A former Sacramento branch president, La Ronda Bowen (bowen.writer@gmail.com) has pursued writing and public policy her entire adult life. Her areas of expertise include economic development and global warming. She has served both the Air Resources Board and the Environmental Protection Agency in various capacities. Bringing public agencies, stakeholders, and communities together are her passion. La Ronda has written numerous articles on her topics of passion. She splits her time between Southern California and Sacramento, where she fills the role of Ombudsman. With a Master’s of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction, she belongs to a critique group in Los Angeles County while maintaining her Sacramento Branch membership. When not working or writing, La Ronda travels internationally, reminding her that the best recipe for healthy communities is an informed, activist population, a strong small business community, and an open government. China, Indonesia, Korea, Cuba, Spain, Scandinavia, and many Latin American countries are among the destinations La Ronda has visited. In the early 2000’s, La Ronda worked hard to gather historical documents for the branch. She drafted a branch history for which she interviewed Ethel Bangert, the longest serving member at the time and a co-founder of Sacramento Suburban Writers.

Teaching, writing, editing. Each informs and is intimate with the others.

As a new high school English teacher, Donna saw that most of her colleagues simply assigned grades to papers. As a recent college student she knew how frustrating it was to have a paper returned with so little help. The red ink indicated what was wrong, but what did work?   That question has guided her teaching, editing, and writing.

Her poem, Miners Wives, made the long list of the Montreal International Poetry Contest of 2011 among over 2,000 entries, encouraging her to continue to probe in poetry the stories that matter.

Although primarily a poet, Donna has written articles on gardening and reading games, and has edited pieces for professional journals, memoirs, creative nonfiction and a novel. The carving of meaning from language in any genre inspires her.

She lives in Folsom where she gardens, paints watercolors, makes collages and enjoys her family.

Rich Ehisen is managing editor of the State Net Capitol Journal, a LexisNexis publication that covers state public policy issues and trends nationwide. He also writes a monthly column called Discourse for Comstock’s magazine, a Q&A conversation with some of the Capitol Region’s legislative leaders and key decision makers. He has published hundreds of feature articles as a freelance reporter, with his work appearing in a number of regional and national publications, including Government Technology, Sunset, San Francisco Magazine, Sacramento Magazine and Capitol Weekly.

When not tracking the goings on of elected officials, Ehisen is the man behind The Open Mic, a popular blog that features his discussions on writing with authors, reporters and writers from across the artistic spectrum. His subjects have ranged from NYT bestseller regulars Jonathan Maberry, Jess Walter, Christopher Moore and R.L. Stine to publishing expert Jane Friedman, NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith and Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Jack Ohman.

He hosts and moderates the Capitol Region Writers Coffeehouse, a monthly networking group of writers, reporters and editors in the Sacramento area, and is working on a novel he hopes to actually get published before he dies.

Henry Garcia-Alvarez is a fifth generation Californian and is truly a “Has Been.”  Henry has been a musician: played clarinet for male circumcisions in Turkey; played Glen Miller ‘big-band’ tunes for General Canard in Vietnam. Henry has been an international adventurer: for five hundred German Marks – the best cash money to have in all of the Middle East at that time – Henry assumed ‘ownership’ of a car and helped ‘deliver’ it into Iran.  Henry has been a scab laborer in Paris, France: 1968.  Henry has been a successful student through the University of California system to become an International Development Specialist in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Paraguay, and Panama: specializing in Medicinal Herb Production and Processing.

Everyone with whom Henry has shared a conversation tells him, “You tell a good story. Why don’t you write them?  It’s so easy now with digital.”  Henry has been writing: eleven stories exist – hand written in ink and graphite. Two could be plays, one a novella, two are creative memoirs, and six are short stories.  Henry is a current member of the California Writers Club – Sacramento.  He anticipates, with club member guidance, to get his stories ready for publication.