Writers of Kern

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Guest Speakers

July Featured Speaker – Andrew Roth

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Workshop Title: Audiobooks and the Western Genre

Award winning author Andrew Roth will cover the process of moving a completed manuscript to a pitch before agents and publishers at various writer’s conferences as well as the steps required to move a published novel into audio.

After serving in the US Army, attending California State University at Bakersfield, and teaching American History for 22 years Andrew Roth began his writing career. After writing a number of novels he began attending numerous writer’s conferences up and down the state. He also sent over 200 submissions and queries during that time, seeking a traditional publishing house. Finally, he landed a contract in Nov. of 2018 with Elk Lake Publishing Inc. with his first novel being released in June of 2019.

Married for 35 years, with 2 children and 3 grandchildren Andrew has published 8 Christian Historical novels with Elk Lake Publishing and is currently moving two of them into audio. Last year, two of his books were finalists for the coveted “Selah Award” in Christian Westerns and one of those two also won the “Will Rogers Gold Medallion Award” for Inspirational Western.

https://www.andrewrothbooks.com/books

https://www.facebook.com/andrewrothbooks

Meeting on Saturday, July 20, 2024
Breakfast begins at 8:30 am
The general meeting begins at 9:15 am
Hodel’s at 5917 Knudsen Dr, Bakersfield

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

April Featured Speaker – Carla Stanley

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Workshop Title: The Art of Writing Great Memoir

Carla Stanley has been writing for years, but it wasn’t until 2017, when she retired from teaching high school English and Theater, that she got serious. Since taking a memoir writing class in 2018, Carla has written over 150 memoirs to share with family and friends. She plans to share what she had learned in her numerous memoir-writing classes, hoping to tweak your writing in small ways that takes an okay piece of writing and makes it come alive.

Besides memoir-writing, Carla has continued the playwriting she polished working with students for 14 years at Shafter High School. In 2022, one of her short plays was performed at Bakersfield Community Theater’s One-Act Festival.

Carla joined WOK during the pandemic and participated in many Zoom Open Mic events. Her poem “Veterans” and her short story “A Bunch of Bull” were published in the 2021 Writers of Kern Anthology Pathway to the Heart.

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

February Featured Speaker – Phyllis Wachob

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Workshop Title: Developing a Unique Writing Voice and Exploring Points of View

This workshop will present ideas, tips and a chance to practice developing your own voice and exploring points of view. Tips will be given and exercises will be demonstrated on how to find and develop your unique way of description, dialog, imagery and syntax. A point to remember is that editor’s comments are only suggestions, not corrections. Your own authentic voice is the one that your readers want. The close third person point of view is a newer way of crawling into a character’s head to experience thoughts, feelings, and intuitions without quotes or italics. This workshop aims to give writers more devices in their writer’s toolbox to express themselves.

Phyllis Wachob, born in Bakersfield and currently residing there, began her traveling adventures after college. She became a travel writer and then an English teacher, living and working in various places across the globe. These experiences are reflected in her mystery novels in the Teachers Abroad Mystery series. Later, she used her hometown and its inhabitants as inspirations for her Kern Kapers Mystery Series. So far, she has completed eight cozy mysteries, honing her writing skills along the way. Fellow members of the Writers of Kern as well as critique group members have shown her different ways of looking at characters, storylines and points of view.

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

January Featured Speaker – Kathleen Kline

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Workshop Title: Promoting Fiction in Today’s Tech-Savy World

Get invigorated, inspired, and geared up to write more fiction. Kathleen Kline, a 32-year professional writer, editor, and writing coach will be here to share the changes in the Fiction Market and explain the path for new authors, aspiring authors, and those authors desiring to change up and the potential expansion of their craft.

Kathleen Kline is a wordsmith who’s been playing with words for 32 years and has helped clients all over the world. She started out in the Magazine and Newspaper arenas, but couldn’t help expanding into the fiction and non-fiction genres. She also enjoys helping writers reach their goals, whether it is with a short story or a series of books, detailing a family’s past or a how-to-do. Effective communication is key while helping others create entertaining stories for others to enjoy, that is what Kathleen loves to do!

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