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MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL
The 2019-2020 year closed June 30th. Please support the writing community on the Mendocino Coast with your $45 renewal. See the Membership page for more. |
2021 ANTHOLOGY SUBMISSIONS
Submissions for the 2021 Anthology, Erosion, opened June 1st and will go through August 31st. Check submission guidelines. |
COVID-19 UPDATE From the WMC President:
Until further notice, WMC meetings will be held via Zoom on the third Sunday of the month at 3 p.m. Meetings will be recorded and posted here. There are more than two dozen free Xfinity WiFi hotspots in Fort Bragg. At wifi.xfinity.com type in an address, city, state, or ZIP Code to find where to access the internet. The July 19th reading of the SmatchUp entries had thirty-three attendees. View the recording that starts with submission details for the 2021 anthology Erosion. 
AUGUST 16th 3:00
SHIRIN YIM LEOS How to Think like a Developmental Editor
AUGUST 17th
FALL SEMESTER BEGINS Mendocino College New and Returning Students Full Class Schedule Course Descriptions Last Day to Add - August 28th 
SEPTEMBER 20th 3:00
MITALI PERKINS Dialogue: Crafting Conversations in Fiction 
Excellent dialogue is crucial in the creation of in-real-time scenes. In this hands-on, interactive workshop, participants will see how conversation can be used to reveal more about character and plot, learn to identify and fix seven common mistakes, and discuss examples written by master writers.
Mitali Perkins has written many books for young readers, including Between Us and Abuela (Winner of the Américas Award), Forward Me Back To You (SLJ and Kirkus Best YA Books of the year), You Bring the Distant Near (nominated for a National Book Award), and Rickshaw Girl (adapted into a film by Sleeperwave Productions), all of which explore crossing different kinds of borders. Mitali's goal is to make readers laugh or cry, preferably both, as long as their hearts are widening. She currently lives and writes in the Bay Area. @MITALIPERKINS WWW.MITALIPERKINS.COM NOVEMBER 19th 3:00
SHARON BOWERS aka ARON LEE BOWE Adding Humor to Your Writing 
This workshop will touch on the various elements of humor and give tips on achieving a comic voice in your work. For those who want to learn the basics of joke writing, handouts will be emailed ahead of the Zoom meeting. Those participating will be able to share their favorite joke.
E. B. White said, “Humor is like a frog. You can dissect it, but it tends to die on you.” Don’t let that warning scare you. Analyzing the reasons certain events make us laugh can help your writing. Shakespeare understood that life is funny at least as often as it is tragic. After every sad scene, he brings in the clowns. One sure way to make your writing more appealing is to add a carefully calculated dose of humor. Aron Lee Bowe is an artist, writer and designer of three graphic novels. Her writing has appeared both online and in print publications. Her memoir, Amazed & Elated, Depressed & Deflated won an Independent Publisher Medal for humor. Bowe won the Charles Schultz award and the first place humor prize from the National League of American Pen Women. www.aronleebowe.com GUALALA COMMUNITY WRITING PROJECT
Mark Gross has started a writing initiative, KGUA Writers, in Gualala in collaboration with Peggy Berryhill's KGUA-FM, 88.3 radio program at 9:00 a.m. on Monday mornings. There is a Facebook Group Page KGUA Writers, and a website The Town That Started Writing. This week's prompt for submission of 250 words should be sent by August 14th by 7:00 p.m. to KGUAWriters@gmail.com. PROMPT #18: What is more important, learning or doing? See details on our KGUA Writers page. AUGUST 20th 7 P.M.
POINT ARENA THIRD THURSDAY POETRY CASSANDRA DALLET The virtual Arena Theater and Point Arena Third Thursday Poetry presents Oakland poet Cassandra Dallett (aka the badass bookworm), with open mic to follow. To watch or participate as an open mic reader, email [email protected]. Cassandra Dallett is a five-time Pushcart nominee published in Sparkle and Blink, Great Weather for Media, Sensitive Skin, The Oakland Review, and The East Bay Review among many others. She reads often around the Bay Area, hosts the monthly writing workshop On Two Six, is a facilitator at MOWW, (Mills Oakland Writers Workshop), hosts The Badass Bookworm Podcast, and co-hosts/curates the quarterly reading series Moon Drop Productions as well as The Badass Bookworms Lit Loft. Third Thursday Poetry Zoom made possible by the Arena Theater and continues to be supported by Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation. AUGUST 6th 7 P.M.
FORT BRAGG LIBRARY FIRST THURSDAY OPEN MIC POETRY Via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9748647159 Readers should limit themselves to five to eight minutes and three to five poems Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcrCSy6mwU Meeting ID: 974 864 7159 JUNE 16th to AUGUST 8th Tuesdays 1:30 to 4:30
FREE ONLINE POETRY WRITING COURSE Santa Rosa Junior College Older Adults Program OA 502, Section 8104 • Students may register at any time during the semester Read the instructor's invitation for more information 
2020 EKPHRASIS READINGS — OCTOBER 18th
NOTES FOR EKPHRASIS RESPONDERS
Ekphrasis exchange occurred during the WMC Zoom meeting July 19th. Responders will receive an emailed image of the artwork from the Artist's Coop director, Karen Reynolds. You have between now and September 1st midnight to compose a one page, single or double-spaced, story or poem. Be sure the margins are at least 1 inch all around. Print size should be at least 12 pt. font. Email the finished piece to [email protected] as an MSWord document attachment. The Artist's Coop will have a virtual show on their website starting October 1st with artwork paired with writing. At our October WMC Zoom meeting on the 3rd Sunday of October at 3 p.m., responders and initiators will read your work while the artwork is shared on the screen. DAIRY HOLLOW FELLOWSHIP
—TWO WEEKS, EXPENSES PAID-- The “Writing about Mental Illness” fellowship application is now live and submissions are being accepted until August 31st. https://www.writerscolony.org/fellowships Michelle Hannon, Executive Director The Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow 515 Spring Street, Eureka Springs, AR 72632 Ph: 479-253-7444 writerscolony.org 
In this issue, Mendocino Coast memoirist and WMC member, Alena Guest, surveys the coast's rich writing scene, with profiles of six recently published writers (including herself) and reviews of their divergent, captivating literary offerings.
It also features Gallery Bookshop and our branch of the California Writers Club. WRITING OPPORTUNITY:
VAN DAMME STATE PARK Volunteers at the Little River Museum have collected pictures and historical accounts that augment the rich history of what ultimately became the park. Members of our branch of the California Writers Club have an opportunity to use these source materials to write a nonfiction book and other monographs. Email the [email protected] for details. 
MEMBER'S COPIES OF ANTHOLOGY, RED SKY
have all been mailed, including those pre-ordered. If members haven't received their copy, please email [email protected] Fran Schwartz has an inventory of cartridges for printers and fax machines no longer in use.
Click here: for the list and email her. 
KELLEY HOUSE CALENDAR
Call for Writers There are so many stories yet to tell, and they welcome your voice. Articles are 400 to 700 words and can be paired with photos or illustrations usually discovered in their database of 10,000 images. Call the Kelley House curator, Karen McGrath, at 707/937-5791 or email her at [email protected]. |
WELCOME TO THE
CALIFORNIA WRITERS CLUB - FOUNDED in 1909 - The Mendocino Coast branch is proud to share in this legacy. Our intention is to expand the network and provide publishing opportunities for writers.
MENDOCINO WRITERS MEET
ONLINE ON THE THIRD SUNDAY 3:00 Members Receive Invitations Public May Email a Request [email protected]
Writers of the Mendocino Coast
PO Box 762 Fort Bragg, CA 95437 The CALIFORNIA WRITERS CLUB is a 501(c) (3) educational nonprofit dedicated to educating members and the public-at-large in the craft of writing and in the marketing of their work. California Writers Club website: https://calwriters.org/ CWC Northern Branches: http://cwcnorcalwriters.org/ SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
Email [email protected]. We will never sell or share your email address with anyone else. MEMBERSHIP
NEW MEMBERS $65 includes $20 initiation fee. More information on the website's Membership page. YEARLY RENEWAL is $45. Membership includes a copy of the club's recent anthology, copies of our state organization's Literary Review magazine, space for member biographies, and opportunities to see your writing in: -The annual anthology -The Literary Review is published by our parent, California Writers Club. More info at www.calwriters.org -The yearly collaboration, Ekphrasis, with the Artists Coop of Mendocino -The annual SmatchUp blind matching of two writers on a theme, each writing a single page. SPONSORED MEMBERSHIPS
Financial aid is available for membership [email protected] WMC member Clare Zwerling is interested in joining or forming a poetry group—[email protected]
M E M B E R N E W S
Writing newly published, receives a nomination or award, or other notable exposure? Please send a short announcement to writersmendocinocoast@gmail.com 
WMC member Ginny Rorby's
book Freeing Finch recognized as "10 of the Best LGBTQ+ Middle Grade Books That Celebrate Pride" by Book Riot Freeing Finch by Ginny Rorby. Finch just wants to find a place where she feels like she is understood. After being abandoned by her father and losing ... read more 
WMC member Tansy Chapman, has a newly released novel, Rose Gray. Thirteen-year-old Rose Gray’s fervent prayers for peace during the bombing raids have been answered, but no one around her in 1947 England is physically or spiritually free of the aftereffects of war. Living on a government-run tenant farm, Rose struggles with her father’s increasingly violent moods, her mother’s past (including the appearance of a stranger returning from war), and a school headmistress bordering on madness. Rose’s story is about how, with the help of her religious grandmother, her best friend Annie, and the natural forces of adolescence, she makes small bids for freedom in the midst of circumstances beyond her control.
Rose Gray is available from Gallery Bookshop Read endorsements and reviews at the publisher's website 
WMC member Karen Lewis has announced a new poetry chapbook, Peace Maps, now available from Finishing Line Press. These poems span a wide geography, places she's lived, traveled, or imagined. Themes include motherhood, deep ecology, love, loss, endurance, unity, hope.
"Poets are like cartographers" says Karen K. Lewis in Peace Maps. Through landscapes plagued by violence, drought, and plastic trash, "Fragments of poems remain, like tourniquets [ ] to mend our fatal hemorrhage / of despair." She maps each poem to a specific place on earth, not only with discreet latitude and longitude coordinates, but also with love for the beings, human, animal and vegetable, that make a home there, and for the land itself. ~ Maureen Eppstein, author of Horizon Line and Earthward Order Peace Maps from Finishing Line Press ROLLING RECAP OF MONTHLY MEETINGS
See Archives tab above for details
Drop in to the library site for the list of recently added books and reviews by WMC member Priscilla Comen.
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Welcome to opportunities to publish your writing, whether or not you live on the Mendocino Coast.
