Sponsor a Young Writer and Attend a Fabulous Writers Conference for FREE

I am reposting this message on my blog on behalf of my friend Verna Dreisbach. If you live in Northern California or if you know any writers, both young and mature writers, who live in Northern California, please spread the word.

I would love to see this conference be a rousing success.

Linda

Dear Colleagues and friends:

As some of you may know already, this summer Capitol City Young Writers will be having a writers conference on JULY 17, from 9:00 - 5:00 p.m. at San Domenico School in Marin Count, CA, which features the keynote speakers, philanthropist/screenwriter, James Redford (Robert Redford's son), Jane Friedman (publisher at Writers Digest), and author of The Last Unicorn (and more) Peter S. Beagle.

I am pleased and honored to be a part of this conference, which was originally intended for middle school and high school pupils only. However, we’ve recently discovered that a number of interested pupils cannot afford the conference fee. Though CCYW would love to sponsor all of those aspiring writers, we are a non-profit. And the purpose of this conference was not only to give young writers an opportunity to meet and learn from these terrific speakers, but also to raise money for scholarships and future activities for them.

Therefore, we have decided to open up the conference to other interested adult writers in this way: Anyone who sponsors a student gets to attend the conference for free, on a first-come, first-serve basis. In other words, for 100 dollars (cost of registration) you get to attend the conference and break-out sessions, have lunch with the speakers, and also allow us to sponsor a high school or middle school child to attend. (All high school and middle school pupils who attend also get a free book)

(If you cannot attend the conference, but would like to sponsor a student, you may purchase a gift registration for another person to attend for 100 dollars, or sponsor a pupil alone for 100 dollars.)

In addition to our three keynotes and the following writers, screenwriters, filmmakers, journalist and other arts professionals will be speaking:

Authors David Corbett, Deborah Grabien, Seth Harwood, Gil Mansergh, and Patricia V. Davis.

San Francisco Chronicle journalist, Leah Garchik

Marin IJ journalist, Vicki Larson

Peabody-winning director, Paul S. Kaufman

Radio show host, Michael Krasny

Literary agents, Peter Beren and Verna Dreisbach

Stanford University acting professor, Kay Andreas

Books Inc. manager, Nick Petrulakis

Song writer for the ‘Jefferson Starship’ (and more), Jeannette Sears

Senior editor of Redroom.com, Huntington Sharp

Litquake organizer and author, Ransom Stephens

WordJourneys.com editor-in-chief, Bob Yehling

California Film Institute Producer of indy film, ‘Touching Home’, Jeromy Zajonc

More information about our speakers is at: http://www.capitolcityyoungwriters.org/Writers__Conference.html

A complete list of break-out session topics will be listed by June 14. Registration information is also available on the same conference page of the Capitol City Young Writers website

I hope I have been able to capture your interest and support for this wonderful organization and conference. It’s the first of its kind, and we hope to make it a success so that it becomes a yearly opportunity for young people.

Please help support this worthy endeavor!

Don’t delay ─ come register for Capitol City Young Writers First Annual Conference at: http://www.capitolcityyoungwriters.org/Writers__Conference.html

Thank you all kindly for your attention,

Verna Dreisbach
President and Founder
Capitol City Young Writers

Review: The Widow's Husband by Tamim Ansary

In my last blog post, I embedded video from the keynote address that Tamim Ansary gave to the Redwood Writers Conference in October 2009. During the introduction, I mentioned that he also had an historical novel that covered the ill-fated occupation of Afghanistan by British forces in the 19th century.

Here is my review of that novel:

Good historical fiction transports the reader into another place and time and serves to bring the past back "to life." It allows the reader to understand historical events, that often appear larger than life, to be brought down to a human level through the eyes of a character.

In The Widow's Husband we see life in a small village of Char Bagh in rural Afghanistan in the 19th century. The concerns of family, community, as well as having enough food stores to last through winter is recognizable, even if the names and customs are unusual to our "western" ears. The routine of rural life in Char Bagh is disrupted by the arrival of a stranger. Hospitality is extended to the man and it soon becomes apparent that he is not a normal traveler, but is instead a mystic. This holy man attracts pilgrims from miles around. Soon the reputation of Char Bagh is even noticed by the British military who have settled in Kabul which then threatens the peacefulness and stability of the village.

The novel shows how the British colonized Afghanistan: bribery and force.

Attempts by the British to interact with the Afghan people without attempting to understand their customs and traditions led to the inevitable clash depicted in the novel when the people revolted in response to the mistreatment of their women and girls.

The Widow's Husband serves to illuminate events from history and allow us to draw parallels to current events from our own military campaigns and why it is important to be there with the consent of the people.

The novel can be purchased as an ebook from Scribd.com or a trade paperback version is available from the publisher.