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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A Good Read in Whitefish Review

Whitefish Review
Whitefish Review

Left Coast Writer® Ethel Mays has a poem in Whitefish Review, the twice yearly non-profit literary journal “created to publish the distinctive literature, art, and photography of mountain culture.” 2009 has been a good and busy year for Ethel, witnessing the publication of a short story and several poems in ten journals, reviews, and anthologies, and over 40 featured and open readings in fourteen cities in seven California counties.

If you’d like to read an online version of the poem, you can do so on the Whitefish Review site.

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Cutthroat Magazine Finalists

logo_op_585x600Left Coast Writer® Jeff Kingman is a finalist for Cutthroat Magazine‘s 2009 Rick DeMarinis Short Story Award.  First prize in each genre is $1250 and publication in Cutthroat. Second prize in each genre is $250 and publication in Cutthroat. All finalists are acknowledged in CUTTHROAT and considered for publication.  Winners are announced in Poets and Writers, Winning Writers and the AWP Chronicle.

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Southern Sampler Artists Colony

A series of workshops set in the South …

SSAC_logo_smApril 13-19, 2010

Writing and Photography Workshop with Linda Watanabe McFerrin and featured local photographers …

Charleston and the South Carolina Low Country beckons! Join the organizers of the Southern Sampler Artists Colony on a journey into a place like no other—a place brushed with spirit, dipped in belonging, and brought to life in Gospel, Jazz, Blues, soul food, cooling ocean breezes, wraparound porches, and warm welcomes that begin with y’all. Relax! Let your heart open, soul sing, and spirit soar.

Daily writing workshops created to enhance the Southern adventure will be led by award winning poet, travel writer, and novelist Linda Watanabe McFerrin. Linda teaches writing workshops all over the world, especially designed for the locale. There’ll also be plenty of lush photo opportunities all along the way and time for writing and quiet reflection.

How It All Started . . .

The Southern Sampler Artists Colony, founded in 2006 by two childhood friends—one who never left the South, and one who headed West but always knew her soul was Southern—is a haven for writers, dancers, artists, musicians and photographers who want to stir the creative pot, Southern style. Located at The Crossroads in South Carolina, a small community nestled in the Sand Hills and bordered by Black River Swamp, the colony offers workshop participants life enhancing opportunities to renew the creative spirit, explore fresh approaches to their work, and collaborate on individual and group projects.

Participants in the April 2010 Writers and Photographers Workshop will stay in a charming and rambling turn-of-the century home on Sullivan’s Island, only minutes from downtown Charleston and a short walk from one of South Carolina’s pristine white-sand beaches. Accommodations are dormitory style with expansive common areas, and a wraparound porch lined with Carolina rockers.

David Vagasky, a renowned chef who teaches at the Culinary Institute of Charleston, will prepare Low Country delicacies at “home” the evening of April 13th and April 19th. Breakfasts will be informal and most lunches catered and on the go. Dinners will feature acclaimed Charleston restaurants and our own home.

Workshop participants will be invited to contribute to the creation of a 2011 calendar featuring image and word written gathered during the 2010 Southern Sampler experince.

The colony (SSAC) has hosted three acclaimed workshops. The first two were at The Crossroads:  Writers: Sampling the Sensual South in April 2007, followed by Artists: Sampling Belonging, Southern Style, in April 2008. The third workshop, Writers: Sampling the Low Country, was in Charleston, April 2009.

Cost: $1,585.00 payable to Martha Greenway, 210 Serenity Circle, Mayesville, SC 29104 ($1,535.00 if paid before December 15, 2009)

For more information and to register, please contact Martha Greenway, mgreenway@ftc-i.net, 803 495-2186 or Mary Brent Cantarutti, mbrent@comcast.net, 415 269-1039.

If interested, apply early. Space is extremely limited.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you. I had such an enjoyable journey. I know my friends are going to tire of my constant chatting and raving of South Carolina—the people, the food, the art and most of all the soul. I sure do miss South Carolina. It is amazing how y’all got a bunch of foreigners yearning for your little piece of the world.

—Cathleen O’Brien, 2008 and 2009 Workshop Participant

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