What a fine weekend with fine writers. The overwhelming consensus from workshop leaders, editors, and even all the agents, was that the level of quality represented in manuscripts presented by attending writers was off the charts in level of quality. Not a rare thing at the SCWC, but [Click For The Rest...]

Celebrating “a life of high adventure guided by the inspirations and invigorations of smoking marijuana,” Tom Huth’s uplifting new memoir, Forty Years Stoned: A Journalist’s Romance, is now out and gaining a lot of traction. In addition to thoughtful inner-travelogue, the memoir chron[Click For The Rest...]

And we’re off! Discounted Early “Bard” Pre-registration is now open for our 31st annual winter conference. Do so by September 1, 2016 and save a whopping $125 on Full Conference attendance. While well over six months away, plenty of trusted, familiar friends are already aboard. Regula[Click For The Rest...]

Publishers Weekly declared her 2010 thriller Rock Paper Tiger an “electrifying debut.” The book went on to become a New York Times bestseller and has since been followed by two other titles featuring Beijing-living Iraq War vet Ellie McEnroe. Hour of the Rat was short listed for Left [Click For The Rest...]

Author of the freshly released Cold Barrel Zero (Mulholland Books), national best-selling thriller writer Matthew Quirk will be joining us in September. Of his latest unrelenting page-turner, in a starred boxed review Publishers Weekly concluded, “Quirk goes flat-out explosive in this[Click For The Rest...]

While the bulk of LA14 (Irvine) big updates don’t begin till mid-March, there’s just too much good “muse” as of late not to grant some notable shout outs to SCWCers in the interim. Off the recent announcement of the 2016 Independent Publisher Book Award winners (the “IPPYs” as they’re[Click For The Rest...]

Why? It’s the most important question in writing; the one I hear most during the run-up to a conference. Usually it’s about material going to advance submission readers. “Why can I only submit the first 10 or 15 pages of my manuscript?” I’m asked. “Why not more?” Fair questions. Warra[Click For The Rest...]

Gwendolyn Womack is the author of The Memory Painter, a dazzling debut novel that skips through time and blends romance, intrigue, mystery and science with masterful flair. Of it, in a starred review Library Journal declares, “It’s best not to try to analyze the ambitious plot o[Click For The Rest...]

In the jubilant afterglow of our San Diego celebration we now turn attention to September’s event in Irvine, which will be our 48th conference in 30 years. And regardless of whether you’re a writer pursuing the traditional route or one opting instead for a more personal path to public[Click For The Rest...]

There are gifts assigned to notable anniversaries. For a 30th it’s “pearl,” traditionally. Being mildly superstitious, having always heard that “pearls bring tears,” we elected to eschew any pearl motif at this past weekend’s celebration as there are often too many tears in one’s life[Click For The Rest...]