Luncheon, Apr 21 – Using Photographs in Your Memoir

Focusing Your Memoir or Family History

Through Photographs

presented by

Jacqueline Doyle

Author and Essayist

Saturday, April 21

11 AM–1:00 PM

(10:15 Early-Bird Session – Celebrate National Poetry Month)

Cattlemens, 12409 Folsom Blvd, $15 members/$20 guests (includes lunch)

Photographs are often all that remains after a loved one has died. They remind us of those we’ve known well and have lost, introduce us to distant relatives who are no longer here to tell their stories, or conjure ancestors we never knew.

Whether you include the actual photographs or not, spending time on written description and written exploration of what you see in family photographs can significantly deepen your memoir or history project. Photographs can be used not only to illustrate your personal or family story but also to:

* develop your reflections on those close to you

* explore the lives of those you don’t know, or the early lives of those you do

* document the past

* evoke an historical era

* focus description

* deepen characterization

* inspire imagined recreations of the past

* inspire imagined interventions in the past

We’ll talk about why and how you can use photographs in your memoir or family history, and look at examples from Dorothy Alison, Paul Auster, Sharon Olds, Judith Kitchen, and others.

Bring a photo of a relative in a previous generation (preferably one or two people, or one or two that you can single out in a group photo) for a short writing exercise

Attendee takeaways:

some written description,
avenues for imaginative speculation, and
ideas on how to use what you’ve written.

Jacqueline Doyle is a prolific author who has published memoir essays in The Gettysburg Review, Under the Gum Tree, Full Grown People, NOR: New Ohio Review, Southern Humanities Review, Under the Sun, and many other literary journals. Her work has earned four Pushcart Prize nominations and numerous awards, including Notable Essay citations in Best American Essays 2013, Best American Essays 2015, and Best American Essays 2017. She is a professor at California State University East Bay.

Luncheon 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Early Bird special 10:15

GDE Error: Error retrieving file - if necessary turn off error checking (404:Not Found)

Luncheon Information

Monthly Luncheons are open to the public
Cost is $15 for members, $20 for nonmembers
The meeting fee includes speaker, 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.

View Larger Map

First Friday, Apr 6 – Friends in High Places

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

with

Roger S. Peterson

Editor, Writing Coach, Business Writer

Friday, April 6, 2018

9-11 AM Coco’s, 7887 Madison Avenue, Citrus Heights

Maintain Your Credibility by Avoiding Language Misuse

From politicians to sportscasters to company CEOs – people who should know better are mistreating the English language. Writers can avoid common blunders by listening to editor Roger S. Peterson. A long-time business writer, writing coach, and West Coast editor of The Business Book Ghostwriters, Roger will make us laugh, squirm, and roll our eyes at egregious errors made by prominent people while he reminds us of pesky language traps to avoid.

Roger’s list of article credits spans more than 150 titles, including four cover stories and four guest editorials in The Sacramento Bee. He writes extensively on business communication. Roger is also a frequent manuscript reviewer for Berrett-Koehler Publishers and edits book reviews for the Wild West History Association.

Co-author of numerous books, Roger has served as developmental editor on four volumes. He got his start in college textbook publishing where he published 45 books in psychology and education. Now The New York Times and The Harvard Business Review come to Roger for opinions, as has the NBC Nightly News.

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.

Luncheon, Mar 17 – Why Write at All?

Why Write at All?

The Story, the Essay, and the Poem: the Quest for Examples and Answers

featuring

Steven Nightingale

Novelist, Poet, Essayist, Short Stories, Historian

Saturday, March 17

11 AM–1:00 PM

(10:45 Early-Bird Session TBA)

Cattlemens, 12409 Folsom Blvd, $15 members/$20 guests (includes lunch)

Come hear Bay Area’s Steven Nightingale, one of the most talked-about motivational presenters on writing, share lucid and graceful language from many sources and centuries.

Takeaways:

—beautiful sentences to hold in mind

—the most enlivening & surprising way to practice

—ancient tricks of the trade

Steven Nightingale is the author of ten books: two novels, six books of sonnets, a long essay on the city of Granada, Spain, and a book of short fiction. His interests include the medieval art of Spain and Italy, the wild country of the American West and the Caribbean, cooking for his wife and daughter, astronomy, venture capital, and Emily Dickinson, whom he loves. Chief among his pleasures is teaching by invitation in schools and universities in Nevada and California.

He is a graduate of Stanford University, and divides his time between Palo Alto, California, his beloved home state of Nevada, and the beautiful Albayzin, a barrio in Granada, Spain.

Luncheon 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Early Bird special 10:45 – TBA

Luncheon Information

Monthly Luncheons are open to the public
Cost is $15 for members, $20 for nonmembers
The meeting fee includes speaker, lunch and beverage
Cattlemens Restaurant, 12409 Folsom Blvd., Rancho Cordova, CA

View Larger Map

First Friday, Mar 2 – Creating Story from Real Events

FROM FACT TO FICTION:

CREATING STORY FROM REAL EVENTS

with

Anne da Vigo

Friday, March 2, 2018

9-11 AM Coco’s, 7887 Madison Avenue, Citrus Heights

Have you ever read a gripping news story or had a fascinating experience and thought, “This would make a great novel?” Anne Da Vigo, author of the new thriller, Thread of Gold, will show you how to craft a fictional work using actual people, events, and settings. This presentation, offered recently by Anne and other panelists at Florida’s Other Words conference, will include examples from her novel, inspired by a decades-old clipping from the New York Times. Bring paper and pen for a short writing exercise.

Anne Da Vigo is a former police reporter and newspaper feature writer. She is also a long-time short story writer and critique group participant. Her work has appeared in literary journals and won prizes for another upcoming thriller. Her first novel, Thread of Gold, was acclaimed as follows by Kirkus Reviews, “Stop the presses! An appealing crime fiction heroine is born.”

Questions? Ask via our Contact page.

Luncheon, Feb 17 – Marketing for Low-Key Authors

Relationship-Based Marketing

featuring

Cristina Deptula

Literary Publicist at Authors, Large and Small

Saturday, February 17

11 AM–1:00 PM

(10:45 Early-Bird Session TBA)

Cattlemens, 12409 Folsom Blvd, $15 members/$20 guests (includes lunch)

Do you cringe at the thought of being perceived as a self-promoter? Would you rather be perceived as “humble” than unabashed? Then Bay Area’s Cristina Deptula will deliver an important message to you.

Christina believes in relationship-based marketing, getting to know particular, influential people, and sharing information and resources with them in a way that’s mutually beneficial over a long period of time. Book promotion doesn’t have to mean “making a big deal out of yourself, but sharing what you have learned with others in order to help.” She advises authors to view their books in terms of what they offer: information, insights, beauty, perspective or just plain fun and entertainment. Christina knows how to take the focus off ourselves and put it into our work and message. This shift in approach makes it easier to promote – because we are talking about something beyond ourselves.

Cristina is a literary publicist with Authors, Large and Small (authorslargeandsmall.com), providing affordable outreach and marketing for writers. She helps to find audiences wherever they gather and to reach them in the manner in which they communicate. She’s the founder of Synchronized Chaos Magazine (synchchaos.com), publishing art and writing from around the world and developing a monthly theme based on the submissions received. Cristina has also reported on science and technology topics for the California Aggie.

You will come away from Cristina’s presentation knowing:

-the definition of relationship-based marketing

-why it’s more successful in the long-run

-the confidence that comes with marketing “humbly,” avoiding the reputation of unabashed self-promoter

– Ways to share with, not show off to, an audience.

-Build authentic relationships through outreach

Luncheon 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Early Bird special 10:45 – TBA

Luncheon Information

Monthly Luncheons are open to the public
Cost is $15 for members, $20 for nonmembers
The meeting fee includes speaker, lunch and beverage
Cattlemens Restaurant, 12409 Folsom Blvd., Rancho Cordova, CA

View Larger Map