Press Room - Left Coast Writers

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

Wednesday, 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…)

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

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…)

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…)

Litquake San Rafael 2015

Litquake San Rafael | Sunday, Oct. 11th
Downtown San Rafael | 10am-7:15pm

Litquake is upon us again and we have a number of Left Coast Writers shaking things up in San Rafael this year.

LCW Founder, Linda Watanabe McFerrin will be reading with Laurie McAndish King, Debbie Goelz, Mary Brent Cantarutti, and Toni Picininni to answer the question “Erotic Relationships: What Makes the Heart Grow?” amid a dazzling array of exotic, erotic lingerie at Pleasures of the Heart. (http://www.litquake.org/…/erotic-relationships-what-makes-h…).

Cyra McFadden (“The Serial”) will serve up “The Morning After: Stories of Dish and Revenge”.
Book Passage co-owner and author Bill Petrocelli will tell “Tales Worth Telling”. (more…)

Southern Sampler Artists Colony 2016!

Southern Sampler Artists Colony presents:

The Heart in Art, 2016
Charleston, South Carolina

April 20 – 27, 2016

Words . . . Images . . . Music

Inspiring ties and friendly tides of the South Carolina Lowcountry

Want to experience the real Charleston, celebrate belonging with new and old friends, discover the Gullah culture, bask in creative renewal, and feel the sand between your toes? Join us!

Heartfelt Workshop Experiences:

Writers Workshops
Workshops are taught by award-winning author, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, as well as individual consults on your literary and creative projects.

McLeod Plantation
Gain a fresh historical perspective of the Lowcountry, from the cultivation of indigo to sea island cotton and lives of freed slaves. We’ll also tie-dye with indigo, plantation style, and invent our own fifty shades of blue!

Threads that Bind
Create a SSAC indigo quilt with Sharon Cooper-Murray, aka The Gullah Lady. Yes, we’ll use the fabric dyed at McLeod Plantation! The quilt will be dedicated to the spirit of the twelve people who gathered at Emanuel AME Church to study the scripture and whose congregation led the world in forgiveness.

Music Café Evening
We’ll clap; sway and feel the spirit moving. Praise Be to a celebration of music, food, wine, and most of all company, in the historic home of Charleston friends.

SSAC Anthology Launch Gala
Raise a glass to Charleston & the South, A Sampler of Stories . . . Poetry . . . Recipes & Art, and get ready to dance. In addition to classic swing tunes, Mary Edna (more…)

Wandering in Andalusia Writing Workshop

From Wanderland Writers Workshops:
Wandering in Andalusia: Seville and The Alhambra—March 11-March 18, 2016

“Near the walls of Seville/ At my friend’s house, Lillas Pastia/ I will dance the Séguedille/
And drink Manzanilla.” From Carmen, by Georges Bizet.

Well-known writers and instructors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Joanna Biggar are off on another adventure and invite you to join them in Andalusia. In this legendary region of Southern Spain many worlds meet: classical (Hercules was the supposed founder of Seville) and medieval; Jewish, Christian and Moorish; colonial, imperial, and modern. From our hotel in central Seville, with its graceful Moorish-style tiled decor, its fountains and secluded courtyards, we will explore them all through art (Murillo and Velásquez were native sons), architecture, music and food.

Adapting our curriculum to the locale—and our schedule to the land of the siesta—we will give several workshops and private consultations while offering many ways to discover the city, including: a walking tour; visits to the Cathedral, with its splendid altar, its tomb of Columbus, and its towering minaret, the Giralda, next door, and the royal palace of the Alcázar; a trip to the Flamenco Museum and a night of flamenco; an afternoon of soaking and tea at the Baños Arabes; an evening across the river in the Tirana District, once famous for the factories which attracted gypsies like Carmen, now famous for bars and clubbing. We will savor tapas and sherry, wine and guitar music.

There will also be time to write and discover on one’s own, from high-end shopping, to cycling, to a choice of museums, to bullfighting. And, of course, there is Seville’s (more…)

Wanderland Writers at Laurel Books

Wanderland Writers, Authors of Wandering in Cornwall: Mystery, Mirth, and Transformation in the Land of the Ancient Celts at Laurel Books

Friday, October 2nd, 2015 || 6pm
Laurel Bookstore || Oakland
1423 Broadway Oakland, CA ||www.laurelbookstore.com

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

This time Wanderland Writers venture deep into Cornwall, exploring it’s 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, 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

Writers reading will include: Unity Barry, Daphne Beyers, Antoinette Constable, Tom Harrell, Kitty Hughes, Laurie McAndish King, Ethel Mussen, MJ (more…)

The Plot Thickens Workshop
with Linda Watanabe McFerrin
Saturday, October 10th, 2015, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Location: Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Boulevard, Corte Madera, CA 94925
$120

Aristotle called plot “the most important element of storytelling.” But to plot properly, you must have a plan, and the plan must give rise to emotion. Does the plot always seem to elude you? Spend a day planning and plotting and find out what you’re missing. Bring your flat-lining fiction and nonfiction and fix it.

Poet, travel writer, and novelist 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 (more…)

Wandering in Japan, A Writers Adventure with Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Join noted author, editor and Left Coast Writers founder, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, if you can, for a breathtaking once-in-a-lifetime introduction to Japan, land of mountain temples, soothing onsens and people known for their extraordinary grace and generosity. It was her home for many years, a place she has returned to again and again and one that she’s always excited to share with others both on the page and in person.

Participants will depart on Saturday, September 5^th to arrive in Tokyo, “the new capital”, on Sunday, September 6^th. From quiet Shinto shrines to silvery high-rise towers, from the ancient to the newer-than-new, you’ll be dazzled by one of the world’s most exciting metropolises. From there a bullet train will whisk you to “the old capital”, Kyoto, truly one of the most picturesque places on the planet, where you will relax and explore surrounded by beauty while enjoying the cultivated experience of the literati and glitterati of this centuries-old center of art and enlightenment. The journey doesn’t end in Kyoto. You’ll also enjoy a temple stay (more…)

Left Coast Writers Poetry: TC Currie

Left Coast Writers Poetry: TC Currie, Author of Questions to a Butterfly: A Collection of Transformational Poetry

Kawika’s Ocean Beach Deli
734 La Playa St, San Francisco, CA 94121
Sunday, June 7th from 5pm-7:15pm

Announcing a new series featuring Left Coast Writers poets. 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 poet reads for 30 minutes, 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 June is TC Currie, Author of Questions to a Butterfly: A Collection of Transformational Poetry.

In Questions to a Butterfly, TC Currie uses familiar objects from everyday life and humor to connect the reader to the toil of transformation, their triumphs, and their connection to the Divine, offering comfort and hope for those in the midst of struggle. Full of universal truths, familiar problems, cookie dough, and psychic vampires, TC’s poems follow the path of those who have the courage to take an honest look at their lives, evaluate their actions, and do the hard work to move through personal transformation from darkness into energy, connection and light.

As a girl of five, TC Currie was delighted to discover that books allow her to escape into other worlds. She has been armchair traveling and writing ever since. After parlaying her degree in Asian Religions into a career as a software developer, TC gained a reputation for being able to (more…)

Wandering in Cornwall reading at A Great Good Place for Books

Workshop: Making a Scene with Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Workshop: Building Character with Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Litquake San Rafael 2015

Southern Sampler Artists Colony 2016!

Wandering in Andalusia Writing Workshop

Wanderland Writers at Laurel Books

Workshop: The Plot Thickens with Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Wandering in Japan, A Writers Adventure with Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Left Coast Writers Poetry: TC Currie

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