Our Spring Conference will be held on Saturday, March 21, from 8:30 am – 2:30 pm.
Cinnamon rolls for breakfast and buffet lunch are included.
SPEAKERS
Tom Foley: Anybody Can Write a Book
Too young. Too old. Too expensive. Can’t spell. Can’t type. Not good with computers. Don’t have time.
Nonsense.
This session takes on the reasons we tell ourselves we can’t write a book and replaces them with possibility. Drawing from his own experience, Tom offers practical encouragement: if he can do it, you can too. With today’s technology and a willingness to make time, writing a book is within reach.
Your story matters. Your children and grandchildren may never know that Grandma was an activist, a hell-raiser, or a saint unless you choose to write it down. At its heart, this session affirms a simple idea: everyone has a story to tell.
Thomas J. Foley was born and raised in California. He worked on the A-7 aircraft as a jet engine mechanic and troubleshooter for four years in the Navy. He earned his airframe and powerplant license, allowing him to work on private and commercial aircraft. From 1977 to 2011, He worked for the General Electric Aviation Division. He traveled extensively overseas from 1979 to 1986, including Europe, Asia, Australia, Taiwan, and Africa, supporting various airlines with GE-powered aircraft as a field service representative. From 1987 to 2003, he worked in engineering at the GE Ontario engine overhaul facility. Due to a plant closure, he transferred to a GE supervisor position at the BNSF maintenance facility in Barstow, CA, until he retired in 2011. He is a land-speed motorcycle racer and holds five SCTA land speed records and two AMA records in several engine classes. He started writing his memoir in 2004. He lives in Phelan, California, with his wife, Susan Andrusak Foley, and their five dogs. He published his memoir, Chasing the Elusive Dream, in 2022 and his second book, The Rest of the Story, in 2024.
Rebecca Langston-George: How to be a Scrappy Little Writer Writer and Pursue all the Publication Paths
Learn how to broaden your approach beyond writing for the traditional market, to also include self or hybrid publishing, and writing for the educational market or intellectual property market through work-for-hire. You’ll learn the perks and pitfalls of each path and how to juggle all three so that you really can have it all as well as build writing credits, snag an agent, and be your own boss.
Attendees will learn about different publication pathways, examine the role of an agent in their publication journey, begin evaluating ways to broaden their publishing potential, receive an informative handout, and have the opportunity to ask questions.
Rebecca Langston-George is the author of nineteen books for children including For the Right to Learn: Malala Yousafzai’s Story and Rover Rolled Over. A retired teacher and board member of the California Reading Association, Rebecca is the Regional Advisor for the Central-Coastal California chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI CenCal), helping other writers learn the craft. She writes, and mostly re-writes, on a treadmill desk at one mile per hour.
Rebecca Langston-George can reached here:
Website: https://www.rebeccalangston-george.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7216664.Rebecca_Langston_George
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebeccalangstongeorge/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/rebecca.langstongeorge
Mary Anne Em Radmacher: The Long and Short of IT and the Place Where Power Waits
This is not a traditional talk—it is an interactive practice in which everyone will engage. The session treats the room as a working “brain trust” of writing experience, energy, and ideas, with the intention of deepening that collective strength and leaving participants with a functional iteration and editing method they can immediately put into use.
Together, attendees will explore practical generative writing techniques in which one original, created piece becomes the root from which many others can grow. Participants will also examine the role of quiet, silent space in the writing process and learn an iteration technique designed to both lengthen and shorten a piece of writing, offering a flexible approach to revision.
Mary Anne Em Radmacher will also highlight a practical use of AI for writers generating original content, demonstrating how it can function as an engaged reader offering feedback on where a through line may need strengthening or where a moment of power can become more impactful. Participants are encouraged to bring paper, pen, and their creative spirit.
Mary Anne Em Radmacher is an aphorist. She’s distilled commentary into clean mission statements and aphorism for a former President, artists, leaders and business professionals. She’s published by four different houses and has self published many works through her own wholesale and retail company. She serves as the Creative Director at the Arts Council of Kern. She has a manuscript in process currently. Her years of distillation have resulted in a profound exercise that is made of many processes including reflection, iteration and editing.
Mary Anne Em Radmacher can reached here:
Website: https://maryanneradmacher.net/
Substack: https://maryanneradmacher.substack.com/
Get Your Conference Tickets Here!
Or you can pay by check in advance here: Writers of Kern, P.O. Box 22335, Bakersfield, CA 93390-2335
Saturday, March 21, 2026
Meeting begins at 8:30 am
Hodel’s at 5917 Knudsen Dr, Bakersfield
