2016 Speakers

Private Lunch for Members

Saturday December 10

Private members-only catered lunch at the home of one of our members.

Honoring Club Volunteers/club history

Saturday November 12
10 to noon
Jess Ranch Community Church

Members read their works in an “Open Mic” meeting conducted by Vice President Michael Raff. Club also honored their volunteers, reviewed the club's past and plans for the future on Saturday.

T.E. WATSON, AWARD-WINNING CHILDREN'S AUTHOR OF
“THE MAN WHO SPOKE WITH CATS”

Saturday October 8
Jess Ranch Community Church

Famed children's author, T.E. Watson, on Saturday October 8 at the Jess Ranch Community Church 11537 Apple Valley Road in Apple Valley. The meeting begins at 10 a.m, and is open to the public. Guests are welcome to attend at no charge.

T. E. Watson is a columnist in the US and Canada, motivational speaker, philanthropist, and an an award-winning children's author, He has earned twenty-two literary awards including two Best Children's Book Awards for the years 2001 and 2009. He was named Best Children's Author for 2009 by the American Authors Association for his book The Man Who Spoke With Cats.

T. E. Watson is the Founding President of the North State Writers Branch of the of the California Writers Club, where he is a consultant. He is past-president of The Northern California Publishers and Authors Association, is a member of the SCBWI Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and a member of the Writers Guild and the Royal Writers Guild.

GREGORY A. FOURNIER

September 10, 2016
Jess Ranch Community Church

Gregory A. Fournier received his bachelor and master’s degrees from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti while the Washtenaw County murders were occurring. He lived one block up the street from John Norman Collins and had several unpleasant brushes with him. Like so many other people in Ypsilanti, it was not until Collins was arrested and his photograph ran on the front pages that Greg could link a name with the face. He has first-hand knowledge of the Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor area and many of the people associated with these cases.
Greg has appeared on the Investigation Discovery Channel as a guest expert on John Norman Collins for their true crime series A Crime to Remember in an episode entitled “A New Kind of Monster.” He is the author of Zug Island: A Detroit Riot Novel and writes a blog entitled Fornology.

DON KINGFISHER CAMBELL

August 13, 2016
Jess Ranch Community Church

Don Kingfisher Campbell received his MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, and has been teaching English at Occidental College Upward Bound for 32 years.

Campbell is a coach and judge for Poetry Out Loud, a performing poet/teacher for Red Hen Press Youth Writing Workshops.

He is also Los Angeles Area Coordinator and Board Member of California Poets In The Schools; publisher of Spectrum and the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly; leader of the Emerging Urban Poets writing and Deep Critique workshops; organizer of the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival, and host of the Saturday Afternoon Poetry reading series in Pasadena, California.

His first book of poetry Enter, was published by iUniverse Press and is available on Amazon.com. Enter was reviewed as "pithy, trenchant, raw with life.”

Paula Margulies

July 9, 2016
Jess Ranch Community Church

Paula Margulies is the owner of Paula Margulies Communications, a public relations firm for authors and artists. In addition to being a publicist, she became an award-winning author in her mid-forties, something that she would never have believed she’d be doing when she was younger. Her written work includes the nonfiction book, The Tao of Book Publicity: A Beginner’s Guide to Book Promotion, her debut novel, Coyote Heart, a short story collection, Face Value: Collected Stories, and a historical novel, Favorite Daughter, Part One. Margulies is a contributor to Author Magazine, the San Diego Examiner, The Writers Edge (http://writersedgeinfo.blogspot.com), and The Feisty Writer and has been awarded artist residencies at Caldera, Red Cinder Artist Colony, the Vermont Studio Center, and Centrum. Margulies resides in San Diego, California. For more information, please visit www.paulamargulies.com.

Anne Cleeland

June 11, 2016
Jess Ranch Community Church

Attorney and detective story author, Anne Cleeland, spoke. She gave away copies of a series novel featuring Acton and Doyle. First-year detective Kathleen Doyle and Chief Inspector Michael Sinclair, Lord Acton, are a most unlikely pair. An Irish redhead of humble beginnings and modest means, Doyle is the antithesis of Acton, the British lord who has established himself as a brilliant but enigmatic figure with a knack for solving London's most high profile homicides.

Anne Cleeland holds a degree in English from UCLA as well as a degree in law from Pepperdine University, and is a member of the California State Bar. She writes a contemporary Scotland Yard series that features detectives Acton and Doyle, and she also writes a historical series set in the Regency period. A member of International Thriller Writers, The Historical Novel Society, and Mystery Writers of America, she lives in California and has four children. For more about Anne Cleeland, visit www.annecleeland.com.

Pamela Samuels-Young

April 9, 2016
Jess Ranch Community Church

leeanne krusemark

March 12, 2016
Jess Ranch Community
Church

HAZEL STEARNS

February 13, 2016
Jess Ranch Community Church

High Desert author, Hazel Stearns, spoke on the subject of writing memoirs. When writing her own memoir/coming-of-age novel, "Shaping Kate," Stearns drew from a well of great childhood memories created while growing up in Hesperia in the 1950s. Stearns' presentation is peppered with fascinating and amusing anecdotes from a time when the city of Hesperia boasted only 325 residents.

Corey Lynn Fayman

January 9, 2016
Jess Ranch Community Church

Corey Lynn Fayman, author of the award-winning Rolly Waters mystery series, discussed the challenges of creating a protagonist and supporting characters for series fiction. He shared tips and techniques for keeping your characters consistent across multiple volumes, how to dole out character development in give readers the right amount of information on each character, and how series characters can help your book and or harm it.

Corey Lynn Fayman has worked as a keyboard player, sound technician, and interactive designer. He holds a B.A. in English, with a specialization in creative writing and poetry from UCLA, and an M.A. in Educational Technology from San Diego State University. Fayman spent three years as a sound technician and designer at the nationally lauded Old Globe Theater, where he received several nominations and a Drama-Logue Award for his theatrical sound design. He lives in San Diego, California, and is the author of three Rolly Waters mysteries, including Desert City Diva, Blacks Beach Shuffle, and Border Field Blues, which won the Genre Award at the 2013 Hollywood Book Festival.