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Recognitions

Joan McNulty Pulver

Welcome to Recognitions, a column designed to celebrate the writing successes of Writers' Village University members!

My column will be a little different this month. It will still speak to the success achieved by two Writers’ Village University members who could not have made it without the classes, study groups, chats and friendships forged in WVU.

Donna Sundblad and I had no idea who the other was. A member named Birdie had a short story published and I contacted her to get some information for my Recognitions column. I interviewed Donna a few different times but we didn’t become friends for about a year. I volunteered to become the Acquisitions Coordinator for ePress-online and Donna volunteered to be a reader. We both read the first WVU member Fantasy novel submitted (Return to UKOO, by Don Hurst), liked the story and decided to ask permission of the Editor in Chief to edit the book for publication. Margaret Carr agreed. That is how Donna and I became editors and friends.

While working together on this project we realized that our editing styles complimented the other's. Donna sees the big picture including the point of view switches, passive language, places where more description is needed and the type of description, i.e., how does this character feel about what is happening or what does this character look like, etc. On the other hand, I tend to notice smaller things like redundancy of words, overuse of phrases, missing commas, or misuse of the same.

Donna recently pitched a proposal on a budgeting book to Dabbling Mum, Change from the Heart ~ Lifestyle Budgeting. They not only accepted her proposal but also asked if she would be interested in doing a devotional book. The editor at Dabbling Mum felt Donna would be the perfect candidate to do that for them. “Life as a writer takes as many twists and turns as fiction. The myriad of opportunity never ceases to amaze me. Each first is a thrill, but I’ve never lost the sense of delight when my writing is accepted for publication.”

Donna’s non-fiction book, Pumping Your Muse, is available in both e-book and print published by ePress-online. Her first fiction novel, Windwalker, hit cyberspace last month. It is also published by ePress-online.

Over the years, I wrote three writing-related articles which were published in T-Zero: The Writer’s E-Zine. Recently I was asked by the editor of Virtual Tales newsletter, The Serial Scoop, if they could use my already published articles in their newsletter. “This is a big deal to me. To have something published is huge but to have someone ask to reprint it shows just how good it is. I never could have accomplished this without the help of WVU members and Donna encouraging me and telling me that I could do it.”

Together and separately Donna and I achieved goals we feel we would not have achieved alone or without Writers' Village University. Both of us are lifetime members and work in different study groups, are Senior Fantasy Editors at ePress-online and work together on various projects, bouncing ideas off each other and editing each other’s work.

Congratulations Donna and Joan. We wish you continued success in all of your writing endeavors and thank you for sharing your information with us.

We look forward to reading about your writing accomplishments in this column. If you or someone you know received recognition for writing, please send the information to recognitions@wvu.org. Let us know!


About the Author
Joan McNulty Pulver, mother of five and grandmother of five, works as an Administrative Secretary for the State of Florida but considers her writing and editing to be her vocation. She is a columnist for T-Zero: The Writer’s E-Zine, a course developer and facilitator at Writers’ Village University and the Personnel Coordinator/Editor for ePress-online. Joan has had two short stories published and is currently working on a non-fiction book and a fantasy novel.