by Nate Hoffelder | Jan 21, 2025 | Events
The World of Flash
Flash Fiction Writer’s Workshop
Sat., March 1, 2025
1:00 – 3:00 pm
Mill Valley Public Library
Reserve your seat on the library website: https://millvalleylibrary.libcal.com/event/13584265
Dive into the world of ‘flash fiction’ (defined as very short fiction, a few hundred words) in this fast-paced, hands-on workshop where creativity knows no bounds! Together, we’ll explore both classic and cutting-edge techniques for crafting impactful, bite-sized stories that linger long after the last word. In a supportive, judgment-free space, you’ll unleash your imagination, write your own flash fiction, and share your creations with a community that celebrates your voice.
About the facilitator: Award-winning indie poet, historical novelist, and forensic historian
Gini Grossenbacher is one of California’s respected and sought-after creative writing educators and certified copyeditors. She is an experienced conference presenter and a favorite speaker at book clubs, fairs, and festivals. She has an M.S. in Education from The University of LaVerne, Los Angeles, and earned a certificate in copyediting from UC San Diego in 2021. Gini has forty years of experience teaching writing and language arts to adults and adolescents.
by Nate Hoffelder | Dec 15, 2024 | Events
Wrangling Your Inner Critic
with Danika Bloom
Wed., Feb. 12, 2025
7:00 – 8:30 pm PT
Online (Zoom) Only
$5 for CWC Members (any branch)
$10 for Non-Members
Register Below
Feeling stuck in your writing or overwhelmed by self-doubt? This interactive workshop, Wrangle Your Inner Critic, empowers you to transform that nagging voice in your head into a creative ally. Through brain science, reframing techniques, and actionable strategies, you’ll uncover why your inner critic exists and how to quiet its unhelpful chatter.
Learn how to replace guilt-driven goals with ones that bring joy, set yourself up for success through productive routines, and find a community that supports your growth as a writer. By the end of the session, you’ll have practical tools to turn anxiety into action, procrastination into productivity, and fear into confidence.
Perfect for writers of all levels, this workshop combines neuroscience, mindful practices, and a supportive atmosphere to help you write with clarity, courage, and joy.
Danika Bloom is a USA Today bestselling romance author and the founder of Author Ever After, a community membership where she supports pre-published romance writers to finish and strategically indie-publish their first romance novels during weekly small group coaching calls and masterminds.
$5 for CWC Members, $10 for Non-Members
by Nate Hoffelder | Nov 19, 2024 | Events
Building Readership
with Iris Jamahl Dunkle
3:30 – 5:30 pm
Dominican University in San Rafael
FREE
REGISTER
Remote access also available via live Zoom broadcast. You may select your ticket type at registration.
This event is co-sponsored with Dominican University MFA Creative Writing Program
Iris Jamahl Dunkle will discuss the art of building a platform to grow your audience as an author including everything from developing a weekly Substack, fostering an online presence through social media platforms, scheduling strategic readings and developing community through literary citizenry work to connect with readers, editors, and the literary world.
Iris Jamahl Dunkle is an Emerita Poet Laureate of Sonoma County and a faculty member at UC Davis and she teaches in the Dominican University Low-Res MFA program. She has authored two biographies: Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer (University of Oklahoma Press, 2020) and Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb (University of California Press, 2024). Her fourth poetry collection, West : Fire : Archive, was recently published by The Center for Literary Publishing. Dunkle writes a weekly blog called Finding Lost Voices, which revives the voices of women who have been forgotten or misremembered and serves as the Poetry and Translation Director at the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference. She’s on the board of the National Book Critics Circle where she is the Co-VP of Awards.
Registration Details
Registration is required. Event details will be emailed to all registrants. This event is free and open to the public as a service to our community.
Contact mfa@dominican.edu with any questions.
by Nate Hoffelder | Oct 25, 2024 | Events
December 8, 2024
4:00 – 6:00 pm
FREE
Sorry, we’re full up! Happy Holidays!
Celebrate the year in writing and CWC friendships at our Members-Only Holiday Party!
The party will take place at the home of former CWC Marin President Mike Van Horn (address to be provided to registered attendees only).
- Members may bring one guest
- Potluck! Bring a drink or snack to share
- White Elephant Book Exchange! Bring a book to give away (see rules below)
Register Here: marin@cwcmarin.com
Note: If the link doesn’t work, please simply RSVP to the email address. Space is limited to thirty people so don’t wait!
How the Book Exchange Works
- Bring a book to the party (unwrapped) — it can be your book or a book you love. We’ll lay them out on a table for everyone to admire.
- Everyone will be given a chance to introduce his/her book — thirty seconds — (I chose this book because x. I love this book because y)
- Everyone takes a number from a hat
- The person with #1 goes first. He/she chooses a book.
- Person #2 can either choose a book from the table, or steal the book from #1.
- If stolen, #1 goes back to the table and chooses another book.
- #3 goes next. He/she can choose a book from the table or steal one.
- * No ‘steal-backs’. A book can only be stolen twice. When stealing, you must address your ‘victim’ by name. Nobody ‘has to play’. Feel free to just watch!
by Nate Hoffelder | Sep 22, 2024 | Events
The Heart and Craft of Memoir Writing
with Linda Joy Myers
1:00 pm to 2:30 pm
Mill Valley Public Library
FREE
RESERVE MY SEAT
When you write a memoir, you must bring everything you have to it—your past, your present and the shadow. You put your heart on the page, create a world for the reader, and offer a universal message. In this presentation, we’ll investigate the skills that memoir writers need to create a world that the reader can enter, including theme, powerful scenes, dialogue, and characterization. To write a heartful memoir, you need to dig deep and at the same time, take care of yourself. Some memories are painful. And in the end, what does the reader learn from you that they can apply to their own lives?
Linda Joy Myers, founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers, is the author of award-winning memoirs Don’t Call Me Mother and Song of the Plains, and two books on craft The Power of Memoir, & Journey of Memoir. She co-authored Breaking Ground on Your Memoir and Magic of Memoir & co-teaches Write Your Memoir in Six Months with Brooke Warner. Linda is teaching a new course, The Craft of Writing a Successful Memoir, an ongoing class with Carla King. A memoir coach for 30 years, she helps memoir writers find their voice and get their story into the world. Linda has just ventured into novel writing land, and her first novel, The Forger of Marseille, a WWII historical fiction novel won four awards in historical fiction and is published by She Writes Press. http://namw.org
RESERVE MY SEAT
