Podcasts about santa barbara writers conference

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.

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!

Books That Make You Fall Under the Spell of a Prohibition-era Moonshiner Travel back to the 1920s alongside a troubled boy named Rufus. Watch him leave his family—and a secret—behind, only to find what he hopes is a new home with a new family, the O'Haras. Unfortunately, things don't go too well for Rufus in Whiskey and Old Stogies, a twisting, turning historical literary fiction novel filled with loss, love, endurance and grit. The author, Lisa Angle, spent the nineties writing press releases and feature articles. In the new millennium, she heeded the call of the outdoors and volunteered in the Channel Islands Naturalist Corps. In addition, she produced the documentary Ablitt House Journey, and co-produced Thirty Years of Literary Excellence, about the history of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Find out more on Books That Make You. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

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.

Matthew J. (Mateo) Pallamary frequently visits the mountains, deserts, and jungles of North, Central, and South America pursuing his studies of shamanism for over twenty five years. He has seventeen 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 over thirty 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.

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.

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.

This week's podcast guest is Judith Turner-Yakamoto (Loving the Dead and Gone, Regal House, September 2022). We discuss how she pulled her manuscript just before it was going to press because she realized she needed to “kill someone”, how even though she worked for 20 years as a publicist, she still considers the publishing business a deeply strange pond, how getting comfortable with sharing deeply-personal posts on Facebook has helped grow her readership and brought her speaking opportunities, and how she found her publisher through becoming a finalist for the Petrichor Prize, an annual fiction writing competition. Judith Turner-Yamamoto's debut novel LOVING THE DEAD AND GONE, a Mariel Hemingway Book Club pick, won the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal in Southern Regional Fiction. The North Carolina Society of Historians recognized the novel with the 2023 Historical Novel Award. Shortlisted for the 2023 Eric Hoffer Book Awards Grand Prize, the book was also honorable mention in General Fiction and finalist for the First Horizon Award for Debut Fiction. Judith's other awards include two Virginia Arts Commission fellowships, an Ohio Arts Council fellowship, the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, and the Virginia Screenwriting Award.   Judith's publications include StorySOUTH, Mississippi Review, Deep South, and many anthologies. Her articles have appeared in Elle, Travel & Leisure, AARP, and the Los Angeles Times, and her interviews aired on NPR affiliate WVXU. A Kentucky Humanities Speakers Bureau scholar, Judith speaks at conferences and book festivals, including the Chautauqua Writers' Center, Chautauqua Institution, the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and Gaithersburg Book Festival. She lives on the Kentucky/Ohio border where her love of travel and place continues to inspire her writing. To learn more about Judith, click here.

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.

The novelist Monte Schulz released his first novel, Down by the River, in 1990. He then spent more than twelve years writing the Jazz Age-based novel, Crossing Eden, for his father, the late, extraordinarily influential cartoonist, the creator of Peanuts, Charles M. Schulz. The book was initially released in three smaller volumes called This Side of Jordan, The Last Rose of Summer, and The Big Town.            Monte's latest novel, Metropolis, is a grand dystopian tale in a time of war, with a blossoming romance throughout. I've read Metropolis and can tell you it's a powerful and intense journey through a world into which I hope we never find ourselves. If you enjoy marvelously epic storytelling, I highly recommend you read Metropolis.            Since 2010, Monte has been the owner of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and has taught a class in voice and style both there and at UC Santa Barbara.            He's also a composer/songwriter with an album out worldwide: “Seraphonium – After Many a Summer.”

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.

Justin and Jon are thrilled to welcome Trey Dowell to Writing in Progress on the heels of teaching at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Trey's list of accomplishments are extremely impressive:-Traditionally published novel (The Protectors) through Simon and Schuster (Stephen King's publisher)-Former NYC Midnight overall flash fiction winner. The very next NYCM competition, Trey finished second overall in short story. In total, Trey has made six NYCM finals, winning a cash prize in three.-Derringer Award winner and four-time finalist. -Writer's Digest Popular Fiction Award finalist.-Writing Battle runner-up for alternate history flash fictionSubjects include Trey's writing process, specifically how he approaches NYC Midnight. We compare NYCM and Writing Battle. Trey also gives us interesting insight into his experience being traditionally published through Simon and Schuster and important lessons he learned for his next attempt at writing a novel. We also briefly touch on writing conferences and how important they can be.I think the biggest takeaways from this episode:Luck is a big part of it. Celebrate the wins. Keep writing.The interview with Trey begins at 16:00, after check-ins with Justin and Jon.Here are the pod's social handles:Email: writinginprogresspod@gmail.comInstagram: WritingInProgressPodTwitter: @WritingInPod (mind the filters!)Facebook: Writing In ProgressTikTok: Writing_in_progress_podYoutube: WritingInProgressPodcast

Matthew J. (Mateo) Pallamary has been visiting 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 Phantastic Fiction workshops at the Southern California Writers Conference and the Santa Barbara Writers Conference for over thirty years. Mateo shares wonderful stories from his many books, and his life long experiences with Ayuhasca and plant medicine. He speaks of his times with Shamans in Peru, and his experiences as a student -- and now as a guide and mentor for others. He discusses Terrance McKenna, and how he inspired Mateo's writing. He shares information on the Hummingbird, how it has been part of ancient cultures up to the present day, and how this bird chose him to be his totem. VISIT MATTS WEBSITE : https://mattpallamary.com https://mysticinkpublishing.com VISIT OUR WEBSITE: http://www.asmallmediumatlarge.co (all our shows are listed here) ASmallMediumAtLargePodcast@gmail.com Show Produced by Green Valley Production Studio Music by DJ Booda: http://www.djbooda.com

Author and President of Author Imprints David Wogahn discusses what makes a successful book launch including reviews, distribution plans, and the ABCs of who should make up your active launch network. Listen in for key tips and resources that could help you launch your book!David Wogahn is the president of Author Imprints, an award-winning publishing services company that helps authors professionally indie-publish books using their own publishing imprint. David is also the author of several books including the Countdown to Book Launch™ workbook, and the author of the first LinkedIn Learning course on self-publishing. He is a frequent speaker and trainer, including presentations for the Independent Book Publishers Association, the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), the Independent Writers of Southern California, and the Santa Barbara Writers Conference.Before founding AuthorImprints.com in 2011, David worked for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, the Los Angeles Times, and was co-founder and COO of the first online publisher of sports team branded websites known today as the CBS College Sports Network. You can connect with David via AuthorImprints.com, or follow him on LinkedIn and Amazon. Discover more about Smith Publicity at www.smithpublicity.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, & LinkedIn.

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.

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.

In this fascinating conversation with Monte Schulz (son of the late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz), Alex talks about Schulz's new novel filled with robust characters, an unraveling mystery, mayhem, innocence, and moral disintegration. Metropolis (Fantagraphics, August 23, 2022) is a coming-of-age novel with a moral puzzle at its core. This dystopian tome is narrated by college senior Julian Brehm, who lives in a war-ravaged world perverted by eugenics where those who were deemed mentally, morally, or physically unfit were banished to desolate Provinces far from where he lives his uneventful life. Thrust into facing a broader reality by the woman he falls in love with, a bohemian revolutionary, Julian, and ultimately Monte, pushes readers to question ideals while giving them the hope of love. Schulz, the eldest son of the late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, creator of Charlie Brown and the rest of the “Peanuts” gang, is the owner of and a teacher at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, shares: - Why he walked away from writing Metropolis for 15 years. - How he chose to write a novel about eugenics. - His best piece of advice is to read and read widely. - Best words of wisdom from his famous father: “Only amateurs get writer's block. Professionals can't afford it.” - How he wrote a 600+ page novel without a plot outline. - What books he'd recommend to someone who doesn't read. Don't miss it! Buy Metropolis: https://amzn.to/3kAdLch Buy Crossing Eden: https://amzn.to/3YhOIrU Connect with Monte Schulz: https://monteschulzauthor.com/ * https://metropolisthebook.com/ Or support your local indie bookstore, but from your designated indie at: Bookshop.org -- Every Purchase Supports Local Bookstores. A Better Way to Buy Books Online. Don't forget to check this feed every Friday for TREK TAKES, where Alex and film critic Lucas Hardwick cuss and discuss the previous night's episode of PICARD! Visit Alex's new author website: JAlexanderGreenwood.com. Buy Alex Greenwood's books on Amazon.com or visit https://jalexandergreenwood.com/shop. Listen to Alex and his pal Sonia on CHICA & THE MAN! This Mysterious Goings On Podcast episode was recorded and mixed at Green Shebeen Studios in beautiful Kansas City, Missouri. Copyright 2023, all rights reserved. No reproduction, excerpting, or other use without written permission. We are an Amazon Associates seller; some of our links may earn us a commission. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/j-alexander-greenwood/message

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Monte Schultz. We'll be talking about his book Metropolis, and the intricacies of writing alternative history. Monte Schulz received his M.A. in American Studies from University of California, Santa Barbara. He published his first novel, Down by the River, in 1990, and spent the next twelve years writing a novel about the Jazz Age. Monte is also a composer, songwriter, and producer whose most recent album is titled “Seraphonium.” In 2010, he became the owner of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Monte is endlessly curious and well versed in world history and theology. He is fascinated by the style and use of innovative language, and can be caught engaging in provocative, philosophical conversations about big, far-reaching, imaginative ideas and worldly perspectives. His father is the late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. He lives in Santa Barbara, CA. You can find him on his website or follow him on Facebook and Twitter.   In this episode Monte Schultz and I discuss: How real world events seeded his fictional world. The effects of history's weight: heavy topics creating ennui in a society and applying that to backstory. That reading widely, from both commercial and literary works, are key, along with a list of suggested authors. Plus, his #1 tip for writers. For more info and show notes: diymfa.com/447

Matthew J. (Mateo) Pallamary frequently visits the mountains, deserts, and jungles of North, Central, and South America pursuing his studies of shamanism for over twenty five years. He has seventeen 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 over thirty 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.

Matthew J. (Mateo) Pallamary frequently visits the mountains, deserts, and jungles of North, Central, and South America pursuing his studies of shamanism for over twenty five years. He has seventeen 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 over thirty 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.