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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.

January 14 – Set Yourself Up for Success in 2022: Goal Setting Simplified for Writers

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Friday, January 14th, 2022
Set Yourself Up for Success in 2022:
Goal Setting Simplified for Writers
12 pm / PT

Free Virtual Event!

 

 

Are you ready to write the next chapter of your life? 

Whether you are a planner or a pantser, there’s lots to learn from award-winning author Debra Eckerling, Your Goal Guide: A Roadmap for Setting, Planning, and Achieving Your Goals.

During this Lunch N Learn for the Women’s National Book Association – San Francisco Chapter, on January 14 at 12pm PT, Debra will take you through the D*E*B METHOD®, which is her system of Goal-Setting Simplified. DEB stands for Determine Your Mission, Explore Your Options, Brainstorm Your Path

You will:

  • Visualize a successful 2022
  • Take stock of where you are and what you want
  • Create a mission and motto
  • Set personal, professional, and writing goals 
  • And set your planner or pantser self up for success

Start 2022 right! 

Bring your writing dreams and your enthusiasm … And get ready have some fun!

* * *

Ready to reboot your goals now? Grab your copy of Your Goal Guide: A Roadmap for Setting, Planning and Achieving Your Goals and join the Your Goal Guide Facebook group to ask questions and share your journey.

 

About Deb: Goal-Setting expert Debra Eckerling is the author of the award-winning Your Goal Guide: A Roadmap for Setting, Planning, and Achieving Your Goals and creator of the D*E*B METHOD® system of goal-setting simplified. Deb is on a mission to change goal-culture! A workshop leader and corporate consultant, she helps entrepreneurs, executives, and individuals figure out what they want and how to get it. 

Debra is also the founder of Write On Online, a website and community for writers, creatives, and entrepreneurs, as well as host of the #GoalChat Twitter chat (Sundays at 7pm PT @TheDEBMethod), #GoalChat Live on Facebook and LinkedIn (Mondays at 4pm PT), and The DEB Show podcast. Learn more at TheDEBMethod.com, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media, and reach out to Info@TheDEBMethod.com.


About the Book: One of the biggest reasons goals fail is that people often don’t put enough thought into what they really want before diving in. Your Goal Guide by Debra Eckerling starts with that first, crucial step: figuring out your goals and putting a plan in place. Eckerling presents readers with her own tested and proven method: the D*E*B METHOD®, a brainstorming and task-based system, which stands for: Determine Your Mission, Explore Your Options, Brainstorm Your Path. Through a combination of writing exercises and systems, Eckerling provides readers with a process for making and setting goals that is stress-free, easy-to-manage, and even fun.

 

Register for the event now:

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

December 18 – Chat, Drink and Be Merry! WNBA-SF Virtual Holiday Mixer

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Saturday, December 18th, 2021
Chat, Drink, and Be Merry! WNBA-SF Virtual Holiday Mixer
4:30 pm/ PT
FREE Virtual Event!

 

 

The holidays are right around the corner and our most fervent wish for you is a very healthy and happy season. This year has had lots of ups and downs but we have been gladdened that, in many ways, 2021 has continues to knit us closer together as a community. We have enjoyed excellent Zoom events with our talented members and the publishing pros in our circle as well as pulling off a second- virtual Pitch-O-Rama with record attendance.  It was complicated but thrilling in that it brought so many writers closer to their book publishing dreams and even resulted in a few deals! 

We are grateful, We also give thanks for all of you and hope you can join us for some comfort and joy and a good deal of relaxing fun. We will have holiday games and also create breakout rooms for conversations with fellow members and friends. 

WNBA-SF Chapter Vice President Earlita Chenault is once again our judge for best cocktail so do your best mixology to impress her and win a cash prize!

It’s a MIXER, so bring a bookish pal or two to join the virtual fun. We appreciate our members and would love for you to join us so we can hear about how this most challenging of years went for you and your hopes for the new year to come.  P. S. Your cocktail can be a mocktail or filled with spirits. The literary tie-in could be in the ingredients, description, a back story that ties in back to your love of books, the world of words or anything literary.

Holiday Donation: We are organizing a donation to children and family who lost all their books in the fire. RSVP and you will get an address to send books to along with the Zoom link. Children’s books for underserved kids especially welcome, 

Contest Prizes: We will have a contest for the most literary libation you can sip in style at the mixer and the top three cocktails will win $100.  Merry mixology!

Cheer: While I think we can all agree that this is the strangest year ever, we still have each other! Let’s toast each other, the holidays our chapter, and a brighter future in the coming New Year!

 

Join us for Chat, Drink, and Be Merry virtual mixer event!
Register below to receive the Zoom link:

 

December 10 – You NANO’d! Now What? Post-National Novel Writing Month Session

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Friday, December 10th, 2021
You NANO’d! Now What? Post-National Novel Writing Month Session
with Award-winning author and sixteen-time NaNoWriMo winner Nita Sweeney
Noon PT/3 pm ET

 

Whether you wrote 50,00 words or simply made it through the month, Congratulations! You’ve completed National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! 

What’s next? 

In this fun lunch n’ learn, Nita Sweeney, award-winning author and sixteen-time NaNoWriMo winner will teach you how to carry the NaNoWriMo inspiration into the rest of the year.

No matter if it’s your first Nano or your sixteenth, this session will help you continue.

Nita’s first book, the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink was a multi-year NaNoWriMo project. Her second book, You Should Be Writing: A Journal of Inspiration & Instruction to Keep Your Pen Moving, coauthored with Brenda Knight, offers author wisdom to help you on your NaNoWriMo journey.

In this workshop Nita will discuss:

  • How to continue the NaNoWriMo momentum without burning out
  • How to finish the story if it’s not complete
  • How to think about (and do) revision and editing
  • How to continue building the community you found in November
  • Why you should NOT send your NaNo novel to agents and publishers YET
  • And much more!

About Nita:

Nita Sweeney is the award-winning wellness author of the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink and co-creator with Brenda Knight of the writing journal, You Should Be Writing: A Journal of Inspiration & Instruction to Keep Your Pen Moving. A certified meditation leader, mental health advocate, ultramarathoner, and former assistant to writing practice originator Natalie Goldberg, Nita founded the groups Mind, Mood, and Movement to support well-being through meditation, exercise, and writing practice, and The Writer’s Mind, to share using writing practice to produce publishable work. Nita also publishes the writing resource newsletter, Write Now Columbus. Nita lives in central Ohio with her husband, Ed, and their yellow Labrador retriever, Scarlet. Download your free copy of Nita’s eBook Three Ways to Heal Your Mind.

 

Join us for WNBA-SF’s Post-National Novel Writing Month Session!
Register below to receive the Zoom link:

November 30 – Five Poets Read in Celebration of Native American Heritage Month

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Tuesday, November 30th, 2021
Five Poets Read in Celebration of Native American Heritage Month
5:00 – 6:30 pm/ PT
FREE Virtual Event!

Five contributors to Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California (Scarlet Tanager Books) will read in celebration of Native American Heritage Month. California has the largest Native American population of any state, and possibly the most diverse, representing Native Nations from across the U.S. as well as those indigenous to California.

 

Poets Reading:

 

Lucille Lang Day (Wampanoag) is the author of eleven poetry collections and chapbooks, most recently Birds of San Pancho and Other Poems of Place, and coeditor of Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California and Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California.

 

 

Jennifer Elise Foerster (Mvskoke) has two poetry collections from the University of Arizona Press: Leaving Tulsa and Bright Raft in the Afterweather. She coedited When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry with Joy Harjo and Leanne Howe.

 

 

 

Dave Holt (Ojibwe), originally from Canada, is a musician and songwriter in addition to being a poet whose book Voyages to Ancestral Islands received an Artists Embassy International Literary / Cultural Arts Award.

 

 

Linda Noel (Koyoonk’auwi), former Poet Laureate of Ukiah, has worked in When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through, The Dirt is Red Here, and many other anthologies.

 

 

 

Stephen Meadows (Ohlone) is a Californian of pioneer and Ohlone descent. His first poetry collection, Releasing the Days, was published by Heyday. His new collection, Winter Work, will be out soon.

 

 

 
Join us for WNBA-SF’s Native American Heritage Month poetry event!
Register below to receive the Zoom link:

November 18 – Holiday Storytelling Fest

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Thursday, November 18, 2021
Holiday Storytelling Fest 
5:00 – 6:00 pm/ PT
FREE Virtual Event!

Join WNBA-SF Chapter in our virtual storytelling fest to celebrate the holidays as only book women writers can! Five brilliant, talented writers will share their personal stories of gratitude to bring us cheer during this wonderful season of thanksgiving and joy.

After our five presenters tell their stories of thankfulness, we’ll open it up to our virtual audience—that’s you! We want to encourage the sharing of stories during the holidays with friends and family in the spirit of deep gratitude this year.

Storytellers

Co-chair of this event and Pushcart Prize nominee Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte (she/her) is an Oakland multidisciplinary writer whose autobiographical and fictional short story collections, along with her lyrical and stunning poetry, artfully succeed in getting across deeper meanings about the politics of race and economics without breaking out of the narrative. Her writing has been variously described as “rich in vivid imagery,” “incredible,” and “great contributions to literature.” Her first novel, Betrayal on the Bayou, was published June 2020 and a poetry collection she has written with her daughter Dr. Angela M. Boutte, No Poetry No Peace, was published August 2020.  She is also a popular literary reader, presenter, storyteller, curator, and emcee. Website: www.sheryljbize-boutte.com

Co-chair and emcee of this event, Kate Farrell (she/her), storyteller, author, librarian, 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. Farrell’s award-winning new book, is a timely, how-to guide on the art of storytelling for adults, Story Power: Secrets to Creating, Crafting, and Telling Memorable Stories. Kate offers virtual workshops for libraries and writing groups, as well as performing virtually as a storyteller. Website: https://katefarrell.net/ Blog: https://storytellingforeveryone.net/

Gini Grossenbacher (she/her), novelist, poet, certified editor, educator, publisher, founded Elk Grove Writers and Artists and JGKS Press in Sacramento County. She has thirty-six years of experience teaching English/language arts to adolescents and adults. Her debut American Madams series novel, Madam of My Heart, was a silver medalist for historical fiction in the 2018 Independent Publisher awards; Madam in Silk was runner up for historical fiction in the 2020 National Indie Excellence Awards. Her next novel, Madam in Lace, will release October 2021, and Glimpses, her first poetry collection in March 2022. As well as offering virtual fiction workshops for aspiring writers, Gini provides developmental, copyediting, and assisted publishing services to novelists and poets. Website: http://ginigrossenbacher.com/  https://www.facebook.com/ginigrossenbacherauthor

Diane LeBow (she/her) has worked for women’s rights in Afghanistan, ridden a camel through locust swarms on the Libyan Sahara, and searched for Amazon women’s descendants among Mongolian horsewomen. Her work has appeared in anthologies and publications: Salon, Via, Image, Cleis, Seal, Schocken, Travelers’ Tales, and has won many awards, including thirteen Solas Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Douglass College—Rutgers University for her writing, photojournalism, women’s rights work all over the world. She earned a Ph. D, one of the first in Women’s Studies, at the University of California. Her new travel memoir has just launched, Dancing on the Wine Dark Sea: Memoir of a trailblazing woman’s travels, adventures, and romance. Website: www.dianelebow.com Book launch 2021:  https://www.facebook.com/diane.lebow.9/videos/562680831567057

On July 17, 1955, Richelle Lee Slota (she/they) was one of 200 third graders selected to open Disneyland by running across the drawbridge into Fantasyland. She’s been running into Fantasyland ever since. She performs her one-transwoman show, Kind of a Drag under the drag name, Drama Queen. The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London produced her short play, We All Walk in Shoes Too Small. Her one-act play, Famous Michael was staged by Solano Repertory Company. She has published much poetry, a novel, Stray Son, and, with co-author, Yaw Boateng, the non-fiction book, Captive Market: Commercial Kidnapping Stories from Nigeria. https://www.facebook.com/richard.slota

 

Join us for our WNBA November Holiday Storytelling Fest!
Register here to receive the Zoom link: