Tag Archives: WNBA Events

Reading & Book Signing at Books Inc. 5 Authors

WNBA with Cahterine and Julia

At Max’s Opera Cafe, Catherine Bramkcamp, WNBA member, master podcaster, and author. Julia Park Tracey, WNBA member and moderator for this event. I’m sitting at the far end.

 

Books, Inc hosted WNBA for “An Atmospheric Afternoon” of readings and book signings with five authors.  Before the event a few WNBA members and the authors met for lunch at Max’s Opera Cafe across the mall entrance from Book, Inc. at Opera Plaza in San Francisco. I chatted with Lucy Sanna and Kelli Estes. Lucy’s The Cherry Harvest takes place in Door County, Wisconsin, my home state, in 1944. Few people know World War II German POW’s were put to work in a Wisconsin farm community. An interaction with one of the families brings “dark and unexpected consequences.”

 

Kelli lives near Seattle with her husband and two sons. For The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, Kelli’s protagonist learns about Mei Lien’s life when Chinese residents were driven from their homes a century ago. The back cover of her debut book states, “Inspired by true events, Kelli Estes’s brilliant and atmospheric debut serves as a poignant tale of two women determined to do the right thing, and the power of our own stories.”

 

Janis Cooke Newman’s A Master Plan for Rescue is set in 1942 New York and Berlin. Her story is about a boy and a man who combine grief and magical thinking to bring their loved ones back, if only in spirit. A beautiful tale, propelled by history and imagination.

 

Carolina De Robertis’ protagonist in The Gods of Tango is a seventeen-year-old who leaves her family and a small village, but under dire circumstances she masters the violin  to make a living in Buenos Aires. Women were not allowed to be a musician in the salons of high society. The girl disguises herself as a man, “jeopardizing not only her music career, but her life itself.”

 

Kathryn Ma’s The Year She Left Us involves “four powerful, intertwining stories of accomplishment, tenacity, secrets, loneliness, and love.” The eighteen-year-old, Ari, visits the orphanage in China where she lived before being adopted and it plunges her into a “self-destructive spiral.” The story “explores the promise and pain of adoption, the price of assimilation and achievement, and the debt we owe to others and to ourselves.”

 

Which one to read first is hard to choose.

 

Lucy reading 2

Lucy Sanna THE CHERRY HARVEST

Kelli at the micc

Kelli Estes THE GIRL WHO WROTE IN SILK

Carolina The Gods of Tango

Carolina De Robertis THE GODS OF TANGO

Janis' turn

Janis Cooke Newman A MASTER PLAN FOR RESCUE

Kathryn laughing

Kathryn Ma THE YEAR SHE LEFT US

Leave a Comment

Filed under Authors, Book Signings

Pitch-O-Rama: Meet the Agents and Editors March 28

WNBA small badgeWomen’s National Book Association’s 12th Annual Pitch-O-Rama: Meet the Agents and Editors is set for tomorrow morning.

  • Saturday, March 28, 2015, 8:00 am – 12:30 pm
    For men and women
    Women’s Building, Auditorium,
    3543 18th Street (b/t Guerrero & Valencia Streets) San Francisco CA 94110
    Continental Breakfast
  • Free pre-pitch coaching and ongoing mentoring
    Two one-hour pitch sessions and more!
    After the sessions, a panel presentation explores “Steps to Publishing: Editing”

    Cost: $65 WNBA members, $75 non-members, $90 walk-ins, if space available.

  • A rare opportunity to pitch to literary agents and acquisition editors in a private, supportive setting and receive feedback from some of the best publishing professionals in the Bay Area.

The list of some of the agents:

Andy Ross, previous owner of Berkeley’s legendary Cody’s Bookstore, now owns his own literary agency.

Georgia Hughes, editorial director at New World Library.

Brenda Knight, presenter at the SF Writers Conference, worked at Harper Collins.

Donna Galassi, VP Associate Publisher for Avalon Travel and Seal Press.

Daniel Harmon, Publishing Director, previous pop culture editor.

Amy Cloughley, agent with Kimberley Cameron & Associates.

Chelsea Lindman, literary agent at Sanford J. Greenburger, Associates.

Laurie McLean, Founding Partner of Fuse Literary Agency, previously with Larsen Pomada Literary Agents.

Gayle Wattawa, of Heyday, an independent, nonprofit publisher.

Carlie Webber, founder of CK Webber Associates Literary Agency.

And several more.

See you there.  Womens Building in SF

1 Comment

Filed under WNBA Events