Board of Directors
Roger Lubeck
,
President
Robbi Sommers Bryant
,
Vice President
Marilyn Lanier
,
Vice President
Malena Eljumaily
,
Treasurer
Adele Layton
,
Secretary
Judy M. Baker
, Membership Chair
Skye Blaine
, Newsletter Poetry Editor
Joelle Burnette
, Website Editor
Pamela Heck
,
Conference Volunteers
Linda L. Reid
, Speaker Chair
Jeane Slone
, Author Launch
Deborah Walton
, PR/Newsletter Editor
Chairs and Editors
Les Bernstein
, Poetry Anthology Editor
Skye Blaine
, Newsletter Poetry Editor
Fran Claggett-Holland
, Poetry Anthology Editor
Pamela Fender
, Hot Summer Nights
Sher Gamard
, Writers Salon/Sonoma County Fair
Marie Judson
, Critique Groups
Jeanne Jusaitis
, Author Support
Margarite Olmos
, PR Internal
Linda L. Reid
, Writers Circle
Deborah Taylor-French
, Author Support
Deborah Walton
, PR/Newsletter Editor
Tommie Whitener
, 2019 Anthology Editor
Redwood Writers Meetings
are held the second Sunday of the month at the
2777 Fourth Street,
Santa Rosa
Board meetings take place before the general meeting, beginning at 12:30. You are welcome to join us at any time.
THIS MONTH'S MEETING
SUNDAY, APRIL 14
2:00-4:30 pm
Working With an Illustrator-
Your Other Half
Sandy Baker
Arrive at 2:00 p.m. to register
and network
before the general meeting, which runs from 2:30-4:30.
We ask for a small fee of $5 from members and $10 from non-members to cover costs.
NEXT MONTH'S MEETING
Sunday, May 19*
*NOTE DATE CHANGE BECAUSE OF MOTHER'S DAY
2:00–4:30 p.m.
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CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS!
As a member of Redwood Writers, you have a unique opportunity to meet and mingle with like-minded wordsmiths in all areas of Club activities.
As we enter the busy spring and summer months, we very much need you to step up to help out.
Here are some immediate needs:
- Table host at Sonoma County Fair in August
- Assist with workshop setup
- Greet and register members at monthly meetings or workshops
- Organize an event
- Suggest/find speakers for monthly meetings
- Help with publicity
There are lots of small and big jobs that make this organization work. We need you!
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BOARD NOTES AND NEWS
ATTENDING REDWOOD WRITERS MEETINGS
by Roger Lubeck,
President
I learn something at every Redwood Writers Meeting. A tip or piece of advice regarding craft, publishing, or social media and marketing, if acted on, will improve my writing and my writing career. For example, last month's speaker, Nora Profit, spoke on Emotion Crafting.
Nora’s message was clear: our job is making the reader care about our characters; creating an emotional connection. Also, Nora reminded us that one way to improve our writing/stories was to eliminate unnecessary words, starting with adverbs.
If you need convincing,
read Maria Popova’s article
summarizing Stephen King on “Writing, Fear, and the Atrocity of Adverbs.” To quote King, “the adverb is not your friend.”
The short story I just finished went through nine drafts and two title changes in fifteen days. Looking at the first draft (before Nora), I found 11 adverbs (3 in dialogue) out of 2,693 words. After taking Nora’s advice, my last draft was down to 2 adverbs in 2400 words. (It is hard to give up words you have
lovingly, cleverly, and carefully
crafted!) Stephen King wrote, “Dumbo got airborne with the help of a magic feather; you may feel the urge to grasp a passive verb or one of those nasty adverbs for the same reason. Just remember before you do that Dumbo didn’t need the feather...”
The speakers at our monthly meetings are there to help us give up our feathers. In April Sandy Baker is going to talk about her experience working with an illustrator. In May Amanda McTigue is going to discuss the craft of character in action, and in June Elizabeth Kratch is speaking on 50 Things to Check Before Submitting to an Agent.
If you haven’t been to a meeting in a while, I encourage you to attend one of the next three meetings to see what you have been missing. If a great speaker isn’t enough, the meetings offer our author support group and writers’ focus group (children’s books is the topic this month) starting at 1:00 p.m., networking, a new member and visitors table, author book sales, good food, and
door prizes!
As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions to make our meetings and our club more relevant to you. Just email
president@redwoodwriters.org
. See you on Sunday!
Board Meeting Agenda for April 14, 2019
12:30 p.m. Call to Order – Roger Lubeck
- Approval of minutes from prior meeting.
12:35 p.m. Board Reports
- Treasurer’s Report: Malena Eljumaily
- Membership Report: Judy Baker
12:40 p.m. Committee Reports
- Website: Joelle Burnette
- Speakers Committee: Linda Reid
- Academy/Workshops/Webinar: Baker/Walton
- Fair: Jeane Slone
- Poetry Anthology: Linda Reid
- Prose Anthology: Tommie Whitener
- Nominating Committee: Sandy Baker to chair
- Jack London Award 2019: Linda Reid to chair
- Club Historian
1:30 p.m. New Business
1:45 p.m. Adjourn
General Meeting Agenda for April 14, 2019
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Author Support
(Deborah Taylor-French)
1:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Writers Focus Group
(Children’s picture books)
2:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Networking
2:30 p.m. Welcome - Roger Lubeck
2:35 p.m. Chair Announcements
- Membership: Judy Baker
- Salon: Sher Gamard
- Writers Circle: Linda Reid
- Academy - Judy Baker
- Author Launch: Jeane Slone
- Fair: Jeane Slone
- Other chair announcements
2:50 p.m. Member announcements
3:00 p.m. Break ~ Snacks, Networking & Book Sales
3:15 p.m. Presenter: Sandy Baker - Working with an Illustrator
4:30 p.m. Final announcements:
April, not the cruelest month
It is filled with scent and song
Celebrate! Poetry month is here!
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IMPORTANT DATES
See more details below
Wednesday, April 10
Dine With Local Authors:
five authors read from their new books.
6-8:30 PM
Gaia's Garden, 1899 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa
Sunday, April 14
Redwood Writers Board Meeting 12:30-2:00
Flamingo Hotel
Redwood Writers Author Support 1:00-2:00
Flamingo Hotel
MONTHLY MEETING
Working With an Illustrator -- Your Other Half with Sandy Baker
2:00-4:30
Flamingo Hotel
Saturday, April 20
Redwood Writers Academy
CROWDFUNDING with John Sheehy
9:00-11:30 AM
Flamingo Hotel
$30 members; $35 non-members
Saturday, April 20
Redwood Writers Salon
2:00-5:00 PM
at President Roger Lubeck's home in Cloverdale!
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Sunday, April 14
2 - 4:30 p.m.
Flamingo Hotel, Empire Room
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Working with an Illustrator—
Your Other Half
with Sandy Baker
Even though you wrote a good book, an illustrator can make or break it. Good chemistry and the right price and style equal a potential winner. Sandy Baker, an author and sometimes illustrator, will provide examples of various media and styles of illustrations, discuss how to find the right illustrator, give an example of a simple contract, discuss cost, and show how to work with that artist. This is a basic how-to on finding and working with an illustrator.
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REDWOOD WRITERS SALON IN APRIL
Theme:
Spring Into the Salon!
SATURDAY, APRIL 20
2:00-5:00 PM*
IN
CLOVERDALE
* Please note that the time has been changed.
Bring your stories and poems to share.
Readings are five minutes.
RSVP: To Sher Gamard at
gmard@redshift.com
for registration, readings, directions, and to sign up for our convivial potluck lunch.
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CROWDFUNDING with John Sheehy
John Sheehy will share tips and insights from his wildly successful Indiegogo campaign for his new book,
On a River Winding Home: Stories and Visions of the Petaluma River Watershed
. The campaign raised 40 percent of their goal, and the book has already sold out of its first printing!
Saturday, April 20
9:00 a.m. – 11:30 am
Cost: $30 for members; $35 for non-members
One more Writers Academy workshop in the series:
Sin and Syntax: June 15, 2019
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LES BERNSTEIN
Profiled by Rebecca Smith
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One look into those wise, soulful eyes, and I was captivated by this poet. I wondered to what depths has she traveled to bring a wellspring of tightly crafted words to our consciousness. Her quest:
“How do we create meaning between the inky darkness that brackets a life?”
Since April is poetry month, I was delighted to profile Les Bernstein, our Poetry Anthology Editor, in this month’s Member Spotlight. Her poems have appeared in journals, presses and anthologies in the USA and internationally.
“I am above all things a poet. I have written since I was 15. I had some initial success with an anti Vietnam poem that was broadcast from a very popular NY radio station when I was 17 years old. The experience went to my head but I recovered. At this time, I was very influenced by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Alan Ginsburg and other beat writers. I always could be counted on to be carrying a copy of Coney Island of the Mind , Howl, and Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, a compilation of Zen stories and teachings. (which I've only recently begun to understand).”
The spirit of writers helping writers shines in Les.
“I love poetry and I love writing poems but most of all I love helping other poets see their efforts be published.”
Les has volunteered with Fran Claggett on Redwood Writers (RW) Poetry contests and anthologies for many years. “
I met Fran in 2014 when we judged a RW poetry contest. The poems were blind and after hours of discussion we managed to pick three winners. Unfortunately, they were from the same poet. We were shocked as the three styles were completely different. We decided to award the first runner up 3rd place. It was also a very good poem. This is how I met Fran and Judy Anderson, the contest winner. They have both become my dearest friends.”
When I asked her if she had a cheerful, upbeat poem for spring, she said,
“I have been thinking I’m so not a cheery poet. Come Summer Stay Summer
(see below)
was one of the Hikmet winners. It’s about as cheery as I get.”
Her style:
“I would say I’m a minimalist and that I like a certain spareness in my poems. I tend to like poems that point to the predicament and mystery of the human experience….As for my process... I am either writing or complaining to anyone who will listen that I have writer's block. Wolf Blitzer is my writing partner as I cannot seem to concentrate and create without his voice droning on in the background... bizarre but very effective for me.”
“I am not very goal-oriented or ambitious. However I have exceeded my wildest expectations for myself.”
Despite not being ambitious, she has created an impressive portfolio and list of accomplishments. She has several books of poetry on Amazon. Her poetry is so evocative, it stirs others to review back to her in prose. Here are a few reviews:
“A confluence of images that paint thought provoking pictures. Every word is linked harmoniously with grace and are magically placed as if they always belonged together. The poems are surgically precise and devoid of hyperbole…Les proves that she can fill very large canvases with very little paint.” -
Jory
“
Remarkable reflections from the caverns of her soul, Les Bernstein's inner heart is bared to us all. She writes with depth and beauty about her struggle with life and death and the fleeting nature of time.” -
Jody
“Les Bernstein's poems are lullabies of existence, capturing the paradoxical nature of life, "bisecting a now from then" through the lens of infinite being. Uncompromisable expression of the deepest spiritual teachings, capturing the mystery of it all "amid the din””.
- Maurizio
Her chapbooks,
Borderland, Naked Little Creatures
and
Amid the Din,
have been published by Finishing Line Press. Les is a winner of the 6
th
annual Nazim Hikmet Festival poetry competition. They received over 1000 poems from 366 poets. The submissions came from 25 countries and 43 US states. She also was a Pushcart Prize Nominee for 2015. She was the editor of the Marin High School Poetry Anthology 2018, the co-editor of Redwood Writer's anthologies for 2018 and 2019, and a judge for the Sonoma State Fair Poetry Contest of 2018.
Les lives in Mill Valley with her enormous family.
Come Summer Stay Summer
a hint of winter drifts into focus
the earth’s rotation slows
according to the arc of the sun
life is drawn with a hazy outline
in the banalities of age
elliptical lessons of daily existence
progress a too short lapse of being
choreographed by the unknowable
paced with narrative suspense
a reluctant history
can only try to understand
the inky infinite that brackets life
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Skye Blaine, Editor
(Apologies from the newsletter editor for omitting that last month's column
on April Poetry Month was written by Fran Claggett-Holland.)
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Collect My Dust
by Dana Rodney
God
When I die
Collect my dust
But do not remake me a woman
Make of me a stone
A rock reposing
On the lap of the earth,
Unnoticed
Elemental
Resplendent
In the cold moonlight
Empty of utterance
Of no particular use
Except perhaps
To toss into the sea
One ecstatic splash
The only word I speak
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Love Spell
by Robbi Sommers Bryant
I gave way to your snake charmer smile.
while your venomous lies
slithered
across your bedroom floor.
Blinded by your kisses,
I believed.
Your glamorous words
decorated cruel secrets
you kept under wraps.
Your mask, hypnotic.
Your touch, a tango
You
masqueraded as a butterfly,
a cobra in disguise.
Your terrifying magic
made me your sacrifice.
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Submission guidelines: double-spaced, Times or Times New Roman, 12 point font, no all caps, please. Poems are reviewed by a team of poets. We will acknowledge receipt of your work, and let you know if your poem is going to be included, or if we are requesting minor edits prior to inclusion.
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Sunday, May 19
(NOTE DATE CHANGE)
2–4:30 p.m.
FLAMINGO HOTEL
Character THROUGH Action / Character AS Action --
What Actors and Directors Can Teach Writers
with Amanda McTigue
Redwood Writers is for everyone, whether you're an accomplished
author or poet, or just wondering if writing is right for you.
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Writers News from Around the Bay
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Saturday, April 6 12-3 PM
Synergy Health Club Napa, 3421 Villa Lane, Napa 2nd Floor
MEMOIR: What Do We Dare Reveal?
With
Victoria Zackheim
Writing in a journal is one thing, putting our lives out for the public to read is quite another. When writing a memoir, how much do we reveal?
(To reserve your place, please email Sarita Lopez at
lopezs10@live.com
. Spots are limited!)
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Writers Forum
April 18, 2019
6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
Copperfield’s Books, 140 Kentucky St., Petaluma
Free and open to the public
Poet and writer Iris Jamahl Dunkle will talk about research and the art of crossing genres. Dunkle has been writing the first full-length biography on Charmian Kittredge London. While researching Charmian, Dunkle discovered that each encounter with her personal documents made her want to write poetry. So, alongside her biography, a manuscript of poems was also produced.
Iris Jamahl Dunkle is the recent past Poet Laureate of Sonoma County.
Details:
www.TheWriteSpot.us.
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If you have news of interest to our members, please submit copy and a photo if you wish by the 15th of the month prior to
editor@redwoodwriters.org
.
Editor reserves the right to accept and/or edit. Thank you.
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Our mailing address is The Redwood Writer, P.O. Box 4687, Santa Rosa, CA 95402
a
5
01(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Redwood Writers Meetings
General membership meetings are held on the second Sunday of each month (moves one week ahead if a holiday) from 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. at the Flamingo Conference Resort and Spa, located at
2777 Fourth Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95405.
Registration starts at 2 p.m.
Copyright © 2019 Redwood Writers. All rights reserved.
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