://www.bearlyusedbooks.com/
or
email A Great Read at agreatreadoccrwa@aol.com
or
telephone (909) 720-6226
After debating topics for my first OCC blog with some friends, I decided the icebreaker I’m using today in my New Hire Seminar at work would be a fun one to use as a blog icebreaker, too. I figure it’s the best way to learn a little about me, and a way for me to learn about you. And let’s be honest, I think the rest of the bloggers have the topic of writing well covered!
My favorite icebreaker is Two Truths and a Lie. For a first meeting with strangers getting to know each other in a lighthearted way helps “break the ice†and you’d be surprised at some of the things I’ve learned about my co-workers!
Here’s how you play. Each person tells two truths and one lie about themselves, then everyone else has to guess which is the lie. The key is to make the truths as outrageous as the lie. The most fun comes in explaining the truths. So, here are my two truths and a lie. Good luck at figuring out the lie. Check this blog entry at the end of the day and I’ll let you know which is which. Feel free to comment with two truths and a lie of your own!
1. I’ve been thrown 10 feet by a bolt of lightening
2. I visited the Temple of Apollo at Delphi
3. I jumped off the top of a waterfall in Jamaica
Have a great week!
Sabrina Brayden
www.sabrinabrayden.com
by Sara Black
When my eighteen year old brother waxes nostalgic it goes something like this:
He turns on the ipod and hands me the headphones. “Listen to this, do you remember this?”
It takes me only a second, the sounds are so ingrained into my psyche. “Yeah, it’s music from Final Fantasy III.”
“Right! Remember when we used to play that?” He asks, as though there were any way I could forget the hours spent with the cartridge plugged into the Super Nintendo, the repetitive theme songs playing on endless loop when we got stuck, the hints found on the internet.
Luckily for Video Game Nostalgics like my brother and I the Nintendo Wii game system has an on-line system where you can download retro video games. They play on a “virtual console” which emulates all the previous game machines nintendo has sold us over the years. These games, most of them at least ten years old, have almost gotten more use from us than the new Wii games.
Unfortunately none of the Final Fantasy’s are available, but we’ve got both Toe Jam and Earl’s, Sonic Pinball, Mario 64, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Dr. Robotnik’s Bean Machine. The boyfriend, who is a little older than me, downloaded some of the games from before my time, like R-Type, Xevious, Ghouls and Ghosts, games he used to play in the coin arcades.
Nintendo updates their shop every monday with four new-old games so there are dozens of old favorites that we haven’t downloaded yet, like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Legend of Zelda and Lode-Runner.
Thank you Nintendo, for selling my childhood back to me.
Sara Black has a degree in Cinema/Television from USC. She watches far too much television, eats way too much sushi and is always writing a romance novel. This is the eighth in a series of posts on Pop Culture.
Her absolute favorite Nintendo game, Dragon Warrior IV, is unfortunately not to be found on the Wi virtual console.
A Slice of Orange is an affiliate with some of the booksellers listed on this website, including Barnes & Nobel, Books A Million, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords. This means A Slice of Orange may earn a small advertising fee from sales made through the links used on this website. There are reminders of these affiliate links on the pages for individual books.
A chilling thriller that explores what happens when reality and nightmares converge, and how far one will go to protect the innocent when their own brain is a threat.
More info →A Slice of Orange is an affiliate with some of the booksellers listed on this website, including Barnes & Nobel, Books A Million, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords. This means A Slice of Orange may earn a small advertising fee from sales made through the links used on this website. There are reminders of these affiliate links on the pages for individual books.
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