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November Featured Speaker – Beth Brookhart

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Workshop Title: The Long Journey – From Journalist to Published Fiction

How does a journalist with “no clue what she was doing” end up as a published novelist? In this session, Beth Brookhart will share her winding path—rookie missteps, the classes and workshops that launched her forward, and how she wove some of life’s craziest moments into fiction. She’ll also touch on the querying process (which she calls as “archaic as a rotary-dial phone”) and why, despite it all, she refused to give up. Writers will come away encouraged by one author’s candid, and often humorous, road to publication.

Beth’s Bio:

Beth Brookhart has been a storyteller since childhood in Colorado, beginning with a book of poems written for her mother. A journalism graduate of Colorado State University, Beth spent two decades reporting on agricultural news, often found tromping through farm fields in pursuit of a story. Later, her career shifted to communications roles with several agricultural organizations in Bakersfield, CA. In 2010, she embarked on her fiction-writing journey, leading to the completion of The Book Project, a prestigious two-year program at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver. An avid volunteer, Beth was inspired by her seventeen years of service on the board of her local museum to pen The Four Queens of the Buttonbush Museum.  

You can connect with Beth here:

Website: https://bethbrookhart.com/

Meeting on Saturday, November 15, 2025
Breakfast begins at 8:30 am
The general meeting begins at 9:15 am
Hodel’s at 5917 Knudsen Dr, Bakersfield

Writers of Kern Monthly Meeting and Workshop Fee. Breakfast is included.

October Featured Speaker – Jenna Brandt

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Workshop Title: Marketing for Indie Authors



This session will cover practical, effective marketing strategies tailored for authors, including the best ad platforms, social media advertising, and how to optimize Amazon ads with the right keywords. You’ll also learn how to automate newsletters, grow your email list, and keep readers engaged.

Jenna will explore tools like Publisher Rocket, Amazon Affiliate Links, and online giveaway platforms to help expand your reach. She will also discuss the importance of a strong book cover—your most powerful marketing tool. Whether you’re new to book promotion or looking to refine your strategy, this session will provide actionable insights to make your marketing efforts more effective.

Jenna’s Bio:

Jenna Brandt is an international bestselling and award-winning author who writes inspirational romance. Her page-turning books have elements of humor, suspense and faith. She has several best-selling series including Disaster City Search and Rescue, First Responders of Faith Valley, Badges & Baristas, and The Lawkeepers all based off the life of her husband in law enforcement.

You can connect with Jenna here:

Website: https://www.jennabrandt.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JennaBrandtAuthor
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/jenna-brandt
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennabrandtauthor/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/JennaBrandtAuthor/
Jen’s Joyful Page Turners Reader’s Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/844819802336835/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16847426.Jenna_Brandt

Meeting on Saturday, October 18, 2025
Breakfast begins at 8:30 am
The general meeting begins at 9:15 am
Hodel’s at 5917 Knudsen Dr, Bakersfield

Writers of Kern Monthly Meeting and Workshop Fee. Breakfast is included.

September Featured Speaker – Lisa-Behrens Smith

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Workshop Title: Pull It Out of Your Life – Overcoming Writer’s Block

When writer’s block freezes your pen, when your ideas flow like mud, when you can’t find the perfect words to start your best excuse for not writing, the answer isn’t in journaling or doodling or reworking a piece you’ve already discarded. It’s in your life. Period.

All writing–all good writing–reveals what it means to be human, and that means “you”. Your simplest musings about a stain on your table, a frustrated cry, or your worst burnt dinner can be the story you’ve been struggling to begin, the beginning of the book you’ve been meant to write. You just need to notice it. Then the writing “becomes”!

This presentation, from a California teacher and independent writer, can show anyone how to begin writing the pieces that present life in its most authentic way. Group participation and discussions will highlight the hour and leave all participants inspired as they learn how to pull those ideas out of their lives.

Lisa’s Bio:

Lisa-Behrens is a two-time award winner at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and an active member of Writers of Kern.  She has just released her novella Mulberry Seeds, and the memoir of her college life at 40 in the dorms of Isla Vista, including selected fictional work, is in progress.

You can connect with Lisa here:

Website: https://lisa-b-smith.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lostiniv402/
Buy her book, Mulberry Seeds: https://a.co/d/bcFZf7z

Meeting on Saturday, September 20, 2025
Breakfast begins at 8:30 am
The general meeting begins at 9:15 am
Hodel’s at 5917 Knudsen Dr, Bakersfield

Writers of Kern Monthly Meeting and Workshop Fee. Breakfast is included.

August Featured Speaker – Dan Bronson

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Workshop Title: This Writer’s Journey

Good writers READ obsessively, compulsively, continuously.

Good writers LISTEN to the way people actually talk and to the way locale, education, social status, and personality shape their speech.

Good writers RESEARCH, losing themselves in basement libraries, immersing themselves in the backgrounds of their stories, visiting the settings of those stories and getting to know the people who live there.

Good writers learn to unlock their unconscious minds, escaping the world around them and living in a world elsewhere, the world of their stories.

This writer’s journey…from the written word to the screen image and back again.

The maxims Dan writes by:

1) Show, don’t tell.
2) Action is character.
3) Conflict is drama.
4) Make a virtue of necessity.

Dan’s Bio:

Dan has had many careers: Associate Professor of English at DePauw University, Senior Story Analyst at Universal, Associate Story Editor at Filmways, Executive Story Editor at Paramount, Writer/Producer of HBO’s acclaimed Ed Harris thriller The Last Innocent Man and NBC’s cult classic Death of a Cheerleader, author of the memoir Confessions of a Hollywood Nobody, and of the Jack Shannon mysteries Someone to Watch Over Me and Shout at the Devil, books that critics have compared to the novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.

Dan also has a B.A. in English, Pomona College. M.A., Ph.d. in English and American Lit, Princeton University. Tenured Associate Professor of English, DePauw University. Senior Story Analyst, Universal Pictures. Associate Story Editor, Filmways Pictures. Executive Story Editor, Paramount Pictures. Independent Writer-Producer at the major networks and studios. Memoirist. Novelist.

You can connect with Dan here:

Website: https://dan-bronson.com
Website: https://hollywood-nobody.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006971839074

Meeting on Saturday, August 16, 2025
Breakfast begins at 8:30 am
The general meeting begins at 9:15 am
Hodel’s at 5917 Knudsen Dr, Bakersfield

Writers of Kern Monthly Meeting and Workshop Fee. Breakfast is included.

July Featured Speaker – Mary Beth O’Connor

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Workshop Title: Memoir Writing Fundamentals

Mary Beth will define “memoir” and review the scope, themes, arc, and immersive story structure. She also will explain how to incorporate takeaway and reflection. Mary Beth then will address the emotional aspects of writing memoir. She will review writing goals, techniques, and skills development. Mary Beth will then delve into the business side of publishing and marketing memoir.

Mary Beth’s Bio:

Mary Beth has been sober from her methamphetamine use disorder since 1994. She also is in recovery from abuse, trauma, and anxiety. She wrote about her story in her award-winning memoir From Junkie to Judge: One Woman’s Triumph Over Trauma and Addiction. Mary Beth regularly writes opinion pieces which have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Recovery Today, and other publications. Her memoir writings have been published in Memoir Magazine, Awakenings, and Ravens Perch, among others. In addition, she trains writers about memoir writing.

You can connect with Mary Beth here:

Website: junkietojudge.com
X/Twitter: @MaryBethO_
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-beth-o-connor-8aaa4b121/

Meeting on Saturday, July 19, 2025
Breakfast begins at 8:30 am
The general meeting begins at 9:15 am
Hodel’s at 5917 Knudsen Dr, Bakersfield

Writers of Kern Monthly Meeting and Workshop Fee. Breakfast is included.