Everything Writers Need | Writers of Kern
Writers of Kern Members! You are eligible to enter the Fall Writing Contest and get your name engraved on the Fall Writing Contest plaque.
Jean Chapman, winner of the 2013 contest, dispelled the illusion that you must be “Robert” or “Rob” to win.
Annual dues may be paid online. To renew your current membership, please click here. New members, please click here. Annual membership dues must be paid by August 31, 2014.
The Writers of Kern 2014 “A-Z” Blog Challenge is coming!
The 2014 A to Z challenge will begin Wednesday, September 10th and end Saturday, December 6th. Thirteen weeks, 2 posts per week equals 26 posts. Writers may choose any theme; but, each post must feature one letter of the alphabet in alphabetical order.
There are two parts to the challenge:
If you don’t have a blog, now is the time to start one. Check WordPress and Blogger for free blogging options. If you have a blog and you’re not a seat-of-the-pants writer, you have a few weeks to jump start your challenge plan.
Winners will be recognized at the WOK Winter Dinner, Saturday, December 13, 2014.
NOTE: If you choose to participate in the WOK Blog Challenge, please email your blog site to events@writersofkern.com by Friday, September 5, 2014. Blog Challenge participants will receive an email listing blog sites of all who have accepted the challenge.
Sue Monk Kidd’s latest novel, The Invention of Wings, is the compelling fictional story of real-life American heroine, Sarah Grimké. Raised in Charleston in the antebellum south, Sarah abhors slavery. Her family owns slaves and the pervading southern culture embraces the “right” to own slaves as a way of life. Sarah is given a little black girl, Handful, as a hand-maid on her eleventh birthday. The two become friends and the novel traces their life journeys over the next three decades. Sarah becomes the first American female to write positional papers on not just abolition, but on the need to give women the same legal rights as men in American society. This fictional novel will educate the reader about not just historical events in the American landscape but it will prod the conscience and current consciousness about racial tensions that still exist in our society. Highly recommend this book!
Malcolm Gladwell’s latest work of non-fiction, David and Goliath, challenges the perception of what constitutes “giants” in our lives. Perhaps, just perhaps what seems like a formidable foe rising up against us is actually at a disadvantage because of its size. Consider the childhood Sunday school version of the story of David and Goliath from the Old Testament of the Bible. The giant warrior representing the Philistine army facing off against King Saul and the Israelite army in the Valley of Elah issues a daily challenge to the opposing soldiers. Not one of the Israelite warriors, dressed in full armor with weapons, dares to go against the nine-foot giant. A slight teen-ager, however, visiting his brothers on the battlefield, hears and answers the challenge.
David and Goliath is a powerful little book about confronting the “giants” in one’s life. Is dyslexia the giant? A weaker,smaller high school girls’ basketball team? How about the challenge of getting into an Ivy League university? Challenge the odds. Perhaps, in fact, very likely, the underdog has the advantage in unique situations. Gladwell encourages the individual to face the “fear of being afraid.” Once we face a particular fear, we might very well be on the way to victory in our lives. I highly recommend this book for inspirational and encouraging true-life stories that defy traditional thought.
$20 members — $30 non-members
Clarion Hotel
3540 Rosedale Hwy. (Hwy. 58)
Bakersfield, CA 93308
8:00 – 8:30 Meet & Greet with continental breakfast
8:30 – 9:00 Welcome, Writers of Kern President, Dana Martin
Book sales provided by Book Hounds, hourly door prizes, Q&A with speakers
9:00 – 9:45 – CAROL SANDERS
A Writer’s Journey: In this session, Sanders will discuss the requirements of the first chapter of a novel, then proceed with a verbal tour of her journey as a creative writer. Highlights of this tour include a peek into a writer’s birthing chamber, a place of both pain and delight. Discussion will include the traits necessary for a creative writer, the helps and hindrances for writing, and the roller coaster of publishing.
Carol Sanders is a retired high school English teacher. After 30 years in the classroom, Sanders moved to Oregon and wrote Spy on Clinton Street, published in 2013 by dMon Publishing, Dallas, Texas, which followed her first book, the already-published novel Selene, retitled One Last Kiss, published by Zebra Press.
10:00 – 10:45 – ESTER SHIFREN
How to Self-Publish Successfully: Attendees will learn how to build a platform prior to self-publishing and the importance of social media as it relates to building your platform on the road to publication. Shifren will explain how to develop a theme to get speaking engagements and how to get noticed by subscribing to, and regularly commenting on, excellent blogging sites. She will also break down publishing using Createspace and Kindle (KDP) and other self-publishing engines.
Ester Shifren is a published author, artist, musician, and dynamic international speaker. In 2005, in England, she was featured in the BBC1 program “We’ll Meet Again,” and was a guest lecturer for several days at the Imperial War Museum. Ester’s book Hiding in a Cave of Trunks details all facets of Shanghai’s colorful multi-ethnic population and relates the saga of her family’s century-long existence in China.
11:00 – 11:45 – NINA AMIR
How to Blog a Book: Rather than just blogging and repurposing your posts into a book, or booking your blog, learn how to write, publish, and promote a book on the Internet using blog technology. Blogging a book is the easiest and quickest—and most efficient—way to write a book and promote it at the same time. If you can write, you can blog. That means you can blog your way to creating a successful book—one that attracts readers and publishers.
Nina Amir has 35 years of experience in the publishing field, earned a BA in magazine journalism from Syracuse University, and has edited or written for more than 46 publications on a full-time or freelance basis. She is the author of How to Blog a Book and The Author Training Manual, is a successful book editor, and speaks widely to inspire people to create books that positively impact others.
11:45 – 12:30 Q&A, discussion, book signings, books sales, closing
I’d flown 3,000 miles to New York City for one thing – the Writer’s Digest Pitch Slam. For three minutes at a time, I would have an agent’s undivided attention. I could pitch as many agents as the 90-minute session would allow.
For weeks, I had devoured “how-to” books on publishing. I’d even spoken a few times with David Sterry, co-founder of The Book Doctors. He, like so many other resources, told me the fate of my novel and writing career lay in a 250-word script called the pitch. David explained that a pitch was the back cover of a novel, the hook that tempts us to dive into the story.
A man with an official WD badge chuckled as he opened the doors and started the clock. I stood petrified. The terror of impending rejection froze me firmly in place. Kristin Nelson, owner of Nelson Literary Agency, smiled widely and waved us into the room. I walked slowly to the chair opposite her.
Without so much as an introduction, I vomited the words I had memorized, “Unsanctioned love is punishable by death…”
I delivered the pitch in one breathless rant and now waited for Kristin’s response. She smiled, and slid a card with her query instructions across the table. “Nicely done, I’m interested. Query me with the first fifty pages and the synopsis.”
“Really?” I asked, clearly shocked.
A ginormous line had formed behind me while I received a coveted query card. Kristin chuckled and nodded her head as an official came to move me along.
I collected nine more cards, receiving no rejections. Later that night at the closing social, I spoke with Kristin again. She confessed that too many authors were unprepared. They hadn’t honed the craft of pitching. Being nervous or shy was forgiven so long as the pitch was stimulating.
Today, with a polished manuscript, I am now querying the Pitch Slam agents. This next year I will be traveling to other conferences in hopes to receive more query invitations.
Wish me luck.