“How to Have Courage to Write” Presentation by Mary Greenwood

Mary Greenwood is giving a presentation on “How to Have the Courage to Write” at the South Florida Writers Association Mango Writers Conference on February 10, 2024 from 9:00 to 3:00 at 94th Aero Squadron 1395 NW 57th Ave. Miami, Fl 33126. Save the date. More details later. 

I have been a member of the South Florida Writers Association for almost twenty years and they have always been supportive of writers and their books and a source of knowledge and answers for authors’ questions.

Mary Greenwood, Mediator, Attorney and Author of How To Negotiate Like A Pro: 41 Rules for Resolving Disputes, Winner of six book awards: DIY Festival Runner Up, New York Book Festival, E-Book and Self-Help Category Finalist ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards Finalist, Best National Book Awards, Self-Help Category Honorable Mention, London Book Festival.

And How To Mediate Like A Pro: 42 Rules for Mediating Disputes Winner of five book awards Best National Book Award, Law Category Best E-Book, New York Book Festival Best How To Book, Beach Book Festival Best E-Book, Indie Excellence Awards Spirit Award, South Florida Writers Association:

Email: Mgreen464@aol.com.

Website: www.marygreenwood.org

Local Author Night Oldsmar Library

Mary will be making a presentation and signing her books at the Local Author Night at the Oldsmar Library on March 7, 2023 at 400 St Petersburg Drive E, Oldsmar, Florida. Call 813-749-1178 for more info. Website: WWW.MaryGreenwood.org. More info later. Save the date.

Mary Greenwood, Mediator, Attorney and Author of How To Negotiate LIke A Pro: 41 Rules for Resolving Disputes, Winner of six book awards Best How To Book, DIY Festival Runner Up, New York Book Festival, E-Book and Self-Help Category Finalist ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards Finalist, Best National Book Awards, Self-Help Category Honorable Mention, London Book Festival How To Mediate Like A Pro: 42 Rules for Mediating Disputes Winner of five book awards Best National Book AWard, Law Category Best E-Book, New York Book Festival Best How To Book, Beach Book Festival Best E-Book, Indie Excellence Awards Spirit AWard, South Florida Writers Association Email: howtonegotiate@aol.com www.marygreenwood.com

Mary Greenwood, Author, Will exhibit at the Local Authors Showcase at the Palm Harbor Public Library on Saturday January 19. from 1:00 to 3:00

PALM HARBOR LIBRARY LOCAL AUTHORS SHOWCASE, JANUAR9 19, 1:00-3:00

The goal of the Local Showcase is to create awareness of Local writers and talent. The Palm Harbor Library will have a map of the library to show where each of the featured authors are located in the library. The authors will have stickers to put on a bookmark and if all the stickers are collected,d the patron will receive a free book from the library. This process encourages people to find all the authors and to spend time with them discussing their books.

Mary will be showing her three books: 1) How to Negotiate Like a Pro, How to Resolve Anything, Anytime, Anywhere, Winner of ten book awards; 2) How to Interview Like a Pro, 43 Rules For Getting Your Next Job; Winner of twelve book awards; How to Mediate Like a Pro, 42 Rules for Mediating Disputes, Winner of twelve book awards.

Mary Greenwood, Mediator, Attorney and Author
Website: WWW.MaryGreenwood.org, Email: MGreen464@AOL.COM

Mary Greenwood will Discuss and Sign her books on December 9, 2018 at Showcase of Local Authors at the Dunedin Public Library, Dunedin, Florida

Mary Greenwood, Author of How to Negotiate Like a Pro, Winner of 10 book awards; How to Mediate Like a Pro, Winner of 12 book awards; and How to Interview Like a Pro, Winner of 12 book awards, will be signing her books at the SHOWCASE of LOCAL AUTHORS at the Dunedin Public Library on Sunday, December 9, 1:30-4:30. The Dunedin Public Library is located at 223 Douglas Avenue, Dunedin, Florida in Pinellas County, Florida. 

For more information visit my website www.MaryGreenwood.org

Mary Greenwood, Mediator, Attorney and Author of How To Negotiate LIke A Pro: 41 Rules for Resolving Disputes, Winner of six book awards Best How To Book, DIY Festival Runner Up, New York Book Festival, E-Book and Self-Help Category Finalist ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards Finalist, Best National Book Awards, Self-Help Category Honorable Mention, London Book Festival How To Mediate Like A Pro: 42 Rules for Mediating Disputes Winner of five book awards Best National Book AWard, Law Category Best E-Book, New York Book Festival Best How To Book, Beach Book Festival Best E-Book, Indie Excellence Awards Spirit AWard, South Florida Writers Association Email: howtonegotiate@aol.com www.marygreenwood.com

Mary Greenwood Wins Book Award at Next Generation Indie Book Awards Ceremony in New Orleans

Mary Greenwood won a Finalist Medal in the Next Generation Indie Book Award Contest.

The Award Ceremony was held at the Monteleone Hotel in New Orleans, which is one of three Literary Landmarks in the USA. Writers Hemingway, Faulkner, Tennessee Williams and others stayed here. The other two Literary Landmarks are the Plaza Hotel and the Algonquin Hotel in New York City.

Mary is standing in front of a case in the lobby of the Hotel Monteleone that contains books from authors associated with the Hotel like Tennessee Williams, Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote and Henry Faulkner.

This is the Tenth Book Award for How to Negotiate Like a Pro, How to Resolve Anything, Anytime, Anywhere. 

See www.marygreenwood.org for more information about Mary Greenwood's other books, How to Mediate Like a Pro, winner of twelve book awards, and How to Interview Like a Pro, winner of twelve book awards.  

Mary Greenwood's How to Negotiate Like a Pro Wins Tenth Book Award

How to Negotiate Like a Pro, How to Resolve Anything, Anytime, Anywhere has just won its tenth book award. Greenwood's book is a Finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the "How To" category. Greenwood will attend the award ceremony  at the Monteleone Hotel in New Orleans on June 22, 2018.

The other nine awards are:

2. Winner, DIY Book Festival, "How To." 

3. Winner, Indie Excellence Book Awards, "How To."

4.  Finalist, ForeWord, Magazine Book of the Year Awards, "Self-help."

5.  Finalist, Readers Favorite Book Awards, "Self-help."

6.  Finalist, International Book Awards, "Business/Finance."

7. Finalist, Best National Book Awards, "Self-help."

8. Runner-up, New York Book Festival, "E-book."

9. Runner-up, New York Book Festival, "Self-help."

10. Honorable Mention, London Book Festival, "Self-help."

Visit www.MaryGreenwood.org

Mary Greenwood's essay on Women's History, "A Man's Spot," Wins First Prize in Memoir in South Florida Writers Association Writing Contest

SFWA Writng Contest: Thoughts on Women in History

First Prize Memoir for "A Man's Spot" by Mary Greenwood

I have been a member of the South Florida Writing Association for over ten years and find them a welcoming and encouraging group for all writers at all stages of their writing. They are also a lot of fun! Thanks for selecting "A Man's Spot" for First Place in Memoir for the topic of "Thoughts on Women in History." I am currently working on the rest of my memoir, whose working title is coincidentally called "A Man's Spot."

A Man’s Spot

“Do you realize you took a man’s spot?”

I swung around after I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I saw a male student that I had never met. I didn’t think I was hearing right. “What did you say?”

“Don’t you realize you took a man’s spot?” 

I was 24 and this was my first class at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles in September 1968. I was so stunned and frozen that I said nothing.  I could have said. “I certainly hope so” or “Do you feel threatened by me?” but the words didn’t come. Those words are still seared in my brain after almost 50 years, but I have no recollection of the man’s name or face. 

I was truly flabbergasted by the comment because no one had ever said anything like that to me. I started at a woman’s college where we were taught that we were “uncommon women.” I spent my Junior year at University College Dublin where the first question was whether you were Protestant or Catholic, but no one ever questioned my right to be there. Then I finished my degree at the New School for Social Research in New York City at the beginning of the civil rights movement and women’s liberation, but I never felt direct discrimination. I had just completed a Masters Degree in English in LA, but perhaps literature was considered the proper realm for a woman and law was not.

I always wondered if that student asked all the women students or just me. There were other women students in my class. One was Rose Ochi, a Japanese-American, who had been sent as a child with her family to an internment camp in Rohwer, Arkansas during World War II.  She told me her family had only one day to dispose of all their belongings in Los Angeles before leaving on the train. Rose later worked for the White House during President Clinton’s administration as an Assistant Attorney General under Janet Reno. Another woman student, Dr. Bailey, was already an established medical doctor. She was first in our class at the end of the first year. That student who said I took a “man’s spot” was not the only one who felt that women shouldn’t be lawyers. The men students would not allow women in their study groups; we mostly studied by ourselves because we lived in different parts of the County and had other commitments. 

In retrospect, I wish I had asked that student exactly what he meant by his comment. Did he think women should not be lawyers in general or that women should not be law students in the night program? I taught English at Pasadena City College during the day and attended law school at night. Since we were attending a Catholic University, did he feel that being a woman lawyer went against God’s will?  Did he feel men were smarter than women or that men could argue better than women? Or did he feel that I was taking away the livelihood of a man? Or did he feel that my place was in the home taking care of children even though at the time I did not have any?

I wish I had stood my ground and said something instead of wordlessly walking away. Over the last 49 years, I have thought of many rejoinders, responses and retorts. In my dreams, I turn into my Wonder Woman costume, complete with the silver cuffs, and yell something very clever and witty. In my fantasy, I am so persuasive that the student says “I am sorry. I know you will do well in law school and be a great attorney.” Then I snap back to reality.

Later I realized that I was not the only one. I was in good company. Belva Lockwood, the first woman attorney to argue before the Supreme Court, was not allowed to receive her law degree from George Washington University because “young men would not want to walk across the stage with her.” Belva did not give up and wrote to President Ulysses S. Grant, who was also the ex-officio Chancellor of George Washington University and she received her diploma within a week. The Dean at Harvard Law School chastised the women law students in Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s class for taking the spots of qualified males. After graduation, law firms would not hire Ginsburg, who was first in her class at Columbia where she transferred, or first Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who was third at Stanford Law. In her recent book, What Happened, Hillary Clinton cites similar anecdotes about her experience at Yale Law School and she graduated in 1973, two years after I did.

Now when I meet a woman attorney, I ask her how many women were in her law school class and I tell her about the “man’s spot” comment. Unless she has graduated recently, she usually has similar stories to share. I say recently because since 2016, 51% of the students in law schools are women so male students are now in the minority.  

After almost fifty years thinking about this “man spot” comment, I started realizing that my male classmate did me a big favor. He said what others were probably thinking. That first night at law school prepared me for the rest of my legal career. I heard many other sexist comments during my legal career, but I was no longer surprised, and, therefore, was able to find my voice and speak out. Whenever I was discouraged or thought of giving up, I remembered what that student said so long ago. As a result, I did my best and I persevered.

Mary Greenwood, Mediator, Attorney, Arbitrator, Negotiator, and Author of How To Negotiate Like A Pro: How to Resolve Anything, Anytime, Anywhere, Winner of 9  book awards; How to Mediate Like a Pro, Winner of 12 book awards; and How to Interview Like a Pro, Winner of 12 book awards. A Man's Spot, a Legal Memoir will be published in Fall 2018. Visit WWW.MaryGreenwood.org or email: Mgreen464@aol.com.

Thursday May 3, 2018 at 11:00 Negotiation Workshop and Book Signing with Award-Winning Author Mary Greenwood

Negotiation Workshop and Book Signing 

Thursday May 3, 2018 from 11:00 to 12:00

Anastasia Island Branch Library 

124 Sea Grove Main Street, St. Augustine Beach

NEGOTIATION WORKSHOP: HOW TO RESOLVE ANYTHING, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE By 

Mary Greenwood, Negotiator, Arbitrator, Attorney, Mediator, and HR Director, and

Award-Winning Author of How to Negotiate Like a Pro, How to Interview Like a Pro and How to Mediate Like a Pro, Winner of 34 book awards.

You will learn:

----How to get the best salary and not leave money on the table.

___How to close the deal when you reach an impasse. 

----How to ask the ten questions to get the best deal.

----What makes a good negotiator.

___What the four words are that everyone wants to hear in a negotiation. 

Mary Greenwood has a BA, and MA in English, a JD in Law, and an LLM in Labor Law. Greenwood's books are used in many college Negotiations and Conflict Resolution classes. 

Come and have some fun and Learn How to Negotiate Like a Pro.

                     The third edition just published

Book Signing at Anastasia Island Branch Library with Mary Greenwood, Diane Macaby, Sally Constain and Dr. Edward Mickolus

Author Book Signing, Anastasia Island Branch Library

124 Sea Grove Main Street, St. Augustine Beach

Saturday April 14, 2018 from 1:00 to 3:00 PM

Four local Authors will talk about their books and do book signings. They will talk about what they have published, the publishing process and what compelled them to write their books. Expect the unexpected.

Mary Greenwood, Former Attorney, Mediator and HR Director; Author How to Interview Like a Pro, How to Mediate Like a Pro and How to Negotiate Like a Pro. 

Diane Machaby, Former Nonprofit Director; Author, When God Showed Up

Sally Constain, Former Teacher and Librarian; Author, The Keys to Fanny and Sometimes I wonder, a poetry chapbook.

Dr. Edward Micholus, former CIA Officer; Author of 34 books on terrorism, intelligence, humor, education, biography, and inspiration. 

Come join us for an afternoon for readers and writers. 

Mary Greenwood Book Signing at AWP Tampa Convention Center, Thursday March 8, 2018, at 2:00 PM

Mary Greenwood Book Signing

Anyone else going to the AWP (Association of Writing Professionals) Conference in Tampa this week (March 7-10, 2018)?

I will be signing my recently-published book, the Third Edition of How to Negotiate Like a Pro, How to Resolve Anything, Anytime, Anywhere.

Where: Booth T1611 sponsored by the IWWG (International Women Writers Guild)  at the Tampa Convention Center at 333 S. Franklin St.

When: Thursday, March 8 at 2:00 to 3:00 PM

Who: Mary Greenwood has been an Attorney, Human Resources Director, Arbitrator, Law Professor, Union Negotiator, Mother and Grandmother, Mediator, Ebay Queen, English teacher and award-winning author (34 book awards).

What: Greenwood's vast experience has prepared her to write How to Negotiate Like a Pro, How to Interview Like a Pro and How to Mediate Like a Pro.

Why: After you have read Mary Greenwood's books, you will be negotiating, mediating or interviewing like a pro.

For more information, visit www.MaryGreenwood.org or email at Mgreen464@aol.com