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Celebrate the success of Bay Area authors at the annual Redwood Writers Author Launch event. Meet local authors and listen to excerpts from new books published by our members.
Scroll down to check out the stellar lineup of featured authors during the 2023 Author Launch.
Saturday
February 18, 2023
1 - 5 p.m.
This event will be held in person in the Cypress Room at the Finley Center.
The event will be recorded for later viewing and sharing.
Price:
FREE
for Members, Guests
& General Public
CLICK BELOW TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE AUTHORS AND THEIR BOOKS
FEATURED AUTHORS
Date Smart: Transform Your Relationships and Love Fearlessly
Date Smart offers uplifting guidance in the art of creating authentic, empowering relationships through increased self-awareness. Using powerful mindset shifts and case studies, readers learn to replace illusions with healthy discernment. Date Smart draws the reader into an introspective realm to support healthy relationships from the inside out.
Dr. Carla Marie Manly
Dr. Carla Marie Manly, clinical psychologist and relationship expert, resides in Sonoma County. In addition to her clinical practice, Dr. Manly is deeply invested in her roles as an author, consultant, and speaker. With a refreshingly direct and honest approach—plus a dose of humor—Dr. Manly enjoys supporting others in creating overall wellbeing.
Confessions: Stories to Rock Your Soul
"The chronicling of an amazing woman and life, of an inspiring story arc that goes from rock and roll fanatic—and professional—to heart-felt work in hospice, and of lessons learned at both ends, thanks to her discovery of the Spirit." Ben Fong-Torres, Sr. Editor, Rolling Stone
Nadine Condon
Thirty years working with rock music legends like Jefferson Starship and Grace slick culminated in the Nadine's Wild Weekend 4-day music festival in San Francisco. Nadine, the "Godmother of Rock" in San Francisco, left the music business for a twenty year anonymous career in hospice care and hospice education. She lives in the Sonoma Valley.
Lost & Found
An eighteen-year-old leaves his home in Philadelphia to get away from a drug-addicted mother and her abusive partner as well as to track down the man he thought was his deadbeat dad. His bus trip across the country and adventures in San Francisco, bring answers and unexpected discoveries for him—a young woman and fresh insights about his parents.
J. Curtis Moran
Curtis graduated from San Francisco State University in 1969 and returned there to continue screenwriting. Believing his stories should entertain even when they might enlighten and empower, he has taken one of his professors’ advice in adapting his screenplay trilogy into a novel.
Amazing Animals: Fun Facts for Kids
Amazing Animals packs a powerful 1-2-3 punch with twenty-seven full color illustrations, whimsical rhymes, and truly amazing fun facts. Find out how elephants communicate with their feet, why crocodiles cry, and much more. A two-page glossary introduces children to new words specific to book content. Ideal for children ages 4 to 8.
Pamela Heck
Pamela Heck has been entertaining and instructing kids with special needs for more than thirty years. She is also a professional artist, an award-winning poet/writer, and a former English teacher. Her non-fiction book for children, Amazing Animals: Fun Facts for Kids, highlights her belief that learning can, and should, be fun.
Moonlight and Reflections — Nine Sonoma Poets
The nine poets in this anthology first met through my poetry-writing class in the Santa Rosa Junior College Older Adult Program. Our formation of Poetic License Sonoma led to a collaboration with the Sebastopol Center for the Arts for monthly poetry readings via Zoom.
Steve Trenam
Steve Trenam’s mother owned a bookstore from 1962 to 1985 in Petaluma, California. It was for Steve, a source for answers and insights which generated an impulse to write. As far as his poetry is concerned, Steve is out on a leafless limb with just spider webs and moss, listening to the silken slip of water over stone.
Ten Seconds of Boldness
One of the most practical and effective business and personal growth books in years. Ten Seconds of Boldness outlines a simple yet transformational five-step method to move you from where you are to where you want to be in a way that is purposeful, meaningful, and lasting.
Shawn Langwell
Shawn Langwell is the Immediate Past President of The California Writers Club (CWC), Redwood Writers, past president of Toastmasters of Petaluma, an inspirational author and speaker, and top producing salesperson. He is passionate about helping others become brave enough to take a chance on themselves.
Little Chef's First 100 Words
Here's a baby's First Words book with a culinary twist! Little Chef's First 100 Words introduces babies and toddlers to items that can be found in the heart of the home: the kitchen. This book presents everything from cooking utensils and common appliances to international cookware and baking supplies. The perfect gift for budding chefs & bakers!
Tenisha Bernal
Tenisha Bernal is a freelance graphic designer. As a child she loved drawing as well as baking, with her Cookie Grandma, and her passion for both of these inspired her to create her first children’s book. She grew up in northern California and now lives there with her husband and their young son.
Survival Time
Simona Carini’s poems are rooted in quiet observations of life events past and present. Illness imbues love and time with an intense flavor. There is blue in the poems, not all dark. There are stars, not all in the sky. And there is water—ocean, lake, lagoon, glacier. The book reflects a life lived fully immersed in spaces born or made sacred.
Simona Carini
Simona Carini was born in Perugia, Italy. She writes poetry and nonfiction and has been published in various venues. Her first poetry collection Survival Time was published by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions. She lives in Northern California with her husband, loves to spend time outdoors, and works as an academic researcher.
A Trip Through Time & Other Short Stories
The animal version of the A-Team, rescuing their kidnapped loved one. A termite hosting a farewell party. An animal lover in trouble in school and at home. A mysterious visitor who helped a lonely youngster and his widowed dad. A bitter recluse who almost lost his two best friends. One abandoned youngster who learned what love is.
Neil Burgstahler
Neil Burgstahler lives in Santa Rosa, California. He likes to work with children as a tutor and mentor. He also loves to write children’s stories. Neil tunes and repairs pianos and has been at it for over 45 years. He also likes music and nature.
A Wicked Web
Detective Dietrick, faced with the end of his career, decides to finally stand-up to the corrupt DA.
Rod Morgan
This author has an AAS degree in graphic design, with a minor in creative writing and journalism. His choice of genre are tales constructed to amuse, entertain, and mystify. He has been featured in several Redwood Writers anthologies and the CWC Literary Review.
The Circassian Beauty
Even after Pavel stole her heart and whisked her away from her lout of a husband, the beautiful Natalia didn’t know if the dashing young cavalry officer could be trusted. He promised her a glittery new life in the best salons of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, but would he deliver?
Tommie W. Whitener
Tommie W. Whitener writes novels and short stories, sometimes with a Russian theme. He lives in Marin County with his wife, Svetlana.
Mostly in His Own Words
The story of the Jackson family in America begins when Maryland was still an English penal colony. In 1749, John Jackson and his wife-to-be, Elizabeth Comings, had both been convicted of stealing in England, and they were individually sentenced to transportation to America. They met on board the merchant ship Litchfield.
Jon G. Jackson
Jon G. Jackson is a retired neuropsychiatrist and depth psychotherapist. He is also an award-winning poet. He facilitates a Lou Andreas-Salomé reading group sponsored by the Friends of the San Francisco Jung Institute. He teaches two ten-lecture courses: “Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet” and “A Psychological Approach to the Old Testament."
The Last Polar Bear
Part wildlife thriller, part nature narrative, The Last Polar Bear is a spellbinding journey into the near future of the earth's vanishing wildlife. In 2040, as poachers close in on the last polar bear on earth, an Inuit must use her shamanic abilities to save the bear's life, even at the risk of her own.
Dana Rodney
Dana began writing in 2018, motivated by the loss of two homes to California wildfires. As a result, her concern about climate change inspired a climate fiction novel titled The Last Polar Bear. Dana won First Place in the 2021 Jessamyn West Writing Contest and has published poetry in online literary journals including Reed Magazine.
Letters From Italy
Letters from Italy is a story of true love that spans an ocean. Against all odds, an orphaned girl and a young dreamer find solace in a romance sparked by a single photo and years of transatlantic letters. From a tiny Italian town in pre-WWII to New York City in her golden age, hopeful immigrants take a chance at living the American dream.
Mario Dell'Olio
Dr. Mario Dell'Olio is the author of Letters from Italy, Tilting Toward the Sun, New Men, Coming About, and Body and Soul. Winner of the Premio Vincenzo Crocitti International award for music and literature, he is the music director at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California.
Escape of the Alienated War Babies
Set in the San Francisco Bay area during the Sixties, Escape of the Alienated War Babies depicts a time of resistance and rebellion through the experiences of nine men and women embedded in the social and cultural uprising now recalled as the Counterculture.
William Haigwood
William Haigwood is the author of seven published books that include short story collections and four novels, as well as a popular meta history of the Counterculture entitled Journeying the Sixties, A Counterculture Tarot (featuring author's photos from the Sixties as Tarot cards).
Dragonfly Dreams
Dragonfly Dreams is a beautifully illustrated book of 17 read-aloud poems for children. The whimsical poems are in four categories: memories, seasons, this and that, and story poems. Most of the poems are written in rhyme and have a pattern. These are key elements in childhood literacy.
Jeanne Jusaitis
JL Jusaitis has a BA in Fine Arts, and an MA in Education with a focus on Curriculum. She lives in Petaluma California, and is the author of four books for young readers: Lilah Dill and the Magic Kit, Journey to Anderswelt, Journey to Autremonde and Dragonfly Dreams. Her poems and stories are published in ten anthologies.
A Swift Kick to the Thorax
When space poachers release Earth animals on an alien world, threatening a fragile new alliance, they anger the wrong people. A veterinarian, an accountant, and a furious sign-language-fluent gorilla are coming for them.
Mara Lynn Johnstone
Mara Lynn Johnstone grew up in a house on a hill, of which the top floor was built first. With a lifelong interest in fiction, she has published several books and many short stories. She can be found up trees, in bookstores, lost in thought, and at MaraLynnJohnstone.com.
For the Birds
A year after they broke up, Sonny is back, and he’s obviously moved on. Cricket can’t let him know she’s not over him, so she does the only thing she can think of — fake a relationship with a former fling. But when Cricket discovers she and Sonny will be working together, she’s forced to keep up the lie... Only problem? Her heart.
Crissi Langwell
Crissi Langwell writes romance, women's fiction, and young adult novels that tell stories of the heart. To date, she's published 12 books, and is currently working on her upcoming Sunset Bay romance series, releasing this year. She serves as Redwood Writers vice president, newsletter editor, and website manager.
The Clandestine Life of Paintings, in Poems
The Clandestine Lives of Paintings, in Poems is a collection of ekphrastic poetry inspired by art, music, films and dreams. Most of the artwork in the book, was done by Northern California artists. The author doesn’t “interpret” the paintings so much as reflect on them, using poetry to make the reader appreciate something new or unexpected.
Robin Gabbert
Robin has poems in RW Poetry anthologies, CWC Literary Reviews and in The Best Haiku 2022 international anthology. Her book, Diary of a Mad Poet was published in 2020. Her new book of ekphrastic poetry — The Clandestine Life of Paintings in Poems was published in 2022 and her haikus, tankas, and haibun appear a new anthology Burro in my Kitchen.
Paris Beckons
"Evocative and personal, heart-wrenching and illuminating, Susanna Solomon’s Paris Beckons showcases 34 stories revealing what lies beneath our deepest fears and memories. Poignant and for those with pasts that refuse to remain buried." — Cara Black, author of the award winning Aimee LeDuc Mystery Series
Susanna Solomon
Susanna Solomon is the author of Point Reyes Sheriff’s Calls, a short story collection which was on the Marin Independent Journal Bestseller list twice. Her second collection, More Point Reyes Sheriff’s Calls, came out summer of 2016. A novel, Montana Rhapsody, was published in 2018. Her new collection of short stories, Paris Beckons, is set in Paris.
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