Saturday, November 28, 2020
Sandy Schuster-Hubbard, MS: The Importance of Structure
Sandy is Diamond Valley Writer’s Guild’s Vice-President. She was a National Board-Certified Educator in Language Arts who authored and co-authored thirteen books on curriculum for an educational publishing firm. Several of Sandy’s personal essays have been published in literary journals, and she is nearing completion of her coming-of-age memoir. Currently, she is drafting a novel during November 2020’s NaNoWriMo.
The Importance of Structure presentation will cover:
• Delineating the difference between structure and plot
• The Three-Act model and why it works
• The story elements needed in the beginning, the middle, and the end
• Common structures used in fiction or creative non-fiction
Saturday, October 24, 2020
Katie Ford: Poetry Reading and More
Poet, professor, and editor Katie Ford will read from her most recent book of poems, If You Have to Go, and will be happy to answer questions about poetry, the writing life, and creativity during a Q&A following the reading. Ford teaches at UCR, where she directed the MFA Program from 2015-2018.
Katie Ford is the author of Deposition, Colosseum, Blood Lyrics, and If You Have to Go, all published by Graywolf Press.
Blood Lyrics was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and the Rilke Prize. Colosseum was named among the “Best Books of 2008” by Publishers Weekly and the Virginia Quarterly Review and led to a Lannan Literary Fellowship and the Larry Levis Prize.
She completed graduate work in theology and poetry at Harvard University, and, following that, received her M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The Paris Review, The American Poetry Review, and the Norton Introduction to Literature.
She teaches at the University of California, Riverside.
Katie’s Website: http://www.fordkatie.com/
Saturday, September 26, 2020
LeeAnne Krusemark: Make Money With a Blog or Writing for Others Online .
You don’t need a journalism degree or previously published articles to write for anyone’s online blog, magazine, or website, or even start your own blog! Some opportunities offer exposure, while many pay well — $1 a word and more. You will learn how to find ideas, sources, conduct interviews and create interesting content, protect your copyright, and then use this credibility to sell other articles or even your self published novel. We will also discuss how to earn a passive monthly income with your own blog or website by selling other people’s products.
LeeAnne Krusemark is an adjunct online Professor of Publishing for Harvard and more than 1,000 other facilities worldwide, and is a nationwide speaker on the topic. She is also a former journalist, editor, and managing editor of newspapers, as well as an author of countless magazine articles and several books, some of which can be found on Amazon. LeeAnne has also recently authored a screenplay that Hallmark has expressed an interest in, and has started representing other writers as an editor and agent. In addition, she has owned a successful award-winning public relations business for more than 20 years and is a Chamber of Commerce past president. The inspiration LeeAnne gives to others has even been compared in writing to Oprah!
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Ken Decroo: Backward Design: write with the end in mind.
Ken will give the back-story of his two novels: Almost Human and Becoming Human. Also, he will address his writing process and the importance of keeping the end in mind. Finally, he will discuss the importance of beta readers and having a good editor on your team.
Kenneth L. Decroo truly believes you must live a life worth writing about. Before he became an educator and consultant for universities and school districts, he worked in the world of research and wild animal training in the motion picture industry for many years. He holds advanced degrees in anthropology, instructional technology and education. He lives and writes in the San Bernardino mountains with his wife, Tammy. When not writing and lecturing, he loves to ride his BMW adventure motorcycle down the Baja peninsula to beaches and bays without names. More about his adventures can be found on his blog, http://bajamotoquest.com/.
Saturday, July 25, 2020
Maggie Downs: Writing a Memorable Memoir
William Butler Yeats said the writer takes everyday life and turns it into art, rebirthing it “as an idea, something intended, complete.” That’s the focus of this discussion — how to write a memoir that isn’t simply a retelling of events but something rebirthed into art.
We’ll discuss using the elements of fiction to write compelling nonfiction; threading memories and backstory throughout the narrative; adding moments of humor and levity; and I’ll offer examples of different approaches to structure. (I wrote my memoir in a structure I call a Narrative Stegosaurus, so I’ll explain what that is too!)
This is what makes Cheryl Strayed’s Wild a riveting literary narrative and not merely a diary of 94 days on a hike. We’re not reading for the trail, we’re reading for what Strayed has done with it.
Maggie Downs is an award-winning writer based in Palm Springs, California. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Palm Springs Life, and McSweeney’s and has been anthologized in The Lonely Planet Travel Anthology: True Stories from the World’s Best Writers and Best Women’s Travel Writing. Braver Than You Think is her first book. Find out more at maggiedowns.com.
Saturday, June 27, 2020
John & Fauzia Burke: Author Websites the Easy Way
It’s indisputable: All authors and small publishers must have their own mobile-friendly, professional looking website. It is, by far, the most important element of your marketing strategy. John and Fauzia Burke will take you through design, content, interactivity and functionality options for creating a successful and easy to maintain website. John has over 20 years of experience building author and publisher websites, including sites for Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Jonathan Kellerman, and Gail Godwin.
During the presentation you will learn about:
• The various platforms for building a website
• What you should know about domain names
• What you should have on your website
• How to integrate social media and a mailing list into your site
• Bookselling and e-commerce
• Marketing tools that help enhance a website
• Search engine optimization
• Pub Site, a new website platform developed just for books and authors
Fauzia Burke, author of Online Marketing for Busy Authors, is the founder and president of FSB Associates, an online book publicity firm, co-founder of Pub Site, a platform for building author websites, and a consultant and coach for authors who need help navigating the book marketing and publicity landscape. Before starting FSB, she worked for book publishers, Henry Holt and John Wiley. Fauzia has promoted books by authors such as Alan Alda, Arianna Huffington, Deepak Chopra, Melissa Francis, S. C. Gwynne, Mika Brzezinski, Charles Spencer and many more. She is based in San Diego, California.
John Burke is the co-founder of Pub Site, an easy-to-use website building platform designed specifically for authors and books, and is the COO of FSB Associates, a publicity firm specializing in promoting books and authors on the web. Burke worked for several publishers including Crown, McGraw-Hill, Addison Wesley, and John Wiley, as well as in bookstores, before joining FSB Associates to launch its website development efforts. Their first website — one of the first ever author sites on the web — was for the late, Sue Grafton. Since then, John has developed over 200 author websites, ranging from one book to over eighty. He is based in San Diego, California.
For more information visit: http://www.fsbassociates.com or Pub Site at: http://www.pub-site.com
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Cati Porter: The Body at a Loss
Cati Porter’s The Body at a Loss, a collection of poetry, is centered around the topics of illness and recovery, cancer and surgery, mothers and friends. Cati will talk about her books and her writing process and take questions about writing and publishing and finding a life in the literary arts.
Cati Porter is a poet, editor, essayist, arts administrator, wife, mother, daughter, friend. She is the author of eight books and chapbooks, including Sevens Floors Up and The Body at a Loss (CavanKerry Press, 2019). Her essays have appeared in salon.com, Zocalo Public Square, The Manifest-Station, and others. She is a regular columnist for the Inlandia Literary Journeys column in The Press-Enterprise and is executive director of Inlandia Institute.
Saturday, February 22, 2020
Autumn Bardot: The Magic of Symbolism
Learn how to maximize emotional undertones in your writing to craft a more powerful story
Words are magic. Powerful magic. Often imbued with symbolic meaning—nuance, subtext, connotation, and feelings—found deep within our collective consciousness. Meanings the readers respond to on a visceral and emotional level. Discover how you can amplify themes, foreshadowing, plot, description, conflict, and characterization beyond the superficial.
Autumn Bardot is both a traditionally and indie published author of three historical fiction and two historical erotica. Autumn, a pen name, has taught literary craft and writing for over fifteen years. She has a passion for history and a special affinity for the unsung courageous females that history has neglected. Autumn lives in Southern California with her husband and every-growing family. She wishes she was one-tenth as brave as the women she writes about. Connect with her on Amazon, autumnbardot.com, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.
Saturday, January 25, 2020
Published Author Panel
Join us as our members, who published books in 2019, speak of the process and answer questions. Those members who published books in 2019 include: Autum Bardot, Brenda Hill, Millie Hinkle, Annabelle Hunter, Ajax Moon, Scott Skipper, Melinda Spencer, and Sharon White.
Some of these published books are displayed below along with links to where they may be purchased.
