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Guest Speakers

2023 Spring Conference | Online Ticket Purchase

February 4, 2023 By Sandy Moffett

The Writers of Kern 2023 Spring Conference will be held on Saturday, March 18, at Hodel’s Country Dining, 5917 Knudsen Drive, Bakersfield, CA. Includes: Continental Breakfast, Snacks, and Lunch

Featured speakers are:

Rebecca Langston-George

How to Make a Big Splash in the Kiddie-Lit Pool: Understanding and Pitching to the Market.

Rebecca Langston-George is the author of thirteen nonfiction books for children including For the Right to Learn: Malala Yousafzai’s Story, and The Booth Brothers: Drama, Fame and the Death of President Lincoln. Her first graphic reader on one of WWII’s most daring spies, Virginia Hall, is coming in fall 2023. California Reading Association honored her with the Armin R. Schultz Award for writing in social justice in 2016. A graduate of California Baptist University, she holds a Master of Education degree. Rebecca recently retired from teaching to devote more time to writing books and developing her own writing curriculum. She is a past president of Kern Reading Association and 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’s passionate about children’s books, writing instruction and beading funky jewelry. She writes and mostly re-writes on a treadmill desk at one mile per hour.

Website  www.rebeccalangston-george.com

Email   [email protected]  

Carla Joy Martin

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words II

By looking closely at various works of art from different time periods, we will use the images as springboards for creative writing.  This process is called EKPHRASTIC writing. Ideas for poetry, short stories, memoirs, historical fiction, scifi and even screenplays can be enhanced by this imaginative process. 

Looking at art connects the viewer with memories, the subconscious and allows creativity to flow. Writers will learn something new about artists and view familiar and not-so familiar works to gain inspiration for writing. 

Writers will also be inspired by the stories behind the paintings and artists – it is always beneficial to learn about other creative people and their trials and triumphs.  

WOK members will also enjoy hearing what other members have written when we have the sharing time.  We will learn more about each other’s personal experiences and writing styles.

Carla is a poet, piano instructor and artist living in Bakersfield, California. She is Critique Group Chair for Writers of Kern.  Carla co-hosts First Friday Open Mics with Portia Choi and interviews the participants for KernPoetry.com.  Carla received her MA in English Literature from Stanford.  She has published poems in Rabid Oak, Reaching for the Sky, Writing Covid, and other literary journals. In 2020,Carla published her first poetry chapbook, Kaleidoscope of Love, which is available on Amazon.  Carla is also Chair of the Dukes Concert Committee which puts on free community music concerts at First Congregational Church of Bakersfield.

Website: CarlaJoyPoetry.com

Twitter:

Carla [email protected]

Brendan Constantine

No Word For This – Poet Brendan Constantine presents a special edition of his popular workshop ‘No Word For This: Saying the Unsayable.’

Participants will engage in a series of exercises and discussions to cultivate poems that ‘stay with you.’ No experience necessary. Writers of all genres are welcome. Sufferers of Writer’s Block strongly encouraged.

Brendan Constantine is a poet based in Los Angeles. He is the author of numerous collections and his work has appeared in many literary standards, including Poetry, The Nation, Best American Poetry, Tin House, Poetry Review (UK) and Poem-a-Day. He has received support and commissions from the Getty Museum, James Irvine Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. A popular performer, Brendan has presented his work to audiences throughout the U.S. and Europe, also appearing on NPR’s All Things Considered, TED ED, numerous podcasts, and YouTube. Brendan currently teaches at the Windward School and since 2017 has been working with speech pathologists across the country to develop poetry workshops for people with Aphasia and Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI). 

Get Your Conference Tickets Here!

February Featured Speaker – Jim Grayson

February 3, 2023 By Sandy Moffett

Workshop Title: Storytelling: Fitting the Pieces Together

Jim Grayson has stumbled through an adventurous life that has included flying airplanes and helicopters, teaching SCUBA diving, sailing, ski patrol and other pursuits designed to pry him off the couch. His professional law enforcement career began in the 1970s, where he served as patrol officer, sergeant, and patrol division commander. His police tenure emphasized de-escalation or calming the waters during potentially violent encounters. Jim’s law enforcement career was followed by 25 years in security consulting, including 5 years with UCLA’s Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center exploring crime prevention in schools and small retail establishments. Jim has enjoyed writing in various forms, including reports, poetry, short stories, magazine articles including Chicken Soup for the Soul. Thirteen years ago, his writing shifted to novels. To date, he has written 4 including Trailer Vamp – Love Bites which he self-published on Amazon and Kindle.

Writers of Kern Monthly Meeting and Workshop Fee. Breakfast is included.

January Featured Speaker – Sheryl Giesbrecht Turner

January 14, 2023 By Sandy Moffett

Workshop Title: Find Your Writing Voice

Every writer has a natural voice, with their own way of telling a story. Unique as the individual writer, the natural voice has its own rhythm, pace, sense of detail, and anecdote. The cadence of voice can be discovered in fiction and non-fiction and is essential to reveal the story’s content and form. It takes time, patience, and work to refine into polished prose that can tell a story. In this session, Sheryl will provide questions and writing prompts to encourage the writer to discover their writing voice or if genre is determined, how they can further hone their writing voice.

Exchanging hurt for hope is Sheryl Giesbrecht Turner’s focus— a message she shares with audiences as a recovered drug addict, stage-four cancer survivor, and former widow. A dynamic teacher and motivating leader, Giesbrecht Turner has endured many changes and challenges, moving her to a deep faith.

Sheryl is an award-winning author of five books. Unraveling the Lie-Knot: Finding Freedom from the Tangles of Discouragement, Deception, and Depression was released in June 2021 and won the 2021 Non-Fiction Christian Market Book Award with Advanced Writers and Speakers Association. She served as Focus on the Family’s columnist for Pastor’s Wives for four years. Hundreds of her columns, magazine and devotional articles have appeared in Focus on The Family Magazine, Pastor Resources, Lead Like Jesus, Just Between Us, Discipleship Journal, CCM, Walk Thru the Bible’s – InDeed and Tapestry publications.

Sheryl has a passion for coming alongside those in crisis or trauma. Sheryl is certified through Talbot Theological Seminary, specializing in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and in Grief, Loss, and Trauma Counseling. (www.biola.edu/talbot) She has authored and recorded 14 teaching and training videos for BrightCourse, a subscription-based video streaming service for pregnancy care center providers who want to help their clients learn about prenatal care, parenting, relationships, life skills, and more. (www.brightcourse.com) In the USA, BrightCourse serves over 60,000 pregnancy center clients per year and 30,000 views of their videos in one week.

Sheryl also has heart for missions and is avid about reaching out to the poor and needy, locally through the local Rescue Mission and worldwide through various ministry partners. Giesbrecht Turner is a Lead Like Jesus Facilitator www.leadlikejesus.com  and has been personally involved with equipping hundreds and facilitating the training of thousands of leaders internationally.

The joys of Giesbrecht Turner’s life are her children and fourteen grandchildren. An untimely widow in 2009, she is excited about the new beginning she shares with her recent marriage to Dr. Jim Turner. Sheryl holds a Bachelor of Arts from Biola University, a master’s in ministry and a Doctor of Theology. She lives in California’s central valley where she enjoys running 5K races with her 90-year-old mother.

Stay in touch with Sheryl – Receive Sheryl’s weekly blog on her website:

www.sherylgt.com or www.fromashestobeauty.com

More About Freedom In Christ Ministries: www.ficm.org

Follow Sheryl on Social Media!

Facebook pages: Sheryl Giesbrecht Turner or @SherylGiesbrechtAuthor

Twitter: @SGiesbrecht

Instagram: sherylgiesbrecht

LinkedIn: Sheryl Giesbrecht

Scribd: Sheryl Giesbrecht

Pinterest: SherylGiesbrecht

Writers of Kern Monthly Meeting and Workshop Fee. Breakfast is included.

November Featured Speaker

October 24, 2022 By Sandy Moffett

Crush Imposter Syndrome and Start Writing!

You have a great story idea, create a few characters, a decent plot, but when you sit down to write, your negative voice kicks in:

“I’m not a writer.”
“No one will ever want to read this.”
“I don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Everyone else is better, younger, older, smarter, more talented…than me.”

Imposter Syndrome. Otherwise known as the ultimate Dream Killer. If you’ve experienced these thoughts or lost your passion for writing, you won’t want to miss this workshop.

In this workshop, we will look at past experiences and how they help and not hinder the writing process. We are more than prepared to be writers! We will also learn how to take negative thinking and reframe our thoughts into empowering statements as well re-ignite passion for writing.

Register below! Breakfast is included. Hope to see you there.

Writers of Kern Monthly Meeting and Workshop Fee. Breakfast is included.

October Speaker Mike Apodaca

September 26, 2022 By Sandy Moffett

Some of the best stories have marvelous twists, where the reader/viewer thinks they know what is going on and then the world shifts beneath their feet. In this presentation we will look at some well-known twists, analyze different types of twists, and discuss how to put twists in our stories.

Writers will learn the elements of a great twist and how to add twists to their own stories.

We use tools we understand. Before we can add great twists to our stories, we need to understand the different types of twists, and how they are constructed. It is twists that make stories come to life, that thrill us. They also provide a significant psychological truth–that is, that life is full of shifting understandings. We need to be ready to reevaluate what we thought we knew at all times.

Raised in Southern California, Mike Apodaca managed the local Taco Bell at seventeen-years-old and became the senior pastor of a church at twenty-one. He has a master’s degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. He’s retired from public school teaching after 30 years. Writing for over 30 years, Mike has four books self-published in his Godsend series. He has four unpublished books. He has also published five short stories, two in The Literary Review. For the last three years he has served as vice president of the High Desert branch of the CWC.

Writers of Kern Monthly Meeting and Workshop Fee. Breakfast is included.

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