Events - Left Coast Writers

Ferry Plaza Book Party: Terry Sue Harms & Tami Casias

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Terry Sue Harms, Author of Pearls My Mother Wore and Tami Casias, Author of Crystal Bound

Monday, July 11, 6pm
Book Passage || Ferry Plaza
San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Get out the crystals and the pearls. Seriously. We want you all to wear them when you come to the Ferry Plaza for our sparkling summer celebration of the work of two terrific authors, both self-published, both devoted to getting the word out on their books. That’s the spirit we love in a writer: bright and undaunted. These are our heroes.

Terry Sue Harms has been a practicing hairdresser since 1977 and currently owns her salon. In 1992 she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Mills College. In May of 2005, she was inspired, in response to the new reality TV craze, “to write a story where the losers were the winners.” Pearls My Mother Wore was born of that inspiration. Terry lives in Northern California with her husband, Lutrell.

Tami Casias wrote local news for years while raising four children. Nowadays, writing fiction for young adults while sitting in coffee shops has taken the place of city council meetings. She uses her degree in Journalism to research new ideas for stories. Tami lives with her husband, teenage son, and Yorkshire terrier, Bruiser, in Sonoma, California.

Book Launch: Patrica Volonakis Davis/CANCELLED!

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Patricia Volonakis Davis, Author of The Diva Doctrine

THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED!

Saturday, July 9, 2011 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Calling all Divas …

It’ll be pure fun on Saturday night, so we hope most of you will have it in you to join the colorful characters that will assemble to celebrate The Diva Doctrine with Patricia Volonakis Davis. Patricia will be dishing up advice and discussing the 16 universal principles of Diva-hood. You’ll want to bring your friends just to make sure you are all on the same page. No Diva can do it alone.

PATRICIA V. DAVIS’ aim is to leave her spot of the world just a little bit better than it was before she got there. She focuses on that through her writing, teaching, philanthropic work, and the promoting of other people whom she believes have that same goal.

Patricia is the author of the award-winning Harlot’s Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss and Greece, and The Diva Doctrine: 16 Universal Principles Every Woman Needs to Know. She has been called a “Renaissance Woman” by The Orange County Register, and as founder and editor-in-chief of the non-partisan HS Radio e-magazine and podcast, Patricia loves encouraging new writers and interviewing other “Renaissance people”, such as Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jane Friedman, and more. She also hosts an “Expert in Failed Relationships” Advice Column there.

Patricia holds a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing and Education, and has conducted seminars extensively in various venues and schools throughout the US and overseas. She was named one of Top 25 Mentors for Young Women and Girls 2010 and 2011, by the Hot Mommas Project. The Diva Doctrineis an extension of the guidance and support she hopes to give to women.

Literary Salon: Sheldon Siegel

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Sheldon Siegel, Author of Perfect Alibi

Tuesday, July 5, 2011 || 7pm

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

It’ll be a thrilling evening as mystery writer Sheldon Siegel takes the stand to share his observations about writing that keeps us on the edge of our seats and about the state of the book business, which is not without its own twists and turns.

A native of Chicago, Sheldon Siegel earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois in 1976 and graduated from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley in 1983. He has been in private practice in San Francisco for over twenty years and specializes in corporate and securities law with the firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP. Perfect Alibi is the seventh novel in his series of critically acclaimed, best-selling courtroom dramas featuring San Francisco criminal defense attorneys Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez. His books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into eight languages.

In Perfect Alibi Mike and Rosie are again called to defend a would-be murderer, this time the boyfriend of their teenage daughter, Grace, who could be the young man’s perfect alibi. However, there are many skeletons in the boy’s family closets and some of those boney fingers are pointing at him.
Sheldon lives in Marin County with his wife, Linda, and twin sons, Alan and Stephen.

He is co-chair for the Mystery Writers Conference at Book Passage, July 21-24, 2011.

Don’t forget: Left Coast Writers get a conference discount!

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

Ferry Plaza Book Party: Elaine Bond

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Elaine Miller Bond, Author of Affimals: Affirmations + Animals

Monday, June 13, 6pm
Book Passage || Ferry Plaza
San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

At last! We cordially invite you to the long awaited U.S. book launch party for Elaine Miller Bond’s Affimals: Affirmations + Animanls.

Affimals is an uplifting journey into the kind of happiness we can all have in our lives, with affirmations like WILD HORSE: Unbridle your passion, and FIREFLY: Spark imagination. With every turn of the page, the reader is greeted by another beautiful illustration, along with a story based on both positivity and the latest developments from the scientific community. The book brings joy to all members of the family and serves as tool for connecting with the natural world. It’s part-inspiration, part-environmental education, all-heart.

“Animals can teach us so much, whether they are caring for their young, exhibiting altruism, communicating with each other, or just surviving. Elaine Miller Bond’s Affimals is an inspiration and a lesson — from all creatures great and small to all readers young and old.”— Michael Markarian, Exec. vice president, The Humane Society of the United States

“A delightful book! With vivid descriptions, whimsical tales, and stunning artwork, Elaine Miller Bond has created a wondrous and inspiring book for children of every age. Let all, like her bluebird, “rise up singing”! — T.A. Barron, Author of The Great Tree of Avalon, Merlin, and Merlin’s Dragon

Elaine Miller Bond grew up in the Berkeley Hills, wandering the creeks for newts and falling asleep to the spring choruses of tree frogs. She immersed herself in the environment for her graduate degree abroad at Cambridge University, having, at UC Berkeley, combined her love for the Earth (Geography) with her mind for the written word (English).

Her career began as a science writer with the University of California Natural Reserve System, where she also developed outdoor programs that served to educate underserved high school students. Her writing and photography have appeared on the Discovery Channel and in BBC Earth News, The American Naturalist, The Washington Post, and other popular and scientific media. Her field-based photographs of rare Utah prairie dogs have been used for education by Lucasfilm and leading universities, and will be published in three upcoming books, including the new edition of the popular textbook, An Introduction to Behavioral Ecology, by N. B. Davies, J. R. Krebs, and S. West.

Bond’s own book — which she wrote and illustrated — is entitled, Affimals: Affirmations + Animals. It’s part-inspiration, part-environmental education, all-heart.

She and her boisterous cat Cyrano currently make their home on the hooting, gobbling edge of her favorite childhood park — with scorpions — in Orinda.

Book Launch: Colette Obrien

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Colette Obrien, Author of The Nobility of the Robe, Book 1 of the Mirari Chronicles

Saturday, June 11, 2011 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Please join in the celebration of an exciting new book by Colette Obrien.

The records of accomplishments of real women from history who made significant contributions to their cultures but of whom the modern world is unaware have been kept by The Ahkoshek Society. This secret organization has aided humanity throughout its long history by providing assistance to individuals when confronted with situations they are unable to handle themselves; ones where they might otherwise have fallen into the hands of dark forces. The society’s prime directive is to assist in the growth of human consciousness.

The members of this group have been called: angels, saints, seers and savants, however the newest member, Claire is neither immortal nor enlightened but a flesh and blood woman whose compassion for humanity is so great that the gift of time travel has been given to her as a means to help when help is needed. Like the women who call for aide, she too must constantly be on the lookout for the evil that always lies in wait for those who aspire to the heights.

Part history, part mystery, part thriller, the book series chronicles the archetypal quest for truth and the meaning of life.

In the first book of the Mirari Chronicles, Colette Obrien combines the gripping story of a real historical character with a modern-day thriller to create The Nobility of the Robe an astonishing novel that dances across the time/space continuum faster than the speed of light.

Colette Obrien has a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis on Jungian Psychology. She has had a meditation and yoga practice for over 30 years and for the last 25 years a private practice as a counselor and teacher, counseling individuals and couples. Her travel stories and photographs have been published in newspapers and magazines across the U.S. and Canada. Her first novel, Time & Transformation, was in inspired by her studies and time spent with the Maya in the Yucatan. The Nobility of the Robe is her second novel and the first book in the Mirari Chronicles.

Literary Salon: Roger Housden

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

Monday, June 6, 2011 || 7pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LCW Pick: Covering the Bases: Writers on Baseball

COVERING THE BASES: Writers on Baseball

Thursday, May 12, 2011 || 7pm
Double Play Bar and Grill
2401 – 16th Street (@ Bryant)
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 621-9859

This is so cool: Five writers and a photographer will cover the bases at a special night of baseball literature at San Francisco’s iconic Double Play Bar and Grill.

The evening will feature classic sportswriting, fiction, memoir and poetry, all related to America’s pastime. The writers are: Dan Fost author of “Giants Past and Present” (MVP Books), James J. Patterson, author of “Bermuda Shorts” (Alan Squire Publishing), Steve Hermanos, author of “O Gigantic Victory! Baseball Poems: The 2010 Championship Season,” and Aaron Pribble, author of “Pitching in the Promised Land: A Story of the First and Only Season in the Israel Baseball League” (University of Nebraska Press), along with Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Deanne Fitzmaurice, who took the pictures for “Freak Season: Behind the Scenes with San Francisco Giants Pitcher Tim Lincecum from Spring Training to the World Series” (K&D Photography). Special guest Todd Lappin will tell the story of his search for the location of home plate from Seals Stadium – right across the street from the Double Play.

The writers will read from their work at San Francisco’s legendary Double Play Bar and Grill at 7 pm, Thursday, May 12. The Double Play is across from the Potrero Hill shopping center that used to be Seals Stadium, and the bar features a small-scale replica of the beloved old ballpark.

Double Play Bar & Grill

2401 – 16th Street (@ Bryant)
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 621-9859

See you there!

Ferry Plaza Book Party: Alan Squire Publishing and Authors

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK PARTY: Alan Squire Publishing

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

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

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

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

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

Book Launch: Aaron Pribble

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Aaron Pribble, Author of Pitching in the Promised Land: A Story of the First and Only Season in the Israel Baseball League

Saturday, May 14, 2011 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Baseball and books? Two all-American favorites team up for a wonderful Left Coast Writers night at Book Passage in Corte Madera.

It was the first (and last) season of professional baseball in Israel. Aaron Pribble, twenty-seven, had been out of Minor League Baseball for three years while he pursued a career in education when, at his coach’s suggestion, he tried out for the newly formed Israel Baseball League (IBL). Of Jewish descent (not a requirement, but definitely a plus) and a former pro, Pribble was the ideal candidate for the upstart league, which in many ways resembled the ultimate baseball fantasy camp, with its unforgettable cast of characters: the DJ/street artist third baseman from the Bronx, the wild-man catcher from Australia, the journeymen Dominicans who were much older than they claimed to be, and, of course, seventy-one-year-old Sandy Koufax, drafted in a symbolic gesture as the last player.

After falling in love with a beautiful Yemenite Jew, enduring an alleged terrorist attack on opening day, witnessing a career-ending brain injury caused by improper field equipment, participating in a strike, and venturing into the West Bank despite being strongly advised against it, Pribble must decide whether to forego a teaching career in order to become the first player from the IBL to sign a pro contract in the United States. His is a story of coming of age spiritually and athletically in one short season in the throes of romance, Middle Eastern politics, and the dreams of America’s pastime far, far from home.

Aaron Pribble played collegiate baseball at the University of Hawaii, then professionally in the Western and Central Baseball Leagues, in France, and in the Israel Baseball League. He has a masters degree in political science and teaches at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California. Aaron lives in San Francisco.

“A touching and enlightening tale of political and cultural awakening, conveyed through the vehicle of baseball. . . . [A] unique voyage of discovery, both on and off the diamond, and populated by a rich cast of characters, from Pribble’s Yemeni girlfriend to his Canadian guide in Palestine to his Australian, Dominican, and Israeli teammates.”—Robert Elias, author of The Empire Strikes Out

“Aaron Pribble has written what I call the Oy! Testament, a true, detailed accounting of his year playing ball in Israel, of all places. Chock full of color about Jewish life in the Promised Land, it delves into the politics of new settlements in this volatile region, from the perspective of a Californian with a Jewish mother and a Christian dad, all painted against the backdrop of Our National Pastime in the desert.”
—Steven Travers, author of The 1969 Miracle Mets

“Pitching in the Promised Land is a thrilling odyssey of sport, religion, love, and politics, of finding common ground on the baseball field in the most unlikely of places—Israel. In his debut memoir, Mr. Pribble has established himself as a gifted storyteller with extraordinary insight, observation, and humor.”
—Logan Miller and Noah Miller, authors of Either You’re in or You’re in the Way

Literary Salon: James Patterson

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

Monday, May 2, 2011 || 7pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ferry Plaza Book Party: Terry Sue Harms & Tami Casias

Book Launch: Patrica Volonakis Davis/CANCELLED!

Literary Salon: Sheldon Siegel

Ferry Plaza Book Party: Elaine Bond

Book Launch: Colette Obrien

Literary Salon: Roger Housden

LCW Pick: Covering the Bases: Writers on Baseball

Ferry Plaza Book Party: Alan Squire Publishing and Authors

Book Launch: Aaron Pribble

Literary Salon: James Patterson

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