California Writers Club, Sacramento Branch

Dedicated to Educating Writers of all Levels

Writers Network, May 7 – Track Your Submissions

Use Duotrope to Track Your Success Rate

Writers Network Meeting
May 7, 2021

10 to 11 a.m.

One-hour Zoom meeting

Where Have I Sent This Story? 

When you are trying every avenue to get published, it’s easy to forget where you’ve already submitted a particular story or article.  Duotrope is a tool that will provide you with lists of possible markets, links to their submission sites, contest information, and more.   In addition, you can use your dashboard to record all of your submissions and the responses that you receive.  Join Jenifer Rowe as she explains how she has used this tool and why you might like to give it a try.

Click here to join the meeting.

Writers Network, April 2 – Overcoming Poetry’s Fear Factor

What Makes a Poem Speak to You?

April 2, 2021

10 to 11 a.m.

One-hour Zoom meeting

with
Bob Stanley
Professor and former Sacramento Poet Laureate

Many readers find poetry intimidating and may feel that they lack the skill to pinpoint what they like about a poem. Bob removes the anxiety about poetry by encouraging the appreciation of a poem for what it is. He will use examples from his work and invite participants to share what they find in the poetry.

Bob Stanley is a leader in the poetry community who has sought to bring the enjoyment of poetry to a diverse audience of readers, listeners, and poets. He is an educator and published poet who has thrown open the windows to allow the enjoyment of poetry to be widely shared. Bob will lead the meeting attendees through the examination of poems to identify what makes a poem speak to you. 

Poet Laureate of Sacramento from 2009 to 2012, Bob Stanley is a much-beloved figure in the poetry community. Along with teaching English at California State University, Sacramento, Bob has organized workshops, readings and conferences throughout Northern California. In 2009, Bob was chosen by the California Arts Council to edit an anthology of poems, Sometimes in the Open, by the poets laureate of California’s cities and counties. He has published two chapbooks: Eleven Blue Strings (little m press) and Walt Whitman Orders a Cheeseburger (Rattlesnake Press). His full-length poetry collection, Miracle Shine, was published in 2013 by CW Press. His poems have also appeared in many journals including California Quarterly, Suisun Valley Review, and Calaveras Station. A past President of the Sacramento Poetry Center, Bob continues to be an ambassador for poetry.

Click here to join the meeting.

Writers Network, May 7 – Track Your Submissions

Use Duotrope to Track Your Success Rate

Writers Network Meeting
May 7, 2021

10 to 11 a.m.

One-hour Zoom meeting

Where Have I Sent This Story? 

When you are trying every avenue to get published, it’s easy to forget where you’ve already submitted a particular story or article.  Duotrope is a tool that will provide you with lists of possible markets, links to their submission sites, contest information, and more.   In addition, you can use your dashboard to record all of your submissions and the responses that you receive.  Join Jenifer Rowe as she explains how she has used this tool and why you might like to give it a try.

Click here to join the meeting.

Writers Network, March 5 – Member Readings

Read From Your
Anthology Submissions

Writers Network Meeting
March 5, 2021

10 to 11 a.m.

One-hour Zoom meeting

Your Audience Is Waiting 

As writers, we need to recognize and create opportunities to showcase our work.  It’s easy to spend endless hours knocking on doors with little result.  It would seem wise to look for invitations to submit your work.  One of the easiest ways is to submit to anthologies. 

CWC Sacramento is actively working on Patch-Work, a member anthology, and SUBMISSIONS WILL OPEN SOON.  At our March 5 meeting you will have an opportunity to introduce and preview your work before you submit it.  

To introduce your piece, write a catchy, one sentence tagline intended to grab a reader’s attention.  Then, read a sample of your work (no more than 400 words) in any genre.   

So, open the file that contains the gem that’s been waiting to be shared with the world.  While reading your work doesn’t obligate you to submit to Patch-Work, we hope you will.  Stay tuned for more information on the upcoming anthology. 

Click here to join the meeting,

Writers Network, February 5 – Songwriting

If You Can Write,

You Can Write Songs

with

Al Zagofsky

Songwriter/Songwriting Instructor/Publisher

 

Writers Network Meeting
February 5, 2021

10 to 11 a.m.

One-hour Zoom meeting

“Two years ago, I discovered songwriting. Now I’ve written over 100 songs. It’s easy. You can too.” – Al Zagofsky

Come and learn:

  • The secret to getting started in song writing
  • Most songwriters can’t read music
  • If you can write poems, you can write lyrics
  • Many traditional songwriters could not read or write
  • With today’s technology, many song ideas go from the mind to the recorder app.

Al Zagofsky is a former engineer who turned to writing, publishing and journalism several years ago.  He wrote for a Pennsylvania newspaper for 15 years and concurrently published an online magazine, California Update — to which about a half dozen members of the California Writers Club have contributed articles. More recently, he took a class in Protest Music at the CSUS Renaissance Society and began writing his own songs.