Events - Left Coast Writers

Book Launch: Only a Stone's Throw by Erin Thompson

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Only a Stone’s Throw by Erin O’Donoghue Thompson

Saturday, December 13th, 2014 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

You won’t want to mss the big party when we celebrate Erin O’Donoghue Thompson’s book, Only a Stone’s Throw, a deeply moving personal memoir chronicling the lows and highs of parenting her eldest daughter to adulthood after she was mentally disabled as a newborn. It’s an honest tale of love and strength when life deals out surprises with unexpected results.

Erin O’Donoghue Thompson started writing at the age of seventeen. She was the editor of her high school newspaper but put her literary aspirations aside to raise a family. Once her eight children were on their own she did a ten year stint as a travel consultant, taking groups to China, photographic safaris to Africa, and groups of women on shopping tours to Hong (more…)

Ferry Plaza Book Party: Antoinette Constable

LEFT COAST WRITERS FERRY PLAZA BOOK PARTY: The Lasting War by Antoinette Constable

Monday, December 8th, 2014 || 6pm
Book Passage || San Francisco
1 Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

Join us for an evening celebrating the publication of The Lasting War, a new volume of poetry from Antoinette Constable.

Born and raised in France, Antoinette Constable is a registered nurse with British and American nursing degrees, and also runs her own catering business. She has lived in the United States for many years, where she raised her four children as a single mother. Her hobbies include reading, writing literary critiques, spending time with her grandchildren, gardening, collecting copper items, cooking and creating new recipes.

Her work has won the PEN First Prize for Poetry, as well as the Ann Stanford Award from the University of Southern California, and it has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Barnabe Mountain Review, Bay Area Poets Coalition,California Quarterly (CQ), The Chaffin Journal, Controlled (more…)

Literary Salon: Andy Ross

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Andy Ross, Agent at Andy Ross Literary Agency

Monday, December 1st, 2014 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

Join us for a year-end holiday celebration and advice on how to get the attention of an agent from one of our favorite agents, Andy Ross. Yes, you may bring a guest to this event!

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

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

Andy is past president of the Northern California Booksellers Association, a board member and officer of the American Booksellers Association and (more…)

Making a Scene Workshop
with Linda Watanabe McFerrin
Saturday, November 22nd, 2014, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Location: Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Boulevard, Corte Madera, CA 94925
$120

In this one-day workshop, you’ll learn to balance setting, character, and dialogue to create stellar scenes. Some of the exercises have given birth to award-winning work by past participants. Bring your laptop and/or paper and pen and discover how a good writer takes center stage on the page and holds it.

Poet, travel writer, and novelist Linda Watanabe McFerrin (www.lwmcferrin.com) is a contributor to numerous newspapers, magazines and anthologies. She is the author of two poetry collections, past editor of a popular Northern Californiaguidebook and a winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction. Her novel, Namako: Sea Cucumber, was named Best Book for the Teen-Age by the New York Public Library. In addition to authoring an award-winning short story collection, The Hand of Buddha, she has co-edited several anthologies, including the Hot Flashes: sexy little stories & poems series. Her latest novel, Dead Love (Stone Bridge Press, 2009), was short-listed as a finalist in the 2007 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Competition and was a Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Superior Achievement in a Novel in 2009.

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

On Sunday, November 16th from 12-2pm, join Left Coast Writers® Live on FCCFREE RADIO’s popular show, Lilycat on Stuff. Lilycat’s guest on Sunday will be Left Coast Writer® Tami Casias.

Tami graduated San Jose State University with a degree in Journalism and worked for years covering local and business news before making the decision to devote her writing time to fiction. Her first novel, a young adult titled Crystal Bound, is about a sixteen-year-old girl who inherits powers that compel her to help others.

In Tami’s latest novel, My Affair with Mickey, Mini discovers her husband Michael is cheating minutes before winning the largest prize in the history of Disneyland. She has a three-day stay in the Castle to decide what to do with her life before Michael’s return.

This is a fun and endearing story about a woman who has never finished anything in her life. But the qualities she didn’t know she had including resourcefulness, kindness and a love of adventure are brought to light when combined with her childhood memories of the park.

The ongoing spot on Lilycat on Stuff is scheduled for the third Sunday of every month. Left Coast Writers® are invited to participate in the programming. Listeners are invited to call in and share their opinions.

FCCFREE RADIO is home to over 50 + original programs each week that produce more that 1,000,000 listeners per month (yes, you read that correctly 1,000,000 + listeners) of LIVE hosted content. that comes out of the plush studios in the SOMA District of San Francisco. FFR talk shows cover everything from sex, politics, sports, and back again. Google calls them an “Iconic Staple of San Francisco” and a “Frontrunner in Internet Broadcasting.”

Add your voice to the fray by calling in during show hours: 415 829 2980.

How to Listen in/Call in!
1 – log onto www.fccfreeradio.com (more…)

Ferry Plaza Book Party: The Widows' Handbook

LEFT COAST WRITERS FERRY PLAZA BOOK PARTY: The Widows’ Handbook: Poetic Reflections on Grief and Survival including contributions by Marianne Betterly, Judy Bebelaar, and others

Monday, November 10th, 2014 || 6pm
Book Passage || San Francisco
1 Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

Please join us in a reading and book party for Left Coast Writer Marianne Betterly and other contributors to this moving new poetry anthology.

The Widows Handbook. The Widows’ Handbook is the first anthology of poems by contemporary widows, many of whom have written their way out of solitude and despair, distilling their strongest feelings into poetry or memoir. This stirring collection celebrates the strategies widows learn and the resources they muster to deal with people, living space, possessions, social life, and especially themselves, once shock has turned to the realization that nothing will ever be the same. As Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says in her foreword, losing one s partner is a loss like no other.

The Widows’ Handbook is a collection of poetry from 87 American women of all ages, legally married or not, straight and gay, whose partners or spouses have died. Some of the poets are already published widely including more than a dozen prizewinners, four Pushcart nominees, and two regional poets laureate. Others are not as well known, and some appear in print for the first time here. With courage and wry humor, these women (more…)

Saturday, October 25th, 2014 || 10am-4pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

Character-driven—it’s one way to ensure that your writing is compelling. But how do you create characters that captivate a reader? Digging up all you’ll need to know to create characters that jump from the page can be as complicated as a covert operation. So let’s put on our best sleuthing attire and gather the info on our protagonists, antagonists, confidantes, love interests and assorted supporting characters. This workshop includes plenty of in-class exercises and amusing tips on craft.

A careful investigation will also reveal that you can receive Dominican College credit for this workshop.

The workshop will be held on Saturday, October 25, from 10am-4pm at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd, Corte Madera, CA, 94925. Sign up here.

Poet, travel writer, novelist and Left Coast Writers® founder Linda Watanabe McFerrin (www.lwmcferrin.com) is a contributor to numerous newspapers, magazines and anthologies. She is the author of two poetry collections, past editor of a popular Northern California guidebook and a winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction. Her novel, Namako: Sea Cucumber, was named Best Book for the Teen-Age by the New York (more…)

Book Launch: Night of Pan by Gail Strickland

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Night of Pan, by Gail Strickland

Saturday, November 8th, 2014 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

History, mystery, action and adventure—it’s truly a night of Pan at Book Passage when we celebrate a debut novel by writer Gail Strickland.

The slaughter of the Spartan Three Hundred at Thermopylae, Greece 480 BCE—when King Leonidas tried to stop the Persian army with only his elite guard—is well known. But just what did King Xerxes do after he defeated the Greeks?

Fifteen-year-old Thaleia is haunted by visions: roofs dripping blood, Athens burning. She tries to convince her best friend and all the villagers that she’s not crazy. The gods do speak to her. And the gods have plans for this girl.

When Xerxes army of a million Persians marches straight to the mountain village Delphi to claim the Temple of Apollo’s treasures and sacred power, Thaleia’s gift may be her people’s last line of defense.

Her destiny may be to save Greece… but is one girl strong enough to stop an entire army?

Come and find out more from the author herself.

Gail Strickland translated much of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Herodotus’ prophecies and The Bacchai by Euripides while studying the Classics in (more…)

Literary Salon: Laurie King

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Laurie King, Author of the Mary Russell series of Mystery Novels

Monday, November 3rd, 2014 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

We have a thrilling evening in store for you at this post Day of the Dead salon as mystery writer Laurie King joins us and sheds a little light on the craft of telling a dark detective tale.

Laurie R. King is the New York Times bestselling author of 22 novels and other works, including the Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes stories (from The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, named one of the 20th century’s best crime novels by the IMBA, to 2014’s Dreaming Spies). She has won or been nominated for an alphabet of prizes from Agatha to Wolfe, been chosen as guest of honor at several crime conventions, and is probably the only writer to have both an Edgar and an honorary doctorate in theology. She was inducted into the Baker Street Irregulars in 2010, as “The Red Circle”.

She is also the author of The Bones of Paris, a thriller in which readers are lead into the vibrant and sensual Paris of the Jazz Age—and are shown the darkest secrets of its denizens.

(more…)

On Sunday, October 19th from 12-2pm, join Left Coast Writers® Live on FCCFREE RADIO’s popular show, Lilycat on Stuff. Lilycat’s guest on Sunday will be Shulamit Sofia.

Shulamit Sofia, a spiritual pilgrim from birth, has journeyed toward soul strength as her life’s purpose. She has been a serious spiritual seeker for nearly three decades, studying directly with the leading teachers of Jewish Mysticism. Founder of The Sacred Ladder and Soul Strength Seminars, Shulamit Sofia teaches practical applications of Jewish mystical principles, to solve challenging situations in everyday life. In addition, she provides individual spiritual counseling to people of all religions and/or denominations. Through her speaking engagements, she has reached numerous multi-cultural participants, both in faith based settings and secular workshops, where participants were composed of a broad spectrum of ethnicities and religions. Shulamit Sofia has developed a repertoire of soul (more…)

Book Launch: Only a Stone's Throw by Erin Thompson

Ferry Plaza Book Party: Antoinette Constable

Literary Salon: Andy Ross

Workshop: Making a Scene with Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Left Coast Writers® Live: Tami Casias on LIlycat on Stuff

Ferry Plaza Book Party: The Widows' Handbook

Workshop: Building Character with Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Book Launch: Night of Pan by Gail Strickland

Literary Salon: Laurie King

Left Coast Writers® Live: Shulamit Sofia on LIlycat on Stuff

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