News And Announcements

Forgot to share some good “muse” in the previous update, but it’s never too late to celebrate. Two-time San Diego conferee Barbara Marshak’s Michigan and Rookie: Guardians of the Night was published September by Beaver’s Pond Press. The true story of K9 Officer Joaquin Guerrero and his German shepherd partner Rookie, the book is told from the POV of its K9 hero, chronicling Rookie’s unwavering service at Ground Zero, and his impact with hundreds of thousands of school kids across Mid-Michigan. This makes for Barbara’s second published book, following Hidden Heritage: The Story of Paul LaRoche, an inspiring biography of the award-winning Native American recording artist, Brulé. And this just in, SD/LA conferee Benjamin More reports that his short story, “Entangled Souls,” appears in Dark Moon Digest’s upcoming special edition anthology: Ghosts. Good job to you both! Speaking of good “muse”…

Longtime SCWC staffer Drusilla Campbell’s Honor and Glory, in which a female Marine resumes her life after returning from Iraq with PTSD, just sold to Grand Central in a two-book deal, for publication in 2012. Drusilla, of course, will again be conducting her popular NovelCram track in February. Other workshop leaders now slated for SD26 include authors Mark Clements, Deborah Halverson, Lois Joy Hofmann, Ken Kuhlken, Sylvia Mendoza, Matthew J. Pallamary, Judy Reeves, Mike Sirota, and Laura Taylor. Web developer and online marketing strategist Jeremy Lee James returns, along with entertainment attorney Mark I. Reichenthal and N.S. Bienstock literary agent, Paul Fedorko.

Advance Submission Readers selection will open up in the next week or so. As there’s plenty more to announce while we begin working on the schedule, lining up the Special Guest Speakers, and adding more workshop leaders, be sure to check back often or join us on the SCWC .COMmunity Facebook page to stay up to speed.

And while submission to the Reader’s Digest “Write Your Life Story in 150 Words” contest on Facebook is now closed, the SCWC’s contest remains open. Write your life story, or some pivotal aspect of your life, as a self-contained story in 150 words or less and you’ll be in the running to win a Kindle eBook reader or Full Conference registration package (your choice of San Diego or Newport Beach). Use the Contact Us form on the right and be sure to put “Life Story Contest” in the subject line. Paste your name in the body along with your story and story’s title. The SCWC contest deadline for submission is December 31, 2011.

More soon.

While there are gobs of SD26 workshop leaders to be announced over the coming months, to whet your insatiable appetite for all things SCWC, here’s a little taste of who’ll be with us come February. On the authors side of things, Kirsten Imani Kasai is back. Tattoo (Del Rey), the follow up to her debut novel, Ice Song, is just out and warrants an immediate read. Publishers Weekly calls it, “lushly erotic while remaining aware of the costs of addiction and self-indulgence.” And National Book Critics Circle member Paul Goat Allen hails, “Lyrical, forlorn, dreamlike, and, at times, painfully passionate… Tattoo is essentially deeply philosophical and poetic contemplation cloaked in visionary science fiction.” And check out that jacket! Look who else will be with us:

Historical fictionalist Laurel Corona returns. Finding Emilie (Gallery Books), set in 1749 France, is her latest. Of it, Publishers Weekly raves, “Corona brings a changing world, peopled with fascinating historical figures like Diderot and Voltaire, to vibrant life.” While Catherine Delors (For the King) calls it simply, “A remarkable novel”… Ernessa T. Carter, whose wonderfully entertaining 32 Candles evolved from her SCWC*LA6-award winning manuscript for Outstanding Fiction, will be with us (be sure to watch the excerpt of her keynote appearance at LA8 below)…

Author/artist/journalist Gregg Gutierrez joins us for the first time. Now in its ninth printing, his collection of short stories, Zen and the Art of Surfing, was called by Writer’s Digest, “infectious…spellbinding.” “His work is mythological,” proclaimed the San Diego Union Tribune … After a couple-conference hiatus, Frederick Ramsay is back. The seventh book in his popular, critically acclaimed Ike Schwartz mystery series, Rogue, is now out from Poisoned Pen Press … Due to a scheduling conflict, Andrew Peterson (Forced to Kill), has been rotated from our LA9 event to SD26. (Wherever we get him, we’re just glad we got him.)

Agents wise, those coming to SD26 include Marisa Iozzi Corvisiero of L. Perkins Agency, Kristin Miller of D4EO Literary, Kathleen Rushall of Marsal Lyon Literary and Jon Sternfeld, from Irene Goodman Literary. More, of course, to be announced.

While we hope to see you next month in Newport Beach, remember that the place to be come winter is San Diego. Follow us on Twitter (@SCWriters) or friend us on Facebook to keep up to speed on issues of writerly interest, including free eBook notifications, pertinent publishing news, overall good “muse,” and .COMmunity submissions to the Reader’s Digest “Your Life…” writing contest. You or a writer you vote for could get published and win up to $25,000. If you post your own story, be sure to email Michael or Chrissie the link so we can post it.

More soon.

SD26 is nearly seven months away. Staff updates won’t begin ’til September, but be assured we’re already at work assembling accomplished authors, editors, agents actively seeking new clients, and other publishing professionals to our extended February weekend retreat. As always, there’ll be plenty of both familiar faces and new filling out the schedule. Before we get there, though, we’re going to have a contest. It’s pretty simple really: Tweet a great tale and you could win a Kindle book reader–and maybe even a free SCWC Full Conference registration package. Okay, so maybe it’s not so simple. At least it’ll be fun!

What we’ve done is create an SCWC Twitter account @SCWriters to feed publishing/transmedia-related items of value to writers, but are maybe super-timely or not posted on the SCWC Facebook group. For the contest, writers are invited to post an entire, original story in any genre in a single tweet at hashtag #TwitFiction. Writers may submit as many stories as they wish between now and December 31, 2011. So long as your story is complete and contained in no more than the length of a single tweet, your story will be in the running for one of several prizes, including two Kindles and two SCWC Full Conference packages for either San Diego 2012 or L.A. 2012. Other awards will be announced. Awards will be handed out at SD26. And only attending conferees are eligible to receive an award.

Early “Bard” Registration is now open for SD26. Do so by September 1 and knock a whopping $100 off Full Conference or NovelCram Immersion Track registration. As usual, San Diego in Winter is a place to see, and the SCWC is definitely where you’ll want to be.

San Diego 26 doesn’t take place for another nine months, but that doesn’t mean Wes and I don’t pour our coffee and drink it, too. In other words, it’s dawn on a dim day and we don’t know what that means. Still, even though work is now well underway on our LA9 conference there are still important things to keep an eye on with regards to happenings that touch upon San Diego staffers and conferees. Things like the notable recognition for their work. Things like awards.

The San Diego Book Awards finalists have been announced. The annual ceremony where the winners are announced takes place June 11, 2011 (details here).  Among the nominees that extend from the esteemed SCWC staff roster and alumni: Ellen Bryson, Drusilla Campbell, Laurel Corona, Lois Joy Hofmann, Ken Kuhlken, Douglas P. Lathrop, Richard Lederer, Helen McKenna, John Mullen, Blaine C. Readler, Judy Reeves, Christine Renhard Stenstrom, and Julie Ann Weinstein. Congratulations to all.

Jim Hitt, former conferee who joined us as a workshop leader for the first time this past February, got awarded Best Novel Under 80,000 Words from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards for his recent release Carny. If that wasn’t cool enough, he just learned that he also won the Grand Prize for Fiction and will be attending the reception banquet on May 24 in NYC!

Finally, Darlene Quinn, author of the 2009 National Indie Excellence Award-winning Webs of Power, just won the 2011 International Book Award for General Fiction for its sequel, Twisted Webs, also recipient of the National USA Best Book Finalist Award for General Fiction. The prequel to the two books is out October and we expect equally just accolades.

That’s all for now. The San Diego side of the site will begin updating for our 2012 event beginning July, when ultra-Early Bard Registration discount begins. In the meantime, we look forward to seeing you September in L.A.ish (Newport Beach, actually).  Between now and then, write well!

Fabulous, frantic, frenetic and deliriously informative is how this past weekend’s SD25 has been described. Indeed, it was every bit all that and more. With so many great writers, agents, and editors in attendance, all delving headlong into the fresh waters of today’s empowerment possibilities–from smart, smaller and indie press alternatives to N.Y.’s flailing corporate houses, to the growing prospects of digital vindication every author must now embrace–this year a virtual pot o’gold awaited writers in San Diego: information = opportunity. And as you can see in the photo, the rainbow that planted in the golf course directly outside our hotel Sunday afternoon affirmed it. The informed writer is the writer most likely to succeed. And at SD25, we reveled naughtily in that promise. Now onto the awards…

SCWC*SD 25 Award Recipients:

OUTSTANDING FICTION
Stormfront
by Doug Elerath of Albuquerque, NM

OUTSTANDING FICTION
(title to be announced)
by Greg Haas of Columbus, OH

OUTSTANDING FICTION
(title to be announced)
by Megan McGee & Daniel McNeil of Moab, UT

OUTSTANDING TOPIC
The Bath (read here)
by Lloyd Williams of West Hollywood, CA

OUTSTANDING TOPIC
I Don’t Want to Know (read here)
by Jennifer Silva Redmond of San Diego, CA

TOPIC (HONORABLE MENTION)
Wes Knows Best (read here)
by Gayle Carline of Placentia, CA

Congratulations to the honorees, and to all the writers who helped make SD25 such a memorable event.  Dates for SD26 are Presidents’ Day Weekend, Feb. 17-20, 2012.  Between now and then, join us for LA9, Sept. 23-25, 2011, in Newport Beach, as well as on our SCWC Facebook Page.  Now go forth and write well!

It’s conference weekend!  Walk-in registration opens Noon today (Friday), 7AM Saturday and 7:30AM Sunday.  There’s plenty of room for writers, so be there or be…where?  Crowne Plaza San Diego, 2270 Hotel Circle North San Diego, CA 92108.  Also, UC San Diego Extension is offering SCWCers a chance to win a free creative writing course.  Email them at ahl@ucsd.edu on or before Feb. 28, 2011, with the phrase “Sign me up for the Writing Newsletter” in the subject line and get added to the drawing list. The winner will be chosen and notified on March 1, 2011.