Author of The Dining Car, his sumptuous telling of “a story of service, serendipity, and second chances,” Eric Peterson will round out our 32nd annual San Diego conference schedule. As our Sunday afternoon Special Guest Speaker, Eric will share how he navigated the turbule[Click For The Rest...]

Plot is not story. Even the most skilled application of craft will conceal a weak story for only so long. Story is story. Craft is the toolbox an author turns to to tell a story. Surprisingly, many good writers—craft execution-wise—don’t understand the distinction between the two. In [Click For The Rest...]

Returning for her second appearance as Special Guest Speaker is author and SCWC workshop leader Janis Thomas. In yet another departure from the humorous women’s fiction that she first won over readers and critics alike with, her long-anticipated latest, the hypnotic domestic drama Wha[Click For The Rest...]

Winter is coming! Our extended 32nd annual Presidents’ Day Weekend conference takes place February 16-18, 2018. Offering over five-dozen workshops—including “Rogue” read & critique sessions that often run deep into the balmy wee hours, five months out there’s already plenty to rep[Click For The Rest...]

Right out of the gate we’re thrilled to announce that Jennifer De Chiara Literary’s Damian McNicholl will be joining us in February, not only in his role as a accomplished agent looking to expand his client list, but as a distinguished author himself. Of his latest novel, The Moment o[Click For The Rest...]

Such a great weekend. From Wes, Chrissie and myself to all the staff, volunteers–and especially the conferees–thank you for making SD31 such a memorable affair. First-timers abounded this time around. And the severe storm predicted to last all weekend—50-mile-an-hour susta[Click For The Rest...]

Best-selling author of A Star for Mrs. Blake (Random House), an acclaimed novel chronicling the pilgrimage of five Gold Star Mothers who travel to France in 1931 to visit the graves of their sons, fallen in World War I, April Smith joins us in February with her latest. Publishers Week[Click For The Rest...]

Matt Coyle is author of the hardboiled Rick Cahill Crime Thriller series, the first of which, Yesterday’s Echo, earned an Anthony Award, San Diego Book Award for Best Published Mystery and the prestigious Benjamin Franklin Silver Award. Library Journal called his sophomore effor[Click For The Rest...]

So often it is we judge literary success only by the quality of our rejection – Hey, they spelled my name right on the rejection letter! – that it’s easy to lose faith in one’s path to publication. In and of itself, even publication won’t guarantee less rejection from book critics and[Click For The Rest...]

Our extended Presidents’ Day Weekend conference takes place February 17-20, 2017. With over five-dozen workshops–including “Rogue” read & critique sessions that often go way, way late into the early morning hours–for the writer devoted to being the best storyteller s/h[Click For The Rest...]