PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Dear Redwood Writers,
March arrives with so much creative energy, and I love how this month invites us back to the page.
On March 1, we officially open submissions for our prose anthology, Haunted. This is a theme I’m personally excited to write to, as there are so many ways to interpret what “haunted” could mean. Is it a literal ghost? A past lover? An idea that won’t leave you alone? I can’t wait to see how you interpret this theme, too! Our editor, Barbara Cottrell, is looking for memoir or fiction pieces under 2,500 words, with submissions open through April 19. If you’ve been waiting for a creative spark to start something new, this might be it.
We also have Author Launch coming up on March 28 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., where we’ll celebrate 18 of our members and their newly published books. I hope you’ll come out to cheer on these writers and support the hard work that brought their stories into the world. Publishing can sometimes be a quiet and understated celebration. I love that we get this chance to make a bigger deal out of this really huge accomplishment for our authors!
Note: This one falls on the 4th Saturday. We will not be meeting as a club on the 3rd Saturday. Also of note, RW Circle will be meeting on March 27, which is a Friday, to make room for Author Launch so you can attend both.
I want to remind everyone about the California Writers Club contest, The Smalls Too, which is accepting short poems (8 lines or less) and prose (75 words or less). The deadline is March 15, and it’s a wonderful opportunity to play with small pieces that pack a big punch. Submit your short poems or prose over at calwriters.org.
And finally, I want to thank everyone who contributed to Redwood Seeds, our 50-year anniversary anthology of writing advice. I read every page and there are so many golden pieces of wisdom in there! We will have a few copies at Author Launch that you can purchase, or you can buy it now from Amazon.
On a personal note, I’m deep in editing mode for my next romance novel, which I plan to release this summer. I’ve been reminded lately how comforting it can be to escape into creative work, especially when things in the world don’t always feel all that nice. Writing doesn’t fix everything, but it really helps to know that something I love to do may also help a reader find comfort and connection, too.
I’d love to hear what you’re working on right now. A poem, a memoir piece, a novel draft, or even just a still forming idea. Wherever you are in your creative process, I’m glad you’re here, and I’m grateful to be part of this community with you.
Until the next chapter,
Crissi Langwell
Redwood Writers President
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Join Redwood Writers for a special Author Launch event celebrating 18 local authors and their newly published books. This lively community event brings readers and writers together for an inspiring day of short readings, book sales, and conversation.
Attendees will have the chance to meet local authors, hear them share from their work, and connect with fellow writers and readers in our vibrant literary community. Whether you’re a longtime supporter of local writing or simply curious to discover new voices, Author Launch offers a welcoming space to celebrate creativity and connection.
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Half Year Membership
We are currently accepting half-year memberships for anyone who is not currently a member of Redwood Writers. If you know of anyone who is interested in finding a community, please let them know! Window to join closes in April. Early renewal for full-year membership starts June 1!
redwoodwriters.org/membership
| | Announcing the 2026 Redwood Writers Prose Anthology "Haunted" | | |
REDWOOD SEEDS
A 50th Anniversary Volume of Writing Advice
Order Your Volume of Redwood Seeds!
Redwood Writers just celebrated our 50th anniversary — 50 years of “writers helping writers,” sharing advice, tips, and camaraderie. When it came time to celebrate our shared wisdom, the creation of a pocket-sized book that collects succinct bits of that advice sounded like the perfect way to do it.
The seeds of advice in this volume range from writing craft and editing to marketing and publishing, along with general motivation and writer life. May they grow into glorious trees in the forest of your own writing journey.
Many thanks to Mara Lynn Johnsone who edited and produced Redwood Seeds, and to everyone who contributed. We’re looking forward to the next 50 years!
Order your copy today!
| | | Get Lit with Redwood Writers | |
Tuesday Mornings on The Krush
Every Tuesday at 8:45 a.m., tune in to The Krush, 95.9 FM, to hear a member of Redwood Writers talk about their book on the Mindi in the Morning show on KRSH. Watch your email for the lineup from coordinator, Carol Jacobsen.
If you miss it live, you can hear a recording of the interview at www.krsh.com/getlit
Coming up on Get Lit
| | | Copperfield's Author | March 3 | | Maetreyii Ma Nolan, Ph.D. | March 10 | | Copperfield's Author | March 17 | | Karl Kadie | March 24 | | Tommie W. Whitener | March 31 | | | |
Redwood Writers Circle
Friday March 27, 2026
10:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
The Circle’s mission is to offer members a constructive and enjoyable environment in which to read their works, among the warmth and support of fellow writers, and to include brief evaluations and short talks on craft and other writing-related subjects.
Each reader will have a total 5 minutes, including introductory remarks.
Readers will be limited to the first 20 RW members who register. Other attendees may participate as listeners.
Members who would like to attend should send an RSVP email to our Circle chair, Linda Reid, at circle@redwoodwriters.org. Upon confirmation, you will receive more information.
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Redwood Writers is a club of writers helping writers. Do you have a writing-related topic you'd like to share about, or a Redwood Writers event you'd like to report on? We'd love to read it!
Where to submit
| | Attention Poets, Monthly Poetry Lab! | | |
Poetry Lab meets once a month on Zoom. Les Bernstein and Amrita Skye Blaine host the meeting, and we encourage people to bring their poems that are puzzling, frustrating, or confusing them. In the format, you send your poem to both Les and Amrita a week before Poetry Lab, then we meet in a positive, fun environment to make our poems stronger! Find reminders on Redwood Writers groups.io.
As Les Bernstein says, “Dare to be great and send us a poem you’re wrestling with. We promise you it is the safest, most empowering space… and if you just want to only observe, that’s okay, too. And remember—no risk, no reward.”
amritaskyepoetry@gmail.com
lessieb13@yahoo.com.
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Flotsam or Jetsam
by Margaret Barkley
Is my life something washed
out from under the skirts
of the goddess—
or did I fling myself
into this ocean on purpose?
Either way,
here I am,
clinging onto the shore like
it’s my final destination.
I can feel the tide
pulsing, pulling,
like the muscles of labor
working me
and I’ve been fighting
this current for so long,
holding on to what I know
because at least I know it.
Soon the waves
wear me down
my grip loses the fight
and I am cast into the flow
suddenly free of struggle,
and surprise—
instead of drowning
I am soaring smoothly
along with fish and shooting stars
blue water
women in red dresses
who walk like that
and ripening fruit
with the sound of bees
Margaret Barkley is a poet, teacher, and curious observer of humans and nature. Her first chapbook Ribs was published by Finishing Line Press in 2021. She has an MA in Psychology with a focus on group facilitation, has taught at SSU and USF, and has led a writing group since 1999.
Poems featured in our newsletter were first published in the Redwood Writers "Just So" anthology.
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About the Poetry Editor
Amrita Skye Blaine develops themes of aging, disability, and awakening. She received a PocketMFA in poetry in 2024. She has published a memoir, a three-novel trilogy, and has been published in nineteen anthologies including fourteen poetry anthologies. Two poetry collections, every riven thing and strange grace, were published Spring 2025.
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Share Your Good News!
Have a book event coming up, a recent publication, an award, or any exciting writing milestone? We want to celebrate you! Share your news with the club using our quick online form. Your update may be featured in the next Redwood Writers newsletter.
Where to submit
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Author Event with Tommie W. Whitener in Sausalito
Wednesday, March 4, 2026; 6:00 pm
Tommie W. Whitener will be in conversation at Books by the Bay in Sausalito with store-owner Cheryl Popp regarding his recently published novel, The Showrunner: Hollywood Culture Clash.
Presenting issues of ambition, immigration, assimilation and coming of age, The Showrunner’s protagonists come to life coping with contemporary problems in their own endearing, but sometimes wrong-headed ways.
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Books at the Source: Literary Arts Summit
Saturday, March 14, 2026; 10am-6pm
For Writers & Book Lovers: Featuring Authors and Teachers of Fiction, Memoir, Nonfiction & Poetry
Connect with literary talent of the North Bay and beyond
Be inspired by panel presentations, workshops, readings, networking
Go to the source with authors who share their sources of inspiration!
Register here!
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Join us on Thursday March 26, 2026
6 pm to 7:30 pm
Free on Zoom
Samantha Rose and Debra Koehler will share the business side of their writing journeys, from researching to publishing to promotion.
It will be fun to hear different strategies that led to the goal of publication.
Learn more here: https://thewritespot.us/forum/
| | Women With Vision - Dinner and Reading | | |
Celebrate Women With Vision
March is Women’s History Month. Stories hold the world together and help us see ourselves in other’s lives. Let’s share a meal together at the Aqus Cafe in Petaluma 5:00 to 7:00pm Thursday, March 26 and lift the voices of women with vision from cultures across the world as we celebrate them through story and poetry with readings from Redwood Writers Anna Citrino, Jean Gordon Kocienda, Pamela Reitman, and Elaine Rock. RSVP Required see: https://aqus.com/communitydinnerRSVP/
Aqus Cafe
189 H Street
Petaluma, CA 94952,
phone: 707-778-6060
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Elaine Rock Wins National and
Global Awards For Dusty Roads
Elaine Rock is honored to announce that her biography, Dusty Roads: Meet the Hidden Figure Who Really Ignited the Women’s Movement, received two national awards in late 2025: the Literary Titan Gold Medal for Nonfiction and the Global Book Awards Silver Medal in Memoirs and Biographies – Professionals.
The book chronicles the life of Barbara “Dusty” Roads, an American Airlines stewardess who became a union leader and congressional lobbyist. In the 1950s and 1960s, stewardesses were banned from marrying and fired at age thirty-two—policies Dusty helped challenge and overturn, before the Women’s Movement had a name and before discrimination could be legally challenged.
Available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org
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The Pickerings' Last Tango is an Amazon Best Seller!
From Author John Heide:
"I am happy to share that my book The Pickerings' Last Tango now has an Amazon Best Seller status. In addition, I have just approved the audio files for the upcoming audiobook. It should be available in late March. Thanks to all the Redwood Writers that have helped and supported me through the years."
Available here!
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Award-Winning Memoir by Susanna Janssen
Susanna Janssen's recently published book, Once Upon a Continent has been awarded:
•First Place Book of the Year in Non-Fiction Adventure by the Independent Author Network (IAN)
•Second Place in Memoir from Firebird International
•Second Place in New Non-Fiction from Firebird International
•Distinguished Favorite from NYC Big Book Awards
"Once Upon a Continent brings to life a world of adventure and romance modern travelers have likely never experienced. Susanna’s charming travel memoir sings."
— Jody Gehrman, author of The Girls Weekend and The Protégé
“Suspense, pathos, and moments of genuine hilarity—A literary home run.”
— Richard Gardiner, author and editor
“This is a venture into wonder. Prepare to be amazed.”
— Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review
Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and bookshop.org
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Writers Helping Writers Forum | |
Have a question about the writing process? Want advice about publishing? Interested in simply socializing with other writers? Stick around after the monthly meetings!
We’re bringing back something that was popular in the past: an informal opportunity to chat and pool our considerable collective knowledge.
The room is ours until 2:00 (and the parking lot is free for those conversations that are too good to interrupt).
Writers Helping Writers Forum will be overseen by Mara Lynn Johnstone (and any other lingering board members), and is open to all. Stick around to talk; let’s solve each other’s problems and share our successes.
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Share a Book Review!
Use the Newsletter Submission Form to send in your 250-word (or less) book review. We accept reviews of member and non-member books.
Where to submit
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If you have a paid event, you can purchase an ad in the newsletter as follows:
3 lines (text only) for $25.00
Display ads (square or horizontal images: .png, .jpg only, under 2MB) for $50.00
Canva can help you format your ads
Please submit your paid advertisements and pay online at
https://redwoodwriters.org/newsletter-submission/
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A Note From The Editor
Don’t you love those moments that prompt you to go deeper with your work? I had just such a moment at our last Redwood Writer’s meeting. I walked away from Christine Walker’s presentation Sensory, Whole-Body Writing with a head full of new ideas for bringing my story’s characters to fuller dimension.
My heart was full too. I was so moved when Christine shared how grieving the loss of her son led her to imbue one of her characters with his essence. Hearing how, over time, she was able to transmute her grief from the early phases of acute loss to a place where she could joyfully honor and connect with her beloved, gave me a sense of hope and wonder.
I reflected on the losses I’ve experienced in recent years and how I might keep my connection to dear ones alive by intentionally weaving traces of them into my work. I think they’d like that.
Signe Ross-Villemaire
| | REDWOOD WRITERS LEADERS & VOLUNTEERS | | |
Volunteers make Redwood Writers possible. Thank you to our wonderful leaders and chairpeople who generously give their time and efforts. We appreciate you!
Board of Directors
Crissi Langwell, President
Mara Lynn Johnstone, Vice President
Shawn Langwell, Vice President
Barb Cottrell, Secretary
Malena Eljumaily, Treasurer
Roger Lubeck, Membership Chair
Karl Kadie, New Members Chair
Signe Ross Villemaire, Newsletter Editor
Nancy Econome, Author Launch Chair
Stasey Norstrom, Member at Large
Chairs and Editors
Barb Cottrell, 2026 Prose Anthology Editor
Amrita Blaine, Newsletter Poetry Editor
Les Bernstein, Poetry Anthology Editor
Robin Gabbert, Writers Salon
Pamela Heck, Conference Volunteers Chair
Carol Jacobsen, Get Lit Coordinator
Crissi Langwell, Website Editor
Shawn Langwell, Speakers, Communications & PR Director, and Conference Chair
Linda L. Reid, Writers Circle, Poetry Anthology Party
Board meetings are held 6:30-8:00 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month unless otherwise noted and are open to any member in good standing. Contact president@redwoodwriters.org to receive an invitation.
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