10/19/24  Conventional wisdom and recent guidance in traditional publishing hold that, in the process of seeking representation for your work, you should expect to send at least one hundred query letters. But where in the world do you find one hundred agents to query?

Join writer and aspiring author Megan E. McDonald as she demystifies the process of compiling a comprehensive target list. First, she will describe and demonstrate the essential tools (Publishers Marketplace, QueryTracker, Manuscript Wish List, Amazon, and good ole Google) one can use to research agents looking for work similar to what you write. Second, she will run through how she does it based on her own writing style and current projects, then open the floor up to one or two attendees and help them start to compile lists live.

You will leave with a better understanding of how to frame your search for relevant agents.

Megan E. McDonald is a 2016 recipient of a Stanford Online Writing Certificate in Fiction. She was named Literary Stage Exhibitor of the Year at the San Mateo County Fair in 2018, and also placed in that contest's poetry and fiction divisions in 2019. She has read personal essays at literary salon Bay Area Generations, delivered a Perspectives segment on KQED Radio, and was selected as a semi-finalist for the pilot episode of writing reality show America’s Next Great Author. Her work has appeared in Fault Zone: Reverse and Phases, the Redwood Writers’ anthology. She is currently querying with her chick lit novel DIRTY.

9/21/24  Your independent editor partner can provide the invaluable feedback needed to revise and put the final polish on your manuscript.

Whether taking the traditional publishing route or striking out on your own by self-publishing, working with a professional editor is essential. Increase the probability of hooking your reader and holding their attention all the way through your manuscript with the guidance of editorial feedback.

In this presentation, editors Eva Barrows and Lila LaBine will introduce you to the different types of editing professionals who can help you through various stages of the writing process. Big-picture developmental editors look at the structure, flow, and reader experience, while copy and line editors get into sentence-level details. Discover which type of editor you need now.

Then, we’ll explore how to find an editing professional you jive with and what the ideal editor/author partnership entails. Learn about interviewing potential editors, what deliverables to expect, and how to support your editor partner. Gain confidence in what step to take next in your publishing journey.

 Eva Barrows is a developmental editor and content manager in the San Francisco Bay Area. She edits a variety of non-fiction and fiction book projects spanning self-development, memoir, and historical fiction novels. Eva is the 2023-2025 Vice President of the California Writers Club, San Francisco Peninsula chapter and member of the Historical Novel Society and Women’s National Book Association. She founded Imitation Fruit Literary Journal in 2007 and holds a BA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Find out more about her editing services at evabarrows.com.

Lila LaBine is a line and copy editor of fiction manuscripts and screenplays. She started her business, LaBine Editorial, in 2020 and since then has worked with over 30 authors and screenwriters on their women’s fiction, contemporary romance, sci-fi, low fantasy, romantasy, and screenplay projects. She finds great enjoyment in checking the details of her clients’ manuscripts, and she’s dedicated to helping all writers feel confident in their work and providing a safe space for them to get feedback and encouragement.

8/17/24 Is writer’s block affecting your productivity? Learn how to tap into your creative mind when you need it most. This presentation will help you unleash your creative mind to generate fresh ideas with music and imagination exercises. You will learn about the science and philosophy behind the methodology of music visualization exercises you can do anytime to tap into endless writing inspiration.

This session is perfect for anyone facing writer’s block, writers looking to enhance their creativity and develop new strategies for idea generation, and individuals interested in combining wellness practices with creative writing. This inspiring and practical workshop will help you start writing

Yumi Tomita is the chief director of the Imagination Improvement Institute. She holds a BA in Biochemistry from Occidental College and has been a certified senior trainer for Imagination Improvement since 2014. She’s held trainings for executives and CEOs for Japanese corporations, group sessions for parents and busy professionals, and has run workshops at universities for over ten years. Yumi helps people care for and enhance their creative minds through a combination of music and visualization exercises. She was born in Japan, raised in Palo Alto, and calls the Bay Area home.

6/15/24 Whether you’re a new or established writer or poet, figuring out how to get your work published in literary journals can be confusing, and at times, overwhelming. There are thousands of journals publishing work in dozens of genres ranging from literary/historical to horror/post-apocalyptic. 

How do you evaluate which publications are more likely to publish your work, and how do you keep track of your work when submitting multiple stories to different publications? When does it make sense to enter a contest? Perhaps most important: how do you keep going after receiving multiple rejections? 

David Harris began writing short fiction several years ago and will share what he’s learned about the often bewildering landscape of literary journals. His stories have appeared in Fault Zone: Detachment, Litbreak Magazine, Idle Ink, Roi Faineant, Calliope, and The Concho River Review and longlisted for The Dillydoun Review 2022 Short Story Prize. He is a former Reuters journalist, corporate communications consultant, speechwriter, and a board member of the San Francisco Peninsula branch of the California Writers Club.

5/18/24 The mathematical definition of transformation describes a change of variables that are substituted for the original components. Webster’s Dictionary definition tells us that transformation is a noun: a dramatic change in form or appearance.

Your transformational story changed the variables and the appearance of your life. We’ll explore how seemingly random incidents figure into the fabric of your past, present and future:  your transformational stories. 

This presentation is designed to inspire, inform, delight and empower the audience. So many life events seem ordinary with not much significance. And yet, they could be the foundation of your transformational story and the beginning of something so much more:  memoir, novel, blogs, website content, emails, workshops/programs and social media posting. 

Mary E. Knippel, Soul Story Mentor, helps coaches, healers and entrepreneurs articulate their soul’s wisdom into the written word, gleaned from their life lessons as a business asset to grow their business and attract clients as well as to leave a legacy beyond this lifetime. Mary believes writing is a tremendous tool for self-development and everyone has a soul story of hope the world needs to hear. She assists aspiring writers who want to become authors in 2024 as the compiler of Written In Her Own Words-Wise Woman Wisdom the co-author book (launching July 17) and facilitating the Wise Woman Wisdom Retreat in Half Moon Bay. 

Find out more at https://maryeknippel.com

4/20/24 How do you start your research process? What words do you use to find information? Do you know how to gauge when a website is genuine? Geri Spieler will introduce methods that combine the main topics of "Online Research Methods," to equip you with skills and tools to find accurate information and discern whether it is reliable.

In this session, you will learn:

—Why you should use more than one search engine
—How to create effective keywords, word phrases, and search strings
—What is “Disambiguation,” why do we care, and how to accomplish it
—What are the Surface, Deep, and Dark Webs, and how can each help the research process
—A list of Deep Web search engines and databases
—How Artificial Intelligence can reduce search time
—Searching anonymously – why and how
—The differences among search engines, metasearch engines, directories, and portals
—What are invisible Web sites, and why we can’t use them
—How to ethically use people searches

Geri Spieler has written about the only woman who shot at a sitting U.S. president. Using her high-level investigative skills, she got Washington to open the file of what really happened the day the woman shot at President Ford instead of what the FBI covered up. In her breakthrough book, Housewife Assassin-The Woman Who Tried to Kill President Ford (Diversion Books), Spieler reveals the true story of Sara Jane Moore, a mother and doctor’s wife who lived in the country club community of Danville in 1975. She was the first woman who tried to assassinate a president, and missed his head by six inches. The author has a three-book deal with a new publisher.

3/16/2024 The use of meter and rhyme is unique to poetry; they are two of its most powerful tools. If prose is a form of carpentry, then poetry can be called joinery: no nails, no glue, words held together by sonic forces which can appear magical until you master them—or at least play with them—yourself.

Join Kate Adams and fellow writers to play some games with lines, stanzas, quatrains—experimenting with the building blocks of formal poetry. You will leave with your own stanza in hand.

Born and reared in San Francisco, in a Victorian mansion her father liked to call Mad Manor, Kate Adams has been writing since the age of twelve, when her first short story came to her, filling page after page of a very surprised notebook. She has maintained a daily writing practice, manifested mostly in sonnet forms. She currently teaches high-school Spanish in San Mateo.

1/20/24 Mary Beth O’ Connor will define memoir and review the scope, themes, arc, and immersive story structure. She will explain how to incorporate takeaway and reflection. Then she will address the emotional aspects of writing memoir. She will review writing goals, techniques, and skills development. Then we’ll delve into the business side of publishing and marketing memoir.

Mary Beth O’Connor has been sober from her methamphetamine use disorder since 1994. She also is in recovery from abuse, trauma, and anxiety. She wrote her story in her award-winning memoir From Junkie to Judge: One Woman’s Triumph Over Trauma and Addiction.

Mary Beth is a Director for She Recovers Foundation and for LifeRing Secular Recovery. She regularly speaks on behalf of these organizations and about multiple paths to recovery. This includes television, radio, conferences, podcasts, and recovery houses. She also develops relationships with other organizations, such as Women for Sobriety and trains attorneys, judges, and medical professionals.

Mary Beth regularly writes opinion pieces which have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Recovery Today, and other publications. Her memoir writings have been published in Memoir Magazine, Awakenings, and Ravens Perch, among others.

 Six years into her recovery, Mary Beth attended Berkeley Law. She worked at a large firm, then litigated class actions for the federal government. In 2014 she was appointed a federal Administrative Law Judge, from which she retired in 2020. https://junkietojudge.com

11/18/23 When a radio talk show host, podcaster, or TV producer requests your bio before a scheduled interview, do you have the right document to send? What about bios for other opportunities related to the business of being an author? Too often, bios signal that a writer isn’t ready for the next stage of their literary career and that can limit the chances of their book getting into the hands of readers.

In this session, you will learn the five specific bios you should prepare in advance of your book’s publication, how to write each one, and how to use each bio to benefit your writing goals.

You will learn:

• The difference between bios that create opportunities and those that create obstacles

• The value of including a media market in your bio and how to find yours

• What agents and media outlets consider red flags in an author's bio

• And much more!

Joey Garcia is a book editor and author platform coach. She helps writers get known while they’re writing a book, so when it’s published, there’s an audience waiting to read it. Joey’s clients have been interviewed by or have bylines in The Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian magazine, Ms. magazine, CNN, and The Tamron Hall Show, among others.

Joey is the author of When Your Heart Breaks, It’s Opening to Love and has been a featured Relationship Expert in HuffPost, USA Today, Deutsche Welle, KVIE public TV, Global Woman TV Sweden, Australia’s Ticker News, and Slate’s Dear Prudence podcast. Her poetry, short stories, and essays have received awards and been published in Calyx, Mslexia, Hippocampus Creative Nonfiction magazine, Writer’s Digest, The Caribbean Writer, and Hypertext. In 2017, Joey established the first-ever literary fellowship in Belize, her birthplace. A professional speaker, Joey has wowed audiences in the U.S., Sweden, and Albania.  www.joeygarcia.com

10/21/23 In her presentation “Writing Character,” Constance Hale will offer pointers for observing and capturing human complexity. How do you draw the physicality of a person—in words—so that a reader might recognize your vividly rendered character in, say, the check-out line at the grocery store? How do you get at the character's inner life? What's the secret of nailing both at once? And how do you treat yourself—author, narrator, first-person voice—as a character? We will use prompts from Hale’s book of the same name. The workshop will change the way you write.

Constance Hale is a California journalist and poet and the author of cheeky writing manuals, a book for adults on hula, and a picture book for children set in Hawaii. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, the LA Times, Wired, the Atlantic, Honolulu, National Geographic Adventure, and many other magazines. She covers writing and the writing life at sinandsyntax.com.

9/16/23 Giving your book or essay a good title is one of the most important things you’ll do as a writer. A title should not only capture a major theme of the narrative; it’s also an important marketing tool. Yet, choosing a title is not easy. In this presentation, Isidra will review the do’s and don’ts of choosing a great title and share tips from successful authors on where to find inspiration.

Club members will spend some time workshopping the title of works in progress in small groups. You worked hard on your writing. It deserves a memorable title.

Isidra Mencos is the author of Promenade of Desire—A Barcelona Memoir. She holds a Ph.D. in Spanish and Latin American Contemporary Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught Spanish language, literature, and creative writing. Her essays and articles have been published in Diálogo, WIRED, Chicago Quarterly Review, Stirring Literary Journal, Newfound, and elsewhere. Her essay, “My Books and I,” was listed as Notable in The Best American Essays 2019. Originally from Spain, Isidra lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

8/19/23 Beginning a story is easy. Endings rush at us in a flash. It’s the middle that makes us quit. One reason is that middles require something beyond a logical progression of character and plot. In this presentation we take cues from neurobiology, learning from the creativity of bodies as they maintain homeostatic targets, such as a temperature of 98.6 degrees. A muscle and tissue-based faculty, called proprioception, helps us decide whether to sweat, or pant or move into the shade. Writing is just as flexible. In this presentation we will learn why working backwards from target endings allow story middles to become poetically wild, drawing in seemingly extraneous elements as our characters adjust in order to emerge all the more themselves.

Eireene Nealand is a fiction writer with degrees from UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, where she researched proprioception, a coordinative faculty based in our muscles and tissues. Her work has won multiple awards, including two Fulbright fellowships, a Pushcart Honorable Mention, and Elizabeth Kostova and Ivan Klima Awards. Eireene’s books include The Darkroom, a translation (with Alta Ifland, Contra Mundum April 2021), and The Nest (with Megan Lueneburg, Nova Kultura 2017 ) and Shadows and Doubts (eohippus 2017), an exploration of the complex, overlapping, and contradictory narratives associated with court-trials.

6/17/23 Between traditional publishing and self-publishing there is small publishing. We discuss the place that independent publishers play in the publishing ecosystem, comparing and contrasting the submissions processes, benefits, and challenges authors might encounter as they follow each publishing path.

Steven Radecki is the author of Building Baby Brother, a small number of short fiction, several technical papers, and the nonfiction book, Multimedia with QuickTime. Steven is also the co-founder of Paper Angel Press and its imprints, Water Dragon Publishing and Unruly Voices, and the executive producer of the Small Publishing in a Big Universe podcast. Steven is a member of the SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association)’s Independent Authors Committee. He is a technical writer by trade.

5/20/2023 Writing with full and fluid descriptions takes a bit of practice, and it helps to have a few helpful hints along the way.

Carole presented productive ways to paint words into your latest novel, poem, or memoir as you practice your own “art of description.”

Author of the historical novel, A Cup of Redemption, and the companion cookbook, Recipes for Redemption, Carole Bumpus learned the importance of the art of description once she began writing. But it became even more imperative while writing her Savoring the Olde Ways series, all culinary/travel memoirs.

Carole is author of the historical novel, A Cup of Redemption, and the companion cookbook, Recipes for Redemption.

She is also author of the Savoring the Olde Ways series of culinary/travel memoirs. Current books in this series are Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table (Books One and Two), and A September to Remember: Searching for Culinary Pleasures at the Italian Table.

Carole is working on the next book in the series, based on her travels through Provençe. https://carolebumpus.com/

4/15/23 Whatever your writing genre, from sweet romance to erotica, from Regency Romance to erotic romantic suspense, sexual, or at least romantic, intimacy between your characters is likely going to occur. Whether it’s a chaste kiss in a Victorian garden or a one-night stand between lovers who met on a train, knowing how to choose and employ your writerly tools is vital to making those intimate moments on the page bring the response you want from your readers.

In this seminar we will explore:
—Intimacy vocabulary according to genre, style, and personal sensibilitie
—Intimacy scenes in memoir, special considerations
—Character and story as keys in determining tone of intimacy scenes 

Betsy Graziani Fasbinder believes that storytelling is our most unique human quality. As a therapist for more than 30 years, as an author, as a speaking coach, and as a writing coach, she strives to tell and to help others tell their lived and imagined stories with clarity, candor, and heart.

Betsy is host of The Morning Glory Project, an interview podcast featuring the stories of survivors, thrivers, innovators and trailblazers. She is the award-winning author of Fire & Water, Filling Her Shoes, and From Page to Stage: Inspiration, Tools, and Public Speaking Tips for Writers.

3/18/2023 How to Write With Page-Turning Tension in novels, stories, and even memoirs is like the connective tissue that allows muscles to attach to bones, and thus flex their might. It’s the heart of the conflict, the backbone of uncertainty, the hallmark of danger. It keeps readers guessing and characters on their toes.

This workshop will introduce writers to four key elements of tension, as well as discuss ways to create tension on the micro and macro levels.

It will help writers master the art of tension on every page and within every element of the story to craft a story your readers can't put down!

Jordan Rosenfeld is author of the forthcoming novel Fallout (Running Wild Press, 2024), as well as the novels Women in Red and Forged in Grace and six books on writing craft, most recently How to Write a Page-Turner. Her freelance articles and essays have appeared in hundreds of national publications such as The New York Times, Scientific American and Writer’s Digest. She is a freelance manuscript editor and writing teacher. Jordanrosenfeld.net.

3/11/2023 It’s the age-old battle between the outliners and the pantsers – those who meticulously script every writing session, and those who pilot solely by feel. Finding your unique approach requires a method rather than a formula. Stuart Horwitz’ Book Architecture Method has helped bestselling writers transform their messy manuscripts into polished books.

This workshop will introduce writers to a process for organization and revision that includes in-depth exercises to be completed throughout the day so that attendees leave with a new perspective on their book’s core, its structure, and where the work of revision lies most clearly. The workshop assumes nothing of a writer’s previous knowledge of technique, nor how much of their manuscript is complete.

Stuart Horwitz is a ghostwriter, independent editor, and founder of Book Architecture. His clients have reached the best-seller list in both fiction and non-fiction, and have appeared on Oprah!, The Today Show, and in the most prestigious journals in their fields. He is the author of three acclaimed books on writing: Blueprint Your Bestseller: Organize and Revise Any Manuscript with the Book Architecture Method, named one of the year’s best books about writing by The Writer magazine; Book Architecture: How to Plot and Outline Without Using a Formula, an Amazon bestseller; and Finish Your Book in Three Drafts: How to Write a Book, Revise a Book, and Complete a Book While You Still Love It.

2/18/23 Chris Hennessy is currently writing a memoir, Touched by Hannah. A man with cancer (Hennessy). His one-pound newborn, Hannah. And their fight for life.

Since 2019 Chris has had 6 articles published in the Davis Enterprise and Daily Democrat newspapers. He has had 4 national award winning films since Oct 2021. His 3500 word memoir, “This is What I Just Went Through,” will be published early in 2023. He is currently writing a Yolo YoYo’s screenplay (feature film) for the likes of Netflix/Amazon. 

https://www.henchris.com

1/21/2023 Do your knees shake when you’re asked to speak in public? Does your mouth go dry when asked to read your writing in public? Do your lips stick to your teeth as you are about to read for an audience? Does your mind take what seems like an extended vacation as the butterflies in your stomach rise in pure panic when preparing to read out loud?

Sam Kauffman has experienced all the above in abject terror when asked to read or perform. There is an art to dramatic reading. Learn some basic techniques for reading your short stories, story excerpts, drama, or poetry in public forums.

Sam Kauffman, CWC member and dramatist, has written and performed over eighteen one-woman musical dramas all over the U.S. for 20+ years. She will share her experience and the basics of dramatic reading.

11/19/2022. What if you could tap into your deepest wisdom and let it guide your writing? What if you discovered the key to express your most powerful voice as a writer?

In our November meeting, you will go on a brief writing adventure that opens a doorway into your deep imagination. You will experience a taste of a unique writing program created by Darlene Frank that explores the surprising and profound imagery of the unconscious. What you discover in the depths of your unconscious mind can infuse your creativity—and your writing voice—with new life. 

Darlene Frank is a writer, editor, and creativity coach who helps people create their most powerful writing. She is editor and publisher of “Spirited Voices,” an online magazine featuring work from participants in her Writing and Creativity Breakthrough program. Darlene has helped authors write and publish books about autism, food and travel, grief, adoption, sexual violence, yoga, dance, disabilities, and more. A longtime member of CWC, and past Board member of the SF Peninsula chapter, Darlene’s creative nonfiction appears in 12 anthologies, including Fault Zone; Times They Were A-Changing: Women Remember the ‘60s and ‘70s; and Wide Awake Every Week: 365 Aha! Moments. In another life, Darlene was an award-winning technical and instructional writer and author of two business books.

10/15/2022. Writers are usually tasked with editing other people’s work at some point, either as a beta reader, as part of a critique group or through a sideline as a developmental editor. We may not always have the editing skills we need when called upon in this capacity, however. This session will help you develop fifteen skillsets which you can then apply to your work as well.

A general introduction will cover adopting a mindset of neutrality, how editing is a conversation, and knowing how to respond based on what draft a writer is in, followed by a set of specific tools such as working with genre conventions, narrative arcs and plot holes, scenic writing, links and transitions, tone of voice, characters and relationships, point-of-view, and theme.

Stuart Horwitz is a ghostwriter, independent editor, and founder of Book Architecture. His clients have reached the best-seller list in both fiction and non-fiction, and have appeared on Oprah!, The Today Show, and in the most prestigious journals in their fields. He is the author of three acclaimed books on writing: Blueprint Your Bestseller: Organize and Revise Any Manuscript with the Book Architecture Method (Penguin/Perigee), named one of the year’s best books about writing by The Writer magazine; Book Architecture: How to Plot and Outline Without Using a Formula, an Amazon bestseller; and Finish Your Book in Three Drafts: How to Write a Book, Revise a Book, and Complete a Book While You Still Love It.

9/17/2022. Robert Pimm is the Book Publishing Chair of the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries. From 2002 until 2007 he served as Editor-in-Chief of Entertainment and Sports Lawyer, the Forum’s quarterly publication. Bob has co-authored books, chapters, and numerous articles on legal and business aspects of the book publishing industry including articles about new technologies and the emerging ebook industry. Some examples of his articles include Protection Racket: Are Copyright Lawyers and their Clients Shaking Down the Public?, a chapter in Thomson-West’s Entertainment, Publishing and the Arts Handbook; Riding the Bullet to the eBook Revolution, a chapter in Thomson-West’s Entertainment, Publishing and the Arts Handbook; co-author of the first and second editions of Opening a Bookstore: The Essential Planning Guide.

Bob served as Chief Learning Officer and Director of Legal Services for California Lawyers for the Arts from 2010 to 2018. He obtained his B.A. from Columbia University; M.Sc., London School of Economics & Political Science; B.A. [Law] & M.A., [Law] Cambridge University: Magdalene College, Cambridge, England; J.D., University of San Francisco School of Law. He has taught at Golden Gate University School of Law and UC Davis School of Law. 

08/20/2022. “Birth Your Truest Story … by Nurturing Your Most Tender Voice.” A writer’s most formidable obstacles often come from within. Harsh inner critics, fear of facing emotional truths, and the tyranny of ingrained habits may hold us back from bringing our stories freely onto the page. As teachers and coaches, Audrey Kalman and Jennifer Browdy are dedicated to helping writers overcome these challenges. Applying their decades of experience—Audrey as a novelist and birth doula, Jennifer as a college professor and memoirist—they have developed the popular Birth Your Truest Story workshop series, which helps writers hone their craft as they build community and commit to their writing practice. In this one-hour mini-workshop, Jennifer and Audrey offer a series of powerful prompt-based exercises aimed at helping you befriend your inner critic, transform your fear, and shift your unproductive routines, so that you can birth your truest story into the world! Find out more about their exciting series.

06/13/2022. Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman have been great friends for nearly 25 years. Their debut novel, Girls with Bright Futures, is a dark, suspenseful journey into the cutthroat world of college admissions. Earning starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal, it’s currently in development as a limited TV series with Discovery+. Tracy and Wendy live in Seattle and between them they have two husbands, four kids (three of whom have survived the college admissions process without a single parent landing in jail), two dogs, and a cat. Connect with Tracy and Wendy on Instagram at @katzndobs.

Most people assume Girls with Bright Futures (Feb 2, 2021) was inspired by the notorious Operation Varsity Blues scandal, but the real story is far more compelling. Tracy and Wendy will take you behind the scenes as they share the unlikely midlife journey that led them from the abyss of family health crises to a co-authored, published novel about college admissions mania. If you’ve ever considered a writing partnership or thought the idea was insane, but were curious about how people actually pull off co-writing and remain friends, join us as we’ll be sharing our thoughts and advice on successful writing relationships.

05/21/2022. For our May meeting, we asked our own writers to read passages from their published works. The readers included Larisa A. White, World Druidry: A Globalizing Path of Nature Spirituality; Penny Cole, “A Post-Pandemic World”; Judy Field, “The Garden and the Pandemic”; Tom Adams, “Inside”; Diane Lee Moomey, “Buddha on the 101”; Meera Rao, “Mending Fences”; David Strom, “The Good Glove”; Laurel Anne Hill, Plague of Flies; Cheryl Ray, “Essence of Water”; Mickie Winkler, “The Downside of Power”; Sam Kaufman, “Oceana”; Colleen Olle (pictured), “Nenes”; Marianne Brems, poetry from Sliver of Change and Unsung Offerings; Richard McCallum, “Missouri Boys: The War Years”.

Thank you for your inspiration, beauty, heart, and humor!

03/19/2022. Ron Katz started writing The Sleuthing Silvers series—featuring a Baby Boomer detective couple--after four decades as a trial lawyer. A Rhodes Scholar and a graduate of the Harvard Law School, in 2016 he was a Fellow at Stanford University’s Distinguished Careers Institute. Before starting to write fiction at age 74, he published over 100 professional and academic articles.

There are many obstacles to becoming a mystery writer at age 74. Ron’s “strategy” was to ignore them. The result so far has been 12 stories about a baby boomer detective couple—the sleuthing silvers—at the website www.thesleuthingsilvers.com. They have over 3400 followers on Facebook and have attracted the interest of two young screenwriters, who are writing a pilot to be submitted to streaming services. Ron has been interviewed on NBC radio, has been featured in the local press and has been a judge for the Shamus Award—given by the Private Eye Writers of America—for the best short story. Ron will talk about his unconventional path in what he perceives is a very staid publishing industry.

02/19/2022. Paul Levine “wears two hats”—lawyer and literary agent. In this session, Paul says, “I’m going to discuss four ways authors make money from book publishers. When I give lectures to beginning writers, I find that they have very little idea of how they can go from slaving away on their keyboards at night and on weekends to actually quitting their day job.” 

Mr. Levine has practiced entertainment law for almost 40 years, representating writers, producers, actors, directors, composers, musicians, artists, authors, photographers, galleries, publishers, developers, production companies, and theatre companies in motion pictures, television, interactive multimedia, live stage, recorded music, concerts, the visual arts, publishing, and advertising. The Paul S. Levine Literary Agency specializes in the representation of book authors and the sale of motion picture and television rights in and to books. Since starting his agency, Mr. Levine has sold over 150 fiction and non-fiction books to at least 50 different publishers and with many books developed as movies-for-television and feature films. 

Mr. Levine represents writers of a variety of genres. For fiction and non-fiction books, his biggest successes are with authors who originally self-publish their books.

01/22/2022. In our meeting, Alejandro Adams will guide us through the process of breaking into Hollywood as a screenwriter. Drawing on his considerable industry experience, Alejandro will cover intermediate and advanced screenwriting practices with a heavy emphasis on developing a series for a streaming service. 

Alejandro Adams is an independent filmmaker turned screenwriter. From pitching Jason Spitz (John Wick) to declining offers from Richard Gere, Alejandro has cultivated the sense of adventure that must accompany any foray into Hollywood. His international sports drama Shutout is being produced by Jeff Kirschenbaum (Fast & Furious, Maleficent, The Gray Man), with David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water) attached to direct. Alejandro has also developed two series with Mark Bomback (Defending Jacob, Planet of the Apes), from pilot to show bible (an industry-standard reference document with essential information about the series).