LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing

Monday, January 2, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com If you have a thirst for literary adventure, don't miss our first salon of 2012. The New Year takes off with a look at the world as we spend an evening with Lonely Planet, the largest travel guide book and digital media publisher in the world.

The company, now owned exclusively by BBC Worldwide, was founded by Maureen and Tony Wheeler in 1973 when they published Across Asia on the Cheap.Originally called Lonely Planet Publications, the company changed its name to Lonely Planet in July 2009 to reflect its broad travel industry offering and the emphasis on digital products. As of 2010, it publishes about 500 titles in 8 languages, as well as TV programs, a magazine, mobile phone applications and websites.

Lonely Planet author, Alison Bing, will be our guide as we explore the globe, travel writing, and the literary landscape ... Lonely Planet style.

I would continually look up a bookstore that had been around for decades just to find it had recently closed its doors for the last time. Many privately owned bookstores, both iconic and small-time, have had to do just that in the last decade or so. Many of them have been shoved out of the market by large chain bookstores like Barnes and Noble or online booksellers such as Amazon. They have also been badly hurt by the recent popularity of e-books and e-readers like the Kindle. These things, along with a steady loss of interest in reading precipitated by the popularity of motion pictures and television and a lack of focus on that skill in our schools, have made so many great bookstores that people have known and loved for years go out of business. While working on this project, I have read numerous tales of people who had been going to these stores for years; it really breaks my heart to know that they are now gone forever. I remember one person talking about how he had been going to a specific bookstore since his childhood.  He would hang out there all the time and knew the people who had worked there; he even knew the cat that had lived there for years, and he used to play with it whenever he went there. But that store went bankrupt a few years ago and had to close. I kept on reading story after story like that until I was on the verge of tears; these bookstores can be such welcoming and intimate places that when they close down, it’s like a close friend has died. This has affected many places even in the Bay Area. Iconic stores like Cody’s and almost all of the Black Oak branches, and smaller more specialized stores like Mama Bears, A Different Light and Get Lost have all closed within the past ten years or so. I urge all of you reading this to go to your favorite local bookstore and support them through these tough times. You never know, you could pass by the storefront of a bookstore you have loved for years but have not recently gone to and find that it is now nothing but an empty space. —Jack Betterly-Kohn

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Thanasis Maskaleris, Translator and Editor of The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis:  Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? [caption id="attachment_2678" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Thanasis Maskaleris"][/caption] Saturday, December 10, 2011 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

So come and celebrate with our earth loving, tree hugging tribe and share in this moving ode to our planet. “This ‘terrestrial gospel’ is just the kind of bracing slap the world needs, a reminder from a great writer about what’s real and vital.” —Bill McKibben Founder, 350.org, Author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet “Kazantzakis’s stentorian message needs to be hear far and wide, as we persist in our sometimes mindless assaults on our fragile plane.” —Dr. Leonidas Perakis, Scientist, Writer

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Peter Lang, Social Media Strategist and CEO of Uhuru Network [caption id="attachment_2670" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Peter Lang"][/caption] Monday, December 5, 2011 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com Wondering about websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and so on and how they can possibly help you get the word out about your work? We've asked Social Media Strategist and CEO of Uhuru Network, Peter Lang, to come to the Bay Area for the second time this year (he was also at the Book Passage Travel Food and Photography Conference) to share his knowledge and demystify the social media and online worlds for you. Peter is co-founder, CEO and lead strategist of Uhuru Network. He is also a co-creator and English author at Tricksfacebook.com, a multilingual tech blog focused on Facebook; co-creator and photographer for Stylishlyme.com, a personal fashion / travel blog; and co-creator of the LingoYou educational project, which uses blogging in high schools to connect and create a global conversation between two schools with different languages. He built his first computer at the age of 10. By the time he graduated with a Degree in International Business and a Certificate in Finance, this dynamic young business consultant and new media strategist had already created a marketing department for one of the largest logistic brokers in the U.S., worked with the World Trade Organization as a lobbyist for a major growers’ association, and served as Operations Director for an up-and-coming educational and environmental non-profit. He served as President of his college fraternity and studied strategic marketing, international logistics, and international management at the ESCE (Ecole Superieure du Commerce Exterieur) in Paris. As an assistant in the computer lab for his college Engineering Department, he created servers, built networks, advised on all upgrades and conversions, and trained faculty and students on the equipment for 7 labs housing hundreds of computers. “I believe we’re in the midst of the biggest opportunity since the industrial revolution,” says Peter. “My goal is to take away the stress and fear of social media. The internet is an outstanding resource for people and information. I love removing barriers so that clients can address it professionally, responsibly, fearlessly and with curiosity and spontaneity. Networks bring people closer together. They facilitate opportunities and help us find people with similar ideas and passions. That’s power. They increase our capabilities and our reach. They remind us that we are not alone.” Today, he brings his far-ranging travels and experience to bear in his work teaching and advising in the areas of new technology and social media strategy. Through Uhuru Network, Peter and his team are designing communication experiences and tools centered on what their partners hope to achieve with a focus on strategy, content development, graphic design, and online skill development. Peter Lang is changing lives, supplying businesses with the tools to navigate the rapidly changing netscape and teaching young and old a whole new “LANGuage.”