Announcements

  • M.E. Sharpe Press published Rob Koslowsky’s contributions to Research and Discovery: Landmarks and Pioneers in American Science in February 2008.

    Russell Lawson was the editor. Koslowsky contributed articles about the personalities Edwin Hubble, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Robert H. Goddard, Eugene Shoemaker, Murray Gell-Mann, and Samuel F. B. Morse as well as pieces discussing the contributions of the laser, electricity, magnetism, thermodynamics, the theory of continental drift, particle physics, understanding of the speed of light, and the Mars Pathfinder mission to the technologically changing society of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

    Please let your local librarian and high school librarian know that this handy three-volume reference set is now available. Details on how to order are found at the following web site: http://www.mesharpe.com/mall/resultsa.asp?Title=Research+and+Discovery%3A+Landmarks+and+Pioneers+in+American+Science

  • Mary Lynn Archibald will discuss her book, Accidental Cowgirl: Six Cows, No Horse and No Clue, The funny, sad and very human twelve year saga of a sojourn on a remote cattle ranch which bore no resemblance –real or implied– to the Ponderosa. Joining her will be Scott Gerber a working cowboy who has worked on ranches in Montana, Nevada, the San Joaquin Valley and the East Bay. Currently he works on a ranch in Sonoma County. Along with his 25 years cowboying, Scott has a long career as an entertainer. In his rich tones and warm style, he sings a selection of traditional and contemporary cowboy songs. Some of the songs are ones he has written about the people he has met and the places he has worked.HEALDSBURG REGIONAL LIBRARY Piper & Center Streets 433-3772 Saturday, April 5 2:00 pm CLOVERDALE REGIONAL LIBRARY 401 N. Cloverdale Blvd 894-5271 Saturday, April 12 2:00 pm, PETALUMA REGIONAL LIBRARY 100 Fairgrounds Drive 763-9801 Saturday, April 19 2:00 pm, WINDSOR REGIONAL LIBRARY 9291 Old Redwood Hwy #100 838-1020 Thursday, May 15 4:00 pm, ROHNERT PARK REGIONAL LIBRARY 6250 Lynne Conde Way 584-9121 Saturday, May 17 2:00 pm, GUERNEVILLE REGIONAL LIBRARY 14107 Armstrong Woods Rd 869-9004 Saturday, May 24 2:00 pm, SEBASTOPOL REGIONAL LIBRARY 7140 Bodega Avenue 823-7691 Tuesday, May 27 6:30 pmFor a complete schedule, click here to open or download a PDF file.

  • March 4, 2008 - The Redwood Branch of the California Writers Club is pleased to announce the winners of the 3rd Annual Youth Writing Contest.

    The Youth Writing Contest began in January and qualifying categories included short story, poetry, and blog rant, all of which appeal to those between the ages of 15 and 22. Winners received gift certificates for Copperfield's Books. The participants' work was judged on suitability for the category, clarity, originality, and cohesion.

    The winners include the following young writers:

    Short Story 1st Lauren Harrison for "The Invitation"
    1st (tie) Allison Walters for "The Skin Takers"
    2nd Ashley Koslowsky for "My Sister"

    Poetry 1st Lindsay Koslowsky for "Interpretation"
    1st (tie) Alex Ponting for "What I Found at Infinity"
    2nd Liana Kelley Meffert for "Thus Far"
    2nd (tie) Alex Ponting for "In a Nutshell"
    Lauren Harrison, seen here with Karen Batchelor, was one of the winners
    of the Youth Writing Contest who read her entry "The Invitation" at the March 2nd general meeting.

    No submissions were received for the blog rant. The winners’ contributions were all of high quality. A number of the winners joined the Redwood Writers at their March 2nd general meeting and read their selections. The youth writings were well received and their work will be published in the upcoming Redwood Writers anthology called Vintage Voices.



  • LIVE OR DIE by Dick Burns - A retired adman who put the smile on the PSA airplane, had a stroke at the age of thirty-eight and survived. This book tells about how he did it and what he learned in the process. www.unlimitedpublishing.com/burns


  • In keeping with our motto, Writers Helping Writers, in 2008, the Redwood Writers presented a series of Editing Workshops.

    The workshop presenters included: - Marlene Cullen, local writing coach and leader of Writers Forum, helped us understand the need for editing. Danny Snow of Unlimited Publishing also discussed publishing options.

    - Jordan Rosenfeld, once-local author now writing for Writer’s Digest, helped us get started on that all-important process of revision.

    - Susan Bono, local editor of Tiny Lights, taught us the necessity of using just the right word or phrasing so that our story sparkles.

    - Georgia Hughes, writer and editorial director for New World Library, complete the workshop series by teaching us to self-correct technical errors.

    The entire workshop series was supported by Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation.

    If you'd like to read about the four workshops, please click Here


  • On January 11, 2008, Ann Wilkes received excellent press coverage in the Community Voice newspaper. The article, "Building worlds with words," is advance press for the upcoming release of her first science fiction novel, Awesome Lavratt. The writer cites the positive influence the Redwood Writers have had on her writing:
    "Ann is grateful for the Redwood Writers, a chapter of local authors who gather to critique each other's writings and work as a social support network."
    Check out the complete story about Ann and her first novel at this web site


  • Congratulations to Ann Phillipp for winning the Redwood Writers' Motto Contest with the words, "Writers Helping Writers." It was the winning selection, among sixteen entries, based on a three to six word guideline to capture the essence of the Redwood Writers. Our mission is to educate both members and the public in the craft of writing and in the marketing of their work, through public meetings, workshops and conferences. Ann’s words effectively capture the mission of the Redwood Writers - "Writers Helping Writers."


  • Ann Wilkes would like to announce that she has a Sonoma County Writers Calendar along with a new blog. See both at sciencefictionmusings.blogspot.com.

  • On October 6, 2007, a review of Vintage Voices: A Toast to Life was written by Jaime Martinez of the Community Voice, one of the local Sonoma County, California newspapers:
    www.thecommunityvoice.com/articles/2007/10/05/arts_and_entertainment/arts03.txt

  • On September 16, 2007, the Redwood Writers were mentioned in a Santa Rosa Press Democrat Article

  • Vintage Voices: A Toast to Life Our collection is arranged to reflect the seasons in the vineyards, the same four seasons of our lives. Chardonnay: To the Planting presents the lightest wine and contains pieces about childhood and youth, the light and early years. Rosé: To the First Bloom celebrates youthful adventures and love. Zinfandel: To the Harvest tells stories of maturing reflections. Port: To the Bottling blends aged wisdom with the mysteries of life’s end.
     On September 8th, the Redwood Writers hosted a reading from this anthology at North Light Books and Cafe, 550 East Cotati Avenue, Cotati from 3 to 5 PM. Click here to open a PDF for more information.


  • Rob Koslowsky's contributions to the Encyclopedia of the Age of the Industrial Revolution: 1700-1920 were published by Greenwood Press in June 2007.

    Christine Rider was the editor and she was a joy to work with. Rob contributed articles about the personalities Alexander Graham Bell, Michael Faraday, Ernst Werner von Siemens, and Nikola Tesla as well as pieces discussing the contributions of telegraphy and the electric dynamno (generator) to the technologically changing society of the nineteenth century.

    Please let your local librarian and high school librarian know that this handy 2-volume reference set is now available. Details on how to order are found at the following web site: www.greenwood.com/catalog/GR3501.aspx


  • In January 2007, the Redwood Writers held a competition for young writers.
    Call of the Wild Youth Writing Contest, 2007 Winners

    Click on the link to read the entries

    Poetry
    1st Place Florina Pena The Butterfly Ball
    2nd Place Anebel Brinkmann The Four Lovelies
    3rd Place Andrew Campion Destructive Renewal

    Rant
    1st Place Eugene Rinehart A Rant "What is My Existence?"
    2nd Place Gabriela Chew A Rice Grain in the Fruit Basket
    3rd Place Majid Khan Brain of Darkness

    Character Sketch
    1st Place Amber Rose Reed Tuesday’s Gone
    2nd Place Dominic Ziegler Those Wandering Threads
    3rd Place Shawnie Miller The Feeder of Night-Thoughts

  		• Vintage Voices: A Sonoma County Writers Club Harvest, is an anthology with works written by members of Redwood Writers, and includes a diversity of styles and genre. The book itself was crafted, designed, and published by Redwood Writers, a unique opportunity offered by Lulu.com.

    Its wine-drenched cover with an antique map, laced with grape vines, add to the charm of its content. The pages feature wide margins and double spacing that make each author’s piece easy to read and set apart from the others.

    We are proud to join Lulu.com and the online revolution in independent book publishing. Lulu.com generously assisted Redwood Writers in each phase of this production in order to support our aspiring writers. Vintage Voices will serve as a model for other writers’ groups who wish to publish and promote their members’ works. We plan to publish a members’ anthology annually and continue to refine our editorial process.



  • In January 2006, the Redwood Writers held a competition for young writers:

    Four letter words
    FEAR, HOPE, LOVE & HATE

    Our winners' entries can be found here.

  • Pat Tyler's short story "Forget About Nails" was accepted for an anthology by Susan Ford Wiltshire and Elizabeth J. Cooper titled The Farmer's Daughter. The piece will appear with the works of 57 other writers of poetry, fiction and non-fiction on themes including immigrant heritage, land ownership, isolation and community, intimacy and distance, and the independence anddependence of women.

  • Ana Manwaring won first place in the Other Genre: Historical/Western/Etc. Short Story Category of the Southwest Writers 2006 Annual Writing Contest for her story Chupacabra. Winners were announced on Sept. 16th in Albuquerque.

  • Rob Loughran has a piece coming out in June's Trail Runner Magazine called "Stomping In Wine Country," which reviews the county's various trail running opportunities: Jack London State Park, Sugarloaf Ridge etc. It's illustrated with photgraphs by local graphic artist Jeff Connelly.

    He also sold a short story, "The Taliban Barber" to Ascent Aspirations. It'll appear in the November 2006 issue. The official release date for "Teenaged Pussies From Outer Space" is August 8th It is also being published on-line in serial form. Part One: CONTACT IS NOT JUST A COLD AND ALLERGY MEDICINE can be viewed at Silverthought: Speculative Fiction for the Internet Generation www.silverthought.com

  • George Rathmell gave a reading and book signing of his new novel, The Pickle Girl, at the Four-Eyed Frog bookstore in Gualala (Mendocino County) last month. Bookstore owner Joel Crockett said, "We hosted an SRO crowd of over 50 people in our small store. Nearly 75% of those who attended bought a copy."

  • Murder at Ocean View College, a young adult novel by Karen Batchelor, will be published by Houghton-Mifflin. It is the story of a group of community college students who are training to become police officers. Their future career gets a boost when one of them discovers an English teacher dead in her office early one morning. It looks like she has been stabbed with a pencil. Against department regulations, and the explicit instructions of their commanding officer, they investigate. Along the way, they uncover a scam operating out of the duplicating office, confront romantic rivals, and even find themselves on a 12-inch ledge seven floor above ground at midnight.

  • Catharine Bramkamp's novel Woman on the Verge of Wyoming has been published.

  • Rob Loughran has several joke books available at lulu.com. Check out the "Books by our Members" page to see them all. Norman Babbit, Scientist is now in print.

  • The Redwood Writers appear in an article by Sara Peyton! Read the article here!

  • Thirtieth Anniversary Dinner Memory Page

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