Writers Network — Nanci Lee Woody

Friday, August 5, 2016,  9:00 a.m. – 11 a.m.

Nanci Lee Woody knows how to write. With four first-place awards on her resume and other awards to boost her credentials, Nanci employs a keen eye to interpret the everyday world. It shows, not only in her writing, but also in her photography, poetry, and paintings. She can take the ordinary and make it extraordinary.

So it is fitting that the topic for her CWC networking presentation Aug. 5 will be “Turning Everyday Events into a Story.” The Sacramento Branch’s first-Friday get-together starts at 9.a.m. at iHop in Rancho Cordova, 2216 Sunrise Boulevard.

Among Nanci’s honors is a Western Pacific Region, best fiction award from the Independent Publisher Book Awards for her novel Tears and Trombones. Her personality comes through with the book’s “humorous twists and poignant turns.”

It was a project eight years in the making, and the story describes a Depression-era boy who wants to become a classical musician contrary to the wishes of his drunken father. Nanci’s perseverance paid off when she was picked up by Sand Hill Review Press.

She once told an interviewer, “I attended numerous writing conferences, did speed dating a thousand times at the conferences, lunched with agents, took writing workshops, entered writing contests…and rewrote another thousand times.”

What’s one of her tips for those who write? “I would say meet with other writers,” she said in an interview. That includes gathering with peers at CWC, she said. “People are always working on something interesting and different.”

Now retired from American River College, where she taught and served as dean of business, she uses her time to write and write and write — even joking she can be seen writing poems or stories at the Home Depot. Writing and books were an early part of her life. She even authored math textbooks and was published by names like Kent and Pearson Canada.

She tells her readers, “When I read a novel, I want to feel something. I want to laugh with the characters, cry with them, hurt, feel pain. If I cannot do this when reading, the book is not interesting to me.”

Nanci’s presentation will be the culmination of a full-fledged networking meet-up, so come prepared to meet with other writers, ask your neighbor questions, and offer a glimpse of your own writing experience.