Making a Difference through WriterCoach Connection

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Make a Difference in the Life of a Student! Sign up Today.

Do you appreciate good writing? Do you enjoy teens? Want to make a huge difference in the life of a young person? Then consider becoming a volunteer coach for WriterCoach Connection. Our volunteers work with middle school and high school youth on critical thinking and writing skills, helping young people find their voices and gain confidence in themselves as youth with something important to say and the skills to say it. The benefits will reverberate through their lives and yours. As one coach says, “Each student brings me into their world, and I learn so much. I am constantly humbled….I have coached nine different students. For each, I was exposed to their cultures, family and friend dynamics, and their individual joys and anxieties. I came away with an open, joyful heart.” The commitment is about 2 hours a week, during the school day and for the school year. We’ll train you in our proven coaching methodology, so that you have the skills to become an effective coach. We invite you to open your heart and mind to a student and share your skills. In Berkeley, Oakland, Albany, El Cerrito, Richmond and El Sobrante. Sign up today! We are in the schools now! We’ll orient and train you (more…)

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Member News: Event for Kerry Campbell

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Kerry Campbell

Saturday, March 24th, 2018 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Member Kerry Campbell will also be having a book launch at Book Passage.

No matter our age, many of us continue to dream about the person we might become, the next idyllic place we could call home, or even the serene beauty of another country we might visit. Sometimes on the periphery of these dreams we see glimpses of what might be, what we could be, waving to us like colorful flags on the horizon, urging us on to the next incarnation of our life.

Dreaming of France, award-winning writer Kerry Campbell’s debut collection of prose poems and vignettes, takes the reader on an unforgettable journey through France. Her characters are dreamers, a group of American women of all ages who explore their dreams and memories of France, alternately through the lenses of romantic love, fashion, food, interior design, gardens and family. (more…)

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Hawaii Book & Music Festival and 5th Annual Mokule’ia Writers Retreat 🗓

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Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Hawaii Book & Music Festival: May 6-7, 2017

The Mokulē‘ia Writers Retreat: May 7-12, 2017

Join me this month for two terrific events for writers events in Hawaii.
The Mokulē‘ia Writers Retreat is an annual gathering that brings three dozen writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, essays, and memoir to the North Shore of O‘ahu for a week of intimate workshops and coaching. The retreat is high-level and professional — but also low-key and tuned in to the beauty of the surroundings. It fosters an exchange in two directions — between islanders and mainlanders, published writers and budding writers, Native Hawaiian artistry and mainland publishing.

With the Waianae Mountains as a backdrop and the open ocean in front, participants break bread with colleagues, gather in daily workshops, salute the morning sun in yoga, write privately in the shade of ironwood trees, and wander along the beach. They even dance some hula. The theme, nā wahi ho‘oulu, acknowledges that a sacred spot like this will inspire the assembled to explore other places — whether in the heart, in memory, or in the moment. (more…)

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Workshop: Writing Sexy Stuff with Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Laurie McAndish King

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Linda Watanabe McFerrin
Linda Watanabe McFerrin
Laurie McAndish King
Laurie McAndish King

Saturday, January 21st, 2017 || 10am-4pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

If you have trouble steaming up the page or even your life, this is the workshop for you. Spend a day learning the techniques for adding spicy, sensual, and sometimes funny sizzle to your work and your days. The class is full of quick free-writes and entertaining exercises that will have you

moving from comfort to erogenous zones in no time.

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

The workshop will be held on Saturday, January 21st, 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 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 mentor for the Loft Mentor Series and been guest faculty at the Oklahoma Arts Institute. A past NEA Panelist and juror for the Marin Literary Arts Council, she has led workshops in Greece, France, Italy, Ireland, Central America, Indonesia and the United States and has mentored a long list of accomplished writers and best-selling authors toward publication.

 Laurie McAndish King grew up in rural Iowa, studied science and philosophy at Cornell College, and has (more…)

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Small Business Saturday with Left Coast Writers 🗓

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book-passageSaturday, November 26th, 2016
Small Business Saturday: Meet the Authors from Left Coast Writers®

Small Business Saturday has been gaining momentum each year to the point where it has now become the day for customers to discover the independent merchants in their community. (Forget Black Friday and Cyber Monday; they are so over!). This year, we decided to celebrate the day by introducing authors from one of our favorite writing communities, Left Coast Writers®. These are authors who, for the most part, have written and celebrated their work through programs at Book Passage and have learned the ins and outs of being a small business with the help of this bookstore.

Meet these creative writers and find out more about Left Coast Writers®, Path to Publishing and books in general. We’ll have representatives from our programs available to answer your questions and authors on hand to entertain you.

10:00 – 12:00:

Linda Watanabe McFerrin
Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Dead Love

Left Coast Writers® Founder Linda Watanabe McFerrin (www.lwmcferrin.com) is the editor and author of award winning poetry, travel essays and fiction (Namako, The Hand of Buddha, and Dead Love).

 

 

 

Joanna Biggar
Joanna Biggar

Joanna Biggar, That Paris Year

Joanna Biggar is a writer, teacher and traveler whose articles and essays have appeared in hundreds of publications. She is also a poet and novelist and the co-founder and editor of Wanderland Writers.

(more…)

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Left Coast Writers at Litquake San Rafael 2016 🗓

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Litquake badgeSaturday October 8, 2016 1:45pm – 2:45pm
In Her Shoes 1344 4th Street
San Rafael, CA 94901

SF/Bay Area Lit lovers: Left Coast Writers will  be part of the LITCRAWL in San Rafael on Saturday, at In Her Shoes on 4th Street. Please join LCW founder Linda Watanabe McFerrin, as moderator, and a great group of Left Coast Writers for Writing on the Edge. Tell your friends and come early!

Readings from the best of Left Coast Writers: Writing on the Edge with Todd Crawshaw, Laurie McAndish King, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, MJ Pramik, and Jonathan Taylor.

San Francisco’s literary legacy has always held a strong North Bay connection, dating back to the Beats, Jack London, and Mark Twain.  Litquake San Rafael returns to the downtown 4th Street corridor of cafés, restaurants, and shops, featuring Bay Area writers in this day-long series of free readings and open-mic events. FREE

Click here for the complete schedule.

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Workshop: Writing Sexy Stuff with Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Linda Watanabe McFerrin
Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Saturday, February 13th, 2016 || 10am-4pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

Treat yourself or a loved one to something extra-special for Valentine’s Day.If you have trouble steaming up the page, this is the workshop for you. Spend a day with poet, travel writer and novelist Linda Watanabe McFerrin loosening up and learning the techniques for adding spicy, sensual, and sometimes hilarious sizzle to your work. The class is full of quick free-writes and entertaining exercises that will have you moving from comfort zones to erogenous zones in no time. Linda’s workshops have ushered may a writer into the award circle and bestseller spotlight. She’s the founder of Left Coast Writers® and co-editor of the Hot Flashes: Sexy Little Stories and Poems series. The workshop fee includes, champagne, chocolate, and copious creativity.

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

The workshop will be held on Saturday, February 13th, 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 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 (more…)

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Wandering in Cornwall reading at A Great Good Place for Books

Reading with Wanderland Writers at A Great Good Place for Books, Authors of Wandering in Cornwall: Mystery, Mirth, and Transformation in the Land of the Ancient Celts

Wandering in Cornwall CoverWednesday, January 20th, 2016 || 7pm
A Great Good Place for Books|| 6120 LaSalle Avenue Oakland, CA 94611 ||
http://www.ggpbooks.com/

It’s another Wanderland Writers celebration. Wine, snacks, readings, and a brand new book in the Wandering series.

This time Wanderland Writers venture deep into Cornwall, exploring its castles, its contrast. They find, of course, its legacy of Camelot, the lingering shadows of Arthurian legend, tragic love, magic, and Merlin. They also find its sorrows, buried deep in its history like the now closed mines, where the windswept moors and jagged coasts made everyday events of shipwrecks, isolation, and cave-ins. Yet, as workshop leaders Joanna Biggar and Linda Watanabe McFerrin and their fellow travelers discover, that is not the whole story. They also encounter the wonderful and hospitable Cornish, with their enchanting accents, their delightful yarns, their humor, their endurance. They wander, bicycle, hike and kayak to explore hills, waterways, villages and moors in search of the spirit of artists and writers who have come before them to leave an imprint on this untamed land.

“Wandering in Cornwall is a beguiling collection of stories and poems about the extreme west of England. Everything that makes Cornwall so special is here: pasties, clotted cream artists, smugglers, the South West Coast Path and even the thieving seagulls. Readers who know Cornwall will be inspired to return and newcomers to this land of myth and legend will vow to see it for themselves.”
—Hilary Bradt MBE, Co-founder of Bradt Travel Guides

“Careful, reader. This book is a delight, no doubt about it. But now I have to go to Cornwall.”
—Tim Cahill, Author of Jaguars Ripped My Flesh and Hold the Enlightenment (more…)

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Workshop: Making a Scene with Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Linda Watanabe McFerrin
Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Making a Scene Workshop
with Linda Watanabe McFerrin
Saturday, December 12th, 2015, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Location: Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Boulevard, Corte Madera, CA 94925
$120

Register here

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, (more…)

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Workshop: Building Character with Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Linda Watanabe McFerrin
Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Saturday, November 14th, 2015 || 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. Bring pages to read and work on.

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

The workshop will be held on Saturday, November 14th, 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 YorkPublic 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 (more…)

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