Author Conversation with Bernard F. Clark 🗓

Please Join Me on Zoom for Left Coast Writers with Bernard F. Clark

Monday, December 16th — 6PM

LCW is Zooming an “Author Conversation” with poet and “historical fiction” author Bernard F. Clark: Historical Fiction of Biblical Proportions. We’ll be discussing the writing of historical fiction: history, popularity, technique and changing expectations as evidenced in Bernie’s latest book: The Agnostic Gospels as well as other current historical fiction.
Is the Bible historical fiction?
Well, that’s a good question. It is certainly a precursor of the most successful collection of storytelling ever, anywhere in the world. It’s had a lot of editors in a lot of different languages, and many hands have shaped its various versions and antecedents. It has been a cause of great strife over the millennia, and it’s still popular enough to be branded, to shape beliefs, to win elections … in any of its many avatars.
So for this discussion Left Coast Writers will be taking a look at this form, a book and historical fiction of biblical proportions.

Who was Jesus of Nazareth? Man or God? Aside from the New Testament and other gnostic writings, there is scant historical evidence that he lived. The Roman historian, Flavius Josephus, is the most reliable source, and even the provenance of his writings is in question. Yet the New Testament Gospels are compelling.

Could a simple man have gathered such a following, fulfilled all the ancient prophecies and performed astounding miracles? Or was he, indeed, The Messiah, The Son of God? A Christian believer will say yes. An atheist will say no. The agnostic will say it is possible and not presume to know.

The Bible, confoundedly, overlooks at least eighteen years of the life of The Messiah, from his preaching to the priests in The Temple at age twelve, to the start of his ministry, around 30AD. What happened in those ‘missing years’?

Based on Biblical writings, apocrypha, folk lore and historical facts, The Agnostic Gospels trilogy recounts a possible course of events.

The first volume, Arimathea, tells how Yeshua’s (Jesus’) Great Uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, is the major mentor and architect of his early life. The story also explores the importance of Mary Magdalene and her relationship with Yeshua. Why was she portrayed in the gospels as being so troubled? Why did Yeshua tell her she was the most favoured of his disciples?

The second volume, Magdalene (in progress), expands upon Mary Magdalene’s story and sows the seeds for historically relevant events of the first century AD.

The third volume, Yeshua, explores the apocryphal stories of Jesus (Yeshua) in the East and his connection with Buddhism, before recounting the canonical gospels of the New Testament, set in the new context of his personal journey and what we have learned about his intended mission to cheat death and reveal the glory of God to all.

 

By profession, Bernard F. Clark (Bernie) is a systems consultant specializing in the design and coaching of software development methods. By Spirit, he has always been a traveler, photographer, artist, storyteller and poet.
Born in 1958 in Hertfordshire, England, it wasn’t until he moved to America in 1983 that he found his creative voice. During his ‘working years’, he hosted poetry open mics at Java Beach and Sacred Grounds in San Francisco and published three poetry books: Caffe Latte, Spritzers, and GooGooG’Joob, the latter also comprising a collection of short stories. He was also inspired to create a children’s book, David Oodle’s Doodle (illustrated by K. Plottner) that poetically relates the adventure of a boy who draws fantastic doodles with his magical pen and plenty of Zen.
Since retirement, Bernie has been able to spend more time focusing on one of the great mysteries that confounded him and his childhood friend, Cliff, when they were choirboys; did Jesus really exist? This exploration led him to the revelation that The Bible fails to account for at least eighteen years of Jesus’ life. This was too much of a challenge to not resolve and most of his time is now spent researching and weaving a tale of facts (such as they are known), folklore, legends and fiction that plausibly accounts for who Jesus was and how he became The Messiah.
Now residing in southern Nevada, Bernie and his partner enjoy international travel and exploring the national parks and awe-inspiring landscapes of the western USA in their trusty RV.

Reviews

From GooGooG’Joob:

‘Some people have a gift for joy that is contagious. They infect the rest of us on contact. Bernard F. Clark (I think I’m one of the few who know what the ‘F’ really stands for) is a gift to those who have been privileged to enjoy his friendship. His often brilliant, mostly joyful, frequently hilarious literary creations speak for themselves. Bernie is a natural poet and a spontaneous lover of life. His work is a reflection of his spirit overflowing with love, art and wonder.’

  1. M. Clarke
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NEW: WANDERING IN THE AMERICAN DESERTS 🗓

WANDERING IN THE AMERICAN DESERTS

Saturday December 14th, 2024 — 2 PM

Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||

After more than a decade of wandering with writers around the globe, editors and workshop leaders Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Joanna Biggar and Laurie McAndish King bring their contributors home to the salt basins, the shifting sands, the sunbaked plateaus, the starry-starry nights of American deserts.

What they find—shamans, fault lines, bird singers, and both hidden and not-so-hidden treasures—is sometimes mystifying, often satisfying, and always surprising as landscapes slip, slide and shape-shift around them. It may not be settling, but it certainly sets the stage for a deeper understanding of what the American desert and, by extension, the planet we inhabit have to teach us about ourselves and our place in our rapidly changing, sometimes confounding world.

In this volume, readers visit the Joshua tree, a strange plant the Mormons named after the armies of the biblical Joshua marching in the desert. They see odd natural formations, such as rock caves fit for shamans; earth reshaped by the force of earthquakes; an ancient sea brought to life by human folly; the night sky as it was in the beginning. They encounter birds, coyotes and lizards. We hear the power of silence.

And they meet people of every type: members of the present-day Cahuilla tribe who share their music and culture; pop singers and cowboy poets; inventors and artists; and eccentrics who thrive in the desert air: a wizards, a drop-out, a misfit who finds salvation in painting a mountain.

The anthology includes work by: Madeleine Adkins, J. R. Barnett, Daphne Beyers, Hugh Biggar, Michael J. Fitzgerald, Peg Wendling Gerdes, Cyndi Goddard, Thomas Harrell, Naomi Lopez, Mary Jean Pramik, Anne Sigmon, Tatum Tomlinson, Maw Shein WinJudy Zimola and more …

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Laurie McAndish King, and Joanna Biggar have travelled the world and written about it in novels, short stories, essays, poems and articles for many publishers and publications. They’ve also edited stories in numerous collections and series. This is the 9th book of the “Wandering”.

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This Fresh Existence at Book Passage 🗓

Please join us for a reading by Cindy Rasicot from her book, THIS FRESH EXISTENCE, and a Q&A hosted by Book Passage for this event organized by the Left Coast Writers.

Saturday October 12th , 2024 — 2 PM

Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||

Bhikkhuni Dhammananda defied convention to become the first woman fully ordained in the Thai Theravada Buddhist tradition. Dubbed “Rebel Monk” by the Thai press, she faced enormous opposition by the media, the public, and senior orthodox Thai monks. She has given a fresh existence to the ancient tradition.
What makes this book unique is that it’s a story of beating the odds, courage and making history, in Bhikkhuni Dhammananda defying orthodoxy, and establishing the women’s lineage of Theravadin monastics.
American author Cindy Rasicot became her student and disciple in 2005. This compelling book tells the story of Venerable Dhammananda’s remarkable path from TV personality, author, academic, wife and mother to ordained Bhikkhuni. Cindy Rasicot writes beautifully of their relationship, and shares Bhikkhuni Dhammananda’s gentle wisdom and direct insights about how to live a more powerful and compassionate life.

 

Cindy Rasicot is a retired Marriage, Family Therapist and author of This Fresh Existence: Heart Teachings from Bhikkhuni Dhammananda. This book tells the remarkable life of Venerable Dhammananda and shares her gentle wisdom about how to live a more powerful and compassionate life. In 2005 Cindy travelled to Thailand with her family where she met Bhikkhuni Dhammananda — an encounter that changed her life forever. In 2020 she wrote the award-winning memoir Finding Venerable Mother: A Daughter’s Spiritual Quest to Thailand. Her memoir is a soulful story of spiritual healing through her loving connection with Bhikkhuni Dhammananda. The book was a finalist in the international Book awards, The Sarton Awards, and Chanticleer International Book Awards.
Cindy received novice temporary ordination twice from Bhikkhuni Dhammananda at her all-female monastery, Songdhammakalyani Temple, in Nakon Pathom, Thailand. She hosts the YouTube program, Casual Buddhism, a series of conversations with Venerable Dhammananda about spiritual issues and Buddhist practices. Guests have included Jack Kornfield, Sylvia Boorstein, Joan Halifax, and many others. The link for the program is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcMU-5kE2ux_PbRPwT6HMOg Cindy lives in Pt. Richmond where she enjoys beautiful views of the San Francisco Bay. Learn more about Cindy at www.cindyrasicot.com.

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November 9th Post-Election Poetic Reflections 🗓

POST-ELECTION POETIC REFLECTIONS

Join Left Coast Writers® at Book Passage in Corte Madera 

2pm

November 9, 2024

Left Coast Writers® features poets Laurel Feigenbaum and Linda Watanabe McFerrin.
The latest books by both writers reflect, through different lenses, upon a world slammed by pandemic and political strife.
Please come and join in for refreshments, readings and a post presentation chat!
POST-APOCALYPTIC VALENTINE
by Linda Watanabe McFerrin
In a book that cheekily explores the body’s lusts and indiscretions, McFerrin moves through the dark and bright of the world, notating ethereal and passing loveliness
in lucid imagery. 
 
“In some ways, POST-Apocalyptic Valentine is a welcome, Feminist update of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl.” Prophecies such as “What Every Girl Should Know” urge us to recognize the damage we have done to the planet and acknowledge the regret we feel for what we have bequeathed to later generations. 
—James Cihlar, PhD and author of The Shadowgraph (University of New Mexico Press, 2020)
LIFE IN NO ORDINARY TIME
by Laurel Feigenbaum
While the ninety-seven-year-old poet’s personal life and that of her family remains stable, the world suffers increasing turmoil—be it war, displacement, or threats to our democracy. Laurel Feigenbaum’s poems of time and place reflect her observations, thoughts, feelings, and reactions to the crosscurrents of events over the recent decade. Politics, advancing technology, climate change, a lingering virus, family and aging are all topics tackled in Life in No Ordinary Time. 
“Wildfires and calving glaciers, war mongers, cryptocurrency, woke culture, unchecked technocracy, a demented demagogue, the surveillance state, the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer—the dreary earmarks of our zeitgeist seem endless. Laurel Feigenbaum takes them on with the perspicacity of her 96 years on earth and her trademark wit, dry as a three-olive martini.”
—Thomas Centolella, author of Almost Human
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The Blood of My Mother 🗓

Please join us for a reading by Roccie Hill from her book, THE BLOOD OF MY MOTHER, and a Q&A hosted by Book Passage for this event organized by the Left Coast Writers.

Saturday September 7th, 2024 — 2 PM

Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||

A powerful, historical saga about refugees in the West: family, race, and overcoming adversity.

book photo A mixed-race woman fights for her life as a refugee, slave, mother, and farmer in this saga inspired by the story of Roccie Hill’s great-great-grandmother, an unforgettable journey of a woman growing and enduring under multiple flags and through the turbulence of history.

“A family of refugees walks a thousand miles to a new home where they’ve been told they can find land to farm. One of them, Eliza, is a young mixed-race girl — and the great-great-grandmother of Roccie Hill, author of “The Blood of My Mother.” This story starts in 1827, when the promised land, now Texas, was part of Mexico. Refugee families “traveled in packs like hounds for survival.” This centuries-old irony is not lost on the novelist or the reader.
‘Eliza comes from the union of her Anglo drug addict father and a mixed-race delta woman who died in childbirth. Her father was a sharpshooter. People noticed. He fought the Mexicans, made good money — in 1800s Texas, he’d found his calling. But when her father dies, her Uncle James set about building the biggest plantation in Texas. Workers? He secretly bought ten Negroes in New Orleans. Eliza’s sister Lou was white, so she was sent to be fed, clothed, and educated. Eliza was not as pretty or as untainted. She got nothing. She was, she tells us, “a girl without value.”

“Eliza is sold by her uncle into slavery. There begins this story about what it takes to survive as a refugee, the outcasts Eliza collects along the way, and the strength she, an outcast herself, shows them. “But enduring is not healing or prevailing,” she writes. “It is only persevering; this, a refugee’s rough duty.”

“This isn’t a novel told by some white guy who read a history textbook. It’s not about big moments of battle courage. It’s about events you never heard of, like the Runaway Scrape: thousands of settlers walking across Texas in the rain for weeks to escape, hundreds dying along the way. It’s about white children kidnapped by Comanches who never wanted to be “rescued” because their indigenous culture made so much more sense. It’s about the very personal moments during the clash of indigenous, Mexican, and white cultures on the prairie. It’s about women who persevered because in the end, that’s the only privilege they are ever granted: the right to persevere.
“During an early escape, a starving man rushes Eliza on the riverbank, grabbing for her arms and head. She jerks her rifle high and pulls the lever clean and swift. “That was the first time I ever killed a man,” she writes. “You want to know what killing him felt like? Didn’t feel like anything.”

*excerpted from Head Butler review by Vanity Fair contributor, Jesse Kornbluth

book photo

Roccie Hill is an American writer and a native Californian who received her MA in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. After graduate school, she moved to Salinas where she worked with César Chavez as part of the United Farm Workers union.

She lived in England and France for a total of 15 years, working for several nonprofits, including the Official French Committee for the Statue of Liberty celebratons in Paris. She also produced a variety of short films and celebrity/royal events in England, as well as an exclusive dinner at the private home (Highgrove in Gloucestershire) of His Majesty Charles III in support of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust.

Upon her return to California, she continued as a non-profit executive as the Executive Director of Guide Dogs of the Desert, as well as the Chair of the California Association of Non-profits Public Policy Council.

Roccie has published three novels, several short stories, a play, exhibited her photography, and studied the history and genealogy of US borderlands cultures in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. She is a professional genealogist, with a focus on Native American ancestry. She is a former Board Member of both the Palm Springs United Nations Association and the Palm Springs Writers Guild, and current Board Member of the Genealogical Society of Hispanic America-Southern California.

She is a recipient of The President’s Lifetime Achievement Award (Barack Obama) for Volunteer Service (2016).

Inspired by the life of Roccie’s great-great grandmother and Texas pioneer, Eliza Green Moore, The Blood of My Mother is Roccie’s third novel.

As with many creative people, Roccie cheats at Scrabble.

 

Jacquelyn Mitchard, NYT Bestselling author & Oprah Book Club Inaugural Choice The Deep End of the Ocean, said this:

“Robbed by fate and evil doers of everything except her ferocious spirit, Eliza fights for her own space in the pitiless frontier that will become the state of Texas. Combining lyrical prose and non-stop action, Roccie Hill conjures an unforgettable character who somehow triumphs over nearly unthinkable privations. Hill’s Eliza springs to life as a true American original. I could not stop reading.”

Patricia Wood author of LOTTERY. Shortlisted in 2008 for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, said this:

“Lonesome Dove meets Where the Crawdads Sing. I simply could not put this novel down. Vividly written, The Blood of My Mother is a gripping saga about a perilous time in our nation’s history and a woman who survived it against all odds. It is a novel about how love and hope transcend man’s inhumanity to man. I was pulled deeply into the story and was held there until the very last page.”

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The Underworld: Deep Travel: A Literary Event 🗓

DEEEEEP TRAVEL, the most amazing journey on this planet …
On Wednesday, August 21st, at 6pm I get to journey to “The Underworld.”
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
book photoThis is extreme travel … without a doubt the furthest out you can get on planet Earth, and I’m hoping some of you will join me, post Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference, for a chat with Susan Casey, who takes us into the hadal zone, thirty-six thousand feet below the surface (over 16,000 feet below the abyssal zone) with the sea explorers who’ve taken the risk to deep dive in extraordinarily engineered submersibles to visit the vastly challenging reaches of our planet’s outer limits.
For all of human history, the deep ocean has been a source of wonder and terror, an unknown realm that evoked a singular, compelling question: What’s down there? Unable to answer this for centuries, people believed the deep was a sinister realm of fiendish creatures and deadly peril. But now, cutting-edge technologies allow scientists and explorers to dive miles beneath the surface, and we are beginning to understand this strange and exotic underworld:  A place of soaring mountains, smoldering volcanoes, and valleys 7,000 feet deeper than Everest is high, where tectonic plates collide and separate, and extraordinary life forms operate under different rules. Far from a dark void, the deep is a vibrant realm that’s home to pink gelatinous predators and shimmering creatures a hundred feet long and ancient animals with glass skeletons and sharks that live for half a millennium—among countless other marvels.

book photoSusan Casey is the former editor in chief of O, The Oprah Magazine. She’s also the author of New York Times bestseller’s Voices in the Ocean, The Wave, and The Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America’s Great White Sharks. Here’s a link to the event: https://www.bookpassage.com/.../susan-casey-underworld…

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Left Coast Writers® Bonnie Portnoy – The Man Beneath the Paint (Corte Madera Store) 🗓

Please join us for a reading by Bonnie Portnoy from her book, THE MAN BENEATH THE PAINT, and a Q&A hosted by Book Passage for this event organized by the Left Coast Writers.

SATURDAY, May 11th, 2024   2:00pm 

Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

The untold, multifaceted story of one of the most adventurous and prolific landscape painters of the American West.

Bonnie Portnoy explores the life and work of California Impressionist Tilden Daken (1876–1935), famous in his day, painted in every California state park and national park in the West—from the redwood forests to the High Sierra—and beneath the Pacific Ocean in a custom-built diving bell. In The Man Beneath the Paint, Bonnie Portnoy, Daken’s granddaughter, has deftly defined his indomitable spirit, audacious exploits, insatiable curiosity, and endlessly colorful life during the era of California Impressionism—from the early 1900s to the onset of the Great Depression. A close friend of writer Jack London, Daken lost his home and studio in San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake, got caught up in the Mexican Revolution, and participated in the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. A portrait of perpetual motion, he ventured on art expeditions to Mexico, Baja, Hawaii, and the South Seas; spoke out against the oncoming forces of modern art; socialized with many famous personalities of his era; and demonstrated his sensory synesthesia to the Hollywood crowd, painting to music in the “key of red.” Notwithstanding his wanderings, frequent relocations, and persistent self-promotion, he painted constantly and with passion. His legacy lives on, thanks to the thousands of canvases he painted of California’s stunning scenery more than a century ago.


“Tilden Daken lived during a golden age when artists, writers, and scientists championed the protection of landscapes that today are precious state, national, and regional parks. His works are a very personal expression of the life of a man who was a tireless adventurer and infectious painter. Bonnie Portnoy reveals the man and brings to us the world through his eyes and imagination. Her book is beautiful and inspiring. We owe a debt of thanks to her for her passion to see this through and to Tilden Daken as well for bringing these images to the world at a moment in history when the public voices first began to influence the preservation of these lands for all to enjoy.”

—Armando Quintero, Director, California State Parks.

Quintero leads the largest state park system in the country. He has served as a national park ranger, California Water Commission member, executive director of the UC Merced Sierra Nevada Research Institute, and elected member of the Marin Water Board and various cultural, parks, and volunteer organizations.

“Bonnie Portnoy is not hesitant to reveal family secrets. Alternating between biography and background history, she keeps the reader turning pages. Tilden Daken is revealed as a fascinating raconteur who pursued his own version of representational landscape painting. The Man Beneath the Paint is well-documented with footnotes and enhanced with family photos and many color illustrations of Daken’s paintings. It is a welcome addition to the ever-growing body of literature on California’s historic artists.”

—Nancy Dustin Wall Moure California art historian, prolific author, former curator for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and recipient of the 2022 Wendt Award from Laguna Art Museum.

 


Bonnie Portnoy lives just a few miles north of the enchanting Arts and Crafts house Tilden Daken built in Mill Valley, California, in the 1920s—unbeknownst to her until she launched the Tilden Daken Legacy Project to unearth the mysteries about the grandfather she never knew. Through the project, she made invaluable connections with art historians, museum curators, gallery owners, and avid collectors who helped her flesh out Daken’s long-lost story. In addition to family lore, she mined hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, exhibit catalogs, personal letters, autobiographical short stories penned by the artist, and much more. Portnoy, a former merchandising and marketing executive at several San Francisco-based retail firms, lectures frequently about Daken at a wide variety of public and private venues.

Bonnie Portnoy- photo credit – author.

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Left Coast Writers Book Launch: Unswerving by Barbara Ridley 🗓

LEFT COAST WRITERS® PLEASE JOIN US AT BOOK PASSAGE IN CORTE MADERA  FOR A CELEBRATION, Q&A, AND READING OF BARBARA RIDLEY’S NEW NOVEL: UNSWERVING

SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2024 2PM
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

PREPARE TO BE INSPIRED … A story of courage, resilience, and love, Unswerving challenges readers’ preconceived notions of disability, of limitations, and of the inevitability of fate.

When Tave wakes up alone in the hospital, she barely remembers the car wreck. Far from home, dazed, and despondent, she struggles to face the challenges of her new paralysis—all while worrying about her partner, Les, also severely injured in the accident, now cared for by her homophobic parents who refuse to allow contact.

In rehab, Tave relearns life skills and comes to recognize that her future will be completely different than she’d imagined. Where will she live? How will she find the help she needs? Can her friends rise to the occasion? Or will she be forced to move back in with her mother, putting up with endless talk of faith healers? Her one beacon of hope is Beth, her physical therapist. But Beth’s relationship problems with her own girlfriend push her toward overinvolvement—and risk damaging both her career and Tave’s recovery.
(more…)

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LCW Reads: An Elephant Ate My Arm by Laurie McAndish King 🗓

Laurie McAndish King

LCW Reads: An Elephant Ate My Arm by Laurie McAndish King
Book Passage, Corte Madera
Saturday, June 12th 2pm

Left Coast Writers At Book Passage
That’s right: at Book Passage in Corte Madera, outside on the patio, for the first on-site event of the year.

Left Coast Writers® at Book Passage is pleased to present the latest book by Laurie McAndish King, An Elephant Ate My Arm: More True Stories from a Curious Traveler.

The third book in a series that includes Lost, Kidnapped and Eaten Alive and Your Crocodile Has Arrived this new collection of travel tales is far ranging, exciting, and often hilarious. Laurie’s reading will be accompanied by wine, snacks and Cuban salsa music (possibly dance lessons, too).

“Halfway through An Elephant Ate My Arm, King describes her own method: ‘I had a nose for weirdness.’ Indeed, King finds weirdness and wonderfulness all over the world, and she describes both with verve and humor. But something else is at play here: a willingness to explore not just the outer world, but the inner one, too. To this personal journey she brings understated grace.”
—Constance Hale, Journalist, travel writer, and author of Sin and Syntax

PS: Please order your copy of An Elephant Ate My Arm from Book Passage in advance to ensure availability. Call 415 927 0960

To join Left Coast Writers go to: https://www.bookpassage.com/salon-registration/left-coast-writers-registration

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Left Coast Writers Zoom Wandering in Greece: Athens, Islands and Antiquities 🗓

Linda Watanabe McFerrin
Linda & Joanna

Thursday, March 18, 2021 ON ZOOM

Wandering in Greece
Wandering in Greece

Please join us on Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 5PM PST for an online book event featuring the 8th anthology of award winning travel writing from Wanderland Writers: WANDERING IN GREECE: ATHENS, ISLANDS AND ANTIQUITIES with editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Joanna Biggar and some of their contributors.

Once again workshop leaders Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Joanna Biggar take Wanderland Writers on another adventure —this time to Greece to wander amid its islands, its rocky shores, and upon those wine-dark seas of legend and lore where they discover how travelers who come to Greece as seekers find not only Greece, but, as Lawrence Durrell once wrote, themselves—and generally so much more—on the journey.

Stone, marble, mountain, sea and sky framed by endless blue—these are the elemental foundations of Greece, just as Greece is the elemental foundation of Western Civilization. For thousands of years Greece and its culture, philosophy, politics and spirit has inspired and influenced the lives of generations. In Wandering in Greece, this talented and inquisitive group of writers has captured some of the joy, warmth, grace, and wisdom of Greece and its people. These stories, poems and images will remind a whole new group of travelers that a visit is a must, and those who have already ventured in Greece that they have to return. 

—Ambassador Eleni Kounalakis, ret., Lt. Governor of California

Contributors include Daphne Beyers, Joanna Biggar, Sandra Bracken, Connie Burke, Barbara J. Euser, Annelize Goedbloed, Thomas Harrell, Donna Hemmila, Laurie McAndish King, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Gayle McGill, Mary Jean Pramik, and Anne Sigmon.

For more information go to www.wanderlandwriters.com

Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Joanna Biggar have floated down the Canal du Midi in France, danced in the sunlight of southern Greece, toasted the best of times in Ireland, devoured the culture and countryside of southern Italy, wandered through landscapes lost and found in Costa Rica, investigated the myths and magic of Cornwall, uncovered the soul of Andalusia, partied in Paris, basked in the magic of Cuba and explored the Indonesian island that is known as an earthly Paradise in their award-winning series. In each destination, they eat and drink, laugh and get lost, explore and expound with their merry band of travel writers. And they always return with a varied collection of tales, some mystical, some inspiring, some funny, some terrifying—each told in a different, highly personal voice.

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