Participants at the Jan. 27 workshop display their
collages. For details about this creative event, please see
Member News.
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WNBA-SF News
Visit "our" store Mar 29
It's official! BookShop West Portal in San Francisco is now WNBA-SF's sponsoring
bookstore. Our first members' reading is set for 7pm Thursday, Mar 29;
Invite family, friends, coworkers and all the booklovers you know to this important
inaugural event.
This new relationship between the store and WNBA-SF is a win-win situation, and
really fits in well with WNBA's commitment to support independent booksellers. The
store can hold more than 100 people, so let's make our first evening there a real
celebration.
Located at 80 W Portal Ave in San Francisco, BookShop West Portal is open
10am-9pm daily. Each month the store hosts myriad author events as well as yoga and
other classes. Owner Neal Sofman has agreed to create a WNBA Author Bookcase, as
well as carrying WNBA-related membership materials. Drop by and browse the store or
check out its website, where you can sign up to be on its emailing list.
The program is limited to only ten readers so claim your spot soon. WNBA-SF
members will be given priority; if space is available, guests may have an
opportunity to read. Contact Mary today at
president@wnba-sfchapter.org to get your slot to read your work on Mar
29.
Welcome Allegra
We're delighted to announce that Allegra Harris has agreed to be WNBA-SF's
treasurer. For the past year Allegra has worked as a publicist at North Atlantic
Books in Berkeley. She is a recent graduate from the University of
California at Berkeley's English department, where she enjoyed working with
professors such as Lyn Hejinian. During her time there, she was also the business
manager of the Berkeley Poetry Review. Allegra was born and raised in beautiful
Sonoma County, and loves returning for weekend wine-tasting trips. She also enjoys
her boyfriend's amazing culinary skills and playing with her new kitten, Penelope.
We're delighted to have her as the latest member of our dynamic board.
photo credit: Elisa Southard
While attending WNBA-SF's Effie Lee Morris Lecture, Literacy Liaison Teresa
LeYung Ryan discovers her book has been archived at the San Francisco History
Center.
Leading for Literacy
You, too, can become a community literacy leader. Having stepped down as our
chapter treasurer, Teresa LeYung Ryan is moving forward in her new role as
WNBA-SF's literacy liaison, creating ways for chapter members to link up with local
literacy efforts. One of Teresa's first contacts is Randall Weaver, Project Read
manager at the San Francisco Public Library-Main Branch. "I look forward to working
with WNBA," Randall says.
Through Project Read, the adult literacy program of the San Francisco Public
Library, professionally trained volunteer-tutors provide free one-on-one tutoring
to English-speaking adults who want to improve their basic reading and writing
skills. Activities for enrolled adult learners with young children are offered
through the Project Read Families for Literacy Program. For more details, visit
www.projectreadsf.org.
Anyone interested in these or other literacy programs anywhere in the Bay Area,
please email
Teresa and type "WNBA Project Read" in the subject line.
Tutor Training for Project Read San Francisco kicks off with a tutor
orientation, 6-7:30pm, Tuesday, Mar 13. That will be followed by five
training sessions from 6-8:30pm, Mar 15, 20, 22, 27 and 29. There will be
additional training dates in 2007.
Teresa reports that there's also Bay Area Literacy (BALit) which serves adults
in the Bay Area who choose to improve their reading and writing skills. BALit's 25
programs are located in libraries from Mendocino County to Santa Clara County. Each
year these sites serve some 6,500 adults, helping them to achieve their goals and
expand their opportunities. For details, visit www.literacynet.org/balit or contact Teresa and type "WNBA BALit" in the subject line.
Getting involved
There are any number of ways to make an impact through WNBA-SF, from filling the
vacant position of Vice President to assisting with a single workshop or other
event. Put your skill to good use, develop new ones, make professional contacts and
just generally have a good time by volunteering with WNBA-SF. For more details, to
suggest an activity or to volunteer, e-mail president@wnba-sfchapter.org.
Meeting Mar 1
Bring your ideas and your enthusiasm to the monthly WNBA-SF board meeting from
6-8pm on Thursday, Mar 1. Always open to all members, WNBA-SF board meetings
(except for the January session) are usually held on the first Thursday of the
month from 6-8pm at the Café at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. For more
details or to add an item to the agenda, please e-mail president@wnba-sfchapter.org.
Filling the BookWorm with Your News
The WNBA-SF chapter newsletter, the BookWorm, is published the first of
every month. We'd love to announce members. publications, articles, book-signings,
workshops, awards or other milestones. The deadline for submissions is the
20th of each month; please send items to newsletter@wnba-sfchapter.org. (If you don't receive a "got
it" response within a few days of sending your e-mail, please try again.)
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WNBA-National News
Partnering with Penguin
The Women's National Book Association will have a new partner in presenting the
2007 WNBA Pannell Award at this year's BookExpo America on June 2. Penguin
Young Readers Group has agreed to underwrite the award to recognize and publicly
applaud the work of booksellers who stimulate, promote and encourage the interest
of young people in books.
Named for Lucile Micheels Pannell, a model bookseller who was also a founding
member of a WNBA chapter, the Pannell Award was established in 1981 by WNBA and is
given to two bookstores—a children's specialty bookstore and a general
bookstore—annually at BEA. In addition to receiving recognition in the book
industry, each Pannell recipient receives a $1,000 check and a framed piece of
original art by a children's book illustrator.
In explaining Penguin's decision to underwrite the Pannell in 2007, Doug
Whiteman, President of Penguin Young Readers Group, cited the award as being a
"worthy cause" and expressed enthusiasm for its mission of promoting reading and
the enjoyment of books for young people. Penguin Young Readers Group is a member of
Penguin Group (USA), Inc. located at 345 Hudson St, New York, NY 10014. Long a
leader in children's book publishing, it represents some of the most recognized
names in the book industry—Viking Children's Books, Frederick Warne, Philomel
Books, Dutton Children's Books, Dial Books for Young Readers and G.P. Putnam's
Sons; as well as new innovative imprints for older readers, including Razorbill and
Sleuth.
In addition to the Pannell Award, the national WNBA organization serves as a
Reading Promotion Partner in the Library of Congress Center for the Book and also
is a non-governmental organization affiliated with the United Nations, fostering
reading in Third World nations.
Generating More Publicity
If you're a WNBA-SF author-member, there's still time to submit your book
information to the new WNBA Author Section that being set up on the WNBA National web
site. To be included, current members of WNBA-SF must send their information in a
Microsoft Word attachment to president@wnba-sfchapter.org with "WNBA author listing" in the
subject line. Include your first and last name and middle initial if it has been
included in the publication; book title(s); publisher(s); and date(s) of
publication for any book you have written and/or illustrated, a web site address,
and any award bestowed on the work(s).
And don't forget that the WNBA national newsletter, the Bookwoman, goes
out to nine chapters with more than 900 members nationwide. Joan Gelfand
is our SF chapter correspondent. In addition to sending items to the chapter's
BookWorm newsletter, please contact Joan if you'd like news sent to this national
newsletter—talks, publications, appearances, awards, reviews or feature-length
article ideas.
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Announcements
WOW! Women on Writing
When: Mar 3
Where: Skyline College, San Bruno
Cost: $100
To register or for more information: www.smccd.net/accounts/skywow.
Details: WOW! 2007 is the fifth annual conference celebrating International
Women's Day. This year's keynote speaker will be Ayelet Waldman, author of Love
& Other Impossible Pursuits, Daughter's Keeper and The
Mommy-Track Mysteries.
Among the many workshops and panel discussions will be "Transforming Grief Into
Potent Writing" by WNBA-SF members Teresa LeYung Ryan (Love Made of
Heart), and Lynn Scott (A Joyful Encounter: My Mother, My Alzheimer
Clients and Me).
Conference participants come from the nine Bay Area counties and beyond,
bringing together a remarkable range of ages from 11 to 90-something. Skyline
College is a center for the intellectual nurturance of women of all ages, extending
far beyond the numbers who regularly enroll in courses. The conference brings
together faculty, staff, students and community members with culturally diverse
writers and artists who introduce new ideas and pedagogies associated with women's
studies curriculum in colleges and universities.
The Well-Constructed Plot
When: Tuesdays, Mar 6-27, 6:30-9:30pm
Where: University of California Santa Cruz Extension
Instructor: WNBA-SF member Martha Alderson
Register at: www.ucsc-extension.edu, Course #3507, Section #004.
Details: In this four-evening workshop, participants will examine the dynamics
of scene and summary, the cause and effect sequences that underpin solid plots, and
how characters in conflict act as the driving force behind exceptional stories.
Each participant will create two visual templates—one to hold story ideas at the
scene level, the other to hold an action plotline full of conflict, a
character-driven plotline, and a thematic plotline.
Advanced Fiction Writing with Tom Parker
When: Wednesdays, 7-10pm, Mar 14-May 16
Where: 535 Ramona St (above Nola's), #6, Palo Alto
Cost: $495
Registration: Send a deposit of $50 to Tom Parker at the above address. For more
information, visit www.tomparkerwrites.com, call 650-321-6120 or e-mail
tom@tomparkerwrites.com
Details: Can a fiction writing workshop change your life? Maybe. It certainly
can change your writing, helping you take it to the next level and see your work
with newfound clarity. WNBA-SF member Tom Parker is a former Stanford and UC
Berkeley writing instructor, a prize-winning short-story writer and novelist, and a
longtime Palo Alto Weekly fiction contest judge. This is an opportunity to
avail yourself of his insight, humor, and unique teaching style in a supportive
environment where your work is discussed and refined with the goal of
publication.
Get Published!
The Bay Area Independent Publishers Association Hosts its 2007 Independent
Publishing Institute
When: Mar 17, 8am-5pm
Where: San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo
Cost: Advanced registration $89 BAIPA members/$105 nonmembers; after Mar 5, $99
members/$115 nonmembers.
Registration and more details: www.baipa.net or email baipa@onebox.com.
Details: This intensive one-day workshop on independent publishing and book
marketing is a great opportunity to network. Key topics will include: Getting Into
Print from Idea to Publicity; Making Publishing Profitable; Mistakes to Avoid;
Design and Production; Marketing and Publicity Panel; Creating a Platform and New
Revenue Streams. Breakout sessions will include: Copy Editing; Developmental
Editing; Marketing and Publicity; Web Basics and Advanced; Children's Picture Books
and Surviving Success. Established in 1979, BAIPA is an educational trade
association dedicated to the support and development of small publishing firms and
authors who publish. BAIPA acts as a liaison, clearinghouse, guide and support
network for those who wish to pursue smaller scale or initial
self-publishing.
Usage: Trends and Tricky Issues (By Editcetera)
When: Monday, Mar 26, 6:30-9:30pm
Where: Hotel Shattuck Plaza, Berkeley
Cost: $75 before March 19; $85 after
Registration and more info: www.edicetera.com; 510-849-1110
Instructors: Zipporah Collins, Irene Elmer and Marilyn Schwartz.
Details: When it comes to usage, should editors follow what their sixth-grade
teachers taught them? What sounds right to them? What they see being done
frequently? A leading authority? Hear what three experienced editors have to say.
Editcetera is an association of freelance publishing professionals.
Jack London Writers Conference
Sponsored by San Francisco Peninsula Branch of California Writer's Club
When: Mar 24
Where: Crown Plaza Hotel, Foster City
Cost: $150 ($125 CWC members), $95 full time students
Registration and more information: www.sfpeninsulawriters.com
Details: Spend one incredible day with successful authors and teachers,
including WNBA-SF's Ellen Sussman. Among the 16 workshops will be: Finding
Your Writer's Voice, First Draft/Second Draft, Creating Blockbuster Plots
(presented by WNBA-SF's Martha Alderson) Romancing the Page, Moving the Plot
Through Dialogue, Writing for Children, Creating Characters that Leap off the Page
and more.
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Mission Statement
The Woman's National Book Association is a national organization of women
and men who work with and value books. WNBA exists to promote reading and to
support the role of women in the community of the book.
The Women's National Book Association was established in 1917, before women in
America had the right to vote.
The San Francisco branch of WNBA is one chapter in a vibrant organization with
over 800 members across the county. Each branch has its own flavor and lively
events to honor books—the creation of books, the world of books, and allied
arts.
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In This Issue
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Welcome
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Welcome to the March 2007 edition of Bookworm, with news and events highlighting
San Francisco WNBA members!
"For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has
come upon the right word."—Catherine Drinker Bowen
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From Our Chapter President
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Dear WNBA-SF Friends,
Spring is in the air and I can see the seeds of growth
everywhere. I can't wait for my lilacs to burst forth with their
delicate stems and scent.
WNBA-SF continues to be nurtured by the book community as well.
Book Shop West Portal is now our sponsoring book store and
is hosting us on Thursday, March 29—Check out the details in the
WNBA-SF News section of this newsletter.
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Mary E. Knippel
Sharie Cohen Photography |
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Please join me in welcoming Allegra Harris as our new
treasurer. And for the added convenience of our membership, we now
offer PayPal. I'm sure this new development will make things
easier for the planning process as well as on-line registration for
our programs. It's also a fast and painless way to sign up or renew
your membership.
Survey update: I'm happy to announce that WNBA-SF
is planning a luncheon for in San Francisco on April 20. We'll be
able to share ideas, projects and seek each other's advice. The
survey results also indicated your desire for programs which
focused on career development, so there will be a panel at the new
San Mateo County Library in June.
Luisa Adams and I and all the participants had a
wonderful time at the New Year, New Creative You event on
Jan. 27. The Brain Gym exercises got us up and moving, stimulating
more brain power, and then the collage project had everyone ready
to write in a whole different way. Our two presentations were so
complimentary that Luisa and I (with a little encouragement) could
be persuaded to repeat the program.
Looking forward to continued opportunities of growth and
synergy,
Mary
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Member Profile: Bookworm talks to Cara Black, author of Murder
on the Ile Saint-Louis
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WNBA-SF member Cara Black writes the nationally best-selling Aimee Leduc mystery
series, which are set in different districts in Paris. According to the New York
Times, "Black inhales its (Paris') essence as if it were some musky perfume."
The latest in the series, Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis, is being released
March 7. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly refers to Murder on the
Ile Saint-Louis as, "Black's gripping seventh mystery to feature Parisian
computer expert Aimée Leduc. This Paris has a gritty, edgy feel, and Black's prose
evokes the sound of the Seine rising with the spring thaw. Aimée makes an engaging
protagonist, vulnerable beneath her vintage chic clothing and sharp-witted
exterior."
Cara is president of the local chapter of Mystery Writers of American; on the
board of Sisters in Crime; and a member of the Marais Historic Society in Paris.
She lives in San Francisco with her bookseller husband and her teenage son. This
spring Cara has an extensive speaking schedule at libraries, book stores and book
clubs throughout the Bay Area. For more details, visit www.CaraBlack.com.
- When did you start writing?
- My first book, Murder in the Marais, fermented in my head for
10 years and then took almost four years to write. I'm slow, what can I say?
But I kept learning the craft and I still am. It's like juggling several balls
in the air at once—dialogue, plot, characterization, setting, obstacles for the
characters—while standing on a crumbling cliff over the ocean. I've been in the
same writing group for years. We meet in Berkeley. They keep me on my toes,
remind me when I mention a character that I forgot to introduce...little things
like that. For me it's helpful, but writing groups don't work for
everyone.
- Why did you choose your particular genre?
- Crime fiction is a great framework to hang a story. Simply put, there's a
crime or murder—the inciting incident—sparking the tale. Then investigation,
clues and false clues, the protagonist goes down different alleys and finds the
right one. Then confrontation and resolution in some form at the end. I like
the structure and find that in real life we get so little resolution. But
mysteries provide that. Not all the threads are tied but some form of justice
is served,
- What inspired you to choose your subject matter?
- I've never forgotten Elizabeth George's advice to aspiring writers—to write
what you're passionate about. I took that to heart. I spoke a mangled form of
high school French, my father was a Francophile and I had lived in Europe. With
those meager qualifications I knew I wanted to explore an idea about Paris
based on a story that a Parisian friend told me about her mother. During the
German World War II occupation of Paris, my friend's mother was a young Jewish
girl who was hidden in the Marais, the old Jewish section of Paris. At the time
I heard this, in the mid-1990s, France was about to join the European Union.
Things surfaced about the Vichy wartime government collaboration that most of
the French government wanted to keep hidden. This fascinated me. When I asked
people in Paris about the war, they refused to speak about it, or they simply
said that happened so long ago. But of course, the past never goes away. I knew
that, however painful, a lot remained below the surface.
- How difficult / easy has your experience been as a published
author?
- This bucks most published author's experiences but I sold my first book
without an agent. So it can be done. People need to know that some publishers
accept unagented submissions. I did my homework, found a publishing house that
specialized in books with foreign settings and queried them. Now I have an
agent, but my experience with my publisher has been great. They're small and in
New York and really get behind all their authors.
- What advice would you give other aspiring authors?
- Grist for the mill, as they say, can come from anywhere. And true life is
often stranger than fiction. The story for Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis
came from a single conversation after dinner in Paris. Over dessert, a friend
told me that her neighbor, a single woman who'd just turned 40 and had been
wanting a child for several years, found an abandoned infant on her doorstep on
a cold March night. Under an old Napoleonic law, this woman had a legal right
to keep the child. The tragedy for her was that she decided not to keep it and
this decision plagues her even today. Sometimes we must be careful what we wish
for.
Are you a WNBA-SF member and published author? Would you like to share your
story with WNBA-SF? Contact newsletter editor Patricia Lynn
Henley about being featured in the Member Profile section of the
BookWorm.
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Member News
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Luisa Adams, at right, demonstrates a
BrainGym move at the New Year, New Creative You
event.
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Mary E. Knippel, center, encourages the
creation of collages.
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Creative Workshop a Success
By Lisa Meltzer Penn
As the mother of two—one girl, one boy—I've found myself less involved with
WNBA-SF in the last six years. I've just finished my master's degree in English and
creative writing accompanied by my final Written Creative Work which doubled as my
first novel, and I'm ready to send it out to agents. Time to renew contacts with
WNBA, I thought. I miss it!
So when I got an email about WNBA-SF's Jan. 27 New Year, New Creative You
workshop I knew that one, It would be a great chance to network; two, it sounded
fun, and on a Saturday morning, schedule-able; and three, I would have a great
excuse to escape from my kids for a few hours!
May I say that not only did it exceed my expectations, but the weather was
unexpectedly better on the coast that day! I learned simple and effective BrainGym
exercises led by Luisa Adams. We buddied up for some of them and I made a
new friend, who I was trading mini massages with practically before I'd learned her
name. I learned how to cross from one side of my brain to another in order to
enable access to both sides. I'll have to see what happens in my writing to really
know the results, because any access to my brain these days that doesn't involve
preschool or first grade is a boon.
Then Mary E. Knippel took us through a collage exercise, and it was great
to make a collage, it's been a while. Collages in their chaos give me an actual
picture to look at of my inner landscape. Mostly it was great to be in a room with
other women writers. I came home with wonderful new contacts plus flyers on writing
workshops, retreats, coaches, as well as writer conferences which I signed up for
the next day and just squeaked in on the deadline with a submission for the Jack
London Writers Conference writing contest.
The whole experience got my brain to tune in. Now that I'm done with school, I'm
ready for a new writing and book community, and here it is laid at my feet, all for
the price of getting up and taking a little drive on a Saturday morning. I'm glad
there are small events like these being offered by WNBA-SF now. And it's good to be
back.
Enjoying the San Francisco Writers
Conference in February are, from left, Martha Alderson,
Elizabeth Pomada, Elisa Southard, Teresa LeYung Ryan and
Vicki Weiland.
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Martha Alderson presents .Plot! Plot!
Plot!. at the San Francisco Writers Conference.
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What a Conference!
This year's SF Writers Conference was an awesome event, with lots of chapter
participation—starting with the fact that WNBA-SF past board member Michael
Larsen and past president Elizabeth Pomada are the directors and
co-founders of this extraordinary annual event. Of course Michael and Elizabeth
moderated panels, shared their wisdom as agents and emceed all weekend.
WNBA-SF members: Martha Alderson delivered "Plot! Plot! Plot! When It's
All About the Story"; Holly Payne co-presented "Art Imitating Life OR Life
Imitating Art?"; Cara Black was on the panel "Killing People for Love and Money:
Taking the Mystery Out of Getting Yours Published"; and Teresa LeYung Ryan and
Elisa Southard showed 120 writers what to do and what not to do in their workshop
"Propel Your Promotion: Getting Getting Ready for That Pitch!"
Andrea Brown, Kimberley Cameron, Laura Rennert and Caryn Wiseman were on agent
panels. Many writers got to "speed date" with them. Hut Landon of the Northern
California Independent Booksellers Association co-presented with Andy Ross of
beloved Cody's Books.
Other WNBA members who graced the conference included Vicki Weiland, James St.
Cloud, Kathleen Court, Ransom Stephens, Lin Lacombe, and our Membership Chair Mary
Lunning a.k.a. Shyne.
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