The California Writers Club monthly meeting is not held in July or August.  However, our First Friday networking group will continue to meet in both July and August at Coco’s in Citrus Heights, and you are invited to participate.  See the homepage for details.  Happy summer writing, and see you on September 21!

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Meeting Information

• Monthly Meetings are open to the public
• Cost is $15 for members, $25 for nonmembers
• The meeting fee includes speaker,  lunch and beverage
• Cattlemens Restaurant, 12409 Folsom Blvd., Rancho Cordova, CA

The restaurant is located just east of Hazel Ave. at the northeast end of the Nimbus Winery complex along Highway 50. Cattlemens offers CWC a spacious meeting room with free WiFi, quality AV equipment, free off street parking and excellent food.

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Second  Biannual Pitch Live!

                                            

Jennifer March Soloway & Elizabeth Kracht

11 AM–1:00 PM

A Professional Opportunity with

Distinguished Literary Agents

You can choose to practice your book pitch and deliver it in real time, or learn from watching others’ live pitches and hearing agents evaluate them.  Members and guests interested in giving a live pitch to the two agents will have a unique opportunity to do so in accordance with the following guidelines:

Pitch protocol

• Your pitch will last no more than one minute.
• Your pitch will be commented on by both agents for up to two minutes total.

Suggested Pitch practice

• Many pitch tips can be found on the Internet.
• Pitch participants are urged to study effective pitches and to practice in advance.
• An article on pitches by publisher  and former club V.P. Ted Witt can be accessed here.

Pitch cost

• Please note: pitch tickets are not available on-line.  The pitch cost is in addition to the meeting fee and must be paid at time of check-in with cash or check, while they last.
• $15, members
• $25, guests
• First come, first served until we are full!

 About the speakers:

Jennifer March Soloway is an associate agent with the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. She represents authors and illustrators of picture book, middle grade, and young adult stories, as well as some adult fiction. Previously Jennifer worked in marketing and public relations in industries such as financial services, health care, and toys. She holds an MFA in English and Creative Writing from Mills College, and was a 2012 S. F. Writer’s Grotto Fellow.

Elizabeth Kracht joined Kimberley Cameron & Associates in the fall of 2010. She represents both literary and commercial fiction as well as nonfiction, and brings experience as a former acquisitions editor, freelance publicist, and writer. She completed two internships, one with Hunter House Publishers, now an imprint of Turner Publishing specializing in self-help, health, sexuality, relationships, and personal growth. She has experience as a developmental editor, including when she worked for She Writes Press. Her interests include sports and animal rescue.

Takeaways:

1. Learn the value of an effective pitch.
2. Know how to improve your own pitch using key ingredients.
3. Gain insights into how agents think and what they look for in book projects.

 

Registration opens at 10:30 a.m.

Lunch service begins at 11:00 a.m.

~ Additional Offerings ~

Talk & Share (10:15) – Resources for Writers

Writers’ Mastermind  (1:30) –  Bring writing & publishing problems to share & resolve
Click here  for Mastermind Details
Click here  for Issue Organizer

$25 Non-Members
$15 Members (40% discount)
Price includes lunch, meeting, pre- and  post-sessions.

Pay at the door or  click here for pre-payment by credit card for the meeting.

(Please bring your printed receipt with you.)*

Cattlemens Restaurant
12409 Folsom Blvd
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670

 

* Ticket good only for the meeting immediately following the date on the receipt.

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Meeting Information

• Monthly Meetings are open to the public
• Cost is $15 for members, $25 for nonmembers
• The meeting fee includes speaker,  lunch and beverage
• Cattlemens Restaurant, 12409 Folsom Blvd., Rancho Cordova, CA

The restaurant is located just east of Hazel Ave. at the northeast end of the Nimbus Winery complex along Highway 50. Cattlemens offers CWC a spacious meeting room with free WiFi, quality AV equipment, free off street parking and excellent food.

View Larger Map

What Happens When Your Book “Goes to Auction”

Heather Lazare

Editorial and Publishing Consultant
Co-Founder of Northern California Writers’ Retreat

All editors—in NYC or elsewhere—look for a great story (or for nonfiction, an author with a big platform and a good story/solid advice). They want to be entertained, engrossed, excited. They want to feel a spark that will have them eager to share your book with colleagues and the wider world. While there is no magic formula to catch the editor’s interest other than a story new and different that can’t be put down, writers will be interested to hear how a book is sold, from literary agent to editor.  Heather Lazare will help to demystify what happens behind the scenes if your manuscript goes to auction in the publishing world.

About the speaker:

Having worked as Senior Editor or Editor with Simon & Schuster and Random House, Heather has unique insights.  She currently works as an editorial and publishing consultant specializing in adult and young adult fiction, historical fiction, women’s fiction, literary fiction, and thrillers.  Heather helped to found the Northern California Writers’ retreat with Literary Agent Chesea Lindman and has edited numerous high-profile books. Some of the works she helped “perfect” include   Madame Toussaud, Cleopatra’s Daughter, Jasmine Nights, Astor Place Heritage, Mermaid, The Fairest of them All, Three Maids for a Crown, Yoga Cures, Female Nomad and Friends, Lighthouse Bay, Royal Mistress, The Chalice, Destiny’s Divas, The Enough Moment, Landing Gear, Happily Ever After.

Takeaways:

1. What an editor from a “Big Five” house (Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Macmillan) is looking for and the steps taken before acquiring a book.
2. What role the author plays in the auction process.
3. Why being clear about your pitch and audience even before you find your agent is so important.

11 AM–1:00 PM

Pre-session: 10:15 Talk & Share –Shut Up & Write: What It Is and How to Do It

(offered by Dakota Coe and Pete Cruz)

 

$25 Non-Members
$15 Members (40% discount)
Lunch included with meeting.  Price  includes pre-session.

Click here for pre-payment by credit card.  Please bring your printed receipt with you.*

Cattlemens Restaurant
12409 Folsom Blvd
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670

 

* Ticket good only for the luncheon immediately following the date on the receipt.

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Luncheon Information

• Monthly Luncheons are open to the public
• Cost is $15 for members, $25 for nonmembers
• The meeting fee includes speaker,  lunch and beverage
• Cattlemens Restaurant, 12409 Folsom Blvd., Rancho Cordova, CA

The restaurant is located just east of Hazel Ave. at the northeast end of the Nimbus Winery complex along Highway 50. Cattlemens offers CWC a spacious meeting room with free WiFi, quality AV equipment, free off street parking and excellent food.

View Larger Map

The New Calling Card: YouTube

Al Gonzalez

Producer, Director, Business Coach

How do you take a written story and transform it into video for others to see? How do you use video clips to promote your writing? Al Gonzalez will present examples of clips that will enhance your platform.

About the speaker:

Al Gonzalez is a “get it done” executive producer, director, business coach, and certified mediator with California Lawyers for the Arts. He has been in the film and television business for over 25 years. Al began his career in radio before becoming a film and TV production-special events technical director-announcer. He has taught Radio and TV production for National Broadcasting. Producer’s Boot Camp Workshop is one of his creations. Al trains Independent producers on how to produce low budget film projects. His 400 hours of media experience – corporate, music videos, documentary, independent feature films, and broadcast television productions – have sent him to nine countries and turned him into a popular speaker at schools and business groups.

Takeaways:

1. The landscape of YouTube: what it is and where it comes from.
2. What is a channel and how does it relate to Facebook, Pinterest, and other social media platforms?
3. How to customize your presence on YouTube and other should-knows: ideal length, etc.

11 AM–1:00 PM

Pre-session: 10:15 Talk & Share – “Poem in Your Pocket Day”
Bring a short original poem to share/copies if you like.

Post-session: 1:15 – 2:30 Mastermind Pilot Project
A group of like-minded people will help solve writing & publishing problems.
Click here to download the suggested organizing form.

$25 Non-Members
$15 Members (40% discount)
Lunch included with meeting.  Price  includes pre- and post-sessions.

Click here for pre-payment by credit card.  Please bring your printed receipt with you.*

Cattlemens Restaurant
12409 Folsom Blvd
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670

 

* Ticket good only for the luncheon immediately following the date on the receipt.

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Luncheon Information

• Monthly Luncheons are open to the public
• Cost is $15 for members, $25 for nonmembers
• The meeting fee includes speaker,  lunch and beverage
• Cattlemens Restaurant, 12409 Folsom Blvd., Rancho Cordova, CA

The restaurant is located just east of Hazel Ave. at the northeast end of the Nimbus Winery complex along Highway 50. Cattlemens offers CWC a spacious meeting room with free WiFi, quality AV equipment, free off street parking and excellent food.

View Larger Map

Fictional Strategies Essential to the Memoirist

Sands Hall

Memoirist, Novelist, Essayist, Playwright, Writing Craft Teacher
Squaw Valley Community of Writers & Franklin & Marshall College

Sands Hall is known for her fiction, but several years ago she found herself pulled to begin writing about a decade of her life that she’d pretended never happened. The result was her memoir, FLUNK. START. Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology (Counterpoint), which Library Journal describes as being “as gripping as any thriller as well as searching and insightful”; and which author Karen Bender describes as “transcendent,” calling it “a triumph, a work of great honesty and insight… a necessary book for our time.”

As Sands worked on her memoir, she realized that she was relying on tools she’d honed while working on fiction, and in her talk for the California Writers Club Sacramento, she’ll discuss a few of these, including ideas about plot and structure, POV (yes! even a memoirist must make decisions about point of view), and that essential aspect of any story, imagined or real: Scene. In her talk, Sands will specifically address how to effectively build scenes that are rooted in memory. Whether you’re working on fiction or a memoir, you will learn a lot from this energetic and knowledgeable writer and teacher.

Takeaways:

1. Fictional Tools to Hone for Memoir
2. Ideas on plot, structure, point of view
3. Scene-building rooted in memory

About the speaker:

Sands Hall’s recent memoir is FLUNK. START. Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology (Counterpoint). She is also the author of the novel Catching Heaven (Ballantine), a WILLA Award Finalist for Best Contemporary Fiction, and a Random House Reader’s Circle selection; and of a book of essays and writing ex­ercises, Tools of the Writers Craft. Her short fiction has appeared in such journals as Iowa Review, Green Mountains Review, and New England Review. She teaches for the Iowa Summer Writing Festival and for the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, and is an associate teaching professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsyl­vania. Sands is also a theater artist: actor, director, and playwright—her play Fair Use explores the controversy surrounding Wallace Stegner’s use of the journals and letters of 19^th century writer and illustrator Mary Hallock Foote in creating his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Angle of Repose. Also a singer/songwriter, Sands’s CD is called Rustler’s Moon. She lives in Nevada City, California.

 

11 AM–1:00 PM

Pre-session: 10:15 Talk & Share – Great First Paragraphs (any genre), with Emily Boyd

Post-session: 1:15-2:15 Writing Your Page-Turning Memoir, with Dorothy Rice

$25 Non-Members
$15 Members (40% discount)
Lunch included with meeting.  Price  includes pre- and post-sessions.

Click here for pre-payment by credit card.  Please bring your printed receipt with you.*

Cattlemens Restaurant
12409 Folsom Blvd
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670

 

* Ticket good only for the luncheon immediately following the date on the receipt.

---

Luncheon Information

• Monthly Luncheons are open to the public
• Cost is $15 for members, $25 for nonmembers
• The meeting fee includes speaker,  lunch and beverage
• Cattlemens Restaurant, 12409 Folsom Blvd., Rancho Cordova, CA

The restaurant is located just east of Hazel Ave. at the northeast end of the Nimbus Winery complex along Highway 50. Cattlemens offers CWC a spacious meeting room with free WiFi, quality AV equipment, free off street parking and excellent food.

View Larger Map