Upcoming writing classes by Jordan Rosenfeld and Becca Lawton

March 1-28. Fiction's Magic Ingredient (Part One)

Taught by Jordan E. Rosenfeld March 1 through 28, 2010 Full price: $149. $109 early registration discount if you register before February 15, 2010. The muse doesn't go on vacation, so why should you? Stimulate your writing with a fun, self-paced online class that will revolutionize your writing with Jordan Rosenfeld, author of the writing guide Make a Scene and, with Rebecca Lawton, Write Free: Attracting the Creative Life. In this class you'll learn the "magic" ingredient to create powerful, page-turning fiction and instantly take your writing to a whole new level. Each week you'll receive a lesson and two assignments that can be applied to a work-in- progress or as stand alone exercises. You'll receive weekly feedback from Jordan and have the opportunity to interact with classmates. Activate and enliven your writing Create a stylized, "sexy" experience of "real time" Build a powerful, layered "tapestry" on every page Design an easy to follow "map" for your plot Demonstrate unforgettable characters MORE Mini-Workshops will return in April, including: Image Building Method Writing Part Two will be back in May Visit Jordan's website for more information.

REGISTER HERE

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May 2010 Environmental Poetry Series

$90 + $10 donation to Sitting Room if paid in full by March 1; thereafter $100 + $20 donation until closed. Sign up Writing about nature, our experiences in the outdoors, and the environmental big picture is something that many of us aspire to and is something we do with devotion, passion, and attention to detail. In this series we'll share close readings of some acclaimed environmental poets (Gary Snyder, Mary Oliver, Leslie Marmon Silko, and others), and we'll compose poetry of our own on natural themes. Please come prepared to read and discuss, write from prompts, and explore leads and inspirations we brainstorm ourselves. Our goal will be to support each other in creating publishable work; we'll all leave the final class with at least three leads for getting poems created in session into print. Rebecca Lawton, author and natural scientist, won the Ellen Meloy Award for Desert Writers and other awards and has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes in prose and poetry. Her memoir, Reading Water: Lessons from the River, was a San Francisco Chronicle Bay Area Bestseller in 2008. She has taught with California Poets in the Schools, Mendocino Coast Writers Conference, Redwood Writers Club, Petaluma Writers Forum, and Write Free (with Jordan E. Rosenfeld).

Becca's website

Upcoming Screenwriting Workshop

The Redwood branch of the California Writers Club will host a

Screenwriting Workshop

Saturday, March 27, 2010

10:00 am to 11:30 am

Petaluma Novak Center (the Senior Center )

211 Novak Drive

Petaluma, CA 94954

(707) 778-4399

On-site registration and check-in for those pre-registered begins at 9:45 am sharp. Cost for the workshop is as follows:

CWC Member Price: $10 Non-member Price: $15

The workshop will be facilitated by Charlotte Cook, President of KOMENAR Publishing, and Hollywood screenwriter Jon James Miller.

The workshop is entitled, Adapting Sideways--The Not-So-Straight-Forward Transition from Screenwriter to Novelist. The process of adapting a screenplay into a novel presents unique storytelling issues. Charlotte Cook and Jon James Miller have been working for a year to adapt one of his award-winning screenplays into a novel. The effort has produced a number of insights, strategies, and techniques for making the transformation. Though aimed at screenwriters, this facilitator pairing has plenty of advice for novelists who want to create novels that could be optioned for the screen. This has become a hot topic because the ‘spec market’ for screenplays has all but disappeared with conventional wisdom in Hollywood that “screenwriters should find a market for their material as a novel first.”

Please visit our website to download a copy of the registration form, fill it out, and mail it in to our P.O. Box with your check or money order, payable to 'Redwood Writers.'

About Charlotte Cook:

Charlotte Cook is president and story editor of KOMENAR Publishing as well as a popular presenter at writers’ conferences and events, and a successful teacher and workshop facilitator. www.fictionwriteideas.com

About Jon James Miller:

Jon James Miller earned a Bachelor of Science in Cinematography and worked for several years in cable documentaries for A&E, Lifetime and The History Channel while writing original feature length screenplays in LA. www.jonjamesmiller.com

Redwood Writers, P.O. Box 4687, Santa Rosa, CA 95402

Upcoming Events by Redwood Writers members

Here are two upcoming literary events that feature members of Redwood Writers.

Radio broadcast:

Linda Loveland Reid and Mary Lynn Archibald were interviewed by Rosemary Manchester. That show will be aired on "A Novel Idea," at 7 PM on Feb. 10th, on KRCB Radio. 91 FM. Redwood Writers featured prominently in their conversation. You can listen on air, on line, or wait for a podcast to be posted!

The next event is online and will be ongoing, and our member Mark Sloan calls for participation of our members as well as asking to help spread the word.





Here is Mark's message:

Birth Day: A Pediatrician Explores the Science, the History, and the Wonder of Childbirth. It should be a lively, unscripted (not to say chaotic), interactive event - just the tonic for that midwinter "H1N1-writer's-block flu"...

Where: LibraryThing.com

When: February 8-21 (Two whole weeks! Surely you can drop by at some point...)

What to Bring: Your questions, comments, birth stories, new parent anecdotes/traumas, grandparental pearls of wisdom...basically, anything that comes to mind. (Snacks are okay, too. They're kind of hard to share, though.)

How to sign in:

If you're not already a LibraryThing member:

1) Go to http://www.LibraryThing.com

2) Click on "Join Now" (there's no obligation in joining, though it's a great site)

3) Enter a new member name and password

4) Click "Join Now" again

5) Scroll down the right hand side of the page to "Author Chats"

6) Click on "chat here" by my name and fire away...

Hope to see you there!

Take care,
Mark Sloan

PS: Birth Day continues to get great reviews, both in press and from readers. You can read more at http://www.marksloanmd.com.
PPS: Please pass this invitation along to anyone you know with an interest in birth and babies!

Literary Agent Amy Rennert at Writers Forum

Writers Forum proudly presents Amy Rennert

Thursday, February 18, 2010 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Petaluma Community Center, 320 No. McDowell Blvd. Petaluma

$15 at the door

The Amy Rennert Agency specializes in books that matter. Amy has spent more than 20 years in the publishing business, pursuing her passion for the written word. The agency represents a select group of quality fiction and nonfiction writers--many of them award-winners--and dozens of agency books have been New York Times and national bestsellers.

Amy Rennert is the former editor in chief of two national magazines and she is on the faculty of the Stanford Publishing Course.

A unique opportunity to chat with a literary agent. Bring your question on a 3 x 5 card. Cards will also be available at the event for you to use.

For more information: www.thewritespot.us

Marlene - mcullen@comcast.net

Upcoming events by Patricia V. Davis

On February 12-14, the San Francisco Writers Conference will be held at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in SF, and I will be speaking on Sunday, February 14, at 11-11:45 p.m. in a session titled, Bestseller! What You Need to Know for a Knock-Out Writing Career.

Lots of important information will be covered in this session, including working with retail booksellers, getting attendance at your events, how to blog to raise book sales, bad agents vs. good agents, behind the scenes facts about the industry that you must keep up with in order to make decisions about your career, and more.

Then in April, I will be teaching two separate courses for Marin Adult Education (www.marinlearn.com) They are:

I. Descriptive Writing That Your Readers Can ‘Taste’, ‘Smell’, ‘Feel’, and ‘Hear’ “Cerulean blue water and halcyon days”. “Eyes that sparkle like stars.” Yuck. No one can a picture a location or a character through these clichéd, meaningless phrases. A good writer helps readers truly visualize the setting and the characters they are describing. But portraying the place where our action happens, and depicting people in our story, all without falling into the “been here-done-that-and-it’s-all-so-boring”, is one of the most challenging components of writing. In this workshop, participants will read samples of descriptive writing that overcome the formulaic, and discuss what it is about them that creates a mind image for the reader. Then, with some simple but effective writing exercises, the class will leave armed with new techniques for crafting vivid word visuals of their own. Time and Place: April 6 and April 8, Tuesday and Thursday evening from 7-9 p.m. at Sir Francis drake High School (in classroom 308) Cost: $45.00 II. A Platform and a Blog: What, Why, Where, When, and How? New writers who are looking to publish their first work are told that they need a 'platform', and that an easy way to build one is to create a 'blog'. In this seminar for both aspiring and experienced writers we will discuss what exactly a ‘platform’ is, what a ‘blog’ is and why blogs are so valuable to writers who are seeking to either gain and/or widen their audience. You will learn where the best spots to blog are, when a writer should blog, and most importantly, HOW each individual writer’s blog should vary, meaning what the topics, lengths, frequency, etc., should be. Participants will leave this workshop with a working online blog in place, and concrete knowledge of how, in as little as two hours per week, we can build our platform and readership to help our book sales. Place and Time: April 20 and 22, Tuesday and Thursday 1 p.m.- 3 p.m. at Redwood High School Cost: $45 Hope to see some Redwood Writers at these events! Warm regards, Patricia

Patricia V. Davis
Editor-in-chief, HS Radio e-magazine
"Writing the Sauce of Life"

podcast: www.harlotssauce.com
website: www.patriciaVdavis.com