For any member who has had their very first publication in the past six months, the podcast Small Publishing in a Big Universe is looking for panelists for an episode on that first-time experience. Please contact Vanessa MacLaren-Wray at vmacwray@cometarytales.com for details.  

James Hanna’s flash fiction, “Frilly Miss,” appears in BULL. A husband and wife spend the day at the races where the husband backs the wrong horse. 

James’s vignette, “Orville Baumgardner and the Pitiless Wind,” has been published by The Fear of Monkeys. A Republican Party castoff and lecturer extraordinaire, Baumgardner holds forth on book banning. Why does he want to ban The Catcher in the Rye and Moby Dick but not Huckleberry Finn? 

The Gold Country Writers 2023 Short Story Contest attracted 56 entries from writers who submitted 1,500 words or less of original fiction stories. The ten finalists will be honored on October 7, 2023, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the City Council chambers of the Auburn City Hall. Member Laurel Anne Hill will serve as the keynote speaker and talk about how “A Short Story Is Not a Short Novel.” The event is free and open to the public.

Please join Marianne Brems and friends for a poetry reading at Feldman’s Books, 1075 Curtis St. in Menlo Park, on Friday, October 6 at 5:00 PM. Marianne will be reading from her just released poetry collection In Its Own Time as well as sharing samples of her latest work. Light refreshments will be served. Hope to see you there!

Vanessa MacLaren-Wray’s duology, The Unremembered King, concludes with Flames of Attrition from Water Dragon Publishing. This alternative-universe science fiction drama blends political commentary with humor and action, as the newly appointed king of a conservationist matriarchal nation confronts an insurrection. To thwart those who would install a brutal patriarchy, he’ll need all his strategic genius, the determination of his soldiers . . . and dangerous new technology that doesn’t belong in this world.

Vibha Akkaraju was on KQED radio’s Perspectives! Our chapter President reads about friendship.

Jill Fraser will present “Marketing and Public Relations for your Book” at Rinconada Library in Palo Alto, on Thursday, September 21, from 6:30-7:30 PM. Join this discussion to hear more about marketing and public relations tactics to promote your book. Hear about how to use public relations, digital marketing, social media, and other marketing tools to sell your book and to reach relevant journalists.

Marianne Brems will read from her brand-new poetry collection, In Its Own Time, on Friday October 6 at 5:00 p.m. at Feldman’s Books in Menlo Park. A book signing and light refreshments will follow the reading. Adds Marianne, “It looks like the owner is moving towards starting an open mic style event on the first Friday of each month, which would create reading opportunities for additional authors. Stay tuned for more information.”

James Hanna’s “Don’t Hurt Me” was published in Across the Margin. In this story, malcontent and born loser Billy Babbitt whips out pepper spray on two election drop box watchers affiliated with MAGA. Billy appears several times in Jim’s anthology Fact Check and More Probing Tales, which has won the Global Book Awards’ gold medal in contemporary fiction!

For the next Writers Helping Writers event in San Mateo, member Marla Bluestone will lead “A Conversation about Speculative Fiction.” A retired occupational therapist with specialized training in neurodevelopment, Marla will help writers engage in opportunities the genre offers, including creative health care possibilities and technology’s impact on social dynamics. The event will take place Thursday, September 14, at 6:30 p.m. at the San Mateo Public Library.

Another flight, another child crying relentlessly, another helpless mother, and plenty of distraught passengers. Ida Lewenstein’s book A Sad Little Dog once again came to the rescue, capturing the child's attention and calming things down, just as it did a year or so ago under very similar circumstances. Ida describes the earlier incident in "A Simple Act of Heroism," published in last year's Fault Zone: Reverse.

Audrey Kalman’s novel The Walking Ladies was featured in a First Page Critique (“How to Better Establish the Tone in Your Opening”) on Jane Friedman's blog.

USA Today has run a full-page article on Geri Spieler’s book, Housewife Assassin: The Woman Who Tried to Kill President Ford (Diversion Books).

Marianne Brems’s poem “Popsicle on a Hot Day” was published in Creotopia on August 9. Her poem “Hip Replacement” will appear in The Bad Day Book the first week of September, while her poem “Gray Sky” will be published in Out There Literary Magazine on September 1.

See the team that makes it happen: news, social media posts, critique groups, and greeting and orienting new members into our branch. Check out the Communications Team on our website.

Reena Kapoor was invited to read her flash fiction story “Prayer Beads and Samosas” by the Flash Fiction Forum for their tenth anniversary celebration on August 23rd. A modified version of her short story “Interstellar Sympathies—Who Needs Them!?” will be published later this year in the Redwood Writers 2023 Prose Anthology: One Universe to the Left.

CWC member Steve Latner was offered an option deal for his novel This Taxi for Hire to be made into a feature film. Set during the 1970s on the San Francisco Peninsula, this murder mystery was inspired by Mr. Latner’s experience as a cab driver.

Tom Adams’s “The Tutor” won second place in speculative fiction in the 2023 Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference contest. Judge Ploi Pirapokin says this about Tom’s writing:

“A bildungsroman featuring recorded regrets, fatphobia, and an A.I. that provides the protagonist with a unique way to process his values. The protagonist’s earlier decision could have resulted in a more drastic consequence, which in turn, would be a deeper catalyst for his changed behavior.”

Megan McDonald, whose poem “Burn Scar” won honorable mention in the Redwood Writers’ contest, had another poem—“Unlikely Hiker”—accepted for their 2023 Phases anthology.

Kate Adams, Fault Zone editor, has had her poem “Ulysses” accepted for the Redwood Writers’ upcoming anthology, Phases.