Note: This edition corrects an error in pricing in the contest, and the month of the general meeting. |
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Board of Directors
Shawn Langwell, President
Judy Baker, Vice President
Jeane Slone, Vice President
Malena Eljumaily, Treasurer
Crissi Langwell, Secretary
Roger Lubeck, Immediate Past President
Joelle Burnette, Website Editor
Nancy Martin, Contests
Tommie Whitener, Vault Master, Policies & Procedures
Adele Layton, Member at Large
Chairs and Editors
Les Bernstein, Poetry Anthology Editor
Skye Blaine, Newsletter Poetry Editor
Fran Claggett-Holland, Poetry Anthology Editor
Robin Gabbert, Writers Salon
Pamela Heck, Volunteer Coordinator, 2022 Sonoma County Writers Conference
Marie Judson, Critique Groups
Jeanne Jusaitis, Author Support
Crissi Langwell, Newsletter Editor, Social Media, and 2020 & 2021 Prose Anthology Editor
Shawn Langwell, 2021 Prose Anthology Editor
Roger Lubeck, Membership Chair
Linda L. Reid, Writers Circle & Poetry Anthology Liaison
Jeane Slone, Author Launch
Deborah Taylor-French, Author Support
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GENERAL MEETINGS ARE NOW HELD IN PERSON AND ON ZOOM |
Every third Saturday, Redwood Writers general meeting will be held 1-2:30 p.m.at:
Finley Center
2060 W. College Ave
Santa Rosa.
Masks are required by all, regardless of vaccination status.
If you are unable to attend or still feel uncomfortable attending in person, we will be streaming the meeting via Zoom.
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A NOTE FROM YOUR PRESIDENT |
“To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.”- Socrates
Dear Redwood Members,
At this time last year, I wrote about my own shortcomings and how excited I was to finally see the light at the end of a long dark tunnel regarding how long it took to write my next book. I talked about lessons and personal struggles—trying to write a book about confidence while in the midst of one of the biggest slumps in my sales career.
I spoke of promise and hope that my book would be done by the end of 2021. Well guess what? I’m still not done. But I am many steps closer.
Why do I write this? Because I don’t know any writer who doesn't struggle with motivation, confidence, or procrastination.
As a writer, speaker, and salesperson, I get to face my feelings of inadequacy and insecurity on a daily basis, constantly wondering is this “good enough?” or “am I good enough?”
I know I am not alone.
So, what do I do to overcome that faulty belief system in my head?
I “feel the fear and do it anyway.” I show up. I put my butt in a chair and write. A little bit every day. I don’t dwell in a carnival house of mirrors where my self-image is distorted and warped. Where the mirrors have names like worry, doubt, fear, insecurity, and my least favorite, the dreaded “imposter.”
In some small way, creating the habit to write on a regular basis alleviates the noise in my head. But like the shadow monster in our closet as kids, these insidious beliefs about my value and worth continue to sneak around, especially in the dark. Probably always will. When I feel them lurking, I flip on the lights and see that they were only shadows. Figments of my imagination and faulty belief system.
Sure, it takes more than flipping on the lights to overcome many of our persistent negative habits and feelings that block us from doing our best. Denial is not a solution. That’s why I chose the quote by Socrates. Our progress is predicated on knowing ourselves and being brave enough to walk across the room and flip on the lights when we think there are monsters sneaking about.
But for now, recognizing and admitting the problem exists—monsters are real when we believe them to be—is the first step toward healing. The first step toward becoming a better, more confident writer.
Like anything in life, things get easier with practice. And our confidence grows when we find the courage to feel what we feel and press on anyway.
Now back to finishing my book, even though I don’t want to write right now.
Here’s to you and your success. See you on the 16th. Until then, happy writing.
Shawn Langwell
Redwood Writers President
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Our next board meeting is on Tuesday, April 12, 6-7:30 p.m. via Zoom. Board meetings are held 6-7:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month unless otherwise noted, and are open to any member in good standing. If you would like to attend a board meeting, contact: president@redwoodwriters.org to receive an invitation.
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An easy way to support Redwood Writers... |
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IN THIS NEWSLETTER
- President's Message
- Upcoming Events
- Open Volunteer Positions
- "Imagine" Writing Contest
- April General Meeting
- Homegrown Poetry
- Members' Writing Inspiration
- Writers Helping Writers
- Writing Exercise
- Redwood Writers & CWC Events
- Member News & Events
- New Members
- Editor's Note
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Mark your calendars for this month's upcoming events! Keep reading the newsletter for more details about each event.
April 12: Board Meeting
April 16: March General Meeting
April 16: "Imagine" Writing Contest deadline
April 23: RW Salon
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NOTE: If you are reading this newsletter through your email, it may be clipped at the end. If you don't reach the editor's note, be sure to click "view entire message" at the bottom of this newsletter.
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Would you like to be more involved with Redwood Writers? A few volunteer positions have recently opened up and we'd love to have you as part of our team! If you're curious about any of these, email Shawn Langwell at president@redwoodwriters.org.
- Speaker Coordinator
- Contest Chair
- Social Media Coordinator
- Public Relations
Is there something you'd like to do for the club that isn't listed here? Let us know and we'll find a place for you!
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Redwood Writers "Imagine" Contest
Can you imagine...?
I never imagined...?
What or who, in your imagination has inspired you?
Where does your imagination take you?
You are invited to enter our latest writing contest with a theme of "Imagine." Memoir and fiction stories accepted. Entry fee is $10 CWC members and $15 non-members. Deadline April 16. For guidelines, visit the link below.
We can't wait to see what you imagine!
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Diane Frank will read from her new book, While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems. A Poetics Talk will follow with ideas about poetry as the language of the soul, virtuoso editing techniques, and how to write poems inspired by music. She will share the poems that are most important to her and ideas about poetry to help and inspire those who attend.
Diane Frank is the author of eight books of poems, three novels, and a photo memoir of her 400-mile trek in the Nepal Himalayas. Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems was published in 2021 by Glass Lyre Press. She is also editor of two bestselling anthologies: Fog and Light: San Francisco through the Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here and Pandemic Puzzle Poems. Diane lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where she dances, plays cello in the Golden Gate Symphony, and creates her life as an art form. Blackberries in the Dream House, her first novel, won the Chelson Award for Fiction and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Find her at DianeFrank.net.
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Saturday, April 16
1 - 2:30 p.m.
at the Finley Center in Santa Rosa
and also online via Zoom
$5 Members / $10 Guests
Masks are required by all, regardless of vaccination status to attend this meeting, per CDC.
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April's General Meeting Agenda |
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- Finley Center opens at noon for networking with other authors
- Zoom meeting room opens at 12:45 p.m. for open conversation
- Meeting starts at 1 p.m.
- Diane Frank, "Poetry, Music, and the Language of the Spirit"
- Chair announcements
- Member announcements
- Adjourn at 2:30 p.m.
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HOMEGROWN POETRY IS NOW ACCEPTING YOUR POEM SUBMISSIONS!
Please submit poems to: poetrynewseditor@redwoodwriters.org. Submission guidelines: single-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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Night Muse
by Karl Kadie
You can’t escape
the poem that wakes you at night
crying “write me.”
If you switch on the light
and record the words,
you may discard it later as drivel,
or you may extract a precious kernel
as if cracking a raw walnut
to find a morsel shaped like your brain
that tastes so sweet, so carefully spiced,
you dream about it for years.
If you don’t write it down,
if you shrug your shoulders
& drift back to sleep,
the poem disappears
like a lone dog bark on a distant block,
and you forgo,
perhaps forever,
the treasure of night poems
strung together over time
into a necklace of truth.
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Karl Kadie is the author of two previous books of poetry, The Burning House and Singing with the Storm. His work has been published or accepted for publication in Train River, 2021 Redwood Writers Anthologies Beyond Distance & Remember When, The Santa Clara Review, The New Verse News, and Haiku Headlines. He lives in Santa Rosa, California.
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This years anthology is off to a wonderful start. We have 248 submissions from 65 poets. Now, Fran and my work will begin. We hope to be able to notify the poets of the status of their submissions in the next 6 weeks. We look forward to the publication of Crossroads and the book launch May 29th. We celebrate all who have submitted their work.
“A poet is before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.” W. H. Auden.
Your editors,
Les Bernstein and Fran Claggett
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WHAT INSPIRED YOUR CURRENT WRITING PROJECT? |
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John Omaha:
Cray Cray Nay Shun exposes the essence of America today as the lead character, the stand-up comedian Barry Wild, uncovers truths about himself. The novel follows Wild on an eleven-city circuit of the United States called the Cray Cray Nay Shun Tour. Wild draws his shtick from psychotherapy and psychology. Each of the novel's chapters begins with Wild appearing at a comedy club in a different state. The themes differ from state to state. As he tours, Wild meets or encounters people with different forms of craziness. The format provides a structure for observations on the cities, their history, their people, and the evolving tragedy of the American experiment. As a psychotherapist, I am inspired to write Cray Cray Nay Shun by a desire to understand and heal the craziness that is currently tearing America apart.
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Marlene Cullen:
I’m currently working on posts for my blog, The Write Spot, which includes a treasure chest of inpirational gems for writers. What inspires me is my passion for encouraging writers to Just Write!
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Ana Manwaring
In 4th grade we studied Our Neighbors to the South. Our book had lots of pictures, and I fell in love with the romance of sombreroed men strumming guitars, the little firewood laden donkeys, the dark-eyed beauties with swirling be-ribboned skirts, and most of all, the legend of the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, which loom above Mexico City. I believed the Aztec legend that Iztaccíhuatl was a princess who fell in love with one of her father's warriors, Popocatépetl. When Popocatépetl returned from war to find his love dead, he buried her body outside Tenochtitlán and, kneeling at her grave, the Gods changed the lovers into mountains, covering them with snow. When I visit, I feel wholly alive and as though I belong to the place. It’s hard to explain my reaction, but Mexico has everything to do with inspiring newly re-released Set Up and the rest of the series.
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Natasha Yim:
I’m currently working on a nonfiction picture book about a rat who sniffed out landmines in Cambodia. The story was inspired by an article I read about a rat being awarded the gold medal from the UK charity, the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA), for his devotion to duty. He was the first rat to be awarded this medal. In his 5 years of service, he had uncovered 100 landmines and explosive devices and cleared about 141,000 square meters of land, which has helped save many Cambodian lives. How these rats are trained to sniff out the TNT in landmines is fascinating.
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Joan Goodreau:
I am working on my project for the Hedgebrook Writers Residency that I was awarded. In October at Whidbey Island off Seattle, I will write a short play about family life on the Autism Spectrum.
I am now interviewing parents of autistic children about their experiences during the Covid epidemic. Then I will turn these interviews into monologues and dialogue. The challenge is to create composite characters to protect these parents’ privacy.
When this play is finished, it can be used by agencies such as the Regional Centers in California to train personnel who work with people with special needs. It will be able to be produced on stage or as a Readers Theater. As a mother of an adult child with autism, I am grateful to these parents for sharing their journeys with me.
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Tommie Whitener:
After being intrigued by one of Anton Chekhov’s more than 300 short stories entitled The Pharmacist’s Wife, I wanted more of the dashing young cavalryman and the beautiful married woman he was enthralled by. So, in my admittedly inadequate way I tried to emulate the master and wrote a sequel I called "Bright Shiny Boots" and included in my first published volume of short stories. However, the couple had very much come alive for me, and it seemed they deserved more than just a couple of short stories. Thus, I continued their passionate romance and exciting adventures in the novel about them I am writing now and have entitled Circassian Beauty. I hope to publish it this summer.
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J.L. Henker:
I was reading an article about a NYT’s bestselling author who said his novel was inspired by a photograph. Not too long after, I woke up from a dream with an image of a young woman lying injured in a cave, being guarded by a bear and a wolf. Just like the author with the photograph, I wondered what the story was behind this scene. I sat down in front of my computer and the words began to pour out. The characters had something to say from the very beginning. My high fantasy novel, Cave of Whispers, is almost done and ready for final edits. It’s been an amazing and unexpected journey.
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Roger C. Lubeck:
I submitted poems to the RW anthology and a story to the Literary Review. Waiting to hear. Working on a book of my poetry (published and unpublished) with photos and art. Also in process, I am revising and editing my 2021 Nanowrimo novel Without a Shepard, a first contact science fiction set in World War II. RAF pilot Perry Shepard is shot down by an alien craft, The El y are on Earth to observe the outcome of the world war. Hunted by the Germans, Shepard works with the El y to repair their space ship damaged in his dogfight. Shepard is concerned the alien’s technology, if discovered, will help Hitler win the war.
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Crissi Langwell:
I'm currently editing my rough draft romance novel about a single mom romance. The book starts out with a masquerade party that leads to a secret identity moment between the two main characters, which is always a fun trope in romance novels. But what I've really had fun with is using my own experience navigating romance as a single mom in showing how the heroine has to juggle her romantic feelings with what's best for her son. This book is the start of a new series I'm working on, so I'm pretty excited about it.
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Want to participate in next month's callout? Keep an eye on groups.io!
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This article was originally published in the spring edition of The CWC Bulletin. |
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The Art of Feedback
by Stacey Dennick
Each of us needs to develop a positive relationship with our writing, rather than one of dread, guilt, or fear. All authors need useful critiques to grow their work. Giving your fellow writer feedback is one of the most encouraging and energizing things you can do, and it will improve your writing as well. Unfortunately, most people have been taught to either say something vaguely polite like, “That’s nice,” or to jump right into harsh criticism, which can be very damaging. Giving helpful notes on any kind of creative work is tricky. The goal is to inspire the writer to greater self-expression, clarity, and fun. When I was enrolled in the University of San Francisco’s MFA in Writing program, each student was required to make notes in the margins of her fellow student’s fifteen to thirty-page work, and to submit a one-page letter detailing her or his impressions and thoughts. One of my instructors collected a copy of our letter and returned it to us the next week with feedback on our feedback! This may seem excessive, but it taught us how to help each other.
Guidelines for Discussion
In-person or Zoom meetings (using screen share so everyone can read along while the author reads aloud) work best, IMHO, until you know each other, then you might exchange documents or use Google Docs.
1. The author should tell us what kind of feedback she or he is looking for.
On a first draft, when you’re finding your way into the story, the focus of feedback should be on praise and questions, without worrying too much about grammar, punctuation, or spelling. It’s also fine to ask your writer buddies to listen and not say a thing. Don’t think it’s better to be brave and take whatever they can dish out. Sometimes we just want to play with ideas and even the insinuation of critique can deflate our enthusiasm. Protect your creative self.
2. The author must sit and listen, fighting the urge to talk or justify.
Take in the ideas. Some will be useful, others won’t. Just be open to considering them.
3. Start with a round of compliments.
The more specific, the better. It’s just as important to know what’s working, what stands out, as it is to find the areas that need polishing.
4. When commenting, call the writer “the narrator,” even if the story is memoir.
It’s essential for the author to see herself as distinct from the character in her tale. So, instead of saying “I wonder what you were thinking on page 2,” say “I wonder what the narrator was thinking on page 2.” This might seem like nit-picky semantics, but it helps the writer to be more objective.
5. When discussing work, always use positive “I” statements, so the author doesn’t feel put on the spot.
For example, you might say, “I would like to hear more about the third paragraph on page three,” rather than, “This part is too short.” Stating “I was confused here,” is easier to hear than, “This is confusing.”
6. Avoid overwhelming the author.
Don’t go through a list of everything that you think needs adjustment. Pick one, or maybe two of the most important sections to comment on. Leave something for others to discuss. Remember, everyone has different desires for feedback. Some people don’t want to revise much, and would rather not get a lot of comments. Sometimes we just want to be heard. Or, they might be ready to submit the piece, and just need help proofreading.
7. If you didn’t like the story, ask yourself why.
Is it because the subject matter isn’t your cup of tea, or is the writing unclear, overburdened with adjectives, or vague and lacking in emotion? If you can’t think of anything constructive to say, rely on others to comment.
8. Don’t be afraid of moments of silence while people are thinking.
Allow the introverts space to formulate their thoughts.
9. Don’t get overly prescriptive with your feedback.
In other words, don’t swamp the author with many bright ideas of how to change the plot, setting, dialogue, or characters—unless they specifically ask for them.
How to Take Feedback
- Be present and receptive.
- Try to avoid launching into elaborate justifications for what you’ve written. Just listen. At the end of the discussion you may ask questions for clarification.
- Walk the middle ground between thinking your stuff is perfect and your fellow writers can’t help you, and wanting to throw everything away and give up.
- All notes are subject to interpretation. It’s your story. You do not have to change anything that you don’t want to. You don’t have to answer every question that readers have. Don’t compromise yourself or your style with other people’s ideas of what’s important.
- Put your writing and all the notes you receive on it away for a while to ferment. In three hours, three days, three weeks, or whatever, read through all the feedback before you start revising.
Finally, remember Neil Gaiman’s words of wisdom: “When people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong."
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Writer, editor, instructor, and media maker Stacey Dennick is a member of Redwood Writers and teaches on-going, no-fee creative writing classes through Santa Rosa Junior College. Currently held on Zoom, free classes are open to all adults living in California. Find out more about her media services, or read some humorous memoir on her website: sdennick.com. Email: sdennick@comcast.net.
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Tommie Whitener on Substack:
Writers seeking to build their “brand” have a new platform: Substack. As described in the article the link below will take you to, great writers like Salman Rushdie and George Saunders are using Substack to foster one-on-one relations, communicate with their fans, and sustain reader loyalty. Maybe it’s time to add Substack to your list of marketing tools.
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Each month, the Redwood Writer will feature an exercise to help inspire your writing. This can be an exercise you do on your own, or you can send your 300-word (or less) piece to editor@redwoodwriters.org for possible publication in the newsletter. |
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BLOCKING AND STAGE MOVEMENT
Our speaker at the March meeting, Diana M. Pho, Hugo Award-winning editor and playwright, talked about how techniques used in playwriting and on the stage can be applied on the page, i.e., in novels and stories. One area Diana covered was blocking and stage movement. Blocking in theatre describes the location of actors on the stage and the movements they make. The author, director, and actor(s) collaborate to determine stage position and movement in a scene. Diana described an exercise to incorporate blocking and movement in our writing. For example, in a novel we might write, “Tom entered the room, intent on getting the expensive pen from Helen.”
As an exercise, write this scene using six different ways to block and stage the movement of the characters so that the audience (reader) knows that Tom wants the pen.
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REDWOOD WRITERS & CWC EVENTS |
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REDWOOD WRITERS SPRING SALON
"Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil."
- Bishop Reginald Heber
Spring is a wonderful time to jump start our creativity! We are inviting 15 RW members to read from their works about spring, other works in progress, or published pieces (first 15 to register read). We also welcome all listeners.
Salon is a good place to practice your reading skills, try out the sound of a new piece, or just enjoy the company and talents of your fellow writers. Come join us for this writers’ potluck of both readings as well as snacks and drinks.
SATURDAY, APRIL 23, FROM 1:00 ~ 2:30pm
REGISTER ON THE RW WEBSITE OR EMAIL Robin Gabbert IF YOU WOULD LIKE
TO READ OR ATTEND.
Directions will be sent to participants a few days before the Salon.
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AUTHOR SUPPORT GROUP
April 16, noon - 12:45 p.m.
(via Zoom before the general meeting)
Please join us online via Zoom to chat about writing, listen to the challenges of others, and share resources. All levels of writers can benefit from participating. Published authors enjoy this group as well as beginning writers. This is a forum where you pick the topics and questions to be discussed. Discuss the challenges of writing fiction, memoir, or nonfiction. Find new ways to handle rejection, writers' block, or to start a critique group.
The Author Support Group's purposes are to help those who want assistance getting unstuck, want new resources, or need guidance in choosing options.
Be sure to register in advance to receive the link to this free online gathering.
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The following are announcements from a few of our fellow CWC branches. To see all branch events, visit the CWC events calendar at calwriters.org/events-month. |
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Marin CWC Branch
Through June the Marin Branch is offering their meetings free to members of any branch and only $5 for non-members. Here's the upcoming lineup.
April 27
Stephanie Chandler - Build Your Book Marketing Plan: Simple Strategies to Cultivate Your Audience and Sell More Books
May 25
Jordan Rosenfeld - Writing the Intimate Character
June 22
Mary Buckham - Writing Active Hooks: or How Many Hooks Are Enough?
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High Desert CWC Branch
Chris Vogler Scheduled for Free Zoom Presentation on April 26th
THE ARCHETYPES OF CHARACTER: A Guide to the Eight Major Functions
As a follow-up of his December 21, 2021, zoom session on the Hero’s Journey, internationally famous author and teacher, Christopher Vogler, will discuss characters. Vogler is author of The Hero’s Journey and is a renowned writing consultant.
The creation of lifelike, multi-layered and compelling characters is among the most challenging skills a writer must master. The concept of psychological archetypes offers one key to understanding the jobs that characters must do in order to move a story along. All of us, and all the characters we create in our stories, have the inner potential to express many different identities and ways of operating in the world. The eight major archetypes as identified by story analyst Christopher Vogler in The Hero’s Journey represent the essential functions that drive an entertaining plot and allow our characters to bring forth different levels of their being. The archetypes are a useful set of tools in the writer’s arsenal of techniques, and can make your stories and characters more human, believable and compelling to the reader. In this presentation, Vogler will outline the archetypes and how they work, and will share his recent discoveries about human character from Greek and Roman myths.
This Zoom presentation is to be held on Tuesday, April 26 at 6 pm. There is no charge to attend this zoom meeting sponsored by the High Desert Branch of the California Writers Club. CWC presidents will be notified of the zoom access information for distribution to their branch members for this event.
For those who missed Vogler’s December presentation on The Hero’s Journey, it may be viewed online on YouTube.
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If you have news to share about your writing, an award, an appearance, or other writing-related news, send a 100-word or less announcement to editor@redwoodwriters.org. Photos encouraged. Deadline for consideration in next month’s newsletter is the 15th of this month.
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Poetry Reading Sponsored by Sebastopol Center for the Arts
Date: April 26
Time: 7-8 p.m. on Zoom
Cost: $5
Poetic License Sonoma - “Ars Poetica” with special guest poet, Rebecca Foust
Guest poet Rebecca Foust’s new book, ONLY, is forthcoming from Four Way Books in Fall 2022. She is the author of three chapbooks including The Unexploded Ordnance Bin, winner of the 2018 Swan Scythe Chapbook Award and four books including Paradise Drive, winner of the Press 53 Award for Poetry.
Jaime Zukowski will be acting MC; Guest Student poet from SRJC will be Stork Rein.
Presenting poets: Joseph Cutler, Susanne Arrhenius, Paul DeMarco, Leo McCloskey, Steve Trenam, Judith Vaughn, Jaime Zukowski, Kusum Irene Jain.
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Sonoma County Literary Update
Have you heard about the Sonoma County Literary Update? Published by Jo-Anne Rosen and Terry Ehret, this free online publication is sent out once a month as a service to writers and those interested in writing-related news and events. For submission guidelines, visit socolitupdate.com. |
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Submit your writing news to CWC's The Bulletin!
The deadline to submit to the next issue of The Bulletin is May 1. All submissions should be sent to editor@calwriters.org.
For new book releases, short stories, poems or articles, or news of literary honors. 50 words or less. Put “Member Spotlight” in the Subject line. Send a copy of your book cover in JPEG format as an email attachment.
Articles on writing craft, marketing and publication: Send a proposal by email. Contributors will receive a short blurb to promote their books and/or services.
Photographs: JPEG format, sent separately (not embedded in a Word doc or PDF). Please provide complete details in the caption, including names of people pictured.
Note: This is separate from the Redwood Writer newsletter. To submit your news or articles to this newsletter, please email editor@redwoodwriters.org.
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CRITIQUE GROUP COORDINATION
Marie Judson keeps an ongoing list of RW members interested in joining or creating a writing group. If you would like to find a critique group, or add more members to an existing group, send your genre(s) and contact information to mariejudson@gmail.com. You'll receive an email with the subject line, "Writers seeking writing groups." You can then either reply to all or select specific writers to contact. This has been an ongoing free service for Redwood Writers members for nine years. |
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Please give a warm welcome to one of our newest members! |
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Christina Nichol spent some of her formative years living in the Napa Valley in a straw bale house powered by an adjacent stream and a Volkswagon generator (The clocks were always a little off) (It has since burned down).
Christina Nichol taught English in South Korea, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, India, and the Republic of Georgia, where her satirical novel Waiting for the Electricity is set. The novel won a 2012 Rona Jaffe Writers Award and a gold medal at the 2015 California Book Awards. She teaches environmental studies at Sonoma State University and is currently finishing a book about progressive political movements in South Korea called Honey Badger Moonlight Knights Protect the President. Her website is christinanichol.com.
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Redwood Writers are members of the California Writers Club (CWC). Redwood Writers is the largest of the 22 Branches in the CWC. Becoming a members of the Redwood Branch of the California Writers Club is a simple as 1, 2, 3.
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Go to the website: redwoodwriters.org/membership/join
- Complete the submission form. Include references to any publications.
- Pay the $65 new member fee.
Redwood Writers offers members the opportunity to:
- Attend the monthly meeting (3rd Sat. 1-3 p.m. at the Finley Center, Santa Rosa)
- Interact with other writers and sell books at the monthly meeting.
- Learn from professional speakers at monthly meetings.
- Publish fiction and memoir in the annual prose anthology.
- Publish poetry in the annual poetry anthology.
- Read their work at the club-sponsored Salon and Writers Circle.
- Present their work at local bookstores.
- Sell their work at the Sonoma Country Fair.
- Launch their new book at the Author Launch party.
- Attend workshops and conferences on the writing.
- Win writing contests with cash prizes and special recognition for winners.
- Advertise their expertise—graphic designer, editor, illustrator.
- Receive club news from our award-winning website and monthly newsletter.
- Submit stories, essays, and poetry to the Literary Review published by CWC.
- Receive the annual Literary Review from the California Writers Club and receive a triannual CWC Bulletin with state-wide events from CWC branches.
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Vicki Dello Joio
Your Power Presence for Writers
May 21, 2022
at the Finley Center and on Zoom
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Dear friends,
As of our last board meeting, the Redwood Writers branch has 248 members, 43 of them new! That’s an amazing number, and one we should all celebrate.
Here’s another number to celebrate: 23
That’s the number of volunteers who have dedicated time out of their busy schedules this year to ensure Redwood Writers has speakers for our meetings and workshops, a place in their home to read your writing out loud, a website and newsletter with up-to-date information, an anthology to publish your writing, opportunities and events to promote yourself as an author, interesting contests, a bi-annual conference, and so much more.
That’s a lot of work on the shoulders of these 23 selfless volunteers who truly understand the meaning of Writers Helping Writers. Does everything happen perfectly? Of course not. We’re all human, and mistakes happen. And there is a lot of work to keep a club of this size running as smooth as possible. In a pandemic, no less! These past two years, we’ve taken a very social branch and moved everything online, and then graduated to a hybrid model. It hasn't been easy, but I'd say our club is stronger than ever!
There are a lot of moving parts to this club, and we owe a lot to the 23 volunteers who make it happen. A huge and heartfelt thank you to the following volunteers who make our branch what it is:
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Judy Baker
Les Bernstein
Skye Blaine
Joelle Burnette
Fran Claggett-Holland
Tina Deason
Malena Eljumaily
Robin Gabbert
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Cynthia Gregory
Pamela Heck
Marie Judson
Jeanne Jusaitis
Crissi Langwell
Shawn Langwell
Marilyn Lanier
Adele Layton
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Linda Loveland Reid
Roger Lubeck
Nancy Martin
Danna Ruffner
Jeane Slone
Deborah Taylor-French
Tommie Whitener
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If you get the chance, I hope you'll take the time to thank those who volunteer for the benefit of our branch!
Before I go, be sure you didn't miss some of the special notes in this month's newsletter. Our latest writing contest was announced, and the deadline is coming up quick! A few of our members shared the inspiration behind their current writing projects. And on the topic of volunteers, we have a few openings for volunteer positions. Join the team that makes this branch so wonderful!
Happy writing!
Crissi Langwell
Newsletter Editor
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CONTRIBUTE TO THE NEWSLETTER! |
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Want to be a part of the newsletter? Here's the cheat sheet to the different sections of this newsletter and the word count requirements:
- Writers Helping Writers - 300 words or less
- Other Articles or In Memoriam - 300 words or less
- Members News - 100 words or less
- What We're Reading - 100 words or less
- Homegrown Poetry - short poems work best
Please do your best to adhere to word count limits! Send your articles and news by the 15th of the month to the newsletter editor at editor@redwoodwriters.org. Send your poems by the 10th of the month to the poetry editor at poetrynewseditor@redwoodwriters.org. Submission guidelines may apply, read section for requirements. |
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If you're interested in advertising in the Redwood Writer newsletter, contact the editor at editor@redwoodwriters.org for submission requirements and guidelines.
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Our mailing address is:
The Redwood Writer
P.O. Box 4687
Santa Rosa, CA 95402
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