Meandering Missive: I'm a Pen Woman! (well, almost)

Monday, February 06, 2006

I'm a Pen Woman! (well, almost)

This past Saturday, I was one of nine "creative women" honored at this year's Achiever Luncheon of the Santa Clara County branch of the nonprofit National League of American Pen Women. (NLAPW)

I'm not yet completely over my surprise at being nominated in the first place (my dear friend Jeanne was behind that). I also was extremely humbled to be in the company of eight women who are much more successful than I am. I'm not just giving falsely modest platitudes either -- I really was surprised to be honoured! *blush* And thankful. It turned out to be a great event for me, both personally and professionally. If you want the rest of the story, read below. It's a long one, I warn you! ;D

Actually, I'm not a Pen Woman YET, but I definitely plan on joining the Santa Clara County branch. I meant to join last year, after Jeanne told me how much she likes the group and I discovered I already knew some of the ladies on its roster! :)

In a nutshell, the NLAPW is a nonprofit with more than 200 local branches in the U.S. and Panama. Members are creative, professional women of all ages who work in one or more of three "comprehensive membership classifications" -- letters, art or music. Among the benefits of joining NLAPW are the chance to learn from and network with other creative professionals at regularly held meetings; attend interesting workshops, lectures and discussions related to various creative fields; and enter one's written, visual or musical works in contests, competitions and exhibitions.

Each year, our local branch (and I assume most branches?) holds this luncheon to honour women who, as the event program puts it, "have achieved professionalism in the arts." At least one current branch member must nominate you and give info about you to the applicable committee. Apparently Jeanne did this without telling me, because I didn't know I was one of this year's nine women until I got a thick envelope in the mail this past December, asking me to write a brief bio, answer some questions, provide my resume and work samples, etc.

At first I almost politely declined. I couldn't believe that of all the more worthy nominees out there, they actually wanted ME! But I knew Jeanne would feel awful if I declined. She's such a sweet and thoughtful friend that I would never want to disappoint her. I also got to thinking this might be a way to network with all these connected, creative women, and get better known in their circles. I'm still struggling to find enough creative work and to keep my head above water financially, so anything that could help me in that area is a GOOD thing!

Fast forward to Saturday. The event, which this year was titled Hats Off to the Arts took place in the social hall of the First Congregational Church in San Jose. Everyone was encouraged to wear some type of hat, but I didn't because I look stupid in most hats, except my cowboy hats and my Renaissance Faire hat. However, I didn't think either of those would be appropriate. *grin*

The Achievers were supposed to get there by 10:30 a.m. to set up our work samples on the tables provided for us, as the event would begin at 11 a.m. with schmoozing until the noon buffet lunch. The artists brought paintings, art prints, notecards, postcards and other mediums; the writers brought books (fiction and nonfiction), magazines and newspapers; and the musicians did something but I didn't see what.

I brought along a bunch of different publications I've done writing, editing and/or photography for in the past or in the present. This includes Industry Magazine, Silicon Valley Home, a monthly magazine supplement in the San Jose Mercury News, Times Media, Inc. and Boulevards New Media. I even brought a copy of a May 2004 press release I wrote for Mother Earth Clay Art Center. I would have brought copies of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times and Saratoga News as well, as I was features editor of those two papers (part of the larger SVCN group) for many years, but in my typically disorganized fashion, I couldn't scrounge them up in time. However, they were included on my resume, which I also brought copies of to hand out, along with my freelance business cards.

OH! And I also displayed notecards featuring my original nature photography of trees and flowers. You can see some of them at Flickr.com, where I keep my portfolios. To see my favourite set of images, please click here and enjoy. :) You can also find my animated Flickr image badge at the bottom of the sidebar to the right.

[Despite all this that I said about myself, I just want to make it clear that ALL of the other Achievers had MANY more years of experience in their fields than I, and had accomplished MANY more impressive things. It's not that I'm not proud of my work or think I'm a loser. The work that I do is good. However, I don't think I hold a candle to the other women I was with. They've done so much more than I! Hopefully their success will rub off on me, especially since I've been feeling somewhat disenchanted lately with aspects of writing and my career in general.]

Although the display tables were not specifically a "selling event", we were all told that it was perfectly fine to sell our items if people were interested. And it so happens that one lady bought 10 of my notecards! *cheer* This didn't even happen during the pre-lunch period, but rather after the lunch AND the program! I went back to my display table while the other folks took a last visit to the silent auction and raffle prize room, and one lady cruised by my table and bought 10 cards. Cool!

Another cool thing was that I ran into several creative souls (and nice people!) I got to know during my days with the Los Gatos and Saratoga papers, when I covered the arts scene. Nancy Jo Lopp and Marian Gault were two of the other Achievers: Nancy Jo for her photography and Marian for her paintings and calligraphy. Also attending the event were papercraft artist Jeanne Tillman (yep, another Jeanne!) and photographer Felicia Peters Pollock. (Marian's artistically inclined husband Ned was also there and remembered me!) It was so great to see all these awesome folks again! It brought back old times/memories, especially when Felicia told me she and many of the other artists at Saratoga's two co-op galleries missed me and wished I was back covering arts for the SVCN papers again! *blush* I miss the galleries and the artists too! In fact, since they all deserve more recognition than they usually get, here are their websites: Gallery Saratoga and Aegis Gallery.

YIKES! I'm sure getting off track here! Back to the Achievers event. After the 11 a.m. to noon schmooze fest, we all enjoyed a catered buffet lunch of a huge mixed green salad with lots of cheese and croutons, three choices of salad dressing, rolls and butter, chicken breast and penne pasta in a creamy tomato-y sauce, tender chunks of beef in a stroganoff sauce over herbed rice, and a cooked vegetable medley. And dessert, which came out later, was a rich chocolate mousse pie, accompanied by grapes and -- of all things -- fortune cookies!

After lunch was the program, which began with the mistress of ceremonies asking each Achiever, in turn, to stand up at their table while she introduced them for about 5 minutes. It so happened I was the 5th person out of nine to stand, so at least I didn't have to be anxious while listening to her speech about all of the others -- only about half of them! *chuckle* I actually would have preferred if we each got to take the microphone and speak about ourselves.

I know most folks hate public speaking but I don't. I used to be deathly afraid of it, but thanks to some great college classes in rhetoric and a super-encouraging professor, I lost my fear. Anyhoo, I wouldn't have been embarrassed to give a mini biography of myself, but standing there while someone ELSE talked about me... well... that was embarrassing for some reason. *blush* She also made one minor boo-boo and left out a few things I wish she would have mentioned, but that's okay. :)

After all nine of us were lauded and received our certificates, the entertainment portion of the program began. Everyone involved was a Pen Woman. There were flute and piano numbers, a ventriloquist, a song-and-dance medley of "doo-wop" music, a cool talk on the history of hats and a hat fashion show in which Pen Women were the models, donning chapeaus of many different decades and styles. Oh, and the program began and ended with an original song, "Hats Off to the Arts," written and sung by one Pen Woman and arranged (on piano) by another!

Afterwards the raffle winners and silent auction high bidders got their prizes. I didn't win ANYTHING in the raffle, despite buying 12 tickets. I'm such a loser at most raffles it isn't even funny. :( And you wouldn't believe the lavish gift baskets of all kinds that were being raffled! There were also half a dozen or so door prizes, but I didn't win those either. Just call me Charlie Brown. (heehee) I did get one thing in the silent auction, however! *cheer* Among other things was a $20 gift certificate to Mountain Mike's Pizza. The opening bid was $5 with $2 increments. No one wrote down anything after my $9 bid, so I basically got the certificate for half-off! Not bad! :) I really like their pizza, although my fave is still Round Table. The silent auction AND the raffle were fundraisers for the local Pen Women's scholarship fund, so it was definitely a worthwhile cause.

Wow, what a meandering missive THIS was! I'd be surprised if anyone actually made it to the end. I don't expect anyone to. :) I mainly wrote this long narrative for myself, because I want to remember this event, and there's no better way to do that than to put it in writing. Photos are good too, and in fact Nancy Jo and Jeanne are both going to email me some digital photos they took of me at the event. Hopefully I'll get them soon, so I can post them here. In the meantime, I'm going to start filling out the paperwork to join the Santa Clara County branch of the National League of American Pen Women, because I definitely think this is the start of great things to come!

Good thing I didn't let my embarrassment and surprise get the better of me, and cause me to decline the Achiever honour! Thanks again, Jeanne! :) Sometimes it takes a friend to believe in us, when we're not sure if we believe in ourselves.

Today I am feeling thankful & embarrassed.

posted by ScaryShari @ 11:38 AM

1 Comments:

At 5:18 PM, Shari said…

Wowowow! This is so cool - can you touch the ceiling fans with each bounce? :) Congrats!

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