San Diego Memoir Writers Association

Five Things to Kickstart Your Author Brand Now
2019-03-02 14:30 - 16:00 UTC
Jeniffer Thompson will speak on WHAT CAN I DO NOW? to help the author branding process. Often when writers are faced with the idea of branding they freeze up or become overwhelmed. Jeniffer will help ease your fears and gently guide you toward a few crucial steps to help you build your unique brand that authentically captures YOU!

The Writer's Journey with Huda Al-Marashi
2019-02-02 14:30 - 16:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Join author, Huda Al-Marashi, author of First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story, in a conversation for about her writing journey that will cover why she writes from personal experience, how to talk to friends and family about your memoir, and how to persevere on the long but rewarding journey to publication. Books will be available for purchase and signing.
Huda Al-Marashi is the author of First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story, a memoir the Washington Post called “a charming, funny, heartbreaking memoir of faith, family, and the journey to love.” Her other writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, the LA Times, al Jazeera, VIDA Review, Refinery 29, the Rumpus, the Offing and elsewhere.

FREE Writing Vision Board Workshop
2019-01-05 14:30 - 17:00 UTC
Join us on January 5th for a FREE Writing Vision Board Workshop
A Community Booster Session to Help Make Your Writing Dreams a Reality

When: January 5th, 2019 – starting at 2:30pm
Where: SDWI 2730 Historic Decatur Rd.
Barracks 16, Suite 202 SD, CA 92106
What is a Writing Vision Board Workshop?

A vision board is collage representing things you would like to attract to your life. A Vision board for writing usually focuses on what you would like to bring into your writing life (think community, skill sets or career advancement) but you can put anything on your board that makes you happy. This is a time for us to join together as a community and support one another in our goals and dreams for the new year.
What we will have:
We will have boards, glue sticks and scissors and some magazines to get you started
What you need to bring:
Please bring magazines to share and any other materials you would like to use on your vision board (images from websites, your own photos, mosaic tiles, feathers, pastels, found items etc.)
See you all there!

Nailing Your First 5 Pages with Tracy J. Jones
2018-12-08 14:30 - 16:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Resident Editor and Former Professional Speechwriter, Tracy J. Jones, offers you her tips, tricks, and tools to make the best first impression in your first five pages.
These critical first pages are a perfect bite-sized appetizer that sets the stage for your entire memoir while leaving your readers hungry for more.
By looking at the beginnings of popular memoirs, Tracy will provide a roadmap to crafting an introduction that excites and entices your readers not just to buy your book but keep reading until the very end.
Topics include:

The different type of introductions
Grounding your reader
Creating tension
Being bold and doing it quickly
What’s your question, goal or want?
Starting your character arc
Setting the tone and voice of your memoir
How to use a flashback as your hook
Demonstrating that the reader is in good hands

Please join the SDMWA in this interactive and supportive class to make your first five pages a compelling calling card.

Writing to Heal with Marni Freedman – A FREE 90 minute Workshop
2018-11-03 14:30 - 16:30 (America/Denver) | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
A FREE 90 minute Workshop in conjunction with SDWI’s Fall For Writing Conference
FREE (donations to the association accepted)
“The simple act of expressing your thoughts and feelings about emotionally challenging experiences on paper is proven to speed your recovery and improve your mental and physical health” –James W. Pennebaker, psychologist, researcher and author of Writing to Heal
Join us for a relaxing and stimulating mini writing workshop. Writing as a way of healing is both gentle and effective. Learn powerful techniques grounded in research that can help you to:

Boost your immune system
Create community
Heal emotional wounds
Decrease depression and anxiety
Reduce stress
Improve your mood and feel a greater sense of well-being

Together we will be meditating, practicing expressive writing, witnessing, and sharing. We will be providing handouts about how to continue this writing practice in your everyday life to boost both your physical and mental health.

Writing the Dynamic Query and Winning Book Proposal with Jennifer Silva Redmond
2018-10-06 14:30 - 16:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Learn how to put your best foot forward by writing a dynamic query letter, or a winning book proposal. Jennifer Silva Redmond, long-time editor-in-chief at Sunbelt Publications is now a popular publishing consultant and freelance editor. She has 15 years of experience reading and evaluating query letters and proposals, and has spent 10 years teaching writers how to write them. Bring a query letter or written pitch, and be prepared to read.

Secrets from an Expert: Some Things Every Writer Needs to Know with Antoinette Kuritz
2018-09-01 14:30 - 16:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Writing is passion. The writer opens his or her soul onto the page and then hopes the book will find an audience, that as an author they will find success. But to make this happen, there are a host of things a writer needs to know and implement. With us to share some of the most important, from choosing the right method of publication to picking vendors, from building your platform to how to create your timeline to publication, and to give you a real sense of the steps to take beyond the writing, is book development expert, literary publicist, and the founder of the La Jolla Writers Conference, Antoinette Kuritz.

Judy Reeves on Time and Memoir
2018-08-04 14:30 - 16:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
You won’t want to miss this fantastic hour with Judy Reeves who will be discussing ways to handle time, transitions, and the various voices of memoir. Judy is an educator, author, poet, and all around amazing person.

Brooke Warner - Reflection and Takeaway
2018-07-07 14:30 - 16:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Memoir is more than just a story of what happened to you. Its heart and soul lies in two elements of craft that every memoirist needs to have a firm handle on: reflection and takeaway. Most beginning memoirists are so focused on the plot of their story that they forget that readers love memoir for what it says about the human condition, for its capacity to help us understand something about the world we live in, or about ourselves. Reflection requires you to stop your narrative and answer the question: What sense do I make of this part of my story? Takeaway asks you write about your thoughts and impressions on your subject matter, to delve deeper into your experience, your message, and to be a wise voice for your reader. In this session, Brooke Warner, Publisher of She Writes Press and author of three books on memoir, will address reflection and takeaway and show you exactly how to implement this kind of writing into your memoir, complete with examples from published works. You’ll leave knowing how to tap into the heart of your memoir, and to connect with your reader on a whole new level.

Judy Bernstein – How To Turn a Slice Life Into a Compelling Story
2018-06-02 14:30 - 16:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
What makes a collection of our own memories a compelling read? Judy will share her experiences writing and publishing her memoirs and discuss the elements that made them work. Structure, Plot, Point-of-View, Voice, Pacing, and other elements of writing memoir will be included. Maybe you don’t think there is anything in your life that warrants a memoir or you simply don’t want to go there, but you do know someone else who does. Learn about the pros and cons, trials and tribulations, of assisting someone else in creating their memoir.

Panel: Small Publishers & Unique Publishing Opportunities
2018-05-05 14:30 - 16:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Authors Linda Strader and Nancy Villalobos

Linda Strader, Author of Summers of Fire: A Memoir
Originally from Syracuse, New York, Ms. Strader moved to Prescott, Arizona with her family in 1972. In 1976, she became one of the first women on a Forest Service fire crew in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson. She’ll be speaking to us about finding a small publisher.
Q: What inspired you to write your book, Summers of Fire: A Memoir?
A: Multiple losses … within 5 years time, I ended my 23 year marriage, lost my job, and lost my mom. Because my years as a firefighter were some of the best times of my life, I returned to them—not necessarily to write a book, but to write down some of the events. However, after doing so, friends encouraged me to write more. And I did. Four hundred pages!
Author Nancy Villalobos
Nancy’s real-life story will be featured in the Next Chicken Soup for The Empowered Woman’s Soul

Turning Your Memoir into a Movie
2018-04-07 14:30 - 16:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Screenwriter, producer and script doctor Carlos de los Rios will talk about what it takes to turn your memoir into a film script.
Carlos will cover:

The six key elements that every story needs to be a compelling film script
How to decide if you want to fictionalize
Choosing the character arc
Deciding if you should be your own screenwriter
Looking over successful memoirs that have made successful movies such as Wild, Eat Pray Love and This Boy’s Life (based on This Boy’s Life, Tobias Wolff

Workshop with Lois Sunrich, Founder of Story Arts
2018-03-03 14:30 - 16:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Learn about memoir writing circles and make your own book in a workshop with Lois Sunrich.
Memoir writing circles are a supportive structure, personal guide and writing community in which to find, create and share your life’s stories. In the warmth and encouragement of women’s circles, we write, read, listen and prepare our book projects for publication. We support each other and gain courage to present our written works to family and friends in public settings.​
In this special workshop, just for the SD Memoir Association, writers will create their own memoir in the workshop to take home!
Learn more about Lois Sunrich on her website.

Meet Author Debra Ginsberg, Memoirist and Author of Raising Blaze
2018-02-03 14:30 - 16:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
When you have a child that doesn’t fit in, what do you do? Debra Ginsberg knew that her son, Blaze, was unique from the moment he was born in 1987. What she didn’t know was that Blaze’s differences would be regarded by the outside world not as gifts, but as impediments to social and academic success. Blaze never crawled. He just got up and walked when he turned one. He called his mother ‘Zsa Zsa’ until he was three. By kindergarten, he loved the music of Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald. He fears butterflies and is fascinated by garbage trucks. With the same honesty that made Waiting a success, Raising Blaze: Bringing Up an Extraordinary Son in an Ordinary World chronicles Debra’s experience in raising a child who has defied definition by the host of professionals who have sought to label his differences. Ginsberg introduces us to a remarkable child and her own unusual childhood. She writes about a family which shows us the redemptive power of faith, humor and love.

The Vision Board Workshop + Adventures by the Book
2018-01-06 14:00 - 16:30 UTC
We have a double hitter this coming weekend that you won’t want to miss! First, join Marni Freedman for a free Vision Board Workshop. Are you ready to create your writing goal for 2018?
Create your vision board with a group of supportive writers. Learn how to tap into your subconscious to bring your writing to a deeper level. Work with visualization tools to see your book as a reality. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO CREATE THIS YEAR? We will have materials but feel free to bring any of the following: Magazines, Poster Boards
3:30 Speaker: Susan McBeth
Next, Adventures by the Book® creates an experience, not just a book launch. Meet founder Susan McBeth. She has specialized in event management for over twenty years. Before launching Adventures by the Book®, she was the Director of Marketing and Events for one of the oldest independent bookstores in the United States. Through her career, Susan has had extensive experience working alongside publishers, publicists, agents, authors, and readers. Her experience and creativity led her to develop ABTB’s dynamic brand of literary events designed to meet and exceed the expectations of all of the above.
http://adventuresbythebook.com/

Annual Holiday Party + Meeting (Two Local Authors Share Insight)
2017-12-02 14:30 - 16:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Come Learn the Secrets of Their Success!
Listen to local Authors, Mariah McKenzie and Cherie Kephart, who will be talking about the secrets of their success. Each author will provide practical, easy, concrete, and actionable information for new authors. Mariah and Cherie have been there at the front lines and they know what to do to break through the noise.Then, stay with us to celebrate our first year with wine, cheese and some free giveaways!
Yes, you CAN do this.

The Who, What, Why, When and How of Working with an Editor
2017-11-04 14:30 - 15:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Join San Diego Memoir Writers Association and our star-studded editor’s panel:
Lynette M. Smith. All My Best was established in 2004; proprietor Lynette M. Smith has over 30 years of copyediting experience and is also an award-winning nonfiction author. Focusing on non-technical fiction and nonfiction books (MS Word formatting, copyediting, eBook-formatting, and PDF layout), theses and dissertations (MS Word formatting and copyediting in APA style), and marketing collateral (MS Word copyediting and PDF-layout proofreading in AP style). Subject specialties include business, humanities/social sciences, marketing, psychology, spirituality, and self-help; projects include articles, memoirs, adult and young-adult novels, nonfiction business and other books, and marketing materials. (Sorry, unable to accept projects involving Chicago-style footnotes or endnotes.)
Larry M. Edwards is an award-winning author, editor, and publisher of nonfiction and fiction. His memoir Dare I Call It Murder?: A Memoir of Violent Loss, garnered top honors at the San Diego Book Awards for 2013, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and became a top seller on Amazon.com in both Memoir and True Crime categories. Among the many memoirs he has edited, Accidental Immigrants took top honors in the San Diego Book Awards for 2014. His short story By the Light of the Moon took first place in the San Diego Books Awards for 2016. As an editor and publisher, Murder Survivor’s Handbook: Real-Life Stories, Tips & Resources won a Gold Award in the 2015 Benjamin Franklin book awards competition sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association. Larry worked as journalist and editor for local, national, and international publications for nearly three decades. He currently works as a freelance writer, editor, and publishing consultant. Outside of writing and editing, Edwards plays the fiddle in old-time music and bluegrass bands.
Erin Willard is the owner of a gentle copyediting business aptly named Erin Willard, Copy Editor. Her copyediting experience has included work with manuscripts of award-winning novels and non-fiction and creative non-fiction books in a variety of genres, specializing in encouraging, protecting, and giving a final polish to the voices of new writers, seasoned professionals, and those in between. She is an active member of the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) and the American Copy Editors Society (ACES) and is currently serving as a member of the board of directors of the San Diego Professional Editors Network (SD/PEN).

Why You Need A Book Sherpa
2017-10-07 14:30 - 15:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Writing the book is hard enough, but then there’s this business of publishing and marketing! How does the savvy author do it all!
Publishing and Book Marketing strategist Jeniffer Thompson walks you through the business of publishing, building your personal brand, author platform, and the ever-important-reality of ongoing book marketing (what you need to know).
Jeniffer Thompson is a personal branding expert and Internet Marketing strategist. She is the Founder and Principal at Monkey C Media, an award-winning design firm specializing in book packaging, author websites, and Internet marketing strategy. She is an author and speaker, and serves on the board of Publishers and Writers of San Diego and San Diego Memoir Writer’s Assoc. With more than 20 years experience in publishing and marketing Jeniffer is passionate about helping authors navigate their publishing journey, elevate their brand and establish their author platform.
Read her marketing blog at JenifferThompson.com; visit her company website at monkeyCmedia.com.

Writing About Family
2017-09-02 14:30 - 15:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Leslie Johansen Nack graduated UCLA with a BA in English literature. Her debut memoir Fourteen: A Daughter’s Memoir of Adventure, Sailing, and Survival, (She Writes Press, Oct 2015) won five indie book awards. She is currently writing the next memoir which continues her coming-of-age story. She has two children and lives in San Diego with her husband of twenty-seven years.

The Author/Agent Relationship - Making it Successful
2017-08-05 14:30 - 16:30 UTC
Join SDMWA to learn all about the author/agent relationship with Literary Agent Annie Bomke. This talk focuses on the author/agent relationship, detailing the agent’s role at every stage of the publishing process, how to find an agent, and what makes for a strong author/agent relationship.
You can learn more about Annie Bomke by visiting her website.

Public Relations for Memoirists
2017-07-01 14:30 - 16:30 UTC
SDMWA welcomes Paula Margulies and Tricia Van Dockum for a day of Public Relations for Memoirists.
Learn the secrets of:

Finding Your Audience
Packaging Your Book to Attract the Appropriate Audience
Building Pre-Buzz for the Book via Social Media
Various Ways to Market Your Book Both Online & Offline
Building a Platform (and What Does That Mean Exactly!)

Paula Margulies has over twenty years of experience in communications, marketing, and public relations for all types of products and services. A graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she earned her master’s degree in Language Arts and Literature, Margulies also holds degrees in marketing communications and education. She has served as the marketing and publicity director for large companies and small businesses and is an instructor in business communications at community colleges throughout Southern California. She specializes in all aspects of marketing and publicity, including writing press releases and creating media kits, setting up speaking and reading appearances, conducting blog tours, garnering book reviews, and setting up print, radio, and television interviews.

Kamala Devi - Sex and Spirit on the Page
2017-06-03 14:30 - 16:30 UTC | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Kamala Devi teaches revolutionary methods to help dozens of students—many of them first-timers—turn their ideas into books within record time. Kamala Devi’s coaching is based on top coaching strategies, proven writing technologies, and tantric principles! One of the biggest benefits of this afternoon is simply surrounding yourself in a like-minded community of talented writers and tapping into the alchemy of creative synergy.

Antoinette Kuritz of Strategies PR and the La Jolla Conference
2017-05-06 14:30 - 16:30 UTC
Antoinette is The founder of The La Jolla Writers Conference – one of the first writers conferences to cover the art, craft, and business of writing and which is now in it’s seventeenth year – Antoinette Kuritz is also the founder of Strategies Book Development & PR, a company devoted to helping both aspiring and successful authors define and reach their goals. She has taught at BEA, at Publishing University, and in countless other venues. For more than eight years she hosted her own radio show, Writers’ Roundtable, and for more than fifteen years she has been the book person on San Diego’s KUSI-TV Good Morning San Diego.
Writer’s on Writing: Antoinette Co-Edited this book, which offers insights from bestselling authors. She will have it on hand for purchase.

Traditional Publishing and Facebook Promotion Secrets
2017-04-01 14:30 - 15:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Jennifer Coburn is a USA Today best selling author of six novels and contributor to four literary anthologies. Over the past two decades, Coburn has received numerous awards from the Press Club and Society for Professional Journalists for articles that appeared in Mothering, Big Apple Baby, The Miami Herald, The San Diego Union-Tribune and dozens of national and regional publications. She has also written for Salon.com, Creators News Syndicate and The Huffington Post.
Coburn lives in San Diego with her husband, William, and their daughter, Katie. We’ll Always Have Paris is her first memoir.

Brooke Warner - Hybrid Publishing, New Options for Writers in a Changing Industry
2017-03-04 14:30 - 15:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Green-Light Your Book is a straight-shooting guide to a changing industry. Written for aspiring authors, previously published authors, and independent publishers, it explains the ever-shifting publishing landscape and helps indie authors understand that they’re up against the status quo, and how to work within the system but also how to subvert the system in order to succeed.
Publishing expert and independent publisher Brooke Warner is fearless in her critique of an industry that’s lost its mandate, and in so doing has opened the door wide for indie publishers to thrive. While she does not shy away from calling out the bias against indie authors, she also asserts that it’s never been a more exciting time to be in book publishing―and her passion and enthusiasm are contagious. “If you’re going to green-light your work, you have to wow,” Warner writes. But to surpass expectations, you also need to be a student of publishing and to be able to hold your own with book buyers, event coordinators, librarians, wholesalers, distributors, and reviewers. Green-Light Your Book seeks to equip authors and publishers with the language, knowledge, and skill sets they need to play big.

Learn the Craft and Business of Memoir
2017-02-04 14:30 - 15:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Ink Spot, 2730 Historic Decatur Road - Barracks 16 #202, San Diego, CA, 92106, United States
Traci Foust wasn’t a “normal” seven-year-old girl. When all the neighborhood kids were playing outdoors, Traci was inside making sure the miniature Catholic saint statues in her windowsill always pointed due north, scratching out bald patches on her scalp, and snapping her fingers after every utterance of the word God. As Traci got older, her OCD blossomed to include panic attacks and other bizarre behaviors, including a fear of the sun, an obsession with contracting eradicated diseases, and the idea that she could catch herself on fire just by thinking about it.While stints of therapy—and lots of Nyquil—sometimes helped, nothing alleviated the fact that her single mother and mid-life crisis father had no idea about how to deal with her.
So, it wasn’t a total shock when she became a teenage runaway on the poetry slam beat in the hippie beach towns of Northern California and had to be dragged home by her family. It also wasn’t too surprising when her mother could no longer stand the stress of having Traci under her roof, so Traci had a stint of living at a family-owned nursing home, in a room with a seventy-five-year old WWII Vet who kept mistaking her for a prostitute.
In this heartfelt, funny, and candid account of her struggles with a variety of psychological disorders, Traci shows that there is nothing special about being “normal.”
