California Writers Club, Sacramento Branch

Dedicated to Educating Writers of all Levels

Luncheon — Shelley Blanton-Stroud

Choose and Use a Writers Conference for Your Advantage

Saturday February 18, 2017 11:00 AM-1:00 PM

Shelley-Blanton-StroudThough Shelley has taught college composition for twenty-eight years, mostly at Sacramento State University, she is four-years-new to fiction. Her stories appear in Eunoia Review, Mamalode, Soundings Review, Brevity and Cleaver. She has brought pieces of her novel-in-progress to Bread Loaf, Napa, and Squaw Valley writing workshops, where smart people have tried to teach her how to make a book. She has attended a variety of other residential programs, including the San Francisco Writing Conference, Book Passage Mystery Writing Conference and the SCBWI conference. Shelley will describe the good and bad of residential writing workshops and conferences. Expect to learn about her experience at:

  • The cozy, craft- and wine-centric literary workshop
  • The huge, buzzy, commercial conference
  • The intimate, genre-specific conference
  • The youthful insiders’ workshop
  • The elite east coast literary workshop

Luncheon Information

  • Monthly Luncheons are open to the public
  • Cost is $15 for members, $20 for nonmembers
  • The meeting fee includes 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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First Friday — Gini Grossenbacher

Creating Setting, The World of Your Writing
Ten tips for bringing your nonfiction and fiction to life 

Friday, March 3, 2017,  9:00 a.m. – 11 a.m.

Gini-GrossenbacherUsing her new novel Madam of My Heart, Gini Grossenbacher will demonstrate the why’s and how’s of weaving setting details effectively in all of your writing, no matter the genre. Participants will practice setting techniques and leave with ideas to use right away.

Gini Grossenbacher, M.S. Ed., is a novelist, editor, freelance coach, and founder of Elk Grove Writers & Artists, an Amherst Writers & Artists Affiliate. A member of the Historical Novel Society, Gini serves as Second Vice President/Membership, of the California Writers Club, Sacramento Branch. Visit: http://www.ginigrossenbacher.com and http://www.meetup.com/Ginis-Elk-Grove-Writers/

The California Writers Club–Sacramento Branch Networking Meeting is held the first Friday of every month at the International House of Pancakes (IHOP), 2216 Sunrise Blvd., Rancho Cordova (just north of Highway 50) starting at 9 AM. Meetings are free. Attendees pay for their own breakfast. Get map.

Questions? Ask via our Contact page.

Open Mic – May Dates to be Announced

open-mic

Open mic is back. Get ready to reserve dates on your calendar and bring some of your work to read aloud. Support fellow writers and hear the creative work of your peers. We are adding a second location and an additional date to expand your opportunities to read.

Traditional Time: 6 p.m.

Traditional Location: Dimple Records and Books, 7830 Macy Plaza Drive, Citrus Heights, CA 95610, off of Sunrise Boulevard (See map below).

Hosted by: Brian Lewis

First-Friday Networking — Cheryl Stapp

Not Sexy, But Important – Research for Every Writer

Friday, February 3, 2017,  9:00 a.m. – 11 a.m.

cheryl-stapp-v1Every writer has to research something, sometime; even memoirists. And sometimes…the research is more fun and more exciting than your plot!

Our February speaker, Cheryl Stapp, does a great deal of research, because she writes California history. She has been doing this since 2009, and has published three books, with two more in the works. She will tell us how to find information, how to use it, when not to use it, and when to stop looking.

Cheryl was born and grew up in Sacramento—hence her interest in the region’s history and resources—then lived in Los Angeles for many years. In LA she graduated from California State University, Northridge, and was a contributing editor to Working World magazine for five years, all the while working in the entertainment industry. She is the author of one self-published history about the pioneer women who settled in Sacramento, and two books published by The History Press: a general history of Sacramento, and another on the stagecoach era in northern California. She lives with her husband near Elk Grove, and is an active volunteer docent at Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park. A past vice-president of CWC-Sacramento, she has been a member of CWC for 20 years.

The California Writers Club–Sacramento Branch Networking Meeting is held the first Friday of every month at the International House of Pancakes (IHOP), 2216 Sunrise Blvd., Rancho Cordova (just north of Highway 50) starting at 9 AM. Meetings are free. Attendees pay for their own breakfast.  Get map.

Questions? Ask via our Contact page.

First-Friday Networking — Dorothy Rice

Writing About Family

Friday, January 6, 2017,  9:00 a.m. – 11 a.m.

Dorothy RiceThere is increasing interest in writing about family, whether to capture fading history before it is lost, as the inspiration for fiction (historical or otherwise), as memoir or biography, etc.

Author Dorothy Rice will share her experiences writing about family members—including her parents, sisters and children—and how she navigates issues of confidentiality, trust, differing views on past events and exposing sensitive topics and history, ideally without damaging relationships.

Dorothy will talk about her inspirations and choices, the lines between fiction and nonfiction and the question of creative license and subjectivity in memoir, particularly when recreating distant events.

She will also provide information on identifying and pursuing markets for creative nonfiction, from flash to longer form.

Dorothy Rice is a Sacramento author whose fiction and essays have appeared in numerous journals, including, The Rumpus, The Saturday Evening Post, Brain, Child magazine, Literary Mama and the Brevity blog. Her first book, The Reluctant Artist, a memoir and art book about her father, Joe Rice (1918 – 2011), a little known artist of many talents, was published by Shanti Arts, a small arts press, in November 2016. At age 60, following a career in environmental protection working for the State Legislature and CalEPA, Dorothy earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside’s low residency program at Palm Desert.

You can learn more on Dorothy’s website at: http://dorothyriceauthor.com. She also hosts a website dedicated to her father’s art at: http://josephflaviusrice.com

The California Writers Club–Sacramento Branch Networking Meeting is held the first Friday of every month at the International House of Pancakes (IHOP), 2216 Sunrise Blvd., Rancho Cordova (just north of Highway 50) starting at 9 AM. Meetings are free. Attendees pay for their own breakfast.  Get map.

Questions? Ask via our Contact page.