Overcome writer’s block by tapping into your flow through mindfulness practices.

• Gain clarity and focus.
• Still your mind.
• Find your flow.
• Practice mindfulness meditation.
• Engage in writing with enhanced sensory perception.

Jessilyn teaches English and Communications at Cosumnes River College (CRC). Much of her work has focused on mental health. She has written articles about mental health and mindfulness for multiple online publications—including a piece about mental health in young adults that won “Best Feature Series” from the Utah Press Association Better Newspaper Contest in 2017.

Lesley has taught composition and literature at CRC for over 20 years and participates in the campus-wide creative writing group. She has practiced mindfulness since 2014 and received training in teaching mindfulness from Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield.

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Vivian Gibson grew up in segregated St. Louis, Missouri in the 1950s. Her tightknit community was razed to make way for a freeway, displacing thousands of African American residents in the name of “urban renewal.” Vivian will talk about her journey from writing for oneself, to being on a mission to chronicle a disappearing history. She reminds us that a memoire tells the complex story of a community as well as a writer’s personal journey. She mined her childhood memories for the sounds, smells, emotions and familiar faces that could prevent a way of life from slipping away forever. The Last Children of Mill Creek was published by Belt Publishing in April 2020.

Her presentation will:

• Help writers understand the importance of documenting significant social changes as part of our personal stories.
• Broaden your writer’s perspective on the world by examining local historical events through different cultural lenses.
• Sharpen your skills as a memoirist by examining what is personal and what has broader social significance in your story.
• Build confidence in your role as a chronicler of an historical event or era.

Vivian Gibson began her writing career after retirement, writing short stories about the tightknit African-American community into which her parents had settled to raise their family of seven children. Her college-educated mother and hardworking father provide the framework for telling the story of her family’s survival during a time when minority communities were destroyed in the name of “progress.”

A debut writer at the age of 70, Vivian Gibson’s memoire, The Last Children of Mill Creek, has been reviewed and praised, by the Times Literary Supplement (January 22, 2021), Poets & Writers (November/December, 2020), Missouri Life Magazine (June 1, 2021).

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Writing is easy — publishing by yourself is like following an overgrown, potholed jungle path in the middle of a monsoon!

• Timing is key! Start planning for publication as you write.
• What’s in a name? Research your name and potential title early so readers will find you.
• Understand your genre — and “a romantic semi-historical science-fiction adventure mystery thriller” is NOT a good description!
• Who are you writing for? You can’t market without understanding your target.
• The writing community is your best resource — take advantage of it!

Sharon S. Darrow is an entrepreneur, publisher, award winning author, public speaker, and an expert on neonatal orphan kittens. She has written five non-fiction books. From Hindsight to Insight, A Traditional to Metaphysical Memoir and Tom Flynn, Medium and Healer are inspirational. Bottlekatz, A Complete Care Guide for Orphan Kittens and Faces of Rescue, Cats, Kittens and Great Danes are about animal rescue. Navigating the Publishing Maze, Self-Publishing 101 is a training manual. She also writes historical fiction. She Survives, Strive and Protect, and Desperate Choices are the first three of a four-book series inspired by her maternal grandmother.

Sharon is thrilled to be an active part of the Sacramento area writing community. She’s V.P. of NCPA (Northern California Publishers & Authors), has served as the President, and is also Director of their Annual Book Awards Competition. Her personal website is https://www.sharonsdarrow.com, and the website for her publishing company, Samati Press, is https://www.samatipress.com.

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