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2025 Writing Goals: Set Yourself Up for Success without the Stress

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Thursday, January 23rd 
4 – 5:15pm / PST 

2025 Writing Goals: Set Yourself Up for Success without the Stress

To kick off the new year, Women’s National Book Association invites you to an all-chapter Goal-Setting Palooza!  Debra Eckerling, author of 52 Secrets for Goal-Setting and Goal Getting and SF Chapter Networking Ambassador, will be leading a virtual goal-setting workshop. 
 

What are your goals for 2025? Are you seeking an agent or publisher for your novel, memoir, or non-fiction book? Looking to build your author platform? Seeing inspiration for your next writing project? You’ve come to the right place.

During this session, you will discover:

  • How to identify your personal, professional, and writing goals for the new year
  • Ways to find time to work toward your goals in your already busy life
  • How to use networking to help you achieve your goals

Be sure to tune in live, since we will be giving away prizes including:

  • A ticket to pitch-o-rama
  • A mini- goal-coaching session with Deb
  • An e-copy of 52 Secrets for Goal-Setting and Goal-Getting

For 52 Secrets, Debra interviewed achievers in Biz, Tech, Food, Entertainment, and Creative realms – including Brenda Knight, WNBA-SF Chapter President and Publisher at  Mango. The result: a menu of inspiration and advice designed to help busy professionals create the life they deserve and desire.

Choose yourself and your writing goals for the new year. Join us on Thursday, January 23 at 4pm PT/ 7pm ET.

Register here.

About Debra: Debra Eckerling is the award-winning author of Your Goal Guide and 52 Secrets for Goal-Setting and Goal-Getting: How to Stay Focused, Grow Your Network and Get More Done in Less Time. A goal strategist, workshop leader, and the creator of the D*E*B METHOD® for Goal-Setting Simplified, Debra works with individuals and teams on personal and professional projects, networking strategy, and book/book proposal development. The networking ambassador for WNBA – San Francisco, Debra has spoken on stages for TEDx, Innovation Women, SCORE LA, and more. She is the founder of the Write On Online community, as well as host of the GoalChat and Taste Buds with Deb podcasts.

Register here.

What the Body Holds: It’s Shame and It’s Pleasure, In Person, Discussion, Reading, and Mixer

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Wednesday, September 13 at 6 P.M. at The Mechanics Institute

WHAT THE BODY HOLDS: Its Shame & Its Pleasure: A Discussion & Reading with Memoirist, Isidra Mencos, and fiction writer, Leslie Kirk Campbell

A co-sponsored in-person event with our friends at the Mechanics’ Institute.

The event will end with a Q & A with the audience.

 

After the reading, mix with authors, members of the WNBA-SF, and those of the Mechanics Institute. 

Campbell and Mencos will discuss what drew them to write books that investigate the topic of the female body. They will share ways women (themselves included) have felt shame about their bodies and how both societal expectations and abject repression (political, religious, and/or gender-based) affect women’s attitudes toward their bodies—including how women may self-repress as a consequence of external oppression. Finally, they will broach how their protagonists came to a point of acceptance of their bodies, opening to pleasure.

Each of these three topics will be illustrated with short readings from their books. The event will end with a Q & A with the audience. A reception with light refreshments will follow.

 

Mencos‘s memoir, Promenade of Desire: A Barcelona Memoir, narrates a young woman’s journey from repression to liberation in tandem with Spain’s transition from dictatorship to democracy. As the country transforms itself, the shy María Isidra evolves into the alluring Isadora, whose passion for books and salsa dancing sustains her as she discovers what it means to be lustful and loved and reclaims her whole self. Promenade of Desire has won a Silver Medal for Multicultural Non Fiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards 2022, among other honors.

PRAISE FOR PROMENADE OF DESIRE: “A brave and unblinkingly honest portrait of a young woman’s sensual and sexual awakening in the face of censure and repression, and her refusal to be held back by the constraints of her family, culture, and religion. The same joyful spirit that expresses itself in Mencos’ love of dancing shines through in her story of her own personal dance into a brave new world beyond the one her mother prescribed for her. Her story is shameless, in the very best sense of the word.”

–Joyce Maynard, New York Times best-selling author of Labor Day, To Die For, and Count The Ways

“…Unique and Intriguing…” Julia Scheeres
“Page-turning…Vivid…Gutsy…” Aaron Shulman

 

Leslie Kirk Campbell‘s short story collection, The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs, investigates the ways people both succeed and fail to reconcile their sense of self, their deepest passions, and their own loneliness, through friendship, love, and their own damaged bodies; and how, when confronted with an unexpected encounter with a stranger outside their familiar sphere of reference, a troubled person can experience profound change. At its core, The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs is about body-memory, the way we hold our pasts on our skin, visibly – bruises, scars, tracks, tattoos – and invisibly, over generations. In small towns and cities across the US, characters reckon with their body’s relationship to grief, illness, technology and genocide. Three of the eight stories focus on the violation of women’s bodies and the risky decisions we make when pushed to the extreme.

PRAISE FOR THE MAN WITH EIGHT PAIRS OF LEGS:
Marvelous…sexy…harrowing…both timeless and timely.
Anthony Doerr, All the Light You Cannot See & Cloud Cuckoo Land
 
A meaningful and utterly devastating collection…
cements Campbell as a leading short story writer. 
BuzzFeed
 
A tour de force…Campbell’s stories slap us awake.
San Francisco Chronicle
 
 
Isidra Presenting on a AWP 2023 Panel

Isidra Presenting on a AWP 2023 Panel

Isidra Mencos was born and raised in Barcelona. She spent her twenties experimenting with the new freedoms afforded by the end of Franco’s dictatorship in Spain, bouncing from man to man and job to job while immersing herself in books and dancing. She freelanced for prestigious publishing houses, traveled the world as a tour leader, and worked for the Olympic Committee. In 1992 she moved to the US to earn a PhD in Spanish and Latin American contemporary literature at UC Berkeley, where she taught for twelve years. She also developed her own business as a writer and editor for Spanish-speaking media. From 2006 to 2016 she worked as Editorial Director of the Americas for BabyCenter, the leading global digital resource for parents, and managed teams in several countries. In 2016 she quit her job to dedicate herself to writing. Her work has appeared in The Chicago Quarterly Review, Front Porch Journal, The Penmen Review, WIRED, The Huffington Post, and Better After Fifty among others. Her essay “My Books and I” was listed as Notable in The Best American Essays Anthology. Today Isidra lives in Northern California with her husband and son.

 

Leslie Kirk Campbell‘s short story collection, The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs won the 2020 Mary McCarthy Prize for Short Fiction (Sarabande). The collection is a 2022 Women’s National Book Association Great Group Reads Selection, a 2022 Foreword INDIES winner in short fiction, and a finalist for American Book Fest’s 2022 Best Book Awards for Short Story. Campbell’s short stories have won first-place awards at Arts & Letters, Briar Cliff Review, Southern Indiana Review, and The Thomas Wolfe Review. She is also the author of Journey into Motherhood: Writing Your Way to Self-Discovery (Riverhead). A native Californian, she teaches at Ripe Fruit Writing, a creative writing program she founded in San Francisco in 1991.

 

 

Registration Information: 

FREE to WNBA members, members use code WNBA

General admission sliding scale: $5-10

Register HERE for this event 

May 12th – Confident Communication for Authors: How To Overcome Public Speaking Anxiety As An Introvert

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Thursday, May 12th, 2022

Confident Communications for Authors: How to Overcome Public Speaking Anxiety As An Introvert w/ Julia Beauchamp Kraft

12 pm PST

 

In this talk, you’ll learn…

  • The 3 mistakes authors make when they want to overcome nervousness and why you keep spinning in anxiety no matter how much you prepare
  • The secrets to always having the perfect words at your fingertips and never blanking out again!
  • The 4 step framework for comfort and confidence in your skin when the stakes are high without anxiety or fear of the audience’s judgment
  • How to calm and relax your nervous system for instant confidence

 

Bio:

Julia Beauchamp Kraft is an authentic expression mentor and public speaking coach who specializes in helping introverted women overcome public speaking nerves. Through her signature program, “Fully Expressed”, Julia teaches quiet, shy women how to cultivate authentic confidence in the spotlight.

Over the past 8 years Julia has trained 1000’s of professionals and entrepreneurs about public speaking best practices and skills including companies like LinkedIn, Twitter and Salesforce. But, it wasn’t until the start of the pandemic that she created The Fully Expressed program as the world of public speaking completely changed. Through her years of experience, she saw that some people were able to implement public speaking skills right away and others really struggled and even seemed traumatized by the public speaking workshop itself. She realized that most of the people struggling were women and all of them had a long history of performance anxiety, public speaking nerves and an intense fear of the audience’s judgment.

Being an introverted woman herself she understood these challenges and created a program designed specifically for the more sensitive, empathic woman who has a desire to be heard but is struggling with public speaking PTSD. This work empowers introverted women to get out of overwhelm and burnout, unpack old conditioning that’s keeping them stuck and discover their full range of expression as confident communicators.

 

Sign up for the event here:

Sorry! Registration is closed, so we can manage the list of attendees.

April 14th – Looking Back, Looking Forward: A Reading with Jan Beatty and Dana Levin

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Thursday, April 14th, 2022
Looking Back, Looking Forward:
A Reading with Jan Beatty and Dana Levin
5pm-6pm / PT

 

Poets Jan Beatty and Dana Levin will join us for an evening that will celebrate their award winning poetry and celebrate the foremothers who inspired them.  Each poet will begin the evening by introducing the foremother poet who influenced her work.  Then, Beatty and Levin will share their own new work.

 

Participants: 

Jan Beatty is the winner of the Red Hen Nonfiction Award for her memoir, American Bastard (2021). Her sixth book, The Body Wars (2020), was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. In the New York Times, Naomi Shihab Nye said: Jan Beatty’s new poems in “The Body Wars” shimmer with luminous connection, travel a big life and grand map of encounters. Books include Jackknife: New and Collected Poems (2018 Paterson Prize) named by Sandra Cisneros on LitHub as her favorite book of 2019. Beatty worked as a waitress, a welfare caseworker, an abortion counselor, and in maximum-security prisons.

 

Dana Levin’s fifth book is Now Do You Know Where You Are (Copper Canyon, Spring 2022), a Lannan Literary Selection. Recent books include Banana Palace (2016) and Sky Burial (2011), which The New Yorker called “utterly her own and utterly riveting.” She is a grateful recipient of honors, including those from the National Endowment for the Arts, PEN, and the Library of Congress, as well as from the Rona Jaffe, Whiting, and Guggenheim Foundations. Levin teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, and serves as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Maryville University in St. Louis.

 

 

Jan Beatty and Dana Levin will share their most recent work. Audience members will not only learn about these current poets, they will also discover writers from the past.  

 

Sign up for the event below:

Meet the Agents & Editors: Virtual Pitch-O-Rama 2022

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Saturday, April 30, 2022
8:00 am – 1:00 pm 

 

Another year, another round of Pitch-O-Rama! We’ve learned a lot from the last two events, and we are ready to do our utmost to make this year’s Pitch-O-Rama the best one yet. Also, we are adding even MORE agents, so keep checking back in here for the latest updates.

 

Sign up for 2022 Pitch-O-Rama with the link below as registration is filling up quickly:
https://wnba-sfchapter.org/april-30th-virtual-pitch-o-rama-2022/

 

Includes pre-pitch coaching.


$65 WNBA-SF members, $95 Non-members


EVERYONE Welcome!

 

Meet the Agents and Editors for Pitch-O-Rama 2022!

 

These impressive publishing professionals bring years of experience and will provide advice, direction, and next steps for your literary project! 

 

Jim Azevedo is the marketing director at Smashwords, the largest distributor of self-published ebooks, serving over 130,000 independent authors, publishers, and literary agents. Since 2008, Smashwords has helped authors around the world release more than 470,000 titles and distribute their work globally to top ebook retailers, subscription services and public libraries. Prior to joining Smashwords in 2011, Jim built his career in marketing & PR for high-tech companies. Although Smashwords is a self-publishing platform, Jim loves helping authors sharpen their pitches and book descriptions. He credits his journalism education when it comes to guiding authors, and himself, to “get to the point” with messaging. Jim is open to discussing all genres.

 

 

Peter Beren, formerly Vice President, Insight Editions, Publisher of Sierra Club Books, Publisher of VIA Books and an Acquisitions Editor for Jeremy Tarcher. Peter Beren is a literary agent and a book publishing consultant to authors and independent publishers. He is the founder of The Peter Beren Agency, located in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also author or co-author of eight books, including The Writers Legal Companion (Basic Books), California the Beautiful (Rizzoli) and The Golden Gate (Insight Editions). As a publishing consultant, Peter works with independent publishers, self-publishers, and authors to help them make the most of their publishing opportunities. He represents selected nonfiction projects as a literary agent to help authors obtain publishing contracts. https://peterberen.com/

 

Associate Agent Karly Caserza was born in the Phillipines and immigrated to Northern California as a child. She obtained her Business Marketing degree and has been a Freelance Graphic Designer for over 10 years. In addition to designing a wide range of print and web promotional material for clients. Karly creates book covers for Short Fuse and promotional graphics for Fuse authors. Professionally, Karly began her career in the publishing industry as a reader for Tricia Skinner at Fuse Literary, a role that also included a spot on the production team of Short Fuse. Karly is also the Marketing Coordinator of the San Francisco Writer’s Conference. In her spare time, Karly has a deep love for characters with a strong voice and seeks out stories she can get lost in. Diversity in genre fiction is a major bonus. She specializes in middle grade and young adult genre fiction (fantasy, science fiction, and contemporary.)

 

Leland Cheuk is a MacDowell and Hawthornden Castle Fellow and award-winning author of three books of fiction, most recently the novel NO GOOD VERY BAD ASIAN (2019). Cheuk’s work has been covered in Buzzfeed, The Paris Review, VICE, San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere, and has appeared or is forthcoming in publications such as NPR, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, among other outlets. He is the founder of the indie press 7.13 Books, which publishes debut book-length fiction. He is looking for quality works of fiction and short story collections, favoring literary comedies and genre-bending submissions as well as work from the queer and/or POC writing community.

 

M.J. Fievre, B.S. Ed, is a longtime educator whose publishing career began as a teenager in her native Haiti. At nineteen years old, she signed her first book contract with Hachette-Deschamps for the publication of a YA book titled La Statuette Maléfique. Since then, M.J. has released nine YA books in French that are widely read in Europe and the French Antilles, and she is the author of the award-winning Badass Black Girl book series for tweens and teens (in English). As the ReadCaribbean program coordinator for the prestigious Miami Book Fair, M.J. directs and produces the children’s cultural show Taptap Krik? Krak! In addition, M.J. serves as the managing editor of DragonFruit, which publishes high quality children’s books, which connect with readers by paving the way to lifelong learning.

 

Georgia Hughes is editorial director at New World Library, publisher of the Joseph Campbell Library and The Power of Now. She acquires and edits nonfiction books in the areas of spirituality, sustainability, animals, business, women’s issues, and personal growth. Recent acquisitions include Spiritual Envy by Michael Krasny, Dreaming the Soul Back Home by Robert Moss, Dogs and the Women Who Love Them by Allen and Linda Anderson, Right-Brain Business Plan by Jennifer Lee, and The Practicing Mind by Thomas Sterner. 

 

Jane Kinney Denning is a freelance agent and editor and former president of the WNBA. With over 30 years of experience in writing, editing, and educating, she has worked as an adjunct professor in publishing at Pace University, and has editing books with HarperCollins, Little Brown, CRC Press, and Van Nostrand Reinhold. Jane has also worked as the Acquisitions Editor for Mango Publishing, acquiring notable books such as The Fearless Women’s Guide to Starting a Business, Plan and Organize Your Life, Baker Bettie’s Better Baking Book, and the first three titles of the Baseball Hall of Fame Imprint.

 

Brenda Knight began her career at HarperCollins, working with luminaries Paolo Coelho, Marianne Williamson and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Knight was awarded IndieFab’s Publisher of the Year in 2014 at the ALA, American Library Association. Knight is the author of Wild Women and Books, The Grateful Table, Be a Good in the World, and Women of the Beat Generation, which won an American Book Award. Knight is Editorial Director at Mango Publishing and acquires for all genres in fiction and nonfiction, LGBTQ as well as children and photography books. She is the immediate past President of the Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco Chapter, and an instructor at the annual San Francisco Writers Conference.

 

Michael LarsenMichael Larsen co-founded Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents in 1972. Over four decades, the agency sold hundreds of books to more than 100 publishers and imprints. The agency has stopped accepting new writers, but Mike loves helping all writers. He gives talks about writing and publishing, and does author coaching. He wrote How to Write a Book Proposal and How to Get a Literary Agent, and coauthored Guerrilla Marketing for Writers. Mike is co-director of the San Francisco Writers Conference and the San Francisco Writing for Change Conference.

 

Michele Martin is an editor and literary agent specializing in non-fiction and children’s books. Previous experience includes acting as VP for North Star Way (imprint for Simon & Schuster) where she acquired award-winning actress Keke Palmer’s book I Don’t Belong to You in 2017, as well as finding MDM Management, specializing in topics such as business, health & wellness, and self-help.

 

 

Kristen Moeller, MS, is an agent at Waterside Productions, the literary home of Eckhart Tolle, Neale Donald Walsch, Jean Houston and other luminaries. Previously, she was an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing and the executive publisher for Persona Publishing, a self-publishing imprint. With close to 30 years of training and experience in psychology and personal growth, she craves discovering new (mostly female) authors with real and gritty memoir or literary fiction about walking through the fires of life – exploring depths and darkness while maintaining a strong psychological base. A published author and a three time TEDx speaker, she has been featured on NPR, ABC, NBC, Fox News, the New York Times, Huffington Post and Tiny House Nation.

 

Stefanie Molina is an agent and editor who specializes in titles written by authors and for communities of color. Since 2013, she has helped edit various fiction and non-fiction from children’s books to memoirs in order to help authors reach the highest caliber to develop their creative work. Some of her previous experience includes over 5 years as Senior Editor at Brink Literacy Project, whose mission is to share storytelling that empowers underserved communities, and is currently an agent at Ladderbird Literary Agency.  Outside of agenting, she enjoys hiking, swimming, baking, and playing the piano. Her favorite place in the world is Yosemite National Park! You can find her on Twitter @fiction_tech. Stefanie is primarily looking for BIPOC stories inclusive of intersectional identities (LGBTQ+, disability, mental illness, neurodiversity…). She particularly relates to stories centering mixed protagonists. In all genres, she adores stories that incorporate food, animals, the outdoors, and intergenerational relationships. She also loves when stories explore “messy” feelings like rage, fear, guilt, grief, etc. in empowering ways. Please don’t send her books that revolve around abuse (though it can be in a character’s past) or books where the protagonist dies at the end. In picture books, she’s looking for heartfelt stories about family, facing your fears, and/or finding your place in the world. She especially loves brave, quirky heroines. In middle grade and YA, she likes contemporary and urban fantasy and coming-of-age stories. She loves a touch of mystery and is also open to the right high fantasy or romcom. In adult, she’s looking for romcoms, mysteries, thrillers, and urban or contemporary fantasy. She’s also open to high fantasy or historical fiction that empowers BIPOC individuals and communities. Two of her specific wishes are for a mystery or thriller helmed by a BIPOC woman, and for historical fiction centering a BIPOC cowgirl.

 https://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/stefanie-molina/

 

Liz Nealon is the founder and president of Great Dog Literary, a publishing company specializing in sharing unique voices for both adults and children. In her previous life, she was an award-winning executive producer and children’s media industry leader who played an integral role in shaping the indelible youth brands Sesame Street, Kidz Bop, and MTV, as well as being the former Publisher of StarWalk Kids Media, an award-winning digital publishing company that she co-founded with author Seymour Simon (2012-2016). Liz has unique and specific experience in children’s digital publishing, with extensive knowledge of the US Schools & Libraries sector. She is a big reader of both non-fiction and literary fiction, and is particularly looking for Modern Women’s Fiction (no fantasy or Regency); True Crime with a strong, literary voice; memorable Narrative Non-Fiction; Art/Illustrated titles for adults; Illustrated Middle Grade (both fiction and non-fiction). She is committed to representing diverse voices and would be over the moon if she could acquire a captivating LGBTQ RomCom for YA readers.

 

Becky Parker Geist is CEO of Pro Audio Voices and has been in the audiobook industry since 1981. As an audiobook publisher and producer, Becky has produced and/or narrated hundreds of titles, helping authors leverage their content through audio – even if it is the first or only format of their book to get publishedTypically working with authors and publishers who are challenged in reaching their widest audience, the Pro Audio Voices team provides audiobook production, including complex and unusual projects, and the Audiobook Marketing Program™ to help authors increase their impact. Committed to leadership, Becky serves as President of Bay Area Independent Publishers Assoc. and a Chapter Leader of Nonfiction Authors Association. proaudiovoices.com

 

Randy Peyser sells non-fiction manuscripts in all genres and speaks nationally about how to get book deals. She also serves on faculty for CEO Space International where she teaches about writing book proposals. She is the author of: The Write-a-Book Program; Crappy to Happy as featured in the movie, Eat Pray Love; and The Power of Miracle Thinking. Her clients’ books have been in Oprah and Time Magazines, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestseller Lists, in airport bookstores, Office Max and FedEx/Office stores, and on Hallmark TV. Her work is featured in: Healing the Heart of the World; The Marriage of Sex and Spirit; Secrets of Shameless Self-Promoters; and the national bestsellers, Networking Magic, Guerrilla Publicity, and The Profit of Kindness. AuthorOneStop.com.

 

Leah Pierre is a literary agent and production manager who loves diverse and unique work that is fast paced and has a complex cast of diverse characters. After graduating from Rosemont College with her B.A. in English and History and currently finishing her Master’s in Publishing, she has moved back to the South to begin her next adventure. In addition to searching for the next commercial YA or Adult project that will hook her (or make her cry), Leah is looking for YA/Crossover/Adult fiction across speculative, contemporary, romance, mystery/thriller, and fairytale reimaginings and retellings. She currently works at Ladderbird Literary Agency and is the Production Project Manager at Greenleaf Book Group: https://www.ladderbird.com/leah-pierre.html

 

Marthine Satris is the Acquisitions Editor for Heyday, a nonprofit publisher located in Berkeley, CA. Having worked as an editor and writer for Stanford University Press, Callisto Media, and the Center of the Art of Translation, Marthine’s main goal is to help shape a title with an eye on the fine detail. At Heyday, some of the books she has edited include Charles Hood, Marni Fylling, Mary Clare and Gary Ferguson, John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren, Alex Harris, Jack Gedney, and David Harris, with more to come. Marthine is acquiring prescriptive books, reference books, narrative nonfiction, literary essays, and, for Heyday, quirky books on Californian history, our natural world, and social justice.

 

Brooke Warner is a writing coaching, professional publishing consultant, and WNBA-SF member. She has worked as an acquiring editor in the publishing industry for the past sixteen years, most recently as the Executive Editor at Seal Press. Brooke left Seal Press in May 2012 to pursue the coaching practice and to co-found She Writes Press with Kamy Wicoff. Also, she launched Write-Minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers in 2018, teaches and facilitates memoir courses through Write Your Memoir in Six Months, co-founded with Linda Joy Myers, President of the National Association of Memoir Writers, and has published three books on writing and publishing. Some genres Brooke is looking for are memoirs, self-help, entrepreneur, and other business-like titles.

 

Viveca Shearin is a co-publisher of Not a Pipe Publishing, an indie publishing house based in Oregon (though she lives and works in NYC). An avid reader since childhood, her tastes in books have changed throughout the years. However, she is still a lover of fantasy, magic, and all things dark and mysterious. As she searches for her new talent, Viveca is looking for YA and Adult fiction projects in these genres: fantasy, speculative, paranormal, supernatural, mystery and thriller, science fiction, and retellings of fairy tales and mythology (Greek and Japanese). Viveca is especially interested in BIPOC representation and acquiring BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ voices. She’s drawn to stories that feature strong female characters (lead and secondary), stories with a diverse and eclectic cast of characters that all shine in their own ways, stories that feature found families, and stories that stay with her long after the last page is turned. She will not read stories that feature Black trauma, abuse, or anything of that vein. So please do not send these to her. Aside from working for Not a Pipe, Viveca also works as a sensitivity reader.

 

Leticia Gomez is a prominent literary/film/television agent who specializes in bringing culturally diverse voices to the forefront. She has helped her clients secure deals with the largest publishers in the world and has seen several of her projects successfully optioned for TV and film rights. In January of 2007, Leticia launched Savvy Literary Services, becoming one of a highly select group of agencies in the world that specializes in the Latino book market. Savvy Literary is now an industry leader specializing in Self-help, Narrative Non-fiction, Memoir, True Crime, Spiritual/Inspirational, Political/Current Affairs, Suspense/Thriller, Family Drama, and the Young Adult market. Blending her experience as an author, literary/film/television agent and acquisition editor, she is now truly excited to spearhead her very own Hispanic book imprint Café con Leche Books. At the present time, Savvy Literary Agency is interested in reviewing compelling and commercially viable book proposals and manuscripts written in English or Spanish. Fiction areas of interest: adventure, chick lit, fantasy, historical, humor, multicultural, mystery, paranormal, romance, young adult, and middle grade. Nonfiction areas of interest: advice/relationships, biography, cooking, diet, health, history/politics/current affairs, how-to, humor, lifestyle, memoir, parenting, religion/spirituality and true crime. 

 

Tips for Pitching 2022, CLICK HERE!

 

Sign up for 2022 Pitch-O-Rama now!

April 30th – Virtual Pitch-O-Rama 2022

April 7th, 2022 Pitch-O-Rama Prep Workshop & AMA

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Thursday, April 7th

Noon – 1pm, PDT
Online, via Zoom

 Virtual Workshop!

Click the logo above for more information on Pitch-O-Rama 2022!

 

By popular demand, WNBA-SF will hold our 2022 Pitch-O-Rama Prep Workshop & Ask Me Anything (AMA)!

We are VERY excited to hold this year’s Pitch-O-Rama, which is looking to be a fabulous event with new agents and editors including those from the New York publishing world. And, since it is virtual, we are having many new writers joining us, hailing from all over the country and even a couple of international guests. We have gotten many questions and suggestions which resulted in this debut Pre Pitch and Ask Me Anything (AMA) session.

WNBA-SF stalwarts who have run Pitch-O-Rama for many years will tell you what to expect, tips, and strategies for inspired pitching, and how to get the most from this mini writers conference. Hosted by Madame President, Elise Marie Collins, this event will feature experts who can answer any question you have, so make your list now!

Collins will offer techniques on how to overcome nerves and make your best impression. Past President of WNBA-SF, librarian, author and master storyteller Kate Farrell ran Pitch-O-Rama for years, and can tell you secrets to success from her deep experience. Publisher Brenda Knight will share what editors and agents are looking for, and how to position your project so it will garner real interest from acquiring editors and literary agents. Ellen McBarnette, an attendee from last year’s virtual Pitch-O-Rama will tell you “what she wishes she knew last year and what you should know for this year.”

Every year, writers find agents, get publishing deals and get excellent feedback that advances their writing careers. This year, it can be you!

 

Registration is free for anyone already signed up for 2022 Pitch-O-Rama. If you haven’t, prices are $10 for WNBA-SF members and $25 for non-members.

 

Distinguished panelists:

 

Brenda Knight, author of  Women of the Beat Generation, will read new work and a tribute to “Beat Goddess” ruth weiss. Brenda began her publishing career at HarperCollins. An author of ten books, she won the American Book Award for “Women of the Beat Generation.”  In 2015, she was named Indiefab Publisher of the Year. She is Editorial Director at Mango Publishing and is President of WNBA-SF Chapter.

 

Elise Marie Collins has consulted with small businesses, authors, and alumni associations on social media marketing and believes that a social media plan should be intuitive, fun, and seamless. Helping students and clients form healthy lifestyle patterns is Elise Collins’ passion and life purpose. She has taught yoga for the past 20 years and is the author of several books on healthy living, including her latest, Super Ager: You Can Look Younger, Have More Energy, a Better Memory, and Live a Long and Healthy Life. Elise enjoys sharing yoga wisdom and current scientific research.

Kate FarrellStoryteller, author, librarian Kate Farrell is the author of Story Power: Secrets to Creating, Crafting, and Telling Memorable Stories. Kate founded the Word Weaving Storytelling Project and published numerous educational materials on storytelling. She has contributed to and edited award-winning anthologies of personal narrative, Times They Were A-Changing: Women Remember the 60s & 70s, and Cry of the Nightbird: Writers Against Domestic Violence. 

 

Ellen McBarnette is a life-long writer whose nonfiction work has been published as testimony, fact sheets and opinion pieces for organizations that include the Sierra Club and the American Bar Association. A professional storyteller, she is a recent transplant from Washington, DC where she ran the Arlington Creative Nonfiction Writers Group. She now runs the Beta Readers and Writers Group and is an active participant in critique groups in the Bay. She lives in Hayward with her partner Ben and their cat Java.
 
 

Register here for the Prep Workshop & AMA:

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March 16th – Feeling Joy + Awe in Difficult Times

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Wednesday, March 16th, 2022
Heart Wisdom Panel:
Feeling Joy + Awe in Difficult Times with Sherry Richert Belul, Allen Klein, and Irene O’Garden
1:30 pm / PT

During the pandemic, we saw the ways that depression and mental health impacted so many people of all ages. Over the last weeks as the violence in Ukraine has continued, it has added to an already-heavy sense of despair in the world. 
 
People need to feel some relief from the grief, fear, and discouragement. We need to be uplifted and reminded of our spirits. 
 
Cultivating a sense of joy and awe can be a great addition to our self-care practices during this time in the world when so many people are filled with grief, fear, disappointment, and heartbreak. 
 
Join us at this week’s Mango Publishing Author Panel to participate in a conversation about ways to uplift ourselves and to bring more joy and awe to others, as well. 
 
Our guest authors, Irene O’Garden (“Glad to Be Human”) and Allen Klein (“The Awe Factor”) will share their own stories and unique ways of living in joy and awe. Everyone who attends is invited to join the conversation if you wish. The panel is facilitated by Sherry Richert Belul (“Say it Now.”) 
 
Mango Author Panels are a great way to get a behind-the-scenes look at the publishing world and what goes on in authors’ heads. They are always interactive, often intriguing, and especially warm and inspiring. 
 
This event is free. However, registration is required. Please use the form below and the Zoom link will be sent to you upon registration. 
 
 
 
 

**Author Bios**

 

Author Irene O’Garden (https://ireneogarden.com/) is an Off-Broadway playwright, an award-winning poet, a memoirist, and a Pushcart Prize-winning essayist whose latest book is “Glad to Be Human: Adventures in Optimism.” 
 
 
 
 
Through his books and keynote presentations, Allen Klein (https://www.allenklein.com/), the world’s only “Jollytologist”, shows people worldwide how to find humor and positivity in their not-so-funny stuff.  Allen is author of  numerous books, including “The Lighten Up Book” and, “The Awe Factor: How a Little Bit of Wonder Can Make a Big Difference in Your Life.” 
 
 
 
Sherry Richert Belul (simplycelebrate.net), author of “Say it Now: 33 Creative Ways to Say I Love You to the Most Important People in Your Life,” is founder of Simply Celebrate, a business dedicated to helping people live colorful, connected, creative lives of love and appreciation. 
 
 

 

Register for the Heart Wisdom panel below:

Sorry! Registration is closed, so we can manage the list of attendees.

Heart Wisdom Panel – March 9th – The Power of Prayer and Manifestation: Creating Peace

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Wednesday, March 9th, 2022
Heart Wisdom Panel:
The Power of Prayer and Manifestation – Creating Peace with Sherry Richert Belul, BJ Gallagher, and Sam Beasley
1:30 pm / PT

 

During these challenging times of war, illness, and violence, many of us are seeking new ways to manifest peace – in our lives and in the world. 

We are asking ourselves how to deal with grief, fear, heartbreak, helplessness … and yes, even horror. How do we find peace within ourselves, in our families, in our neighborhoods, and in our world? 

Join us at this week’s Mango Publishing Author Panel to participate in a non-denominational (and unconventional) conversation about the power of prayer and manifestation. 

Our guest authors, BJ Gallagher and Sam Beasley, co-authors of “Your Life is Your Prayer” will share some practical guidance and helpful insights about how to use prayer practices and manifestation methods in everyday life. 

The session will be facilitated by Sherry Richert Belul, author of “Say it Now.” 

Come join us in this timely, lively conversation! 

Mango Author Panels are a great way to get a behind-the-scenes look at the publishing world and what goes on in authors’ heads. They are always interactive, often intriguing, and especially inspiring.

This event is free. However, registration is required. Please use the form below and the Zoom link will be sent to you upon registration. 

 

**Author Bios**

 
BJ Gallagher (http://www.bjgallagher.com) is an inspirational speaker and prolific author. She writes business books that educate and empower, women’s books that enlighten and entertain, and gift books that inspire and inform. Her business fable, A Peacock in the Land of Penguins is an international best-seller, published in 23 languages worldwide. Her newest book, (co-authored with Sam Beasley) is Your Life is Your Prayer. 
 
 
 
Sam Beasley (mango.bz/sambeasley) is a successful entrepreneur speaker and workshop leader who uses spiritual principles to establish build and run his businesses. His latest book (co-authored with BJ Gallagher), is “Your Life Is YourPrayer.” He has also co-written (with Suzanne Lorenz, LCSW) two books on compulsive spending and debting.
 
 
Sherry Richert Belul (simplycelebrate.net), author of “Say it Now: 33 Creative Ways to Say I Love You to the Most Important People in Your Life,” is founder of Simply Celebrate, a business dedicated to helping people live colorful, connected, creative lives of love and appreciation. 
 
 
 

Register for the Heart Wisdom panel below:

Sorry! Registration is closed, so we can manage the list of attendees.

April 15th – Women Writing True Crime

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Friday, April 15th, 2022

Women Writing True Crime with Mitzi Szereto, Joan Renner, and Cathy Pickens

12 pm / PT

FREE Virtual Event

 

A panel discussion featuring Mitzi Szereto, editor of The Best New True Crime Stories series, and her contributors Joan Renner and Cathy Pickens from her new book release, The Best New True Crime Stories: Partners in Crime. 

Topics to be discussed include:

  1. True crime and how writing it is different from other genres.
  2. True crime and its appeal to women writers and readers.
  3. Individual approaches to true crime.
  4. Writing responsibly and ethically.
  5. How to catch the editor’s eye.
  6. Researching and getting the facts right.

***

Mitzi Szereto (mitziszereto.com) is an author and anthology editor whose books encompass multiple genres, including those in her popular true crime franchise The Best New True Crime Stories, to date the volumes Partners in Crime; Crimes of Passion, Obsession & Revenge; Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues & Criminals; Small Towns; and Serial Killers. She has the added distinction of being the editor of the first anthology of erotic fiction to include a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She’s appeared internationally on radio and television and at literature festivals, and has taught creative writing around the world. In addition to having produced and presented the London-based web TV channel Mitzi TV, she portrays herself in the pseudo-documentary British film, Lint: The Movie. The sixth volume in her true crime series, The Best New True Crime Stories: Unsolved Crimes & Mysteries, will be published in September 2022. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @MitziSzereto.

 

Joan Renner (www.derangedlacrimes.com), writer, social historian, and true crime expert, is the author of The First with the latest: Aggie Underwood, the Los Angeles Herald, and the Sordid Crimes of a City. She contributed to the Los Angeles Times bestseller LAPD ’53, written by James Ellroy and Glynn Martin. She has appeared in a previous volume of The Best New True Crime Stories. Joan lectures on historic Los Angeles crime and appears on true crime TV shows and podcasts. She is currently writing a book for University Press of Kentucky about Los Angeles during the Prohibition era.

 

Cathy Pickens (cathypickens.com) has written crime fiction, starting with the award-winning Southern Fried (St. Martin’s), and a regional historic true crime series, starting with Charlotte True Crime Stories (History Press). The latest is Upstate South Carolina True Crime Stories. She’s served as national president of Sisters in Crime, on Mystery Writers of America’s national board, and as true crime columnist for Mystery Readers Journal. A lawyer and former college professor, she also wrote CREATE! Developing Your Creative Process (create-update.com), works with prison inmates, and coaches writers and others in creativity workshops. Her work has appeared in a previous volume of The Best New True Crime Stories.

 

Register for event here:

April 30th – Virtual Pitch-O-Rama 2022

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Pitch-O-Rama

Saturday, April 30, 2022
8:00 am – 1:00 pm PT

Pitch-O-Rama is returning in 2022! After our amazing session last year, we are happy to announce that we will be hosting the next Pitch-O-Rama session on April 30th, where writers will have the chance to pitch their works to agents and editors for publication.

Includes pre-pitch coaching.

$65 WNBA members, $95 Non-members

All genders are welcomed!

 

Register to pitch your book idea to agents and publishers! 

Tips for Pitching 2022, CLICK HERE!

Cancellation Policy: Must receive your cancellation notice by midnight on Saturday, April 16th, 2022. Send your request for a refund to: registrar@wnba-sfchapter.org

And don’t forget, Please sign up for the Pre Pitch-o-Rama April 7 AMA, “Ask Me Anything” HERE.