Left Coast Writers® » Press Room http://www.leftcoastwriters.com Left Coast Writersâ„¢ was created to support new and established writers in the production and promotion of their work in a stimulating atmosphere of creativity and community. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Literary Salon: Cyra McFadden http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2741 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Cyra McFadden, Author of The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County and Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir Cyra Mcfadden Rain or Shine_sMonday, February 6th, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com How often do you get to chat with a literary icon? We hope you'll join us for an evening with legendary author, Cyra McFadden, who wrote The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, which was made into a film in 1980 simply titled Serial.  She also wrote Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir in 1986, a finalist for the Pulitzer prize that year. Cyra was the writer of a popular weekly column for the San Francisco Examiner from 1985 to 1991. She's an expert on Marin county and its denizens. Her presentation at our salon will be a real treat!]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers: Hot Flashes Pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:55:16 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2910 Hot Flashes 2 CoverHot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems is having a pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage! In the spirit of pairs, Book Passage is offering this special deal: From January 2nd to February 14th, there is a “buy one, get one free” Hot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage (415-927-0960). Just let them know that you want a free copy when you purchase! So buy the book for yourself, give the free copy to friend or lover, and join the editors for a lovely in-store party on 2/12/12 with a reading, entertainment, a sexy raffle and more! There will be wine and chocolate and ... who knows? ... you might win a super special prize.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/feed/ 0 LCW Pre-Valentines Day Lovefest http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:11:50 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2722 LEFT COAST WRITERS PRE-VALENTINE'S DAY EVENT: Party for the day of the heart, with a few heart-felt readings as well! Hot Flashes 2 Cover Saturday, February 11th|| 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com Join us for the ultimate pre-Valentine's Day party. Hot Flashes editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Laurie McAndish King and a host of past contributors will serve up wine, chocolate, romance-inducing gifts and some super-sultry works of literature just in time for the special day. Single or paired or in a big group, we want you to come and enjoy the love-ly vibe! About Hot Flashes: We confess, we’re on a mission. We think that the pleasures of being human and “in the flesh” get short shrift in our daily lives. Too often, in our culture, a natural captivation with the senses and their allure is suppressed, closeted, twisted, and this isn’t healthy at all. So, we want to present an unadulterated and avidly expressed lust for the sensual and all its permutations. This collection isn’t about anger and rebellion. It’s about love-about a good old erotic hankering for everything hot and steamy, warm and juicy, tasty, fragrant, visually exciting and vibration-filled. It’s about quickies: flash fiction, non-fiction and poetry guaranteed to raise a reader’s temperature in a way that is positively hormonal. These sexy short stories and poems demonstrate how simple it is to find pleasure almost anywhere when we are willing to slow down and attend to our feelings, our memories, and our senses. Linda Watanabe McFerrin has been traveling since she was two and writing about it since she was six. She is a contributor to numerous literary journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies, and online publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, San Francisco Bride, Bay Nature, various Travelers’ Tales anthologies, and Salon.com. A popular speaker and panelist and an award-winning writer, she has authored two poetry collections, a novel and a short story collection, and has edited four books, including a northern California guidebook and a travel anthology. Linda has served as an NEA panelist and past judge for the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama Prize, and is founder and President of Left Coast Writers®, LLC. Laurie McAndish King is a travel writer whose essays have been published in anthologies such as 30 Days in Italy, The Thong Also Rises, and the award-winning The Kindness of Strangers. Her work has also been published in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and aired on KUSF radio. Laurie’s adventurous spirit has led her to chase lemurs through the mountains of Madagascar, study medicinal plants in the jungles of Brazil, track lions on foot-without a gun-in Botswana, study with an urban shaman in San Francisco, and trap and band raptors in the Marin Headlands. Laurie earned her master’s degree in Internet-based education and publishes an online newsletter for travel writers. She is an officer and board member of Bay Area Travel Writers, and indulges her passions for travel and natural history as often as she possibly can.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/feed/ 0 Read at Garagiste Healdsburg http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:51:55 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2822 here.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/feed/ 0 We Recommend: Alice Acheson’s Workshops http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:34:54 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2812 Independent publicist and consultant, Alice Acheson, has negotiated literary contracts and edited numerous works. She is the former publicity director for Simon & Schuster and has more than 30 years’ experience promoting books.  Alice will be teaching a few workshops that are going to be at the Corte Madera Book Passage location in March. We recommend these to all of our members! The Greatest Marketing Tool on March 2nd Publishing Choices: Print-on-Demand, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publisher also on March 2nd and What's Next on March 3rd Alice's workshops are a must! She's like a fairy godmother for writers. Follow her advice and your literary wishes WILL come true. —Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author of Dead Love]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Lindy Hough http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:51:15 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2727 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Wild Horses, Wild Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1971-2010 with Lindy Hough [caption id="attachment_2728" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Lindy Hough"]Lindy Hough[/caption] Saturday, January 14, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com "Through vivid details, Hough gives us snapshots of people—close family and friends, sometimes complete strangers; often the strangers are treated as though they are long lost friends, often those closest to her are seen as if for the first time. As a major poet, Lindy Hough demonstrates that memory, language, and personal history are the true sources of inspiration for contemporary living.” —Cecil Brown, author of I, Stagolee

Poets and writers, we hope you will join Berkeley poet Lindy Hough for a sweeping journey through four decades of writing, as she reads poems collected from four earlier books and twenty new poems. Following a trajectory from the early seventies to the present, this New and Selected Poems gives a generous overview of Hough’s intellectual world as it probes themes of inner life reflected in artistic roots and process (including the work of visual artists), spiritual development, materialism and capitalism, and the workings of desire in relationship: love, family, motherhood and children, parents, the individual in the world.

Lindy Hough is the author of five books of poetry and non-fiction, including Nuclear Strategy and the Code of the Warrior: Faces of Mars and Shiva in the Crisis of Human Survival, a collection of anti-nuclear pieces, and the upcoming Wondrous Child: The Joys and Challenges of Grandparenting. She cofounded Berkeley’s North Atlantic Books in the mid-seventies, and was Publisher and Editorial Director for many years. She lives in Berkeley, California.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/feed/ 0 An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:33:27 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2748 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing

Lonelyplanet_sMonday, 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.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/feed/ 0 Ferry Plaza Book Party: Travelers’ Tales http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:07:01 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2703 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Travelers' Tales TTbest2011_sMonday, December 12, 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Plaza San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Join us Monday night for our last event of the year. We'll be celebrating Travelers' Tales with a few of the many contributors. Wine, snacks great stories and a whole lot of holiday cheer. Let us know if you have a travel tale you'd like to share.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Thanasis Maskaleris http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:20:02 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2676 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Thanasis Maskaleris, Translator and Editor of The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis:  Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? [caption id="attachment_2678" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Thanasis Maskaleris"]Thanasis Maskaleris[/caption] Saturday, December 10, 2011 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

“Every man (human being) has his own circle made up of things, trees, animals, humans, ideas—and he is duty-bound to save this circle. He, and no one else. If he does not save it, he cannot be saved.” —NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS Please join us as we celebrate the planet to which we owe so much and the work of two Greek authors who are its advocates: Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, and "the Green Greek" poet Thanasis Maskaleris. We will be serving wine and Greek delicacies and enjoying selections from The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis: Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? an anthology of passages—hymns to Gaia—selected from various books by Kazantzakis, centering on Nature and the workers of the soil, translated and edited by Thanasis Maskaleris. This powerful and poetic work raises environmental awareness and calls us to compassionate action toward saving our planet.
So come and celebrate with our earth loving, tree hugging tribe and share in this moving ode to our planet. “This ‘terrestrial gospel’ is just the kind of bracing slap the world needs, a reminder from a great writer about what’s real and vital.” —Bill McKibben Founder, 350.org, Author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet “Kazantzakis’s stentorian message needs to be hear far and wide, as we persist in our sometimes mindless assaults on our fragile plane.” —Dr. Leonidas Perakis, Scientist, Writer]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/feed/ 0 Literary Salon: Peter Lang http://www.leftcoastwriters.com Left Coast Writersâ„¢ was created to support new and established writers in the production and promotion of their work in a stimulating atmosphere of creativity and community. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Left Coast Writers® » Press Room http://www.leftcoastwriters.com Left Coast Writersâ„¢ was created to support new and established writers in the production and promotion of their work in a stimulating atmosphere of creativity and community. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Literary Salon: Cyra McFadden http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2741 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Cyra McFadden, Author of The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County and Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir Cyra Mcfadden Rain or Shine_sMonday, February 6th, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com How often do you get to chat with a literary icon? We hope you'll join us for an evening with legendary author, Cyra McFadden, who wrote The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, which was made into a film in 1980 simply titled Serial.  She also wrote Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir in 1986, a finalist for the Pulitzer prize that year. Cyra was the writer of a popular weekly column for the San Francisco Examiner from 1985 to 1991. She's an expert on Marin county and its denizens. Her presentation at our salon will be a real treat!]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers: Hot Flashes Pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:55:16 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2910 Hot Flashes 2 CoverHot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems is having a pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage! In the spirit of pairs, Book Passage is offering this special deal: From January 2nd to February 14th, there is a “buy one, get one free” Hot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage (415-927-0960). Just let them know that you want a free copy when you purchase! So buy the book for yourself, give the free copy to friend or lover, and join the editors for a lovely in-store party on 2/12/12 with a reading, entertainment, a sexy raffle and more! There will be wine and chocolate and ... who knows? ... you might win a super special prize.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/feed/ 0 LCW Pre-Valentines Day Lovefest http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:11:50 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2722 LEFT COAST WRITERS PRE-VALENTINE'S DAY EVENT: Party for the day of the heart, with a few heart-felt readings as well! Hot Flashes 2 Cover Saturday, February 11th|| 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com Join us for the ultimate pre-Valentine's Day party. Hot Flashes editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Laurie McAndish King and a host of past contributors will serve up wine, chocolate, romance-inducing gifts and some super-sultry works of literature just in time for the special day. Single or paired or in a big group, we want you to come and enjoy the love-ly vibe! About Hot Flashes: We confess, we’re on a mission. We think that the pleasures of being human and “in the flesh” get short shrift in our daily lives. Too often, in our culture, a natural captivation with the senses and their allure is suppressed, closeted, twisted, and this isn’t healthy at all. So, we want to present an unadulterated and avidly expressed lust for the sensual and all its permutations. This collection isn’t about anger and rebellion. It’s about love-about a good old erotic hankering for everything hot and steamy, warm and juicy, tasty, fragrant, visually exciting and vibration-filled. It’s about quickies: flash fiction, non-fiction and poetry guaranteed to raise a reader’s temperature in a way that is positively hormonal. These sexy short stories and poems demonstrate how simple it is to find pleasure almost anywhere when we are willing to slow down and attend to our feelings, our memories, and our senses. Linda Watanabe McFerrin has been traveling since she was two and writing about it since she was six. She is a contributor to numerous literary journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies, and online publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, San Francisco Bride, Bay Nature, various Travelers’ Tales anthologies, and Salon.com. A popular speaker and panelist and an award-winning writer, she has authored two poetry collections, a novel and a short story collection, and has edited four books, including a northern California guidebook and a travel anthology. Linda has served as an NEA panelist and past judge for the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama Prize, and is founder and President of Left Coast Writers®, LLC. Laurie McAndish King is a travel writer whose essays have been published in anthologies such as 30 Days in Italy, The Thong Also Rises, and the award-winning The Kindness of Strangers. Her work has also been published in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and aired on KUSF radio. Laurie’s adventurous spirit has led her to chase lemurs through the mountains of Madagascar, study medicinal plants in the jungles of Brazil, track lions on foot-without a gun-in Botswana, study with an urban shaman in San Francisco, and trap and band raptors in the Marin Headlands. Laurie earned her master’s degree in Internet-based education and publishes an online newsletter for travel writers. She is an officer and board member of Bay Area Travel Writers, and indulges her passions for travel and natural history as often as she possibly can.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/feed/ 0 Read at Garagiste Healdsburg http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:51:55 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2822 here.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/feed/ 0 We Recommend: Alice Acheson’s Workshops http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:34:54 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2812 Independent publicist and consultant, Alice Acheson, has negotiated literary contracts and edited numerous works. She is the former publicity director for Simon & Schuster and has more than 30 years’ experience promoting books.  Alice will be teaching a few workshops that are going to be at the Corte Madera Book Passage location in March. We recommend these to all of our members! The Greatest Marketing Tool on March 2nd Publishing Choices: Print-on-Demand, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publisher also on March 2nd and What's Next on March 3rd Alice's workshops are a must! She's like a fairy godmother for writers. Follow her advice and your literary wishes WILL come true. —Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author of Dead Love]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Lindy Hough http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:51:15 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2727 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Wild Horses, Wild Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1971-2010 with Lindy Hough [caption id="attachment_2728" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Lindy Hough"]Lindy Hough[/caption] Saturday, January 14, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com "Through vivid details, Hough gives us snapshots of people—close family and friends, sometimes complete strangers; often the strangers are treated as though they are long lost friends, often those closest to her are seen as if for the first time. As a major poet, Lindy Hough demonstrates that memory, language, and personal history are the true sources of inspiration for contemporary living.” —Cecil Brown, author of I, Stagolee

Poets and writers, we hope you will join Berkeley poet Lindy Hough for a sweeping journey through four decades of writing, as she reads poems collected from four earlier books and twenty new poems. Following a trajectory from the early seventies to the present, this New and Selected Poems gives a generous overview of Hough’s intellectual world as it probes themes of inner life reflected in artistic roots and process (including the work of visual artists), spiritual development, materialism and capitalism, and the workings of desire in relationship: love, family, motherhood and children, parents, the individual in the world.

Lindy Hough is the author of five books of poetry and non-fiction, including Nuclear Strategy and the Code of the Warrior: Faces of Mars and Shiva in the Crisis of Human Survival, a collection of anti-nuclear pieces, and the upcoming Wondrous Child: The Joys and Challenges of Grandparenting. She cofounded Berkeley’s North Atlantic Books in the mid-seventies, and was Publisher and Editorial Director for many years. She lives in Berkeley, California.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/feed/ 0 An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:33:27 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2748 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing

Lonelyplanet_sMonday, 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.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/feed/ 0 Ferry Plaza Book Party: Travelers’ Tales http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:07:01 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2703 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Travelers' Tales TTbest2011_sMonday, December 12, 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Plaza San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Join us Monday night for our last event of the year. We'll be celebrating Travelers' Tales with a few of the many contributors. Wine, snacks great stories and a whole lot of holiday cheer. Let us know if you have a travel tale you'd like to share.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Thanasis Maskaleris http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:20:02 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2676 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Thanasis Maskaleris, Translator and Editor of The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis:  Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? [caption id="attachment_2678" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Thanasis Maskaleris"]Thanasis Maskaleris[/caption] Saturday, December 10, 2011 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

“Every man (human being) has his own circle made up of things, trees, animals, humans, ideas—and he is duty-bound to save this circle. He, and no one else. If he does not save it, he cannot be saved.” —NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS Please join us as we celebrate the planet to which we owe so much and the work of two Greek authors who are its advocates: Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, and "the Green Greek" poet Thanasis Maskaleris. We will be serving wine and Greek delicacies and enjoying selections from The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis: Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? an anthology of passages—hymns to Gaia—selected from various books by Kazantzakis, centering on Nature and the workers of the soil, translated and edited by Thanasis Maskaleris. This powerful and poetic work raises environmental awareness and calls us to compassionate action toward saving our planet.
So come and celebrate with our earth loving, tree hugging tribe and share in this moving ode to our planet. “This ‘terrestrial gospel’ is just the kind of bracing slap the world needs, a reminder from a great writer about what’s real and vital.” —Bill McKibben Founder, 350.org, Author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet “Kazantzakis’s stentorian message needs to be hear far and wide, as we persist in our sometimes mindless assaults on our fragile plane.” —Dr. Leonidas Perakis, Scientist, Writer]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/feed/ 0 Literary Salon: Peter Lang http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2741 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Cyra McFadden, Author of The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County and Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir Cyra Mcfadden Rain or Shine_sMonday, February 6th, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com How often do you get to chat with a literary icon? We hope you'll join us for an evening with legendary author, Cyra McFadden, who wrote The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, which was made into a film in 1980 simply titled Serial.  She also wrote Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir in 1986, a finalist for the Pulitzer prize that year. Cyra was the writer of a popular weekly column for the San Francisco Examiner from 1985 to 1991. She's an expert on Marin county and its denizens. Her presentation at our salon will be a real treat!]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers® » Press Room http://www.leftcoastwriters.com Left Coast Writersâ„¢ was created to support new and established writers in the production and promotion of their work in a stimulating atmosphere of creativity and community. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Literary Salon: Cyra McFadden http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2741 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Cyra McFadden, Author of The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County and Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir Cyra Mcfadden Rain or Shine_sMonday, February 6th, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com How often do you get to chat with a literary icon? We hope you'll join us for an evening with legendary author, Cyra McFadden, who wrote The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, which was made into a film in 1980 simply titled Serial.  She also wrote Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir in 1986, a finalist for the Pulitzer prize that year. Cyra was the writer of a popular weekly column for the San Francisco Examiner from 1985 to 1991. She's an expert on Marin county and its denizens. Her presentation at our salon will be a real treat!]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers: Hot Flashes Pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:55:16 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2910 Hot Flashes 2 CoverHot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems is having a pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage! In the spirit of pairs, Book Passage is offering this special deal: From January 2nd to February 14th, there is a “buy one, get one free” Hot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage (415-927-0960). Just let them know that you want a free copy when you purchase! So buy the book for yourself, give the free copy to friend or lover, and join the editors for a lovely in-store party on 2/12/12 with a reading, entertainment, a sexy raffle and more! There will be wine and chocolate and ... who knows? ... you might win a super special prize.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/feed/ 0 LCW Pre-Valentines Day Lovefest http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:11:50 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2722 LEFT COAST WRITERS PRE-VALENTINE'S DAY EVENT: Party for the day of the heart, with a few heart-felt readings as well! Hot Flashes 2 Cover Saturday, February 11th|| 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com Join us for the ultimate pre-Valentine's Day party. Hot Flashes editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Laurie McAndish King and a host of past contributors will serve up wine, chocolate, romance-inducing gifts and some super-sultry works of literature just in time for the special day. Single or paired or in a big group, we want you to come and enjoy the love-ly vibe! About Hot Flashes: We confess, we’re on a mission. We think that the pleasures of being human and “in the flesh” get short shrift in our daily lives. Too often, in our culture, a natural captivation with the senses and their allure is suppressed, closeted, twisted, and this isn’t healthy at all. So, we want to present an unadulterated and avidly expressed lust for the sensual and all its permutations. This collection isn’t about anger and rebellion. It’s about love-about a good old erotic hankering for everything hot and steamy, warm and juicy, tasty, fragrant, visually exciting and vibration-filled. It’s about quickies: flash fiction, non-fiction and poetry guaranteed to raise a reader’s temperature in a way that is positively hormonal. These sexy short stories and poems demonstrate how simple it is to find pleasure almost anywhere when we are willing to slow down and attend to our feelings, our memories, and our senses. Linda Watanabe McFerrin has been traveling since she was two and writing about it since she was six. She is a contributor to numerous literary journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies, and online publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, San Francisco Bride, Bay Nature, various Travelers’ Tales anthologies, and Salon.com. A popular speaker and panelist and an award-winning writer, she has authored two poetry collections, a novel and a short story collection, and has edited four books, including a northern California guidebook and a travel anthology. Linda has served as an NEA panelist and past judge for the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama Prize, and is founder and President of Left Coast Writers®, LLC. Laurie McAndish King is a travel writer whose essays have been published in anthologies such as 30 Days in Italy, The Thong Also Rises, and the award-winning The Kindness of Strangers. Her work has also been published in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and aired on KUSF radio. Laurie’s adventurous spirit has led her to chase lemurs through the mountains of Madagascar, study medicinal plants in the jungles of Brazil, track lions on foot-without a gun-in Botswana, study with an urban shaman in San Francisco, and trap and band raptors in the Marin Headlands. Laurie earned her master’s degree in Internet-based education and publishes an online newsletter for travel writers. She is an officer and board member of Bay Area Travel Writers, and indulges her passions for travel and natural history as often as she possibly can.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/feed/ 0 Read at Garagiste Healdsburg http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:51:55 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2822 here.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/feed/ 0 We Recommend: Alice Acheson’s Workshops http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:34:54 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2812 Independent publicist and consultant, Alice Acheson, has negotiated literary contracts and edited numerous works. She is the former publicity director for Simon & Schuster and has more than 30 years’ experience promoting books.  Alice will be teaching a few workshops that are going to be at the Corte Madera Book Passage location in March. We recommend these to all of our members! The Greatest Marketing Tool on March 2nd Publishing Choices: Print-on-Demand, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publisher also on March 2nd and What's Next on March 3rd Alice's workshops are a must! She's like a fairy godmother for writers. Follow her advice and your literary wishes WILL come true. —Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author of Dead Love]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Lindy Hough http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:51:15 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2727 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Wild Horses, Wild Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1971-2010 with Lindy Hough [caption id="attachment_2728" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Lindy Hough"]Lindy Hough[/caption] Saturday, January 14, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com "Through vivid details, Hough gives us snapshots of people—close family and friends, sometimes complete strangers; often the strangers are treated as though they are long lost friends, often those closest to her are seen as if for the first time. As a major poet, Lindy Hough demonstrates that memory, language, and personal history are the true sources of inspiration for contemporary living.” —Cecil Brown, author of I, Stagolee

Poets and writers, we hope you will join Berkeley poet Lindy Hough for a sweeping journey through four decades of writing, as she reads poems collected from four earlier books and twenty new poems. Following a trajectory from the early seventies to the present, this New and Selected Poems gives a generous overview of Hough’s intellectual world as it probes themes of inner life reflected in artistic roots and process (including the work of visual artists), spiritual development, materialism and capitalism, and the workings of desire in relationship: love, family, motherhood and children, parents, the individual in the world.

Lindy Hough is the author of five books of poetry and non-fiction, including Nuclear Strategy and the Code of the Warrior: Faces of Mars and Shiva in the Crisis of Human Survival, a collection of anti-nuclear pieces, and the upcoming Wondrous Child: The Joys and Challenges of Grandparenting. She cofounded Berkeley’s North Atlantic Books in the mid-seventies, and was Publisher and Editorial Director for many years. She lives in Berkeley, California.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/feed/ 0 An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:33:27 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2748 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing

Lonelyplanet_sMonday, 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.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/feed/ 0 Ferry Plaza Book Party: Travelers’ Tales http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:07:01 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2703 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Travelers' Tales TTbest2011_sMonday, December 12, 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Plaza San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Join us Monday night for our last event of the year. We'll be celebrating Travelers' Tales with a few of the many contributors. Wine, snacks great stories and a whole lot of holiday cheer. Let us know if you have a travel tale you'd like to share.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Thanasis Maskaleris http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:20:02 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2676 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Thanasis Maskaleris, Translator and Editor of The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis:  Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? [caption id="attachment_2678" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Thanasis Maskaleris"]Thanasis Maskaleris[/caption] Saturday, December 10, 2011 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

“Every man (human being) has his own circle made up of things, trees, animals, humans, ideas—and he is duty-bound to save this circle. He, and no one else. If he does not save it, he cannot be saved.” —NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS Please join us as we celebrate the planet to which we owe so much and the work of two Greek authors who are its advocates: Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, and "the Green Greek" poet Thanasis Maskaleris. We will be serving wine and Greek delicacies and enjoying selections from The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis: Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? an anthology of passages—hymns to Gaia—selected from various books by Kazantzakis, centering on Nature and the workers of the soil, translated and edited by Thanasis Maskaleris. This powerful and poetic work raises environmental awareness and calls us to compassionate action toward saving our planet.
So come and celebrate with our earth loving, tree hugging tribe and share in this moving ode to our planet. “This ‘terrestrial gospel’ is just the kind of bracing slap the world needs, a reminder from a great writer about what’s real and vital.” —Bill McKibben Founder, 350.org, Author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet “Kazantzakis’s stentorian message needs to be hear far and wide, as we persist in our sometimes mindless assaults on our fragile plane.” —Dr. Leonidas Perakis, Scientist, Writer]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/feed/ 0 Literary Salon: Peter Lang http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:55:16 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2910 Hot Flashes 2 CoverHot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems is having a pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage! In the spirit of pairs, Book Passage is offering this special deal: From January 2nd to February 14th, there is a “buy one, get one free” Hot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage (415-927-0960). Just let them know that you want a free copy when you purchase! So buy the book for yourself, give the free copy to friend or lover, and join the editors for a lovely in-store party on 2/12/12 with a reading, entertainment, a sexy raffle and more! There will be wine and chocolate and ... who knows? ... you might win a super special prize.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers® » Press Room http://www.leftcoastwriters.com Left Coast Writersâ„¢ was created to support new and established writers in the production and promotion of their work in a stimulating atmosphere of creativity and community. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Literary Salon: Cyra McFadden http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2741 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Cyra McFadden, Author of The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County and Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir Cyra Mcfadden Rain or Shine_sMonday, February 6th, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com How often do you get to chat with a literary icon? We hope you'll join us for an evening with legendary author, Cyra McFadden, who wrote The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, which was made into a film in 1980 simply titled Serial.  She also wrote Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir in 1986, a finalist for the Pulitzer prize that year. Cyra was the writer of a popular weekly column for the San Francisco Examiner from 1985 to 1991. She's an expert on Marin county and its denizens. Her presentation at our salon will be a real treat!]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers: Hot Flashes Pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:55:16 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2910 Hot Flashes 2 CoverHot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems is having a pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage! In the spirit of pairs, Book Passage is offering this special deal: From January 2nd to February 14th, there is a “buy one, get one free” Hot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage (415-927-0960). Just let them know that you want a free copy when you purchase! So buy the book for yourself, give the free copy to friend or lover, and join the editors for a lovely in-store party on 2/12/12 with a reading, entertainment, a sexy raffle and more! There will be wine and chocolate and ... who knows? ... you might win a super special prize.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/feed/ 0 LCW Pre-Valentines Day Lovefest http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:11:50 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2722 LEFT COAST WRITERS PRE-VALENTINE'S DAY EVENT: Party for the day of the heart, with a few heart-felt readings as well! Hot Flashes 2 Cover Saturday, February 11th|| 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com Join us for the ultimate pre-Valentine's Day party. Hot Flashes editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Laurie McAndish King and a host of past contributors will serve up wine, chocolate, romance-inducing gifts and some super-sultry works of literature just in time for the special day. Single or paired or in a big group, we want you to come and enjoy the love-ly vibe! About Hot Flashes: We confess, we’re on a mission. We think that the pleasures of being human and “in the flesh” get short shrift in our daily lives. Too often, in our culture, a natural captivation with the senses and their allure is suppressed, closeted, twisted, and this isn’t healthy at all. So, we want to present an unadulterated and avidly expressed lust for the sensual and all its permutations. This collection isn’t about anger and rebellion. It’s about love-about a good old erotic hankering for everything hot and steamy, warm and juicy, tasty, fragrant, visually exciting and vibration-filled. It’s about quickies: flash fiction, non-fiction and poetry guaranteed to raise a reader’s temperature in a way that is positively hormonal. These sexy short stories and poems demonstrate how simple it is to find pleasure almost anywhere when we are willing to slow down and attend to our feelings, our memories, and our senses. Linda Watanabe McFerrin has been traveling since she was two and writing about it since she was six. She is a contributor to numerous literary journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies, and online publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, San Francisco Bride, Bay Nature, various Travelers’ Tales anthologies, and Salon.com. A popular speaker and panelist and an award-winning writer, she has authored two poetry collections, a novel and a short story collection, and has edited four books, including a northern California guidebook and a travel anthology. Linda has served as an NEA panelist and past judge for the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama Prize, and is founder and President of Left Coast Writers®, LLC. Laurie McAndish King is a travel writer whose essays have been published in anthologies such as 30 Days in Italy, The Thong Also Rises, and the award-winning The Kindness of Strangers. Her work has also been published in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and aired on KUSF radio. Laurie’s adventurous spirit has led her to chase lemurs through the mountains of Madagascar, study medicinal plants in the jungles of Brazil, track lions on foot-without a gun-in Botswana, study with an urban shaman in San Francisco, and trap and band raptors in the Marin Headlands. Laurie earned her master’s degree in Internet-based education and publishes an online newsletter for travel writers. She is an officer and board member of Bay Area Travel Writers, and indulges her passions for travel and natural history as often as she possibly can.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/feed/ 0 Read at Garagiste Healdsburg http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:51:55 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2822 here.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/feed/ 0 We Recommend: Alice Acheson’s Workshops http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:34:54 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2812 Independent publicist and consultant, Alice Acheson, has negotiated literary contracts and edited numerous works. She is the former publicity director for Simon & Schuster and has more than 30 years’ experience promoting books.  Alice will be teaching a few workshops that are going to be at the Corte Madera Book Passage location in March. We recommend these to all of our members! The Greatest Marketing Tool on March 2nd Publishing Choices: Print-on-Demand, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publisher also on March 2nd and What's Next on March 3rd Alice's workshops are a must! She's like a fairy godmother for writers. Follow her advice and your literary wishes WILL come true. —Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author of Dead Love]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Lindy Hough http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:51:15 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2727 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Wild Horses, Wild Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1971-2010 with Lindy Hough [caption id="attachment_2728" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Lindy Hough"]Lindy Hough[/caption] Saturday, January 14, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com "Through vivid details, Hough gives us snapshots of people—close family and friends, sometimes complete strangers; often the strangers are treated as though they are long lost friends, often those closest to her are seen as if for the first time. As a major poet, Lindy Hough demonstrates that memory, language, and personal history are the true sources of inspiration for contemporary living.” —Cecil Brown, author of I, Stagolee

Poets and writers, we hope you will join Berkeley poet Lindy Hough for a sweeping journey through four decades of writing, as she reads poems collected from four earlier books and twenty new poems. Following a trajectory from the early seventies to the present, this New and Selected Poems gives a generous overview of Hough’s intellectual world as it probes themes of inner life reflected in artistic roots and process (including the work of visual artists), spiritual development, materialism and capitalism, and the workings of desire in relationship: love, family, motherhood and children, parents, the individual in the world.

Lindy Hough is the author of five books of poetry and non-fiction, including Nuclear Strategy and the Code of the Warrior: Faces of Mars and Shiva in the Crisis of Human Survival, a collection of anti-nuclear pieces, and the upcoming Wondrous Child: The Joys and Challenges of Grandparenting. She cofounded Berkeley’s North Atlantic Books in the mid-seventies, and was Publisher and Editorial Director for many years. She lives in Berkeley, California.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/feed/ 0 An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:33:27 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2748 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing

Lonelyplanet_sMonday, 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.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/feed/ 0 Ferry Plaza Book Party: Travelers’ Tales http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:07:01 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2703 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Travelers' Tales TTbest2011_sMonday, December 12, 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Plaza San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Join us Monday night for our last event of the year. We'll be celebrating Travelers' Tales with a few of the many contributors. Wine, snacks great stories and a whole lot of holiday cheer. Let us know if you have a travel tale you'd like to share.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Thanasis Maskaleris http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:20:02 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2676 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Thanasis Maskaleris, Translator and Editor of The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis:  Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? [caption id="attachment_2678" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Thanasis Maskaleris"]Thanasis Maskaleris[/caption] Saturday, December 10, 2011 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

“Every man (human being) has his own circle made up of things, trees, animals, humans, ideas—and he is duty-bound to save this circle. He, and no one else. If he does not save it, he cannot be saved.” —NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS Please join us as we celebrate the planet to which we owe so much and the work of two Greek authors who are its advocates: Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, and "the Green Greek" poet Thanasis Maskaleris. We will be serving wine and Greek delicacies and enjoying selections from The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis: Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? an anthology of passages—hymns to Gaia—selected from various books by Kazantzakis, centering on Nature and the workers of the soil, translated and edited by Thanasis Maskaleris. This powerful and poetic work raises environmental awareness and calls us to compassionate action toward saving our planet.
So come and celebrate with our earth loving, tree hugging tribe and share in this moving ode to our planet. “This ‘terrestrial gospel’ is just the kind of bracing slap the world needs, a reminder from a great writer about what’s real and vital.” —Bill McKibben Founder, 350.org, Author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet “Kazantzakis’s stentorian message needs to be hear far and wide, as we persist in our sometimes mindless assaults on our fragile plane.” —Dr. Leonidas Perakis, Scientist, Writer]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/feed/ 0 Literary Salon: Peter Lang http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:11:50 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2722 LEFT COAST WRITERS PRE-VALENTINE'S DAY EVENT: Party for the day of the heart, with a few heart-felt readings as well! Hot Flashes 2 Cover Saturday, February 11th|| 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com Join us for the ultimate pre-Valentine's Day party. Hot Flashes editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Laurie McAndish King and a host of past contributors will serve up wine, chocolate, romance-inducing gifts and some super-sultry works of literature just in time for the special day. Single or paired or in a big group, we want you to come and enjoy the love-ly vibe! About Hot Flashes: We confess, we’re on a mission. We think that the pleasures of being human and “in the flesh” get short shrift in our daily lives. Too often, in our culture, a natural captivation with the senses and their allure is suppressed, closeted, twisted, and this isn’t healthy at all. So, we want to present an unadulterated and avidly expressed lust for the sensual and all its permutations. This collection isn’t about anger and rebellion. It’s about love-about a good old erotic hankering for everything hot and steamy, warm and juicy, tasty, fragrant, visually exciting and vibration-filled. It’s about quickies: flash fiction, non-fiction and poetry guaranteed to raise a reader’s temperature in a way that is positively hormonal. These sexy short stories and poems demonstrate how simple it is to find pleasure almost anywhere when we are willing to slow down and attend to our feelings, our memories, and our senses. Linda Watanabe McFerrin has been traveling since she was two and writing about it since she was six. She is a contributor to numerous literary journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies, and online publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, San Francisco Bride, Bay Nature, various Travelers’ Tales anthologies, and Salon.com. A popular speaker and panelist and an award-winning writer, she has authored two poetry collections, a novel and a short story collection, and has edited four books, including a northern California guidebook and a travel anthology. Linda has served as an NEA panelist and past judge for the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama Prize, and is founder and President of Left Coast Writers®, LLC. Laurie McAndish King is a travel writer whose essays have been published in anthologies such as 30 Days in Italy, The Thong Also Rises, and the award-winning The Kindness of Strangers. Her work has also been published in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and aired on KUSF radio. Laurie’s adventurous spirit has led her to chase lemurs through the mountains of Madagascar, study medicinal plants in the jungles of Brazil, track lions on foot-without a gun-in Botswana, study with an urban shaman in San Francisco, and trap and band raptors in the Marin Headlands. Laurie earned her master’s degree in Internet-based education and publishes an online newsletter for travel writers. She is an officer and board member of Bay Area Travel Writers, and indulges her passions for travel and natural history as often as she possibly can.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers® » Press Room http://www.leftcoastwriters.com Left Coast Writersâ„¢ was created to support new and established writers in the production and promotion of their work in a stimulating atmosphere of creativity and community. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Literary Salon: Cyra McFadden http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2741 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Cyra McFadden, Author of The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County and Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir Cyra Mcfadden Rain or Shine_sMonday, February 6th, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com How often do you get to chat with a literary icon? We hope you'll join us for an evening with legendary author, Cyra McFadden, who wrote The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, which was made into a film in 1980 simply titled Serial.  She also wrote Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir in 1986, a finalist for the Pulitzer prize that year. Cyra was the writer of a popular weekly column for the San Francisco Examiner from 1985 to 1991. She's an expert on Marin county and its denizens. Her presentation at our salon will be a real treat!]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers: Hot Flashes Pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:55:16 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2910 Hot Flashes 2 CoverHot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems is having a pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage! In the spirit of pairs, Book Passage is offering this special deal: From January 2nd to February 14th, there is a “buy one, get one free” Hot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage (415-927-0960). Just let them know that you want a free copy when you purchase! So buy the book for yourself, give the free copy to friend or lover, and join the editors for a lovely in-store party on 2/12/12 with a reading, entertainment, a sexy raffle and more! There will be wine and chocolate and ... who knows? ... you might win a super special prize.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/feed/ 0 LCW Pre-Valentines Day Lovefest http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:11:50 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2722 LEFT COAST WRITERS PRE-VALENTINE'S DAY EVENT: Party for the day of the heart, with a few heart-felt readings as well! Hot Flashes 2 Cover Saturday, February 11th|| 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com Join us for the ultimate pre-Valentine's Day party. Hot Flashes editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Laurie McAndish King and a host of past contributors will serve up wine, chocolate, romance-inducing gifts and some super-sultry works of literature just in time for the special day. Single or paired or in a big group, we want you to come and enjoy the love-ly vibe! About Hot Flashes: We confess, we’re on a mission. We think that the pleasures of being human and “in the flesh” get short shrift in our daily lives. Too often, in our culture, a natural captivation with the senses and their allure is suppressed, closeted, twisted, and this isn’t healthy at all. So, we want to present an unadulterated and avidly expressed lust for the sensual and all its permutations. This collection isn’t about anger and rebellion. It’s about love-about a good old erotic hankering for everything hot and steamy, warm and juicy, tasty, fragrant, visually exciting and vibration-filled. It’s about quickies: flash fiction, non-fiction and poetry guaranteed to raise a reader’s temperature in a way that is positively hormonal. These sexy short stories and poems demonstrate how simple it is to find pleasure almost anywhere when we are willing to slow down and attend to our feelings, our memories, and our senses. Linda Watanabe McFerrin has been traveling since she was two and writing about it since she was six. She is a contributor to numerous literary journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies, and online publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, San Francisco Bride, Bay Nature, various Travelers’ Tales anthologies, and Salon.com. A popular speaker and panelist and an award-winning writer, she has authored two poetry collections, a novel and a short story collection, and has edited four books, including a northern California guidebook and a travel anthology. Linda has served as an NEA panelist and past judge for the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama Prize, and is founder and President of Left Coast Writers®, LLC. Laurie McAndish King is a travel writer whose essays have been published in anthologies such as 30 Days in Italy, The Thong Also Rises, and the award-winning The Kindness of Strangers. Her work has also been published in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and aired on KUSF radio. Laurie’s adventurous spirit has led her to chase lemurs through the mountains of Madagascar, study medicinal plants in the jungles of Brazil, track lions on foot-without a gun-in Botswana, study with an urban shaman in San Francisco, and trap and band raptors in the Marin Headlands. Laurie earned her master’s degree in Internet-based education and publishes an online newsletter for travel writers. She is an officer and board member of Bay Area Travel Writers, and indulges her passions for travel and natural history as often as she possibly can.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/feed/ 0 Read at Garagiste Healdsburg http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:51:55 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2822 here.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/feed/ 0 We Recommend: Alice Acheson’s Workshops http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:34:54 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2812 Independent publicist and consultant, Alice Acheson, has negotiated literary contracts and edited numerous works. She is the former publicity director for Simon & Schuster and has more than 30 years’ experience promoting books.  Alice will be teaching a few workshops that are going to be at the Corte Madera Book Passage location in March. We recommend these to all of our members! The Greatest Marketing Tool on March 2nd Publishing Choices: Print-on-Demand, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publisher also on March 2nd and What's Next on March 3rd Alice's workshops are a must! She's like a fairy godmother for writers. Follow her advice and your literary wishes WILL come true. —Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author of Dead Love]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Lindy Hough http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:51:15 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2727 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Wild Horses, Wild Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1971-2010 with Lindy Hough [caption id="attachment_2728" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Lindy Hough"]Lindy Hough[/caption] Saturday, January 14, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com "Through vivid details, Hough gives us snapshots of people—close family and friends, sometimes complete strangers; often the strangers are treated as though they are long lost friends, often those closest to her are seen as if for the first time. As a major poet, Lindy Hough demonstrates that memory, language, and personal history are the true sources of inspiration for contemporary living.” —Cecil Brown, author of I, Stagolee

Poets and writers, we hope you will join Berkeley poet Lindy Hough for a sweeping journey through four decades of writing, as she reads poems collected from four earlier books and twenty new poems. Following a trajectory from the early seventies to the present, this New and Selected Poems gives a generous overview of Hough’s intellectual world as it probes themes of inner life reflected in artistic roots and process (including the work of visual artists), spiritual development, materialism and capitalism, and the workings of desire in relationship: love, family, motherhood and children, parents, the individual in the world.

Lindy Hough is the author of five books of poetry and non-fiction, including Nuclear Strategy and the Code of the Warrior: Faces of Mars and Shiva in the Crisis of Human Survival, a collection of anti-nuclear pieces, and the upcoming Wondrous Child: The Joys and Challenges of Grandparenting. She cofounded Berkeley’s North Atlantic Books in the mid-seventies, and was Publisher and Editorial Director for many years. She lives in Berkeley, California.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/feed/ 0 An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:33:27 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2748 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing

Lonelyplanet_sMonday, 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.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/feed/ 0 Ferry Plaza Book Party: Travelers’ Tales http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:07:01 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2703 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Travelers' Tales TTbest2011_sMonday, December 12, 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Plaza San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Join us Monday night for our last event of the year. We'll be celebrating Travelers' Tales with a few of the many contributors. Wine, snacks great stories and a whole lot of holiday cheer. Let us know if you have a travel tale you'd like to share.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Thanasis Maskaleris http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:20:02 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2676 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Thanasis Maskaleris, Translator and Editor of The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis:  Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? [caption id="attachment_2678" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Thanasis Maskaleris"]Thanasis Maskaleris[/caption] Saturday, December 10, 2011 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

“Every man (human being) has his own circle made up of things, trees, animals, humans, ideas—and he is duty-bound to save this circle. He, and no one else. If he does not save it, he cannot be saved.” —NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS Please join us as we celebrate the planet to which we owe so much and the work of two Greek authors who are its advocates: Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, and "the Green Greek" poet Thanasis Maskaleris. We will be serving wine and Greek delicacies and enjoying selections from The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis: Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? an anthology of passages—hymns to Gaia—selected from various books by Kazantzakis, centering on Nature and the workers of the soil, translated and edited by Thanasis Maskaleris. This powerful and poetic work raises environmental awareness and calls us to compassionate action toward saving our planet.
So come and celebrate with our earth loving, tree hugging tribe and share in this moving ode to our planet. “This ‘terrestrial gospel’ is just the kind of bracing slap the world needs, a reminder from a great writer about what’s real and vital.” —Bill McKibben Founder, 350.org, Author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet “Kazantzakis’s stentorian message needs to be hear far and wide, as we persist in our sometimes mindless assaults on our fragile plane.” —Dr. Leonidas Perakis, Scientist, Writer]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/feed/ 0 Literary Salon: Peter Lang http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:51:55 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2822 here.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers® » Press Room http://www.leftcoastwriters.com Left Coast Writersâ„¢ was created to support new and established writers in the production and promotion of their work in a stimulating atmosphere of creativity and community. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Literary Salon: Cyra McFadden http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2741 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Cyra McFadden, Author of The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County and Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir Cyra Mcfadden Rain or Shine_sMonday, February 6th, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com How often do you get to chat with a literary icon? We hope you'll join us for an evening with legendary author, Cyra McFadden, who wrote The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, which was made into a film in 1980 simply titled Serial.  She also wrote Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir in 1986, a finalist for the Pulitzer prize that year. Cyra was the writer of a popular weekly column for the San Francisco Examiner from 1985 to 1991. She's an expert on Marin county and its denizens. Her presentation at our salon will be a real treat!]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers: Hot Flashes Pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:55:16 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2910 Hot Flashes 2 CoverHot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems is having a pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage! In the spirit of pairs, Book Passage is offering this special deal: From January 2nd to February 14th, there is a “buy one, get one free” Hot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage (415-927-0960). Just let them know that you want a free copy when you purchase! So buy the book for yourself, give the free copy to friend or lover, and join the editors for a lovely in-store party on 2/12/12 with a reading, entertainment, a sexy raffle and more! There will be wine and chocolate and ... who knows? ... you might win a super special prize.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/feed/ 0 LCW Pre-Valentines Day Lovefest http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:11:50 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2722 LEFT COAST WRITERS PRE-VALENTINE'S DAY EVENT: Party for the day of the heart, with a few heart-felt readings as well! Hot Flashes 2 Cover Saturday, February 11th|| 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com Join us for the ultimate pre-Valentine's Day party. Hot Flashes editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Laurie McAndish King and a host of past contributors will serve up wine, chocolate, romance-inducing gifts and some super-sultry works of literature just in time for the special day. Single or paired or in a big group, we want you to come and enjoy the love-ly vibe! About Hot Flashes: We confess, we’re on a mission. We think that the pleasures of being human and “in the flesh” get short shrift in our daily lives. Too often, in our culture, a natural captivation with the senses and their allure is suppressed, closeted, twisted, and this isn’t healthy at all. So, we want to present an unadulterated and avidly expressed lust for the sensual and all its permutations. This collection isn’t about anger and rebellion. It’s about love-about a good old erotic hankering for everything hot and steamy, warm and juicy, tasty, fragrant, visually exciting and vibration-filled. It’s about quickies: flash fiction, non-fiction and poetry guaranteed to raise a reader’s temperature in a way that is positively hormonal. These sexy short stories and poems demonstrate how simple it is to find pleasure almost anywhere when we are willing to slow down and attend to our feelings, our memories, and our senses. Linda Watanabe McFerrin has been traveling since she was two and writing about it since she was six. She is a contributor to numerous literary journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies, and online publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, San Francisco Bride, Bay Nature, various Travelers’ Tales anthologies, and Salon.com. A popular speaker and panelist and an award-winning writer, she has authored two poetry collections, a novel and a short story collection, and has edited four books, including a northern California guidebook and a travel anthology. Linda has served as an NEA panelist and past judge for the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama Prize, and is founder and President of Left Coast Writers®, LLC. Laurie McAndish King is a travel writer whose essays have been published in anthologies such as 30 Days in Italy, The Thong Also Rises, and the award-winning The Kindness of Strangers. Her work has also been published in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and aired on KUSF radio. Laurie’s adventurous spirit has led her to chase lemurs through the mountains of Madagascar, study medicinal plants in the jungles of Brazil, track lions on foot-without a gun-in Botswana, study with an urban shaman in San Francisco, and trap and band raptors in the Marin Headlands. Laurie earned her master’s degree in Internet-based education and publishes an online newsletter for travel writers. She is an officer and board member of Bay Area Travel Writers, and indulges her passions for travel and natural history as often as she possibly can.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/feed/ 0 Read at Garagiste Healdsburg http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:51:55 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2822 here.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/feed/ 0 We Recommend: Alice Acheson’s Workshops http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:34:54 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2812 Independent publicist and consultant, Alice Acheson, has negotiated literary contracts and edited numerous works. She is the former publicity director for Simon & Schuster and has more than 30 years’ experience promoting books.  Alice will be teaching a few workshops that are going to be at the Corte Madera Book Passage location in March. We recommend these to all of our members! The Greatest Marketing Tool on March 2nd Publishing Choices: Print-on-Demand, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publisher also on March 2nd and What's Next on March 3rd Alice's workshops are a must! She's like a fairy godmother for writers. Follow her advice and your literary wishes WILL come true. —Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author of Dead Love]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Lindy Hough http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:51:15 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2727 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Wild Horses, Wild Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1971-2010 with Lindy Hough [caption id="attachment_2728" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Lindy Hough"]Lindy Hough[/caption] Saturday, January 14, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com "Through vivid details, Hough gives us snapshots of people—close family and friends, sometimes complete strangers; often the strangers are treated as though they are long lost friends, often those closest to her are seen as if for the first time. As a major poet, Lindy Hough demonstrates that memory, language, and personal history are the true sources of inspiration for contemporary living.” —Cecil Brown, author of I, Stagolee

Poets and writers, we hope you will join Berkeley poet Lindy Hough for a sweeping journey through four decades of writing, as she reads poems collected from four earlier books and twenty new poems. Following a trajectory from the early seventies to the present, this New and Selected Poems gives a generous overview of Hough’s intellectual world as it probes themes of inner life reflected in artistic roots and process (including the work of visual artists), spiritual development, materialism and capitalism, and the workings of desire in relationship: love, family, motherhood and children, parents, the individual in the world.

Lindy Hough is the author of five books of poetry and non-fiction, including Nuclear Strategy and the Code of the Warrior: Faces of Mars and Shiva in the Crisis of Human Survival, a collection of anti-nuclear pieces, and the upcoming Wondrous Child: The Joys and Challenges of Grandparenting. She cofounded Berkeley’s North Atlantic Books in the mid-seventies, and was Publisher and Editorial Director for many years. She lives in Berkeley, California.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/feed/ 0 An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:33:27 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2748 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing

Lonelyplanet_sMonday, 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.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/feed/ 0 Ferry Plaza Book Party: Travelers’ Tales http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:07:01 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2703 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Travelers' Tales TTbest2011_sMonday, December 12, 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Plaza San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Join us Monday night for our last event of the year. We'll be celebrating Travelers' Tales with a few of the many contributors. Wine, snacks great stories and a whole lot of holiday cheer. Let us know if you have a travel tale you'd like to share.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Thanasis Maskaleris http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:20:02 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2676 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Thanasis Maskaleris, Translator and Editor of The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis:  Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? [caption id="attachment_2678" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Thanasis Maskaleris"]Thanasis Maskaleris[/caption] Saturday, December 10, 2011 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

“Every man (human being) has his own circle made up of things, trees, animals, humans, ideas—and he is duty-bound to save this circle. He, and no one else. If he does not save it, he cannot be saved.” —NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS Please join us as we celebrate the planet to which we owe so much and the work of two Greek authors who are its advocates: Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, and "the Green Greek" poet Thanasis Maskaleris. We will be serving wine and Greek delicacies and enjoying selections from The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis: Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? an anthology of passages—hymns to Gaia—selected from various books by Kazantzakis, centering on Nature and the workers of the soil, translated and edited by Thanasis Maskaleris. This powerful and poetic work raises environmental awareness and calls us to compassionate action toward saving our planet.
So come and celebrate with our earth loving, tree hugging tribe and share in this moving ode to our planet. “This ‘terrestrial gospel’ is just the kind of bracing slap the world needs, a reminder from a great writer about what’s real and vital.” —Bill McKibben Founder, 350.org, Author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet “Kazantzakis’s stentorian message needs to be hear far and wide, as we persist in our sometimes mindless assaults on our fragile plane.” —Dr. Leonidas Perakis, Scientist, Writer]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/feed/ 0 Literary Salon: Peter Lang http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:34:54 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2812 Independent publicist and consultant, Alice Acheson, has negotiated literary contracts and edited numerous works. She is the former publicity director for Simon & Schuster and has more than 30 years’ experience promoting books.  Alice will be teaching a few workshops that are going to be at the Corte Madera Book Passage location in March. We recommend these to all of our members! The Greatest Marketing Tool on March 2nd Publishing Choices: Print-on-Demand, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publisher also on March 2nd and What's Next on March 3rd Alice's workshops are a must! She's like a fairy godmother for writers. Follow her advice and your literary wishes WILL come true. —Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author of Dead Love]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers® » Press Room http://www.leftcoastwriters.com Left Coast Writersâ„¢ was created to support new and established writers in the production and promotion of their work in a stimulating atmosphere of creativity and community. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Literary Salon: Cyra McFadden http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2741 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Cyra McFadden, Author of The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County and Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir Cyra Mcfadden Rain or Shine_sMonday, February 6th, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com How often do you get to chat with a literary icon? We hope you'll join us for an evening with legendary author, Cyra McFadden, who wrote The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, which was made into a film in 1980 simply titled Serial.  She also wrote Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir in 1986, a finalist for the Pulitzer prize that year. Cyra was the writer of a popular weekly column for the San Francisco Examiner from 1985 to 1991. She's an expert on Marin county and its denizens. Her presentation at our salon will be a real treat!]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers: Hot Flashes Pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:55:16 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2910 Hot Flashes 2 CoverHot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems is having a pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage! In the spirit of pairs, Book Passage is offering this special deal: From January 2nd to February 14th, there is a “buy one, get one free” Hot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage (415-927-0960). Just let them know that you want a free copy when you purchase! So buy the book for yourself, give the free copy to friend or lover, and join the editors for a lovely in-store party on 2/12/12 with a reading, entertainment, a sexy raffle and more! There will be wine and chocolate and ... who knows? ... you might win a super special prize.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/feed/ 0 LCW Pre-Valentines Day Lovefest http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:11:50 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2722 LEFT COAST WRITERS PRE-VALENTINE'S DAY EVENT: Party for the day of the heart, with a few heart-felt readings as well! Hot Flashes 2 Cover Saturday, February 11th|| 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com Join us for the ultimate pre-Valentine's Day party. Hot Flashes editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Laurie McAndish King and a host of past contributors will serve up wine, chocolate, romance-inducing gifts and some super-sultry works of literature just in time for the special day. Single or paired or in a big group, we want you to come and enjoy the love-ly vibe! About Hot Flashes: We confess, we’re on a mission. We think that the pleasures of being human and “in the flesh” get short shrift in our daily lives. Too often, in our culture, a natural captivation with the senses and their allure is suppressed, closeted, twisted, and this isn’t healthy at all. So, we want to present an unadulterated and avidly expressed lust for the sensual and all its permutations. This collection isn’t about anger and rebellion. It’s about love-about a good old erotic hankering for everything hot and steamy, warm and juicy, tasty, fragrant, visually exciting and vibration-filled. It’s about quickies: flash fiction, non-fiction and poetry guaranteed to raise a reader’s temperature in a way that is positively hormonal. These sexy short stories and poems demonstrate how simple it is to find pleasure almost anywhere when we are willing to slow down and attend to our feelings, our memories, and our senses. Linda Watanabe McFerrin has been traveling since she was two and writing about it since she was six. She is a contributor to numerous literary journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies, and online publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, San Francisco Bride, Bay Nature, various Travelers’ Tales anthologies, and Salon.com. A popular speaker and panelist and an award-winning writer, she has authored two poetry collections, a novel and a short story collection, and has edited four books, including a northern California guidebook and a travel anthology. Linda has served as an NEA panelist and past judge for the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama Prize, and is founder and President of Left Coast Writers®, LLC. Laurie McAndish King is a travel writer whose essays have been published in anthologies such as 30 Days in Italy, The Thong Also Rises, and the award-winning The Kindness of Strangers. Her work has also been published in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and aired on KUSF radio. Laurie’s adventurous spirit has led her to chase lemurs through the mountains of Madagascar, study medicinal plants in the jungles of Brazil, track lions on foot-without a gun-in Botswana, study with an urban shaman in San Francisco, and trap and band raptors in the Marin Headlands. Laurie earned her master’s degree in Internet-based education and publishes an online newsletter for travel writers. She is an officer and board member of Bay Area Travel Writers, and indulges her passions for travel and natural history as often as she possibly can.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/feed/ 0 Read at Garagiste Healdsburg http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:51:55 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2822 here.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/feed/ 0 We Recommend: Alice Acheson’s Workshops http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:34:54 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2812 Independent publicist and consultant, Alice Acheson, has negotiated literary contracts and edited numerous works. She is the former publicity director for Simon & Schuster and has more than 30 years’ experience promoting books.  Alice will be teaching a few workshops that are going to be at the Corte Madera Book Passage location in March. We recommend these to all of our members! The Greatest Marketing Tool on March 2nd Publishing Choices: Print-on-Demand, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publisher also on March 2nd and What's Next on March 3rd Alice's workshops are a must! She's like a fairy godmother for writers. Follow her advice and your literary wishes WILL come true. —Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author of Dead Love]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Lindy Hough http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:51:15 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2727 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Wild Horses, Wild Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1971-2010 with Lindy Hough [caption id="attachment_2728" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Lindy Hough"]Lindy Hough[/caption] Saturday, January 14, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com "Through vivid details, Hough gives us snapshots of people—close family and friends, sometimes complete strangers; often the strangers are treated as though they are long lost friends, often those closest to her are seen as if for the first time. As a major poet, Lindy Hough demonstrates that memory, language, and personal history are the true sources of inspiration for contemporary living.” —Cecil Brown, author of I, Stagolee

Poets and writers, we hope you will join Berkeley poet Lindy Hough for a sweeping journey through four decades of writing, as she reads poems collected from four earlier books and twenty new poems. Following a trajectory from the early seventies to the present, this New and Selected Poems gives a generous overview of Hough’s intellectual world as it probes themes of inner life reflected in artistic roots and process (including the work of visual artists), spiritual development, materialism and capitalism, and the workings of desire in relationship: love, family, motherhood and children, parents, the individual in the world.

Lindy Hough is the author of five books of poetry and non-fiction, including Nuclear Strategy and the Code of the Warrior: Faces of Mars and Shiva in the Crisis of Human Survival, a collection of anti-nuclear pieces, and the upcoming Wondrous Child: The Joys and Challenges of Grandparenting. She cofounded Berkeley’s North Atlantic Books in the mid-seventies, and was Publisher and Editorial Director for many years. She lives in Berkeley, California.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/feed/ 0 An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:33:27 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2748 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing

Lonelyplanet_sMonday, 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.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/feed/ 0 Ferry Plaza Book Party: Travelers’ Tales http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:07:01 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2703 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Travelers' Tales TTbest2011_sMonday, December 12, 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Plaza San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Join us Monday night for our last event of the year. We'll be celebrating Travelers' Tales with a few of the many contributors. Wine, snacks great stories and a whole lot of holiday cheer. Let us know if you have a travel tale you'd like to share.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Thanasis Maskaleris http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:20:02 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2676 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Thanasis Maskaleris, Translator and Editor of The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis:  Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? [caption id="attachment_2678" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Thanasis Maskaleris"]Thanasis Maskaleris[/caption] Saturday, December 10, 2011 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

“Every man (human being) has his own circle made up of things, trees, animals, humans, ideas—and he is duty-bound to save this circle. He, and no one else. If he does not save it, he cannot be saved.” —NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS Please join us as we celebrate the planet to which we owe so much and the work of two Greek authors who are its advocates: Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, and "the Green Greek" poet Thanasis Maskaleris. We will be serving wine and Greek delicacies and enjoying selections from The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis: Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? an anthology of passages—hymns to Gaia—selected from various books by Kazantzakis, centering on Nature and the workers of the soil, translated and edited by Thanasis Maskaleris. This powerful and poetic work raises environmental awareness and calls us to compassionate action toward saving our planet.
So come and celebrate with our earth loving, tree hugging tribe and share in this moving ode to our planet. “This ‘terrestrial gospel’ is just the kind of bracing slap the world needs, a reminder from a great writer about what’s real and vital.” —Bill McKibben Founder, 350.org, Author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet “Kazantzakis’s stentorian message needs to be hear far and wide, as we persist in our sometimes mindless assaults on our fragile plane.” —Dr. Leonidas Perakis, Scientist, Writer]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/feed/ 0 Literary Salon: Peter Lang http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:51:15 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2727 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Wild Horses, Wild Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1971-2010 with Lindy Hough [caption id="attachment_2728" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Lindy Hough"]Lindy Hough[/caption] Saturday, January 14, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com "Through vivid details, Hough gives us snapshots of people—close family and friends, sometimes complete strangers; often the strangers are treated as though they are long lost friends, often those closest to her are seen as if for the first time. As a major poet, Lindy Hough demonstrates that memory, language, and personal history are the true sources of inspiration for contemporary living.” —Cecil Brown, author of I, Stagolee

Poets and writers, we hope you will join Berkeley poet Lindy Hough for a sweeping journey through four decades of writing, as she reads poems collected from four earlier books and twenty new poems. Following a trajectory from the early seventies to the present, this New and Selected Poems gives a generous overview of Hough’s intellectual world as it probes themes of inner life reflected in artistic roots and process (including the work of visual artists), spiritual development, materialism and capitalism, and the workings of desire in relationship: love, family, motherhood and children, parents, the individual in the world.

Lindy Hough is the author of five books of poetry and non-fiction, including Nuclear Strategy and the Code of the Warrior: Faces of Mars and Shiva in the Crisis of Human Survival, a collection of anti-nuclear pieces, and the upcoming Wondrous Child: The Joys and Challenges of Grandparenting. She cofounded Berkeley’s North Atlantic Books in the mid-seventies, and was Publisher and Editorial Director for many years. She lives in Berkeley, California.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers® » Press Room http://www.leftcoastwriters.com Left Coast Writersâ„¢ was created to support new and established writers in the production and promotion of their work in a stimulating atmosphere of creativity and community. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Literary Salon: Cyra McFadden http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2741 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Cyra McFadden, Author of The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County and Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir Cyra Mcfadden Rain or Shine_sMonday, February 6th, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com How often do you get to chat with a literary icon? We hope you'll join us for an evening with legendary author, Cyra McFadden, who wrote The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, which was made into a film in 1980 simply titled Serial.  She also wrote Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir in 1986, a finalist for the Pulitzer prize that year. Cyra was the writer of a popular weekly column for the San Francisco Examiner from 1985 to 1991. She's an expert on Marin county and its denizens. Her presentation at our salon will be a real treat!]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers: Hot Flashes Pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:55:16 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2910 Hot Flashes 2 CoverHot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems is having a pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage! In the spirit of pairs, Book Passage is offering this special deal: From January 2nd to February 14th, there is a “buy one, get one free” Hot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage (415-927-0960). Just let them know that you want a free copy when you purchase! So buy the book for yourself, give the free copy to friend or lover, and join the editors for a lovely in-store party on 2/12/12 with a reading, entertainment, a sexy raffle and more! There will be wine and chocolate and ... who knows? ... you might win a super special prize.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/feed/ 0 LCW Pre-Valentines Day Lovefest http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:11:50 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2722 LEFT COAST WRITERS PRE-VALENTINE'S DAY EVENT: Party for the day of the heart, with a few heart-felt readings as well! Hot Flashes 2 Cover Saturday, February 11th|| 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com Join us for the ultimate pre-Valentine's Day party. Hot Flashes editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Laurie McAndish King and a host of past contributors will serve up wine, chocolate, romance-inducing gifts and some super-sultry works of literature just in time for the special day. Single or paired or in a big group, we want you to come and enjoy the love-ly vibe! About Hot Flashes: We confess, we’re on a mission. We think that the pleasures of being human and “in the flesh” get short shrift in our daily lives. Too often, in our culture, a natural captivation with the senses and their allure is suppressed, closeted, twisted, and this isn’t healthy at all. So, we want to present an unadulterated and avidly expressed lust for the sensual and all its permutations. This collection isn’t about anger and rebellion. It’s about love-about a good old erotic hankering for everything hot and steamy, warm and juicy, tasty, fragrant, visually exciting and vibration-filled. It’s about quickies: flash fiction, non-fiction and poetry guaranteed to raise a reader’s temperature in a way that is positively hormonal. These sexy short stories and poems demonstrate how simple it is to find pleasure almost anywhere when we are willing to slow down and attend to our feelings, our memories, and our senses. Linda Watanabe McFerrin has been traveling since she was two and writing about it since she was six. She is a contributor to numerous literary journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies, and online publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, San Francisco Bride, Bay Nature, various Travelers’ Tales anthologies, and Salon.com. A popular speaker and panelist and an award-winning writer, she has authored two poetry collections, a novel and a short story collection, and has edited four books, including a northern California guidebook and a travel anthology. Linda has served as an NEA panelist and past judge for the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama Prize, and is founder and President of Left Coast Writers®, LLC. Laurie McAndish King is a travel writer whose essays have been published in anthologies such as 30 Days in Italy, The Thong Also Rises, and the award-winning The Kindness of Strangers. Her work has also been published in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and aired on KUSF radio. Laurie’s adventurous spirit has led her to chase lemurs through the mountains of Madagascar, study medicinal plants in the jungles of Brazil, track lions on foot-without a gun-in Botswana, study with an urban shaman in San Francisco, and trap and band raptors in the Marin Headlands. Laurie earned her master’s degree in Internet-based education and publishes an online newsletter for travel writers. She is an officer and board member of Bay Area Travel Writers, and indulges her passions for travel and natural history as often as she possibly can.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/feed/ 0 Read at Garagiste Healdsburg http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:51:55 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2822 here.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/feed/ 0 We Recommend: Alice Acheson’s Workshops http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:34:54 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2812 Independent publicist and consultant, Alice Acheson, has negotiated literary contracts and edited numerous works. She is the former publicity director for Simon & Schuster and has more than 30 years’ experience promoting books.  Alice will be teaching a few workshops that are going to be at the Corte Madera Book Passage location in March. We recommend these to all of our members! The Greatest Marketing Tool on March 2nd Publishing Choices: Print-on-Demand, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publisher also on March 2nd and What's Next on March 3rd Alice's workshops are a must! She's like a fairy godmother for writers. Follow her advice and your literary wishes WILL come true. —Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author of Dead Love]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Lindy Hough http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:51:15 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2727 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Wild Horses, Wild Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1971-2010 with Lindy Hough [caption id="attachment_2728" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Lindy Hough"]Lindy Hough[/caption] Saturday, January 14, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com "Through vivid details, Hough gives us snapshots of people—close family and friends, sometimes complete strangers; often the strangers are treated as though they are long lost friends, often those closest to her are seen as if for the first time. As a major poet, Lindy Hough demonstrates that memory, language, and personal history are the true sources of inspiration for contemporary living.” —Cecil Brown, author of I, Stagolee

Poets and writers, we hope you will join Berkeley poet Lindy Hough for a sweeping journey through four decades of writing, as she reads poems collected from four earlier books and twenty new poems. Following a trajectory from the early seventies to the present, this New and Selected Poems gives a generous overview of Hough’s intellectual world as it probes themes of inner life reflected in artistic roots and process (including the work of visual artists), spiritual development, materialism and capitalism, and the workings of desire in relationship: love, family, motherhood and children, parents, the individual in the world.

Lindy Hough is the author of five books of poetry and non-fiction, including Nuclear Strategy and the Code of the Warrior: Faces of Mars and Shiva in the Crisis of Human Survival, a collection of anti-nuclear pieces, and the upcoming Wondrous Child: The Joys and Challenges of Grandparenting. She cofounded Berkeley’s North Atlantic Books in the mid-seventies, and was Publisher and Editorial Director for many years. She lives in Berkeley, California.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/feed/ 0 An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:33:27 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2748 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing

Lonelyplanet_sMonday, 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.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/feed/ 0 Ferry Plaza Book Party: Travelers’ Tales http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:07:01 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2703 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Travelers' Tales TTbest2011_sMonday, December 12, 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Plaza San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Join us Monday night for our last event of the year. We'll be celebrating Travelers' Tales with a few of the many contributors. Wine, snacks great stories and a whole lot of holiday cheer. Let us know if you have a travel tale you'd like to share.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Thanasis Maskaleris http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:20:02 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2676 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Thanasis Maskaleris, Translator and Editor of The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis:  Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? [caption id="attachment_2678" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Thanasis Maskaleris"]Thanasis Maskaleris[/caption] Saturday, December 10, 2011 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

“Every man (human being) has his own circle made up of things, trees, animals, humans, ideas—and he is duty-bound to save this circle. He, and no one else. If he does not save it, he cannot be saved.” —NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS Please join us as we celebrate the planet to which we owe so much and the work of two Greek authors who are its advocates: Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, and "the Green Greek" poet Thanasis Maskaleris. We will be serving wine and Greek delicacies and enjoying selections from The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis: Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? an anthology of passages—hymns to Gaia—selected from various books by Kazantzakis, centering on Nature and the workers of the soil, translated and edited by Thanasis Maskaleris. This powerful and poetic work raises environmental awareness and calls us to compassionate action toward saving our planet.
So come and celebrate with our earth loving, tree hugging tribe and share in this moving ode to our planet. “This ‘terrestrial gospel’ is just the kind of bracing slap the world needs, a reminder from a great writer about what’s real and vital.” —Bill McKibben Founder, 350.org, Author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet “Kazantzakis’s stentorian message needs to be hear far and wide, as we persist in our sometimes mindless assaults on our fragile plane.” —Dr. Leonidas Perakis, Scientist, Writer]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/feed/ 0 Literary Salon: Peter Lang http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:33:27 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2748 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing

Lonelyplanet_sMonday, 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.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers® » Press Room http://www.leftcoastwriters.com Left Coast Writersâ„¢ was created to support new and established writers in the production and promotion of their work in a stimulating atmosphere of creativity and community. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Literary Salon: Cyra McFadden http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2741 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Cyra McFadden, Author of The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County and Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir Cyra Mcfadden Rain or Shine_sMonday, February 6th, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com How often do you get to chat with a literary icon? We hope you'll join us for an evening with legendary author, Cyra McFadden, who wrote The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, which was made into a film in 1980 simply titled Serial.  She also wrote Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir in 1986, a finalist for the Pulitzer prize that year. Cyra was the writer of a popular weekly column for the San Francisco Examiner from 1985 to 1991. She's an expert on Marin county and its denizens. Her presentation at our salon will be a real treat!]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers: Hot Flashes Pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:55:16 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2910 Hot Flashes 2 CoverHot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems is having a pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage! In the spirit of pairs, Book Passage is offering this special deal: From January 2nd to February 14th, there is a “buy one, get one free” Hot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage (415-927-0960). Just let them know that you want a free copy when you purchase! So buy the book for yourself, give the free copy to friend or lover, and join the editors for a lovely in-store party on 2/12/12 with a reading, entertainment, a sexy raffle and more! There will be wine and chocolate and ... who knows? ... you might win a super special prize.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/feed/ 0 LCW Pre-Valentines Day Lovefest http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:11:50 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2722 LEFT COAST WRITERS PRE-VALENTINE'S DAY EVENT: Party for the day of the heart, with a few heart-felt readings as well! Hot Flashes 2 Cover Saturday, February 11th|| 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com Join us for the ultimate pre-Valentine's Day party. Hot Flashes editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Laurie McAndish King and a host of past contributors will serve up wine, chocolate, romance-inducing gifts and some super-sultry works of literature just in time for the special day. Single or paired or in a big group, we want you to come and enjoy the love-ly vibe! About Hot Flashes: We confess, we’re on a mission. We think that the pleasures of being human and “in the flesh” get short shrift in our daily lives. Too often, in our culture, a natural captivation with the senses and their allure is suppressed, closeted, twisted, and this isn’t healthy at all. So, we want to present an unadulterated and avidly expressed lust for the sensual and all its permutations. This collection isn’t about anger and rebellion. It’s about love-about a good old erotic hankering for everything hot and steamy, warm and juicy, tasty, fragrant, visually exciting and vibration-filled. It’s about quickies: flash fiction, non-fiction and poetry guaranteed to raise a reader’s temperature in a way that is positively hormonal. These sexy short stories and poems demonstrate how simple it is to find pleasure almost anywhere when we are willing to slow down and attend to our feelings, our memories, and our senses. Linda Watanabe McFerrin has been traveling since she was two and writing about it since she was six. She is a contributor to numerous literary journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies, and online publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, San Francisco Bride, Bay Nature, various Travelers’ Tales anthologies, and Salon.com. A popular speaker and panelist and an award-winning writer, she has authored two poetry collections, a novel and a short story collection, and has edited four books, including a northern California guidebook and a travel anthology. Linda has served as an NEA panelist and past judge for the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama Prize, and is founder and President of Left Coast Writers®, LLC. Laurie McAndish King is a travel writer whose essays have been published in anthologies such as 30 Days in Italy, The Thong Also Rises, and the award-winning The Kindness of Strangers. Her work has also been published in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and aired on KUSF radio. Laurie’s adventurous spirit has led her to chase lemurs through the mountains of Madagascar, study medicinal plants in the jungles of Brazil, track lions on foot-without a gun-in Botswana, study with an urban shaman in San Francisco, and trap and band raptors in the Marin Headlands. Laurie earned her master’s degree in Internet-based education and publishes an online newsletter for travel writers. She is an officer and board member of Bay Area Travel Writers, and indulges her passions for travel and natural history as often as she possibly can.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/feed/ 0 Read at Garagiste Healdsburg http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:51:55 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2822 here.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/feed/ 0 We Recommend: Alice Acheson’s Workshops http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:34:54 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2812 Independent publicist and consultant, Alice Acheson, has negotiated literary contracts and edited numerous works. She is the former publicity director for Simon & Schuster and has more than 30 years’ experience promoting books.  Alice will be teaching a few workshops that are going to be at the Corte Madera Book Passage location in March. We recommend these to all of our members! The Greatest Marketing Tool on March 2nd Publishing Choices: Print-on-Demand, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publisher also on March 2nd and What's Next on March 3rd Alice's workshops are a must! She's like a fairy godmother for writers. Follow her advice and your literary wishes WILL come true. —Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author of Dead Love]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Lindy Hough http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:51:15 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2727 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Wild Horses, Wild Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1971-2010 with Lindy Hough [caption id="attachment_2728" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Lindy Hough"]Lindy Hough[/caption] Saturday, January 14, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com "Through vivid details, Hough gives us snapshots of people—close family and friends, sometimes complete strangers; often the strangers are treated as though they are long lost friends, often those closest to her are seen as if for the first time. As a major poet, Lindy Hough demonstrates that memory, language, and personal history are the true sources of inspiration for contemporary living.” —Cecil Brown, author of I, Stagolee

Poets and writers, we hope you will join Berkeley poet Lindy Hough for a sweeping journey through four decades of writing, as she reads poems collected from four earlier books and twenty new poems. Following a trajectory from the early seventies to the present, this New and Selected Poems gives a generous overview of Hough’s intellectual world as it probes themes of inner life reflected in artistic roots and process (including the work of visual artists), spiritual development, materialism and capitalism, and the workings of desire in relationship: love, family, motherhood and children, parents, the individual in the world.

Lindy Hough is the author of five books of poetry and non-fiction, including Nuclear Strategy and the Code of the Warrior: Faces of Mars and Shiva in the Crisis of Human Survival, a collection of anti-nuclear pieces, and the upcoming Wondrous Child: The Joys and Challenges of Grandparenting. She cofounded Berkeley’s North Atlantic Books in the mid-seventies, and was Publisher and Editorial Director for many years. She lives in Berkeley, California.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/feed/ 0 An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:33:27 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2748 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing

Lonelyplanet_sMonday, 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.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/feed/ 0 Ferry Plaza Book Party: Travelers’ Tales http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:07:01 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2703 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Travelers' Tales TTbest2011_sMonday, December 12, 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Plaza San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Join us Monday night for our last event of the year. We'll be celebrating Travelers' Tales with a few of the many contributors. Wine, snacks great stories and a whole lot of holiday cheer. Let us know if you have a travel tale you'd like to share.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Thanasis Maskaleris http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:20:02 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2676 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Thanasis Maskaleris, Translator and Editor of The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis:  Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? [caption id="attachment_2678" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Thanasis Maskaleris"]Thanasis Maskaleris[/caption] Saturday, December 10, 2011 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

“Every man (human being) has his own circle made up of things, trees, animals, humans, ideas—and he is duty-bound to save this circle. He, and no one else. If he does not save it, he cannot be saved.” —NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS Please join us as we celebrate the planet to which we owe so much and the work of two Greek authors who are its advocates: Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, and "the Green Greek" poet Thanasis Maskaleris. We will be serving wine and Greek delicacies and enjoying selections from The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis: Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? an anthology of passages—hymns to Gaia—selected from various books by Kazantzakis, centering on Nature and the workers of the soil, translated and edited by Thanasis Maskaleris. This powerful and poetic work raises environmental awareness and calls us to compassionate action toward saving our planet.
So come and celebrate with our earth loving, tree hugging tribe and share in this moving ode to our planet. “This ‘terrestrial gospel’ is just the kind of bracing slap the world needs, a reminder from a great writer about what’s real and vital.” —Bill McKibben Founder, 350.org, Author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet “Kazantzakis’s stentorian message needs to be hear far and wide, as we persist in our sometimes mindless assaults on our fragile plane.” —Dr. Leonidas Perakis, Scientist, Writer]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/feed/ 0 Literary Salon: Peter Lang http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:07:01 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2703 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Travelers' Tales TTbest2011_sMonday, December 12, 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Plaza San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Join us Monday night for our last event of the year. We'll be celebrating Travelers' Tales with a few of the many contributors. Wine, snacks great stories and a whole lot of holiday cheer. Let us know if you have a travel tale you'd like to share.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers® » Press Room http://www.leftcoastwriters.com Left Coast Writersâ„¢ was created to support new and established writers in the production and promotion of their work in a stimulating atmosphere of creativity and community. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Literary Salon: Cyra McFadden http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2741 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Cyra McFadden, Author of The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County and Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir Cyra Mcfadden Rain or Shine_sMonday, February 6th, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com How often do you get to chat with a literary icon? We hope you'll join us for an evening with legendary author, Cyra McFadden, who wrote The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, which was made into a film in 1980 simply titled Serial.  She also wrote Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir in 1986, a finalist for the Pulitzer prize that year. Cyra was the writer of a popular weekly column for the San Francisco Examiner from 1985 to 1991. She's an expert on Marin county and its denizens. Her presentation at our salon will be a real treat!]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers: Hot Flashes Pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:55:16 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2910 Hot Flashes 2 CoverHot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems is having a pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage! In the spirit of pairs, Book Passage is offering this special deal: From January 2nd to February 14th, there is a “buy one, get one free” Hot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage (415-927-0960). Just let them know that you want a free copy when you purchase! So buy the book for yourself, give the free copy to friend or lover, and join the editors for a lovely in-store party on 2/12/12 with a reading, entertainment, a sexy raffle and more! There will be wine and chocolate and ... who knows? ... you might win a super special prize.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/feed/ 0 LCW Pre-Valentines Day Lovefest http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:11:50 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2722 LEFT COAST WRITERS PRE-VALENTINE'S DAY EVENT: Party for the day of the heart, with a few heart-felt readings as well! Hot Flashes 2 Cover Saturday, February 11th|| 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com Join us for the ultimate pre-Valentine's Day party. Hot Flashes editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Laurie McAndish King and a host of past contributors will serve up wine, chocolate, romance-inducing gifts and some super-sultry works of literature just in time for the special day. Single or paired or in a big group, we want you to come and enjoy the love-ly vibe! About Hot Flashes: We confess, we’re on a mission. We think that the pleasures of being human and “in the flesh” get short shrift in our daily lives. Too often, in our culture, a natural captivation with the senses and their allure is suppressed, closeted, twisted, and this isn’t healthy at all. So, we want to present an unadulterated and avidly expressed lust for the sensual and all its permutations. This collection isn’t about anger and rebellion. It’s about love-about a good old erotic hankering for everything hot and steamy, warm and juicy, tasty, fragrant, visually exciting and vibration-filled. It’s about quickies: flash fiction, non-fiction and poetry guaranteed to raise a reader’s temperature in a way that is positively hormonal. These sexy short stories and poems demonstrate how simple it is to find pleasure almost anywhere when we are willing to slow down and attend to our feelings, our memories, and our senses. Linda Watanabe McFerrin has been traveling since she was two and writing about it since she was six. She is a contributor to numerous literary journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies, and online publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, San Francisco Bride, Bay Nature, various Travelers’ Tales anthologies, and Salon.com. A popular speaker and panelist and an award-winning writer, she has authored two poetry collections, a novel and a short story collection, and has edited four books, including a northern California guidebook and a travel anthology. Linda has served as an NEA panelist and past judge for the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama Prize, and is founder and President of Left Coast Writers®, LLC. Laurie McAndish King is a travel writer whose essays have been published in anthologies such as 30 Days in Italy, The Thong Also Rises, and the award-winning The Kindness of Strangers. Her work has also been published in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and aired on KUSF radio. Laurie’s adventurous spirit has led her to chase lemurs through the mountains of Madagascar, study medicinal plants in the jungles of Brazil, track lions on foot-without a gun-in Botswana, study with an urban shaman in San Francisco, and trap and band raptors in the Marin Headlands. Laurie earned her master’s degree in Internet-based education and publishes an online newsletter for travel writers. She is an officer and board member of Bay Area Travel Writers, and indulges her passions for travel and natural history as often as she possibly can.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/feed/ 0 Read at Garagiste Healdsburg http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:51:55 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2822 here.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/feed/ 0 We Recommend: Alice Acheson’s Workshops http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:34:54 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2812 Independent publicist and consultant, Alice Acheson, has negotiated literary contracts and edited numerous works. She is the former publicity director for Simon & Schuster and has more than 30 years’ experience promoting books.  Alice will be teaching a few workshops that are going to be at the Corte Madera Book Passage location in March. We recommend these to all of our members! The Greatest Marketing Tool on March 2nd Publishing Choices: Print-on-Demand, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publisher also on March 2nd and What's Next on March 3rd Alice's workshops are a must! She's like a fairy godmother for writers. Follow her advice and your literary wishes WILL come true. —Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author of Dead Love]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Lindy Hough http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:51:15 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2727 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Wild Horses, Wild Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1971-2010 with Lindy Hough [caption id="attachment_2728" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Lindy Hough"]Lindy Hough[/caption] Saturday, January 14, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com "Through vivid details, Hough gives us snapshots of people—close family and friends, sometimes complete strangers; often the strangers are treated as though they are long lost friends, often those closest to her are seen as if for the first time. As a major poet, Lindy Hough demonstrates that memory, language, and personal history are the true sources of inspiration for contemporary living.” —Cecil Brown, author of I, Stagolee

Poets and writers, we hope you will join Berkeley poet Lindy Hough for a sweeping journey through four decades of writing, as she reads poems collected from four earlier books and twenty new poems. Following a trajectory from the early seventies to the present, this New and Selected Poems gives a generous overview of Hough’s intellectual world as it probes themes of inner life reflected in artistic roots and process (including the work of visual artists), spiritual development, materialism and capitalism, and the workings of desire in relationship: love, family, motherhood and children, parents, the individual in the world.

Lindy Hough is the author of five books of poetry and non-fiction, including Nuclear Strategy and the Code of the Warrior: Faces of Mars and Shiva in the Crisis of Human Survival, a collection of anti-nuclear pieces, and the upcoming Wondrous Child: The Joys and Challenges of Grandparenting. She cofounded Berkeley’s North Atlantic Books in the mid-seventies, and was Publisher and Editorial Director for many years. She lives in Berkeley, California.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/feed/ 0 An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:33:27 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2748 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing

Lonelyplanet_sMonday, 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.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/feed/ 0 Ferry Plaza Book Party: Travelers’ Tales http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:07:01 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2703 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Travelers' Tales TTbest2011_sMonday, December 12, 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Plaza San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Join us Monday night for our last event of the year. We'll be celebrating Travelers' Tales with a few of the many contributors. Wine, snacks great stories and a whole lot of holiday cheer. Let us know if you have a travel tale you'd like to share.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Thanasis Maskaleris http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:20:02 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2676 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Thanasis Maskaleris, Translator and Editor of The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis:  Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? [caption id="attachment_2678" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Thanasis Maskaleris"]Thanasis Maskaleris[/caption] Saturday, December 10, 2011 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

“Every man (human being) has his own circle made up of things, trees, animals, humans, ideas—and he is duty-bound to save this circle. He, and no one else. If he does not save it, he cannot be saved.” —NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS Please join us as we celebrate the planet to which we owe so much and the work of two Greek authors who are its advocates: Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, and "the Green Greek" poet Thanasis Maskaleris. We will be serving wine and Greek delicacies and enjoying selections from The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis: Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? an anthology of passages—hymns to Gaia—selected from various books by Kazantzakis, centering on Nature and the workers of the soil, translated and edited by Thanasis Maskaleris. This powerful and poetic work raises environmental awareness and calls us to compassionate action toward saving our planet.
So come and celebrate with our earth loving, tree hugging tribe and share in this moving ode to our planet. “This ‘terrestrial gospel’ is just the kind of bracing slap the world needs, a reminder from a great writer about what’s real and vital.” —Bill McKibben Founder, 350.org, Author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet “Kazantzakis’s stentorian message needs to be hear far and wide, as we persist in our sometimes mindless assaults on our fragile plane.” —Dr. Leonidas Perakis, Scientist, Writer]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/feed/ 0 Literary Salon: Peter Lang http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:20:02 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2676 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Thanasis Maskaleris, Translator and Editor of The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis:  Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? [caption id="attachment_2678" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Thanasis Maskaleris"]Thanasis Maskaleris[/caption] Saturday, December 10, 2011 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

“Every man (human being) has his own circle made up of things, trees, animals, humans, ideas—and he is duty-bound to save this circle. He, and no one else. If he does not save it, he cannot be saved.” —NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS Please join us as we celebrate the planet to which we owe so much and the work of two Greek authors who are its advocates: Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, and "the Green Greek" poet Thanasis Maskaleris. We will be serving wine and Greek delicacies and enjoying selections from The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis: Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? an anthology of passages—hymns to Gaia—selected from various books by Kazantzakis, centering on Nature and the workers of the soil, translated and edited by Thanasis Maskaleris. This powerful and poetic work raises environmental awareness and calls us to compassionate action toward saving our planet.
So come and celebrate with our earth loving, tree hugging tribe and share in this moving ode to our planet. “This ‘terrestrial gospel’ is just the kind of bracing slap the world needs, a reminder from a great writer about what’s real and vital.” —Bill McKibben Founder, 350.org, Author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet “Kazantzakis’s stentorian message needs to be hear far and wide, as we persist in our sometimes mindless assaults on our fragile plane.” —Dr. Leonidas Perakis, Scientist, Writer]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers® » Press Room http://www.leftcoastwriters.com Left Coast Writersâ„¢ was created to support new and established writers in the production and promotion of their work in a stimulating atmosphere of creativity and community. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Literary Salon: Cyra McFadden http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:33:46 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2741 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Cyra McFadden, Author of The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County and Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir Cyra Mcfadden Rain or Shine_sMonday, February 6th, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com How often do you get to chat with a literary icon? We hope you'll join us for an evening with legendary author, Cyra McFadden, who wrote The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, which was made into a film in 1980 simply titled Serial.  She also wrote Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir in 1986, a finalist for the Pulitzer prize that year. Cyra was the writer of a popular weekly column for the San Francisco Examiner from 1985 to 1991. She's an expert on Marin county and its denizens. Her presentation at our salon will be a real treat!]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-cyra-mcfadden/feed/ 0 Left Coast Writers: Hot Flashes Pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:55:16 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2910 Hot Flashes 2 CoverHot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems is having a pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage! In the spirit of pairs, Book Passage is offering this special deal: From January 2nd to February 14th, there is a “buy one, get one free” Hot Flashes: more sexy little stories and poems pre-Valentine’s Day Promotion at Book Passage (415-927-0960). Just let them know that you want a free copy when you purchase! So buy the book for yourself, give the free copy to friend or lover, and join the editors for a lovely in-store party on 2/12/12 with a reading, entertainment, a sexy raffle and more! There will be wine and chocolate and ... who knows? ... you might win a super special prize.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/left-coast-writers-hot-flashes-pre-valentines-day-promotion/feed/ 0 LCW Pre-Valentines Day Lovefest http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:11:50 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2722 LEFT COAST WRITERS PRE-VALENTINE'S DAY EVENT: Party for the day of the heart, with a few heart-felt readings as well! Hot Flashes 2 Cover Saturday, February 11th|| 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com Join us for the ultimate pre-Valentine's Day party. Hot Flashes editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Laurie McAndish King and a host of past contributors will serve up wine, chocolate, romance-inducing gifts and some super-sultry works of literature just in time for the special day. Single or paired or in a big group, we want you to come and enjoy the love-ly vibe! About Hot Flashes: We confess, we’re on a mission. We think that the pleasures of being human and “in the flesh” get short shrift in our daily lives. Too often, in our culture, a natural captivation with the senses and their allure is suppressed, closeted, twisted, and this isn’t healthy at all. So, we want to present an unadulterated and avidly expressed lust for the sensual and all its permutations. This collection isn’t about anger and rebellion. It’s about love-about a good old erotic hankering for everything hot and steamy, warm and juicy, tasty, fragrant, visually exciting and vibration-filled. It’s about quickies: flash fiction, non-fiction and poetry guaranteed to raise a reader’s temperature in a way that is positively hormonal. These sexy short stories and poems demonstrate how simple it is to find pleasure almost anywhere when we are willing to slow down and attend to our feelings, our memories, and our senses. Linda Watanabe McFerrin has been traveling since she was two and writing about it since she was six. She is a contributor to numerous literary journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies, and online publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, San Francisco Bride, Bay Nature, various Travelers’ Tales anthologies, and Salon.com. A popular speaker and panelist and an award-winning writer, she has authored two poetry collections, a novel and a short story collection, and has edited four books, including a northern California guidebook and a travel anthology. Linda has served as an NEA panelist and past judge for the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama Prize, and is founder and President of Left Coast Writers®, LLC. Laurie McAndish King is a travel writer whose essays have been published in anthologies such as 30 Days in Italy, The Thong Also Rises, and the award-winning The Kindness of Strangers. Her work has also been published in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and aired on KUSF radio. Laurie’s adventurous spirit has led her to chase lemurs through the mountains of Madagascar, study medicinal plants in the jungles of Brazil, track lions on foot-without a gun-in Botswana, study with an urban shaman in San Francisco, and trap and band raptors in the Marin Headlands. Laurie earned her master’s degree in Internet-based education and publishes an online newsletter for travel writers. She is an officer and board member of Bay Area Travel Writers, and indulges her passions for travel and natural history as often as she possibly can.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/lcw-pre-valentines-day-lovefest/feed/ 0 Read at Garagiste Healdsburg http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:51:55 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2822 here.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/read-at-garagiste-healdsburg/feed/ 0 We Recommend: Alice Acheson’s Workshops http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:34:54 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2812 Independent publicist and consultant, Alice Acheson, has negotiated literary contracts and edited numerous works. She is the former publicity director for Simon & Schuster and has more than 30 years’ experience promoting books.  Alice will be teaching a few workshops that are going to be at the Corte Madera Book Passage location in March. We recommend these to all of our members! The Greatest Marketing Tool on March 2nd Publishing Choices: Print-on-Demand, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publisher also on March 2nd and What's Next on March 3rd Alice's workshops are a must! She's like a fairy godmother for writers. Follow her advice and your literary wishes WILL come true. —Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author of Dead Love]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/we-recommend-alice-achesons-workshops/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Lindy Hough http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:51:15 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2727 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Wild Horses, Wild Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1971-2010 with Lindy Hough [caption id="attachment_2728" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Lindy Hough"]Lindy Hough[/caption] Saturday, January 14, 2012 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com "Through vivid details, Hough gives us snapshots of people—close family and friends, sometimes complete strangers; often the strangers are treated as though they are long lost friends, often those closest to her are seen as if for the first time. As a major poet, Lindy Hough demonstrates that memory, language, and personal history are the true sources of inspiration for contemporary living.” —Cecil Brown, author of I, Stagolee

Poets and writers, we hope you will join Berkeley poet Lindy Hough for a sweeping journey through four decades of writing, as she reads poems collected from four earlier books and twenty new poems. Following a trajectory from the early seventies to the present, this New and Selected Poems gives a generous overview of Hough’s intellectual world as it probes themes of inner life reflected in artistic roots and process (including the work of visual artists), spiritual development, materialism and capitalism, and the workings of desire in relationship: love, family, motherhood and children, parents, the individual in the world.

Lindy Hough is the author of five books of poetry and non-fiction, including Nuclear Strategy and the Code of the Warrior: Faces of Mars and Shiva in the Crisis of Human Survival, a collection of anti-nuclear pieces, and the upcoming Wondrous Child: The Joys and Challenges of Grandparenting. She cofounded Berkeley’s North Atlantic Books in the mid-seventies, and was Publisher and Editorial Director for many years. She lives in Berkeley, California.]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-lindy-hough/feed/ 0 An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:33:27 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2748 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing

Lonelyplanet_sMonday, 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.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/an-evening-with-lonely-planet-alison-bing/feed/ 0 Ferry Plaza Book Party: Travelers’ Tales http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:07:01 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2703 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Travelers' Tales TTbest2011_sMonday, December 12, 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Plaza San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Join us Monday night for our last event of the year. We'll be celebrating Travelers' Tales with a few of the many contributors. Wine, snacks great stories and a whole lot of holiday cheer. Let us know if you have a travel tale you'd like to share.

]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/ferry-plaza-book-party-travelers-tales/feed/ 0 Book Launch: Thanasis Maskaleris http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:20:02 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2676 LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH:  Thanasis Maskaleris, Translator and Editor of The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis:  Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? [caption id="attachment_2678" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Thanasis Maskaleris"]Thanasis Maskaleris[/caption] Saturday, December 10, 2011 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

“Every man (human being) has his own circle made up of things, trees, animals, humans, ideas—and he is duty-bound to save this circle. He, and no one else. If he does not save it, he cannot be saved.” —NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS Please join us as we celebrate the planet to which we owe so much and the work of two Greek authors who are its advocates: Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, and "the Green Greek" poet Thanasis Maskaleris. We will be serving wine and Greek delicacies and enjoying selections from The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis: Will the Humans Be Saviors of the Earth? an anthology of passages—hymns to Gaia—selected from various books by Kazantzakis, centering on Nature and the workers of the soil, translated and edited by Thanasis Maskaleris. This powerful and poetic work raises environmental awareness and calls us to compassionate action toward saving our planet.
So come and celebrate with our earth loving, tree hugging tribe and share in this moving ode to our planet. “This ‘terrestrial gospel’ is just the kind of bracing slap the world needs, a reminder from a great writer about what’s real and vital.” —Bill McKibben Founder, 350.org, Author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet “Kazantzakis’s stentorian message needs to be hear far and wide, as we persist in our sometimes mindless assaults on our fragile plane.” —Dr. Leonidas Perakis, Scientist, Writer]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/book-launch-thanasis-maskaleris/feed/ 0 Literary Salon: Peter Lang http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-peter-lang/ http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-peter-lang/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:41:30 +0000 Linda Watanabe McFerrin http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/?p=2665 LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Peter Lang, Social Media Strategist and CEO of Uhuru Network [caption id="attachment_2670" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Peter Lang"]Peter Lang[/caption] Monday, December 5, 2011 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com Wondering about websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and so on and how they can possibly help you get the word out about your work? We've asked Social Media Strategist and CEO of Uhuru Network, Peter Lang, to come to the Bay Area for the second time this year (he was also at the Book Passage Travel Food and Photography Conference) to share his knowledge and demystify the social media and online worlds for you. Peter is co-founder, CEO and lead strategist of Uhuru Network. He is also a co-creator and English author at Tricksfacebook.com, a multilingual tech blog focused on Facebook; co-creator and photographer for Stylishlyme.com, a personal fashion / travel blog; and co-creator of the LingoYou educational project, which uses blogging in high schools to connect and create a global conversation between two schools with different languages. He built his first computer at the age of 10. By the time he graduated with a Degree in International Business and a Certificate in Finance, this dynamic young business consultant and new media strategist had already created a marketing department for one of the largest logistic brokers in the U.S., worked with the World Trade Organization as a lobbyist for a major growers’ association, and served as Operations Director for an up-and-coming educational and environmental non-profit. He served as President of his college fraternity and studied strategic marketing, international logistics, and international management at the ESCE (Ecole Superieure du Commerce Exterieur) in Paris. As an assistant in the computer lab for his college Engineering Department, he created servers, built networks, advised on all upgrades and conversions, and trained faculty and students on the equipment for 7 labs housing hundreds of computers. “I believe we’re in the midst of the biggest opportunity since the industrial revolution,” says Peter. “My goal is to take away the stress and fear of social media. The internet is an outstanding resource for people and information. I love removing barriers so that clients can address it professionally, responsibly, fearlessly and with curiosity and spontaneity. Networks bring people closer together. They facilitate opportunities and help us find people with similar ideas and passions. That’s power. They increase our capabilities and our reach. They remind us that we are not alone.” Today, he brings his far-ranging travels and experience to bear in his work teaching and advising in the areas of new technology and social media strategy. Through Uhuru Network, Peter and his team are designing communication experiences and tools centered on what their partners hope to achieve with a focus on strategy, content development, graphic design, and online skill development. Peter Lang is changing lives, supplying businesses with the tools to navigate the rapidly changing netscape and teaching young and old a whole new “LANGuage.”]]> http://www.leftcoastwriters.com/literary-salon-peter-lang/feed/ 0