Palo Alto Writer Wins Award for Non-Fiction

Palo Alto, CA – Local author Geri Spieler has won a literary prize for an excerpt from her book An Unlikely Assassin: Sara Jane Moore and the Plot to Kill the President.

Spieler was awarded second prize in the non-fiction category of the 2006 Writing Contest of the San Francisco Writers Conference.  The third annual conference was held February 17-19 at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco.

Spieler’s work was one of nearly 300 entries in the international competition.  She was awarded a $100 prize and a certificate at the conference, which annually brings together authors, editors and literary agents.

An Unlikely Assassin is the compelling story of Sara Jane Moore, the only woman who ever fired a shot at an American President.  Spieler has known Sara Jane Moore for almost 30 years, and did groundbreaking investigative research for this book—and found shocking material never before released.

Spieler is a former journalist and writer for the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle and is a contributor to many magazines.  She lives with her husband and six chickens in Palo Alto.

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Photo available upon request

GERI SPIELER - AUTHOR

In the Media, Geri ...

• reported for the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times
• wrote for West Ways Magazine
• founded and edited "Electronic Commerce News", a technology journal published by Phillips Business Information

• spent six and a half years as a Research Director and analyst for Gartner Group
• researched, wrote and published 150 research notes
• had research picked up by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and was published, by invitation, in Forbes
• was an award-winning speaker at conferences in Tokyo, Sao Paolo, Amsterdam, Orlando, and Mexico City

• is a Big Sister, and was named "Big Sister of the Year" in Washington D.C.
• is the President of the Board of The California Writers Club San Francisco/Peninsula Branch
• advises and coaches on public speaking skills for writers
• is Chairperson of the 2005 Jack London Writers Conference