Our SouthWest Writers Gig coming up

excerpt from The SouthWest Sage, the Voice of SouthWest Writers

How a Couple of ‘Accidental Coauthors’ Let the Muses In
Tuesday, August 19, 7 to 9 p.m.

Establishing a plan for the article or book you’re writing is
never a bad idea, of course, but—have you noticed?
Sometimes the project has ideas of its own. Authors Sheila
Key and Peggy Spencer, MD, will discuss the wild,
wonderful (and, at times, worrisome) magic that intruded
early and often during the writing of their book, 50 Ways to
Leave Your 40s: Living It Up in Life’s Second Half, and how
these divine interventions resulted in a better book. Listen!
If these two women—a couple of opposites who didn’t even
meet until halfway through “50/40’s” development—could
manage to go with the flow, then so can you. Sheila and
Peggy will share ideas for knocking holes in that writer’s box
of yours, so your muses can breathe!

Peggy Spencer has a B.A. from the University of California
Santa Cruz and an MD from the University of Arizona. She
completed a residency at UNM, is board certified in Family
Medicine, and works as staff physician at the UNM Student
Health Center and adjunct faculty at the School of
Medicine. Winner of the SWW 2006 Best Essay award, she
writes a column for the Daily Lobo answering health
questions, and contributes articles to UNM Parent Matters
and UNM Today.

Sheila Key is an award-winning writer and graphic designer
who has freelanced for publications ranging from corporate
business journals to New Age magazines. She worked in
radio for ten years in Minnesota, Wisconsin and elsewhere,
arriving in Albuquerque in 1994 when her husband became
general manager of KUNM FM. Notably, it was the SWW
2003 writing contest that convinced Sheila to developing
the book proposal. She won SWW awards that year and the
next, and by then the proposal was ready. Thanks SWW!