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 Dear friends and members,
I don’t think I could have picked a better time to begin my tenure as SD/PEN’s board president. The organization is as strong as it’s ever been thanks to the hard work and dedication of immediate past presidents Melanie Astaire Witt and Shirley Clukey and their teams of board members. I am grateful that some of them will be returning to the board and will be joined by three new directors, who expand their active engagement with SD/PEN, bringing fresh perspectives and enthusiasm.
I am also very excited to announce the imminent launch of SD/PEN’s new website. Like every endeavor worth undertaking, the redesign and transition to the new site has not been without its challenges. We are very fortunate that Melanie, along with current board director Beth Bolwerk, put in long hours over the holiday season to work out the kinks and ensure that the new website lives up to its promise to facilitate various member functions and dynamic visitor searches of the member directory. We appreciate everyone’s patience during this transition and will continue to keep the membership up to date on the site’s status.
One of the site’s essential functions will be the ability to join, rejoin, or renew one’s membership and update one’s directory listing. Rest assured that members current as of 2014 will continue to be included in the membership directory until a new deadline has been announced for renewing for the 2015 calendar year. If you would like to renew your membership before an official announcement is made, you are certainly welcome to do so at the next SD/PEN meeting on January 15.
Speaking of which, by popular demand, last July’s program meeting panel members have graciously agreed to return this month to continue their informative discussion on “Working With and Around Graphics.” Please join us this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. as Sharon Penny, Roberta Niederjohn, and Kimberly Lamke Calderon present everything you need to know about optimizing graphic elements in your editing and writing projects.
I know many of you are as eager as I am to help SD/PEN continue to grow in its role as San Diego’s primary resource for editor engagement, exchange, networking, and education. We are only as strong as our membership involvement. Accordingly, I invite your feedback on any aspect of the organization and encourage you to contact me or any of the board members with your suggestions and comments. I also encourage anyone seeking to increase his or her involvement to volunteer for one of our ongoing committees or to assist at the bimonthly meetings.
I look forward to meeting and speaking with each one of you in the new year.
Chris Zook
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Working With and Around Graphics
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You are an editor—why should you be concerned about graphic design? As you have no doubt discovered, there are often times when you need to adopt a designer’s eye while editing, writing, and formatting text documents.
Join us as Sharon Penny, Roberta Niederjohn, and Kimberly Lamke Calderon—three accomplished journalists, communication specialists, and graphic communicators—return to continue the informative discussion they started during last July’s program meeting.
Having already taught us how to recognize and take quality photographs, they will explore the best ways to work with and around graphics, discussing font rules (and when to break them); contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity of design elements; and why it is important that editors understand graphic design in today’s visual world.
Please RSVP by replying to this email.
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Meeting Details
Thursday, January 15, 2015
6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
San Diego Room
County Health Services Complex
3851 Rosecrans St.
San Diego 92110
Google Map
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At the November Program Meeting at Clearstory Creative Digital Publishers (see recap below), the following members were elected to serve on SD/PEN’s 2015 Board of Directors:
President: Chris Zook
Chris Zook first joined SD/PEN in 2007 when he launched his freelance copy writing and editing business, The Conscious Writer. Since then, he has served as SD/PEN’s Steering Committee publicist for two years (2009–2010) and worked on a wide variety of book editing and web content writing projects. Prior to this, he worked for 12 years at the San Diego Museum of Art, where he was the public relations officer and editor-in-chief of the museum’s quarterly member magazine, finishing his time there as the museum’s interim director of communications.
Treasurer: Dipthi Battapadi
Dipthi Battapadi has served as treasurer for the Friends of the North University Branch of the San Diego Public Library for three years, handling the finances and creating monthly and annual reports. She writes, edits, and formats evaluation and technical reports for the Social Science Research Lab at SDSU; is an editorial assistant for Fictional International, a literary journal at SDSU; and works as a freelance editor and content writer. Before moving to the US, she worked as a copyeditor in India for the English-language daily newspaper Hindustan Times and for Elle Décor magazine.
Director: Marcy Llamas Senese, PhD
Marcy Llamas Senese is a former English professor and writing program administrator with over 20 years of experience working in classrooms and writing centers with students of all ability levels. She has also taught grammar theory and history of the language, her most recent academic post being at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Marcy also served two two-year terms as president of the Southeastern Writing Center Association. She currently enjoys working as a writing and editing consultant, helping writers in the early stages of their creative process.
Director: Paula Fitzgerald
Paula Fitzgerald is a versatile freelance writer and editor with more than 20 years of experience in publishing and writing on a variety of topics. She began her career covering interior design, architecture, and art in Los Angeles. She served as the associate editor for Designers West magazine and was a contributor to national and international publications. She was also managing editor and project manager for Smart Kidz Media, a children’s book publisher, and has taught general education writing at CSU, San Marcos.
Returning board members Sharon Penny (Vice President of Communications and Marketing) and Beth Bolwerk (Director) will continue to serve in their respective positions for 2015.
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Fieldtrip to Clearstory Creative Digital Publishers
By Catherine Barr
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On the evening of November 20, a lucky group of SD/PEN members gathered in the offices of Clearstory Creative Digital Publishers off Miramar Road. After being treated to an elegant food spread and beverage service, our hosts Debara Medina (CEO and owner) and Fred Sciuto (president) led us on a tour of their facility. Founded in 2010, Clearstory is a young company that boasts all the latest tools in digital publishing. Debara emphasized that Clearstory focuses on the production of books (see www.myclearstory.com) and high-quality printing, and that clients are presented with almost unlimited choices for book trim size, paper stock, cover materials, and bindings.
The heart of their printing operation is the huge HP Indigo Press 5500 seven-ink photo press. (For those who love gadgets, see http://tinyurl.com/njunhjn.) Other nifty print technology employed at Clearstory includes the spot UV coating machine (the only one in the US that is digital); hot foil stamping; a guillotine cutter for book blocks; PUR perfect binding; and a large table cutter (designed for the automotive industry), which can cut paper, chipboard, leather, acrylic, and even wood. Other services for authors include professional book design consultations and ISBN assignment. Currently they do not offer editing services, but hope to do so in the near future.
Clearstory also produces an impressive array of other printed materials (see www.clearstorypress.com) such as boxes, brochures, cards, coasters, labels, plastic cards (another nifty machine), posters, stickers, and stationery.
Debara pointed out that she has a vision to expand the possibilities of what they do, a vision that is expressed on her company’s business card: “You dream it. We make it.”
Thank you, Debara and Fred, for your wonderful tour!
(Please visit the SD/PEN Facebook page to view more photos taken by Sharon Penny of this great event!)
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31st Annual SDSU Writers’ Conference
January 23–25, 2015, San Diego
http://www.ces.sdsu.edu/Pages/Engine.aspx?id=735
American Society for Indexing (ASI) Southern California Chapter
“Evaluating Indexes” Winter Workshop
February 7, 2015, San Diego
http://tinyurl.com/puh97p9
Contact Catherine Barr at cabarr@utoindexing.com
29th Annual Southern California Writers’ Conference (and Retreat)
February 13–16, 2015, San Diego
http://writersconference.com/sd/
First Annual USA Regional Excellence Book Awards
Entry deadline: February 15, 2015
www.usaregionalexcellencebookawards.com
Editorial Bootcamps presented by Laura Poole
February 21, 2015, Austin, TX
March 29, 2015, Pittsburgh, PA
http://www.editorialbootcamp.com/spring2015events/
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