Ransom Stephens, particle
physicist and technologies turned novelist and public speaker, discussing his
new bookThe God
Patent. He will open with the
story and its characters, turning to the unique way his book came into
print. He will share strategies and tactics, along with some important
secrets as to how to succeed with your own story.
Relevant to our
times,The God
Patent is the story of a laid off
engineer trying to rebuild a ruined life. In doing so, he discovers hope,
despair, faith and science, and has even be referred to as the “thinking
person’sDaVinci
Code.” The God Patent was
initially released as an e-novel. After 13 weeks on the Scribd.com top
ten, print rights were obtained my Numina press. Ransom, also a firsthand
witness to the development of the worldwide web and e-commerce will discuss the
degrees to which his success was due to success vs. an executed strategy.
He will also present his predictions for the future of publishing.
Website Basics- Getting Started Online, with
Linda Lee
Learn about:
Websites and Blogs
Hosting and Domain names
How to get started with a free blog
site
How to begin to build a name for
yourself using a website.
How to sell your own products online
successfully.
Bring your questions with you
for our Q&A session. Detailed handout
included
Linda Lee is a writer,
speaker, educator and website designer. She is the webmaster for several of the CWC branches,
including SF Peninsula. She is finishing her current book called "Smart Women
Stupid Computers, The Savvy Guide to the Internet?"
Linda works with and help technophobes and beginners find success
online. Due out in
Nov 2010. Visit Linda ataskmepc-webdesign.com Learn more about blogging for beginners at
WordPress Central.
March 2010
Growing Great
Characters from the Ground Up, with Martha Engber
Join us on
Saturday, March 20, when Martha Engber, writer/speaker/presenter, will
discuss how to grow great characters. Martha is the author of Growing Great Characters from the Ground
Up: A Thorough Primer for Writers
of Fiction and Nonfiction (Central Avenue Press, 2007). She
teaches and lectures to hundreds of people each year through in-person events
and bookstores, conferences and meetings, as well as through on-line courses.
Visit her website at www.marthaengber.com. She also maintains a blog
for writers, and has author pages on GoodReads.com, Amazon Author Central,
and Library Thing.
In December of
2009, her Novel The Wind Thief was
released by Alondra Press. Homer
Gallagher, author of Tales of the Mosquito
Coast writes: From the opening scene in
the desolation of theSaharaDesertto the final conclusion on a
storm-blasted mountaintop, Martha Engber weaves a haunting tale of the ultimate
triumph of love between Ajay, the thief from Mumbai, and the strangely obsessed
young woman Madina. Reminiscent of the late Garcia Marquez's Erendira and Her
Heartless Grandmother.
Mixing fun and fundraising seemed like the perfect job for ex-college
instructor, Presley Parker.
She’s psyched
about hosting the mayor’s wedding onAlcatraz. But
the party’s over when a body is found floating in the bay—and Presley may be
exchanging her party dress for prison stripes…
Writing Career Coach Teresa is the author of
Build Your Name, Beat the Game: Be Happily Published (a 22-day workbook for writers
to build their names and attract attention before and after
publication).
She conducts “Major League Tryouts with Coach
Teresa to Build Your Writer’s Name” at writers’ clubs and conferences.
Form a study-group, split the cost and hire Coach
Teresa to: * coach you in name-building to attract
the right agent or publisher or more fans * guide you in designing and growing your
blog (to showcase your expertise and experiences) * show you computer-navigating shortcuts
and how to easily “find stuff” on the World Wide Web
As an author and a community member, Teresa uses
her novel Love Made of Heart to: • shed light on stigmas suffered by immigrant women,
men, and children • advocate understanding of mental illness/traumas to
the mind • help survivors of violence find their own voices
through writing
Nov 2009
Douglas Abrams writes fact-based fiction that
tells an exciting story while at the same time changing the world we live in.
His latest book, The Eye of the Whale, has been on the best seller list of the
San Francisco Chronicle. His first book, The Lost Diary of Don Juan, has
beenpublished in
thirty countries around the world and was recently optioned for
film.
He is a former editor at the University
of California Press and Harper San Francisco Doug is also the co-founder of Idea Architects, a book and media
development agency that works with visionary scientists, scholars, and spiritual leaders to create
a wiser, healthier, and more just world. Abrams has collaborated with a number of the world’s great
scholars, scientists, and moral leaders, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, founder of EarthSave
International and best-selling author John Robbins, primatologist Frans De Waal, and astrophysicist
Joel Primack.
Oct 2009
Alan Rinzler has been acquiring,
editing, and publishing commercial and literary books since 1962. On Saturday, October
17th he'll
give us an insider’s view of what it takes to get published in today’s volatile and turbulent book
business, claiming there's never been a better time for authors to take advantage of creative
opportunities, new technology, expanding artistic options, and direct-to-reader
self-marketing.
Rinzler
shows how despite publisher's desperation to find new authors, many writers are rejected for
failing to understand their motivation, build an authentic platform, find the right agent, hold
themselves to a high literary standard, and market themselves.
Rinzler is
an Executive Editor at Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, an imprint of John Wiley & Sons, and was
Director of Trade Publishing at Bantam, Vice President and Associate Editor of Rolling Stone
Magazine, and President of Straight Arrow, the Rolling Stone book division, as well as an editor
at Simon and Schuster, Macmillan, Holt, and the Grove Press.
He edited and
published Toni Morrison, Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Robbins, Robert Ludlum, Shirley MacLaine, Andy
Warhol, Clive Cussler, Irv Yalom, Bob Dylan and others.
December 2008
Geri Spieler is an investigative journalist and award-winning
speaker. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and
Forbes. Her book, Taking Aim at the President:The Remarkable Story of the Woman who Shot
Gerald Ford (Palgrave-Macmillan) will be in bookstores January 2009.
Nick Taylor’s first novel, The
Disagreement, published by Simon and Schuster in 2008, has been compared him to Crane
and Fitzgerald, and he has been acclaimed by Civil War historians. Nick is a graduate of the MFA
program at the University of Virginia, and recipient of fellowships from the Virginia commission
for the arts, the William R. Kenan, Jr., Trust for Historic Preservation and the Virginia Center
for the Creative Arts. He is now an assistant professor in the department of English and
Comparative Literature at San Jose State University, editor of the university’s literary magazine,
Reed, and a participant in SJSU’s creative writing program.
September 2008
Alice Wilson-Fried and Laurel Anne Hill were our speakers this
month.
A native of New Orleans, Alice Wilson-Fried's first novel Outside
Child is a murder mystery set in her hometown. Her first published work was a
nonfiction, Menopause, Sisterhood, and Tennis. Website
Laurel Anne Hill's first novel Heroes Arise is an award-winning
science fiction parable about the pursuit of honor and justice. Laurel also writes award winning
short fiction. Website
June 2008
Kevin Smokler is the editor of Bookmark Now: Writing in
Unreaderly Times (Basic Books) which was a San Francisco Chronicle Noteable Book of 2005. His writing
has appeared in the LA Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Fast Company and on National Public Radio.
He lives in San Francisco and is the co-founder of BookTour.com, the world's largest directory of
author and literary events. Website
May 2008
In May, we hosted three area poets:
DAN BELLM lives in San Francisco. His first book of poetry,
One Hand on the Wheel, launched the California Poetry Series from
Roundhouse Press, and his second, Buried Treasure, won the Poetry Society
of America’s Alice Fay DiCastagnola Award and the Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize.
Website
TERRY EHRET grew up in Belmont and taught at Notre Dame
High School from 1984-1990. She is also one of the founders of Sixteen Rivers Press. Literary awards
for her first two books, Lost Body andTranslations from the Human
Language, include the National Poetry Series, the Commonwealth Club Book Award, and the
Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize. Website
GILLIAN WEGENER works as a junior high English teacher
in California’s Central Valley and lives with her husband and daughter in Modesto. Her poems have
appeared in numerous journals, including Runes, English Journal, americas review, and
In the Grove. Website
Apr 2008
Luisa Adams, author of Woven of Water, is no stranger
to California Writers’ Club, Peninsula Branch. Her published memoir, Woven of Water, has its roots
in CWC history. As a first place winner in the nonfiction category at the Jack London conference in
1997, she went on to become a board member and committee chair for future conferences. She is an
advocate for the power of club membership to promote personal writing success and will share
stories that illuminate that essential element in the writing life.
Freelance Writing Workshop with Heather Boerner and Martin Cheek
Feb 2008
Antoinette May is an old hand at the art of writing biography.
The Adventures of a Psychic was on the New York Times Bestseller list for
42 weeks. The Pilate’s Wife: A Novel of the Roman Empire, published in
2006 and recently issued in paperback (as well as in 17 languages!), is a biography which she
turned into a fictional tale. The Sacred Well is her most recent sale and
will be in the same genre.
In March, we had a
special event:
