Pen on Fire Salon with Aimee Bender and Michael Jaime-Becerra

The Pen on Fire Writers Salon features Barbara DeMarco-Barrett in conversation with Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and Michael Jaime-Becerra, author of This Time Tomorrow.

Download audio.

(Event date: June 2010)

An Evening with Fiction Writers

Consider joining us on Tuesday evening, March 23, when Victoria Patterson and Tod Goldberg will join us for a night of conversation about writing fiction. Both have new books of short fiction, so there will be talk, nibbles and sips (wine and non-alcoholic drinks), a book signing, with books sold by indie bookseller Laguna Beach Books, and lots of great schmoozing amongst writers and agents.

Read more here.

Hope to see you there!

The ASJA Annual Writers Conference

Are any of you going? I'm leaving on Thursday for the three day affair in New York City. I love New York. My father grew up in Harlem, then the Upper East Side (he was from Sicily, but took a ship to NY as a teen and never looked back). In the 11th grade, we bussed up to the city from my Pennsylvania hamlet and went to Times Square and Radio City Music Hall. One New Year's Eve when I was 17, I went to Times Square. A man grabbed me and kissed me. Yuck.

Such a people watching city. Great food. Great shops. Personality.

Mostly, I'll be at the conference, which I'm co-chairing. Great panels. Great people. Friends I haven't seen since last year this time. But we also plan to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Little Italy.

And next week, as you know if you've been reading this blog for a while, is the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. I'm moderating a panel on humor and fiction on Saturday morning. Another great event for writers and for readers.

Writers conferences and retreats and talks and panels are food for writers. I always come away with inspiration or new ideas or new contacts and new friends. In the summer of '92, I went to Squaw Valley Writers Workshop, one of the best West Coast conferences for literary writers. I met one of my idols there: Clarence Major. Of course, me being me, I didn't introduce myself until my last night there; he so intimidated me. Later, when I had a show, he came on my show and after that, our interview was published in a book about him.

Beginning in June, for those in Southern California, we're starting a speaking series called Novel Voices. I started yet another blog where I'll be posting info as we get it (http://novelvoices.blogstpot.com).

If you know of any stellar events for writers, wherever you are, post them here.

Shameless self-promotion

I was going to write about deleting thousands of emails and how long it takes and then I was going to write about Joan Didion's play, written up in the Los Angeles Times, but then I thought, no, I'm going to plug a few writerly events that I'm involved in.

During the third weekend of April, in New York, the ASJA Annual Writers Conference takes place. A great conference geared to nonfiction writers/journalists, with a bit for the fiction writers and screenwriters, too. Two days at the Grand Hyatt. I'll be there (I'm co-chair this year).

Then, the following weekend is the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which always takes place the last weekend of April at UCLA. A ton of great panels and lots and lots of books. I'm moderating a Saturday morning panel on women and fiction.

In September, the Central Coast Writers Conference in San Luis Obispo, north of Santa Barbara, takes place. I'm on a couple of panels/workshops and so is one of my favorites, Earlene Fowler. Eric Maisel is the keynote speaker.

Take a writerly vacation. You'll learn something, meet new writer friends, and write it off, too.