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I’m pleased to announce the speakers for our annual Spring Conference:

Peter Clines – World Building: On the Third Day…

Peter Clines is the New York Times best-selling author of Paradox Bound. He is the author of the acclaimed -14-, the EX-Heroes series, The Eerie Adventures of the Lycanthrope Robinson Crusoe, and numerous short stories.

Susanne Dietze – Chemistry: How to Make it Sizzle when the Heat Stays Sweet

Susanne Dietze is the author of The Reluctant Guardian, The Blizzard Bride, The Soldier’s Lady, and more. She is an award-winning, RWA RITA®-nominated author who’s seen her work on the ECPA and Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller Lists for Inspirational Fiction.

Dr. Portia Choi: Poet, A Poet’s Journey

Dr. Portia Choi, a Korean-American Poet and Peace Advocate, is the author of Sungsook, Korean War Poems. She is a Korean War survivor and former refugee. Portia promotes poetry in Kern County. She has written poetry for 35 years.

Early Bird Tickets are available now $75 now until January 15.

Your ticket includes breakfast and lunch. There will be door prizes, opportunity baskets, vendor tables, and more.

If you are interested in a vendor table, please email Cyn at president@writersofkern.com.
More details to come!

Starting in January, 2022, WOK’s monthly meeting will be back at Hodel’s. We are introducing hybrid meetings. That is both online and in-person.

In-person meeting will be $15 for members and $18 for nonmembers.

Online via Zoom $5

Hope to see you there!

This year the Writers of Kern will return to in-person meetings with our annual Winter Dinner. The cost for the dinner is $30 per person. We will be raffling off gift baskets, playing First Lines for a prize, a book exchange, and the announcement of the winners of the Fall Writing Contest.

Date: Saturday, December 11, 2021

Time: 5:30

Where: Hodel’s

Register Here

Our November speaker is Lucy A. Snyder. She will be presenting a workshop on how to write a good first paragraph.

Check out Lucy’s books here or at your local library.

And Then the Murders Began: Writing Great First Paragraphs – Author Marc Laidlaw recently wrote, “The first line of almost any story can be improved by making sure the second line is, ‘And then the murders began.’” While often true, most writers can’t actually use this technique. In this module, we will examine the first paragraphs of recent award-winning short stories to show why (and how) they work to hook readers. Afterward, we’ll work on improving paragraphs in progress.

Lucy A. Snyder is the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated and five-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of 15 books and over 100 published short stories. Her most recent books are the collection Halloween Season and the forthcoming novel The Girl with the Star-Stained Soul. She also wrote the novels Spellbent, Shotgun Sorceress, and Switchblade Goddess, the nonfiction book Shooting Yourself in the Head for Fun and Profit: A Writer’s Survival Guide, and the collections Garden of Eldritch Delights, While the Black Stars Burn, Soft Apocalypses, Orchid Carousals, Sparks and Shadows, Chimeric Machines, and Installing Linux on a Dead Badger. Her writing has been translated into French, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Czech, and Japanese editions and has appeared in publications such as Asimov’s Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, Pseudopod, Strange Horizons, and Best Horror of the Year. She lives in Columbus, Ohio. You can learn more about her at www.lucysnyder.com and you can follow her on Twitter at @LucyASnyder.

Register Here

The Fall writing contest has been extended to November 15.

*Please read guidelines carefully.*

Contest Details

Theme: Letting Go

We are accepting Fiction and Nonfiction

Word count limit is 1200-words or less (firm)

Poem limit is up to three (3) poems

Prizes for Fiction and Nonfiction entries only are as follows:

• First Place           $200
• Second Place      $100
• Third Place         $50

Ways to Submit your Story and/or Poem

• Put your story in the body of the email (preferred)
• Send as a Word (.doc) or
• Other file types accepted are .pdf or .rtf format.
• Please Indicate fiction or nonfiction.

How to Submit your Story and/or Poem

• Font type and size should be Courier or Times New Roman font 12 point double-spaced.
• One entry per email.
• No simultaneous submissions – this means you cannot send your story/poem elsewhere for consideration.
• Multiple submissions are okay for fiction and nonfiction stories only – this means you can submit more than one story, fiction or nonfiction, up to three.
• Sample submission subject line should read – Subject line: Fall Contest/Author/Title/Type
• Email submission to – submissions@writersofkern.com