California Writers Club, Sacramento Branch

Dedicated to Educating Writers of all Levels

First Friday, December 7 – Special Delivery from a Writer & Editor

Tips on Writing, Publishing & Widening Your Audience

with

Carolyn Grellas

9-Time Pushcart Prize Nominee & Author of 14 Books & Chapbooks

First Friday Network Meeting, December 7, 2018
9-11 AM Coco’s, 7887 Madison Avenue, Citrus Heights
Bring Market Leads & Marketing Tips

Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas’ work has appeared in many publications and anthologies. She is a nine-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a six-time Best of the Net nominee. In 2012 her chapbook, Before I Go to Sleep won the Red Ochre Chapbook Contest. In 2018 her poem A Mall in California took 2nd place for the Jack Kerouac Poetry Prize.

Author of numerous chapbooks and full-length poetry collections, Carol also edits The Orchards Poetry Journal and serves as a member of the Sacramento Poetry Center Board of Directors and the Saratoga Author’s Hall of Fame. From her varied experience, Carol has amassed a lot of information on writing, publishing, and widening one’s audience.

Among her recent books and chapbooks: In the Making of Goodbyes, Clare Songbird Publishing House (2018); An Ode to Hope in the Midst of Pandemonium, Main Street Rag (2018); and Things I Can’t Remember to Forget, Prolific Press (2017). She has more collections due out in 2019.

Her recent awards include:  Best of the Net Nominations, “After the Miscarriage,” Chantarelle’s Notebook 2018; and Pushcart Prize Nominations “Confessions at Midnight,” Clare Songbird Publishing House 2018, and “Motherless,” Sheila-Na-Gig 2016.

According to family lore, Carol is a direct descendant of Robert Louis Stevenson!

 

The California Writers Club–Sacramento Branch Networking Meeting is held the first Friday of every month at Coco’s Restaurant, 7887 Madison Avenue, Citrus Heights, at the corner of Madison and Sunrise,  starting at 9 a.m. Meetings are free. Attendees pay for their own breakfast.

Questions? Ask via our Contact page.

First Friday, November 2 – The Agent and the Writer

An Inside Look at How a Book Deal Really Works

with

Dierdre Wolownick & Jennifer Chen Tran

Author (Dierdre) & Bradford Literary Agency (Jen)

First Friday Network Meeting, November 2, 2018
9-11 AM Coco’s, 7887 Madison Avenue, Citrus Heights
Bring Market Leads & Marketing Tips

Member Dierdre Wolownick met and pitched a book concept to an agent she met at a California Writers Club meeting a few years ago. That agent was Jen Chen Tran. Now Dierdre’s book is about to come out. On November 2, Dierdre and Jen will discuss their journey together from pitch to book deal to manuscript preparation to promo – and steps in between.

 Jennifer Chen Tran is an agent at Bradford Literary, joining in September 2017. She represents both fiction and non-fiction. Originally from New York, Jennifer is a lifelong reader and experienced member of the publishing industry. Prior to joining Bradford Literary, she was an Associate Agent at Fuse Literary and served as Counsel at The New Press. She obtained her Juris Doctor from Northeastern School of Law in Boston, MA, and a Bachelors of Arts in English Literature from Washington University in St. Louis.

Jennifer understands the importance of negotiation in securing rights on behalf of her authors. She counsels her clients on how to expand their platforms, improve on craft, and works collaboratively with her clients throughout the editorial and publication process. Her ultimate goal is to work in concert with authors to shape books that will have a positive social impact on the world—books that also inform and entertain. Jennifer has presented at numerous conferences, including the San Francisco Writers Conference.

 Dierdre Wolownick grew up in New York City and has lived and worked in many parts of the world. A teacher since 1971 (now retired), she’s taught five foreign languages on three continents. Her writing has appeared in books, magazines and journals world-wide, and has won awards. In 1993 she created an independent publishing company which produced several award-winners and international sellers. A musician all her life, Dierdre founded and conducted the West Sacramento Community Orchestra, and has played in orchestras in New York and California, either as principal (flute) or as solo or duet performer (piano). At the age of 55, Dierdre began long-distance running (marathons and half-marathons), and at 58, she began rock climbing. In 2017, at age 66, she became the oldest woman to climb Yosemite’s iconic El Capitan. She continues to be a motivational speaker and a performing musician. Her latest book, the inspirational memoir The Sharp End of Life; a Mother’s Story, will be released by Mountaineers Books in May 2019. Check out Dierdre at http://dierdrew.us,   https://www.facebook.com/DierdreWolownick/, and (Instagram): @DierdreWolownick.

 

The California Writers Club–Sacramento Branch Networking Meeting is held the first Friday of every month at Coco’s Restaurant, 7887 Madison Avenue, Citrus Heights, at the corner of Madison and Sunrise,  starting at 9 a.m. Meetings are free. Attendees pay for their own breakfast.

Questions? Ask via our Contact page.

First Friday, October 5 – Five Tips for Better Writing

Five Tips to Improve Writing
for Both Fiction and Non-Fiction

 

with

Michele Drier

Journalist and Author

First Friday Network
October 5, 2018
9-11 AM Coco’s, 7887 Madison Avenue, Citrus Heights
Bring Market Leads & Marketing Tips

Pulling from the many workshops and trainings she has led, Michele Drier will share valuable tips on improving both fiction and nonfiction. These include elements of description, no-no words (adjectives, adverbs, “empty” words), pacing, active verbs, showing not telling, and dialogue.

Born in Santa Cruz, Michele is a fifth generation Californian. During her career in journalism—as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers—she won awards for producing investigative series. Her Amy Hobbes Newspaper Mysteries include: Edited for Death, (“Riveting and much recommended” by the Midwest Book Review), Labeled for Death, and Delta for Death. A stand-alone book, Ashes of Memories, came out in May, 2017.

Adding to Michele’s portfolio is a paranormal romance series, SNAP: The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, named the best paranormal vampire series of 2014 by the Paranormal Romance Guild Individual titles include SNAP: The World Unfolds, SNAP: New Talent, Plague: A Love Story, Danube: A Tale of Murder, SNAP: Love for Blood, SNAP: Happily Ever After? SNAP: White Nights,  SNAP: All That Jazz, SNAP: I, Vampire . Currently Michele is hard at work on SNAP: Red Bear Rising. She has also recently finished the first book in the mystery series Stained Glass Saga, Stain on the Soul. Both Red Bear Rising and Stain on the Soul are scheduled for publication this year.

A past president of Capitol Crimes, the Sacramento chapter of Sisters in Crime, Michele serves as co-chair for Bouchercon 2020, the world’s oldest and largest convention for mystery writers and fans.

 

 

The California Writers Club–Sacramento Branch Networking Meeting is held the first Friday of every month at Coco’s Restaurant, 7887 Madison Avenue, Citrus Heights, at the corner of Madison and Sunrise,  starting at 9 a.m. Meetings are free. Attendees pay for their own breakfast.

Questions? Ask via our Contact page.

First Friday, September 7 – Poetry at the Big House

Getting Real with the Guys Behind Bars

 

with

JoAnn  Anglin

Poet, Writer, Teacher

First Friday Network
September 7, 2018
9-11 AM Coco’s, 7887 Madison Avenue, Citrus Heights
Bring Market Leads & Marketing Tips

One morning each week, JoAnn Anglin travels 20 miles to the “castle on the hill.” Wearing appropriate clothes, she leaves behind any forbidden items. In her allowed tote she carries lesson plans, prepared for two classes of 8-10 students each.  Every lesson she assigns is one that she herself does, whether as homework or as an in-class writing exercise.

A respected figure in the media field for many years and a practicing poet for more than 25, JoAnn teaches poetry at Folsom State Prison. Waving off skeptics and naysayers, JoAnn remains committed to this calling after six years, during which she has come to learn the value of this extraordinary time, not just for her inmate students, but also for herself as a writer, an artist, and a person.

Come hear this seasoned professional talk about her experience with a special clientele whom she has the opportunity to influence and who influence her in return. JoAnn will share some poetry, talk about her own, and also some from her students.

JoAnn Anglin has promoted poetry in schools and at Shriners Children’s Hospital as a coping tool in an unpredictable world.  For six years, she co-hosted the monthly PoemSpirits series at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento. She has been a featured poet at bookstores, cafés, galleries and colleges locally and in Modesto, Davis, Woodland, and the Bay area.

For several years, JoAnn copyedited the Greater Sacramento Arts Reporter, writing a regular column on the arts for a bimonthly newsletter. She has written newsletters, brochures, articles, and copy for museums and exhibits. In 2012 she received the District Arts Program Award from Sacramento’s Board of Supervisors and the City Council.

A member of Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol, JoAnn published her first chapbook of poems, Words Like Knives, Like Feathers, three years ago through Rattlesnake Press. Her poems have appeared in 100 Poems about Sacramento, the Anthology of the Third Sunday Poets, The Pagan Muse, Poems of Resistance, Voces del Nuevo Sol, Poetry Now, and The Los Angeles Review. Currently she is working on poems for a collection to be called Double Exposure.

 

The California Writers Club–Sacramento Branch Networking Meeting is held the first Friday of every month at Coco’s Restaurant, 7887 Madison Avenue, Citrus Heights, at the corner of Madison and Sunrise,  starting at 9 a.m. Meetings are free. Attendees pay for their own breakfast.

Questions? Ask via our Contact page.

First Friday, August 3- Pushing the Envelope

Crossing Genres: Benefits and Challenges

 

with

Michelle Hamilton

Author of 37 Fantasy and Adult Novels

First Friday Network
August 3, 2018
9-11 AM Coco’s, 7887 Madison Avenue, Citrus Heights
Bring Market Leads & Marketing Tips

ML Hamilton has been teaching high school English and journalism in Central California for the last 25 years. Teaching students to appreciate literature is rewarding; however, she always dreamed of publishing her own novel.

That dream came true when her first novel, Emerald, was published by Wild Wolf Publishing in 2010. In 2015, she decided she had learned enough from her publisher to venture out on her own. She then independently published the remainder of her novels, which number 39 to date, with many more planned in the future. In 2017, she ventured into editing the works of others. To date, she’s helped 40 manuscripts become published.

In addition to teaching and writing, she has three sons, two dogs, and three cats. And sometimes a stray rabbit living under her deck.

Visit ML Hamilton at her websites: authormlhamilton.net or blackcatediting.weebly.com.

 

The California Writers Club–Sacramento Branch Networking Meeting is held the first Friday of every month at Coco’s Restaurant, 7887 Madison Avenue, Citrus Heights, at the corner of Madison and Sunrise,  starting at 9 a.m. Meetings are free. Attendees pay for their own breakfast.

Questions? Ask via our Contact page.