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Giving Tuesday is tomorrow, December 3 on  Facebook.
           
                     

The Network for Good will match the first $7 million donated starting at 8 a.m. ET. Since the matching funds usually run out by 8:01 a.m., we aren’t really expecting a matched donation, though we would LOVE TO BE SURPRISED!  All money donated will go to HRW because Facebook pays the transaction fees. Here is the link to our facebook giving page.
         
Throughout the rest of December, you may also donate to HRW transaction-fee-free through the Paypal Giving Fund; here is the link to this. All donations made to HRW through this link from Dec ember 3 through December 31, will result in a 1% match added to the donation by Paypal.

No donation is too small; we are grateful for anything we receive.
 
Through the combination of donations from the 2019 Give Local 757 campaign, the 2018 Facebook Giving Tuesday, and the 2018 Paypal Giving Fund, HRW raised about $6,000, all of which was designated for our scholarship fund. Thank you for helping!                                                                       
 
HRW EVENTS 2020

SEE YOU IN 2020
  
  • January 18, 2020 -- Traveling Pen Series of Writer's Workshops entitled Writing Inspirational Devotions, presented by Beth Patch, CBN writer/producer. The workshop will be held at the Virginia Beach Tidewater Community College campus, in the Blackwater Building, Room CW-134. Check-in at 9:15 AM, workshop runs from 9:30 to Noon.
 
 
  • April 18, 2020 -- Traveling Pen Series of Writer's Workshops entitled Publishing an Audiobook, presented by author Malcom Massey. The workshop will be held at the Virginia Beach Tidewater Community College campus, in the Blackwater Building, Room CW-134. Check-in at 9:15 AM, workshop runs from 9:30 to Noon.
 
 
  • May 16, 2020 -- Traveling Pen Series of Writer's Workshops entitled Improv for Writers, presented by Rick Eley, writer and performer. The workshop will be held at the Virginia Beach Tidewater Community College campus, in the Blackwater Building, Room CW-134. Check-in at 9:15 AM, workshop runs from 9:30 to Noon
 
 
 
Contact Lauran Strait at HRWritersATcox.net or call Skip Keith at (757) 639-6146 with questions or to let us know you will attend.   
That or Which?
 
“I think that that that that that writer wrote should be which.” 
 
Confusing?  If you emphasize the third that, this makes sense although it’s a wordy sentence most of us would never write. Yet some writers overuse that when it can be omitted without any misunderstanding.  When editing your work, check every use of that to see if it’s necessary.  Read the sentence aloud with and without the that to see if it flows well and makes sense.  You can find some guidelines, which might be helpful, online, but I haven’t seen a rule that definitively governs its use.
 
Another issue revolves around when to use that versus which.  These two words aren’t interchangeable.  If a phrase or clause is necessary or essential to the meaning of the sentence, you should use that.  But if the nonessential phrase or clause gives supplementary information, which could be left out, you should use which.  When you use which, commas should surround the phrase or clause.  With that, you don’t use commas.

It’s grammatically acceptable to use that when referring to generic people, but I find it somewhat disrespectful, so I prefer to use who in a personal reference—the man who rather than the man that asked for my full manuscript.  But as a big-time dog lover, I use who to refer to dogs, too.
 
Linda Carol Cobb, an HRW board member, teaches single-session grammar and punctuation workshops at The Muse.
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HRW AUTHORS SPOTLIGHT

By Sandy Robinette
JIM HEALY
 
Jim Healy, a longtime student in Lauren Strait’s classes, is one of the original members of the HRW.  Jim was refining his first book in those early years and produced his first Del Dickerson novel.  That novel, FLYING HIGH: FBI VS THE MOB was published on Amazon in 2014 (and is still available in paperback and Kindle EBook)

When adventurous Special Agent Del Dickerson accidentally parachutes into a grove of trees in California, he is rescued by lovely Kerry Vita …  Mafia hitmen, killers from Reno, a glamorous undercover agent in a nudist camp keep you reading until the explosive finale. 

The stories are authentic in many details because Jim lived that life.  He is a retired Special Agent of the FBI with a distinguished thirty-two years of service.  His varied career took him coast to coast with assignments in San Francisco and Washington state to Washington, D.C. 

A tour in Illinois on the way east introduced Jim to the Federal escape-proof prison where he led the chase down of five escapees. Bloodhounds and everything!  Jim’s final tour brought him to Tidewater as Special Agent in Charge of the Norfolk FBI Field Office. 

Jim caught spies, bank robbers, and fugitives.  Working at Headquarters, he served directly in the offices of the legendary Director J. Edgar Hoover.  Jim was tasked with creating and maintaining the FBI’s TOP TEN Program of most wanted criminals.  In the thirteen years he managed the list, he added the first woman and occasionally even an eleventh bad guy. 

The FBI was the gold standard for modern methods of law enforcement and the Special Agents were recognized as apolitical, incorruptible and smart.  Jim’s years as a Special Agent provides the reality of the Bureau and the lively background for his novels.  Fiction gives him cover for the quirky individuals in the books that may be based on friends and foes he encountered on the job.  His lead character and sometime hero, Del Dickerson, experiences fast-paced action with a flavoring of robust foes, glamorous complications from the women attracted to him, and a variety of mishaps.  The cities and towns featured in each novel flavor the action with an insider’s view, including Tidewater.

In the next month, Jim will finish his eighth (!) tale of Del’s adventures in FBI CODE NAME: PARADISE PANIC, Costa Rica Capers.

In tropical Costa Rica, Del and his colorful colleagues encounter snakes, crocodiles, howler monkeys while hunting a Top Ten fugitive and battling international drug and arms dealers.  Del’s long-suffering fiancée remains unwed with a contagious disease.  Crime, love, and confusion to the end!

The entire series is available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle EBook format.
The following list shows Jim’s novels in the order published but you can pick up any one of them for a good read with fast-paced fun, romance, nasty villains, glamorous women, car chases, helicopters, boats, rafts, and a dog or two.  
  • FLYING HIGH (see above description) was the first in the series, followed by
  • LUCKY DAZE: FBI VS THE MOB; REMATCH.  New characters, more action, big ending.
  • FBI CODE NAME: SHARKS – Fighting Washington Corruption.  Chilling adventure for Del and Anna.
  • FBI CODE NAME: CULTURED PEARL – Smuggled Terror. Local scene in danger.
  • FBI CODE NAME: DEADLY DECEPTION – Murder in Monterey.  That says it all.
  • FBI CODE NAME: SPYTRAP – Washington Seduction.  Spies, honey pots and hero dog!
  • FBI CODE NAME: SEACATCH – Secrets of Old Baldy.   A vacation to remember.

Congratulations to all  HRW members who have recently been published.  Please send us information about your achievements.  We would love to post them.
 
Ken Poyner had three new poems published with the online magazine Unlikely Stories,

 
*************
Welcome to new member Tina Kingwood.  She writes about young adult experiences "with a touch of magic." Her project is a YA dystopian novel featuring characters with diverse powers.

Also welcome to Janis Blimling and Denise Murden.  We look forward to learning more about them.
 
************


Please don’t forget to use the HRW portal to Amazon if you shop Amazon for presents.  Use the portal on this page or the portal on many of the other HRW pages.

 
Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. You will see the words SEARCH AMAZON.COM DIRECTLY WITH THIS LINK. Click on the picture below that says AMAZON, SHOP. CONNECT. ENJOY.  You’ll arrive at Amazon.com and you can then search for and buy whatever you want. HRW will not know who buys what and you will not incur any increase in price. 
 
Everything you buy once you reach Amazon will count toward a referral payment for us.  However, if you put something in your cart or wish list and then go away, we will not get the payment should you return to finish the transaction later.  If this happens, please return to the HRW portal, re-enter Amazon, and re-add your item(s) to your cart.
 
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
 
HRW is supported through the generosity of our individual members and patrons. If you haven’t done so already, please consider joining HRW. We need your time, talents, and tax-deductible financial support so we can continue to provide the quality literary events you’ve come to know and love. If you would like more information or would like to arrange a meeting to discuss supporting Hampton Roads Writers, please contact Lauran Strait, HRW’s President, at HRWriters@cox.net.
We'd like to thank Virginia Beach Arts and Humanities Commission for a small grant in support of HRW's 2011 writers' conference and the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts for the generous supporting grant in 2010 and operating expenses grants in 2016, 2017, and 2018 .  HRW also is grateful for sponsorship from The Muse Writers Center for our annual writers conference.                          
   
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