Workshop: Wandering and Writing in Bali!

WANDERLAND WRITERS WORKSHOP: Wandering and Writing in Bail with Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Joanna Biggar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bali1_s

September 26 – October 3, 2011

There is only one spot available.

Wanderland Writers Workshops generally sell out before they are even posted, but, due to a cancellation, there is a chance to participate in this one.

You can join Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Joanna Biggar for a week of writing and adventure in a tropical paradise — BALI!

Dates: September 26th – October 3, 2011

Place: Gorgeous island-style resort with airy villa accommodations, terraces, restaurant, pool, spa and more in the mountains above Ubud, Bali’s artistic capital. Accommodations: Shared rooms in private villas

Amenities:

  • Swimming pool
  • Spa
  • Conference area
  • Gardens
  • Restaurant
  • Wireless broadband
  • Cable TV
  • Outdoor exercise facility
  • Maid service for laundry

Included in price:

  • Transportation to and from airport
  • Eight days/seven nights accommodations
  • Seven breakfasts, afternoon tea daily, two lunches, four sumptuous dinners
  • Five 2-hour workshops
  • Private consultation with instructors
  • Time and space to write
  • Welcome dinner
  • Temple visit
  • Monkey forest visit
  • Museum tour
  • Balinese dance evening
  • Banquet by a local chef
  • Access to local attractions
  • Plenty of time to explore on shared and personal adventures

Cost: $2,400

Optional Add-ons:

  • Spa treatments
  • Visits to craft studios and galleries in Ubud
  • Balinese shadow puppet show
  • Bird walks
  • Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (October 5-9, 2011)
  • Extra days at the resort, to be negotiated with owner

VERY limited space!!!! Reply to   jobiggar@gmail.com

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The Art of Soulful Memoir

 

Roger Housden
Roger Housden

THE ART OF SOULFUL MEMOIR: WHERE YOUR OUTER LIFE MEETS YOUR INNER WORLD

A FOUR WEEK CLASS WITH ROGER HOUSDEN
Author of the Ten Poems Series and Saved By Beauty: Adventures of an American Romantic in Iran

Soulful memoir uses the raw material of your life to reveal the deeper intelligence of your life’s journey. In this class you will weave into words as truthfully as possible the ongoing thread of your lives. Please bring work you want to develop, and whether or not you have prior material, come ready to develop some during the class.

WHEN: FOUR TUESDAYS IN JULY: JULY 5, 12, 19, 26.
WHERE: 8. Eden Lane, Larkspur
COST: $180.00. $50 DEPOSIT to Roger Housden at address above.
FURTHER INFO: CALL ROGER ON 415 924 6061.

CLASS LIMITED TO EIGHT PARTICIPANTS

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LCW Pick: Covering the Bases: Writers on Baseball

COVERING THE BASES: Writers on Baseball

 

 

 

 

 

 

BaseballPanel_sThursday, 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!

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James Patterson, LCW Visiting Publisher/Author: Schedule of Events

BermudaShorts_sVisiting Author/Publisher James J. Patterson will be speaking and reading at a number of special events while he is in the San Francisco/Bay Area. Left Coast Writers is a participating organizer of many of these events and will be providing refreshments. We are posting his entire schedule in the hope that you will be able to join us at some of these occasions.

Thursday, April 28th, 2011 @5:30pm
Towne Center Books
w/Joanna Biggar author of That Paris Year
555 Main Street, Pleasanton, CA
925 846 8826

Monday, May 2, 2011 @7pm
Book Passage w/Left Coast Writers Literary Salon
51 Tamal Vista Blvd.
Corte Madera, CA  94929
415 927 0960
Left Coast Writers and Invitation only

Wednesday, May 4, 2011 @7pm
A Great Good Place for Books
w/Joanna Biggar
6120 LaSalle Avenue
Oakland, CA  94611
510 339 8210

Friday, May 6, 2011 @7pm
Friends of Left Coast Writers Salon
Sonoma, CA
Invitation only

Saturday, May 7, 2011 @7pm
Friends of Left Coast Writers Salon
Oakland, CA
Invitation only

Monday, May 9, 2011 @6pm
Book Passage/Left Coast Writers
w/Joanna Biggar
1 Ferry Building
San Francisco, CA 94111
415 835 1200

Tuesday, May 10, 2011 @7:30pm
The Booksmith
w/Linda Watanabe McFerrin & Joanna Biggar
1644 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA  94117
415 863 8688
http://www.booksmith.com/event

Thursday, May 12, 2011 @7pm
The Double Play Sports Bar & Restaurant
w/Dan Fost, Jason Turbow, Steve Hermanos, and Aaron Pribble
2401 16th Street
“The Mission”
San Francisco, CA 94103
415 621 9859

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Writers Workshop in Charleston, South Carolina, April 2011

SSAC_logo_smSOUTHERN SAMPLER ARTISTS COLONY PRESENTS:
A Writer’s Workshop
with Linda Watanabe McFerrin
April 5-12, 2011

ONE SPOT JUST OPENED UP!

Ready to wrap your tongue around the Gullah language and relish the dark, tangy sensations that feed the soul and lift the spirit? Want to discover a history like no other, a history bound in slavery, tempered in Lowcountry rice fields, and raised to glory in slow primal beats? Join us! Celebrate a side of Charleston that not all locals, much less tourists, know exists.

We’ll stay in a charming and rambling turn-of-the century home on Sullivan’s Island, only minutes from downtown Charleston and only a block away from one of South Carolina’s pristine white-sand beaches. (more…)

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Southern Sampler Artists Colony Annual Workshop

SSAC_logo_smThe Southern Sampler Artists Colony presents: SOUTHERN SHADOW: A Writer’s Workshop with author and instructor Linda Watanabe McFerrin

April 5 – 12, 2011
Charleston, South Carolina

Ready to wrap your tongue around the Gullah language and relish the dark, tangy sensations that feed the soul and lift the spirit? Want to discover a history like no other, a history bound in slavery, tempered in lowcountry rice fields, and raised to glory in slow primal beats? Join us!  Celebrate a side of Charleston that not many locals, much less tourists, know exists.

We’ll stay in a charming and rambling turn-of-the century home on Sullivan’s Island, only minutes from downtown Charleston and just a block away from one of South Carolina’s pristine white-sand beaches.

Linda Watanabe McFerrin, an award winning poet, travel writer, and novelist will lead workshop sessions especially designed for the Black history theme and lowcountry locale. The workshop also includes two thirty-minute, private literary consultations with Linda, one at the beginning and one at the end of the week.

Other highlights are:

  • Dinner at “Home” with renowned chef, David Vagasky
  • Special guest Alphonso Brown, author, musician, owner of Gullah Tours, and storyteller extraordinaire
  • Cocktails and dinner with Nina Liu of Nina Liu & Friends Gallery
  • Performance by The Mount Zion Spiritual Singers
  • Conversations with Karen Chandler of the Charleston Jazz Initiative and local legendary jazz musicians
  • Charleston nightlife
  • Green project with the Charleston Parks Conservancy
  • Celebrations and gatherings with Michael Haga, Associate Dean, School of the Arts, College of Charleston
  • Lowcountry salt marsh exploration with Captain Anton, coastal geologist and gifted tour guide

Workshop, private consultations, accommodations, catered events, customized tours, honorariums, transportation to and from Charleston, S.C. airport (two scheduled pick up times for 4/5 and two scheduled departure times for 4/12), and most meals are included.

Cost is $1,800 ($1,950 if paid after December 15, 2010) for a private room, and $1,600 ($1,750 if paid after December 15, 2010) for a shared room. The choice of private and separate rooms depends upon availability at time of registration.

Please send check to Martha Greenway, 210 Serenity Circle, Mayesville, SC, 29104

For more information and to register, contact: Mary Brent Cantarutti, 415.269.1039 or Martha Greenway, 803.495.2186

VERY LIMITED SPACE

Detailed itinerary available upon request

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Kudos to Kingman

Jeff Kingman
Jeff Kingman

We want to congratulate Left Coast Writer Jeff Kingman. His short story, “Marriage,” will be published in the Skuylkill Valley Journal on May 2 (in print and online at http://www.svjlit.com) and his novel, Moto Girl, reached the semifinalist level in the 2009 Dana Awards. (more…)

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Photography for Writers

Big-Sur-Coastline-lines-and-light11-300x225_sPOINT & SHOOT YOUR WAY TO PERFECT PHOTOS

with MARSHA BLACK,  Author of The Accidental Photographer

(1 workshop) (2 weeks)

Don’t know how you got that fantastic shot that everyone it raving about? Learn simple, easy-to-remember techniques so that you can use your camera more effec­tively. Topics include how to: define your subject to tell your story; manage the available light so that it is perfect in the final photograph; use the three basic photographic composition techniques – color, pattern, and action. Bring camera; there will be an easy photo assignment. Fee includes a copy of The Accidental Photographer.

Instructor: Marsha Black … graduate, New York Institute of Photography; author of The Accidental Photographer; educator, traveler, photographer.

  • Schedule #4504.901 June 19; Sat., 1:30 – 4:30 pm
  • Schedule #4504.902: Aug. 14;  Sat., 1:30 – 4:30 pm
  • Schedule #4504.903: July 14 – July 21; Wed., 6:30 – 8 pm

Fee: $60 / Dist. Res. $50

Community Ctr.: Upper Club Rm.

To register: use the internet, at www.pleasanthillrec.com or call 925-676-5200 or by fax 24 hours a day at 925-676-5630

PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED AT LEAST THREE DAYS PRIOR TO CLASS. PLEASE REGISTER EARLY; CLASSES WITH LOW ENROLLMENT ARE SUBJECT TO CANCELLATION.

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New Ferry Plaza Events Host

get-attachmentEB_sNEW HOST FOR LEFT COAST WRITERS FERRY PLAZA EVENTS

Many of you know Elaine Miller Bond, author illustrator of Affimals: Affirmations + Animals. Left Coast Writers is pleased to announce that Elaine will be hosting the Left Coast Writers Ferry Plaza Book Party and Reading series at Book Passage in San Francisco beginning in April. Many thanks to Colette Obrien, our terrific prior emcee. We hope she’ll return to host future events from time to time.

Elaine will be emceeing the April Book Party featuring poet Dave Seter, author of Night Duty.

Monday, April 12, 2009 || 6pm
Book Passage || Ferry Plaza
San Francisco || www.bookpassage.com

Elaine Miller Bond is the author/illustrator of the book, Affimals: Affirmations + Animals, published in 2009. She took her graduate degree from Cambridge University, England and began her career as a science writer with the University of California Natural Reserve System. Her writing and photography have appeared on the Discovery Channel and in The American Naturalist, The Washington Post, and other popular and scientific media. Her photographs of rare Utah prairie dogs and their behaviors will be published in the upcoming books, Prairie Dogs with White Tails by Dr. John L. Hoogland and Squirrels of the World by Dr. John L. Koprowski. She currently makes her home in California’s San Francisco Bay Area.

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Pursuing Happiness … Kudos

Mary Lou Peters Schram
Mary Lou Peters Schram

For the self-published writers: We just want to share Mary Lou Schram’s encouraging review of Pursuing Happiness from the Writers Digest Self-Published Book Awards:   In part:

“I was immediately impressed with the conciseness, fluency, energy, and intelligence of the prose.  Great dialogue too, dialogue that has the ring of ‘real’ speech.  Focused on characters the reader can really care about, this novel does what all the best novels do: it meshes comedy and pathos, like life.  The ending is about as good as an ending can get.  Simply a wonderful novel – sensitive, intelligent, funny, sad and true.”

Of course, we’re delighted because we loved the book too. Some of the best books ever written have never made it into print. For sure. Good work, Mary Lou. Thanks for sharing the news.

Self-published writers should definitely check out the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards. The next entry deadline is May 3, 2010.

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