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November 2011

Milicent Washburn Shinn [18581940] The Overland Monthly, a California literary magazine, was given a new life in 1882. Milicent Shinn, a recent graduate of the new University of California, Berkeley, and only twenty-five years old herself, took over as editor, and by performing every task, kept the impoverished publication alive. She strongly believed that Californians needed writing to better the states grave post-Civil War social problems. She succeeded in keeping the magazine in print for twelve years, until she resigned to return to her studies and become the first female to receive a Ph.D. from UCB in 1898. The Biography of a Baby is her detailed personal observations of the early years of her nieces life, and it was acclaimed as one of the most thorough scientific accounts of a baby's mental and physical development.

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Presidents Message

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November
2011

View from the Mountain Top

Linda Brown

contents
Presidents message November Speaker Member Profile Holiday Luncheon Poetry Page Guest Column October Survey Results Tech Team News Remarks from the Road November Survey Member News Blogroll The Last Word Workshop Flyer Speaker Flyer South Bay Workshop 1 2 2 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 8 9

Early in October, Andy Rooney retired from his 33-year run with 60 Minutes, the venerable CBS television newsmagazine. Rooney insisted, however, that he did not retire. Why? Because Im a writer, and a writer never stops being a writer. I never thought of Rooney as a writer. To me he was a commentator and a crusty one at that. I imagined him doing some writing but not that he saw himself first and foremost as a writer. If I thought about it all, I imagined him polishing the words that a stable of young writers working behind the scenes put on paper after one of his rants in anticipation of a future show. I suspected he was in his 80s, never dreaming that he was 92 years old or that he started his 60 Minutes gig at age 59 or 60. Reading that he started this successful career at an age when many people retire gave me hope that perhaps I have one more career move in the future.

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Holiday luncheon invitation 11

About this same time, I watched a television documentary on Saturday Night Live. The cast reminisced about sitting around the writing table. Flashback photos showed young people in their 20s and 30s working at a table testing zingers that eventually made airtime. I never knew such working conditions existed. These images contrasted to my writing work in Corporate America and my image of struggling writers working feverishly, alone and often in poverty.

In reflecting on these two stories, I wonder what steps these people I do not know personally but who have been a part of my adult life took to become such recognized writers. Did they set goals to find these careers? Did they meet someone by accident who introduced them to a new path? I never had a desire to write comedy lines or move to LA. I did, however, write a movie script in my early 30s when I lived in San Francisco, and I shopped it in LA. Today, I harbor goalssome say fantasiesof writing and producing a documentary or being part of a team writing for a television series. Just maybe its not too late. Right now Im in Arkansas and far removed physically from that path. I packed the outline for my nonfiction book, a couple of reference books, and a folder full of notes. My hope/plan is to get serious and translate the words I have into a query and start the pitch process. I can always use encouragement, and yours will be appreciated.

upcoming events
11/5 Workshop: Dennis Evanosky

News v. Research

11/20 Speaker: Karen Joy Fowler

Adventures in Genre

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November speaker

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Why Not Experiment?

David Baker

Im a very contrary person, Karen Joy Fowler admitted in an interview at 109.com, so rules or formula are actually very energizing and inspiring to me partly because I have no intention of following them. Fowler, our featured speaker for the November 20 meeting, has found that breaking genre rules helps her think about stories and where they can go. Short stories established Fowler as a science fiction writer. She then went on to merge sci-fi with mainstream fiction in her first novel, Sarah Canary, set in Washington Territory in 1873. Readers are drawn to the enigmatic Sarah but have to wonder whether shes an alien. Fowlers second novel, The Sweetheart Season, relies on postWorld War Two Minnesota to provide the setting for a fantasy. Sister Noon blends wellresearched fact with ingenious conjecture. But Fowler refuses to classify the work as historical fiction because she was more interested in creating human drama than in depicting San Francisco during the Gilded Age. The Jane Austen Book Club, taking place in Californias Central Valley, was widely acclaimed as a contemporary comedy of manners but marketed as chick lit in the U.K. Wits End, Fowlers most recent novel, is set in present-day Santa Cruz, where a woman tries to find the truth about her family. She has mysteries to solve, but the story is really a quest. Its also a game in which the author challenges us to distinguish between reality and fiction in a world where real people become characters in blogs. As a reader, Fowler says, theres no aisle in the bookstore in which I dont shop. As a writer, I always want to be trying something new. Not a great career probably, to leave things I know how to do in favor of things I dont, but thats what keeps writing fun for methose new problems to be solved, those new techniques to work on. Sounds appealing doesnt it, but can we really cast aside our literary shackles and experiment? Why not? Come to the November meeting and join the fun.

Write Anges Member Profile: Aline Write Anges Soules

Aline Soules' work has appeared in journals, e-zines, and anthologies such as The MacGuffin, Variations on the Ordinary, Literature of the Expanding Frontier, and 100 Words. Her book, The Size of the World, was co-published with The Shape of the Heart by Plain View Press. Poems from her chapbook, Evening Sun, have appeared in the publications Kaleidowhirl, Reed, Shaking Like a Mountain, and The Houston Literary Review. Prose poems from Meditation on Woman have appeared in Tattoo Highway, Poetry Midwest, Long Story Short, the Newport Review, and the Kenyon Review. Her background includes an MA in English, an MSLS in Library Science, and an MFA in Creative Writing, this last from Antioch University Los Angeles. Further details about her creative writing credits can be viewed at http://sites.google.com/site/alinesoules/creativeresume. She also maintains a blog at http://alinesoules.wordpress.com.

Save the Date for CWC-BB Holiday Luncheon

Save the date for our CWC-BB writers holiday luncheon on Saturday, December 3, 2011, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Our themeParis Noire. Our mascotthe Black Cat in a Santa Hat. Our location: Grand Tavern, 3601 Grand Avenue, Oakland. Limited parking is available in the restaurant parking lot and along Grand Avenue. Grand Tavern is located about a mile up from the Grand Lake Theatre (between Safeway and Ace Hardware) in a converted multistory private residence. Grand Tavern is handicapped-accessible with a ramp through the back entrance. A few steps lead from the street into the restaurant at the front. (See invitation on page 11.)

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PAMELA CRANSTON
Pamela Cranston is a poet, mystery writer, and Episcopal priest. She went to Stetson University from 1968 to 1971, then to England, where she became the first American Anglican Franciscan nun in the Community of Saint Francis (CSF). In San Francisco she helped start the first CSF house in the United States. She finished her BA at San Francisco State, majoring in Interdisciplinary Social Science, Gerontology, and Creative Writing in 1984, and received a Master of Divinity degree from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in 1988. In 1990 she was ordained as an Episcopal priest at Grace Cathedral. She has published a murder mystery, The Madonna Murders, and a book of poems, Coming to Treeline, plus many poems, essays, and reviews in numerous journals. She is the Vicar of St. Cuthberts Episcopal Church in Oakland, where she lives with her husband and cat, Daphne.

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ROSEBUSH IN EARLY SUMMER

A large glossy rosebush, studded with amber roses, posed coyly for me one day on a white-washed fence. From my first glimpse, their satin hands unfolded my startled heart. You could almost believe God was a baker shaping sugared rosettes for a wedding cake, was a farmer growing a crop of ruffled plums. It seemed as if the clumsy sun had dribbled drops of golden syrup, as if a flock of orange doves had fluttered down, as if Brahms had composed each bloom as a separate song which only children can hear. If heaven exists, I do not think it is a place of fluffy clouds and, God forbid, mawkish hymns. Maybe its more like a glowing garden, ravished by roses more fire than flower, where angels do all the pruning, where slugs eat only weeds and where Christ, Himself, works as head Gardener this time, fully recognized.
The Pacific Church News, Vol. 143, No. 3, Summer 2005

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BACH CONCERTO
Music as the art of stillness, collecting itself into presence. The croon of orchestras. A consortium of melody drawing a fluid bead of intelligence down your mental windowpane. The hollow call of wood doves hidden among the pines. The Arch-Lute of your soul. The Untouchable, yet touching. The Unuttered Question, always seeking The same Answer: What is Death but the still point between breaths we breathe daily only more? The Lyric of your life. Silent ears opening the eyes of your Mind. The ceaseless duet between faith and doubt until it comes to an abrupt stop.
The Anglican Theological Review, Vol. 92, #1, Winter 2010

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Guest Column
Cathy Yardley

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Five Ways to Keep Your Writing Engine Running

Between day jobs, family responsibilities, social obligations and all the other details of mundane life, its hard to carve out time for our writing. Whats worse, our writing muscles can act like an old car: the longer unused, the harder it is to start up again. Here are five ways to help you keep your writing engine running: Ive found around this: Dr. Wickeds diabolical Write or Die program. You can set either a time or a word goal, then start typing in its word processor. If you stop typing, an annoying sound starts playing and the whole screen starts to glow an angry, increasingly urgent red. For the truly brave, you can type in kamikaze mode: if you stop typing, it begins to erase what youve written! It sounds extreme, but its actually a lot of fun and perfect for goosing a recalcitrant muse into action.

1. Reach out to writing friends.

Writing is a solitary pursuitno ones getting the words down on paper but you. But if you stay too solitary, you might find yourself losing perspective on your work, getting trapped in your head with your self-doubts and perfectionism. In my writing classes, we do sprints. Just emailing or calling someone, saying lets write for an hour and then checking back in when the hours up does wonders for productivity and for morale. Also, having a weekly check-in, reporting on what you did the week before and stating what youd like to do in the upcoming week, is tremendously useful.

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4. Create a container. I got this concept from Cairene Macdonald, a time management specialist who works with creatives. Start in the morning, looking at what you need to do and want to do, and then write down a time and place for your writing that day. Not only that, but she suggests writing down what you want to accomplish (i.e. scene 12 or 5 pages) as well as when youre going to do it (from two to three oclock), where youre going to do it (my desk, the coffee shop) and what youre going to do to keep your energy up (emailing Cathy beforehand or treating myself to a mocha while Im there.) With clear details, youll find yourself more likely to actually get writing done. 5. Meet your monsters.
If you know all the previous steps already, but youre struggling to find motivation or youre avoiding your writing, then your main issue is probably fear. Havi Brooks of The Fluent Self talks a lot about destuckification and one of her tools is called meeting your monsters. It involves getting quiet and meditative, and then inviting a personification of what is stopping uswhat were afraid ofinto a conversation. (Considering we have conversations with our characters all the time, Ive noticed that writers are particularly good at this exercise!) Then, you do the following: Identify your fear (giving it a face/voice) Give your fear space, acceptance and attention Discover what your fear is trying to protect you from, and Negotiate a compromise that will give your fear some sense of safety without keeping you paralyzed. (Continued on page five)

2. Set smaller goals.

Writing a novel is like running a marathon: thinking of the whole thing at once can be overwhelming to the point of paralysis. I used to think I could only write in large blocks of time. If I couldnt dedicate at least an hour, I wouldnt bother writing that day. Then I had my son. If anything teaches you to grab small increments of useful time, its children! Re-training myself to think I can write something in fifteen minutes has been challenging, but incredibly helpful. Celebrating even one page written a day, rather than bemoaning such a small amount of productivity, is a mind-set change that will help encourage your writing rather than stunting it with pessimism and perfectionism.

3. Beat the clock.

Speaking of perfectionism: often its our underlying need to get it just right that makes our internal editor clamp down, stifling a daily page count. One of the best ways

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(Five Ways continued from page four)

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Lets say youve hit writers block. Using this technique, you learn that the reason you havent written is because you dont want to have your work, which is so close to you, rejected. Youre afraid that the outside world will savage it. (Strangely, you also notice that this fear speaks in a voice similar to your harsh fifth grade English teacher, who suggested that writing for a living was a pipe dream.) Instead of telling yourself thats silly or brushing it off, you recognize it as a valid fear. You realize that its trying to protect you from outside judgment. You may have an issue with others judging you in other areas of your life. You also realize that if you want to be a published writer, then someone elsewhether its an agent, editor, or simply other readersis going to look at it and probably judge it. So theres a disconnect: you cant be a published writer without taking this risk. To negotiate this disconnect, you can remind yourself that you wont improve without writing more. You can promise yourself that no one needs to see it until you feel ready. You can even find ways to gradually show your work to others: first some supportive beta readers, perhaps, or a kind writing teacher. Showing that you accept the fear and want to work with it rather than simply kicking it boot-camp/tough love style will go a long way towards eliminating the block. Writing regularly is like staying fit. Blocks happen. Heck, life happens. But as long as you take a few conscious steps to keep your creative muscles in motion, you can make sure that writing happens, too.
Cathy Yardley is the author of fourteen published novels and the non-fiction writing guide Will Write For Shoes: How To Write Chick Lit. She teaches a year-long mentoring program at Savvy Authors, and she also runs Rock Your Writing, a blog dedicated to helping writers sell a lot, without selling out.

October Survey Results

Do You Enter Writing Contests?

April Kutger

Wow! Although only four CWC Berkeley Branch members responded to Octobers survey about entering writing contests, they had a lot to say about their experiences. In some ways, you can read about them as a primer for entering contests: enter lots of contests from small, local competitions to international festivalsand never stop.

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including those sponsored by CWC branches. One member won first prize in the 2008 Novel Writing Contest at the East of Eden Writers Conference established by the Central Coast Branch. And, over the last four years, one member was a finalist in the 2007 Chicago Literary Awards and won the Inland Festival Contest, the Newport Festival Contest, Binnacle, and quite a few more.

The list of contests members have entered is long, and CWC contests are among them. Two reported entering the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Among the others are the National Best Books Awards in Historical Fiction, Writers Weekly 24-hour Contest, Tiny Lights Global Story Competition, New Verse, the Bellevue Literary Review, and Chicago Literary Awards. In addition to publications, members have entered literary festival contests in London, San Francisco, Hollywood, Los Angeles, and Nashville. If youre looking for contests to enter, Writer's Digest and Poets and Writers magazines as well as the Internet were recommended resources. Our CWC writers don't like to pay contest entry fees but will, depending on the amount. Many contests award prize money up to a few thousand dollars, so that may be part of the motivation to pay the fee! Other contests only promise to publish winning entries. Some of us have had great success with contests,

Members comments on experiences with contests: I used to aim low, entering only small, local competitions. But I didn't win anything. So now I aim high. The result is the same, but I tend to try harder, since I know the competition is fierce. When my stories don't win, I revise them and try them somewhere else. Before my honorable mentions and two finalist awards, decades went by without anything being published in any of the literary contests I submitted work to. I won seventh place in a Writer's Digest short-story contest a long time ago. They asked me to let them know when it was published. It took eight years before I could answer them. Publishing takes time.

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Branch Takes Next Steps into 21st Century
Kristen Caven, Tech Team Leader

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Website Changes If you've been to the website recently (www.cwc-berkeley.com), you may have noticed a few changes that we hope will make a BIG difference. The first thing you will see now is our upcoming meeting and workshop. Scroll down a bit and you'll see blog posts about upcoming events. Down the right side you'll see an invitation to join, a list of upcoming events, and an opportunity to sign up for new blog posts/ announcements to come straight into your email box. Below that is something excitinga like box of our FaceBook page! Yes, we have a Facebook pagewe've had it about a year now. Even though it's never been advertised, over 100 people have found us and liked us! (More on that below...) Below that is a post archive, a list of links to blog topics, and, if you're still up for more scrollingon paper the site would be about three feet longa list of all of the pages of the site. An updated Twitter feed is also in the works. Still in progress is a fix that will keep the site address www.cwc-berkeley.com from switching to http://calwriters club.wordpress.com. It's one of those "before you fix this you have to fix this" kinds of problems, and we're working on solutions. One of which includes the addition of a Paypal account, which, like so many other aspects of computing today, is a simple thing but takes time, which is, of course, the most precious resource in a volunteer operation. Also still in progress is our Published Members page, which is finally becoming a reality, thanks to volunteer JoAnn Ainsworth (author of Out of the Dark), from the Marketing Group. JoAnn's publisher showed her how to use Wordpress, and Lloyd Lofthouse (author of Our Hart) is coaching her on the intricacies. Stay tuned for an email from JoAnn requesting your information for this page, which she hopes to launch in time for the holidays. Social Media Yes, we have a Facebook Page! Anyone can like our page. Kymberlie Ingalls (blogger at www.writer ofthestorm.com) has volunteered to manage our Facebook Profile (you can be friends with us, toowe look like Jack London) and Page. She's just getting up and running. We'll keep you posted as we figure things out. Member Lynn Fraley (www.lynnfraley.com), our team "cheerleader," has offered to manage our LinkedIn Group, started by former member Amos White, before he moved to Italy. This is one of the things members who took this summer's Technology Survey said they'd be interested in. So feel free to find the group on LinkedIn and request to join! Neither group requires membership, which makes it easier for our moderators, and also provides another "doorstep" for writers to get to know our club's benefits before they join. If any club members are on RedRoom, please join me there as well; I created a place for the California Writers Club. (RedRoom is kind of like FaceBook for writers. You can create a web page there with pictures of your book covers, blogs, announcements, and links to what you do.) Help Needed! We are still building our Tech Team! At the top of our wish list is another writer or two familiar with Wordpress and can take on some editing tasks. Madelen Lontiong has been learning how to create links and format pages, but she's already got her hands full being Club Treasurer (not to mention the PayPal thing). The board is still discussing whether to hire an outside web editor or get volunteers. If volunteers step up, we neither have to wait for this process, nor drain the club's resources. A skilled blogger can make a big difference to the club with a small monthly time commitment (1-2 hours). Also on our Tech Team volunteers wish list is someone to help get the Club's Google Calendar up and running. Our upcoming events page is text-based, and gets updated only twice a year, if that often. Once we get the calendar built out, we can show it on the website, and adding new items will be a small monthly task. Do you use Google Calendar? Can you put in a few hours to help the club? Contact me, Kristen Caven (author of The Reason She Left) at kbc@littlepig.com if you would like to join the Tech Team! The Future Has Not Quite Arrived...20112012 will be the year we get ourselves together as a unified presence online. Once we get all the small moving parts working together in a well-oiled machine, we'll consider adopting a new look for the website that says "Berkeley! The branch where it's all going on." Watch for news about email etiquette, social networking, and Wordpress trainings in months to come.

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Remarks from the Road: Al Levenson Speaks at Kansas Authors Club

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On October 8, 2011, AL Levenson attended the annual convention of the Kansas Authors Club and was invited to address those who attended the banquet. Below are his remarks.

Today is the one-year anniversary of my stepping aboard my 28 motor home and casting off her morning lines to sail to the edges of America. I dont plot my travel courses with any great precision. When I am ready to move on, I get on the Internet and look down the road for a writers club, an author event, a Recreational Vehicle rally, or even a bridge tournament. My last year has been dotted with the sort of serendipity that brought me here. That serendipity began four years ago. In the fall of 2007 I joined the Berkeley Branch of the California Writers Club, the oldest writers club in the countryso I was toldwith an early member being Jack London, the greatest writer of his time. In the spring of 2008, the Berkeley branch was in need of a new leader. I had a little experience helping with volunteer organizations, so I volunteered and became president. I learned my predecessor had been writing in the newsletter, Write Angles, which included the phrase in the masthead, the oldest writers club in the country. I circulated the newsletter outside the club, and before long someone came out of the woods to tell me we were not the oldest writers club in the countrythe National Press Club had formed in Washington eleven months before the CWC. I am an honest man and something of a marketing man, and wanted to capitalize on the long, white beard of the club without being caught in a fib. I changed the masthead to read, the oldest writers club west of Washington, D. C. Californians are fuzzy about geography outside the state. Most of them think the known world ends at the state line. So my statement was sufficiently ambiguous that only a few members realized we had slipped a notch. A few months later I got a call from some Internet nerd who discovered the Kansas Authors Club had been founded a full five years before the CWC. Furthermore, Kansas is west of Washington, D.C. I changed the masthead to third oldest writers club. Before we even went to press, my copyeditor, the sharpest 86-year old Ive ever known, noted that under my presidency we were slipping pretty fast. The Berkeley Branch thrived and got through the centennial year. And after my two years at the helm of the Berkeley Branch, someone else stepped forward to be the skipper. As for me, I am a year into my circumnavigation of the country. My Gypsy life is serendipitous and has prompted the most satisfying writing of my entire life in the form of a blog entitled A Year on the Road. I post two or three times a week and now have about enough material for a book in the tradition of Travels with Charley. Ive been blogging my brains out about the score of people Ive met who defy categorization, including the Bareassed Bookseller of Quartzite, AZ; Dorothy Davis, Walking Across America; and Sgt. Andy Brandi, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder counselor. I invite all of you to look in on my blog (www.allevenson.wordpress.com), and, if you like, sign on and take a virtual ride with me for my second year on the road. Most of all, I am thrilled to be able to tip my hat to the oldest writers club in the country on behalf of the oldest writers club west of Kansas.

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November Survey:

What Do You Read?

CWC is a club of writers, and all the writing experts tell us that one of the best ways to hone our craft is to read. Are you curious as to what your fellow club members read? Please take this short, simple survey so we can all learn what each other is reading. And I dont count reading you do for work, even if thats a big part of your job.

Just click on this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KCX2T79 and answer the two questions below by November 12. 1. What do you read for pleasure? 2. How much time do you spend reading for pleasure? Thanks for participating! Well have the results in the December edition of Write Angles.

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Member News
Kristen Cavens first nationally published article, Beauty at Every Age, came out July 27 in Natural Solutions magazine. (http://www.naturalsolutions mag.com/aging/beauty-every-age)

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Debby Frischs debut memoir, "A Mango for the Teacher Running the Beach and Running a School in Cancuns Early Days, is now available as an e-book on www.smashwords.com and at www.amazon.com: kindle bookstore. It will soon be available as a print book as well.

Thomas Burchfield's humorous essay on his CWC reading this last April recently won the Creative Challenge award from the Red Room website for writers. His novel, Dragon's Ark, and comic screenplay, Whackers, both published by Ambler House, are available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other retailers. His original screenplay, The Uglies, will be out as an e-book later this year, also through Ambler House.

Jeff Kingman reports that he has three publications coming up in the next few months. The first piece, Four Colors Standing on a Corner, surrealistic flash fiction, has just been published in the online literary journal, decomPmagazinE. http://www.decomp magazine.com/four colorsstandingonacorner.htm. A second flash fiction is destined for Grey Sparrow, and may be published on Halloween.

Francine Howard received the news from her publisher, Amazon, that on September 24, her novel Page from a Tennessee Journal was the number one download of all paid Kindle downloads. That means that thousands were sold in one day.

Anne Foxs letter on the topic of Authority was published in the Readers Write section of the November issue of The Sun magazine.

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Lucille Belluccis novel, The Snake Woman of Ipanema, won Honorable Mention in the Horror category in the October 2011 Halloween Book Festival, promoted by JM Northern Media LLC, which produces annual events nationwide.

Risa Nye initiated The East Bay Monthlys October feature article about the firestorm of 1991, Where Theres Smoke, with her essay, Theres no question where it begins. The Monthlys impressive commemorative article about the Berkeley/Oakland disaster includes other essays, reflections, and impressions about the historic event, as well as poetry, photographs, and references. Risa was also a guest blogger with Made Up Memories for the October 10, 2011 issue of online It Builds Character (www.itbuilds character.com). On the same date, her piece We Have a Knituation appeared for online SMARTS Magazine (www.smartsmag.com). In online Berkeleyside, 10/11/11, Risas piece, Looking for Familiar Landmarks is part of the publications Firestorm Special, and can be found at http:// www.berkeleyside.com/2011/10/11/looking-forfamiliar-landmarks-seeing-what-little-was-left/.

Linda Browns report about CWC member Nina Egert's photo essay exhibit on Yone Noguchi at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center was published in the October 2011 issue of Oakland Business Review. (See October Write Angles for more information about the exhibit.)

Kenneth Harvey Cardwell: An Oral History, interviewed by Paul Grunland; with Therese Pipe, managing editor, is being published this month by the Berkeley Historical Society. Runs 240 pages, including illustrations and a detailed Table of Contents. Limited number for sale. Info, contact Therese at tpipeln@jps.net.

Write Angles welcomes letters to the editor, book reviews, and articles of interest to writers. Submit to writeangles@gmail.com. If you are a member and want to share news, please write Member News in the subject line. Deadline is the 15th of the month.

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Lets Get This Blog Roll Started!
Tanya Grove

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I asked people to send me their favorite blogs or their own blogs. I got responses from three members: Lloyd Lofthouse http://ilookchina.net/about/There are many misconceptions about China, and the Western media often does not get it rightat least in the way they interpret why something happens the way it does in China. My goal is to write a blog where people outside China may discover China and understand it better. http://crazynormaltheclassroomexpose.com/This blog is about education, teaching, parenting, and coming of age, based on the authors thirty years as a classroom teacher and as a parent of two. http://thesoulfulveteran.wordpress.com/Young men go to war and come back damaged. War also

damages noncombatants such as mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, lovers, friends, and neighbors. ____________________________ Kristen Caven http://wanderingpie.blogspot.com is where I write about all sorts of things. I write about my experiences as a writer in http://www.kristencaven.com/home/latest-news ____________________________ Elizabeth Wagele http://bit.ly/psychtdyI have a blog that runs on the first and third Tuesday of every month on Psychology Today. The title is "The Career Within You." http://ewagele.wordpress.comOn the other Tuesdays I write on various subjects, most frequently the Enneagram personality system. I am in the middle of a series on famous people and their Enneagram types.

I will add these to the CWC blog roll and keep collecting. If you want your blog to be on the list, or if you have a favorite blog you want to share with other CWC members, send the link to writeangles@gmail.com with a brief description of the blog itself and why you like it or why other members might want to read it. Please submit it by November 15 to make it in the December issue.

Marin Branch Meeting Hosts Panel

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Sunday, November 20, 2011, 2-4 pm at Book Passage, Corte Madera Rules Are Made to Be BrokenBut Which Ones, and When?" Panelists include Katherine Ellison, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and author of four books, most recently Buzz: a Year of Paying Attention; Malinda Lo, author of the YA novels Huntress and Ash, a Kirkus 2009 Best Book for Children and Teens; and Ellen Sussman, editor of two anthologies and author of two novels, most recently the New York Times bestseller French Lessons.

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Editor Copyeditor/Member News/Tidbits Cover Author Contributor Presidents Message Speaker Profile Poetry Page Editor Member Profiles Survey Analyst/Reporter Tanya Grove Anne Fox Karren Elsbernd Linda Brown David Baker Barbara Ruffner Thomas Burchfield April Kutger

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The Last Word
Tanya Grove

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Writer Coaches Really Make Connections

Three years ago I became a writer coach at Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley. My own daughter had already gone through King and had the benefit of having a writer coach, and my husband had been a writer coach there as well. So I already knew about the program, and I was impressed with the idea that every 8th grader in Berkeley public schools had a writer coach to work with one on one throughout the school year. Back when I was a full-time teacher, I wasnt able to be a writer coach or do much in the way of volunteering at all. In fact, I spent all day with busy little eight-year-olds and had no quiet time to write. But after I lost my teaching job and began a career in publishing, my schedule was more flexible. Although most of my teaching had been in the primary grades, I figured I could learn how to work with 8th graders. I am so glad I joined the program. I get to know these interesting young people, and I genuinely enjoy our writing sessions. Its good practice for me as a writer and an editor, and it provides for students in crowded classrooms one adult whose only purpose is to help them write. That kind of one-on-one attention is rare in schools where teachers are burdened with more students and higher expectations than in the past, even while theyre given fewer resources and less support than ever before. Ive worked with terrific kids and have built real relationships with them. Seeing growth in their writing is satisfying, of course, but Writer Coach Connection is so much more than that. I started out with the notion that I was helping some kids with their writing and at the same time giving back to the community, but I confess that I continue to be a writer coach because it is a rewarding experience for me. After 24 years of teaching, the time I now spend writing and editing can feel a little too quiet. But the couple of mornings each month I get to spend with Rose, Will, and Irinajust 25 minutes with each oneallow me to have the best of both worlds. The program now has chapters in Oakland, Albany, and El Cerrito, and includes 9th graders in some schools. Teachers appreciate the boost it gives their students, and students have been enthusiastic about the program. If you think you might want to be a writer coach, read the article below.

Writer Coach Connection Needs Volunteers

Would you like a gratifying way to work with young writers in the public schools? WriterCoach Connection takes teams of community volunteers into middle school and high school English classes to work with students, one on one, on their classroom writing assignments. Coaches commit to about two hours per week and meet two to three times per month during the school year. WCC has coaches in Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito, and Oakland, and the program is expanding. No teaching or tutoring experience is necessary. WCC's two-part volunteer trainings provide strategies and practice for working effectively with students. Register now to learn about our late fall and early spring trainings. To learn more and register, please visit: writercoachconnection.org, or call Lynn Mueller (510-524-2319).

Our monthly meetings are free and open to the public and feature a speaker, an author event, or both.

Oakland Public Library West Auditorium 125 14th Street 94612

Entrance on Madison Street

Menu for CWC BB Annual Holiday Event Saturday, December 3, 2011, 11:30 a.m. 2:30 p.m.* Choice of organic, full-bodied coffee; tea, fresh-squeezed orange juice Assorted salads (Caesar and beet with marinated beets, gorgonzola, organic greens and house viniagrette, served family style) Entre (choose one) Monte Cristo Sandwich Provolone, raspberry jam, ham, dipped in egg batter with mixed greens. Traditional french bistro fare, served with mixed greens Tavern Burger Niman ranch beef, dijon mustard, roasted garlic on a Acme bun, with or without gorgonzola served with social skin fries Huevos Rancheros two eggs sunny side up, corn tortillas, pinto beans, jalapeno chutney, sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo (vegetarian) Grilled Chicken Hearts of Romaine (Caesar) anchovy dressing, red onion, herbs Dessert: chocolate truffles, french pastries Brunch cocktails (bloody mary, mimosa, tequila sunrise $6.00 no host) *We are opening early to accommodate CWC-BB; normal opening time is noon.

Welcome to The Grand Tavern

We are your local tavern, specializing in pre-prohibition cocktails with a wide range of wines and beers. Our gastropub style cuisine bursts with international flavors. We work hard to use organic and local produce in all of the drinks and food served to you. Limited parking available in our lot; ample street parking. Just off the No. 12 bus line. Located on Grand Avenue, cross street Weldon. 3601 Grand Ave Oakland, Ca. 94610 510-444-4644 For our members: Tax and service included - $25.00 payable to CWC-BB. Please mail checks to event coordinator Eva Merrick, P.O. Box 426337, San Francisco, CA 94142 by Saturday, November 19th, or bring in person to November Meeting.
Attendee Name:_________________________________________________(please print) Choice of Entre:________________________________________________ (if choosing the Tavern Burger, please specify with or without gorgonzola)