Redwood Writers Meeting 2:30-5 PM at the Flamingo Conference Resort & Spa, 2777 Fourth Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95405 • Phone: (707) 545-8530 Click here for map.
We ask for a small fee of $5 from members and $8 from non-members to cover costs.
February 12, 2012
Tanya Egan Gibson
Who wants to hang out someplace boring? Not you. And not your readers, either. Yet often while we worry about making our characters exciting and our plots clever, we relegate setting to backdrop–something to be decorated after the major story work is done. The result can be a story in which everything feels a bit disconnected, unreal. Envisioning the “world” of your fiction early and thoroughly, on the other hand, allows setting to shape your characters and propel them into action. So how do you build a world that is unique yet believable, exciting yet grounded? Learn the various ways you can get the details of places right (even without a travel budget), how to make your world exciting, and how to use your world to strengthen both plot and characterization.
Tanya Egan Gibson is the author of the novel How To Buy a Love of Reading, which was published by Dutton in May 2009, has been translated into Italian and Spanish, and had its paperback release by Plume in July 2010. Her short fiction has been published in Carve magazine, where it was nominated for a Pushcart Prize; her short fiction for young adults has been published in Cicada. She has written several articles about world building and the craft of fiction for The Writer. Her work has appeared in the anthology Milk & Ink: A Mosaic of Motherhood, and is forthcoming in Parents magazine. Her current novel-in-progress, Land, takes place in an underwater-themed amusement park called Mertopia, where people of all ages come to relive (or live out) the heady, breathless angst of adolescence, dressing as the teenage Mermaids and Mermen from a popular movie series and riding through attractions where they become stars of these stories.
Gibson is Vice President/Program Chair of the Marin Branch of California Writers Club, a member of Women’s National Book Association, and an alumna of Squaw Valley Community of Writers. She belongs to The Tuesday Night Writers, a collective of Bay Area writers who produce the reading series “Pints & Prose.” She holds a BA from Cornell University and an MA from University of Washington.
Visit her interactive website, http://www.howtobuyaloveofreading.com, and share a story about how reading changed your life.
March 11, 2012
Peter Beren, Agent
Peter Beren
Formerly Publisher of Sierra Club Books, V.P. for Publishing at Palace Press International and Publisher of VIA Books, a division of the California State Automobile Association, Peter Beren is a Literary Agent specializing in nonfiction with an emphasis on illustrated (art and photography) books. A member of the Association of Authors Representatives (AAR), he is the author or co-author of six books including The Writers Legal Companion and California the Beautiful. His best-known clients include photographer Art Wolfe (Dogs Make Us Human, forthcoming from Bloomsbury). Brian and Wendy Froud (Trolls, forthcoming from Abrams) and Laurence Boldt (Zen and the Art of Making a Living, Penguin).
April 15, 2012
Yanina Gotsulsky “The Writer and the Publisher — Role Reversal in the 21st Century”
Yanina Gotsulsky
Gotsulsky is an editor, translator, and author of two novels, “The Speed of Life” and the forthcoming “Ergo Sum.” Her work has appeared in national and international publications. She is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Numina Press publishing novels by Tamim Ansary, Joe Quirk, Kemble Scott, Ransom Stephens and James Warner. She will bring her perspective as a writer and as a publisher in discussing how the publishing industry is being revolutionized by ebooks and the new technologies of print-on-demand and how one can plot a new game plan to become a successful author.
May 20, 2012
Valerie Estelle Frankel “The Heroine’s Journey for Writers”
Valerie Estelle Frankel
Valerie Estelle Frankel is the author of From Girl to Goddess: The Heroine’s Journey in Myth and Legend, the first book to examine the heroine’s epic quest in women’s mythology the world over. Her books on pop culture, called Harry Potter: Still Recruiting and Buffy and the Heroine’s Journey will be coming in 2012. She taught English at San Jose State University for several years and was the youngest person ever to receive an MFA in their Creative Writing program. Her shorter works have appeared in over 100 anthologies and journals including Inside Joss’ Dollhouse, The Oklahoma Review, and Rosebud Magazine. Her parody, Henry Potty and the Pet Rock, was winner of the Indie Excellence Award and was a USA Book News National Best Book. She’s a frequent speaker on myth, fantasy, pop culture, and the heroine’s journey, with many fans of all ages. Come explore her latest research at www.vefrankel.com.
June 10, 2012
Veronica Rossi “Creating High Concept Fiction”
Veronica Rossi
Rossi will define high concept fiction, and discuss why it should matter to you. She was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Growing up, she lived in several countries and cities around the world, finally settling in Northern California with her husband and two sons. She completed undergraduate studies at UCLA and then went on to study fine art at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Her debut novel, UNDER THE NEVER SKY, has sold in more than twenty foreign markets and film rights have been optioned by Warner Bros.
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