Writer's Weekend: Literary San Francisco

Check out these SF Bay Area writer-related events for the upcoming weekend. Let me know if you go to to any, and what you learned!

Saturday, Sept. 8, from 1:30-4 PM, the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association will hold a workshop by Amber Starfire on Scrivener: The Do-Everything Tool for Writers and Self-Publishers. According to the class description: "Scrivener is the ultimate writer’s studio and complete project management system. It helps you brainstorm and order ideas, collect and store research, create outlines, shuffle index cards, and make notes and comments along with your writing."

Sunday, Sept. 9, from 3-5 PM, the Redwood Writers (a north bay chapter of the California Writers Club) meet at Santa Rosa's classic Flamingo Hotel. The event will feature Janis Floris, author of 35 books in 36 years, who will discuss her experiences and how the publishing industry has changed along the way.

Also, on Saturday at 7 PM is Babylon Salon, hosted by a couple of successful USF MFA grads:

a community of performers, readers, writers, imbibers (of spirits and spirit), and revelers. From published authors to up and coming writers, from the contemplative to the percussive, from the long-form poet to the chainsaw juggler, from the quiet literary aficionado to the participative audience member, Babylon Salon is a reading and performance series that brings together all of these people and more in a celebration of expression, life, the arts and each other.

 The Salon, located at Cantina SF, will present one of my favorite professors, Stephen Beachy, author of boneyard. According to Stefanie Kalem's East Bay Express article:

Questions of authenticity roil through the pages of boneyard, which Beachy calls a "collaborative" novel, the skeleton of which was supposedly assembled by Amish teen Jake Yoder, whose work Beachy claims to have discovered and then saved from the young man's attempts to burn the stories he had come to deem sinful. Convinced the stories were destined for literary greatness — as a rare example of Amish literature, at the very least — USF professor Beachy hung meat on the text where necessary. Verse Chorus Press then agreed to publish the novel, though Beachy's editor, Judith Owsley Brown, expresses her doubt regarding the existence of Yoder in boneyard's preface, extending that skepticism to Beachy's sanity...

I can attest that the author is quite sane, though quirky, if this hilarious book trailer is any indication:

Profile: Social Media Marketer Frances Caballo

I'm starting a new blog series based on informational interviews with professionals working in the field of writing--from freelance writers to teachers to social media experts like Frances Caballo, owner of Act Communications. My quest was precipitated by a career assessment requirement in order to  receive government retraining funds (I just joined the masses in being laid-off from my day job, which I'm seizing as a positive opportunity to build my writing career). But I'm always curious about the kinds of work people choose to do and why, what skills they require, and the paths they took to get there.

I got in touch with Frances after receiving some really helpful information from her via the Redwood Writers listserv, where she acts as social media editor and board vice president, about how to best utilize online forums. For instance, she created a Pinterest pin board for local writers, which includes the covers of two anthologies in which I am featured. Or she instructs us in how to pre-approve photos others tag in FB. Unlike many email blasts, FB posts, tweets and blogs that are guises for self-promotion, I always find her information both tremendously useful and generous to the reader. Frances specializes in social media marketing for her clients, most of whom are writers or organizations who want to increase their visibility online.

A long-time writer herself, Frances started as a reporter, then worked for a magazine, then as a newspaper editor before becoming a communications director for a national nonprofit. With her public relations experience, she started Act Communications in January 2011 and is currently its sole proprietor. You can follow Frances Caballo on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!

Here is what she says about her work:

SoCo Book Festival Favorites: from Letterpress to Literacy, from Book Publishers to Book Mobiles

Teresa LeYung Ryan

I spent Saturday at the 12th Annual Sonoma County Book Festival in Santa Rosa's Courthouse Square. Book lovers young and old wandered along 4th Street from 10-4. Booths showcased local book sellers, self-published authors, indie publishers and small presses, as well as a public library sale. Several stages held professional panels, author talks and poetry readings.

Struck by the plethora of creativity in my county, I enjoyed chatting with people such as author/ photographer Thomas Cooper about his book Tankhouse: California's Redwood Water Towers From a Bygone Era. I ran into a former teaching colleague who connected me to a professional networking group; I got information from a local nonprofit to pitch a story to Petaluma Patch; I took pictures with fellow Redwood Writer, Teresa LeYung Ryan, writing coach and author of Love Made of Heart and Build Your Writer's Platform & Fanbase in 22 Days (ebook and print edition). Check out her blog's event recap.

Here are some of my favorites. If you couldn't make it to the festival, at least you can do a virtual tour:

Iota Press

Iota Press
"What draws you to letterpress?" the people at the booth asked as I browsed. The aesthetic, the antiquity, the physicality of each printed letter. Based in Sebastopol, Erick Johnson offers custom printing, as well as workshops in typesetting and letterpress. His Iota Quarterly ($30/year) features "poetry, yarns or graphics." The animated way he speaks clearly demonstrates his enthusiasm for the artful arrangement of words on paper. From his website: "I have an interest in the graphic powers of type and ink fused with literary art."

Lewis Buzbee: The (Young Adult) Novel

On Saturday, in the midst of my weekend writing frenzy for the first submission of the semester, I attended a local workshop. Lewis Buzbee, author of Steinbeck's Ghost, The Haunting of Charles Dickens and the upcoming Mark Twain and the Mysterious Stranger, was a bookseller for 20 years and is my current professor of literature at USF. With usual wisdom and wit, Buzbee enlightened our group of Redwood Writers on writing a (Young Adult) novel with the following sage advice:

Redwood Writers Conference Part 1: Keynote Elisa Southard

The dining room was full at Saturday's Redwood Writers Conference, which I attended at the historic Flamingo Resort in Santa Rosa, CA. Our morning keynote was Elisa Southard, whose motto is "Don't kill your writing. Execute it."

Author of the book, Break Through the Noise: 9 Tools to Propel Your Marketing Message, Southard led us through an exercise to shift our attitude from "I am [a creative nonfiction-travel-freelance writer]" to "I can [impact readers-inspire travelers-inform people.]"

Southard advised writers to create a talking tag line; rather than simply state what type of writer you are, name your audience and identify the ways they will resonate: "Insert it in your social media profile, weave it into a presentation, sign your email with it."

Southard also provided several examples of writers who, when faced with adversity, experienced a shift in perspective to succeed. One of my favorites, Beatrix Potter, whose own mother refused to recognize her gift, left her artistic legacy to us over a century later. "No one is exempt from the challenge to change their viewpoint," Southard insisted.

Though we must be serious about our work, she said, we must not forget lightheartedness and spontaneity.


Southard follows her own advice. After receiving a motorcycle as a birthday present last year, she became a columnist at Helmet Hair Magazine and has launched a new project "for young women to take control and travel confidently."

Look forward to more posts on conference keynote Sheldon Siegel and workshops by authors Teresa LeYung Ryan, Tanya Egan Gibson, Pamela Pizzimenti and poet Terry Ehret!

Writers Associations (& Video Blogging)

Today I attended my first gathering of the professional organization, Bay Area Travel Writers (BATW), on the waterfront in Sausalito, Ca. A more welcoming group would be hard to come by. After the laughter-infused 'business meeting' in which I introduced myself, numerous people greeted me and exchanged business cards. (I designed mine from a template and ordered 250 cards for about $20 from Vistaprint.)

Our presenter, marketing guru Mary Cary, shared her expertise on the benefits of video blogging. Click here to watch her free video tutorials on building your own website with blog!



Carnival-goers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil