Writing, Reading, and Publishing

Words in Bloom writers' conference coming to Midtown

2011-03-05T04:09:55Z

The UC Davis Extension Words in Bloom writers' conference is coming to Midtown for the first time this spring, and it promises a fertile writing environment for area wordsmiths.

“There’s great power in coming together with a group of people to set words on a page, words that you never thought you could or would write,” said Kate Asche, Words in Bloom program director and UC Davis Extension associate director of arts and humanities.

Words in Bloom will be held the weekend of April 29 to May 1. Writers who register by March 15 receive a $150 discount. Three persons registering for Words in Bloom together as a writing group each receive a further discount of $100. The full tuition before discounts is $745.

One of the chief aims of Words in Bloom is to provide a conference experience for writers without the time or money to attend UC Davis Extension’s other writing conference, the Tomales Bay Workshops, Asche said.

“I’ve seen Tomales Bay change so many people’s writing lives and their lives in general,” she said. “I wanted to bring a conference of that quality to Sacramento.”

Tomales Bay is twice as long as Words in Bloom. Before early bird or other discounts full tuition for Tomales Bay is more than double that of full tuition for Words in Bloom.

Asche coordinates both events, and she noted key differences between Words in Bloom and Tomales Bay, which is in its seventh year.

“Words in Bloom is expressly focused on creating new projects,” Asche said.

Another important goal of the conference is networking.

The new conference was kept to two weekend days, so local writers would not need to take time off work, Asche said. They can rejoin their families in the evening and avoid paying for lodging.

In contrast, faculty at Tomales Bay provide critique for writers with working manuscripts within a retreat setting. There is some networking.

Words in Bloom features the same high-caliber faculty as Tomales Bay.

“Our reputation is built upon the quality of what we deliver,” Asche said. “I wanted to make sure that that same extremely high quality is observed.”

Words in Bloom faculty include Dana Levin (poetry), Pam Houston (fiction), Ehud Havazelet (fiction) and Brenda Miller (creative nonfiction). Levin has previously spoken at Tomales Bay. Houston is director of creative writing at UC Davis and program director for Tomales Bay.

UC Davis Extension instructors recommended Havazelet and Miller, Asche said.

Words in Bloom participants select the writer of their choice and attend that writer’s workshop on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. Afternoon and evening sessions will feature readings and panel discussions with local authors, emerging writers and agents. There also will be an opportunity to meet with publishing professionals for an additional fee.

The conference will take place at Time Tested Books in Midtown. Parking is available at the UC Davis Extension Sutter Square Galleria parking garage on 29th and K Streets. From there it is about a 10-block walk to Time Tested Books.

Several restaurants are located in the vicinity of the bookstore.

“One of our hopes is that (students) would be able to continue the conversations by going to lunch and seeing where it leads,” Asche said.

Both Words in Bloom and Tomales Bay fulfill a portion of the elective requirements for the UC Davis Extension Creative Writing Certificate Program. For Words in Bloom, payment for units of academic credit is included in the conference fee, whereas there is an additional fee for academic credit for Tomales Bay.

“This is my way of getting a UC education,” said Brenda Nakamoto, who is pursuing the Specialized Studies Program in Nonfiction Writing at UC Davis Extension.

Nakamoto said she was attracted to Words in Bloom because of its lower cost and closer proximity than Tomales Bay.

“I thought I’d give myself two days to just be creative,” Nakamoto said.

Nakamoto has admired Miller’s work and said Miller was another draw to Words in Bloom.

She said the description of Miller’s workshop in the Words in Bloom program appealed to her: “Be prepared to check your critical mind at the door, and put on your play clothes instead.”

Nakamoto received a fellowship to attend Tomales Bay in October 2009. Roan Press will release her creative nonfiction book “The Peach Farmer’s Daughter” in April.

Words in Bloom is the only writers’ conference with offerings for writers in different genres in Sacramento, Asche said.

“As of right now we have an eye to the future for it,” Asche said. “We want to see this year’s conference succeed, but it’s a longer-term vision than that.”

The Northern California Publishers and Authors conference will not be happening this year, said Ken Umbach, NCPA communications director.

“(Words in Bloom) looks like a very promising conference for writers,” Umbach said. He said the NCPA conference focused more on the publishing side of the business.

Another Midtown writing conference is Our Life Stories, which focuses on memoir writing. The Ethel MacLeod Hart Senior Center will host Our Life Stories at Cosumnes River College on May 7.

UC Davis Extension is holding a free information session about its writing programs Monday night from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the UC Davis Extension Sutter Square Galleria branch at 2901 K Street. Topics will include Words in Bloom, the Tomales Bay Workshops, the Nonfiction Writing Specialized Studies Program and the Creative Writing Certificate Program. The information session will conclude with a panel discussion entitled “Marketing Yourself as a Writer.”

Attendees will receive a $50 coupon which can be used toward a spring class, but not Words in Bloom.

The early bird registration deadline for Tomales Bay, which will be held October 19 through 23, is May 6.

Fave moms mag stops presses

2011-01-06T05:33:25Z

Smart phones. E-readers. Netbooks. Mama sure does a lot of reading these days, but not too much of the paper-and-ink kind.

Enter: Kidaround. It was as appealing in a tired mother’s hand as a latte and as likely to induce a welcome perk. Yes, you read that last line correctly, it was.

Barbara Hennelly announced on Facebook last month that the November/December 2010 issue of Kidaround would be her last. After publishing the bimonthly magazine for five years, Hennelly decided that the financial stress finally was too much.

The magazine was profitable, but cash flowed too slowly. Delays in collecting advertising revenues meant Hennelly scrambled to pay her print bills each issue.

“I think I was just tired,” she said. “Mommy needed a little break.”

Kidaround, a lifestyle magazine for women ages 21-49 who happened to be parents, wasn’t your average parenting magazine. Hennelly cites defunct teen magazine Sassy as a major influence.

Like Sassy, Kidaround became known for its refreshingly frank content.

“I took a lot of pride in (publishing) an alternative, entertaining publication in our region,” Hennelly said. “It saddened me that it’s not there – as a reader and as a friend to other moms I know that really enjoyed it.”

Fortunately for fans, 15 issues of Kidaround are available on the magazine’s website. Hennelly said she hopes to eventually migrate all of the issues there.

Hennelly founded Kidaround while juggling work as a graphic artist with work as a mom. As a consumer of parenting magazines, she wondered why they used stock photos when there were local photographer moms with willing camera lenses. She also wanted more locally oriented, community content.

Hennelly brought this sensibility to Kidaround. She positioned the magazine as an “exclusive-but-accessible” lifestyle publication.

She served as editor and chief designer of the magazine, and she tapped local moms as photographers, writers, proofreaders and for some designing. Many of these local women and mothers owned fledgling businesses of their own and relied upon exposure in Kidaround as marketing vehicles.

Kidaround soon garnered loyal and avid readership.

“I always had really good feedback on the honest voice that the magazine provided,” Hennelly said.

She was surprised when the May/June 2009 issue proved controversial. “Our Brest Issue Ever” featured a story by Kim Mordecai weighing her decision whether to pursue cosmetic surgery in the wake of childbearing and breastfeeding. Twenty photos depict different women’s chest shapes and stretch-mark streaked abdomens. The photos artfully incorporated humorous props to ensure that the women were not portrayed nude.

Other articles in the issue told of Brazilian waxes, a cruise to Mexico, laptop minis, weight loss and one mom’s description of her bond with her young son.

Hennelly lost one advertiser, but she staked her claim.

She said she recognized that she needed to “(take) care to be responsible but also push the envelope for what’s relevant with us parents today.”

Hennelly is perhaps most proud of how, through Kidaround, she was able to promote Down syndrome awareness.

“Her advocacy for, specifically, the Down syndrome community was stellar,” said Jennifer Varanini Sanchez, who published her first Kidaround article about her third child, her son Joaquin, in the September/October 2008 issue.

Joaquin was diagnosed with Down syndrome when he was 3 months old.

During Hennelly’s pregnancy with her fourth child, she said doctors had believed the child would have Down syndrome. Hennelly acquainted herself with the Down syndrome community in preparation for raising a Down syndrome child. That was how she met Varanini Sanchez.

Hennelly’s son was born healthy, but the experience kindled in her the desire to spread understanding of the vitality and unique gift of children with Down syndrome.

“I think her publication helped break not only stereotypes of children with Down syndrome, but also stereotypes of the mothers and families too,” Varanini Sanchez said.

Varanini Sanchez wrote a later story for the March/April 2010 issue of Kidaround, explaining her family’s desire to add a fourth child through adoption, another child with Down syndrome. Varanini Sanchez adopted her daughter Sofia through the nonprofit organization Reece’s Rainbow.

Because of her article, two additional Down syndrome children found families in the Sacramento region, Varanini Sanchez said.

Hennelly actively sought those stories that would inspire area women.

Mama Bootcamp owner and founder Lori Ann Code described how her relationship with Kidaround took shape.

Three years ago, Hennelly approached Code, then a personal trainer, with a story idea on a boot camp for some moms she knew.

Subsequent to the original story, Code began contributing to the “Healthy Mama” column in Kidaround.

Today, Code has 14 coaches running her boot camps in Folsom, Elk Grove, Roseville and East Sacramento.

A July/August 2010 Kidaround article chronicled how twists in Code’s life path readied her for becoming a life coach for other women.

“(Hennelly) gave me a really beautiful forum to be able to share women’s successes,” Code said. “I will be eternally grateful for that.”

Although Hennelly continued to bring relevant content to Kidaround, the business aspects of publishing were difficult for her.

“There’s the creative editorial side, and then there’s the business side (of magazine publishing), and it’s hard for one person to do it all,” Folsom-based Style Media Group CEO and Publisher Terry Carroll said.

Hennelly said she had no publishing experience prior to Kidaround. There was no seed capital.

She said Kidaround’s competitors included Style and Sactown, although Carroll said his magazine and Hennelly’s competed for ad dollars but not for target readers. He said Style appeals to a wider range of people than Kidaround.

Since Kidaround was free, its revenue was completely advertising-driven, a model that is not unheard of in magazine publishing.

Style has a total circulation of 60,000, more than 30,000 of which is mailed directly to “top-tier homes in the market” free of charge, Carroll said.

Style focuses on select Sacramento suburbs with original, local content for three different publications in Folsom/El Dorado Hills, Roseville/Granite Bay/Rocklin and El Dorado County Foothills. Each publication’s circulation is 20,000, 25,000 and 15,000, respectively.

Kidaround’s circulation of 20,000 spanned the entire Sacramento region.

Carroll said he thought Kidaround’s circulation was too small for the target geographic area.

“(When covering a large geographic area), you’re not going to get a lot of traction in any given market, so it would be harder to get advertisers,” he said.

Sacramento Parent, another free monthly whose target reader and geographic distribution overlaps with Kidaround’s, declined to comment for this article.

Hennelly understands that there might have been ways to save Kidaround. She said she had heard of magazines conducting fundraisers using PayPal. She also could have transitioned the magazine to an online-only format.

But there was something special about hard copy for her. She said she just wasn’t comfortable with an online-only format. Kidaround’s market niche incorporated its look and feel in three dimensions, upgraded paper stock and an artful color palette on the printed page.

Hennelly said she might have continued as an editor of Kidaround if someone had bought it.

She didn’t conform to a predictable editorial calendar, but favored a “loosey-goosey” approach as one of the ways Kidaround “stayed relevant,” she said. “I wasn’t forced into doing a back-to-school issue in September.

“In hindsight, maybe that’s what makes money. It’s just not how I wanted to operate, because it didn’t feel authentic,” she said.

Hennelly’s kids are getting older, and she said she’s not as immersed in the parenting culture these days, with her youngest child now age 4.

She has plenty to keep her busy post-Kidaround, though. She can be found at Romp Creative, the design firm she co-owns with partner Jake Favour. Its office is in Midtown, the same address where she dreamt up Kidaround layouts until last month.

Oh, and then there’s Hennelly’s recently found pastime: burlesque dancing with the Sizzling Sirens.

Photo of Barbara Hennelly by Jake Favour

Kidaround covers courtesy Barbara Hennelly

Dave Eggers' "Zeitoun" enthralls Sacramentans

2010-10-22T04:31:43Z

Dave Eggers spoke about his book, “Zeitoun,” at the Crest Theatre Wednesday in the feature event of the sixth-annual One Book Sacramento: Connecting Our Communities.

In her opening remarks, Sacramento Public Library Director Rivkah Sass mentioned the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (Aug. 29) and the flood threat to the Sacramento region as reasons the library selected “Zeitoun.”

Eggers took the stage in hiking boots and a pinstripe jacket. He was joined by interviewer Joseph Palermo, associate professor of American history at Sacramento State. Palermo has written two books on Robert F. Kennedy and blogs at The Huffington Post.

“Zeitoun” narrates the story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Muslim father of four and owner of a successful contracting business who stays behind in New Orleans helping people escape the flood waters only to be wrongfully arrested as suspected al-Qaida and jailed without due process for three weeks.

A national bestseller, “Zeitoun,” published in 2009, has garnered numerous accolades, including New York Times Notable Book. Eggers received the “Courage in Media” award from the Council on American-Islamic relations for the book.

After querying the crowd on the score of the Giants game, Eggers launched into describing how he found Zeitoun’s story.

He had sent interviewers to the southeast to capture stories of Hurricane Katrina victims as part of the research effort for the second book in his Voice of Witness series.

Eggers founded Voice of Witness with physician and human rights scholar Lola Vollen in 2004. The organization publishes books reporting on human rights crises around the world through firsthand oral accounts.

Eggers said he was hooked when he read Zeitoun’s story, transcribed from tapes of field interviews in New Orleans mailed back to San Francisco.

The image of Zeitoun in his canoe, eventually commanding the cover of the book, resonated with Eggers.

Eggers traveled to New Orleans a couple of months later to meet the Zeitoun family.

“Immediately (the story) had a novelistic level of scope and depth,” he said.

“I knew that if I was going to take something on it needed to have so many compelling aspects because it was going to take years.”

Eggers’ prolific career thus far has included several other books beginning with “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” (2000), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction.

At the end of a three-year interviewing process including trips to New Orleans and a trip to Syria, Eggers had uncovered Zeitoun’s story, which became not only the tale of a Hurricane Katrina victim and hero, but also the story of his wife, Kathy, who converted to Islam as well as the support of his extended family in Syria, his Syrian childhood, and the legacy of his dead father and brother.

Eggers had experience with interviewing victims of trauma. His prior book, “What is the What” (2006), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. It told the story of Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee from the Sudanese civil war.

Eggers said victims open up and become comfortable telling their stories once they understand that someone truly is listening to their unique perspective and wanting to capture it authentically.

Worried that Zeitoun possibly could be the subject of hate crime, Eggers cautioned Zeitoun about using his real name and his real business in the book. Zeitoun told Eggers that he wanted to be correctly identified, though. For Zeitoun, the story, despite its humiliations, was a source of pride, a situation that was a calling from God for him.

Eggers learned about Islam and studied the Quran in order to accurately portray in the book Zeitoun’s deep spiritual belief.

Eggers said he thought it was “valuable and interesting for a lot of readers” to read portions of the Quran in the book.

Zeitoun’s wrongful incarceration ties in with Eggers’ previous work on that subject. The first Voice of Witness book published in 2005 was “Surviving Justice: America’s Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated.”

Zeitoun’s arrest, one of many in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in which citizens were not given due process, was “a moment in time when we (as a nation) could have done better on a lot of levels,” Eggers said. “Ideally, we learn from it.”

Since the events of the book, Zeitoun has bought a second canoe (his first had disappeared by the time he returned home) and he and his wife have had another child. He also has rebuilt almost 200 homes, Eggers said.

The Zeitoun family has filed a lawsuit relating to their ordeal but doesn’t except compensation from it.

Eggers said the encouraging letters and e-mails Zeitoun and his family have received since the book was published have been "restorative and healing” for them.

Eggers said he is not taking any book royalties for “Zeitoun.” When he receives author proceeds, he splits them into 13 chunks to distribute among nonprofits focused on rebuilding and interfaith dialog in New Orleans.

When asked during a brief question and answer period how Eggers’s experience of Zeitoun’s faith has affected him and any subsequent writing plans he said “my own sense of faith/spirituality is, I hope, irrelevant.

“My job here is as a storyteller,” he said.

Eggers studied journalism at the University of Illinois and said he put on his journalist’s hat in writing "Zeitoun."

He said he studied Norman Mailer’s “The Executioner’s Song” to assess how to “get out the way” of his story, admitting that “the humility involved is kind of burdensome.”

Eggers praised One Book Sacramento for keeping literary life and publishing alive.

He said he was “incredibly honored” that his book was selected. “It means the world to me.”

Starting in September, related One Book Sacramento events have included book club discussions, film screenings, art projects for school-aged children, writing workshops, a jazz concert, safety fairs, disaster preparedness information and emergency training.

Remaining One Book events are book club discussions on Oct. 28 at North Natomas Library from 7:30-8:30 p.m. and Oct. 30 at Rancho Cordova Library from 2 - 3 p.m.

Discussion questions are available for download from the Library’s website.

There will be a discussion of the audio book of “Zeitoun” on Nov. 13 at Carmichael Library at 10 a.m.

ArtWorks will facilitate Mardi Gras mask making on Oct. 27 at the Rio Linda Library at 4 p.m. and Oct. 28 at the Franklin Community Library in Elk Grove at 3:30 p.m.

Arthur Tricia Brown will discuss her book, “Salaam: A Muslim American Boy’s Story” on Oct. 23 at the Rancho Cordova Library at 1 p.m.

“Zeitoun” was selected for 2010 One Book Sacramento in March. Past books have included Steven Lopez’s “The Soloist,” Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin’s “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time” and John Lescroart’s “The Suspect.”

Study Jane Austen this Fall at Central Library

2010-08-21T04:02:23Z

Are you a fan of Jane Austen or of great literature in general? Then don’t miss the unique opportunity to study Austen’s novels this fall at the Central Library branch of the Sacramento Public Library in downtown Sacramento.

Grab a copy of “Emma,” download the study questions from the library’s website, and join in the fun this Sunday.

The wildly popular 12-part series How Austentatious! began in June and continues through November.

Each month, presenters discuss one of Austen’s novels over the span of two meetings. Remaining for the fall are “Mansfield Park” in September, “Northanger Abbey” in October, and “Persuasion” in November.

The series will conclude with a birthday tea in honor of Austen on Dec. 12. Registration is not necessary for the series but is required for the tea.

Friends of the Central Library is the sole sponsor of How Austentatious! Most of the presenters and all the discussion leaders have donated their services.

Although the series is not being promoted as academic, “people do refer to this as ‘the Jane Austen course,’” Librarian and How Austentatious! organizer Stephenee Borelli said. “I think the quality of it is worthy of a classroom.”

Borelli said she knew How Austentatious! would be popular but still was surprised when 225 people overflowed West Meeting Room at the Central Library for the series-opening presentation on “Sense and Sensibility.”

Attendance at subsequent meetings has ranged from 150 to 200 people. Recognizing the need for a larger meeting space, the library made available the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria for some of the remaining sessions in the series.

How Austentatious! is part lecture and part book discussion.

“I simply created a series of programs that I would want to be a part of as a participant,” Borelli said. “Something that is fun and informative at the same time. Almost like an annotated edition of a classic. A program that would answer the questions one might have as they read.”

Former California State University, Sacramento, Professor David Bell introduces each book. Borelli took Bell’s graduate course on Austen in 2007 while pursuing her masters degree in English at Sac State. Bell retired in May after 37 years teaching in the English department.

Bell and other Austen aficionados give presentations in the first half of each two-hour meeting. The audience is broken into smaller 15-person discussion groups for the second hour. Several of Bell’s former students are serving as leaders of the discussion groups.

Library patron and How Austentatious! participant Steve Barclift said he has appreciated the context the series provides on life in the 18th century.

“Most of us are not familiar with the setting or the kind of lives that these people led,” he said. Presentations on income and inheritance and modes of transportation, for example, exposed the differences between the lifestyles of Austen’s characters and ours, Barclift added.

Needlework expert Vima de Marchi Micheli gave a presentation on lace and embroidery.

Other presentations have included two talks by Rachel Dodge on etiquette and locales in Austen’s novels. Like Borelli, Dodge took Bell’s Austen course and earned a masters in English at Sac State.

Presentation topics also have afforded participants opportunities to literally step into the shoes of Austen characters.

Former Lawrence Livermore physicist Ed Ratcliffe’s talk on carriages was followed by the chance to actually ride in one. How Austentatious! also offered a lesson in English Contra dancing.

Contributing to the popularity of the program may be the ease of accessing program materials from the library’s website, including podcasts of each presentation as well as Bell’s study guides for each novel.

Interested individuals also may subscribe to a monthly e-mail featuring books and websites related to the Austen title currently being discussed in the series.

Borelli first pitched the idea for How Austentatious! to her supervisors two years ago, but at that time the library deemed the program too time-intensive.

She received a green light on the project and approached Bell to garner his involvement in it in June 2009, the same month Austen fan Rivkah Sass was hired as the new director of the Sacramento Public Library.

Sass previously worked at the Omaha Public Library, which held an annual birthday tea in honor of Austen.

Apart from the novels, film and television productions may be credited with attracting some modern Austen fans.

Barclift had not read any of Austen’s novels before attending his first session of How Austentatious! He and his wife own a copy of the movie “Sense and Sensibility” and have watched it four or five times, though.

An indicator of the age of series attendees, Bell said he thought most How Austentatious! participants “were Austen readers before the movies came out.”

The recent tide of screen adaptations of the novel began with the movie “Sense and Sensibility” in 1995 featuring Emma Thompson, followed by the BBC TV miniseries “Pride and Prejudice” in 1996.

“That was enormously popular because so many of the ladies thought Colin Firth was particularly sexy,” Bell said.

Borelli acknowledged the romantic appeal of the novels to readers.

“It’s escapism,” she said. “I hope that I can also take it seriously.”

Although the popularity of Austen may be due in part to readers enthralled by the happy endings in the novels, there is more meat to the books than courtship.

“That was the convention: that [the books] would end happily,” Bell said. “The important thing to keep in mind is that there is a lot of variety in Austen’s novels. No two novels are the same. There are very few good marriages portrayed in the novels….If the heroines learn anything in surveying the marriages around them, it’s they’ve got to be very careful in choosing their partners.”

Bell attributed Austen’s enduring popularity to her mastery as a writer.

“It’s a wonderful combination of her greatness in developing characters and constructing plot that is so enthralling, along with a style that is accessible to modern readers.”

The willingness of guest speakers to donate their time was a testament to their enthusiasm for Austen. “These are professionals that are very passionate about their topic. We’re lucky to have them,” Borelli said.

“I love teaching Austen, talking about Austen. It’s just the greatest pleasure for me,” Bell said.

“I just really enjoy being able to provide this to people,” Borelli said.

Borelli is an amateur costumer and gave a presentation on textiles at the first meeting discussing “Emma” earlier this month.

She has been hand-stitching Regency-period outfits for the How Austentatious! fashion show on Oct. 24, one week before Halloween. Attendees are invited to come in period costume. “It is sure to be a blast,” Borelli said.

Borelli sad she’s “kind of geeking out about it.” She and her husband will model her creations at the fashion show.

“People don’t want [the series] to end and are just really happy to be a part of this,” Borelli said.

She said she hopes the popularity of the program incites library users to find more library programs of interest to them.

“The Sacramento Public Library system has so many wonderful programs to offer in addition to this.”

Borelli has surveyed How Austentatious! participants to determine desired topics for future programs. Possible subjects have included Mark Twain, Dickens, the Bronte sisters, and even James Joyce’s “Ulysses.”

Another possibility is Diana Gabaldon, author of the “Outlander” series. The seven-book series is set in 18th- and 20th-century Scotland. “Outlander,” the first book in the series, is nearly 900 pages long.

“Part Romance, part time-travel fiction, part historical fiction, it is not scholarly. It is pure fun,” Borelli said. “I would call that one 'How Outlandish!'”

Literature Festival Draws Greater Sacramento Writers, Readers

2010-08-03T06:20:14Z

Conference rooms filled to fire capacity were a sign of the success of the first Northern California Storybook and Literature Festival held at the Maidu Community Center and Maidu Branch Library in Roseville on Saturday. The festival brought together local published and aspiring authors, writing groups and literary agents as well as book lovers young and old.

The brainchild of event coordinator and library specialist Jamie Finley of the Roseville Library, the project began with the desire among library staff to host local authors. “It seemed like a natural thing to do - bring the community in to listen and meet someone who has published a work that may be found within our walls,” Finley wrote in an e-mail.

The scope of the idea widened to a literature festival when Finley received a $5,000 California State Library Grant. Finley was invited to apply for the grant because of her participation in the 2009 Eureka! Leadership Institute for future library leaders.

Unlike others of its kind, the festival was free for featured authors and the public.

“Jamie Finely had a great vision from the beginning for this community literary event,” Margie Yee Webb, president of the Sacramento Branch of the California Writers Club wrote in an e-mail.

Authors interested in promoting their work were able to apply to be featured at the festival. Fifty authors were selected based on the quality and availability of their work. Most were residents of the greater Sacramento area, but some were from the Bay Area and Central Valley, Finley said.

“The festival was very important for local authors from the greater Sacramento region, as well as authors from the SF Bay Area who participated, in that it provided a venue for visibility and recognition of the authors and their work,” Yee Webb wrote. “Additionally, the festival provided them with an opportunity to connect with other authors and groups.”

Finley modeled the festival schedule after the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books but added activities for children. Panel topics included fiction, poetry, historical inspiration, writing for women, suspense/thrillers, amateur detectives, professional detectives, writing for teens, healthy living, writing for children, writers groups, research and writing, and Sacramento story hour.

Children’s activities included storytelling, drama and book-inspired crafts. Writers also had an opportunity to vet their work in mini workshops.

Aspiring writers were reminded of the business aspect of writing in two workshops on crafting a compelling query letter and submitting a manuscript to a literary agent.

“Professionalism is just as important as good writing,” said literary agent Verna Dreisbach of Dreisbach Literary Management in El Dorado Hills. Dreisbach and fellow literary agent Lindsey Clemons of the Larsen-Pomada Literary Agency in San Francisco gave the query letter writing workshop.

Dreisbach receives many queries from writers “rushing through the process, hoping to get published, get a large advance and make a career out of writing,” she wrote in an e-mail. “That’s just not realistic. Many career writers work really, really hard for very little financial gain.”

Featured author Kevin Kurtz described his discouraging experience with trying to find a publisher for his "tween" novel "Mortimer and the Powerful Sword."

“I faced the rejection letters,” he said. “After two years, I thought, ‘I just want to get this out in print.’ ”

Knowing his book would benefit from being released around the epic fantasy adventure movie "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" in 2005, Kurtz said he decided not to wait to find a publisher. He self-published "Mortimer" in 2006 and a sequel, "A Kingdom Divided," in 2007.

Kurtz maintains a day job as a copy machine salesman and said he never intended to make a career out of writing. His passion is reading aloud to groups of middle-schoolers, particularly those in disadvantaged areas.

“You’ve got 120 kids in [an auditorium] that are sitting on the edge of their seats,” Kurtz explained. “The goal is to get them to fall out of their seats when I do the dragon voice.”

Dreisbach described passion for storytelling as a hallmark of “real writers.”

“Real writers have stacks of manuscripts, some they vow they will never show a soul because they know it was part of their learning curve. They realize that one story, certain characters, etc., can only teach them so much and they move on. While an agent is pitching one of their novels, they are writing another and not hanging their soul on whether or not that manuscript gets picked up by a publisher because they’ve got more, and they are constantly improving upon their craft,” Dreisbach said.

Festival attendee and award-winning published author Lise Baker was attacking the publishing process at the festival.

In just an hour, she had already pitched three prospective novels to literary agents. She also had reconnected with people she knew 10 years ago. Baker’s first novel, The Losers’ Club, was published in 2000.

“People are saying, ‘E-mail me. I’ll hook you up with a good agent,’ ” she said.

Baker said she has two jobs, one as a private investigator and one as a writer. The main character in "The Losers’ Club" is a private investigator.

Unlike Kurtz and Baker, featured author Nan Mahon has made a full-time living out of writing. Mahon was a journalist for 20 years, including as a staff writer for the Elk Grove Citizen and contract writer for The Sacramento Bee. She wrote her first novel, murder mystery "Junkyard Blues," in 2006 and finds that fiction writing, as opposed to newspaper writing, suits her current lifestyle.

Mahon’s second novel, "Blind Buddy and Mojo’s Blues Band," was released this year and is available on Kindle.

“Younger people are moving more and more to electronic [media], so I think Kindle will pick up speed as it goes along,” Mahon said. “You can download five books if you’re going on a trip.”

Although Kindle sales are not as lucrative as traditional sales, she said they are better than not selling at all. Mahon receives only a fraction of the $8 Kindle download fee. She does not yet have statistics on her Kindle sales, but at least one reader told her in an e-mail that he bought the Kindle version of her book.