Literary Salon: Laurie Fox

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Laurie Fox, West Coast Associate of Linda Chester and Associates Literary Agency.

Laurie Fox
Laurie Fox

Monday, August 1th, 2016 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

Questions about approaching and landing an agent? One of our top Bay Area agents will be our speaker for the next LCW Literary Salon, so take advantage of this opportunity. Laurie will be talking about “What Agents and Editors Expect From Writers and What We Really Hope to Find”.  Whether you are already represented or are searching for representation, this evening is sure to be enlightening.

Laurie Fox joined Linda Chester and Associates Literary Agency in 1989, and is their West Coast Associate. A graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz (Writing and Theatre Arts), she is a published author of fiction and poetry, including Sexy Hieroglyphics(Chronicle Books); and two novels, My Sister from the Black Lagoon (starred Publishers Weekly review; San Francisco Chronicle bestseller) and The Lost Girls, both published by Simon & Schuster. She (more…)

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LCW Offer: Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference 2016

Travel Writers Conference Shareable ImageWe’re always so excited when we can make a special offer to our Left Coast Writers members. Left Coast Writers will receive 10% off on the Intensive Writing Weekend for Y/A and Middle Grade Readers (7/16-7/17/16), the Mystery Writers Conference (7/28-7/31/16) and the Travel Writers Conference (8/11-8/14/16)!

Sign up and receive the discount, and tell your literary pals to join Left Coast Writer to receive this and so many other benefits. If you sign up for one of the conferences, be sure to let us know. We’ll look forward to hearing about what you learned, who you met and where your works will be appearing next.

You’ll find all of the conferences listed on the Book Passage website, but here’s more info on one of our favorites:

The Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference has an extraordinary, international reputation among publishers, editors, and writers. This conference will be held August 11-14, and among the many talented and varied people on the faculty at this conference will be our leader/founder, Linda Watanabe McFerrin.

Now in its 25th year, this four-day Conference offers an array of writing and photography workshops in the morning, a full afternoon of panels and discussions, and evening faculty presentations. The faculty includes publishers, magazine editors, photographers, travel essayists, and more. There are hours of informal interaction between faculty and participants during lunch and in discussions that often last late into the evening.

Take a look at this year’s astounding faculty:

Jim Benning
Tim Cahill
Donald George (more…)

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Left Coast Writers® Live: Dick Jordan

On Sunday, July 17th from 12-2pm, join Left Coast Writers® Live on FCCFREE RADIO’s popular show, Lilycat on Stuff. Lilycat’s guests on Sunday will be Dick Jordan, who will be chatting about Cuba, travel and his new film, Cuba Libre. 

Dick Jordan grew up in Seattle, Washington. At age 7, he donned a suit and tie, climbed aboard a United Airlines DC-6, and took his first big trip: Up to Vancouver, British Columbia, for the day, back to Seattle the same evening by train. As a teenager at the end of the heyday of U.S. passenger train travel, he rode the rails to and from Miami Beach. In between these two “Big City Trips”, he learned to appreciate the outdoor wonders of the West by joining the quintessential “F Troop” of the Boy Scouts and camping in the rain and mud of Western Washington.

His service in the U.S. Air Force took him to Texas, Indiana, and the Far East. Along the way he spent nine months studying Chinese in Monterey, California, and discovered San Francisco and Yosemite National Park. When his service days came to a close, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, practiced law for over 30 years, and was an author of articles which appeared in the legal press, and was an editor and publisher of print and on-line legal newsletters. But his real dream was to become a travel writer.

Since 1971, Dick has traveled to nearly 250 places in the United States and abroad. In 2006 he started writing travel blogs so friends and family could follow the vacation journeys he and his wife Cindy embark on each year.

In 2009, a year after retiring, he became a freelance travel writer. His stories and photographs have appeared in the Contra Costa Times, Dallas Morning News, Los Angeles Times, Marin I-J, Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, and San Jose Mercury News.  He is also a contributor (more…)

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Ferry Plaza Book Party: Dystopia and Manifesto

LEFT COAST WRITERS FERRY PLAZA BOOK PARTY:  Dystopia and Manifesto, Readings with John Fetto, Todd Crawshaw, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Denise Pinhey

Dystopic FutureMonday, July 11, 2016 || 6pm Book Passage || San Francisco 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

What does the future look like? Heck, what does tomorrow look like?

Is it dark and full of shadow? Is it a world where rodents run the show? Where the innocent are imprisoned? Where zombies thrive? Or is it a place where all the mistakes we make today, play out to the worst possible outcome? And … we might ask ourselves … (more…)

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Book Launch: San Rafael Sizzle by Nicola Trwst

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Nicola Trwst, Author of San Rafael Sizzle

Nicola Trwst
Nicola Trwst

Saturday, July 9th, 2016 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

It’s another intriguing evening with local author, Nicola Trwst!

Journalist Briana Kaleigh’s ex has tracked her to Marin County, California hoping to rekindle their marriage. But Briana has set her sights on smoking hot sheriff’s detective, Dusty Arkansas.

When the body of a leading stem cell researcher is discovered beside a cooler of iced placentas, Briana is the first journalist on the scene. She and Dusty team up to work the evidence. Until Briana’s ex is arrested for the murder.

Now, Briana must work against Dusty and the authorities to prove her ex is innocent. Torrid emotions and her ex’s stubborn silence don’t help. Add in her high-strung poodle and her task is almost impossible. Thank heavens for Doggy Daycare.

When a fire destroys the researcher’s lab and all the lab employees disappear, finding the truth is crucial. A sinister killer is taking aim again and Briana could be his next target.

Nicola Trwst resides in California, but has lived in Virginia, Georgia, France, and Canada. She loves languages and speaks several, including Pig (more…)

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Literary Salon: Mary Mackey

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Mary Mackey, Author of The Village of Bones: Sabalah’s Tale, along with her thirteen previous novels

Mary Mackey
Mary Mackey

Tuesday, July 5th, 2016 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

Please take note: Our July LCW Salon will take place on Tuesday, July 5th and will feature noted bestselling author and poet, Mary Mackey. It should be an interesting evening. A note Bay Area author and speaker, Mary has been published traditionally and independently and has a lot to say on that topic as well as how to find publications interested in your work.

Mary Mackey is the bestselling author of fourteen novels, including two novels about the American Civil War (The Notorious Mrs. Winston and The Widow’s War) and four novels which describe how the Goddess-worshiping people of Prehistoric Europe fought off patriarchal nomad invaders (The Village of Bones, The Year The Horses Came, The Horses at the Gate, and The Fires of Spring). Mary’s novels have been praised by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Pat Conroy, Thomas Moore, Marija Gimbutas, Marge Piercy, and Theodore Roszak for their historical accuracy, inventiveness, literary grace, vividness, and storytelling magic. They have made The New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller Lists, been translated into twelve foreign languages and sold over a million and a half copies.

Mary has also written seven collections of poetry including Travelers With No Ticket Home and Sugar Zone, winner of the 2012 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles (more…)

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Left Coast Writers Poetry: Carol Sheldon

Left Coast Writers Poetry: Carol Sheldon, Author of A Sleuth in Sausalito, Mother Lode, and Driven to Rage: A Historical Novel

Carol Sheldon
Carol Sheldon

Kawika’s Ocean Beach Deli 734 La Playa St, San Francisco, CA 94121 Sunday, July 3rd from 5pm-7:15pm Join a featured LCW poet at the First Sunday of the Month Happy Hour Poetry series at Kawika’s Ocean Beach Deli. Our featured poet’s reading is followed by an open mic for other poets to share original work, or even just to read favorite poems aloud. Happy Hour starts at 5pm, and after our featured poets read for 15 minutes each, then open mic (three minutes per poet) goes until 7:15 pm. Celebrate creativity and poets while supporting a local, community-oriented, and family owned business! Enjoy $1 off your sandwich with the purchase of a glass of wine or bubbly! Up in July is Carol Sheldon. Carol Sheldon has published two books of poetry; She teaches Poetry, the Novel, and Memoir in her home, her church, Osher’s Lifelong Learning Institute and for the Marin Writers’ Center. Her poems are in (more…)

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Left Coast Writers® Live: SSAC Writers

On Sunday, June 19th from 12-2pm, join Left Coast Writers® Live on FCCFREE RADIO’s popular show, Lilycat on Stuff. Lilycat’s guests on Sunday will be Southern Sampler Artists Colony Writers.

It’s another celebration of all things Southern! Please join the writers and artists of the Southern Sampler Artists Colony as they evoke the dreamy, sometimes steamy world of Charleston and beyond in an exciting sampler of poetry, short fiction, non-fiction and other delights. You don’t have to go there to be there, but if you want to be spirited away, you’ll be able to do that when you join the fun. So please listen in and find out what we all love most about the American South.

“This heartfelt anthology celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Southern Sampler Artists Colony. Contributors present a cornucopia of writing, recipes, and art created in Charleston—South Carolina’s Holy City.”
—Mary Edna Fraser, Charleston artist

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 (more…)

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Ferry Plaza Book Party: Southern Sampler Authors, Artists, and Friends

LEFT COAST WRITERS FERRY PLAZA BOOK PARTY:  Southern Sampler Authors, Artists and Friends, Charleston and the South: A Sampler of  Stories, Poetry, Recipes, Art

Charleston and the South001Monday, June 13th, 2016 || 6pm
Book Passage || San Francisco
1 Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

It’s another celebration of all things Southern! Please join the writers and artists of the Southern Sampler Artists Colony as they evoke the dreamy, sometimes steamy world of Charleston and beyond in an exciting sampler of poetry, short fiction, non-fiction and other delights at Book Passage in San Francisco’s Ferry Plaza. You don’t have to go there to be there, but if you want to be spirited away, you’ll be able to do that when you join the fun. So please drop by for a glass of wine, munchies, and a toast to what we all love most about the American South.

Readers include: Nancy Alpert, Unity Barry, Maureen Dixon, MJ Pramik, Catherine Pyke, Cindy Rasicot, Mary Brent Cantarutti, and Linda Watanabe McFerrin

“This heartfelt anthology celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Southern Sampler Artists Colony. Contributors present a cornucopia of writing,

(more…)

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Literary Salon: Janis Cooke Newman, Author of A Master Plan for Rescue

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Janis Cooke Newman, Author of A Master Plan for Rescue

Janis Cooke Newman
Janis Cooke Newman

Monday, June 6th, 2016 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

We’re delighted to announce that our June presenter for the Left Coast Writers Literary Salon will be Janis Cooke Newman. Janis has a wealth of literary experience in both fiction and non-fiction. She is the author of A Master Plan for Rescue, a magical novel about the surprising acts of heroism that can be inspired by love. She is also the author of Mary, a historical novel about Mary Todd Lincoln. Mary was chosen by USA Today as the best historical fiction of 2006 and was a finalist for the LA Times First Fiction award. She is also the author of The Russian Word for Snow, a memoir about adopting her son from a Moscow orphanage. Both books are available in paperback.

In addition to her books Newman is the founder of the Lit Camp writers conference.

Janis Cooke Newman’s second novel, A Master Plan for Rescue was released from Riverhead in July 2015. The SF Chronicle said it “balances (more…)

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