© 2008 Wendy Nelson Tokunaga

I was addicted.

Unlike the mid-1990s, when I first started on the long road of attempting to get a novel published, in the 2000’s it was possible to query literary agents by email. No more dropping snail mail query letters with a SASE into the post box and waiting weeks or months for a reply. No more wear and tear on my printer, and no need to schlep to the post office to send out a partial or, if I were lucky, a full manuscript. Now when an agent asked to see all or part of my novel, I could send it as an attachment, or paste an excerpt in the email itself.

© 2008 Kate Amatruda

Tuesday, February 20
1128 Hours
Scrunched into a slippery orange chair at the DMV, I’m waiting with my 15-1/2 year old son to see what he needs to do to get a learner’s permit. With my Supermom powers of detecting danger where none exists, I’m conjuring up exploding gas tanks, road rage and high-speed crashes. I shudder at the picture of my boy in a vehicle going 65 mph. My nickname as a child was “Chicken Little” for my propensity to worry that the sky was falling.

In the Gallery: Colette Obrien talks about Time and Transformation: A Novel of Mayan Mysticism. Set within the myths and concepts of the Classic Maya, 700 AD, the feminine and masculine have been separated at the level of divinity for eons. A pair of female/male twins must discover how to bring the sexes back togehter and save their culture from extinction.

APRIL 14 5:30pm
LEFT COAST WRITERS® READING SERIES at the FERRY PLAZA
TOPIC: PURE POETRY
READERS: BECKY FOUST, GAIL FLYNN and ELAINE BOND

Monday, April 14, 2008 5:30pm ||
Book Passage-Ferry Plaza || One Ferry Plaza #46, San Francisco
For Info: See Book Passage or mailto: leftcoastwriters@aol.com

Our Poetry Reading Series are one of our most popular events. Come listen to award-winning poet, Becky Foust, as she reads pieces from her new book of poetry, “Dark Card” (due out in May, 2008 by Texas Review Press) on raising a son with Asperger’s Syndrome, along with Gail Flynn and Elaine Bond.

Wendy Merrill’s March/April column, “How Chasing Mr. Wrong Led to Mr. Write,” is still front and center at Roadwork on the Left Coast Writers site - http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/category/road-work/ - but you’ve already read it, right? Now, if you haven’t submitted something to Roadwork yet yourself, what are you waiting for? Contact Pat to submit your story or to pitch an idea. Roadwork@Leftcoastwriters.com.Are you ready for Roadwork?

Roadwork is the LeftCoastWriters.com on-line column about travel, writing and the writer’s life. All members of Left Coast Writers are welcome to submit an essay of 800 to 1000 words to editor Pat Bracewell at Roadwork@Leftcoastwriters.com for on-line publication. A new Roadwork column is posted on our website every other month.

Wendy Tokunaga, wowed us at our LCW Literary Salon with her powerful and witty story of beating the odds and realizing her dream with the publication of Midori by Moonlight (St. Martin’s Griffin, September, 2007). Now, she’s hit Japan with a great interview and review in “The Japan Times,” “Midori by Moonlight” sure to raise a smile. Click here to read the article…and congratulations, Wendy!

Christine Krieg, our LCW photographer, has just uploaded the photos from that great Salon with Jane Juska. Click here to view (and order prints) of these photos and others from previous LCW events.

By the way, Christine takes excellent portraits for your author photos and does wedding photography.

Take a look at Wendy Merrill’s excellent website for her new book, “Falling Into Manholes” (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, March, 2008). It’s informative, fun and witty, written in the style of the book, and it’s filled with great news and feedback from the likes of Anne Lamott. And while you’re at it, come to Book Passage event (Corte Madera) on March 29th at 7pm.

© 2008 by Wendy Merrill

The reason I attended the Maui Writers Conference that year was not because I’d dutifully saved my money, planned ahead, and was finally ready to put myself out there after years of hiding behind my fear of being rejected in a noble effort to publish my yet-to-be-written memoir. No, the real reason I decided to attend the conference that year was simply because I was chasing yet another good-looking-commitment-phobic-he’s-just-not-that-into-me man/boy with mother issues with whom I’d had a brief affair while on vacation in Maui, and I wanted to appear to have a legitimate reason to return to the scene of the crime.

Monday, April 7, 2008 7pm
Wendy Merrill, Author of Falling into Manholes

Book Passage || 51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera
For Info: See Book Passage or 415-927-0960

Meet Wendy Merrill, a quirky, attractive, in-recovery-from…well, you can pretty much name it…who, while seemingly on the quest for her perfect mate, keeps falling into manholes. After losing herself in an endless series of attachments, this serial mater comes to see how her relationships with men are indicative of all her relationships - with alcohol, food, drugs, family, friends, and most of all, herself.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Karen Templer, Editor in Chief and Doug Cruickshank, Features Editor of Readerville online

Editor in Chief, Karen Templer, and Features Editor, Douglas Cruickshank will talk about Readerville, the content and the community.

In the nearly 8 years since Readerville first appeared online, it has taken many forms. It was first a place where readers and writers and publishing insiders could meet each day to find out what’s interesting in the world of books. In 2001 a full-fledged online bookstore was added and Readerville began publishing content. In 2002 the bookstore went away and a print magazine was launched, called The Readerville Journal. The Readerville Journal ceased publication in 2003, but the website survived and continues to be the wacky and thought-provoking community it started out as.

Monday, May 5, 2008
Kemble Scott, Author of SoMa

Kemble Scott is the author of the bestselling novel SoMa. A longtime journalist before turning to fiction, Kemble has three Emmy awards for his work in television news. He also helps run San Francisco’s literary festival Litquake, and he’s the editor of the monthly e-zine SoMa Literary Review and the weekly email blast SF Bay Area Literary Arts Newsletter.

SoMa tells the interwoven stories of young people of the tech-driven “millennials” generation on a journey of thrills and self-discovery in San Francisco’s notorious South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood. The novel is based on the true tales of the city. Publishers Weekly describes SoMa as “a fun, frisky novel of shock horror.”

Monday, February 4, 2008

Jane Juska, Author of A Round Heeled Woman and Unaccompanied Women

Born in 1933, Jane Juska is an old person but a new writer. Her first book, A Round-Heeled Woman, was published in 2003, followed in 2006 by Unaccompanied Women. Before that, she taught English for forty years in high school, college, and prison. Her work has appeared in magazines and anthologies. She is working on a novel. She lives in Berkeley, California.

© 2007 by Joanna Biggar

They called us the ‘Thelma and Louise’ of journalism.