Greetings!

Our next board meeting is on Tuesday, August 10, 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.

RENEWAL. Membership renewal in Redwood Writers (CWC) continues through September 30, 2021.  The fee to renew for the year is $45.  

EXPRESS PASS. At the time you renew you can also purchase an Express pass for all club meetings (July 2021-June 2022). Purchasing an Express pass is a one-time fee of $45 which pays for all 12 meetings (get three free!) and the meeting recordings. Express members do not pay the $5 door fee each month to attend a meeting.

NEW MEMBERS. Applications for new membership also begins July 1. The fee for a new member joining the club is $65.

DONATIONS. When you renew your membership, consider an additional donation to the club. Hosting a monthly meeting with professional speakers, publishing two anthologies (prose and poetry), offering three cash prize contests, going to the fair and offering three workshops or a conference each year isn’t cheap. Your renewal provides the branch with $25 income per member to cover these expenses. Your donations help the club plan for new opportunities, speakers, and events. If you love the club, consider a small donation and join the donors list published in the newsletter.

The stories are coming in!

What have you, or an unfortunate character, done and when was “I’ve made a terrible mistake!” or “I have made a terrible mistake!” proclaimed?

Tell us your story in 2,000 words or less and enter to win for fame and fortune! (Cash prize along with your pic, a bio and your winning story published in the Redwood Writer’s website and newsletter)

Good luck to all who enter!

Kymberlie Ingalls is an editor, writing coach, blogger, and author. The creator of the successful sites Writer of the Storm and Neuroticy = A Societal Madness, she began blogging in the late 90s, before it became the phenomenon that is prevalent today.

Her work focuses on personal topics such as love, relationships, grief, memory loss, and the examination of the human mind. Beware of falling opinions.

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.

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.

At its annual board meeting (July 25, 2021), the California Writers Club (CWC) board of representatives elected Roger Clarke Lubeck, PhD to serve as the new president of the CWC. Roger has served for five years on the Redwood board as member, vice president, president, and immediate past president and he was vice president of the CWC for two years. This October, Roger will be honored as one of the recipients of the Jack London award for service to the club.

As president, one of Roger’s goals is to grow club membership. Growth, not only in number of new and renewing members, but growth in the depth of writers in the 22 branches. His vision is for the Club to be not only one of the oldest writers clubs in the United States, but to be recognized as one of the best writers clubs. He wants CWC members to be recognized for their achievements. To that end, Roger plans to develop a system to track, recognize, and reward members for their development as writers and their literary achievements in terms of publications and awards. The recognition will be done in the branches and by the CWC.

Roger would like to see the CWC offer or sponsor several state-wide speakers or workshops for all members on Zoom. Also, he is committed to developing a new system to help our branches recruit, renew, track, and report on branch members: aka MRMS 2.

Roger says his role is to promote and support a re-energizing, a revitalization, and a renewal of the clubs’ branches and members. His one-year term begins August 1, 2021.

Roger Lubeck

Donna McCrohan Rosenthal

Constance Hanstedt

Elisabeth Tuck

Email Robin at gabbertrobin@gmail.com to let her know you’d like to attend or respond on the RW website.

If you’ve just finished Ulysses, Crime and Punishment or some other such tome, you’re probably in need of some serious change of pace. And, I have just the ticket for you: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino. “Nope,” you say, “I saw the movie.” “Not the same,” I retort. “They’re different.” Yes, the book has lots of snappy dialogue, a broken-down actor and a flamethrower, but the plot twists and turns in directions the movie never even aspired to. As to Tarantino’s writing, the New York Times reviewer captured it perfectly: “If it were written better, it’d be written worse.” Think pulp fiction on steroids. - Tommie Whitener

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.

Marilyn Lanier: This new anthology by Stories on Stage Sacramento is now in print. I’m honored to have my short personal essay included in such as august company as Karen Bender, Pamela Houston, Joshua Mohr, and many others. Books can be ordered through Capital Books in Sacramento or local books stores such as Copperfield’s.

Les Bernstein is proud to announce the upcoming publication of her latest poetry book, Loose Magic, a collection of poems that speak from life experience and memories, each telling as much about the reader as they do the writer.

"How to chronicle a lifetime? If it can be done at all, it must be in poems like this, written straight from the heart and spanning a decade, plainspoken, and lyrical with authentic and earned emotion.” – Rebecca Foust, 2017-19 Marin County Poet Laureate

Set to release November 5, 2021, you can pre-order Bernstein’s book at www.finishinglinepress.com/product/loose-magic-by-les-bernstein.

No-fee, on-going creative writing classes through SRJC’s Older Adult Program.

Creative writing: brief lecture on an aspect of writing craft, followed by class discussion of works in progress. Offered Wednesday afternoons and Friday mornings.

Creative writing with prompts - focuses on in-class writing. Friday afternoons.

Fall semester runs August 20 - December 17, 2021. Held via Zoom.

Open to all adults living in California. No fee. Join anytime. Attend when you can.

For information on joining a class please visit: older-adults.santarosa.edu/join-class. Contact Stacey Dennick for more information: sdennick@santarosa.edu

Want to write? Need help getting started? In a stuck place with your writing? Writers Forum Zoom is the place to be.

Summer Forums will begin with readings from The Write Spot: Musings and Ravings From a Pandemic Year.

Marlene Cullen will lead a freewrite, using writing prompts from Musings.

Join us for this free event on the Zoom channel.

Details: www.TheWriteSpot.us  Click on “Writers Forum.”

Saturday, August 21, 10:00 am

Because of social distancing, most events are now held virtually. This presents a unique opportunity to attend events, workshops, and meetings held by other CWC branches that would have been difficult to attend in person. To keep up to date with upcoming events, be sure to check the CWC NorCal calendar at the button below.

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.

I really love what Shawn had to say in this months' president's message about fear. I recently received a message through my Instagram from a writer who has had a lifelong dream to write a book, but was overwhelmed with ideas and was scared to start. My advice to her was to not overthink it, but to just commit to one idea and then work at it every single day, even if it's only a few hundred words at a time.

I think that's where so many writers get hung up. We are inundated with the details surrounding our writing projects, from how people will react to it to the dreams of recognition we hope to gain from it. We overthink it so much, we become paralyzed when it's time to write.

This is me. I've gone through several imposter moments with my writing when I had a hard time coming to the page, and almost always it was because I was too absorbed in the perceived opinions of others, along with my wishes for my writing (and then my disappointment when those wishes weren't coming true on my timetable).

I've learned the best remedy is to put on my blinders and keep showing up. Most of all, I've learned to focus on the story, and let go of the bigger picture. When I do that, what I write is much more authentic, and the time I spend writing feels so much more fulfilling.

Is overthinking causing fear around your writing, too? If it is, the best think you can do is to keep showing up. Look fear in the face and don't let it keep you from your writing. After a while, fear will slink away, and you'll be left in peace with the story.

There are a lot of great Redwood Writers events and happenings in store for August. First, a huge thank you to everyone who submitted to the prose anthology, Remember When. We received many great submissions, and we look forward to entering the judging and editing phase this month. Next, the prose contest, "I've Made a Terrible Mistake" is still going strong, and the deadline is this month. Have you submitted your piece yet? This month also includes Salon and Author's Support. And we can't forget about this month's in-person meeting with local artist, Brian Fies! All this and more is in this month's newsletter. Scroll up for more information.

Happy reading, and happy writing!

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:

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.

If you're interested in advertising in the Redwood Writer newsletter, contact the editor at editor@redwoodwriters.org for submission requirements and guidelines.