Pen on Fire Speaker Series
Articles written about the series:
"The Crowd: All it takes to become a published writer" by B.W. Cook, Daily Pilot 8/5/2009
"New Events Bring Top Authors to OC" by Peter Larsen, Orange County Register, 2/6/2009
This monthly salon, hosted by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, features authors, literary agents, and others involved in the field of writing. Set in the atmospheric Scape Gallery in Corona del Mar, the salon is a mecca for literary devotees who listen to readings, take part in discussions, and attend book signings.
Saturday, May 15 at 7 pm
An Evening with Orange County Noir Writers
Join us for a evening with contibutors to Orange County Noir: Gary Phillips (editor), Mary Castillo, Marty Smith, Patricia McFall and our own Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, with CJ Bahnsen as moderator. The group will discuss their short stories in the new anthology, writing noir, noir's place in sunny Orange County, and will take your questions. Orange County's independent bookseller, Laguna Beach Books, will be on hand selling books.
Our authors:
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett’s first book, Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within (Harcourt, 2004), a Los Angeles Times best-seller and a 2005 ASJA Best Book Award, is in its 8th printing. Her essay: “Knitting: My Urban Escape,” was anthologized in Knitting Through It: Inspiring Stories for Troubled Times (Voyageur, 2008). She has published essays and articles in Orange Coast Magazine, Westways, The Los Angeles Times, The Writer, Writer’s Digest, and more. Barbara has taught creative writing here at UC-Irvine Extension since 2000 and also teaches online for Gotham Writers Workshop, based in New York City. She produces and hosts the radio show, “Writers on Writing,” which broadcasts from UC-Irvine. Barbara was named a 2001 Distinguished Instructor at UC-Irvine Extension and awarded with Literary Magnet #1, on Orange Coast Magazine’s Best of Orange County list, 2008. Her most recent publication is her short story, “Crazy for You,” included in Orange County Noir. She is founder of the Pen on Fire Speakers Series.
Gary Phillips writes stories of the grift, the grab and all manner of chicanery. Aside from being the proud editor and contributor to Orange County Noir, he has written a novel about black soldiers in World War II called Freedom's Fight, has a novella coming out soon about a semi-homeless Vietnam vet searching for a disappeared disabled friend entitled The Underbelly, and has short stories in the anthologies Phoenix Noir and this fall's, Damn Near Dead 2. Please visit his website at: www.gdphillips.com/
Mary Castillo is the author of three novels (Swithcraft, In Between Men and Hot Tamara) and two novellas featured in the anthologies, Names I Call My Sister and Friday Night Chicas. Her articles have appeared in Latino Future, Romance Writers Report, Tu Ciudad and Animation World Network. Celebrities like Ingrid Hoffman of Simply Delicioso and Chef Daisy Martinez of Viva Daisy as well as authors, performers and burlesque starlets have appeared on Mary's popular blog, Chica Lit
Martin J. Smith is a veteran journalist and magazine editor who has won more than 40 newspaper and magazine writing awards. A former senior editor of the Los Angeles Times Magazine, he is editor in chief of Orange Coast magazine. He is the author of three crime novels, Time Release, Shadow Image, and the Edgar Award-nominated Straw Men. He also is co-author, with Patrick J. Kiger, of OOPS: 20 Life Lessons From theFiascoes That Shaped America, (Collins, 2006) which Publishers Weekly called"as informative as it is entertaining," and POPLORICA: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions, and Lore That Shaped Modern America (HarperResource, 2004), now in paperback, about which PW concluded: “All history should be this much fun.” Smith, whose story “Dark Matter” appears in Akashic’s Orange County Noir anthology, currently is working on a nonfiction book about competitive duck painting.
Patricia McFall has published both long and short fiction, as well as book reviews and features on authors for a group of ten Southern California daily newspapers. Her work has also appeared in Writer’s Digest, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, the anthology Mystery Street, and most recently, Orange County Noir. She has privately edited more than a dozen trade books for authors. She teaches writing classes in addition to coaching and editing individual writers.
Moderator C.J. Bahnsen has contributed stories to Orange Coast, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Scuba Diving Magazine and Ocean Magazine. He is currently co-writing a theatrical nature documentary Seal Island (trailer at www.islandoftheseals.com) to be released in theaters later this year.
Our salon will take place at:
Scape Gallery
2859 East Coast Highway
Corona del Mar, CA, 92625
$20.00 includes nibbles, sips and sometimes cake. Advance tickets are required to guarantee a seat. Walk-ins are discouraged as seating is limited.
Please register soon as we expect this to be another sold out event (and we hate turning people away).
Paying using PayPal is easiest:
If you'd rather send a check, make it out to "BD Barrett" (with "Speaker Series" and the date of the event jotted in the lower left hand corner) and send to:
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
503 Larkspur
Corona del Mar CA 92625
If you'd like to get on the email list to be notified of future events, enter your email address below. (Please note that this is a different e-list than the one you see at left.
Also... If you know of any graduating Corona del Mar High School Seniors, encourage them to apply for a $300 grant, to be given on June 8, prior to the Aimee Bender event (should there be at least a handful of applicants) by the Pen on Fire Speakers Series. More information, email: penonfire@earthlink.net.
On June 8, plan to join us for an evening with Aimee Bender and Michael Jaime-Beccera
Past guests include Ron Carlson, Tod Goldberg, Victoria Patterson, Dani Shapiro, Lisa See, Carolyn See, T. Jefferson Parker, Norman Ollestad, Susan Straight, Danzy Senna, Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, Merrill Markoe, Marty Smith, Sally van Haitsma, Elise Capron, Kelly Sonnack, Debra Ollivier, and Karen Karbo.
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