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20 June 2020 | Featured Speaker Judy Billingsley | “Tips on Researching, Writing, and Publishing Your Family Legacy.”

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“Your children shouldn’t have to rummage through your personal items after you go, to discover the family legacy you left behind. Leaving a written legacy changes something inside of us, our children and grandchildren as we begin to truly feel a part of something greater than ourselves”, says Judy Fambrough Billingsley.  Judy will be the featured guest speaker at the next Writers of Kern virtual meeting on June 20th, 2020.

Ms. Billingsley has written and published a memoir, Too Brown to Keep :  A Search for Love, Forgiveness, and Healing, andwill deliver a presentation called Tips on Researching, Writing and Publishing Your Family Legacy.  She will share what she has learned about leveraging resources when researching your family tree, whether found on or off the internet, and how to verify the information you discover.  Participants interested in writing their own biography or family history, will receive plenty of ideas to help them to create their own unique story in a way that they will be proud to share it. Judy will also offer helpful publishing and marketing tips when choosing to make it public.

Judy will also talk about how to prepare yourself emotionally for what you might unexpectedly discover while doing your research.

Register for the virtual meeting by clicking HERE.

Judy Fambrough Billingsley
Born to a white German woman and a black American soldier shortly after WWII, she was abandoned to live in a kinderheim for unwanted children until adopted and brought to America.  Judy was raised and educated in Bakersfield, California and has taught school professionally for many years, until her retirement as a high school teacher in Northern California. Her personal journey and international research to find her birth parents resulted in her published memoir.  

16 May 2020 | Featured Speaker Annis Cassells | “Journaling For Life”

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Writers of Kern virtual meeting will begin at 9:15 am and will include WOK Honors, an annual recognition celebrating members for their accomplishments in the past year. Workshop will follow.

“Journaling For Life”

Do you wish you kept a journal but never seem to get around to it? Have you ever started a poem or story in your head but forgot it before you wrote it down? If so, this workshop is for you!

Please join us for a FREE Online workshop “Journaling for Life” with guest presenter, Annis Cassells on Saturday, May 16, 2020.

In her workshop, Annis be discussing the benefits of journaling, types of journals, and formulating a journaling practice. She will show participants how to write using several different forms which can be used as models and inspiration or generate topic ideas.

Participants will see the value of journaling, and how it can be fun and illuminating.
They will learn the benefits of journaling and how to set up their writing practice.

Click HERE to register for this virtual meeting.

Registration ends at 11:30 PM on May 15th, 2020 – so don’t delay! Register now so you don’t miss out!

The workshop handout is available for you to download and print by clicking here.  “For your convenience and use during the session, we suggest you print pages 2 & 3.”

Annis Cassells is a poet, writer, life coach and teacher. She is a long-time member of Writers of Kern. Her creative nonfiction has been published in professional journals, hobbyist magazines, and local publications. She’s had stories and poems published in online and print journals and magazines.

Annis facilitates writing workshops and conducts memoir writing classes in California and Oregon. In 2019 she published her first poetry collection, You Can’t Have It All, and is currently working on her second book.

Follow Annis on social media:

Facebook: Annis Cassells, Writer
Twitter: @AnnisHeyannis
Instagram: heyannisc

18 April 2020 | Featured Speaker Cyn Bermudez | “Surviving the Slush Pile”

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You’ve written the manuscript. It’s gone through the editing process and several rewrites. Now you plan to submit it to an agent.

But wait! Before you hit the submit button, you need to know:

  • How a story goes from slush reader to editor
  • Why a story is chosen for publication
  • How to avoid common mistakes that get your manuscript rejected

Guest speaker Cyn Bermudez was a slush reader for Clarksworld, one of the top short story magazines in science fantasy. During her presentation she will share how to avoid common mistakes and keep your manuscript from being rejected. As an editor-in-chief for Riding Light, a lit journal, she will share her insights and expertise on how to make your story stand out amongst the other manuscripts.

Cyn Bermudez

Bermudez is a cross-format and hybrid author, poet, and artist from Bakersfield, California. She attended college in Santa Barbara, California, where she studied physics, film, and creative writing. She is the author of Brothers (West 44 Books). Her short stories and poetry can be found in the anthologies such as Building Red: Mission Mars, The Best of Vine Leaves Literary Journal (2014), and others. Her fiction and poetry can also be found in Middle Planet, Perihelion SF, Strangelet, Mirror Dance, 805 Literary and Art Journal.

To register for this free virtual event, click here go to EVENTBRITE.com.

Please Note: After you’ve registered you will receive a confirmation through Eventbrite. Then two days before the event, you’ll get a reminder email. And on the day before the event, you will get the link and phone information for the event in email. If you have not used the Zoom Conference web application before, you’ll need to download a small file prior to attending the video conference. You can do that by clicking the conference link, and following the instructions.  If you have attended a Zoom meeting before, you should be good to go with the link. 

We look forward to your attendance!

Important Message Regarding the MARCH WOK 2020 Spring Conference and the APRIL 18 General Meeting

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I hope you and your families are staying safe during this time of uncertainty. We, at WOK, are doing what we can to follow the recommended guidelines and cancel all gatherings and maintain social distancing. In order to do that, the WOK Spring Conference has been postponed until July 18, 2020.

WE will continue to monitor the situation and IF we cannot have an in-person conference, we are considering a live virtual conference. If you’ve purchased tickets for the March event, you’re good to go with the July event. (If it is held online, you’ll also receive a video recording included with your ticket!)

If you’ve paid for the conference and prefer to request a refund, all requests will be honored at this time.

Please send refund requests and any WOK event related questions to [email protected]

PLEASE NOTE: Our APRIL 18 meeting will be held online (9:15am, April 18). Members and guests will be able to attend FREE and receive a video recording of the event. Information on the April meeting will be sent out in April.

Thank you for understanding.

Joan