This summer brings us new beginnings in several ways.

We can go out more, see friends, hug relatives and eat inside at a restaurant.

In addition, we can enjoy some new beginnings with our writing. July has all the promise of a new season and fresh insights.

Summer also offers seasonal workshops, in person and online. Zoom has opened up all these new opportunities we never even thought of before.

If you just put a few words in a search bar about writing events, the results will include live online, live in person and a subscription to a workshop at your own pace.

More good news.

Summer also offers writers a chance to reflect on the past year of challenges locked behind closed doors and an opportunity to see how that affected our writing.

Were you more creative? More insightful with your work? Or, did the pandemic push back in ways where your creativity was stifled?

It seems the lockdown had different effects on our writing abilities.

July is a time to address those challenges, and especially this July as the

world opens up to us again.

I plan to take a fresh look at my current manuscript as I wrote it in winter. How did the season and weather inform my creativity? It’s an important observation of our work to pay attention to how the seasons play with our creativity.

July is an excellent time to check in.

Congratulations to Megan McDonald, recipient of this year’s Louise Boggess Award!

The award is our branch’s top honor and is given each year for outstanding contributions to the club.

Megan has been active in our branch on many levels. She served as our Hospitality Chair including the planning of the 2019 Holiday Party. She was active in the San Mateo County Fair Literary Stage for several years before transitioning to Literary Stage Liaison in 2020. She is busy planning how to make next year’s event even more interactive! Her presentations through Writers Helping Writers, Think Tank, and multiple library panels are always thoughtfully crafted and supportive to the writing community. She helped get the branch up and running on Zoom, acting as technology support for Monthly Meetings in the first half of 2020 and has recently been elected to serve as Vice President. Megan also ran excellent workshops for NaNoWriMo 2020 and hosted weekly workshops for our branch's (and other) participants in this yearly event.

Thank you, Megan for your generous spirit and willingness to help our community

Critique group opportunity! A small supportive group of experienced writers focused on short stories and novels still has room for more. We meet the second and fourth Tuesday of every month from 7 - 8:30pm. Contact Karen Sundback for more information.

Mary Beth O'Connor completed her memoir manuscript, turned to writing a book proposal, and created her website (junkietojudge.com). Mary Beth also has increased her recovery advocacy speaking, including being a keynote speaker for the Women for Sobriety annual conference and being interviewed for The Only One in the Room podcast.

Ellyn Siegel's Emerson Mysteries: Book Five is now on available from Amazon.

James Hanna’s zany new book, The Ping-Pong Champion of Chinatown, is available on Amazon in hardcopy and Kindle.

Ida J. Lewenstein has been spotlighted in the Spring 2021 issue of the Student Conservation Association’s magazine, The GreenWay. The article featured portions of two of Ida’s environmental poems, “Footprints in the Sand” and “Consider the Litter.”

Do you have writing news you want to share? Reached a goal? Got your author website up? Have success you want to shout about? Tell us about it!

Send an email to newsletter@sfpeninsulawriters.com with "Member News" as the Subject line, and the following information in the body of the email:

Description - No more than 15 words. Be as creative as your like - prose, verse, rhyme, stream of consciousness, you name it!

Who - your name (or pen name, if you're using one)

What - the exact nature of your success (i.e., short story, novel, website, agent, event, etc)

Where - links are great, or a physical location if it's relevant - or both!

Author and book jacket photos really make your news POP!

The CWC SF Peninsula Branch is a member of the CWC NorCal Group of branches.

As a member in good standing of the SF Peninsula branch, you can join another CWC branch, with all attendant privileges, for only $25.

The NorCal CWC Group consists of the following branches:

We also invite you to visit the NorCal Group's calendar which aggregates all branches' events.