I am certain that WWII seems like ancient history to many, but I was a small child living in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Civilization was on the cusp of the first technological advances of the twentieth century. Televisions—black and white—had been created but were not common in the average household. Telephones still …
Whenever I ask why someone writes, I get a different yet similar answer. The details change, but the essence is always that there’s a story in the writer’s head struggling to be heard. Whether the story is based on fact or springs entirely from imagination, the characters are real, and they have loud voices. The …
Although “Back-to-School” means nothing to my schedule and budget now, I still think of the end of summer as a new beginning. Creating new schedules when vacation has disrupted the old one is a good time to re-examine what I do. A book I read this summer, Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger, …
Why Am I Here and What Am I Supposed to Be Doing? by Lani Longshore Read More »
Join us Saturday, December 17, 2016, at 2:00 p.m. at the Four Points by Sheraton, 5115 Hopyard Road, Pleasanton, as Ransom Stephens, Ph.D. presents “Get Inside Your Reader’s Brain: The neuroscience of how to make readers laugh and cry.” Neuroscience is like looking under the hood to see how It works. When you know how …
The other day my husband was trying to remember to plug in his electric car. In the morning, he asked me not to let him forget to do that later in the day. In the afternoon, he told me he had written himself a note reminding him to charge the car. In the early evening, …
In Praise of Talking to Yourself by Lani Longshore Read More »
LaDonna Fehlberg submitted poems to the 2016 Alameda County Fair. Four were juried into the fine arts exhibition: “Seasons,” “Summer Day,” “In our Younger Years,” a photo poem, and “The Lost Years,” a photo poem. “Summer Day” received a Silver cash award. Camille DeFer Thompson’s piece, “My Love Affair with the French Language,” was featured July 20 on …
2016 California Writers Club Literary Review The CWC Literary Review magazine published seven selections from six Tri-Valley Writers members this year. The Lit Review offers a mixture of poems, memoirs, short stories and essays. Jordan Bernal: Poem, “Soul of a Writer” Patricia Boyle: Poem, “Saturday Morning Encounter” George Cramer: Poem, “Betrayal at Sandy Creek” James Mills: Memoir, “Surviving Gravity” Julie …
While watching Gettysburg on the 4th of July, my husband wondered aloud why no one developed a smoke canister to disorient the foe in those years . Smoke screens were used for tactical advantage, but I haven’t been able to find anything about a smoke canister for 19th century cannons. If indeed it was never invented, …
Tri-Valley Writers has been awarded a grant of $1,700 from the Alameda County Arts Commission 2016 ARTSFUND Grants Program. Of the 38 award recipients totaling $68,000, TVW is the only literary award winner. The branch will use the grant funds to assist with our 2017 Writers Conference and our 6th and 7th Annual High School Writing …
On June 18, 2016, Tri-Valley Branch honored Sharon Svitak with the Sue Tasker Memorial Service Award. Sharon joined TVW in February of 2009. She promptly volunteered to be the newsletter editor, where she produced a rich monthly newsletter for three years. After that, she utilized her finance background to become not only TVW’s treasurer, but the treasurer …
