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2019

CAL was represented in Colorado Springs on April 27 at the Pikes Peak Library District's Mountain of Authors. Peg Brantley and Barbara Nickless shared their experience and expertise on writing an award winning book, while other CAL members--Jodi Bowersox,John D. McKenna, Nancy Oswald, Dian Curtis Regan, Sarah B. Rickman, and Cindy Skaggs-- were invited by the library to display and sell their books. Nancy Saltzman and Joe Murphy held down the CAL information table.

Todd Fahnestock Keynote Speaker for Awards Presentation


Every person attending the celebration will receive Todd’s key strategies.


Todd’s books regularly appear on Amazon Bestseller lists

Todd has figured out how to sell in the new marketplace. His books regularly land on bestseller lists and he takes a many pronged approach to creating that success.

Todd talks Amazon, ebooks, author investment and how writers make their own luck (read create an advantage) when he delivers the keynote to CAL authors.

His strategies have a familiar ring. Todd shows writers how to use newsletters, emails, and elevator pitches in a way that makes sense.

Todd parents gave him a start at viewing life at different angles. His sign painter dad bestowed a herculean work ethic on Todd while his mother gave him magic. That combination works for a fantasy writer. Reading became his retreat when his parents divorced.

Like many writers, Todd’s checkered job history provides a rich backdrop of experience for his writing. Jumping from job to job, he hitchhiked across the country. From Price Club cashier to video arcade attendant to investment banking every job offered a new learning experience. He waited tables, hung safety cables for crack-inspection teams inside oil tankers, and helped raise millions of dollars for diabetes nonprofits. He lived in cities and towns across America as he learned from each experience.

Todd talks about finding how authors can find their audience and within that wide group, their superfans.

Todd looks at the tools available for marketing and encourages writers to use the tools that work best. There are ways to make choices within social media and other popular communication venues.

Todd says his kids are a constant source of inspiration. Now both teenagers, he’s become fascinated with the alternative language he hears his kids and their friends speak  (he calls it slanglift) and has started to keep a dictionary to keep up with words like Yeet—An all-purpose utterance for moments of disgust, and phrases like ‘My soul would depart my body’—That’s gross.


In Todd’s Threadweaver’s Series, Todd invites readers to “Become a threadweaver in the lands of the mythical hero Wildmane, where reading is a crime and using magic could mean your death.”

In Todd’s Whisper Prince Series he challenges readers to “Flip up your cowl and step into the deadly city of Fairmist, where droplets of water hover in the air and danger stalks between the trees.”

In Todd’s The Wishing World Series he invites readers to “Make a wish and visit The Wishing World, where children become their own heroes.”

In Todd’s Charlie Fiction Series he invites readers to “Jump through time, trade banter with a sexy, cynical ghost, and try to stop the end of the world in Charlie Fiction

Colorado Author’s League

2019 List of Finalists (in alphabetical order)

1. POETRY, SINGLE POEM                                                                                                       

  • Art Elser, Four Massive Horses Stand Quietly
  • Dan Guenther, Seventy Miles Outside of Denver
  • Dan Guenther, The Whale Watcher's Road, Moreton Bay   

2. POETRY, COLLECTION

  • Carolyn Evans Campbell, What Kind of Love Was That?
  • Joseph Murphy, Having Lived                                                                      
  • Rosemerry Watola Trommer, Naked for Tea

4. ESSAYS

  • Lou Dean, Work In Progress
  • Patricia Raybon, Your Best Years Are Not Behind You                                                       
  • Penny Rafferty Hamilton, A Pink Warrior Shares Insights from Her Oncology Odyssey

5. CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOK

  • Aaron LaPedis, A Boy Named Penguin: Different is the New Perfect
  • Lisa Reinicke, Football Flyboy
  • Phyllis Perry, All About Julia Morgan          

6. CHILDREN’S/YOUNG ADULT: Chapter book, Fiction or Non-Fiction               

  • Phyllis Perry, Missing Bones
  • Sarah Byrn Rickman, BJ Erickson: Wasp Pilot        
  • Virginia K. White, Glasses for Margie7. 

7. ADULT NOVEL                                                                                                            

  • Category A: Romance         ​
  • Jodi Bowersox, Mars Madness
  • Sheri Cobb South, The Desperate Duke                                                                   


Category B: Mystery, Crime, Suspense                            ​

  • Cynthia Swanson, The Glass Forest
  • J.A. Turley, The Hole Truth
  • John E. Stith, Pushback
  • Category C: Science Fiction, Fantasy
  • Jane H. Bock & Carl E. Bock, Swamp Guide
  • R. Gary Rahan, A Once Dead Genius in the Kennel of Master Morticue Ambergrand
  • Todd Fahnestock, Charlie Fiction
  • Category E: Western           ​
  • Ellen Kingsman Fisher, Hill's Gold              
  • J.M. Mitchell, Killing Godiva's Horse
  • Category F: Literary
  • Courtney Miller, Ghili, The Chief Named Dog
  • Maralee McLean, Prosecuted But Not Silenced
  • Sheldon Friedman, The Silk Swan
  • 10. NON-FICTION
  • Category A: Cookbooks, Travel, Self Help, Health and Fitness, etc.
  • Aaron LaPedis, The Garage Sale Millionaire
  • Kelly Robbins , Trust Your Next Step
  • Michele Morris, Poco a Poco
  • Category B: Historical         ​
  • Denny Dressman, Beyond the Camps
  • Jeffrey B. Miller, WWI Crusaders
  • Judi Buehrer, Two Years in Moscow                        
  • Liz Morton Duckworth, Poker Alice Tubbs: The Straight Story
  • 11. E-BOOK             
  • Claudia Cangilla McAdam, Beckoning
  • Lisa Reinicke, Football Flyboy
  • Margaret Mizushima, Burning Ridge
  • 13. SCREENPLAY/STAGEPLAY           
  • Bruce Leaf, Sea Change
  • Jennie MacDonald, A Merry Widow or Two
  • M.J. Evans & Jalynn Venis, Heart of a Mustang
  • 15. COVER DESIGN
  • Aaron LaPedis, A Boy Named Penguin: Different is the New Perfect
  • K.M. Ecke, Moral Panic                               
  • Lisa Reinicke, Bart's Escape Out the Gate


2019 CAL Co op Booths a Big Success!

 

CAL added a co op booth to their November schedule this year, participating in the new Colorado Springs edition of The Colorado Country Christmas Gift Show the weekend after the Gift Show at the Denver Mart.

 

30 authors at Denver and 25 in Colorado Springs representing 200 different titles over the two weekends brought in $7,578 in sales!

 

Beyond sales, networking happened, advertising happened, teamwork happened, friendships happened.  

 

Fiction of all genres are our best sellers, although we do sell some self-help and historical non-fiction as well.