On September 7th speaker is Karen Karbo.

Karen is the author of three novels - Trespassers Welcome Here, The Diamond Lane and Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me -- all of which were named New York Times Notable Books.

The Stuff of Life, about caring for her father during the last year of his life, was a People Magazine Critic's Choice, a selection of the Satellite Sisters Radio Book Club, a winner of the Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction, and also a Times Notable Book.

A past winner of the General Electric Young Writer Award, Karen is in addition the recipient of an NEA Grant. Her (embarrassingly stupendous number of) essays, reviews and articles have appeared in Outside, Elle, Vogue, Esquire, Redbook, More, Self, Sports Illustrated for Women, The New Republic, Psychology Today and The New York Times.

She is also the author of the Minerva Clark series of mysteries for middle grade readers. Conceived to entertain her fifth grade daughter, the series follows the adventures of seventh grade Minerva, a barely teenaged sleuth who’s been called “a cross between Adrian Monk and Nancy Drew.” The most recent adventure is Minerva Clark Goes to the Dogs, which appeared in September 2006. Minerva Clark Gives Up the Ghost will appear in late 2007.

Find out more about Karen at http://www.karenkarbo.com/

For information about our meetings in Portland, Eugene, Medford, Salem, and Newport (Oregon Coast) including meeting times, speakers and locations, check out our meetings page.

All Portland meetings are held at the Old Church, SW 11th and Clay (1422 SW 11th). Doors open at 6:30 pm; the speaker or panel starts at 7 pm. Meetings are free to members of Willamette Writers and students; guests of WW members are $5. Non-members pay $10 to attend meetings. Refreshments are served.

Young Willamette Writers

Marni Bates is the speaker for the YWW meeting on September 7th.

Marni has recently published her autobiography, Marni: My True Story of Stress, Hair-Pulling, and Other Obsessions. Learn more about Marni by clicking on this link.

YWW meets on the same date as the regular monthly Willamette Writers Portland meeting, but does not meet over the summer. For more information, email Corey Stixrud at corleigh@comcast.net.

Salem Chapter

Salem meetings will be held upstairs at the West Salem Roth's 1130 Wallace Rd. NW with entrance and parking in rear. Social half hour begins at 6:30pm, meeting from 7-8pm. We have set up a website www.SalemChapter.com and have a specific e-mail address for interested parties, SalemChapter@aol.com.

Monthly meetings are held the second Thursdays at the West Salem Roth's store--1130 Wallace Road NW. Parking and entrance are in the back.

Networking begins at 6:15pm. Meetings are from 7- 8pm. Interactive meetings run from 7-8:30pm.

Meetings are FREE to Members and full time college students. $5 for Guests of Members. $10 for Non-Members.

September 9th--Carola Dunn

Growing your Novel, Organically--How plot, characters, and setting develop, intertwine and influence each other.

Carola will explore this approach to writing fiction with reference to one of my own books. If there's time, I'll have a short writing exercise for anyone who wants to do it. I'm always happy to take questions--and to attempt to answer them.

Carola Dunn is the author of over 50 novels, the exact number depending on whether you count work in progress, work in production, and/or novella collections. Of these, more than twenty are mysteries, published by St Martin's Minotaur, and the rest Regencies. The long-running Daisy Dalrymple mystery series is set in England in the 1920s. My new series of Cornish mysteries, set in the 1960s, now has two books out and a third going to contract.

Carola's website and blog are at http://www.caroladunn.weebly.com/ and she's on Facebook. Daisy Dalrymple and the Cornish Mysteries have their own pages.

Oregon Coast Chapter (Newport)

The Oregon Coast chapter of Willamette Writers offers Writers-on-Writing workshops the first Tuesday of each month, 7-8:30 p.m. in the McEntee Room of the Newport Public Library, 35 NW Nye St. and is sponsored in part by the library and the Sylvia Beach Hotel. Admission is free, public welcome.

You've Written a Book. Now How Do You Sell It? Writing Workshop with Bob & Ellen Rubenstein September 7 in Newport

Willamette Writers Coast Branch continues its free Writers-on-Writing workshops on September 7, 2010, at the Newport Public Library from 7-8:30 pm with Bob & Ellen Rubenstein, "You've written a book! Now, how do you sell it?"

They will tell about the marketing of their newest book, "Five Star Cuisine--at Home! - How to Make Amazing Restaurant Recipes at Home - Simply & Easily" (www.fivestarcuisine.com) is unlike any other cookbook.

Bob trained under celebrated master chefs Raymond Thulier, founder/chef of the Michelin Three-Star restaurant Baumanier in Les Baux , France ; and Madam Cecelia Chang, founder/chef at Mandarin restaurant in Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco . Bob is the author of the first restaurant review book ever written for the Pacific Northwest, "Best Restaurants of the Pacific Northwest ."

Besides being a gourmet chef, Ellen is author of a small business book, "Your Specialty Store - How to Start & Run a Money Making Store."

They will tell of their successes and failures with the marketing of their first two books and how to maximize sales-what works and what does not. Bob will share their one best marketing idea and everyone should walk away with a lot of great marketing ideas and a plan to market their own book that results in greater sales.

On Tuesday, October 5, 7-8:30 p.m at the Newport Public Library, 35 NW Nye St. , Dale Basye will lead a workshop, Writing for Children. Sponsored in part by the library and the Sylvia Beach Hotel. Admission is free, public welcome.

Contacts: Dorothy Blackcrow Mack, 765-2383, dmack@centurytel.net; Kelly Kittel, 961-6728, kellykittel@gmail.com; www.willamettewriters.com.

Mid-Valley Chapter (Eugene)

The Mid-Valley Willamette Writers Speakers Series is on the first Thursday of the month (unless it conflicts with a holiday, usually Sept. and/or Jan.) from September-May (no meetings in the summer), starting with a social half hour at 6:30 (hot tea, coffee and cookies provided), followed by the speaker at 7:00 p.m. and is open to the public. Location, Tsunami Books , 2585 Willamette, Eugene, OR 97045. Free to members of Willamette Writers and full time college students, suggested $10 donation for non-members.

To have your name put on the Eugene Chapter email list or have brochures sent to your group: JoJo Jensen [jojo.jensen@yahoo.com]

Mid-Valley Willamette Writer's Presents: September 2, 2010
Miriam Gershow
"Novel Structure and the Limitations of Making it up as You Go Along"

Miriam Gershow is a novelist, short story writer and teacher. Her debut novel, The Local News, was published by Spiegel & Grau in February 2009. It has been called "unusually credible and precise" and "deftly heartbreaking” by The New York Times, as well as "an accomplished debut" (Publisher's Weekly) with a "disarmingly unsentimental narrative voice," (Kirkus Reviews).

Miriam is the recipient of a Fiction Fellowship from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, as well as an Oregon Literary Fellowship. Her stories appear in The Georgia Review, Quarterly West, Black Warrior Review, Nimrod International Journal, The Journal, and Gulf Coast, among other journals. Miriam's stories have been listed in the 100 Distinguished Stories of The Best American Short Stories 2007 and appeared in the 2008 Robert Olen Butler Prize Stories. She is also a past winner of the AWP Intro Journals award and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

She received her MFA from the University of Oregon. She taught fiction writing at the University of Wisconsin as well as descriptive writing to gifted high school students through Johns Hopkins University. She currently lives in Eugene with her husband and son, where she writes and teaches writing at the University of Oregon.

(Bio and photo from Miriam's website.)

Southern Oregon Chapter (Medford)

The southern Oregon chapter of Willamette Writers meets the first Saturday of the month at City Hall, City Council Chambers, in Central Point, on the corner of 3rd and Oak Street, one black off the main street, Pine. Meetings are 10 a.m. to noon. Parking is down the street. This speaker series is presented by Willamette Writers, a non-profit organization founded to help published and aspiring writers. Meetings are free to members, $5.00 for non-members. For information about Willamette Writers of Southern Oregon, contact Phil Messina at p38messina@msn.com.

Join us for networking at 9:30 a.m.

Membership dues: $36.00/year includes a monthly newsletter and discounted rate for the annual conference in Portland and other WW sponsored workshops.

Saturday, September 11th
Writing Memoir from the Inside Out Debra Zaslow

Join us as we begin our new season with Debra Zaslow, at 10 a.m. in the Central Point City Council Chambers, 140 South Second Street. Afternoon workshop begins at 12:15.

Debra Gordon Zaslow travels nationwide as a storyteller, writer and inspirational speaker. She has nationwide as a storyteller, writer and inspirational speaker. She has an MFA in Writing from Vermont College teaches storytelling at Southern Oregon University, and teaches community courses in memoir writing. An excerpt from hermemoir, Bringing Bubbe Home, is included in the 2010 literary journal "Drash Northwest Mosaic."

Her presentation explores memoir writing as a process of discovering and developing your authentic voice. We'll talk about the elements of good memoir writing--evoking sense memory, using specific imagery and the use of scene, summary and musing--all in the context of creating a writing practice that allows continual self discovery along with artistic expression.

Writing Your Life

This afternoon workshop that begins at 12:15 will offer guided practice to take us deeper into the art of writing from personal experience. We'll use visualization and writing prompts to inspire short and written pieces and then introduce elements of craft to hone them. We'll work with sensory language, finding metaphor to extend meaning, developing self as narrator, and writing scenes with dialogue. You'll go home inspired to keep writing!