LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Gillian Bagwell, author of The Darling Strumpet, The September Queen, and the new Venus in Winter

Gillian Bagwell

Monday, July 1st, 2013 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com

Come and hear from the wonderfully talented and critically acclaimed author of historical fiction, Gillian Bagwell. She has written several books in the genre of historical fiction, centering around British royalty.  Her latest novel, Venus in Winter, focuses on Bess of Hardwick, the four-times widowed noble whose power was second only to Queen Elizabeth. Gillian, whose background includes a stint as artistic director of the Pasadena Shakespeare Company, will be sharing tips on how to improve your readings and stage presence. Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Oksana Marafioti, author of American Gypsy

Oksana Marafioti

Monday, June 3rd, 2013 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com

Oksana Marafioti, author of American Gypsy, will discuss writing a revealing memoir—how much to embellish and how much must absolutely stay true to reality. She has great advice to give on writing memoirs, so if you are planning on writing a memoir or any autobiographical or nonfiction work, for that matter, be sure to attend!

Oksana Marafioti was born in Riga, Latvia and grew up in a stage family, spending her childhood on concert tours with a Russian Romani troupe led by her grandfather, Andrei Kopylenko. She moved to Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: David Downie, author of Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James

David Downie

Monday, May 6th, 2013 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com

Whether you are worldly, unworldly, other-worldly or out-of-this-worldly, you won’t want to miss our May Literary Salon.

Renowned travel writer David Downie will share the tools of his trade with us. David has written extensively about world travel and Paris in particular, with books like Paris, Paris: Journey to the City of Light, Paris City of Night, and his most recent Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James. He’ll talk about travel, travel writing and Paris and answer questions about exploring a place or a passion and writing about it.  Trust us, there can be no better Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON:  Patricia Bracewell, author of Shadow on the Crown

Patricia Bracewell

Monday, April 1st, 2013 || 7pm

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

We hope all of you will come out for this very special event. Our beloved Roadwork editor, Patricia Bracewell, will be speaking about her experience writing historical fiction. Her recently released novel,  Shadow on the Crown (Viking, 2012), has been very well received and critically acclaimed. Patricia will be discussing the research that goes into writing such a novel, how much to fabricate and how much to keep to the facts, and other problems one may face when writing fact-based fiction.

Patricia Bracewell is a native of California where she taught literature and composition Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Self-Publishing Panel – Self-publish Like a Professional: How to Avoid the New Slush Pile

Monday, March 4th, 2013 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com

This time we have a full panel of speakers coming to teach you about self-publishing.  They’ll be sharing their expertise in all areas of writing, publishing, design, distribution and marketing with you. If you are thinking about publication, either with a traditional publisher or as an independent, you won’t want to miss out on the wealth of information offered here. It will save you from making many of the blunders that plague novice authors and mark them as amateurs. There’ll also be plenty of time to answer your particular questions.

The panelists are:

• Jim Shubin, Book Design
• Lowry McFerrin, Publication and Print
• Phil Cousineau, Writing and Marketing
• Bill Petrocelli, Book Sales and Distribution Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Brooke Warner, author of What’s Your Book: A Step-by-Step Guide to Get You from Inspiration to Published Author, editor, and publisher

Brooke Warner

Monday, February 4th, 2013 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com

Do you dream about writing a book but second-guess yourself? Are you trying to finish a manuscript but can’t because you’re stuck with writers block? Have you finished a manuscript, shopped it around with no bites, and given up? Brooke Warner, author of What’s Your Book: A Step-by-Step Guide to Get You from Inspiration to Published Author, editor, and publisher, will be coming to speak with all of you about just those issues. She will give advice to and answer questions from all those that aspire Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Connie Hale, Author of Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch: Let Verbs Power Your Writing

Connie Hale

Monday, January 7th, 2013 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com

We’re kicking off the new year with a great speaker.

Gambol, gallivant, or gallop over over to Book Passage in Corte Madera on Left Coast Writers® Literary Salon night to hear the Bay Area’s own  Constance Hale is going to impart her wisdom on the mechanics of writing.  We hope you will all be there!

Constance Hale is a San Francisco based journalist and author. Her three books on language and writing, Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Ausbert de Arce (publisher) and Petra Mason (author, photographer, designer)

Petra and Ausbert

Monday, December 3rd, 2012 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com

It’s the end of the year, and we have a special two-speaker salon this month! Our final literary salon speakers this year are Ausbert de Arce and Petra Mason. They will be discussing the benefits of self-publishing or creating a boutique press, taking from his extensive knowledge as a publisher and her knowledge as a published author.

Ausbert de Arce is the founder of Taschen America and Assouline Publications, and current head of the Rizzoli Studio program of the art publications division of Random House group. Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Rose Solari, poet and author of A Secret Woman

Rose Solari

Monday, November 5th, 2012 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com

It’s a delight to introduce you all to Rose Solari, our next Left Coast Writers speaker. Rose is an award-winning poet, writer and educator. Her most recent work is the novel A Secret Woman, which revolves around a strong and independent woman who finds herself on an amazing journey into the heart of her mother’s mysteries.

Rose Solari is the author of two full-length collections of poetry, Orpheus in the Park and Difficult Weather. Her poetry and prose have Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Nancy Bruning, author of more than 25 books on health and wellness

Nancy Bruning

Monday, October 1st, 2012 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com

Writers, as you know, in our work we all sit too much and visiting author/trainer Nancy Bruning has the solution: Nancercize: 101 Things to Do on a Park Bench.  (Yes it’s supposed to make you smile.) Learn more about fitness and personal health from Nancy. Nancy is a personal trainer, group fitness instructor from NYC as well as the author of over 25 books.  Her latest book will show you how to get up and get out … how to use an ordinary park bench and other park features as the basis for a free, fun outdoor exercise experience.  Nancy will give a demonstration designed to Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Claudia Sternbach, Editor in Chief of Memoir Journal and Author of Reading Lips, a Memoir of Kisses

Tuesday, September 4, 2012 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

It’s Tuesday night in September (Labor day weekend!), not Monday night … and it’s going to be fascinating. Claudia Sternbach, Editor in Chief of Memoir Journal will be answer all your questions about capturing your personal stories on the page in long and short form. She’ll also be letting the assembled know exactly how to submit work to Memoir Journal. Patricia Bracewell, our talented Roadwork editor and author of the upcoming historical novel, The Shadow on the Crown (Viking), will be emceeing. You won’t want to miss this stellar evening. Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Daniel Riviera, Entertainment and Intellectual Properties Attorney

Daniel Riviera

Monday, August 6, 2012 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

There are many legal issues that may arise as a writer trying to publish your material, some you may have never even thought of. That is where Daniel Riviera comes in. Daniel will lightly go over topics which include source materials and potential liability; collaboration agreements; protecting and submitting your work; agency and management agreements; option/purchase agreements; crowd-funding; self-publication; electronic rights. He will focus in his talk on the latest trends in Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Mary Jo McConohay, Journalist and NCBA winning Author of Maya Roads: One Woman’s Journey Among the Peoples of the Rainforest

Monday, July 2, 2012 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Join Mary Jo McConahay in a discussion about “The Varnished & Unvarnished Truth”.  She will be speaking about her experiences writing award-winning creative non-fiction, as well as the genre as a whole.

Journalist Mary Jo McConahay covered Central America as a war correspondent and lived in Mexico and Central America for fifteen years.  Her award-winning work has appeared in more than thirty magazines and periodicals and is collected in a half-dozen books, including True to Life Adventure Stories by Women and Best Travel Writing 2011. She co-produced the PBS documentary Discovering Dominga, awarded the Cine Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Michele Jin, publisher of Passion Fruit magazine

Monday, June 4, 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive || www.bookpassage.com

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
—Marcel Proust

Who better to talk about a new vision than Michele Jin, creative force and founder of Passion Fruit magazine.

Michele began publishing Passion Fruit magazine in print form in 1999. Now an online publication, Passion Fruit magazine is a travel magazine that explores the issues and experiences of female travelers … and she’s looking for stories! Male travelers, this doesn’t exclude you, by any means, and your contributions are also welcome. Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: William C. Gordon, Author of King of the Bottom

William C. Gordon

Monday, May 7, 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive || www.bookpassage.com

Maybe some of you remember celebrating wildly that night at Book Passage with Willie Gordon and Isabel Allende earlier this year when The Chinese Jars came out. It was definitely a night to remember. Well, one of our heroes (he’s been a huge supporter of our Left Coast Writers) is at it again. William C. Gordon has a new book out: King of the Bottom.

Oddly, it’s been a long haul getting books out in English, even for this internationally famous author, so we’re sure he has a revealing story to tell about writing and publishing books. He also has some fascinating fiction in his arsenal. Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Clive Matson, Author of Let the Crazy Child Write

Clive Matson

Monday, April 2nd, 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive || www.bookpassage.com

In April we’ll be celebrating National Poetry Month with a number of poetry focused events. National Poetry Month was created in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets to promote poetry and its importance in American culture and history.  We begin our National Poetry Month series with a salon featuring poet and writing coach Clive Matson.

Clive Matson (MFA Columbia University) has been a published poet since 1964 and has been a writing coach for many Bay Area novelists, among them Deborah Janke, Willie Gordon, Isa Maynard, Phillip Wilhite, Laura Glenn Luis, and Joe Quirk. His early teachers were the Beats in New York City, and among his published works are Mainline to the Heart(1966), Equal in Desire (1983), Chalcedony’s First Ten Songs (2007), and Chalcedony’s Second Ten Songs (2009). Over the years he has become more and more immersed in the stream of passionate intensity that runs through us all. That intensity is one standard for fine writing, according to his 1998 text Let the Crazy Child Write!, which he uses as a model for his writing classes. Clive enjoys playing basketball, table tennis, and collecting minerals in the field. He lives in Oakland, California, where he helps bring up his young teenage son, Ezra, and facilitates WOW (Writing Occupy Workshop). Visit Clive at www.matsonpoet.com

We’ll look forward to seeing you all there!

Third Monday of the Month for 12 months – 6:30-8:30 pm
For the whole year: Only $200 / $150 for Left Coast Writers® members
$40 Drop-in fee

Finally, the writing group everyone has been asking for … and it’s only around $10 a month for Left Coast Writers® members! Get in on the latest Left Coast Writers® literary adventure: The Left Coast Writers® Monthly Writers Group.

Bring your work and your imagination as well as humor, honesty, and attention to an evening of sharing recent writings, discussion on craft, and fabulous literary prompts. Either author/instructors Linda Watanabe McFerrin or Joanna Biggar will be on hand to contribute editorial direction and orchestrate sessions. This is a chance to get feedback on your work and hone your skills in a stimulating, supportive, and highly professional environment.

This workshop is designed to help writers across genres get their creative juices flowing and to hone and polish their craft. Each workshop will focus on a particular writing skill, for example: vivid writing through evoking the senses, structuring a piece from opening to close, the all-important nutgraph, finding a voice, “making it sing.”

Each class will include using a prompt, followed by in-class writing time, followed by a discussion of the participants’ work. These sessions will be tailored to the aims and goals of the students once we know better what they are.

Bring paper, pens, laptop and bring your imagination.

Left Coast Writers® are well known for their books, essays, articles and blogs, so you will be in super company. The group will meet the third Monday of every month at Book Passage in Corte Madera. Don’t miss out. Call them up (415 927 0960) and sign up before the doors close on this one!

Upcoming Workshops:
Mon., Mar. 19 – 6:30-8:30 pm
Mon., Apr. 16 – 6:30-8:30 pm

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Cara Black, Author of Murder in the Latin Quarter and the Aimée Leduc series of mystery novels

Monday, March 5th, 2012 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com

We are thrilled to host an exhilarating evening with murder/mystery writer Cara Black. Cara is the author of the popular Aimée Leduc series of mystery novels including Murder in the Rue de Paradis which was on The Washington Post‘s Best Books of 2008 list and Murder in the Latin Quarter which is a finalist for Best Novel NCIBA (Northern California Independent Keep reading …

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.

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Peter Lang, Social Media Strategist and CEO of Uhuru Network

Peter Lang

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.”

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Jasmin Darznik, Author of The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother’s Hidden Life

Jasmin Darznik

Monday, November 7, 2011 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com

Please join us for an evening with one of our favorite writers: New York Times best selling author, Jasmin Darznik, who got her start right here at Book Passage in Corte Madera.

Jasmin’s first book, The Good Daughter : A Memoir of My Mother’s Hidden Life, was published in January 2011 by Grand Central. It was a New York Times Bestseller and will be published in thirteen countries. The book has just been released in paperback.

Jasmin is an award-winning essayist and short story writer whose writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and other publications.

She was born in Tehran, Iran, grew up in Marin County, and received her Ph.D. in English from Princeton University. She is a professor of English and creative writing at Washington and Lee University and has also taught Iranian literature at the University of Virginia. As a 2011-2012 fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, she’s now at work on a novel set in 1960s Iran.

The Good Daughter was first conceived in a Book Passage workshop led by Linda Watanabe McFerrin. She counts the aforementioned Linda Watanabe McFerrin as her best teacher, ever.

For more about Jasmin and her book you can visit www.jasmindarznik.com

Here’s what reviewers are saying about The Good Daughter.

“An eye-opening account that disturbs with its depiction of the place
of women in Iranian society, but warms the heart in its portrayal of
their gritty endurance.”—Kirkus

“Riveting.” —Vogue

“Superb … riveting … a moving tribute.” —The Cleveland Plain Dealer

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Laurie McLean, Agent

Laurie McLean

Monday, October 3, 2011 || 7pm

Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com

Get the scoop on the latest trends in publishing and what agents are looking for these days from our October speaker, Laurie McLean.

Laurie McLean joined the Larsen Pomada Agency in 2005 following a 20-year stint as the CEO of a successful Silicon Valley public relations agency. Laurie was able to switch gears in 2002 to immerse herself in writing. She penned three manuscripts, and if that wasn’t enough, decided that the life of a literary agent would be the perfect complement to her duties as a writer of fantasy and romance.

Laurie has been writing professionally since high school—first as a journalist, then as a public relations agent. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from the State University of New York and a Master’s Degree at Syracuse University’s prestigious Newhouse School of Journalism.

Laurie specializes in adult genre fiction (romance, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, westerns, horror, etc.) plus middle-grade and young adult children’s books.

For more on Laurie, check out her blog at www.agentsavant.com.

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Spud Hilton,  San Francisco Chronicle Travel Editor

Spud Hilton

Tuesday, September 6, 2011 || 7pm

Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Back from those summer travels? Maybe it’s time to write about them. And what better way to find out how than during a relaxing evening with Spud Hilton.

Spud Hilton is the travel editor of The San Francisco Chronicle, where in the past 10 years he has written about, reported on and been hopelessly lost in destinations on five continents. His attempts to divine, describe and defy the expectations of places — from Havana’s back alleys to Genoa’s churches to the floor of a hippie bus in Modesto — have earned five Lowell Thomas Awards, and have appeared in more than 60 newspapers in North America, several of which are still publishing. Spud also writes the Bad Latitude travel blog at SFGate.com, and is working on a book. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, Ann, and he plays cornet in an early New Orleans traditional jazz band.

Our Tuesday night salon (Monday is Labor Day) will be a super intro to this talented writer and editor. Writers who want to spend more time with Spud can sign up for an evening with him at Book Passage in the Ferry Plaza where they will learn how to “chart their story’s course.”

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Roger Housden, Author of Saved by Beauty:  Adventures of an American Romantic in Iran

Roger Housden

Monday, June 6, 2011 || 7pm

Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

We invite you to step out and into the “creative pause,” a chance to relax and listen in on the secrets of writing, travel, discovery, beauty and engaging the heart with one of our favorite philosopher-writers: Roger Housden.

Roger Housden is the author of some twenty books, including the best-selling Ten Poems Series. All his books, whatever the subject – poetry, art, a journey through Iran or India – share a common aim: to inspire himself and others to question the way we live, encouraging us, before we die, to live into the best that we are. One of his recent works, Seven Sins For a Life Worth Living, is an unusual reflection on the nature of pleasure, including the pleasure of doing nothing – “the creative pause” – and the pleasure of not being perfect. His book on Iran, Saved by Beauty:  Adventures of an American Romantic in Iran, has been called “a pilgrimage, a prayer, a heartfelt reminder, a poet-traveler’s window into the eternal soul of Iran …” (Jack Kornfield, best-selling author of A Path With Heart and After the Ecstasy, The Laundry).

Roger’s work has been featured many times in The Oprah Magazine, in The New York Times, and in the Los Angeles Times. He now  lives in Marin County and runs periodic classes on Spiritual Memoir in the Bay Area.

“I grew up in the cleft of a Cotswold valley on the edge of Bath, England. Living in the shadow of an ancient stone circle, I always felt us to be creatures with one foot in this world and one in another, less visible one. To weave these two realms – this gritty world of action and the world of silence, imagination, and being – into one cloth, rich with meaning, is what I feel we are here for. Poetry, art, meditation and also travel have given me a language for this experience of a life deeply felt, and also an entry directly into it.”

—Roger Housden, Author of Saved by Beauty:  Adventures of an American Romantic in Iran

If you want to bring a friend to this event, just let us know and we will be happy to add them to the guest list.

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Alan Squire Publishing

Publisher Jimmy Patterson and Author Joanna Biggar share the stage

Monday, May 9, 6pm
Book Passage || Ferry Plaza
San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

We hope you’ll join us as visiting publisher and author James J. Patterson (Bermuda Shorts) teams up with local favorite Joanna Biggar (That Paris Year) for a night of remembrances. The authors will chat about memoir, or in the case of Patterson … men-moir .. and tell tales about life and love in the city of light and the good old USA.

James J. Patterson grew up with a foot planted in each of two worlds — one in Washington DC, the Capital of the Empire as he calls it, and one in rural Ontario, where his Canadian mother insisted the family spend their summers. His father, one of the wizards of 20th Century newspaper publishing, introduced him to the city’s wheels of money and power, which he would later navigate as an entrepreneur, starting his first business at 20. But those Canadian summers introduced him to a different world – one where a cedar strip boat was better than any car, and where the ghosts of those who’d previously inhabited the family’s island house floated out over the water of Lovesick Lake. It is those two worlds that blend in Bermuda Shorts, a collection on what it means to be a man, an artist, an iconoclast, a patriot, and a lover, as the 20th Century rolls over into the 21st.

A life long student of history, philosophy and politics, Patterson has managed country bands, delivered newspapers, adapted Sherlock Holmes short stories for radio plays, and published a highly regarded sports magazine. As a singer-songwriter, Patterson was half of the political satire folk music duo, The Pheromones, one of the first acts to be featured on MTV and one of the last bands to play on American Bandstand. With the Pheromones, he toured the US for over fifteen years.

Joanna Biggar turned twenty in Paris, where she was a student at the Sorbonne, and went on to earn degrees in Chinese language and French literature. Since then she has chaired a school board in Ghana, traveled solo to remote regions of China, worked as a journalist in Washington, D.C., and taught inner-city school students in Oakland, California, where she lives. She is married, has five adult children and six grandchildren, who love books. A member of the Society of Woman Geographers, her special places of the heart remain France and the California coast.

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: James J. Patterson, noted musician, Co-Founder of Alan Squire Publishing and Author of Bermuda Shorts

Monday, May 2, 2011 || 7pm

Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

We’re ecstatic about a VERY SPECIAL guest publisher and author visiting from Washington D.C. and hope you will join us for a lively evening of humor and celebration. In honor of James Patterson’s visit, we will be opening the salon to your special guests … just let us know (leftcoastwriters@aol.com) who you want to add to the guest list.

James J. Patterson grew up with a foot planted in each of two worlds — one in Washington DC, the Capital of the Empire as he calls it, and one in rural Ontario, where his Canadian mother insisted the family spend their summers. His father, one of the wizards of 20th Century newspaper publishing, introduced him to the city’s wheels of money and power, which he would later navigate as an entrepreneur, starting his first business at 20. But those Canadian summers introduced him to a different world – one where a cedar strip boat was better than any car, and where the ghosts of those who’d previously inhabited the family’s island house floated out over the water of Lovesick Lake. It is those two worlds that blend in Bermuda Shorts, a collection on what it means to be a man, an artist, an iconoclast, a patriot, and a lover, as the 20th Century rolls over into the 21st.

In clothing, Bermuda Shorts are casual formal wear – and in this collection of essays, Bermuda Shorts is the perfect metaphor for James J. Patterson’s fundamentally serious but playful literary style. Patterson writes like the love child of Henry Miller and Mary Karr, with all the contradictions that implies —a philosopher who thinks best over a glass of fine wine; an ex-Catholic still
haunted by the image of the Crucifixion; an irreverent political satirist whose patriotism flies the flag of another iconoclast, Thomas Paine.

A life long student of history, philosophy and politics, Patterson has managed country bands, delivered newspapers, adapted Sherlock Holmes short stories for radio plays, and published a highly regarded sports magazine. As a singer-songwriter, Patterson was half of the political satire folk music duo, The Pheromones, one of the first acts to be featured on MTV and one of the last bands to play on American Bandstand. With the Pheromones, he toured the US for over fifteen years.

Alan Squire Publishing (Patterson’s independent press) also published Oakland author Joanna Biggar (That Paris Year).

Trust us: You will NOT want to miss this evening.

Visiting Author/Publisher James J. Patterson will be speaking and reading at a number of special events while he is in the San Francisco/Bay Area. Left Coast Writers is a participating organizer of many of these events and will be providing refreshments. We are posting his entire schedule in the hope that you will be able to join us at some of these occasions.

Thursday, April 28th, 2011 @5:30pm
Towne Center Books
w/Joanna Biggar author of That Paris Year
555 Main Street, Pleasanton, CA
925 846 8826

Monday, May 2, 2011 @7pm
Book Passage w/Left Coast Writers Literary Salon
51 Tamal Vista Blvd.
Corte Madera, CA  94929
415 927 0960
Left Coast Writers and Invitation only

Wednesday, May 4, 2011 @7pm
A Great Good Place for Books
w/Joanna Biggar
6120 LaSalle Avenue
Oakland, CA  94611
510 339 8210

Friday, May 6, 2011 @7pm
Friends of Left Coast Writers Salon
Sonoma, CA
Invitation only

Saturday, May 7, 2011 @7pm
Friends of Left Coast Writers Salon
Oakland, CA
Invitation only

Monday, May 9, 2011 @6pm
Book Passage/Left Coast Writers
w/Joanna Biggar
1 Ferry Building
San Francisco, CA 94111
415 835 1200

Tuesday, May 10, 2011 @7:30pm
The Booksmith
w/Linda Watanabe McFerrin & Joanna Biggar
1644 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA  94117
415 863 8688
http://www.booksmith.com/event

Thursday, May 12, 2011 @7pm
The Double Play Sports Bar & Restaurant
w/Dan Fost, Jason Turbow, Steve Hermanos, and Aaron Pribble
2401 16th Street
“The Mission”
San Francisco, CA 94103
415 621 9859

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Laurie McAndish King and  Suzanne Rodriquez get “App Happy” at our first salon of the year!

Laurie McAndish King

Suzanne Rodriquez

Monday, January 3, 2011 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Happy New Year!

We want to share the newest and best in what’s happening in the world of words and publications with you this year.

So to begin, get “App Happy” with Suzanne Rodriguez and Laurie McAndish King at our first salon of 2011.

Smartphone apps are the latest “it” format for writers—and with good reason. With 85 million iPhones/iPads/iPod Touches, 300,000 apps, and 4 billion app downloads from Apple alone, the market is already huge … and it’s growing ever-bigger at an ever-faster pace.

App developers Laurie McAndish King and Suzie Rodriguez tell us why they’re excited about the mobile app marketplace, how they collaborated to develop San Francisco Waterfront: Bridge to Ballpark (released by Sutro Media in December), and how you, too, can get in on the mobile applications phenomenon. They’ll discuss choosing a topic, assessing your market, writing for the mobile format, sourcing images to accompany the text, and the advantages of mobile apps over traditional travel guidebooks.

Suzanne Rodriguez is the author of three non-fiction books and hundreds of articles. Suzanne’s writing covers numerous topics, including high tech … but she really loves to focus on food, wine, and travel.

Laurie McAndish King is an award-winning travel writer and photographer, as well as publisher of Travel Writers News. Laurie has also written and edited erotica, as you might guess after reading the entry for Hog Island Oysters in the San Francisco Waterfront app.

Suzie and Laurie will also discuss free and inexpensive ways to market your app and the prospects for making money with it. One or more free downloads of San Francisco Waterfront: Bridge to Ballpark will be available as a prize for the audience member(s) whose head is packed with the most trivia about the San Francisco waterfront.

Here’s a headstart question: Which San Francisco beach was the 1986 birthplace of the Burning Man festival?

Do you know?

It’ll be a lively and entertaining evening. Mobile media welcome. See you there!

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Canyon Sam, Author of Sky Train:  Tibetan Women On the Edge of History

Canyon Sam

Monday, December 6, 2010 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

December is a very special time for us. Every year we close a series of absolutely marvelous salons with an inspirational Presenter, one who embodies the spirit of community that means so much to our writers and to readers everywhere.  This year, we’ve asked Canyon Sam to speak. We expect this to be festive, a bit of a party, a chance to celebrate together, to congratulate one another on a year of good endeavor and offer support and inspiration for the year ahead. So we hope you’ll join the festivities and enjoy a wonderful evening with Canyon Sam.

Canyon Sam is a PEN award winning author, nationally acclaimed performance artist and activist from San Francisco.  A third generation Chinese American, Ms. Sam spent a year in Tibet, China and India when Tibet first opened in the mid 1980s.  Upon return to the States she worked as an early  Tibet activist in the U.S. — helping found the Tibetan Nuns Project, and speaking before Congress at their Tiananmen Square hearings on human rights.

Her groundbreaking book Sky Train:  Tibetan Women On the Edge of History (University of Washington Press, 2009), with a foreword by the Dalai Lama, reveals for the first time the untold narrative of Tibetan women and their unsung role in the occupation of their country.  Blending memoir and oral history, the author travels on China’s controversial new “Sky Train” to Lhasa in 2007 and crosses the Himalayas in search of women from her earlier oral history project.  Along with the gripping stories of women’s resistance, courage and spiritual resilience, the book also offers one of the first inside accounts of the recent drastic changes in Tibet due to  China’s meteoric rise to modernization.

Sky Train, over nineteen years in the making, won the 2010 PEN American Center’s Open Book Award.

“Remarkable…visceral and deeply felt.”      Publishers Weekly, starred review.

“A miracle of a journey, a miracle of a book.”     Maxine Hong Kingston.

Don’t miss this!

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON:  Jeff Greenwald, Author of Snake Lake

Jeff Greenwald

Monday, November 1, 2010 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

If you have not witnessed our next salon speaker in action, you have missed out! If you have been to any presentation by Jeff Greenwald, you know what we mean. We’re delighted to be able to share a night with this amazing traveler and raconteur as he celebrates the long awaited publication of  Snake Lake. In this latest work, Jeff (Shopping for Buddhas and The Size of the World) returns to Kathmandu. Snake Lake unfolds during Nepal’s bloody 1990 uprising. Encounters with a Tibetan Lama and a frisky photographer enliven a tale in which he wrestles with three wildly different paths to liberation.

Jeff Greenwald has a gift for electrifying descriptions of the profound intricacy of the world and the mind. His portrait of his erudite, inscrutable, and doomed brother and keenly illuminating memoir of place, spirit, love, and brotherhood are unforgettable.
—Booklist

Jeff Greenwald has traveled extensively through five continents, working as a writer, artist and photographer. In addition he has prepared exhibits, lectures and educational programs for the San Francisco Exploratorium, the University of California, the Body Shop International, and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

In the course of his travels, Mr. Greenwald has had the opportunity to participate in a number of unusual projects. In 1979, during his first trip to Asia, he designed urban playgrounds for UNICEF and the Nepal Children’s Organization. Several months later, arriving in Thailand during the Khmer civil war, he served as a volunteer water engineer at Khao-I-Dang–the largest of the Cambodian refugee camps.

In the Spring of 1983, he was awarded a Journalism Fellowship by the Rotary International Foundation, and departed for a second trip to Asia. During this 16-month residence he lived in Kathmandu, Nepal, and made excursions to the Himalaya, India, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Japan, Java and Bali. The resulting articles appeared in GEO and Islands magazines.

His first book, Mr. Raja’s Neighborhood: Letters from Nepal (John Daniel, 1986), is still in print. Shopping for Buddhas, first published by Harper & Row in 1990, was reissued in 1996 by Lonely Planet Publications; the new edition won the Lowell Thomas Gold Award for Best Travel Book of 1996. The Size of the World–a chronicle of his 29,172-mile, around-the-world overland voyage (Globe Pequot, 1995 & Ballantine, 1996)–was a national bestseller, and won the 1995 Lowell Thomas Silver Award. This was followed by Future Perfect: How Star Trek Conquered Planet Earth, released in June 1998 by Viking Penguin. Mr. Greenwald’s travel writing is widely anthologized.  His new book, Snake Lake, was released by Counterpoint in October 2010.

Greenwald divides his time between California and Asia, publishing stories and essays in a variety of publications–including The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, Outside, and Salon.com. Jeff is also Executive Director of Ethical Traveler, a global community dedicated to exploring the ambassadorial potential of world travel.

Note:  As this salon takes place at the same time as the World Series, iphones and other devices for keeping track of the Wold Series will be permitted and there will be breaks for checking the score!

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON:  Peter Goodman, Stone Bridge Press, President and Publisher

Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

What’s new and exciting in the book biz? The advent of the internet, Amazon, e-books, social networking and more has certainly thrown the book industry into a state of flux. Where is it going? What do we do? No need to stagger about aimlessly. Join Stone Bridge Press president and publisher Peter Goodman as he talks about “How Not to Be a Publishing Zombie.”

Peter Goodman is a graduate of Cornell University and lived in Tokyo for ten years, where he worked as an editor for English-language publishers Charles E. Tuttle and Kodansha International before returning to the United States in 1985. He has served Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON:  Molly Dwyer, Author of Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein

Molly Dwyer

Tuesday, September 7, 2010 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Frankenstein was conceived during the summer of 1816 when Mary Godwin and Percy Bysshe Shelley lived on Lake Geneva in the company of the infamous Lord Byron. Frankenstein matured into a novel during the following winter, while Mary lived mostly without Shelley in Bath, keeping her pregnant stepsister Claire hidden from wagging tongues. During that winter both Mary’s half-sister, Fanny, and Shelley’s abandoned wife, Harriet, killed themselves. On January 1, 1818, one year later, Frankenstein descended upon the world. Its author, now the married Mrs. Shelley, was twenty years old. Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON:  Michael Krasny, Author of Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life and Spiritual Envy: An Agnostic’s Quest

Michael Krasny

Monday, August 2, 2010 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Everyone knows Michael Krasny, the award-winning host of NPR/KQED’s Forum with Michael Krasny, a news and public affairs program covering politics, culture, the arts, health, business and technology since 1993 and veteran interviewer for NPR’s nationally broadcast City Arts and Lectures series. He’s also an English professor at San Francisco State University, and a widely published scholar, critic and fiction writer. We are so pleased to have him as a Left Coast Writers Literary Salon Presenter in August. Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON:  Ransom Stephens, Author of The God Patent

Ransom Stephens

Monday, July 5, 2010 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Ransom Stephens, Ph.D., is a professor of particle physics turned writer and speaker. He has worked on experiments at SLAC, Fermilab, CERN, and Cornell; discovered a new type of matter and was on the team that discovered the top quark. During the tech boom that ended in 2001, he directed patent development for a wireless web startup and, a few years later, became an expert on timing noise. Now he’s turning his considerable mental powers toward the world of writing and publishing, and we’re interested in what he’s learned. He’s a much praised speaker, so it should be an informative evening as Ransom shares his current explorations and his jump into a bold new way of getting the word out.

“What distinguishes this classic battle between faith and free will is its unusually deft infusion of legitimate but accessible science.…an ambitious first novel that uses Stephens’ experience as a particle physicist, director of patents, public speaker and single father in a narrative that sings of the heart and the scientific method as two parts of the same song.”

—The San Francisco Chronicle

“Ransom Stephens skillfully weaves together multiple plot lines and characters in a fast moving story.”

—Book Case, for the Petaluma Argus-Courier

The memo said they’d get bonuses for submitting patents, so why not? Money came easily during the dot-com boom. Concealed in engineering jargon, Ryan McNear submits a patent for the soul disguised as a software algorithm and his best friend Foster Reed rewrites Genesis and calls it a “power generator.” A few years later, amid the fallout of a ruptured technology bubble, his career ruined and family shredded, a desperate Ryan discovers that a company headed by his old friend Foster is developing his patent. What he thought was a joke is generating stacks of money amid claims that it will provide a source of limitless energy and prove the existence of God.Willing to try anything to rebuild his life, Ryan stakes a legal claim to the patent but soon discovers a sinister undercurrent in the venture. Racing against time and aided by a motley group of assistants that includes an attorney/conman, a beautiful and passionate physicist and a death-obsessed adolescent math prodigy, Ryan gets caught in a battle between hard science and fundamentalist religion that threatens his sanity, his freedom and his son. Before long Ryan will test the limits of faith and free will, evaluate the nature of desire, and comprehend the human soul in a way that requires a single step, rather than a great leap, of faith.

…….

Ransom lives in Petaluma, California and makes a living by writing novels, giving speeches, producing and MCing literary events, helping engineers solve problems, and teaching writing seminars. He is the author of over 200 articles on impossible subjects like quantum physics, the future of publishing and parenting teenagers. His first novel, The God Patent, is set in the battle between science and religion over the nature of the soul and the origin of the universe.

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON:  Penny Warner, Author of How to Host a Killer Party

Monday, June 7, 2010 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

We have a “killer evening” in store for everyone at the next Left Coast Writers Literary Salon!

Mixing fun and fundraising for charities seemed like the perfect job for Presley Parker when she’s suddenly downsized from her position teaching abnormal psychological at the university. Pres is psyched about her first big gig—hosting a “surprise” wedding for the San Francisco Mayor at notorious Alcatraz prison.

But the party’s over when the bride bolts faster than an escaping prisoner, and is later found dead floating in the bay, a victim of poisoned chocolates. When Presley becomes prime suspect, she looks to her quirky Treasure Island co-workers for help, but it’s the attractive, mysterious crime scene cleaner Brad Matthews who helps tidy up her tarnished reputation. If she doesn’t solve this mystery, she’ll be exchanging her party dress for prison stripes.

“Penny Warner dishes up a rare treat, sparkling with wicked and witty San Francisco characters, plus some real tips on hosting a killer party.”
~ Rhys Bowen, award-winning author of the Royal Spyness mysteries.

Monday, May 3, 2010 || 7pm ||

Tim Cahill, Author of Hold the Enlightenment and Lost in my own Backyard: a Walk in Yellowstone National Park

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

We have a real treat in store for you at our May 3rd Left Coast Writers Literary Salon. Travel writer Tim Cahill is in town and will be speaking that night. Tim, who has authored many, many books including Jaguars Ripped My Flesh, A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg, Pass The Butterworms, Pecked To Death By Ducks, Hold The Enlightenment, and Lost in my own Backyard: a Walk in Yellowstone National Park, was a founding editor of Outside magazine and has been known to make readers laugh and cry in the space of a few minutes. He is also an expert on what makes a story work and the creator of Tim’s choo-choo, which is a dynamite way to quickly put an article together. Keep reading …

Monday, April 5, 2010 || 7pm ||

Neeli Cherkovski, Author of From the Canyon Outward

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

Monday, March 1, 2010 || 7pm ||

Ying Chang Compestine, Author of A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

Ying Chang Compestine

According to Chinese tradition, those who die hungry or unjustly come back to haunt the living. Some are appeased with food. But not all ghosts are successfully mollified. In this chilling collection of stories, Ying takes readers on a journey through time and across different parts of China. From the building of the Great Wall in 200 BCE to the modern day of iPods, hungry ghosts continue to torment those who wronged them. Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Paul McHugh, author of Deadlines

Saturday, February 13, 2009 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

It’s a party!! Join us for major festivities as veteran journalist Paul McHugh celebrates the publication of his new novel, DEADLINES (Lost Coast Press), a tale of murder, conspiracy, and the media. McHugh, a Northern California writer, has worked in journalism for 30 years, eight as a freelancer and 22 at the San Francisco Chronicle where he was an outdoor features writer and editor, focused on sport, environment and state resource issues. Over his career, he wrote for all sections of the paper, including Metro, where he conducted several major investigative series. Adventure has been a way of life for McHugh. He ran his first marathon in 2003, at the age of 53; he celebrated his 50^th birthday by kayaking down 270 miles of the Grand Canyon; he was on the first U.S. Kayak Surfing Team when it won a world championship in Ireland in 1988; he arrived in California after wandering across the U.S. on a motorcycle in the summer of 1973. McHugh undertook many outdoor adventures for the Chronicle. The most striking was a 40-day, 400-mile sea kayak voyage from the Oregon Border to San Francisco Bay, resulting in the popular North Coast Series. Over the course of that  voyage, McHugh filed 36 print and online stories, four podcasts and five videos. This epic series can be found posted at: www.sfgate.com/northcoast/ Keep reading …

Monday, February 1, 2010 || 7pm ||

Alan Rinzler, Consulting Editor

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

Alan Rinzler

Alan Rinzler began as a book editor in 1962 at Simon and Schuster and has since worked as Senior Editor at the Macmillan Company, Senior Editor at Holt, Director of Trade Book Publishing at Bantam Books, Associate Publisher and Vice President of Rolling Stone Magazine, and President of the Rolling Stone Book Division Straight Arrow Books. He was also West Coast Editor for the Grove Press, Editor of the Berkeley Monthly, and for the past 17 years has been Senior Editor and then Executive Editor of Jossey-Bass, an imprint of John Wiley & Sons.

Alan has edited and published such authors as Toni Morrison, Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Robbins, Claude Brown, Oscar Acosta, Shirley MacLaine, Robert Ludlum, Irv Yalom, Jerzy Kosinski, Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, Clive Cussler, and others. Keep reading …

Monday, January 4, 2010 || 7pm ||

Susan West, Founding Editor in Chief of Afar and Editorial Consultant

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

Failure to launch? It’ll never happen with Guest Presenter Susan West.

Susan West is a long-time editorial consultant for magazines and websites. Most recently she was the founding Editor in Chief of Afar, a new magazine whose mission is to inspire and  guide those who travel the world seeking to connect with its people, experience their culture, and understand  their perspectives. Afar, which launched in August 2009, was named one of the 15 best launches of the year by “Mr. Magazine,” Samir Husni. Susan was also Executive  Editor of  Smithsonian and a Keep reading …

Monday, December 7, 2009 || 7pm ||

Phil Cousineau, Author of The Meaning of Tea: A Tea Inspired Journey

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

A Health-filled Holiday and The Meaning of Tea

“When we drink tea with others we shorten the distance between people.”

—Feng Ming-Chung, a Bao Zhong tea grower, in The Meaning of Tea.

Join writer, filmmaker, photographer, teacher and editor Phil Cousineau for an exploration of the history, health benefits, rituals, spirituality and simple pure enjoyment of tea. The Meaning of Tea: A Tea Inspired Journey offers wisdom ideally suited for modern citizens facing the stress of economic uncertainty. San Francisco tea experts James Norwood Pratt and Imperial Tea Court Teamaster Roy Fong are featured in the book. Culled from more than 50 conversations with tea pickers and plantation owners, street sellers, traders, teapot makers and eloquent tea scholars spanning eight countries—from India to Ireland and Taiwan to Tea, South Dakota—readers learn about how tea has brought peace, calm, health, friendship and often wisdom into their lives. The Meaning of Tea (Talking Leave Press, 2009) Keep reading …

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Mary Lou Peters Schram, author of Pursuing Happiness … One More Time

Saturday, November 14, 2009 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

LOOKING FOR LOVE AND HAPPINESS

Four women, a dead husband, a not-so-great boyfriend, a little extra weight and lots of money—is this a recipe for joy or disaster?

If a good book and a glass of wine is your idea of happiness, please grab a friend and join us for a delightful evening with local author Mary Lou Peters Schram.

“Although the pursuit of happiness is one of our inalienable rights, nowhere is it guaranteed that we shall catch it.  Mary Lou Peters Schram’s witty new novel chronicles the lives of four women, all residents of Shady Acres, an adult community in California’s wine country, as each pursues her own particular vision of happiness. Keep reading …

Monday, November 2, 2009 || 7pm ||

Byron Belitsos, Publisher, Origin Press, talks about the complex dance of author and publisher

Book Passage – Corte Madera

51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

Byron Belitsos

Marin-based small press publisher Byron Belitsos of Origin Press will share stories and wisdom drawn from his experiences of the publishing business over the last 15 years—with special focus on his perceptions of the many authors with whom he has worked. Belitsos has edited and published books on health, consciousness, spirituality, and politics, including Faith and the Placebo Effect by Lolette Kuby, Mind Science by Charles Tart, The Unfolding Self by Ralph Metzner, and Waking Up in Time by Peter Russell. He has also played the roles both of coauthor and publisher for several Keep reading …

Monday, October 5, 2009 || 7pm ||

Mary Roach, Author of Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

Mary Roach

Mary Roach is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Spook:  Science Tackles the Afterlife, and Bonk:  The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex.   Stiff has been translated into 17 languages, and Spook was a New York Times Notable Book of 2005.  Bonk was chosen as a 2008 best book by the San Francisco Chronicle, the St. Louis-Post Dispatch, and the Boston Globe.  Mary has written for Outside, National Geographic, Wired, New Scientist, The New York Times Magazine, and NPR’s “All Things Considered,” among many others.  She is a contributing editor at the science magazine Discover, a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review, and a winner of the American Engineering Societies’ Engineering Journalism Award, in a category for which, let’s be honest, she was the sole entrant.   More info at www.maryroach.net Keep reading …

Tuesday, September 8, 2009 || 7pm ||

Ayelet Waldman, Author of Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Clamities and Occasional Moments of Grace, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

Ayelet Waldman

Ayelet Waldman is the author of The New York Times bestseller Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities and Occasional Moments of Grace, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Daughter’s Keeper and the Mommy-Track Mysteries. Her personal essays have been published in a wide variety of newspapers and magazine, including The New York Times, the Guardian, the San Francisco Chronicle, Elle Magazine, Vogue, Allure, Cookie, Child, Parenting, Real Simple, Health and Salon.com. Her radio commentaries have appeared on “All Things Considered” and “The California Report.” Ayelet’s missives also appear on Facebook and Twitter. Her books are published throughout the world, in countries as disparate as England and Thailand, the Netherlands and China, Russia and Israel.

Keep reading …

Monday, August 3, 2009 || 7pm ||

Scott Rosenberg, author of DREAMING IN CODE and SAY EVERYTHING: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

Blogs are everywhere. They have exposed truths and spread rumors. Made and lost fortunes. Brought couples together and torn them apart. Toppled cabinet members and sparked grassroots movements. Immediate, intimate, and influential, they have put the power of personal publishing into everyone’s hands. Regularly dismissed as trivial and ephemeral, they have proved that they are here to stay.

In Say Everything, Scott Rosenberg chronicles blogging’s unplanned rise and improbable triumph, tracing its impact on politics, business, the media, and our personal lives. He offers close-ups of innovators such as Blogger founder Evan Williams, investigative journalist Josh Marshall, exhibitionist diarist Justin Hall, software visionary Dave Winer, “mommyblogger” Heather Armstrong, and many others.

These blogging pioneers were the first to face new dilemmas that have become common in the era of Google and Facebook, and their stories offer vital insights and warnings as we navigate the future. How much of our lives should we reveal on the Web? Is anonymity a boon or a curse? Which voices can we trust? What does authenticity look like on a stage where millions are fighting for attention, yet most only write for a handful? And what happens to our culture now that everyone can say everything?

Before blogs, it was easy to believe that the Web would grow up to be a clickable TV—slick, passive, mass-market. Instead, blogging brought the Web’s native character into focus—convivial, expressive, democratic. Far from being pajama-clad loners, bloggers have become the curators of our collective experience, testing out their ideas in front of a crowd and linking people in ways that broadcasts can’t match. Blogs have created a new kind of public sphere—one in which we can think out loud together. And now that we have begun, Rosenberg writes, it is impossible to imagine us stopping.

In his first book, Dreaming in Code, Scott Rosenberg brilliantly explored the art of creating software (“the first true successor to The Soul of a New Machine,” wrote James Fallows in The Atlantic). In Say Everything, Rosenberg brings the same perceptive eye to the blogosphere, capturing as no one else has the birth of a new medium.

SCOT T ROSENBERG is a cofounder of Salon.com, where he long served as managing editor, and is the author of Dreaming in Code. He blogs at www.wordyard.com.

Monday, July 6, 2009 || 7pm ||

Andy Ross, Agent at Andy Ross Literary Agency

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

Andy Ross

Andy Ross has worked in the book business for 36 years, all of his working life. He was owner and general manager of Cody’s Books in Berkeley, California from 1977-2006. Cody’s has been recognized as one of America’s great independent book stores.

During this period, Andy was the primary trade book buyer. This experience has given him a unique understanding of the retail book market, of publishing trends and, most importantly and uniquely, the hand selling of books to book buyers.

Andy is past president of the Northern California Booksellers Association, a board member and officer of the American Booksellers Association and a national spokesperson for issues concerning independent businesses. He has had significant profiles in the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Publisher’s Weekly and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Monday, June 1, 2009 || 7pm ||
Christi Phillips, Author of The Devlin Diary and The Rossetti Letter

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

The Devlin Diary

Christi Phillips will discuss the research and creation of her popular novels. She is the author of The Rossetti Letter, which has been translated into six foreign languages. Her research combines a few of her favorite things: old books, libraries, and travel. When she’s not rummaging around in an archive or exploring the historic heart of a European city, she lives with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is at work on her next novel, set in France.

Christi’s new book, The Devlin Diary is a dazzling novel of intrigue, passion, and royal secrets that shifts tantalizingly between Restoration-era London and present-day Cambridge. A suspenseful and richly satisfying tale brimming with sharply observed historical detail, The Devlin Diary brings past and present to vivid life. With wit and grace, Christi Phillips holds readers spellbound with an extraordinary novel of secrets, obsession, and the haunting power of the past.

Monday, April 6, 2009 || 7pm ||
April Eberhardt, Agent at Reece Halsey North

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

April Eberhardt

April Eberhardt joined Reece Halsey North as a Literary Agent in 2008 after five years of editorial work with Zoetrope: All-Story, a literary magazine, and another agency. Her specialty is adult literary fiction, particularly ironic family dramas and realistic midlife tales, often with a twist, preferably involving strong female characters. She is attracted to collections of interlinked stories with a common character or theme. An original voice and smart, speedy delivery are critical, as is a subtle sense of the absurd. She enjoys working with new authors to edit and streamline their manuscripts before submitting them to publishers. April does consider selected non-fiction works. She does not represent mysteries or murders, thrillers, historical fiction or fantasy, nor does she represent children’s titles.

April earned an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Boston University, a BA in Anthropology and French from Hamilton College, and a CPLF degree from the University of Paris. Her prior careers in banking and management consulting honed her strategic, marketing and presentation skills and serve her well in her literary endeavors.
In this time of great international misunderstanding, many things are “lost in translation.” Join us for an exciting and truly enlightening evening that will add a little clarity and introduce new voices with important things to share.

Monday, March 2, 2009 || 7pm ||
David Poindexter, MacAdam/Cage, Founder and Publisher

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

Join us in an evening with David Poindexter, MacAdam/Cage founder and publisher.

After twenty years in the commercial printing industry, David Poindexter, inspired by his lifelong love of reading, decided to start an independent trade publishing house. In 1998, he founded MacAdam/Cage in order to bring new voices to the literary marketplace.

A year later, Poindexter acquired MacMurray & Beck, a Denver-based independent press, well known in the industry for launching authors such as Patricia Henley (Hummingbird House), William Gay (The Long Home), and Susan Vreeland (Girl in Hyacinth Blue).

Now, with twelve employees and offices in San Francisco and Denver, MacAdam/Cage remains committed to publishing quality books with the personal attention offered at a small company, and the marketing and distribution strengths often associated with larger houses. MacAdam/Cage currently publishes between 25 and 35 new titles each year, primarily hardcover fiction. They have found both commercial and literary success with a number of works including The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn, How To Be Lost by Amanda Eyre Ward, A Map of Glass by Jane Urquhart, Pinkerton’s Sister by Peter Rushforth, The Contortionist’s Handbook by Craig Clevenger, and Rose of No Man’s Land by Michelle Tea.

MacAdam/Cage has been recognized both for the quality of its list and for its somewhat old-fashioned approach to publishing.  Poets & Writers noted “they recreate the culture that thrived in publishing houses during the early part of the last century,” and former Harcourt Brace publisher, André Bernard, called the house a “genuine publishing success story.”

But perhaps more than anything, MacAdam/Cage is known for its dedicated publisher, David Poindexter, who is in turn known in the book world for “going to great lengths to find and serve authors,” as noted in a 2002 Publishers Weekly profile.

Monday, January 5, 2009 || 7pm ||
Camille Cusumano, Author of Tango, an Argentine Love Story

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

Please join us in a scintillating start for the New Year at the first Left Coast Writers Literary Salon of 2009! Camille Cusumano will light up the evening with a talk about her love of literature and her passion for tango. Camille has even promised a short tango demonstration. You may bring guests to this event. After all, they say it takes two …

Camille Cusumano has written on food, fitness, and travel for more than 20 years, and recently on dance and yoga. She was an editor at VIA Magazine for 17 years.

Her work has appeared in many publications, including Islands, Country Living, the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times, Yoga Journal, and the Washington Post.

Her cookbook credits include The New Foods (Henry Holt), America Loves Salads (Literary Guild), Rodale’s Basic Natural Foods Cookbook (co-written with Carol Munson, Editor Charles Gerras), and Tofu, Tempeh, and Other Soy Delights (Rodale).

Her novel, The Last Cannoli (Legas, 2000) was inspired by her growing up in a large Sicilian American family. The book, wrote former San Francisco Poet Laureate Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “attests to the power of storytelling to hold life together through all its diasporas.” She has contributed essays to travel anthologies and is the editor of the anthology series: France, a Love Story, Italy, a Love Story, Mexico, a Love Story, and Greece, a Love Story, all published by Seal Press, Emeryville, Calif.

Monday, February 2, 2009 || 7pm ||
Niloufar Talebi, award winning editor and translator of Belonging New Poetry By Iranians Around the World.

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera

In this time of great international misunderstanding, many things are “lost in translation.” Join us for an exciting and truly enlightening evening that will add a little clarity and introduce new voices with important things to share.

Award-winning translator, Niloufar Talebi, was born in London to Iranian parents. She received a BA in Comparative Literature from UC Irvine, and an MFA in Writing and Literature from Bennington College. She studied theater with Jean Shelton and Cyril Clayton and has produced and performed nationally. She created The Translation Project (TTP), a literary organization and production company in 2003 to bring contemporary Iranian literature to larger audiences. Her translations have been anthologized and published in Two Lines, Poetry International, CIRCUMFERENCE, Agni on-line and Harvard Divinity Bulletin, and she is the guest editor of the Spring 2006 issue of Rattapallax. She has presented at the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature in NYC, The Asia Society, The New School, UC Irvine, University of Iowa, The National Arts Club, St. Mark’s Poetry Project, Asia Society, the New York Public Library, LitQuake, Theater Artaud, Berkeley Repertory Theater, Actor’s Theater and Intersection for the Arts.

She created “Midnight Approaches”, a DVD of short films, as well as “ICARUS/RISE”, a multimedia theatrical piece, both based on new Iranian poetry. She is the recipient of translation prizes from the International Center for Writing and Translation (2004), the American Literary Translators Association (2005), the PEN/New York State Council on the Arts (2006) and the Willis Barnstone Translation Prize (2006). She is a member of ALTA, MESA and PEN American Center. She is the editor and translator of BELONGING: New Poetry By Iranians Around the World (North Atlantic Books, July 2008).

Monday, August 4, 2008 || 7pm ||
Rita Lakin, screenwriter and author of “Getting Old is the Best Revenge”

Book Passage – Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Dr., Corte Madera ||

More writing is being done for the screen than ever before. Would you like to get a successful professional’s tips and advice about the ins and outs of that market?

If so, be sure to come to our Left Coast Writers Literary Salon on Monday, August 4, 2008, at 7pm in the Gallery at Book Passage in Corte Madera for a dynamic presentation by author/screenwriter RITA LAKIN!

Rita Lakin is a highly successful mystery novelist and an established television writer-producer and playwright. Her comedy mystery series revolves around an eccentric group of old ladies who become the oldest living private eyes in Florida. They include: “Getting Old is Murder,” “Getting Old is the Best Revenge,” “Getting Old is Criminal” and “Getting Old is to Die For.”

Rita’s television credits include: Executive Producer of “Executive Suite,” creator and show-runner/ producer of “Flamingo Road” and “Nightingales.” She also created “The Rookies.” She wrote many MOW’S (Movies of the Week) including “Death Takes a Holiday,” “Summer Without Boys,” “Message to my Daughter” and “A Sensitive Passionate Man.” Her mini-series includes “Strong Medicine” and “Voice of the Heart.”

Her two theatrical plays, “No Language but a Cry” and the musical “Saturday Night at Grossinger’s” (co-written) are still being produced.

Her numerous awards include: WGA, EMMY, MWA (Mystery Writers of America) Edgar Allen Poe award adn teh prestigious Avery Hopwood Award from the University of Michigan.

Lakin has just finished writing the fifth in her mystery series: “Getting Old is a Disaster.”

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.

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.

Smart, funny and embarrassingly honest, the tales in Falling Into Manholes recount the common experience of looking for love in all the wrong places, and the not-so-common experience of finding it in yourself – and it feels like talking with your best friend. Wendy represents the bad girl/good girl paradox deep within every woman, and writes what women often think, but don’t have the nerve to say. Her favorite books growing up were Little House on the Prairie and The Happy Hooker, and even then she fantasized about a scenario in which Xaviera Hollander lived happily ever after with Laura, Ma and Pa. Wendy was the tall, scrawny late bloomer on the sidelines of the seventh-grade dance who turned into the sweet-sixteen-never-been-kissed good girl yearning to be bad. PhD’s were the norm in her family, yet she aspired to be comfortable on any barstool in the world. In college, she took a class called “Dating and Marriage” – and got an F. “I always aspired to an A+,” she says. “I just didn’t think it would end up being my bra size.”

With honesty, humor and style, Falling Into Manholes explores the contradictions and imperfections of being a woman, in a book about relationships, addiction, self-esteem (and the lack thereof), and going to any lengths to discover what matters. This menmoir gives the reader what we all need more of: a good laugh, an easy read, and hope.

Wendy owns and runs an advertising agency called WAM Marketing Group and lives above ground and beyond her means in Sausalito.

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.

“Round-heeled” is an old-fashioned label for a woman who is promiscuous—someone who nowadays might be called “easy.” It’s a surprising way for an English teacher with a passion for Trollope to describe herself in the title of the memoir which followed after she placed a personal ad in the New York Review of Books: “Before I turn 67—next March—I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me.”

The ad worked, a book came out of experience (A Round-Heeled Woman) and Juska was reborn.

Unaccompanied Women is about women Juska met on her book-tour; it is about what happened in her own life; it is about trying to find a home. Her adventures continue.

Monday, July 2, 2007

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Victoria Shoemaker
Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

For more information: leftcoastwriters@aol.com

Victoria Shoemaker has over 30 years experience in bookselling and publishing. Her experience includes retail bookselling, book development, editing, promotion and publicity. She was co-founder of Sand Dollar Books and Bay Bridge Books in the Bay Area, and a consultant for North Point Press. She developed and ran the nationally recognized author reading series at Black Oak Books in Berkeley. She was a founding partner in Shoemaker/Handel Publicity Services. She joined The Spieler Agency in 1994 as the West Coast representative. Areas of interest include environment and natural history, popular culture, memoir, photography and film, and literary fiction.

Present and past clients include Wendell Berry, Gary Paul Nabhan, Peggy Knickerbocker, Kate Horsely and Linda Watanabe McFerrin.

Monday, April 2, 2007 7pm
Book Passage – CORTE MADERA || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. || Corte Madera
For Info: Book Passage or leftcoastwriters@aol.com

Broadcast journalist and Emmy-winner, Jan Yanehiro has skydived with the Army’s Golden Knights and ventured up a frozen waterfall!all in the name of getting a good story! Jan pioneered the magazine format on television as co-host of Evening Magazine, a nightly program in San Francisco from 1976-90.

Now the president of her own Media and Marketing firm, Jan still hosts shows and emcees events for community causes on a regular basis. Her new book, This Is Not the Life I Ordered, 50 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down , which she co-authored with State Senator Jackie Speier, Deborah Collins Stephens, and Michealeane Cristini Risley, contains the stories, lessons and wisdom these four women shared during their monthly meetings as they faced extraordinary life challenges.

A paragon of courage, Jan lost her first husband to brain cancer. She is now remarried with a beautifully blended family which includes five very accomplished children. Awarded many professional honors including the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award from the United Nations of San Francisco, Jan is also an inductee of the Academy of Television and Radio Hall of Fame. She sits on many boards including The Bank of Marin, Kristi Yamaguchi’s Always Dream Foundation and USF’s Center For The Pacific Rim.

To learn more about Jan and Is Not the Life I Ordered, check out their blog: simplyfourwomen.blogspot.com

NEXT UP AT THE SALON
May, 2007 Salon: Gerald Sindell - publishing consultant and founder of Thought Leaders,
Intl.

June, 2007 Salon: Michele Rivers - artist, visionary and author of “Time for Tea”

Monday, June 4, 2007

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

For more information: leftcoastwriters@aol.com

Monday, July 2, 2007

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

For more information: leftcoastwriters@aol.com

Monday, August 6, 2007

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

For more information: leftcoastwriters@aol.com

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

For more information: leftcoastwriters@aol.com

Monday, October 1, 2007

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

For more information: leftcoastwriters@aol.com

Monday, November 5, 2007

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

For more information: leftcoastwriters@aol.com

Monday, December 3, 2007

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

For more information: leftcoastwriters@aol.com

Monday, March 5, 2007

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Brian Tacang, Author

“Bully-Be-Gone” from the Misadventures of Millicent Madding series

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

For more information: leftcoastwriters@aol.com

Monday, February, 5, 2007

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Dianne Jacob, Author

“Will Write For Food”

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

For more information: leftcoastwriters@aol.com

Monday, January 8, 2007

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Amy Rennert, Agent

Amy Rennert Literary Agency

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

For more information: leftcoastwriters@aol.com

Monday, December 4, 2006

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista,  Corte Madera, CA

Monday, November 6, 2006

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Perry Garfinkel

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

In the tradition of JEFF GREENWALD and WES (SCOOP) NISKER, an evening with PERRY GARFINKEL is an event you don’t want to miss.

While JEFF GREENWALD treated us to spellbinding tales as he shopped for the perfect Buddha and WES NISKER filled us with wisdom and laughter as he shared pieces from his “The Big Bang, the Buddha and the Baby Boom,” PERRY GARFINKEL will share his worldwide hunt to discover the heart of Buddhism and the secrets he learned about writing and self along the way.

“As John McPhee and Paul Theroux offer lush descriptions of physical landscapes, Garfinkel surveys the internal world with equal scrutiny…Fast enough for the beach yet dense enough for the scholar’s library.”

— The Boston Globe
ABOUT “BUDDHA OR BUST” AND PERRY GARFINKEL

Why does an idea that’s 2,500 years old seem more relevant today than ever before? How can the Buddha’s teachings help us solve many of the world’s problems? Journalist Perry Garfinkel circumnavigated the globe to discover the heart of Buddhism and the reasons for its growing popularity—and ended up discovering himself in the process.

Along the way he met a diverse array of Buddhist practitioners: “Thai artists, Indian nuns, Sri Lankan school children, Zen archers in Japan, kung fu monks in China and the world’s first Buddhist comic (only in America). Among dozens of Buddhist scholars and leaders, Garfinkel interviewed His Holiness the Dalai Lama, an experience that left him speechless—almost. As just reward for his efforts, toward the end of his journey Garfinkel fell in love in the south of France at the retreat center of a leader of the engaged movement, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh—a romance that taught him as much about Buddhism as all the masters combined.

In this original, entertaining book, Garfinkel separates Buddhist fact from fiction, sharing his humorous insights and keen perceptions about everything from spiritual tourism to Asian traffic jams to the endless road to enlightenment.

Check out Perry’s website to see scenes from Perry’s worldwide journey in the footsteps of the Buddha: http://www.BuddhaOrBust.com.

Monday, October 2, 2006

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

Monday, September 11, 2006

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

Monday, August 7, 2006

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Brad Newsham

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

Monday, July 3, 2006

Left Coast Writers Literary Salon, 7pm

Melba Patillo-Beals

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera, CA

NEXT UP AT THE JUNE LEFT COAST WRITERS(tm) SALON: JAMES DALESSANDRO,
Author of “1906, A Novel,” Poet, Screenwriter, and Documentary
film maker of “The Damnedest, Finest Ruins”
TOPIC:
MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2006 || BOOK PASSAGE – CORTE MADERA || 7PM
______________________________________

Every disaster has a story. Set during the great San Francisco
earthquake and fire, “1906″, written by JAMES DALESSANDRO, is a
page-turning tale of political corruption, vendettas, romance,
rescue—and murder—based on recently uncovered facts that
forever changed our understanding of what really happened. His
documentary film, now out on DVD, “The Damnedest, Finest Ruins,”
is a riveting documentary of the most dramatic event in American
history outside of war. Written and directed by Dalessandro, it’s
narrated by acclaimed actor Peter Coyote.

ABOUT JAMES DALESSANDRO
JAMES DALESSANDO, was the co-founder of the Santa Cruz Poetry
Festival, the nation’s largest literary event for four years and
which brought together Ken Kesey, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles
Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Bob Kaufman and musicians
like Charles Lloyd and Anthony Braxton. He has published four
books: poetry in Canary In A Coal Mine, the highly acclaimed San
Francisco murder mystery Bohemian Heart (St. Martin’s Press),
true crime (Citizen Jane), and his new novel, 1906, an epic
recreation of the great San Francisco earthquake and fire. He is
a 20-year veteran of the Writer’s Guild of America, West, and has
written the screenplays for all three of his books, including
1906, which was sold to Warner Brothers after a heated Hollywood
bidding war. He is currently writer and co-director, with
four-time Oscar winner Ben Burtt, of The Damnedest Finest Ruins,
a feature documentary about the 1906 earthquake. He is also
co-executive producer and screenwriter of Citizen Jane for Wolper
Productions and Court TV, producer and co-writer, with Lidia
Fraser, of Draconin, a trilogy of novels and animated feature
films. He teaches the longest-running screenwriting course in San
Francisco and served as the writer for the award-winning House of
Blues Radio Hour. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

LOCATION DETAILS:
JUNE LEFT COAST WRITERS(tm) LITERARY SALON Featuring JAMES
DALESSANDRO
Monday, June 5 2006, 7:00 – 9:00p.m.
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd.
Corte Madera
For Info: http://www.leftcoastwriters.com

Past speakers at the LCW Salon include TAMIM ANSARY, DANIEL
ELLSBERG, KEVIN SMOKLER, FRAN GAGE, GAIL TSUKIYAMA, JEFF
GREENWALD, DONALD GEORGE, ISABEL ALLENDE, TERRY RYAN, SUZY
PARKER, JOHN FLINN, SHELDON SIEGEL, JANIS COOKE NEWMAN, JOYCE
JENKINS, CATHY FOWLER, PAUL MCHUGH and LINDY HOUGH.

An evening with Wes “Scoop” Nisker is a guaranteed good time, full of his trademark zaniness and wacky wisdom! Nisker will wax eloquent on cosmic conundrums, and talk about and read from his latest book, The Big Bang, the Buddha and the Baby Boom: The Spiritual Experiments of My Generation.

Wes “Scoop” Nisker is author of the enduring classic Crazy Wisdom and the widely acclaimed Buddha’s Nature, and is Editor-in-Chief of the Buddhist journal Inquiring Mind. For the past twenty-five years he has been both a popular San Francisco Bay Area radio personality and a nationally known Buddhist meditation teacher.