She Writes Chicago Meet Up - A Little Something about Each Participant

The She Writes Chicago First Meetup took place on June 29, 2010 at Bethany McLean’s breathtakingly beautiful, spacious and modern Bucktown home a mile Northwest of Chicago’s downtown. Eileen O’Halloran helped to organize the event. A wide variety of exotic cheeses, white wine, chocolate cookies and banana muffins were served. We sat on Bethany’s outside deck, enjoyed the fresh evening air and leaned into 3 foot comfy white and black pillows.

Each writer introduced herself and shared how she first learned about She Writes, how she uses the She Writes website, other resources for writers and wondered about technology’s influence on the future of publishing. Veronica Arreola mentioned that She Writes is planning another Meetup in July. All of the attendees enjoyed the event. Many Chicago She Writes members RSVP’d that they were unable to attend this event but are very much looking forward to participating at the next one.

About each writer-
Bethany McLean is a well-known journalist formerly from New York. Her March 2001 article in Fortune, "Is Enron Overpriced?," was the first in a national publication to openly question the company's dealings. Bethany is also the coauthor of All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of The Financial Crisis, forthcoming November, 2010. In addition, she also coauthored The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron.

Katie Tarbox is the author of Katie.com, also known under the title, A Girl’s Life Online, She is currently Senior Editor at Realtor Magazine. She is known for her extensive work for victims of Internet crimes, and has lectured internationally.

Helene Turner is working on two books, Don’t Go Broke Learning About Money and 40 Countries by Myself. She is translating each book into Spanish. Helene taught Mathematics and Computers in the American International schools in Colombia and Thailand and was an Internal Auditor at Discover Card.

Mary Osborne, brought a copy of her Nonna's Book of Mysteries. Mary is a writer and registered nurse living in Chicago. An honors graduate of Rush University and Knox College, where she was mentored in the Creative Writing Program, Osborne has degrees in chemistry and nursing.

Eileen O’Halloran has a Ph.D. in English and teaches writing and literature at DePaul University in Chicago. She writes about modern Irish literature but also looks forward to writing a non-academic book soon!

Molly Moynahan brought her 3rd novel, Stone Garden, which came out in 2002. Her 2 other novels are Parting is All We Know of Heaven and Living in Arcadia. She grew up in New Jersey and lived in Ireland and London. Molly has taught in universities and most recently, at suburban Evanston High School.

Paula Kamen has authored four books and has had three plays produced in the U.S. Her book, Finding Iris Chang: Ambition, Friendship and the Loss of an Extraordinary Mind earned her the 2008 American Authors Association Golden Quill Award for biography. She has spoken at dozens of universities around the country, and she has served as a guest columnist for the New York Times. Her website is a href="http://www.paulakamen.com/">http://www.paulakamen.com/>.Paula gave All In My Head, a memoir of her struggle to live with chronic headaches, to Helene Turner. Helene owes Paula her forthcoming financial book.

Yvonne Jeffries is a Management Consultant. She participates in a women’s writers group outside of She Writes but is disappointed with the lack of useable feedback.

Jane Boal is an Emmy Award-Winning journalist formally with WGN-News. She worked as a general assignment reporter, and as reporter / producer for Chicago’s Very Own among many other specials. Jane sent each participant a list of our email addresses.

Susan Bearman is a writer for the Chicago Moms and The Animal Store Blogs. She and her family own a pet store in Lincolnwood. Susan is on the Board of the Off Campus Writer’s Workshop (Wilmette, IL) .The website for Off Campus Writer's Workshop isa href="http://ocww.bizland.com/">http://ocww.bizland.com/>; and can be found on Facebook as well. Susan’s blogs are Two Kinds of People and The Animal Store Blog.

Veronica Arreola is a featured blogger at "http://www.wimnonline.org/WIMNsVoicesBlog/"

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Comment by Toni Hargis on July 24, 2010 at 8:35am: I'm a new member and bummed to have missed this get together. It sounds great. Would love to be more involved with everyone going forward.

Comment by Chandra Hoffman on July 21, 2010 at 7:06am: Thank you Helene! I appreciate all of these practical tips and information.

Comment by Helene Turner on July 20, 2010 at 7:58pm: Hello Chandra,
Congratulations on your book tour! Barrington Hills is a wealthy area and is not far from Round Lake. There may be some niche book stores that welcome speakers.

You will actually be closer to Southern Wisconsin that to much of Chicago so you may want to consider contacting libraries and colleges in Kenosha, Lake Geneva, Racine and Milwaukee.

Consider contacting the Fremont Public Library, Mundelein, Grayslake Library and
Elgin Community College.

I would not contact organizations in the lakeside suburbs, with the exception of Waukegan and North Chicago, because they are bombarded by writers wanting to speak.

As soon as you will arrive start listening to am radio 780 at 8, 18, 28, etc. minutes after the hour to the Traffic and Weather report. This will be a very quick way to familiarize yourself with our traffic patterns and save yourself countless hours. We have substantial traffic challenges getting to and from downtown even on Saturdays. In Chicago we have two seasons Construction and Non Construction. We will still be in the Construction season when you will be here. Any evening you will drive on the highways when there is a Bulls, Bears , Cubs or Sox game there will be gridlock in large sections of Chicago before and after the games.

Kids

The Kohl Children’s Museum in suburban Glenview will be terrific for your kids. I worked there during high school when they still had a Teacher’s Resource Center.

You can take the Metra train to downtown and go to the Navy Pier Children’s Museum.
Navy Pier also has fast boat rides called Seadog. People of every generation love this ride. At the Eastern point of Navy Pier is a colorful Stained Glass Museum that is one of Chicago’s best kept secrets. Sometimes we have Indian Summer in early October but other times it is cold. Chicago is world famous for architecture so take an architecture boat tour. Be sure to walk along Millennium Park. There are interactive sculptures where children can play.

Helene Turner
Don't Go Broke Learning about Money
40 Countries by Myself
Hope for the Homebound

Comment by Chandra Hoffman on July 19, 2010 at 2:30pm: Also, one more thing: I have taken my 3 kids (8, 5 and 3) out of school so that they can join me on my book tour this year. Chicago is a city I know absolutely nothing about--I would welcome suggestions of things to do with kids when I am there.

Thanks!

Comment by Chandra Hoffman on July 19, 2010 at 2:27pm: Hi Chicago She-Writers

I'm new to this site but looking for writers/readers in other cities. I will be in the Chicago area, (Round Lake, IL) to promote my debut novel, CHOSEN in October. I am wondering if there are other Chicago readers whose book groups would like to host me as a guest author, or if you have a favorite bookstore you can recommend for an event?

Take a look at my novel/site and let me know if you might be interested.

Thanks

www.chandrahoffman.com

Comment by Deborah Siegel on July 19, 2010 at 2:06pm: Oh I wish I could have been there! Thank you so much for this Helene. I've linked to it now from the homepage :)