CWC-Sacramento Network Meeting

Friday, May 3rd from 9 am to 11 am at

CH Cafe & Grill 6215 Sunrise Blvd (just off Greenback)

Are you ready to get out there as an author and launch your book? Discover tips and strategies for a targeted, successful, and sustainable book launch!

The months (or years!) after landing a book deal are an exhilarating, yet stressful, time. Whether you’re traditionally or indie-published, launching and marketing your book is time consuming, but a necessary part of the author journey. Smart authors recognize that a book launch is a marathon, not a sprint, and spread activities over three phases: pre-launch, launch, and post-launch. Launch activities and possibilities are abundant, both online and offline, including book clubs, bookstores, libraries, podcasts, webinars, radio and TV, social

Lisa Montanaro is the author of the book The Ultimate Life Organizer, and the chapter, “The Brand Called You! Personal & Professional Branding for Authors,” featured in Launch Pad: The Countdown to Marketing Your Book. Her debut novel will be published by Red Adept Publishing in fall 2024. Lisa serves as Webinar Host for the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.

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Meeting ID: 854 8155 1153
Passcode: 227171

CWC-Sacramento Network Meeting

Friday, April 5th from 9 am to 11 am at

CH Cafe & Grill 6215 Sunrise Blvd (just off Greenback)

Crystel Patterson shares her unexpected journey into diverse children’s literature, where inspiration ignites creativity and storytelling.

Award-winning author and mother, Crystel inspires children with her “Inspired to Be…” series, amplifying positive narratives of Black people and teaching valuable life lessons in an engaging way. Her stories, rooted in motherhood and empowerment, encourage children to dream big, celebrate differences, and make a positive impact.

Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 854 8155 1153
Passcode: 227171

CWC-Sacramento Network Meeting

Friday, March 1st from 9 am to 11 am at

CH Cafe & Grill 6215 Sunrise Blvd (just off Greenback)

Ina Coolbrith—whom she was, and tougher than we

So fair the sun rose yester-morn, begins Ina’s poem, “The Mother’s Grief.” She was born into a time and place where there was no use for such a poetic expression of maternal sorrow. How did she make the transition from daughter of a frontier and most paternalistic family in which schooling was a luxury, to woman of independent financial and intellectual means?

Ina’s biography is intriguing, if written a bit inconsistently over time. The sources I’ve found agree on most aspects of her life: Ina Coolbrith was California’s first poet laureate. She was the first librarian for the newly incorporated Oakland Public Library. She was a founding member of the California Writers Club and San Francisco’s Bohemian Club. She was one-third of the, “Golden Gate Trinity.” Along with Bret Harte and Charles Warren Stoddard, she was considered a premier judge of good literature. She influenced several famous California writers, including Joaquin Miller (to whom she suggested this nom de plume) and Jack London (who referred to her as his literary mother).

She meant to write a memoir, according to one source, until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire put that idea to rest. Such dead ends abound, but I’ll put her world into the context of the greater world from the beginning to the end of her life. There’s so much more than can be covered in a few minutes. If you want to really get into the weeds, here are links to some sources:

Karen Durham was born and raised in The San Francisco Bay Area of California. When she’s not writing she loves to swim, hike, and run on the coast. She came to appreciate poetry late in life, when in the late twenty-teens she attended a writing workshop at Tomales Bay. There she first heard current US poet laureate Ada Limón read from her book, “Bright Dead Things.” She was hooked. Karen’s had two poems published in anthologies. Like most poets, she doesn’t always understand what questions she’s asking when she writes, but hopes to, someday.

Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 854 8155 1153
Passcode: 227171

CWC-Sacramento Member Network Meeting

Friday, February 2nd from 9 am to 11 am at

CH Cafe & Grill 6215 Sunrise Blvd (just off Greenback)

Want to polish your research skills for novels and nonfiction books, and turn dry facts into engaging tales? Tune in!

• Learn how to find your motivation.
• Focus your book topic.
• Develop a basic research plan.
• Locate details that make books rich in storytelling and fact.
• Turn dry facts into engaging tales via a hands-on exercise.

Kathy Lynne Marshall is a Black Ancestor Biographer. She’s written eight creative non-fiction heritage books that diversify the American Historical Record with previously hidden factual accounts of women and minorities. She also leads workshops to guide others in researching facts, structuring a manuscript, and publishing one’s family stories.

Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 854 8155 1153
Passcode: 227171