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Workshops & Classes

July Featured Speaker – Andrew Roth

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Upper body shot of guest speaker Andrew Roth, arms crossed and smiling outdoors.
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

Registration for this past event is closed.

February Featured Speaker – Phyllis Wachob

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Upper body shot of featured speaker Phyllis Wachob, holding a small white dog and smiling outdoors.
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.

Registration for this past event is closed.

October Featured Speaker – Jenny Margotta

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Upper body picture of speaker Jenny Margotta, smiling at the camera against a dark studio background.

Workshop Title: Effective Self-Editing

You’ve done your research. You’ve worked, slaved, and agonized, and the final page has been written. You’re done, right? Probably not. Unless you’re an as-yet-undiscovered creative writing prodigy, your work is going to need to be edited. No matter how good a writer you are, your work can always be better. Even if it’s just tweaking that one adjective or adverb that really nails an emotion. You need a good editor, but there’s a lot you can do on your own before spending money. As a professional editor, my job is to take your great story and make it that much better. But I can give you lots of tips do to on your own that will greatly improve your writing before you pay an editor. And you won’t even need to buy your own copy of the 1,200-plus page The Chicago Manual of Style to master those tips.

Jenny Margotta is a professional copy editor, book formatter, and a book-cover designer. She has edited nearly 200 books in all genres for authors across the country.

J Margotta-Ferrara is the author of four books, most notably the braided memoir, The Woman in Room 23. Retribution, Resolution, and Some Like it Hot: The Culinary Adventures of One Hot Momma and One Cool Dude.

Ms. Margotta can be contacted at jennymargotta@mail.com. 

Registration for this past event is closed.

September Featured Speaker – Tracy Kelly

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Upper body picture of speaker Tracy Kelly, smiling at the camera against a dark, neutral studio background.

Workshop Title: Writing Your Legacy

Tracy Kelly has fourteen years teaching Special Education in California. He has taught all grades K-12, as well as being a Lecturer, both Adjunct and Full Time, at the University level. He taught those that inspired to be General Education and Special Education Teachers. He has earned a BA in Economics, MA in Special Education, two teaching credentials, and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, with a focus on teacher self-efficacy. He has edited six books. Tracy and his wife have three sons, three grandsons, and two granddaughters. Four dogs, four cats, and two rats also live with him.

Tracy will discuss the importance of writing your story, and your legacy. Perhaps, even the things that you learned from your grandparents or even parents that your children and grandchildren are not aware of. Write it like an autobiography. If you have been carrying something that you may regret or was a valuable lesson that you will never forget, write it down. He will discuss the value of your life to the next generation. All of us have a story, and there is value in it being shared.

The attendees will gain insight into themselves and their growth as writers and human beings.

Tracy will reinforce the insight that failure leads to success and learning.

They will better understand the worth of their life, story, and legacy.

They will have a better understanding of what their strengths, weaknesses, failures, and successes mean to them and their legacy.

The attendees will gain insight into the meaning of saying Yes leads to Success!

They will learn that their story or legacy has value.

They will learn how to draw those memories/lessons out of themselves.

They may learn how to share hard life lessons with family members. They will learn how to delicately share some regrets or uncomfortable truths about themselves if they have any.

They will learn how they can share their story/legacy before it is over or after.

Registration for this past event is closed.

June Featured Speaker – Mike Apodaca

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Close-up headshot of guest speaker Mike Apodaca, wearing glasses and smiling outdoors.

Workshop Title: DO THE TWIST: HOW TO CREATE A GREAT ENDING

Learn how to organize a story where the reader gets that mind-shifting realization at the end that the solution to everything was right in front of them, but they never even saw it.

Mike Apodaca – Bio

Mike Apodaca was born and raised in Southern California with his mother, adopted father, and three brothers. In college, he felt there had to be an answer to the pain and suffering he saw in this world. He turned to his God where he found his answers and never turned back. He received a degree in preaching and, later, a masters in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He pastored a church for nine years and then moved to the High Desert where he helped start a church and then led a home church for a time. For the last seven years he‘s devoted himself to teaching high school boys about the faith.

Mike became a public-school teacher and molded the minds of over a thousand young people. Mike’s specialty was Gifted education. He taught classes at the state-wide CAG Conference and for UC Riverside. He also taught a class in teaching reading at Brandman University. 

After 30 years in education, Mike took his retirement. He’s been working with his young grandchildren in the age of COVID. He’s currently the Vice President of the High Desert branch of the California Writer’s Club where he runs their Zoom meetings, edits their newsletter, and sits on various committees. Mike‘s written seven books, four of which are self-published on Amazon. His stories have appeared in club anthologies and in The Literary Review.

Mike would tell you that his greatest treasure is his family: His loving wife, Debi, who’s shared their adventure for 38 years, his two children, and two grandchildren.

Mike can be reached at mrdaca.ma@gmail.com

Registration for this past event is closed.