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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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Events
The Writing Life: How to Get From Here to There
Join the WNBA-SF on Thursday, July 21, 2005 from 7:00 - 9:00 pm for an informative
four-part, lively discussion about The Writing Life. There will be an opportunity
to network before and after the presentation. Over dinner, the WNBA board will kick
off topics that will include:
- Inspiration—sources of creative ideas
- Perspiration—the life of a working writer
- Writing community—networking, classes, author events, etc.
- Adventures in Publishing—getting our work into the world
Bring your stories and fellow writers, and join us for an opportunity to
share, learn, and be inspired.
Location: Caesar's, 2299 Powell St, San Francisco, 415-989-6000
Price: $39 member, $45 non-member (You may sign up as a member that night
with check for $84 made out to WNBA-SF), $45 walk-in. No-host bar, full four-course
dinner, valet parking
Please RSVP to Vicki Weiland at vcweiland-writer@yahoo.com by July 16, 2005. Or you can call
415-614-2533.
Also, please save these dates for future WNBA events:
- Thursday, Sept. 22—"Pitch Your Book to the Right Folks: Meet Agents and
Editors"
- Tuesday, Oct. 18—"WNBA Mixer"
- Thursday, Nov. 17—"Authors Showcase"
- Friday, Dec. 16—"Holiday Celebration"
Money for Writers: An ASJA Event
Every year private foundations and government agencies award hundreds of thousands
of dollars to free-lance writers. The money allows writers to travel, take time off
from the daily grind and pursue the projects that most inspire them.
But who gets these grants and fellowships, and how? On July 20, the American
Society of Journalists and Authors will explore the ins and outs of winning such
money in a panel discussion featuring:
- James Bettinger, director, John S Knight Fellowships for Professional
Journalists, Stanford University.
- Susan Freinkel, former editor at Health Magazine, winner of the Alicia
Patterson Fellowship.
- Frances Phillips, poet and senior program officer at the Walter and Elise
Haas Fund.
- Dashka Slater, award-winning journalist and fiction writer, winner of the
NEA Creative Writing Fellowship and finalist for the Sundance Arts Writers
fellowship.
This event is open to the public. It takes place on July 20, 2005, 6:00 PM at
the India Palace, 2160 University, Berkeley (upstairs banquet room). Admission is
$5 for ASJA members, $10 for non-members. Dinner can be ordered off the menu at
your own cost.
Please RSVP by July 18 to Laird Harrison, ASJA chapter president, at laird_harrison@hotmail.com or 510-530-6699. For more
information: Contact Christine Larson at cmlarson@cmlarson.com or 916-443-1173.
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Writing Opportunities
Glimmer Train has a call for entries, with a deadline of July 31st. Glimmer
Train's Summer Very Short Fiction Award is open to all themes, all subjects, all
writers, published and unpublished. The original unpublished story must not exceed
2,000 words.
The first-place winner receives $1,200; publication in Glimmer Train Stories,
and 20 copies of the issue in which it is published. Second- and third-place
winners receive $500/$300, respectively, and acknowledgement in that issue.
To submit your story, go to their site: www.glimmertrainpress.com
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In This Issue
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Welcome
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Welcome to the July edition of Bookworm, our new monthly Newsletter—news and events
featuring San Francisco WNBA members!
There is no point asserting and reasserting what the heart cannot
believe. —Aleksander Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
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Announcements
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From Our President, Joan Gelfand:
WNBA had a high profile at BEA this year with several write-ups about the Pannell
Award—the two annual awards given to an independently owned children's bookstore
and to a general bookstore with an inspired children's section. This year
BookPeople in Austin, Texas won for best children's bookstore, and Reading Reptile
in Kansas City won for best general bookstore. If you would like to nominate your
favorite bookstore in this category, please forward me the information.
The National Meeting in D.C. was inspired. There are many projects afoot that
emphasize bringing the national organization to the chapters. Two particularly
exciting projects are a national directory that is being compiled by our immediate
Past President Margaret Auer. This new directory will give members access to all
chapter's membership lists. This list can be used for networking, finding an editor
or agent or contacting other chapters when you will be in their area.
Another project is the new availability, on-line, of all of the New York
chapter's educational panels. We will be mailing out a password to all members
within the next two weeks. This password will get you into the ‘Members Only'
section of the WNBA New York City website.
For myself, I volunteered to be on a task force to initiate our new Internet
memberships. This new level of membership will be directed at people who live at a
great distance from local chapters but want to be connected to the
organization.
Lastly, I would like to remind everyone that August 15th is the deadline for the
Fall Bookwoman. Please forward any information about yourself that you would like
to see published in our national newsletter.
I wish you all a wonderful summer, and hope to see some new faces at our July
21st "Writing Life" event.
Best,
Joan
Our own treasurer and author extraordinaire, the marvelous Teresa LeYung
Ryan (author of Love Made of Heart, www.lovemadeofheart.com) has been appointed the new board
president of the San Francisco/Peninsula Branch of the California Writers
Club, sponsors of the Jack London Writers Conference and the Jack London Kids
Camp. This is the CWC branch that launched Teresa's career, and members of the
CWC-SF introduced Teresa to the WNBA, for which we are grateful.
Those of you who have had the good fortune to meet her know how supportive and
unstintingly generous Teresa is, particularly with new authors struggling to master
the often daunting hurtles of marketing and publicity. She brings years of
enthusiasm and perseverance, as well as invaluable first-hand experience and
knowledge, to her new role, and we at the WNBA couldn't be more excited for
her!
If ever there was a time to join the California Writers Club, this is it!
Remember, you can never belong to too many writers' organizations, and CWC—with our
Vice President Linda Joy Myers as president of the Marin branch and now Teresa with
the SF / Peninsula branch—can always use a few new writers eager to make a
difference. For more information about the CWC and how to join, visit: www.calwriters.org.
Terrance Gelenter, WNBA member and founder of the great organization
Paris Through Expat Eyes invites WNBA members to An Evening
with Diane Johnson, on Thursday, July 7th at 6-7:30 PM. The event will be
held at Hotel Rex, 562 Sutter Street. The cost is $15 (complimentary h'ors devours,
no-host bar). For more information, contact: terrance@paris-expat.com.
Don't Forget: The WNBA - SF has a new mailing address:
WNBA-SF
2261 Market St #164
SF, CA 94114
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Member Profile
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Ellen Sussman, author of On A Night Like This
Bay Area writer Ellen Sussman's first novel, On a Night Like This, published
by Warner Books, was just released in paperback. It has been translated into
German, French, Italian, Dutch, Danish and Hebrew. Ellen has published a dozen
short stories in literary and commercial magazines. She recently published a "My
Turn" column in Newsweek and has essays in the forthcoming anthologies The Thong
Also Rises (Travelers Tales) and Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes From the Midlife
Underground by 25 Women Over Forty (Doubleday).
Ellen offers writing classes out of her home in Los Altos Hills. Write to:
ellen@ellensussman.com for information about her classes. To
learn more about her novel, check out her website: www.ellensussman.com.
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Member News & Classes
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This exciting item comes to us from the Boston Chapter of the WNBA: WNBA-Boston
member Claire Cook's bestselling first novel, Must Love Dogs, is now a film
starring Diane Lane and John Cusack, opening nationwide on July 29. Claire says
that first weekend box office is critical to a film's longevity so she's
encouraging friends and supporters to flood theaters on July 29-31 and asking all
of the WNBA to spread the word.
Claire writes: "if [the box office numbers] are good enough, this hilarious,
sweet, intelligent movie that respects my novel yet sparkles with its own
originality, and stars some amazing actors, will have a nice long ride." Spread the
word!
 Join our WNBA Vice President Linda Joy
Myers for the book launch party of Don't Call Me Mother. The
party will take place on July 23, 2005, 7:00pm at Book Passage, Corte Madera,
CA, and will include champagne, cake, reading and discussion of the
transformative path of memoir writing. At the party, meet other WNBA members
who have created a network of support for authors and writers.
Visit Linda at www.memoriesandmemoirs.com.
Transform Your Life through Memoir Writing: taught by Linda Joy Myers
Thursday, July 7-Thursday, August 4, 6:45-9:30pm.
Enroll through the Learning Annex at www.learningannex.com, 415-788-5500, 291 Geary St, SF, CA
94102.
In this class focusing on the positive benefits of writing your story you will
learn:
- How to conquer the voices that tell you not to air the family laundry
- How to tell the truth and not lose your inheritance
- How healing occurs in a writing group
Character Makes the Plot: taught by WNBA members Linda Joy Myers &
Martha Alderson
Saturday, July 16, 10:00am-4:00pm. Price: $95.
Register through Book Passage at www.bookpassage.com.
Using the Enneagram to create psychologically true characters, and Martha's
scene and plot tracker to integrate good characterization with provocative plots.
For more information, visit Linda's website for information about writing classes
and coaching: www.memoriesandmemoirs.com and Martha's website for more
information about plot and her classes: www.blockbusterplots.com.
How to Sell Your Book at A Writer's Conference: and what happens after the
contract is signed
Join author and WNBA-SF member Debbie Gisonni and Mark Kerr, former Sales &
Marketing Director (and "author scout") for Inner Ocean Publishing for a lively
dialog about how a chance meeting over lunch at the SF Writer's conference turned
into a publishing contract. In this session, you'll learn how to uniquely present
yourself and your book, what publishers are looking for, what goes on behind the
scenes in deciding to sign an author, and what happens after an offer is accepted.
Learn the process from the author's and the publisher's point of view, including
how to manage the ins and outs of the publishing process. You'll be able to apply
what you learn immediately at your next writer's conference by knowing how to be at
the right place at the right time with the right stuff!
The workshop takes place on July 19, 2005 at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd,
Corte Madera CA. For more information, see www.bookpassage.com
or call 415-927-0960.
Goddess of Happiness Workshops: 9 Ways to Get Happy!
If someone asked what you wanted most out of life, chances are you'd say happiness,
although like most of us, after juggling work, family and home, there's little time
left to think of yourself. But what if the real purpose of your life is to BE
HAPPY? How would it change the way you think, live, and work? How would it change
your life?
Join Debbie Gisonni, author of The Goddess of Happiness: A Down-to-Earth
Guide for Heavenly Balance and Bliss for a "Happiness Make-Over" as you
discover how to make happiness a choice in your life. Join this lively interactive
workshop and find out how you can truly live happily ever after!
Workshops take place on:
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