Left Coast Writers Panel: Four Paths to Sanctuary 🗓

Join us on February 10th at 4PM for A Panel of on Four Paths to Sanctuary

Featuring Cindy Rasicot, Veena Rao, Judith Teitelman, and Anniqua Rana, introduced by Linda Watanabe McFerrin

The search for sanctuary—safe haven—is not uncommon throughout time, history, and geography—most especially during uncertain times like ours when many people are feeling insecure. In this hour-long program, listen to four authors discuss the unique paths they chose for their characters to find sanctuary:

An immigrant woman who is trapped in a loveless abusive marriage realizes self-love is a powerful force

A baby abandoned and covered in flies is raised by two mothers

A Northern California housewife is ordained in the Thai Buddhist tradition

A woman had a glimpse, a taste of her ultimate destination, and was unwavering in her quest

Join us for a Zoom panel featuring these four authors published by She Writes Press, an award-winning, female-run hybrid publisher of novels, memoirs, and nonfiction work by female authors on February 10th at 4pm.

Registration Link

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QJXo-W6wQsioRy4wnvLNfw

Special Presentation: “America after November 3rd” 🗓

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Special Presentation: “America after November 3rd”

Left Coast Writers

Special event: Monday, October 26, 5:00 pm

We’re back! After a considerable hiatus, our Left Coast Writers Literary Salons and events return, zooming to you at home.

Some things have changed—sessions will be BYOB so the cocktails and wine will flow as freely as you like and you won’t have to drive anywhere before or after— and some things remain the same. We’ll continue the now nearly two-decades-long support of our members in the production and promotion of their literary work through speakers, members’ book events and a super support network that begins at Book Passage, our long-time home, and reaches out across the globe.

Our first salon is epic … and historic.

In advance of the upcoming election, Book Passage’s Bill Petrocelli will be chatting about his new book Electoral Bait and Switch: How the Electoral College Hurts American Voters and What Can Be Done about It with online journalist Mort Rosenblum who’ll be sharing work and ideas from his new book Saving the World from Trump.

It will take place at 5pm on October 26^th

Of course I’ll also give you a quick preview of what we have in store for our members.

—Linda

Thanks for signing up and standing by.

Your invitation is on its way.

You can find more info here: www.bookpassage.com/left-coast-writers

Left Coast Writers® has been providing support and inspiration to writers in the Northern California area for more than 17 (more…)

LCW Literary Salon: An Evening of Mystery 🗓

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Monday, March 2, 2020 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Don’t miss this upcoming salon! It’s bound to be full of twists, turns and great reveals.

We’ll be hosting an evening full of MYSTERY for our members and friends at Book Passage at 7pm in Corte Madera on Monday, March 2, as authors Bill Petrocelli, Cara Black and Kelli Stanley preview some of the secrets of ingenious plotting and craft that will be explored at the 2020 Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference where they will all serve as guest faculty.

There will be a panel discussion about the genre, their contributions, what works for them, what doesn’t work, and how to keep readers turning pages and trying to anticipate twists and turns while perched on the edge of their seats.

The panelist/attendee Q&A should allow everyone to leave no stone unturned.

And, in keeping with the theme of the evening, we have a pleasant reveal in store for our members.

That bit is a surprise!

Our presenters:

Cara Black is the New York Times and USA Todaybestselling author of 19 books in the Private Investigator Aimée Leduc series, which is set in Paris. Cara has received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, a Washington Post Book World Book of the Year citation, the Médaille de la Ville de Paris—the Paris City Medal, which is awarded in recognition of contribution to international culture—and invitations to be the Guest of Honor at conferences such as the Paris Polar Crime Festival and Left Coast Crime. With more than 400,000 books in print, the Aimée Leduc series has been translated into German, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew.

William Petrocelli is an author, a bookseller, and a former attorney. He spent a few years as a Deputy Attorney General for the State of California and then as a poverty lawyer in Oakland, California, before going into private practice. Co-owner and co-founder of Book Passage, his novels include Through the Bookstore Window and The Circle of Thirteen.

Kelli Stanley is an award-winning and critically acclaimed American author of mystery-thrillers. The majority of her published fiction is written in the genres of historical crime fiction and noir. Her best known work, the Miranda Corbie (more…)

LCW Literary Salon: Zoe Fitzgerald Carter, Songwriter and Author of Imperfect Endings 🗓

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Monday, February 3, 2020 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

We have an appropriately LOVE-ly treat planned for the February Left Coast Writers Literary Salon: Author and well-known songwriter and performer, Zoe Fitzgerald Carter will be brightening the month by sharing her take on how to turn life and love into lyrics.

As Zoe says, “In many ways my songwriting feels like it builds on everything I’ve done as a writer over my lifetime. It’s just another, more concentrated way to explore language and storytelling and, like all my first-person writing, draws on lived experience.
Zoe FitzGerald Carter will discuss how she decided to become a full-time songwriter and musician after working as a journalist and memoirist for 30 years. While the form is different, the challenge is the same: How to be a vivid—and economical—storyteller. Zoe will share her tips and we think she has some surprises in store, one of which involves a guitar.

Zoe FitzGerald Carter is an author, teacher and journalist who has published in The New York Times, Salon, Vogue and Newsweek among other places. Her 2010 memoir, Imperfect Endings, about her mother’s decision to end her life, was excerpted in O magazine and was a Barnes and Noble “Discover Great New Writers” pick. Since 2017, she has turned exclusively to music, writing and performing original songs with her band, Sugartown. Her first album, Waiting for the Earthquake, came out last year and she is about to record a full-length solo album of original songs. She teaches memoir at The San Francisco Writers Grotto and Left Margin Lit in Berkeley, where she also teaches a six-week course on songwriting. (more…)

LCW Literary Salon: Michael Shapiro, Author of The Creative Spark 🗓

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Literary Salon: Michael Shapiro, Author of The Creative Spark in Conversation with Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Monday, December 2, 2019 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte

Madera || www.bookpassage.com

How about this for a stellar way to end they year! We are having an end-of-the-year Celebration and a close look at creativity with well-known Bay Area journalist, Michael Shapiro and LCW Founder, Linda Watanabe McFerrin. Please join us for wine, scintillating conversation, and a book that looks at creativity in conversations with some of the best in every business.

Creativity: how do we access it, nurture it, and sustain it? This question propelled journalist Michael Shapiro during more than a decade of interviewing many of the foremost creators of our time. In The Creative Spark: How musicians, writers, explorers, and other artists found their inner fire and followed their dreams, his just-published collection of conversations with Amy Tan, Smokey Robinson, Barbara Kingsolver, Lucinda Williams, Francis Ford Coppola, Lyle Lovett, David Sedaris and so many others, Shapiro reveals how these luminaries fire up their creativity and sustain it throughout their lives. Prefaced by short biographies, these interviews serve as guideposts for how each one of us can kindle our own creative sparks.

Shapiro will appear in conversation with Linda Watanabe-McFerrin, author of Navigating the Divide: Selected Poetry and Prose, a career-spanning, multi-genre collection. In profoundly personal poetry and prose, Watanabe-McFerrin’s multi-faceted collection spans spiritual and physical, thought and desire, identity and others. A renowned writing instructor, Linda will speak with Michael about the life-affirming force that is creativity.

Michael Shapiro writes about the performing arts, travel, food, books, and environmental issues for U.S. newspapers and magazines including National Geographic Traveler and American Way. For four years he wrote a column for the San Francisco Chronicle’s travel section and now covers music and the arts for The Press Democrat.

Linda Watanabe McFerrin is a poet, travel writer, novelist and contributor to numerous newspapers, magazines and anthologies.She is the author of two poetry collections and a winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction. Her novel, Namako: Sea Cucumber, was named Best Book for the Teen-Age by the New York Public Library. In addition to authoring an award-winning short story collection, The Hand of Buddha, she has co-edited twelve anthologies. Her latest novel, Dead Love (Stone Bridge Press, 2009), was a Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Superior Achievement in a Novel.

Linda has judged the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama (more…)

Literary Salon: Authors & Publishers with Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Joanna Biggar 🗓

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Literary Salon: Authors & Publishers with Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Joanna Biggar

Monday, November 4, 2019 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

We hope all of you will be able to join us on Monday, November 4th, for a book talk about the author-editor-publisher-reader relationship: how to find it, how to develop it, how to enjoy it.

It isn’t easy finding the right editor, the perfect publisher, or the reader who will appreciate your message. Please come and weigh in on this well-researched look at how it works and a frank discussion of the best and worst of the process.

Longtime authors and contributors to literary and commercial publications as well as colleagues and co-editor/publishers of the Wanderland Writers anthologies 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, and explored Bali, the Indonesian island that is known as an earthly Paradise. This fall they both have books out from Alan Squire Publishing, a much respected literary publisher in Washington, DC.

Not only will they share their work, they’ll be talking about the ups and downs, the ins and the outs and answering questions about the many ways to establish and grow literary relationships and navigate the sometimes daunting path to publication.

Joanna Biggar has traveled solo in the most remote areas of China, chaired a school board in Ghana, worked as a journalist in Washington, D.C., and taught school kids in Oakland, California. She is a member of the Society of Woman Geographers, mother of five, grandmother of eight, all of whom love books! Joanna’s first novel, That Paris Year, is written in English but captures that French novel feel in a truly classic style. If you’ve been to Paris, she will welcome you back, if you haven’t, you may just want to pack your bags! That Paris Year is a truly splendid read! Now, in Autumn of 2019, she follows Melanie, the heroine of That Paris Year, to California in her long-awaited sequel, Melanie’s Song.

Linda Watanabe McFerrin is a poet, travel writer, novelist and contributor to numerous newspapers, magazines and anthologies.She is the author of two poetry collections and a winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction. Her novel, Namako: Sea Cucumber, was named Best Book for the Teen-Age by the New York Public Library. In addition to authoring an award-winning short story collection, The Hand of Buddha, she has co-edited twelve anthologies. Her latest novel, Dead Love (Stone Bridge Press, 2009), was a Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Superior Achievement in a Novel.

Linda has judged the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama (more…)

Literary Salon: Maxine Rose Schur Author of Brave with Beauty, A Story of Afghanistan 🗓

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Literary Salon: Maxine Rose Schur Author of Brave with Beauty, A Story of Afghanistan

Monday, October 7, 2019 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Curtain Up! Using Theatre Techniques to Strengthen Your Children’s Story

Maxine Rose Schur is an award-winning children’s book author and travel writer. As a former professional actress. Maxine will share some surefire techniques from the theatre world to strengthen your story for young people. She’ll give you tips to create more believable characters, strengthen plot and enhance dialogue. You’ll gain down-to earth advice that you can easily use right away.

Maxine will also share how her extensive travels have informed her books for children and inspire you to use your own life experiences to inform your writing.

And as an added bonus, popular travel writer and LCW member, Laurie McAndish King will be our guest emcee for this exciting LCW Salon night!

Maxine Rose Schur is an award-winning author of books for children. As the recipient of the Joan G. Sugarman Award given by the Washington Independent Writer’s Legal and Educational Fund, Ms Schur was the Baker-Nord Guest Lecturer on Writing for Children to the (more…)

Literary Salon: Preparing Your Book for Sale—Publishing Advice from the Experts 🗓

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Literary Salon: Preparing Your Book for Sale—Publishing Advice from the Experts

Tuesday, September 3, 2019 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Please join us on Tuesday—the day AFTER Labor Day—for a chat with the experts on how to get your work published.

Agent Laurie Fox and Fearless Books & Literary Founder D. Patrick Miller will join Left Coast Writers Founder Linda Watanabe McFerrin in conversation about the often arduous and convoluted path to publishing.

They’ll talk about:

How to prepare your manuscript for publication.

Best ways to find an agent.
What the alternatives are if you can’t find a traditional publisher.
What happens after your manuscript is published … regardless of the path you took to get there.

Of course, you can invite a friend, if you know someone who could use the advice.

Just let us know who’ll be joining you.

Laurie Fox has been an agent for 30 years with the Linda Chester Literary Agency, which has its home office in Manhattan. A published author of two novels (Simon & Schuster) and poetry (Chronicle Books), Fox acquires books in the areas of literary and quality fiction, memoir/biography, popular culture, the fine arts, history and cultural history, and science and technology.

Laurie agented two-time Oprah Book Club novelist Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much is True. Other books of Laurie’s include Cheryl Strayed’s first novel, Torch; Lolly Winston’s New York Times bestselling Good Grief; David Corbett’s Done For a Dime, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; Carolyn Cooke’s story collection, The Bostons (NY Times Notable Book of the Year, a Los Angeles Times “Best Book of the Year”); New York Times bestseller First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen,which was made into the recent film of the same name. Laurie’s own books include: My Sister from the Black Lagoon (S&S) and The Lost Girls (S&S).

Fearless Books & Literary founder D. Patrick Miller has worked in books, two currently distributed by Penguin Random House and more under the Fearless Books imprint. As a collaborator, ghostwriter, or principal editor, Miller has helped other authors prepare manuscripts for such major publishers as Viking, Doubleday, Crown, Simon (more…)

Literary Salon: Travel Writers & Photographers Conference Preview: Women Travel Writer Share their Secrets! 🗓

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Literary Salon: Travel Writers & Photographers Conference Preview: Women Travel Writers Share their Secrets!

Monday, August 5th, 2019 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Want the inside scoop into the how and why and why not of putting place on the page and getting it published?

Join these travelers and successful travel writers in a group conversation about the art of traveling and translating those journeys and adventures for page and screen in a way that transports publisher, publication and reader.

Our panelists will discuss magazine writing, literary travel essay, long form journalism, and even fiction and alternate genres that celebrate a sense of place. They will also discuss their favorite publishers and publications and how to get your work into print and on screens.

Panelists: Linda Watanabe McFerrin (moderator), Joanna Biggar, Laurie McAndish King, Mary Jo McConahay, Jill Robinson (more…)

Literary Salon: An Evening with Constance Hale 🗓

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Literary Salon: An Evening with Constance Hale

Monday, July 1st, 2019 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Summer always takes people on the road, but if you are in the Bay Area the first Monday of July, we hope you’ll join us at the next Left Coast Writers Literary Salon where noted Bay Area journalist and storyteller, Constance Hale (Sin and Syntax; Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch) will share some of her literary secrets and techniques. Be prepared to jot things down in your preferred method because the night will be full of tips and answers to all of your questions.

Constance Hale Talks Character

Storytellers—whether they are novelists, memoirists, or narrative journalists—know that characters are key to any great yarn. Readers love people, and writers must deliver through short sketches to longer portraits to full-length biographies. Yet developing characters is trickier than you might think. Especially minor ones, where few words must make an impression. Connie Hale, who has made the profile her preferred form, gives us readings, an interactive exercise, and a few writing prompts to help us draw people on the page—and draw out important themes.

Connie is the author of four cheeky writing guides, including Sin and Syntax, which celebrates its 20^th anniversary this month. Her essay on the art of sketching people, Writing Character, kicks off a new book of prompts that comes out on September 10, (more…)

Left Coast Writers Panel: Four Paths to Sanctuary 🗓

Join us on February 10th at 4PM for A Panel of on Four Paths to Sanctuary

Featuring Cindy Rasicot, Veena Rao, Judith Teitelman, and Anniqua Rana, introduced by Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Special Presentation: “America after November 3rd” 🗓

Left Coast Writers

Special event: Monday, October 26, 5:00 pm

LCW Literary Salon: An Evening of Mystery 🗓

LCW Literary Salon: Zoe Fitzgerald Carter, Songwriter and Author of Imperfect Endings 🗓

LCW Literary Salon: Michael Shapiro, Author of The Creative Spark 🗓

Literary Salon: Authors & Publishers with Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Joanna Biggar 🗓

Literary Salon: Maxine Rose Schur Author of Brave with Beauty, A Story of Afghanistan 🗓

Literary Salon: Preparing Your Book for Sale—Publishing Advice from the Experts 🗓

Literary Salon: Travel Writers & Photographers Conference Preview: Women Travel Writer Share their Secrets! 🗓

Literary Salon: An Evening with Constance Hale 🗓

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