Mystic Ink, Publisher of Spiritual, Shamanic, Transcendent Works, and Phantastic Fiction

This seminar covers aspects of the traditional publishing process, how it works, how long it takes, dealing with rejections, contracts, publicity, platform building, blurbs, signings, podcasts, nominations, and more.SBWC faculty member Norm Thoeming (aka August Norman) is author of two literary thrillers and mysteries, Come and Get Me and Sins of the Mother.Andy Ross opened his literary agency in 2008. He was the owner of the legendary Cody's Books in Berkeley for 30 years before switching careers. His agency represents books in a wide range of nonfiction genres. He looks for writing with a strong voice, robust story arc, and books that tell a big story about culture and society by authors with the authority to write about their subject. In fiction, he likes character and voice-driven stories about real people in the real world.

W. Bruce Cameron is author of #1 New York Times, USA Today International bestselling novel A Dog's Purpose. The Amblin/Universal film of the same name is the most successful international live-action dog movie of all time. His latest novel, Love, Clancy: Diary of a Good Dog is a deeply moving story with a brand-new cast of characters, including one very good dog and one disdainful cat. Told in Cameron's signature style, a tremendous cast of wonderful characters find themselves navigating the challenges of life.

PLEASE ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF Hi, I am your Death and I am here for you. No wait, don't go! Aside from the fact that you can't get away, I'm not here for you in that way, at least not now, although to be honest with you we do have a date and I am always with you whether you acknowledge me or not. Want to know when I am coming in that way? Sorry, I can't tell you. It's part of the Great Mystery. You know. That place whereyou came from and where you are going. If you want to know the truth I'm not your death, but you are mine. Now don't freak out on me. It's only a visit. I want to spend some quality time with you before the big event and seeing as you took the time to stop by and I have you as a captive audience I thought it would be nice to have a little visit and get acquainted. Sorry, if we got off on the wrong foot, but that happens more often than not, so let's give it another try. Pleased to meet you. Hope you guess my name, but what's puzzling you is the nature of my game. No, I'm not who you think from that song – well maybe I am. In truth I have many names and many faces. I'm formally introducing myself to you this way, but I'm really just messing with you, hoping that maybe you will lighten up and think of me a little differently. Who knows? You just might learn something. We are far more intimate than most people care to admit. Whoever came up with the expression love it to death was a lot closer to the truth than those other idiotic sayings you have about me. Not only am I always with you, but my love for you is unconditional, all consuming, and infinite from your limited perspective. With a love like that you'd think that my feelings would be hurt by the way you portray me, but one of the benefits of being omnipotent and omniscient is that I am beyond those infantile emotions, and if I were affected by them my love for you wouldn't be unconditional, would it? Yes, I admit to being a know-it-all. That is the definition of omniscient, so forgive me if I go a little overboard at times. It's not my ego, it's just that I sometimes forget myself. I have access to everything there is to know about you, and everyone else for that matter. I have friends in more places than you can imagine and my eyes and ears are everywhere including all knowledge in each and every molecule and cell of your neurons, dendrites, mitochondria, organs, and anything else you can imagine. Yes, sometimes I get a little too technical and scientific at times, but every thought, emotion, and the collective knowledge of anything humanity has ever thought, imagined, or experienced is at my disposal. There are no secrets from me. I'm here to tell you stories and share some science, history, and myths, all of which are your creations that I want to enlighten you with to help you understand me more. You have seen me as Satan, Anubis, Mot, Thanatos, God, the Devil, loving, punitive, dark, light – the list goes on and on! It is my sincerest hope that our friendly reintroduction here will change the way you think of me, and maybe in some small way reflect the depth of the love I have for you. One of the most enduring ways you depict me is as the Grim Reaper, a skeleton wearing a shroud holding a scythe who comes to collect you. Yes, there is some truth to that and many of your stories are about people trying to trick, bribe, or avoid me and hold on to the...

Moderator, Perie Longo, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, 2007-2009, has published 4 books of poetry, the latest Baggage Claim (2014) and poems in numerous literary journals. This was her 40th year teaching poetry at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and she's thrilled and awed to be still poeting and standing.Enid Osborn Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara 2017-2019, published When the Big Wind Comes, set in New Mexico. A Pushcart nominee, her work appears in regional California and Southwest journals. She has a series of themed chapbooks, and she co-edited A Bird Black as the Sun / California Poets on Crows & Ravens in 2011.

SBWC faculty member Norm Thoeming (aka August Norman) is author of two literary thrillers and mysteries, Come and Get Me and Sins of the Mother.Annie Bomke is a literary agent with more than a decade of experience in the publishing industry. She represents a wide range of projects from hard-nosed business books to otherworldly historical novels. Annie has loved the publishing industry since her internship at Zoetrope: All-Story, a literary magazine founded by Francis Ford Coppola. She once managed a rare bookstore and had a brief stint as a technical writer. Authors have called her the pH test for good writing, and a bedrock for literary quality control.Elizabeth Kracht joined Kimberley Cameron & Associates in 2010 and is the author of The Author's Checklist: An Agent's Guide to Developing and Editing Your Manuscript. She represents both literary and commercial fiction, as well as nonfiction. She's compelled by multicultural themes and strong settings. She represents literary, commercial, women's, thrillers, mysteries, historical, and crossover YA. In nonfiction, she's interested in high concept, health, science, environment, prescriptive, investigative, true crime, voice- or adventure-driven memoir, sexuality, spirituality, and animal/pet stories.Dana Newman is an LA-based independent literary agent representing authors of practical and narrative nonfiction and literary and upmarket fiction. She's interested by authors with smart, unique perspectives who're committed to actively marketing and promoting their books. A favorite genre is literary nonfiction: true stories, well told, that read like a compelling novel. She's also an attorney, focusing on publishing law and contracts. Before founding her literary agency, she worked as in-house counsel in the entertainment industry.Jonah Straus is the founder of Straus Literary in San Francisco. He specializes in literary fiction, often with an international or multicultural outlook, as well as journalism, history, narrative nonfiction, and the culinary arts. Jonah got his start at Atrium Publishers Group, an independent book distributor in Northern California, and went on to hold positions in production, editorial, sales, and marketing at several publishers in the San Francisco Bay Area. He established Straus Literary in 2007 and moved the agency to San Francisco in 2013.Andy Ross opened his literary agency in 2008. He was the owner of the legendary Cody's Books in Berkeley for 30 years before switching careers. His agency represents books in a wide range of nonfiction genres. He looks for writing with a strong voice, robust story arc, and books that tell a big story about culture and society by authors with the authority to write about their subject. In fiction, he likes character and voice-driven stories about real people in the real world.

Shamanic Experiences on Coast to Coast AM February 17, 2025Shamanic explorer Matthew J. Pallamary discussed the universal appeal and foundational significance of shamanism across cultures, including the use of ayahuasca. He pointed out similarities between South American indigenous beliefs and those found in various global religions, including the legend of the Great Flood. Calling shamanism "the world's oldest spiritual belief system," he said its roots are deeply embedded in prehistoric spirituality. Shamanism, he continued, encompasses the roles of healers, teachers, and therapists. They serve as guides, "going to the other worlds or the other realms... to find the knowledge," with the pursuit sometimes involving working with psychoactive plants like ayahuasca, which help shamans explore consciousness through visionary experiences, and spiritual animal totems.Drawing from his extensive experiences with ayahuasca ceremonies over the past 25 years in Central and South America, Pallamary offered personal insights into the plant medicine and related rituals. He explained how these practices are steeped in centuries of trial and error, and that knowledge has been passed down through generations. "In the jungle, there are no medical facilities close by. And these cures and these plants go back literally to prehistoric times." Pallamary emphasized that ayahuasca is not for everyone and requires careful screening and respect, especially considering its potential interactions with medications like SSRIs.

ONEJeanette Driscoll opened her sparkling blue eyes, stretched out on the bed, and brushed back her long blonde hair before resting her head on her husband Ted's chest. Tall, sandy-haired, and blue-eyed like his wife, Ted's muscular frame complemented her model's figure. Their friends and Ted's colleagues where he worked as head of research and development at Bliss Pharmaceuticals often referred to them as the perfect couple.“If we're going to bring a kid into the world,” she said, “let's create the most perfect one we can.”Ted leaned in to her. “Like Hitler's blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryan boys?”Jeanette hit him on the shoulder. “Stop it! I was thinking more along the lines of a Jesus, then again, maybe we want a little girl.”Ted chuckled and kissed her. “I'm okay with a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus, especially if he or she looks like their mother!”“So many choices.” Jeanette groaned. “Part of me wishes we could go back to natural selection like our parents did.” “It's a crap shoot with too many unknowns,” Ted said with an air of finality. “Aside from that we're both worried about birth defects, delivery complications, or other possibilities for trouble, not to mention the threat and the impact to your health.”“I admit to being a little worried, but part of me craves the idea of nurturing a new life inside of me with all the warmth, connection, and intimacy that comes with it.”Ted caressed the side of her face eliciting a dreamy smile. “I understand that as best as I can from a man's perspective and I know that pregnancy can be exhausting, painful, nauseating, and sometimes flat-out dangerous. If you're pregnant and you stress too much, get sick, or catch some kind of flu or something, you might not be giving our child the best start we can.” He ran his hand down over her breasts and followed her sculpted curves down to the softness of her inner thigh. “Not to mention what it could do to your beautiful body.”She giggled when he stroked her thigh and put her hand on his. “Stop it!”He slid his hand out from under hers and continued his caresses. “Think about the benefits. We can continue having all the sex we want with no interruptions. You might not have the same birthing experience your mother had, but we'll both arrive at our first day of parenthood feeling physically fresh and well-rested, instead of you having been weighed down for months by a parasitic organism that could leave a path of destruction when you birth it. Even in the best case scenario there are possibilities of post-partum depression, hormone imbalances, and other post birth dangers.”“Parasitic organism? That's our child you're talking about. You make it sound so horrible!”“I'm sorry, honey. I didn't mean it to sound like that. I only want what is best for you and baby. You have to admit, the whole pregnancy thing takes a toll on you. If you take that into consideration and look at the positives, taking advantage of the technological benefits we are blessed with is the best way to go. Everything can be precisely controlled and monitored which eliminates any stress on beautiful you, and it ensures the safest, healthiest, most stable environment for our love child to grow in.”They stayed quiet for awhile, then Jeanette sat up and grabbed her iPad from the bed stand. “Let's take another look.” She propped herself up against the headboard, pulled her knees up and put the tablet in her lap, tapping the screen. Ted propped himself up beside her and put his arm...

Mary Otis is the author of Burst, longlisted for the 2024 Joyce Carol Oates Prize and winnerof the 2023 Silver Medal in Literary Fiction from the Independent Book Publisher Awards.The moving debut novel explores the relationship complexities between mothers anddaughters. She's also the author of Yes, Yes Cherries, a collection of short stories author LorrieMoore called “funny, brave and amazing.” A founding fiction professor in the UC Riverside

David Starkey, Santa Barbara's 2009-2011 Poet Laureate, Founding Director of the Creative Writing Program at SBCC, and the Publisher/Co-editor of Gunpowder Press, published 11 full length collections of poetry and more than 500 poems in literary journals. His novel Poor Ghost was released in March 2024.Emma Trelles Santa Barbara Poet Laureate 2021-2023, received an Established Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council. She was named a Poet Laureate Fellow by the Academy of American Poets. Daughter of Cuban immigrants, she's author of Tropicalia, winner of the Andrés Montoya Prize.

Moderator Karen K. Ford, SBWC workshop leader, is an award-winning author of short fiction whose honors include top prizes from Narrative and bosque. Her work has been shortlisted for the Tobias Wolff Fiction Award and the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Prize and anthologized in Ginosko. Karen lives in Southern California, with her rescue mutt, Dude, where she is a freelance editor and writing coach.Max Talley has had 70 stories and essays published since 2015. His writing has appeared in Vol.1 Brooklyn, Atticus Review, Santa Fe Literary Review, Litro, and The Saturday Evening Post. He won the 2021 best fiction contest in Jerry Jazz Musician for “Celestial Vagabonds,” later nominated for a Pushcart. Talley has two published novels and 2 story collections, My Secret Place, and the most recent, When the Night Breathes Electric, which debuted in 2023 from Borda Books.Matthew J. Pallamary is an award-winning writer, musician, and sound healer who's been studying shamanism all his life. He has books covering several genres. His latest story collection is The Thinning Veil: 13 Twisted Tales. He explores how art imitates life and reflects our human condition. The veil between the worlds is thinning and the boundaries have become blurred, bringing more weight to the question; what or where are the boundaries between what we believe to be real and what we imagine?Melodie Johnson Howe, while acting in movies, went to UCLA Extension to learn writing. Her mystery novel, The Mother Shadow was nominated for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allen Poe Award. Her second, Beauty Dies, soon followed. She created a new character, Diana Poole, an actress verging on middle age, for her short stories. They're now collected into one book, Shooting Hollywood: The Diana Poole Stories. Howe's latest novel is City of Mirrors, also featuring Diana Poole.Catherine Ann Jones who is an actor, the playwright of 11 award-winning productions, and an Emmy-nominated Hollywood screenwriter, wrote her latest book, East and West, from a personal place. This collection of stories reveals her lifelong relationship to India, including her marriage to Raja Rao, the renowned Indian novelist. The preface pays tribute to India's timeless interweaving of the spiritual and the worldly, the light and dark, the personal and the universal. These stories speak to a place within each of our souls.Lisa Cupolo has been a paparazzi photographer in London, an aid worker in Kenya, a script doctor in LA, and a literary publicist at HarperCollins in Toronto. Have Mercy on Us, her debut book, won the W.S. Porter Prize for short story collections. Her work has been published in many prestigious journals. She holds multiple degrees in a range of areas. She's lived all over the world, but currently resides in Southern California, where she taught fiction writing at Chapman University.

The Art of the QueryTrey Dowell is a novelist and a short story aficionado. His expertise in writing effective query letters has helped numerous writers get their projects reviewed by agents and publishers.In this presentation Trey focused on sparking curiosity and building anticipation. Proven query strategies and methods were discussed. Attendees brought their in-progress queries which were read and received feedback.

Be Your Own Best PublicistMelinda Palacio & Lida SiderisThis session offers wisdom from the trenches from award-winning authors on promoting your project. You'll get practical marketing advice on aspects of building an author platform and putting yourself and your book out there.Melinda Palacio is an award-winning poet, author, and speaker. She's the current Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara. Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, she holds 2 degrees in Comparative Literature, a BA from the UC Berkeley and an MA from UC Santa Cruz. She's a 2007 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow and a 2009 poetry alum of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Her latest poetry collection is Bird Forgiveness, 2018. She is a master of author self-promotion.Lida Sideris writes soft-boiled mysteries and was a winner of the Helen McCloy Mystery Writers of America scholarship award. The third installment in her Southern California Mystery series, Murder: Double or Nothing will be released in June by Level Best Books. She's also wrote The Cookie Eating Fire Dog, a picture book for ages 4-8. She lives in the northern tip of SoCal with her family, rescue dogs and a flock of uppity chickens. She teaches “Be Your Own Best Publicist” at SBWC with Melinda Palacio.

Antoine Wilson's most recent novel Mouth to Mouth was featured on Barack Obama'sSummer Reading List and was a finalist for The Scotiabank Giller Prize, the CALIBA GoldenPoppy Award, and the Prix Fitzgerald. Antoine is also the author of the novels Panorama Cityand The Interloper, and he is a contributing editor of the literary magazine A Public Space. He'sa graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and recipient of a Carol Houck Smith FictionFellowship from the University of Wisconsin.

Zohreh Ghahremani writes for both adults and children. Her debut picture book, MemoryGarden, illustrated by her daughter, Susie, was published by Godwin Books/Macmillan in 2024,with another picture book about Norooz/Persian New Year to follow in 2026. She publishedher first novel, Sky of Red Poppies, in 2010. Her sophomore novel, The Moon Daughter, wonWriter's Digest Book Awards for Best Literary Fiction. She's also the author of The Commiserator(in Persian) and has contributed to numerous other literary volumes.

Moderator, Perie Longo, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, 2007-2009, has published 4 books of poetry, the latest Baggage Claim (2014) and poems in numerous literary journals. This June will be her 40th year teaching poetry at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. She's thrilled and awed to be still poeting and standing.Melinda Palacio, current Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, is an award-winning writer. From South Central LA, she holds 2 degrees in Comparative Literature. A 2007 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow and a 2009 poetry alum of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, she published Bird Forgiveness in 2018.David Starkey, Santa Barbara's 2009-2011 Poet Laureate, Founding Director of the Creative Writing Program at SBCC, and the Publisher/Co-editor of Gunpowder Press, published 11 full length collections of poetry and more than 500 poems in literary journals. His novel Poor Ghost was released in March 2024.Chryss Yost is a Santa Barbara Poet Laureate who served from 2013-2015. She was awarded the 2013 Patricia Dobler Poetry Prize and other honors, including Pushcart Prize nominations. She's co-editor of Gunpowder Press. Her collection Mouth & Fruit was published 2014, and her poems have been included in the most popular poetry textbooks in the country and widely anthologized elsewhere.Enid Osborn Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara 2017-2019, published When the Big Wind Comes, set in New Mexico. A Pushcart nominee, her work appears in regional California and Southwest journals. She has a series of themed chapbooks, and she co-edited A Bird Black as the Sun / California Poets on Crows & Ravens in 2011.Laure-Anne Bosselaar Santa Barbara's Poet Laureate 2019-2021, is author of 6 collections of poems and is the recipient of a Pushcart. She taught at Emerson, Sarah Lawrence, UCSB, and is part of the faculty at the Solstice Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing. Lately: New and Selected Poems was published January 2024.Emma Trelles Santa Barbara Poet Laureate 2021-2023, received an Established Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council. She was named a Poet Laureate Fellow by the Academy of American Poets. Daughter of Cuban immigrants, she's author of Tropicalia, winner of the Andrés Montoya Prize.Paul Willis, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate 2011-2013 is an emeritus professor of English at Westmont College. His poems, stories, and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, and he's been featured on Verse Daily and The Writer's Almanac and nominated five times for a Pushcart Prize. His YA Elizabethan time-travel novel, All in a Garden Green, was released in 2020.

To everyone who has attended the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and are now part of our tribe of scribes, here is the first post of the audio from the 2024 conference.For those of you who have recently discovered the conference and are considering attending, we will be posting the audio periodically so you can get a sense of this amazing week long experience which has been going for over fifty years now.This first post from the 2024 conference is the Orientation and Welcome which will give you a sense of the conference along with tidbits that will help you get the most from the conference.We are looking forward to 2025!

Author Matthew Pallamary discussed shamanic practices and ceremonies in the jungle, including the use of psychedelic plant medicines like ayahuasca. He detailed a 10-day program he does in the jungle that involves a cleansing diet and various visionary plants. "Your perception gets more refined. It gets very clear. You start having telepathic experiences. And you really feel like you become a part of the jungle," he said of the experience. Highlighting the importance of altering one's perception to gain new perspectives and understandings, he noted that insights from ayahuasca can be similar to what is gleaned from some types of therapy.You discover who you are by going into your shadow and integrating those parts of yourself that you have denied, he remarked, adding that every time you bring these parts back to yourself, you're bringing in the energy that you've had to use to keep various traumas in place, and as a result of this, energy becomes more available to you and your awareness expands. The center of the universe is located between one's eyes, he declared, and this represents the shift from personality-centered to essence-centered awareness. Pallamary also talked about his fiction writing process and how the art of storytelling is a form of magic-- the word 'spelling' actually comes from the notion of casting a spell, he pointed out.

Moderator: SBWC faculty member, Marla Miller works with writers on the road to publication, and beyond. Her popular SBWC workshop, Hooking Readers, covers both crafting and marketing tips.Brook Ashley, is the author of Dare Wright and The Lonely Doll, which features more than four hundred of Dare's own photographs and an array of other illustrations. Brook Ashley tells Dare's story as no one else can, as she was Dare's goddaughter, lifelong friend, and guardian during her final years. She grew up in Wright's magical New York universe of Edith and The Bears. A former child actress, Brook is a Realtor and a magazine writer in Santa Barbara, CA.Bee Bloeser, is the author of Vaccines & Bayonets: Fighting Smallpox in Africa amid Tribalism, Terror, and the Cold War. With wide-eyed ideals and two young children, Bee eagerly followed her husband to Africa, where he helped eradicate smallpox, in the 1970s. What she encountered there deepened her love for Africa, while it eroded her naïveté. Bloeser now lives in California and is building a speaking career in the wake of the publication of her book.Hendrika de Vries is the author of the award-winning memoir When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew. She was a child in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam when girls were to be housewives and mothers. When her father was deported to a POW camp in Germany, and her mother joined the Resistance, she learned to become an empowered woman. She's a retired Jungian-oriented therapist who used dreams and intuitive imagination to facilitate recovery.Yvette Keller the author of the Douglas Adams' London Guide from Herb Lester Associates. Her short fiction leans toward SF/Fantasy at an extravagantly relaxed angle. You can find her work in literary magazines such as Enheduanna, Imitation Fruit Literary Magazine, and The Santa Barbara Literary Journal. For fun, Yvette time travels in self-made historical costumes, and performs in short-form improv and live storytelling shows.

Podcasts & Audiobooks with Lois Phillips, Yvette Keller, Claudia Dunn, and Matthew J. PallamaryAudiobooks and podcasts are a fast-growing area of publishing. Join this team for an insightful seminar on how to accomplish the goals of getting your book

Podcasts & Audiobooks with Lois Phillips, Yvette Keller, Claudia Dunn, and Matthew J. PallamaryAudiobooks and podcasts are a fast-growing area of publishing. Join this team for an insightful seminar on how to accomplish the goals of getting your book

Be Your Own Best PublicistMelinda Palacio & Lida SiderisThis session offers wisdom from the trenches from award-winning authors on promoting your project. You'll get practical marketing advice on aspects of building an author platform and putting yourself and your book out there.

Shannon Pufahl is the author of On Swift Horses, her critically acclaimed debut novel which takes place in the mid-century American West. The New York Times Review of Books said this about her novel: “The spaces she creates for her characters — San Diego's languid Chester Hotel, hiding in plain sight, and Tijuana rendered as an underworld — have the aura of realms.” Pufahl grew up in rural Kansas and teaches at Stanford University, where she was a Stegner Fellow in Fiction. She lives in Monterey, CA, with her wife and their dog.

Moderator: SBWC faculty member, Trey Dowell, is a novelist and a short story aficionado. His expertise in writing effective query letters has helped numerous writers get their projects reviewed by agents and publishers. Mary Hill-Wagner, is the author of Girlz ‘n the Hood, a memoir of what it was like to grow up on some of the meanest streets in America with 10 siblings and a mother who taught her to protect the weak and love hard. Dr. Hill-Wagner is an award-winning author, journalist, and college professor. She enjoys reading, writing, racquetball, theater, and dogs. Terra Trevor is the author of We Who Walk the Seven Ways, about the search for healing and finding belonging when Native women elders embraced and guided Trevor (mixedblood Cherokee, Lenape, Seneca, German) through the seven cycles of life in Indigenous ways. She's a contributor to fifteen books in Native Studies and memoir. She's the granddaughter of sharecroppers and was raised in a large extended family rich with storytelling and music. Harlan Green, is the author of Building Community: Answering Kennedy's Call. His memoir covers his work as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a Turkish village, as a photographer and filmmaker for the US Environmental Protection Agency in its earliest days, enforcing the Clean Air and Water Acts, and with Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers of America Union during its mid-1970s struggle organizing seasonal farm workers to better their living conditions. Connard Hogan is an award-winning author of two memoirs. Once Upon a Kentucky Farm: Hope and Healing from Family Abuse, Alcoholism and Dysfunction shines a light on the struggles of those living with trauma from family abuse, and the healing powers of unconditional love. Barbwire, Brothels and Bombs in the Night: Surviving Vietnam reminds us that no one involved in warfare escapes trauma. He hopes his writing inspires others struggling to heal from trauma. Dale Zurawski is the the author of Bipolar, a Gift of Thorns, a profoundly insightful memoir about being bipolar and how that affects others. This brave book about some of the darkest aspects of our lives shines a light on her courageous journey uncovering the stigma of being bipolar. This book will help anyone who is or loves someone who is bipolar. For the last 20 years, her home base has been Santa Barbara, California.

This session focuses on sparking curiosity and building anticipation. Proven query strategies and methods will be discussed. Bring your own in-progress queries—we'll read them aloud and offer feedback.SBWC faculty member, Trey Dowell, is a novelist and a short story aficionado. His expertise in writing effective query letters has helped numerous writers get their projects reviewed by agents and publishers.

Publishing Options Holly Kammier, Patricia Marshall, Chryss Yost, Angela Borda This seminar features 4 publishers, each with a different take on publication. Each provides an overview of their methods. The following discussion will be a deep dive into the subject. Bring your questions.

Hosted byGeorge NooryGuest:Matthew PallamaryTuesday - November 14, 2023About the showAuthor, editor, and shamanic explorer Matthew Pallamary has been searching the globe for the truth about reality. In the latter half, he spoke about the nature of expanding consciousness, as well as why he believes the veil between the worlds is thinning and giving rise to more chaotic forces. Consciousness, he said, is the awareness of our thoughts, memories, or feelings, and the sensations in our environment, but it's a subjective experience that's unique to each of us. Our subconscious, things we're not aware of in the moment, can be a tool we draw on for creativity and revelations, he added.He outlined some of psychologist William James' groundbreaking ideas about consciousness, including how human consciousness has streams of thought that are continuously changing. With the advent of the Internet, Pallamary believes our world has sped up, our boundaries have lessened, and the actions of others are now more interconnected with one another. There is a destructive aspect to this in terms of war and violence on the planet, and he thinks extreme weather patterns and global warming are part of the process we are going through, which he views as a type of purification. He also touched on his new collection of short stories, The Thinning Veil: 13 Twisted Tales, and his visitations to the Amazon jungle, where he has worked with shamans and psychedelics.

Thirty years in the making, Judith Turner-Yamamoto's award-winning novel, Loving the Dead and Gone, is part of a trilogy drawing upon memories of her red-dirt childhood. She was born into a family of storytellers in rural North Carolina. Publishers Weekly called it a bittersweet, fantastical must-read debut. A poet, journalist, art historian and inveterate traveler, she's interviewed such luminaries as Frank Gehry and Annie Leibovitz, and has published more than a thousand cover stories and features in prominent publications across the country. She lives in Cincinnati with husband, visual artist, Shinji Turner-Yamamoto.

Panel moderator SBWC faculty member Norm Thoeming (aka August Norman) is author of two literary thrillers and mysteries, Come and Get Me and Sins of the Mother. Barnaby Conrad III, is author of Jacques Villeglé and the Streets of Paris. His other books are Absinthe: History in a Bottle, Ghost Hunting in Montana, and The Martini. He's also written monographs on American artists Richard Diebenkorn, John Register, and Mark Stock. He served as senior editor of Art World in New York, senior editor of Horizon, and Editor-at-Large for Forbes Life, and he was a special correspondent in Paris for the San Francisco Chronicle.Marianne Dougherty, is the author of What We Remember, her debut novel about 4 women who find comfort in friendship before life begins to unravel. In the aftermath of unspeakable tragedy, they go separate ways. Twenty years later, when one is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, she asks her daughter to arrange a reunion to pick up threads of a story that began a long time ago. In 2018 and 2022 she was a finalist for a Golden Quill Award for journalistic excellence. Jim McCutchon is the author of To Free a Slave – The Moral Dilemma of Slavery, a historical novel set in the 1800s on the Ormond Plantation owned by his great, great grandfather. After retiring from a successful career as a urologist, and after raising 8 children, McCutcheon took up writing at age 84. Now at 92, and with two books completed, he resides in Corpus Christi, Texas where he enjoys gardening, crosswords, reading, and lifelong friends.Diana Raab is the author of 10 books, the latest being An Imaginary Affair – Poems Whispered to Neruda, a collection of sensitive and sensuous poems exploring the challenges and intricacies of being human. The poems touch on key human elements, such as love, desire, passion, memory loss, and gratitude. She's a memoirist, poet, essayist, blogger, and speaker. She teaches memoir at SBWC and presents workshops in writing for healing and transformation.Max Talley is the author of My Secret Place, 17 short stories about musicians and artists. These eccentrics are secret heroes of their own lives. Humor is mixed with pathos and social commentary. He was born in New York City and lives in Santa Barbara. He's a professional musician and artist, as well as a writer. His work has appeared in numerous journals. He teaches a writing workshop at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference.

Demystifying Publishing Options Holly Kammier & Associates.This seminar covers pros and cons of publishing options today: traditional publishing, small publishers, self-publishing, vanity press, and hybrid publishing. Understanding of the range of options facilitates reaching your publication goals.Holly Kammier is the international best-selling author of Kingston Court, Choosing Hope, and Lost Girl, A Shelby Day Novel. Co-Owner of Acorn Publishing, the UCLA Honor graduate is a well-regarded content editor and former journalist who has worked everywhere from CNN in Washington, D.C. and KCOP-TV in Los Angeles, to the NBC affiliate in small-town Medford, Oregon.

This seminar covers aspects of the traditional publishing process, how it works, how long it takes, dealing with rejections, contracts, publicity, platform building, blurbs, signings, podcasts, nominations, and more.

Mary Hogan is the author of Two Sisters, and Left, a love story about a woman who slowly retreats into a fantasy world as she loses her once whip-smart husband to dementia. Her historical novel based on the Johnstown Flood of 1889, The Woman in the Photo, tells a resonant story of class and catastrophe. Previous young adult novels include The Serious Kiss, Perfect Girl, and Pretty Face. Married to veteran TV and stage actor Robert Hogan until his death in 2021, she lives in New York City with their Catahoula Leopard rescue dog.

Moderator: Eric Myers has a depth of knowledge of the publishing industry and is an expert who is generous with sharing his advice for both fiction and nonfiction authors. A graduate of UCLA and the Sorbonne, Eric entered publishing as a journalist and author before becoming an agent. He's a member of both the Authors' Guild and the Association of Authors' Representatives.

Known for her wry social commentary, Elinor Lipman is the author of 14 novels, including her latest, Ms. Demeanor, which has received praise from authors Tom Perrotta, Wally Lamb, and Cathleen Schine. In 2008, her debut novel, Then She Found Me,(1990), was adapted into a film starring Matthew Broderick, Colin Firth, Helen Hunt, and Bette Midler. She served on the 2006 literature panel for the National Endowment for the Arts and was a fiction judge for the 2008 National Book Awards. She lives in Manhattan and part-time in Homes, NY.

Sojourner Kincade Rolle is a poet/playwright and Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Emerita (2015-2017). Free at Last: A Juneteenth Poem was released May 2022 to great acclaim, in time for the first national celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the USA. It made the New York Public Library's list for Best Kids' Books 2022, the School Library Journal's best kids' books for Black History Month (2023), and Booklist's Editor's Choice in the youth category (2022). Her other books are The Mellow Yellow Global Umbrella, Common Ancestry and Black Street.

Moderator: Lorelei Armstrong leads a Pirate Workshop at SBWC. She is a novelist and has an MFA in screenwriting. Deborah Holt Larkin, is author of A Lovely Girl, a true story of intrigue, murder, and eccentricity, set against the backdrop of iconic 1950s small town California life. Filled with dark humor and bumbling killers, this sometimes heartbreaking, but gripping, story of a scandalous 1958 murder case is narrated by the ten-year-old voice of the author. Deborah Holt Larkin is uniquely qualified to tell this captivating, yet horrifying, crime story. From a front row seat in her family's living room, she lived the fear and disbelief that gripped her hometown at the time of the murder. Gar Anthony Haywood, is the award-winning author of 14 novels. Things Unseen, Gar's latest and most surprising novel, marks his first attempt to explore the subject of God's existence in the modern world. Booklist has called him “a writer who's always belonged in the upper echelon of American crime fiction.” He's written for network television and the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. He leads a popular SBWC workshop, “The Seven Deadly Sins of Novel Writing.” He and his wife Donna make their home in Denver, Colorado. N. S. “Vish” Vishwanath is the author of Nights of the Moonless Sky set in 16th century South India. In this debut novel, a succession struggle disrupts the peace of the realm when the patriarch dies. Doomed by an inequitable tradition to be cremated alive, his widow, our intrepid protagonist, is thrust into a forbidding darkness – thus spawning a thriller of intrigue, self-discovery, and destiny. A big fan of SBWC, Vish credits it with playing a pivotal role in shaping his writing life. Marilee Zdenek is is the author of Lying Still an intriguing story about the dangerous relationship between psychiatrist, Dr. Mark Favre, and a family of three women: one, the woman he loved; one, the woman he killed; and one with a journal that could destroy him. This is Zdenek's first novel. She's the author of 8 nonfiction books, including The Right-Brain Experience: An Intimate Program to Free the Powers of Your Imagination, an LA Times bestseller. An international speaker and coach, she lives in Santa Barbara and has taught at SBWC for more than 20 years.

Author Websites & Social Media Lisa Angle & Matt Pallamary. This Monday afternoon panel from June 19, 2023 discussed how to deploy an effective book marketing plan and how to design an author website that is integrated social media strategies. Lisa worked as stage crew for Ensemble Theatre, produced a weekly newsletter for the Santa Barbara County Film Commission (2004-08), and written articles for Montecito Journal, The Independent, and Examiner.com. As a Production Assistant at The Santa Barbara Channels (now TVSB) she learned video production, and produced videos for Association for Women in Communications, the SB Zoo, and the SB Writers Conference, plus she co-produced over 200 episodes of the talk show Literary Gumbo. Storytelling through film became very important to her. Her Ablitt House Journey documentary is available for free streaming, and the Thirty Years of Literary Excellence documentary. She served on the national board for the Association for Women in Communications (2014-19) and currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer for the Writers and Publishers Network.Matt's historical novel, Land Without Evil, received rave reviews along with a San Diego Book Award and was adapted into a magical stage and sky show, which was the subject of an EMMY nominated episode of a PBS series, “Arts in Context.” Matt has taught a Phantastic Fiction workshop at the Southern California Writers' Conference, the Santa Barbara Writers' Conference, and numerous other venues for over 25 years. His memoir, Spirit Matters, took first place in the San Diego Book Awards Spiritual Book Category. He frequently visits the jungles, mountains, and deserts of North, Central, and South America pursuing his studies of shamanism and ancient cultures.

Santa Barbara Writers Conference Monday morning panel June 19, 2023 - Interviews, Journals, & Reviews with David Starkey, Chryss Yost, and Brian Tanquay discussing approaches to being interviewed, starting a literary journal, both online and in print, how to write a review, and how to get your book reviewed.

Tonight, Tuesday on FADE to BLACK: Mathew (Mateo) Pallamary is with us to talk about shamanism, visionary experience, entheobotany, plant medicines, consciousness, and altered states of consciousness.Matthew J. (Mateo) Pallamary frequently visits the mountains, deserts, and jungles of North, Central, and South America pursuing his studies of shamanism and plant medicines for over twenty five years. He has eighteen books in print in multiple genres and has taught a Phantastic Fiction workshop at the Southern California Writers Conference and the Santa Barbara Writers Conference for thirty five years.Mateo has also lectured at a number of other conferences and conventions throughout the United States and was a featured lecturer and performer at the Mysteries of the Amazon exhibit at the Appleton Museum and other venues throughout Florida as well as The Larson Gallery and other venues in Yakima Washington.Websites:https://mattpallamary.com/https://mysticinkpublishing.com/

Listen to Monte Schulz's Santa Barbara Writers Conferece opening night keynote talk on June 18th 2023 discussing Metropolis, his sixth novel which is a dystopian narrative of love in a time of war and moral disintegration.Regency College senior Julian Brehm's uneventful student life is derailed when he falls for Nina Rinaldi, a beautiful young revolutionary engaged in political activism against the authoritarian regime that rules the country and wages a deceitful, distracting war. Julian's love for ― and moral alliance to ― Nina eventually leads him into a vast undercity beneath the metropolis. Then, east by train and into the war zone itself, where mortal danger in that expanding cemetery of millions threatens Julian's life; what he witnesses will alter how he perceives the Republic and ultimately his fate within it.Julian's adventure can be seen as our own, a world of vacillating morality and unceasing violence. Apathy and passion. Fear and courage of purpose. Julian's is a hero's journey into the dark unknown. A love story, which extends in many directions. A war novel of incredible scope and horror. A suspenseful mystery novel with a moral puzzle at its core. And a coming-of-age tale of a young man seeing the world he was born into, more dangerous and more beautiful than he could have ever imagined. Metropolis is a meditation on the meaning of virtue and goodness in the face of the most monstrous crimes. It could just as easily be the story of us.

Shamanism & DeathAuthor, editor, and shamanic explorer Matthew Pallamary has been searching the globe for answers to the truth about reality. In the first half, he discussed his visionary experiences, shamanism, and writing, as well as his work on attitudes about death. His book "Death: A Love Story," was published at the outbreak of the pandemic, and is written in the 'first person' as Death itself as a character. "If you want to know the truth, I'm not your death, but you are mine," he writes as Death. Death is everywhere and a part of nature, and in a way, we begin dying the moment we are born, he stated. "Death is bigger than all of us, and it has to do with acceptance," he added.Pallamary talked about his latest book of short stories in the horror/science-fiction genre, one of which is about legendary author Ray Bradbury and alien mushrooms. On the topic of shamanism, he said it deals more with a person's direct experience of learning about themselves rather than what someone tells you to believe, and that all religions have their roots in shamanic ideas. Shamanism deeply explores "radical subjectivity," and some of people's intense visions can put their everyday problems in perspective. He also touched on ayahuasca experiences and how people often have similar visions of landscapes and archetypal symbols like jaguars and condors when they drink the psychedelic brew.

Gayle Lynds along with her prolific and talented multi-genre husband Dennis Lynds have been long time supporters and members of the Santa Barabra Writers Conference for many years.Dennis has passed on and is sorely missed, but Gayle continues being an inspiration to the SBWC family.Gayle is an American former journalist, editor and author and is known as the Queen of Espionage Fiction for her spy fiction or spy thrillers novels. She is also the co-founder of International Thriller Writers. She began her writing career as a newspaper journalist for the Arizona Republic in Phoenix, Arizona and was an editor at a government think tank, where she also acquired a Top Secret security clearance.Her fiction career began with literary short stories published under her own name and several pulp fiction novels under male pseudonyms such as G.H. Stone, Gayle Stone, Nick Carter, and Don Pendleton.In 1996, her first novel Masquerade was published. She also wrote three novels in The Three Investigators, a YA mystery novel series. With Robert Ludlum, she created the Covert-One series and wrote three of the books.The Hades Factor, which she co-wrote with Robert Ludlum, was a CBS television miniseries in April 2006.You can find out more about Gayle and her works here:https://gaylelynds.com/

Here is a talk from Dorothy Allison from the 2012 Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Allison's writing focuses on class struggle, sexual abuse, child abuse, feminism and lesbianism. She has won a number of awards for her writing, including several Lambda Literary Awards. Her first novel Bastard Out of Carolina was published in 1992 to great acclaim, becoming a best-seller. It was later adapted as a film of the same name, directed by Anjelica Huston for TNT. The book and film both generated controversy because of the graphic content, and the TV film was aired on Showtime rather than TNT. The Canadian Maritime Film Classification Board initially banned distribution of the film in Canada, but it was reversed on appeal. In November 1997, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed a State Board of Education decision to ban the book in public high schools because of its graphic content.

Fannie Flagg, is an American actress, comedian and author. She is best known as a semi-regular panelist on the 1973–1982 versions of the game show Match Game and for the 1987 novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, which was adapted into the 1991 motion picture Fried Green Tomatoes. She was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay adaptation.Fannie came to the Santa Barbara Writers Conference to hear Eudora Welty speak and ended up sticking around and entering the fiction contest under the name of Edna Furber. Not only did she take first place, but that story became Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, and the rest as they say is history!Here is her talk from the 2018 Santa Barara Writers Conference.Thank you to Lisa Angle of Ninety Degrees Media for recording and sharing Fannie's talk.

Simon Van Booy is the award-winning, bestselling author of more than a dozen books for adults and children. He is the editor of three volumes of philosophy and has written for The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, and the BBC.His books have been translated into many languages and optioned for film. Raised in rural North Wales, he currently lives in New York where he is also a book editor and a volunteer E.M.T. for Central Park Medical Unit and R.V.A.C.Here is his talk from the 2018 Santa Barara Writers Conference.Thank you to Lisa Angle of Ninety Degrees Media for recording and sharing Simon's talk.

Starshine Roshell is a journalism professor, magazine writer, award-winning columnist and overwhelmed mother of two.Named for a song in the 1960s musical “Hair,” in which her father starred, Starshine grew up in Los Angeles on the soap opera sets and in the Sunset Strip nightclubs where her parents worked.She graduated UCLA cum laude and wrote for The Hollywood Reporter before joining the Santa Barbara News-Press as news reporter, theater and rock music critic, Sunday columnist and deputy features editor. She resigned with dozens of colleagues in 2006 over the publisher's breaches of journalistic ethics.Her syndicated column won a first-place award from the California Newspaper Publisher's Association, and she has a second-place CNPA award for Business/Financial reporting.Starshine lives in Santa Barbara with her husband John, a graphic artist, and their two sons.Here is her talk from the 2018 Santa Barara Writers Conference .Thank you to Lisa Angle of Ninety Degrees Media for recording and sharing Starshine's talk.

Charles Schulz the creator of Peanuts and all the unforgettable characters he created was a regular at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and was known to everyone by his nickname "Sparky".He loved writers, writing, and the creative process, and spent the whole week at the conference for many years. Aside from showing support for all the regular talent, a big part of Sparky's attendance was in support of his son Monte.After a few years of bumpy transition that brought the SBWC close to the edge of extinction Monte stepped up to the plate and bought the conference, keeping the tradition alive and insuring its legacy, which no doubt has Sparky smiling in heaven.

Lee Goldberg is known for his bestselling novels Lost Hills and True Fiction and his work on a wide variety of TV crime series, including Diagnosis: Murder, A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Hunter, Spenser: For Hire, Martial Law, She-Wolf of London, SeaQuest, 1-800-Missing, The Glades and Monk.In 2007, Goldberg wrote and produced the pilot for a German television program, Fast Track: No Limits which aired on television in some countries and was released a theatrical film in others.In 2010, he wrote and directed the short film Remaindered, based on his short story for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, on location in Kentucky. He wrote and directed the sequel, Bumsicle, in 2012.In 2019, he co-wrote and co-created with Robin Bernheim the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries telefilm series Mystery 101 starring Jill Wagner and Kristofer Polaha.In April 2021, Constantin Films announced that they will be producing a feature film version his novel The Walk based on his screenplay adaptation.In March 2022, production began on Fast Charlie, a feature film adaptation Goldberg wrote based on the novel Gun Monkeys by Victor Gischler, directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Pierce Brosnan.

David Viscott was an American psychiatrist, author, and media personality who founded the Viscott Center for Natural Therapy in Beverly Hills, Newport Beach and Pasadena, California.In 1980 Viscott began presenting his own full-time show on talk radio, and was notably one of the first psychiatrists to do so. He screened telephone calls and gave considerable amount of free psychological counselling to his on-air "patients."In 1987 Viscott briefly had his own live syndicated TV show, Getting in Touch with Dr. David Viscott, providing much the same service as his radio show. In fact, the shows ran concurrently. In the early 1990s he had a weekly call-in therapy television program on KNBC in Los Angeles early Sunday morning after Saturday Night Live, titled Night Talk with Dr. David Viscott.His autobiography, The Making of a Psychiatrist, was a best-seller, a Book of the Month Club Main Selection, and nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.In the television show The Simpsons, the character Dr. Marvin Monroe's voice was based on Viscott. The character's retirement was marked by the broadcast of a Dr. Marvin Monroe Memorial Hospital over Lou's walkie-talkie in "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)". Since then, several references to Monroe being dead have been made: a glimpse of his gravestone in "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily", a Dr. Marvin Monroe Memorial Gymnasium seen in "Bye Bye Nerdie".Notable books by ViscottThe Making of a Psychiatrist See The Viscott MethodRiskingI Love You, Let's Work It OutThe Language of FeelingsEmotional Resilience Finding Your Strength in Difficult TimesEmotionally FreeHow to Live with Another PersonFeel FreeWinningTaking Care of BusinessWhat Every Kid Should KnowLabyrinth of Silence

Here is a talk from Ashleigh Brilliant when he spoke at the 1984 Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Ashleigh is an English-born American author and cartoonist is best known for his Pot-Shots, single-panel illustrations with one-line humorous remarks, which began syndication in the United States in 1975 and is still being published today.

Prior to his massive success with Roots Alex Haley was another unknown struggling writer until the Santa Barbara Writers Conference founder Barnaby Conrad connected him with the right people and became responsible for getting Alex published.Barnaby was a bestseller at the age of twenty nine for his novel Matador and he bought a bar in San Francisco that he named The Matador after his book and his career as a matador.Before his success, Alex went into the Matador and asked Barnaby if he could touch his arm. When Barnaby said yes, Alex did so and said to Barnaby, "Thank you, I always wanted to touch a real writer."

Listen to Robert Gover speaking about Sharpening Your Dialogue at the 1983 Santa Barbara Writers Conference.Robert Gover (November 2, 1929 – January 12, 2015) was an American journalist who became a best-selling novelist at age 30. His first novel, One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding, a satire on American racism, remains a cult classic that helped break down America's fear of four-letter words and sexually explicit scenes, as well as sensitizing Americans to sanctimonious hypocrisy. Gover worked with writers for three decades. On the Run with Dick and Jane was his ninth novel. His previous book, Time and Money, explores economic and planetary cyclical correlations. In 2015, the Eric Hoffer Prose Award was renamed the Gover Story Prize in his honor.