Saturday, November 23, 2019
2019 Anthology Inland Empire California Writers Club
In celebration of our 20th anniversary, come join us as our contributor authors read from our first Anthology. Selections will include fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Saturday, October 26, 2019 – Professor Norman C. Ellstrand, PhD
Balancing the scholarly and the popular. Can a scientist get away with it? The road to “Sex on the Kitchen Table” – and its aftermath
At age 4 Norm’s parents helped him match a picture of a Scarlet Tanager to a living bird in the yard, starting his lifelong passion in biology. He earned a B.S. from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D. 1978). Ellstrand’s publication list is approaching 200, including the book, Dangerous Liaisons? When Cultivated Plants Mate with Their Wild Relatives. Ellstrand has presented his research to various audiences ranging from U. S. Congressional staff to Cuban biotechnologists. Norm’s honors include a Fulbright Fellowship to Sweden and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Norm has created interdisciplinary units most recently at UCR’s research center, the California Agriculture and Food Enterprise (CAFE). The mission of the latter is to address some of the large and complex issues in broad-sense agriculture which necessarily require interdisciplinary teams for the betterment of the planet and its people. Bird-watching remains a passion as Norm’s “life list” inches beyond the 1000 milestone.
Saturday, August 24, 2019 – Lynne Spreen
Turn Your Novel into an Audiobook Using ACX and Audible.Com
Are you interested in publishing an audiobook but don’t know where to start? Worried you’ll miss out on this large and growing market? With ACX and Audible.com, you’ll find the tools to turn your novel into an audiobook without much effort or expense.
Lynne M. Spreen has produced five audiobooks using this method. At this meeting of the CWC-IE, she will describe, using PowerPoint graphics, the process of:
- Creating an ACX.com account, uploading your manuscript, and finding a narrator
- Producing the audiobook for free
- Supervising the production process, and
- Marketing your finished audiobook.
After a thirty-year career in Human Resources, Lynne M. Spreen reinvented herself as an author, speaker, blogger, and teacher. She speaks about the positive side of aging, and writes novels and short stories about people who are over fifty.
Lynne believes the second half of life is a rich, untapped literary vein of human drama. Her debut novel, Dakota Blues, tells the story of a 50-year-old woman who embarks on a life-changing road trip with a 90-year-old friend. The novel won an award for excellence in women’s fiction.
Lynne subsequently wrote Key Largo Blues, Goodbye to the Blues, and California Blues. She also published a collection of stories titled Middle-Aged Crazy: Short Stories of Midlife and Beyond. All of her books are available here today.
In addition to becoming an author later in life, Lynne started golfing in her 40s. At 60, she took up piano lessons. At 61, she formed a new writers’ guild in Hemet.
Her next goal is to publish five silver romance novels by the end of next year. Lynne attributes much of her success to the example set by her mother who at 93 is still showing the entire family how to age joyfully.
Saturday, July 27, 2019 – Timothy Green
Write Like a Child
What stands in your way is that you have a much too willful will.
You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen.
—Zen in the Art of Archery
Drawing on over 100 interviews with poets and writers from Rattle’s archives, Timothy Green has come to see the writing process as the nexus of evolutionary psychology and Zen meditation. This discussion brings cognitive science and Buddhism into the art of writing, using children’s poems from the annual Rattle Young Poets Anthology as examples to help writers of all skill levels become more fresh and original. It is only through self-consciousness that we learn to be cliché; this class restores a sense of childlike spontaneity to writing, illuminates the underlying mental processes that govern art, and concludes with approaches for creating art without waiting for ideas or inspiration, or being stifled by too much “willful will.”
Timothy Green has worked full-time for editor of Rattle since 2004. Over that time, it has grown to become the second largest poetry magazine in English by circulation. His poems have appeared in many journals, including The Connecticut Review, The Florida Review, Mid-American Review, and Nimrod International Journal. Green’s first book, American Fractal (Red Hen Press, 2009), won the Phi Kappa Phi award from the University of Southern California. He is a contributing columnist for the (Riverside) Press Enterprise and co-found of the Wrightwood Literary Festival. Green earned his B.A. at the University of Rochester and graduated with a Masters in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California in 2009. He lives in Wrightwood with his wife and two children.
Saturday, June 22, 2019 – Jo Scott-Coe
A Writer’s Lonely Instincts
Jo Scott-Coe will talk about the challenges of excavating and documenting new literary history inside sensational narratives that have been told and retold many times. She will discuss specific problems, dilemmas, techniques, and opportunities for writer-researchers and will also explore the advantages of the essay as an exploratory form.
Jo Scott-Coe is the author of two nonfiction books: Teacher at Point Blank, a memoir in essays, and MASS: A Sniper, a Father, and a Priest, a first-time exploration of the relationship between the University of Texas at Austin Sniper of 1966 and his priest mentor, Rev. Joseph Leduc—a priest subsequently named as “credibly accused” of abusing children. Scott-Coe’s work has been published widely in venues including American Studies Journal, Tahoma Literary Review, Talking Writing, Catapult, Salon, River Teeth, Ninth Letter, and Fourth Genre. She is an associate professor of English at Riverside City College, where she was named 57th Distinguished Faculty Lecturer in part for her work on the epistolary history of Kathy Leissner Whitman. Scott-Coe also facilitates community writing workshops for the Inlandia Institute. Find her on Twitter @joscottcoe on FB @teacheratpointblank and on the Web at http://joscottcoe.com/.
Read more here: “Priest Named on Molestation List Was Texas Sniper’s Scoutmaster, Friend, and Confidant”
And here: “Listening to Kathy”
And here: “The Communion of Saints”
Saturday, May 25, 2019 – Yi Shun Lai
Platform for Writers
What’s a platform? Loosely speaking, it’s how your existing network can help you to sell books. This class will help you to identify what your platform is–and we’ll work together to create concrete steps on building your platform, as well. If you’re working on a project, please come prepared to tell us what it is. This class will also cover aspects of social media.
Yi Shun Lai is co-publisher and fiction editor for the Tahoma Literary Review, a thrice-annual literary magazine. Her column “From the Front Lines” appears in The Writer magazine monthly, and her debut novel, Not a Self-Help Book: the Misadventures of Marty Wu, has been in its fourth printing forever.
Freelance Writing and Editing: http://thegooddirt.org/.
Saturday, April 27, 2019 – David Putnam
Dave On Writing, How to write by the numbers
Best-selling author David Putnam comes from a family of law enforcement and always wanted to be a cop. During his career, he did it all: worked in narcotics, served on FBI-sponsored violent crimes teams, and was cross-sworn as a US Marshall, pursuing murder suspects and bank robbers in Arizona, Nevada, and California. Putnam did three tours on the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s SWAT team, executing dynamic entries, hostage rescues, and serving as team sniper. He has also worked in criminal intelligence and internal affairs and has supervised corrections, patrol, and a detective bureau. In Hawaii, Putnam worked as Special Agent for the Attorney General investigating smuggling and white-collar crimes. Putnam’s Bruno Johnson series hit the Publisher Market Place Best sellers list and the top number one spots on Amazon in mystery, crime and suspense. His sixth Bruno Johnson book, The Reckless came out February 5, 2019. The publisher has picked up his seventh, The Heartless due out February of 2020.
Saturday, March 23, 2019 – Michele Barard
Developing Your Marketing Plan
Michele Barard, a graduate of Agnes Scott College, has experience as a software trainer, graphic designer, editor, writer, and a business coach. She founded Urban Book Editor in 2012 to help writers of all genres create their best work. Ms. Barard also hosts a podcast, Somewhere in the Middle with Michele Barard, which features business leaders and authors who share their journeys to inspire others. She currently resides in Inland Empire where she writes, edits, and provides coaching to her clients. Learn more about Michele Barard at https://michelebarard.com/.
Saturday, February 27, 2019 – Tina Ruvalcaba
Learning the ins and outs of the current publishing industry
So much has changed in the publishing industry over the last 15 years that it is hard to keep up! What used to be reserved for a select, talented few (publication) is now available to literally everybody. With that freedom comes more choices than ever before about the means to that end. But so many options bring their own lists of questions. Which path to publication should you avoid? Which should you pursue? There’s no clear-cut answer; all the choices come with their set of advantages and disadvantages. The path that is best for you might be absolutely wrong for your friend or colleague.
Drawing upon her thirteen years of experience at a #1-rated self-publishing company (according to Top Consumer Reviews), Tina Ruvalcaba will identify the main pros and cons of the five main paths to publication:
* Traditional Publication
* Independent Printing
* Hybrid Publication
* Full-Service Self-Publication
* Freemium Self-Publication
Through her years as an Author Representative, Title Production Supervisor, Publishing Consultant, and Lead Publishing Consultant at Outskirts Press, Tina has helped thousands of authors publish thousands of books of all genres and types, including:
* Children’s Books
* Fiction
* Nonfiction
* Biography/Memoir
* Poetry
Many of the books she has helped publish have gone on to win awards. You can see examples of these
award-winning books, and many examples from the categories above, on her page at https://outskirtspress.com/rwd/tina.html.
Saturday, January 26, 2019 – Annual Author Panel
A few members in the California Writers Club (Inland Empire Branch) finished their manuscripts and got their books published last year. To celebrate their success we have invited them to participate in our annual author panel. You are welcome to join us and listen as they discuss trends in publishing and share their information, tips and challenges. Here are this year’s panelists:
How did they get the work done? Learn all about it. Ask questions. Free and open to the public. January 26th at the Ovitt family Library, 10 am. Ontario, California.
