California Writer’s Week

Eight years ago, a Joint Legislative Resolution  was passed in Sacramento to recognize California Writer’s Week which begins today. The authors of note include a fine list that we can all be proud of.

Gertrude Atherton (1857-1948)	Mary Austin (1868-1934)
Raymond Barrio (1921-1996)	Delilah L. Beasley (1872-1934)
Raymond Chandler (1888-1959)	Ina Coolbrith (1841-1928)
Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961)	Bret Harte (1836-1902)
Jack London (1876-1916)	Joaquin Miller (1837-1913)
William Saroyan (1908-1981)	John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
George Sterling (1869-1926)	Mark Twain (1835-1910)

But I can’t help feeling that this reinforces the old adage that the only way for an author to be successful is to be a dead author. So I want to spotlight several authors who are alive today and crafting their magic in the Golden State.

My list includes (with no significance to order) Christopher Moore, Kemble Scott, Adam Mansbach, Deborah Majors,  Matt Stewart, Seth Harwood, Tanya Egan Gibson, John Putnam and… I’m sure there are many more.

I realize as I am writing that most of them actually share something in common – they write about San Francisco, or at least Northern California. I guess this is important to me. My next three books will be based here because San Francisco is a magical city that I have fallen in love with, so I guess this makes sense, even though I haven’t connected the two in creating this list.

It's in Black & White.

Therefore, I want to share a few of my favorite local authors with you over the next week, all of whom are alive and can be met at numerous author events that they participate in. Meeting inspiring authors remains a thrill for many of us and perhaps this is a flaw of the newly consecrated California Writer’s Week, that it highlights authors from the past.

So it is slightly ironic that California Writers Week follows Litquake, a San Francisco smorgasbord of literature-related events, apparently based on the premise from USA Today, that San Francisco has the highest per capita consumption of both alcohol and books.

Whatever the reason, it is a great event. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to curl up with a good book and a bottle of wine. How I love San Francisco! Who is your favorite Bay Area author?

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Alon Shalev is the author of The Accidental Activist (now available on Kindle) and A Gardener’s Tale. He is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Hillel Foundation, a non-profit that provides spiritual and social justice opportunities to Jewish students in the Bay Area. More on Alon Shalev at http://www.alonshalev.com/and on Twitter (#alonshalevsf).

 

Twitter Genius

Matt Stewart is the author of The French Revolution which was awarded the best novel of 2010 award from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Matt works in marketing which tells you that he is going to be cutting edge with regard to social media. When he wasn’t able to get the attention of publishers in the traditional sense, he launched his new novel over 3,700 tweets on Twitter.

Matt came and spoke at the California Writers Club last month and, firstly I must say, if his writing is as sharp and funny as his banter, his book is going to the top of my ‘To Read’ pile which sits next to my bed, mocking me as I invariably fall asleep after a couple of pages (because I am tired at the end of the day, not because of the great books i am reading!).

In his own words, Matt chose Bastille Day, not only because it is relevant to his topic, but because nothing happens on July 14th!

Again in his own words:

“Starting on Bastille Day – July 14, 2009 – I started broadcasting The French Revolution via @thefrenchrev and thefrenchrev.com. I braced myself for widespread ridicule (“What kind of moron’s ever going to read a novel on Twitter?”) – and was accordingly astonished when the feedback was overwhelming supportive. I wound up making headlines worldwide and landing a book deal with the ballsiest publisher of them all, Soft Skull.

Lessons: Go for it. In literature as in life. What’s the worst that’s going to happen? Nothing. And then you’re no worse off than when you started.”

Couldn’t have said it better!

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Alon Shalev is the author of The Accidental Activist (now available on Kindle) and A Gardener’s Tale. He is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Hillel Foundation, a non-profit that provides spiritual and social justice opportunities to Jewish students in the Bay Area. More on Alon Shalev at http://www.alonshalev.com/and on Twitter (#alonshalevsf).