by Nate Hoffelder | Apr 26, 2026 | Events
Summer Salon
Summer Salon Open Mic Nights are back! Join us for a sparkling summer backyard party and sign up to read your work aloud.
July 26 (Sun) 4 – 6 pm Mill Valley (Member’s Home)
Aug 16 (Sun) 4 – 6 pm San Rafael (Member’s Home)
- July Salon: Sign ups open June 1st. Registration link will appear HERE. Limited to thirty current CWC Marin Members. We will maintain a short waitlist.
- Members may bring one guest; specify on the RSVP form.
- Readers have five minutes only (about 750 words). We use a stopwatch, so plan ahead!
- Any original work is welcome (essay, excerpt, poem, etc.)
- You don’t have to read. You’re welcome to come and just listen
- Potluck. Please bring a food or dessert to share. Drinks will be provided.
- August Salon: You must renew your membership before signing up. 30 Members, plus guest. Membership renewals open July 1.
- Exact address will be sent just prior to the event to registered guests
- Questions? Ask at marin@cwcmarin.com
by Nate Hoffelder | Mar 18, 2026 | Events
A Writer’s Guide to AI
May 14 (Thurs)
6:00 – 7:30 pm
Online (Zoom)
Members (any CWC branch) $5
Non-Members $10
Beat the Bots: A Writer’s Guide to Surviving and Thriving in the Age of AI, with Jane K. Cleland
You have a story to tell, an important story, your story. Getting that story down on paper is hard, though. We writers have to be good at so many different things, from coming up with worthy ideas to developing a twisty and clever plot, creating relatable characters, choosing intriguing settings, generating believable dialogue, and writing evocative prose—six crucial elements. With ChatGPT and other bots taking over the writing market, authors worry they’ll become irrelevant in the not-too-distant future. The answer isn’t to surrender to the doom and gloom predictions.
On the contrary, it’s time to lean into your humanity, to do what artificial intelligence can’t.
Based on Jane’s book, Beat the Bots: A Writer’s Guide to Surviving and Thriving in the Age of AI, this webinar shows you how to harness your innate creativity because if you bring your creativity, your individuality, and your judgment to your work, you’ll out-write a chatbot all day long.
Jane K. Cleland, author and teacher. Beat the Bots: An Author’s Guide to Surviving & Thriving in the Age of AI, which Louise Penny described as “Brilliant!” is now available. Agatha-award winning Mastering Suspense, Structure & Plot and Mastering Plot Twists. Also, the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries, including Jane Austen’s Lost Letters “Beguiling… Miss Austen would approve.” Publishers Weekly. www.janecleland.com
REGISTER USING THE PAYPAL LINKS BELOW
* Note: CWC Members of branches other than Marin, once you have paid, please email us separately at marin@cwcmarin.com with your current branch so we may verify.
by Nate Hoffelder | Jan 27, 2026 | Events
CWC Marin, Left Coast Writers, and Book Passage present
LOCAL AUTHOR BOOK FAIR
Celebrating National Independent Booksellers’ Day
April 25, 1:00 – 3:15 pm
Book Passage, Corte Madera
Join us in a celebration of independent bookstores like Book Passage and support fellow local authors! Twenty CWC Marin authors, along with twenty Left Coast Writers members, will be out on the patio selling their books.
At 1 pm, Jasmin Darznik, author of The Bohemians, will speak inside.
There will be water and ice tea available outside, and the café will be open inside as always.
When you buy a book from a featured local author, be sure to pay for the book inside at the Book Passage register, THEN ask the author to sign it for you.
Let’s show Book Passage and our fellow hardworking authors how much we love. Tell your friends and bring your neighbors!
by Nate Hoffelder | Jan 12, 2026 | Events
Your Path through Today’s Publishing Labyrinth
March 29 (Sunday)
1:00 – 2:30 pm
MVPL Creekside Room
This workshop will coach participants to consider what they want out of publishing, and which of today’s many paths is best suited for their personally defined success. As any journey to publication is long, even beginning writers will benefit by learning how to set themselves up early for success; and advanced writers who are ready to submit will benefit from being able to take away focused and actionable next steps. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the complex but exciting state of today’s publishing industry.
RESERVE MY SEAT
About the Presenters
Shirin Yim Leos, Retreat Leader and Writing Mentor
Shirin has been leading writing retreats and mentoring writers for more than a dozen years. Once the Head Goose of Goosebottom Books, she is the Ezra Jack Keats Award-winning author of 21 children’s books. The sale of her adult historical fiction, OF WIND AND DUST, to The Dial Press last year was a Publisher’s Weekly Deal of the Week, and the launch is scheduled for early 2027. Shirin likes to help writers with her perspective from both sides of the desk.
shirinyimleos.com
Lisa Manterfield, Author and Book Coach
Lisa is the award-winning author of five novels, two works of non-fiction, and five non-fiction eBooks. As a developmental editor and book coach, she has guided many writers through the process of drafting, revising, and publishing a novel or memoir. She teaches writing and publishing through Stanford Continuing Studies and in her small group workshops. Her superpower is coaxing writers to “The End.”
LisaManterfield.com
RESERVE MY SEAT
by Nate Hoffelder | Dec 10, 2025 | Events
Perfect Pitch!
Elevator Pitch Workshop with
Brenda Knight
Feb 3 & 17, 2026
6:00 pm
Mill Valley Public Library
Creekside Room
An elevator pitch is a key component to selling your art, whether it’s a novel, a play, or other written concept. Crafting an elevator pitch requires you to think critically about your message and distill it to its core elements. This process helps you gain clarity on your goals, values, and what makes you or your offering unique.
You may not be ready to make a formal pitch to agents and publishers, but you should always be ready to talk about your book with clarity and confidence. You never know who you will meet. The time to practice your pitch is before you find yourself sitting on a plane next to a publisher. This special two-part event will get you ready!
Part 1: Create Your Elevator Pitch. Tues. February 3rd, 6:00-7:30 pm. Pitch-O-Rama veteran publisher Brenda Knight will coach us through the basics of a great elevator pitch: what do publishers and agents want to hear? What will turn them off, and what will pull them in? RESERVE MY SPOT (https://millvalleylibrary.libcal.com/event/15421513)
Part 2: Now, Practice It! Tues. February 17th, 6:00-7:30 pm. Stand up before a friendly, informal audience and deliver your 3-minute pitch. If you wish, the audience can provide feedback. CWC Marin Board Member Daniel Bacon will be the moderator. RESERVE MY SPOT (https://millvalleylibrary.libcal.com/event/15421514)
About the Coach: Brenda Knight is a twenty-year publishing veteran, starting at HarperCollins. She authored American Book Award-winning Women of the Beat Generation, Rituals for Life and Wild Women and Books. She is President of the San Francisco Chapter of the Women’s National Book Association, which hosts the annual Pitch-O-Rama. Knight has worked with many bestselling authors including Mark Nepo, Phil Cousineau, Congresswoman Jackie Speier, and Paolo Coehlo. She is founding editor of Viva Editions, a division of Cleis Press.
Want to know more about Pitch-O-Rama? Check it out here:
https://wnba-sfchapter.org/register-for-virtual-pitch-o-rama-2026/
by Nate Hoffelder | Nov 14, 2025 | Events
Unlocking Voice on the Page
Writing Workshop with Jordan Rosenfeld
Jan 11, 2026
1:00 – 3:00 pm
Mill Valley Public Library
Creekside Room
RSVP HERE
Ideal for any writer who wants to polish prose and write vibrant characters and improve sentence level writing.
Your characters are sassy or stern, enthusiastic and effusive, and they’re waiting to leap off the page into readers’ minds. This confab unspools the essentials of voice, from character’s secrets and fears, their attitudes and personality, and teases apart the mysteries of syntax and sentence structure in ways that will not remind you of high school English class. You’ll come away from this confab with an overarching sense of what comprises voice and how to wield it more confidently in your own work. This class is for:
We’ll Cover:
- Essentials of character voice, like experience and attitude
- Essentials of tone, like imagery and mood pieces
- Key elements of syntax and sentence structure (not dull grammar!)
- And more….
Jordan Rosenfeld is author of the novels Fallout, Women in Red and Forged in Grace and six books on the craft of writing, including the Sound of Story: Developing Voice and Tone in Writing, How to Write a Page-Turner, the bestselling Make a Scene, Writing the Intimate Character, A Writer’s Guide to Persistence, Writing Deep Scenes and Write Free. Her freelance writing has been published in hundreds of publications, including: The Atlantic, The New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, Scientific American, Writer’s Digest Magazine, and many more. She is also an editor, writing coach and teaches online classes. Jordanrosenfeld.net
RSVP HERE
