By Susan Baker

As a writer, there are so many obstacles that can get in your way. It can be challenging to carve out quiet time to sit at your desk and compose your thoughts.  Maybe you don’t even have a desk or a computer of your own, so you find yourself clearing off a space at the family kitchen table to lay out your papers, trying to remember where you left off.   

What if you could buy that laptop, a desk of your own, art supplies, or have the funds to promote your work in a bigger and better way?  Or, what might happen if you could travel to a destination of your choice for a week or longer to simply focus on creating and writing?  Seems like an impossible dream? Then read on.

Dr. Christina Gessler is an example of someone who has and continues to do exactly that.  Dr. Gessler funded her college education and graduate studies with the assistance of funds provided through scholarships, fellowships, and grants. While earning her PhD in American Women’s History, such funding also allowed her to travel to New England where she lived on an island while immersing herself in reading the diaries left behind by 19^th century farm women from the area!  She continues to win funding for her writing goals today.

She will be the featured guest speaker at the Writers of Kern Monthly Meeting on Saturday, August 15^th, 2020.  This event will be open to the public and will be presented entirely online and without charge.

Her presentation, Funds for writers: how to apply for grants, residencies, scholarships, and fellowships will provide writers and artist/illustrators of all genres with a wealth of information about how they can discover and access money to fund their endeavors.  Not only is she successful at obtaining funding, she is also familiar with the other side of the table having been a professional education grant reviewer for the government.

As a participant attending this event, you will learn:

• About the four different kinds of funding
• How to discover current “open calls” for funding opportunities
• How to know the right funding source for you and your work
• How to craft a funding application letter (not as hard as you think)
• How scholarships, residencies, fellowships, and grants can help you reach your writing goals
• How persistence can pay off

You can register for this free online event by going to Eventbrite, click HERE.

Christina Gessler attended college on a writing scholarship—at a school she picked because it was beside the sea and allowed pets (her roommate was a dog named Riley who was BFFs with Ratty, the rodent roommate of the neighbor next door). She went on to graduate school at Sarah Lawrence College and The American University, where she earned a PhD in American Women’s history. She did odd jobs that probably weren’t supposed to be odd (she was a nanny for a newscaster, sold nautical antiques, and was an assistant for a Grammy-winner) and funded her educational and writing pursuits with scholarships, grants and fellowships (which allowed her to do things like travel New England reading the diaries left behind by 19th century New England farm women; and live for a time on an island). She’s worked at museums, as a college professor, and reviewing education grants for the government. She currently lives near the sea with her dog Daisy, where she writes stories for children (pre-published) and poetry (published). She’s still fortunate to win fellowships and grants to further her writing goals. You can find her carting home stacks of books from the library, or walking at the beach.

You can follow Christina Gessler on her Facebook page by clicking HERE.

Some of her poetry can be found HERE and her photography HERE.

“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 20^th, 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.

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.

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!