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21 November 2020 | Featured Speaker Jack Peters | “The Goldfish That Barked: Seven Actions to Distinguish Yourself for Success”

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You may already know Jack Peters as the Explosives Specialist from the Discovery Channels’ Treasure Quest. You might even say that Jack’s dynamite personality really makes him stand out from the rest of the crowd!  He will be the featured guest speaker at The Writers of Kern “virtual” monthly meeting on the 21st of November.  And just in case incendiary devices make you nervous, don’t worry because Jack has plenty of other ideas to help you to distinguish yourself from the pack.

Writers can use some daily encouragement as they struggle to remain focused on their craft day after day.  To help writers to stay on track and to expedite their careers, Peters will illustrate his hard-fought successes drawing from real-world examples. His presentation titled, The Goldfish that Barked, seven actions to distinguish yourself for success, is practical, entertaining. vital and will help to empower other authors to make a living with their writing. This will be an interactive presentation held online via Zoom.  A handout will be provided to help participants apply these principles in their own careers.

During the presentation, Peters will share his simple and effective actions designed to help writers to stand out and get discovered. These include:

  • Building your brand
  • How not to fall into traps
  • Educating yourself
  • Learning to communicate
  • Discovering your superpower
  • Giving thanks
  • Finding your mission

 Participants will also learn what Jack has learned as both an author and media professional including:

  • How to get motivated
  • How to take action
  • How to focus on profitable projects
  • How to market your work

Click here to register for this meeting and presentation on Eventbrite

In addition to his involvement in television and movie production since 2004, Jack W. Peters has been a professional speaker for sixteen years. He presents on topics including leadership, teamwork, innovation and faith. The highlight of his career was becoming a Discovery Channel tv personality as an explosives and GPS specialist. This presentation will be based on his most recently published book, The Goldfish that Barked.

To learn more about Jack W. Peters, check him out at:

www.donorthmedia.com

www.facebook.com/treasurequestjack/

www.jackwpeters.com

17 October 2020 | Featured Speaker Alia Volz | “Memoir: The Art of Questioning Everything”

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Author Alia Volz used to think personal writing had to begin with questions and end with answers—not unlike the essays we were taught to write in high school and college. Her breakthrough came with the realization that the most interesting moments in memoir happen when questions lead not to answers, but to more questions. Memories change and become unreliable. The book starts out investigating one thing, then shifts as the narrator’s worldview crumbles and new questions arise. Uncertainty becomes a plot device. This craft talk will explore relentless self-interrogation as the driving force behind contemporary personal essays and memoir. Volz will share discuss practical tools, tips, and techniques for getting the most out of questions that refuse to be answered.

We’ll learn how to structure personal essay and memoir like a classic whodunit, using the core mystery and shape of popular crime fiction to make personal writing more exciting.

She will deconstruct her award-winning essay “Snakebit” (The Best American Essays 2017) to show us how an evolving series of questions–and relentless interrogation–produces a winning plot. We will also discuss how to apply this technique to book-length memoir.

To register for this event click HERE to go to Eventbrite and register for the meeting – registration closes at 11:30 pm the night before the event. Reminders with the meeting link and agenda/handout links are sent to registrants 24 hours before the meeting; 12 hours before the meeting and one hour before the meeting.

About Alia Volz

Alia Volz photo credit Dennis Hearne

Alia Volz is the author of Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020). Her work has appeared in The Best American Essays, The New York Times, Bon Appetit, Salon, Guernica, The Threepenny Review, and many other publications. Her unusual family story has been featured on Snap Judgment, Criminal and NPR’s Fresh Air.

You can find her on her website at https://aliavolz.com/ and on social media at:

https://www.instagram.com/aliavolzzz/
https://twitter.com/aliavolz
https://www.facebook.com/alia.volz

The Ready-Set-Go of Open Mic Mondays

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Do you want to become more involved with Writers of Kern and your fellow writers? Want to find a welcoming place to read and share your work?  Beginning Monday, October 5th WOK members are invited to participate in Open Mic Mondays over Zoom.

Open Mics offer a friendly environment of like-minded people for you to share your work with, but you are also welcome to just come and listen to others read.

You may be nervous about reading your work. You may even be thinking, Hey, I’m a writer, not a performer! Daunting or not, public speaking is an important skill for a successful writer. You want to be ready when your award-winning poems and short stories are published or your break-through novel or screenplay is optioned for a film.

So plan ahead for Open Mic Mondays with these steps:

  1. Choose your material. Search your files and find something that:
    • Represents you and your writing well
    • Lends itself to being read aloud
    • Can be read in the allotted time
  2. Take time to prepare your material.
    • Print out your selection. Double space. Use a 14pt. (or larger) font so you can see it easily. Number the pages, but do not staple them together.
    • Read through aloud two or three times. Notice where you stumble, and notice where you want to emphasize or change your inflection. Highlight or use a BOLD font  for those areas before you reprint the page.
    • Check to see if you need to polish anything in your piece.  Do you need to: add or delete a word or two? Rewrite a sentence for clarity?
  3. Rehearse.
    • Read aloud to yourself. Read aloud to your mirror. Read aloud to your pet. Read aloud to another person.
    • Record yourself reading aloud.
    • Check your timing and cut where necessary.
  4. Show up on the first Monday of the month for Open Mic.
    • Be sure to Register for the event each month.
    • The flip side of nervousness is excitement. Feel the nervousness, but transform it into the energy you put into your reading.
    • Be proud of yourself for taking this step in moving your writing career forward.

Writers of Kern is dedicated to assisting writers of all levels in meeting their writing goals, and we’re proud offer Open Mic Mondays for our members.   You can go directly to the Eventbrite site to register by clicking HERE. You must register to attend.

We hope to see you there—as a reader or as part of the welcoming audience.

If you have further questions, contact us by email at [email protected].

Open Mic Mondays for WOK Members

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Tired of reading your writing aloud to your tabby, your parakeet, or your goldfish? Writers of Kern has a solution for that! WOK Members, bring your poems, fiction, essay, short story, or creative nonfiction (including memoir) to Open Mic Mondays over Zoom!

When: 7:00-8:15 pm, Monday, October 5, November 2, and December 7, 2020.

How it works:

  1. Open Mic Mondays, for readers and the audience, is a Members-Only event.
  2. All attendees must register beforehand on a private Eventbrite listing, to receive the link.
  3. Participants/readers may read 3 poems or for 5 minutes for any genre. Time limits will be strictly observed.
  4. Those who wish to read will sign up once admitted to the meeting. Those who wish to listen will sit back and enjoy.

An Open Mic is a fun event, where writers can showcase their work. There’s no pressure to read, but those who do become encouraged, build confidence, and hone their presentation skills—good practice for those future book tours and readings! 

Take this opportunity to support and connect with fellow WOK members while performing your work before a live audience on Zoom.

Watch your email for more information and details about how you can experience Open Mic Mondays!

~ Annis Cassells

19 September 2020 | Featured Speaker Leslie Budewitz | “Building Character”

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The heart of every story is the characters. No matter what type of fiction you’re writing – crime fiction, romance, women’s fiction, or mainstream novels – the best plots flow from the characters. Even in a mystery or a thriller, where the plot is critical to the success of the story, the characters are the key. When someone tells you about a book they read, they don’t say “it’s about a bomb … .” They say “it’s about a guy who … .” And when readers fall for series, they remember the characters as much as the individual plots – sometimes more. This program will look at a few ways to dive into your characters, and discover what makes them tick. Writing exercises and a handout will be provided.

What you will learn:

  • You will learn several methods for creating coherent, consistent, credible story people.
  • You will learn how to think about the essential characteristics of a good character,
  • how to identify critical character traits, and
  • how to use such things as physical characteristics, social standing, personality traits and personality classification systems, and your own experience to deepen the people on the page.

About the speaker

Leslie Budewitz blends her passion for food, great mysteries, and the Northwest in two cozy mystery series, the Spice Shop mysteries, set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village mysteries, set in NW Montana. Leslie is the winner of three Agatha Awards—2013 Best First Novel for DEATH AL DENTE, the first Food Lovers’ Village mystery; 2011 Best Nonfiction, and 2018 Best Short Story, for “All God’s Sparrows,” her first historical fiction. Her work has also won or been nominated for Derringer, Anthony, and Macavity awards. A past president of Sisters in Crime and a current board member of Mystery Writers of America, she lives and cooks in NW Montana.

Leslie Budewitz

She can be found at her website www.LeslieBudewitz.com and her Facebook Author’s page at www.Facebook.com/LeslieBudewitzAuthor

Register for this online event HERE.