Welcome to the California Writers Club!

The Berkeley Branch is the founding branch of one of the oldest professional writers’ clubs in the country.

Our meetings are free
and the public is welcome!

Come to our next meeting,

February 19th at 2:00 p.m.

Our featured speaker is Fred Setterberg. Click here for more information.

Anyone may attend our affordable workshops!

Members get a $16 discount

Our next workshop is Saturday, February 4th.

Sascha Illyvich speaks on writing from the male point of view. Click here for more information.

March 3 WORKSHOP — “Social Media Branding for Authors” with Beth and Ezra Barany

click here to download flyer

Saturday, March 3, 2012
10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

In this hands-on workshop with best-selling and award-winning authors (and happily married couple!) Beth and Ezra Barany, we will help you take the first steps to attract your right readers and build your fan base of raving fans so you can sell more books.

In this conversation you will:
• Discover your Clear Message to attract your right readers
• Define your unique author identity to start the conversation
• Uncover the key to successful marketing and branding: the Success Mindset
• Learn what to say on the various social media  to attract your right readers and more of them.

Beth Barany, writer’s coach and author of The Writer’s Adventure Guide: 12 Stages to Writing Your Book, and the bestselling Overcome Writer’s Block, and Henrietta The Dragon Slayer, runs an active online community for authors who use journaling for self-development. She has helped authors get their books written and edited, published and marketed, into the hands of their readers for over 10 years; five of her clients’ books have been best-sellers. Author and consultant, Ezra Barany, helps authors design and promote their books so they can have the success they desire. When it comes to social media, Ezra uses Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to market his award winning and Amazon bestselling suspense novel The Torah Codes.

To Register: Send a check made out to CWC-BB for $13 (members) or  $29 (nonmembers)  to: Attn: Workshops, PO Box 6447, Alameda, C, 94501. Be sure to include an email address!

February 19th Speaker — Writing a “True Life” Novel with Fred Setterberg

click to download flyer

Fred Setterberg, the author of Lunch Bucket Paradise (Heyday Books), will talk about writing autobiographical fiction in the form of a novel at our next CWC branch meeting.

Fred Setterberg has also written The Roads Taken: Travels Through America’s Literary Landscapes, winner of the AWP prize in creative nonfiction.  He co-wrote Under the Dragon:  California’s New Culture with Lonny Shavelson (published by Heyday), and edited Travelers’ Tales America.  His essays and reporting have appeared in The Iowa Review, The Southern Review, The New York Times, The Nation, The Utne Reader, The Boston Phoenix, and scores of other journals and magazines.  He is a recipient of a NEA fellowship, the William Faulkner-William Wisdom essay prize, fiction awards from The Florida Review, Literal Latte, and Solstice Literary Magazine, and numerous journalism awards. A former staff writer for the East Bay Express, he lives in Oakland, California.

What is a “True Life” Novel? Read Fred’s essay at Talking Writing.

Read excerpts from and reviews about Fred’s books at www.fredsetterberg.com.

See you on Sunday! + Mark your Calendars for CWC Events…

Dear Writing Friends,

We hope you can join us this Sunday, January 15, for the launch of two CWC Programs at the Oakland Main Library. Visit our website – ww.cwc-berkeley.com – for flyers (some times have changed) and more information.

• Jennifer Basye Sander, best-selling author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published will help us jump-start our publishing goals by speaking on “How to Create Best-selling Book Ideas.” A great beginning for the New Year at the Oakland Public Library.
• Sunday, January 15, also marks the first day of the submission window for the 26th Fifth-Grade Story Contest.

At 2 p.m., networking and socializing begins; our meeting starts at 2:30 p.m., right before the speaker is introduced.

Save these February and March dates (and sign up in advance for the workshops)

• Saturday, February 4, Sascha Illyvich will lead a three-hour workshop in Alameda on “Writing from the Male Point of View.”  A “hot” topic for the Valentine Day month.
• Sunday, February 19, Fred Setterberg, Oakland author of Lunch Bucket Paradise, A True-Life Novel, will speak on “Writing a True Life Novel” at the Oakland Main Library. (See a review on page 20 of the January/February 2012 Oakland magazine.)
• Saturday, March 3, Write-A-Thon  in Alameda
• Thursday, March 15, End of the Fifth-Grade Story Contest Submission Window
• Sunday, March 18, Speaker Program at the Oakland Public Library

Come write with us!

— Linda Brown, President, California Writers Club, Berkeley Branch

Calling all Fifth Graders!

click here to download flyer

Please tell all fifth-grade teachers you know that our 26th Annual Fifth Grade Story Contest is now open for entries! Information about this contest can be found on our website here.

Download flyer here:
CWC-26th Annual Fifth Grade Story Contest 2012.pdf

(grayscale version available for black & white printers – click here)