Events - Left Coast Writers

Literary Salon: Cyra McFadden

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

Monday, 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!

LCW Pre-Valentines Day Lovefest

LEFT COAST WRITERS PRE-VALENTINE’S DAY EVENT: Party for the day of the heart, with a few heart-felt readings as well!

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 (Claire Savage, Kunal Mukherjee, Saul Isler, Marianne Betterly, and more) 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.

We Recommend: Alice Acheson’s Workshops

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

Book Launch: Lindy Hough

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Wild Horses, Wild Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1971-2010 with Lindy Hough

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.

An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing

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

Monday, January 2, 2012 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com

If you have a thirst for literary adventure, don’t miss our first salon of 2012.

The New Year takes off with a look at the world as we spend an evening with Lonely Planet, the largest travel guide book and digital media publisher in the world.

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

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

Ferry Plaza Book Party: Travelers’ Tales

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Travelers’ Tales

Monday, 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.

Book Launch: Thanasis Maskaleris

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?

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

Literary Salon: Peter Lang

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

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.”

Ferry Plaza Book Party: Cup of Comfort with Anne Sigmon

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Chicken Soup for the Soul Find Your Happiness: 101 Stories about Finding Your Purpose, Passion, and Joy with Anne Sigmon

Monday, November 14, 6pm
Book Passage || Ferry Plaza
San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

On Monday night we’ll be celebrating the publication of Chicken Soup for the Soul Find Your Happiness: 101 Stories about Finding Your Purpose, Passion, and Joy, a new anthology featuring Bay Area writers Anne Sigmon and Nicole Guiltinan.

Anne Sigmon reads “Why I Still Travel to the Wild” a reflection on her determination to continue traveling to remote corners even after her health was compromised by a stroke and autoimmune disease.

Nicole Guiltinan reads “Happiness Through Forgiveness” a story that looks back to her mother’s death when Nicole was twelve years old.

In Chicken Soup for the Soul: Find Your Happiness, Anne, Nicole and the other contributors share stories that will inspire readers to find their own purpose, pursue their passions, and let joy into their lives, no matter what their circumstances.

Anne Sigmon is a Bay Area freelance writer who writes about stroke and autoimmune disease (AnneSigmon.com) as well as adventure travel for people with health concerns (JunglesPants.com). She is currently finishing a memoir bout surviving stroke and resuming travel to wild locations from Burma to Uzbekistan. Anne’s stories have appeared in national publications such as Good Housekeeping and Stroke Connection magazines and the 2010 travel anthology Wandering in Costa Rica.

Nicole Guiltinan is a first-year college student in Northern California who is planning a career in social work. She enjoys reading, art, and writing poetry.

Come and enjoy wine & hors d’oeuvres plus a drawing for prizes. Books will be available for purchase at the reading.

Book Launch: Robbi Sommers Bryant

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Robbi Sommers Bryant, Author of The Beautiful Evil

Saturday, November 12, 2011 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Do you believe in fairy tales? Well, the little devils wreak havoc in Robbi Sommers Bryant’s thriller, The Beautiful Evil

Constance Sartone Jaconson never recovered from the sudden death of her father when she was only five. Devastated by her husband’s death and the scandal that ensues, Constance’s mother, Madeline, does little to comfort her scared and lonely daughter. With nowhere to turn, Constance protects herself by closing by off her emotions. Through vivid dreams and daytime visions, Constance’s father calls to her from a horse-drawn stage coach. These visions help Constance cope with her humdrum life and failing marriage. But things are about to change.

On a business with her husband, she purchases an antique Greek vase. Upon opening it, a stream of purple light hisses from the vase, and a tribe of wasp-like creatures pour out. One of the creatures shape-shifts into a ravishing fairy and offers Constance a way out. Desperate to feel anything, Constance listens to the fairy’s advise. But as her confidence grows, she begins to make all the wrong decisions, catapulting her into a web of lies and deceit. As her life spins future and further out of control, Constance soon finds herself staring into the abyss, forced to make one final heart-wrenching decision.

A rollercoaster ride into the chaos of a personal hell, The Beautiful Evil, is a captivating, psychological thriller that will keep you questioning reality until the final ultimate act.

Sex. Crime. Deceit. Murder.

… And wine. So do come, and bring your pals.

Literary Salon: Cyra McFadden

LCW Pre-Valentines Day Lovefest

We Recommend: Alice Acheson’s Workshops

Book Launch: Lindy Hough

An Evening with Lonely Planet: Alison Bing

Ferry Plaza Book Party: Travelers’ Tales

Book Launch: Thanasis Maskaleris

Ferry Plaza Book Party: Cup of Comfort with Anne Sigmon

Book Launch: Robbi Sommers Bryant

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