5/19 PANEL: "The Working Writer"

What did Anne Rice, Anton Chekhov, Frank McCourt, Franz Kafka, Harper Lee, Herman Melville, Jorge Luis Borges, Toni Morrison, T. S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams and Virginia Woolf have in common? All of these writers had full-time day jobs.
The struggle all writers have in common, no matter what their genre or medium or level, is working the economy of creativity. Artists with trust funds are as rare as starving artists—the great in-between is filled with writers who are paying the bills. Join us for a panel discussion in May about how writers make their livings.

“The Working Writer” will feature three writers with different relationships to work.

• Thaddeus Howze makes a living with his writing
• Paul Corman-Roberts makes a living doing something related to his writing
• Peggy Dougherty, now retired, made a living doing something completely UNrelated to her writing.

Meet our Panelists:

Thaddeus Howze

Thaddeus Howze, also known as “The Answer Man” on Twitter and Quora, is comic historian and a prolific writer of speculative fiction, scientific, technical and cultural commentary. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals. He has published two books, ‘Hayward’s Reach’ (2011), a collection of short stories, and ‘Broken Glass’ (2013), an urban fantasy novella starring paranormal investigator, Clifford Engram. Thaddeus works as a writer and editor for two magazines: the Good Men Project, a social men’s magazine; and Krypton Radio, a sci-fi enthusiast media station and website. He is also a freelance journalist for Polygon.com and Panel & Frame magazine. Thaddeus is the co-founder of Futura Science Fiction Magazine and one of the founding members of the Afrosurreal Writers Workshop in Oakland.

“I define myself as a “working writer” – someone who has accepted the changing nature of work in the modern era and is utilizing “streams of income” in which my goal is to have writing become my main source of income. I have worked in the tech field and in the gig economy (Dasher and Uber), but have developed online patronage through Patreon, staff writing (through Krypton Radio and The Good Men Project) and technical writing assignments with different video-game and computer-technology companies.”

Paul Corman Roberts

Paul Corman-Roberts is well known in the local literary scene as an original co-founder of the Beast Crawl Literary Festival, an electrifying poet, and a warm human presence. He is the author of the full length poetry collection Water for the House of Yes, forthcoming from Nomadic Press in early 2020, the a chapbook collection 19th Street Station that will be reissued from Full of Crow Press later this year, Coming World/Gone World (Howling Dog Press,, 2006), Notes From an Orgy (Paper Press, 2014) and We Shoot Typewriters (Nomadic Press, 2015.) He is an instructor at both the San Francisco Creative Writing Institute and the Older Writer’s Lab in San Francisco, as well as a substitute teacher in the Oakland Unified School District.
Paul Corman-Roberts will speak to the experience of being a contract worker in the literary scene while balancing that work with full- to part-time payroll work positions outside of the arts while pursuing a career as a published writer. Paul can talk about event production and organization, teaching opportunities, and breaking down and throwing your labor in with the service industry. Ask him how to stay sane in this tectonic landscape of the gig economy!

Peggy Dougherty

Peggy Dougherty is an award-winning playwright whose plays have had had thirty-eight productions. Her plays (all comedies) have been performed in New York City, San Diego, Los Angeles, Boca Raton, Houston, San Francisco, Great Britain, Toronto, and elsewhere. Peggy is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc., and The Drama Association of Rossmoor.
Peggy, a clinical psychologist now retired, has thirty-five years of clinical experience working with adults, couples, children, and families. In 2013 Peggy published a self-help book, The Ten Minute Cognitive Workout: Manage Your Mood and Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day (authored by Peggy Dougherty Snyder, Ph.D.). The book won the 2013 San Diego Book Award for Best Self-Help.
Age Matters, Peggy Dougherty’s first novel, was published on October 5, 2018. This comic novel is a satiric take on age, Hollywood, and relationships. Now that Age Matters has finally been published, Peggy’s plan is to recommit full time to playwriting—but her recalcitrant novel refuses to promote itself! She is eager to talk about

WHEN PROFESSION VIES WITH PASSION! Peggy will share how she juggled her professional career as a clinical psychologist with her passion for writing. She will discuss how her profession informed her writing and how being self-employed helped her carve out a viable writing schedule. She’ll also share the boundaries she established between her psychology practice and her devotion to her writing passion.

 

Watch for an interview with all three writers by Cristina Deptula, and plan to attend this exciting panel on May 19th. This will be the final installment in the 2018-2019 speaker program! 

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MEETING SCHEDULE

12:00–1:00 – Craft Support Group
1:00–2:00 – Marketing Success Group
2:00–2:30 – Writer Networking
2:30–3:00 – Welcome, Raffle & Club Announcements and ELECTION!
3:00–4:00 – PANEL: THE WORKING WRITER

Meetings are $5 for members, $10 for non-members*

• Coffee is provided, bring cookies and treats to share!
• Admission includes 1 free raffle ticket

PLEASE PLAN TO PURCHASE A RAFFLE TICKET! Only $1 each or 6 for $5, every ticket supports the club’s programs. You can win a book written by our club authors!
*Empty pockets? Ask about our sponsored guest program at the door. We are writers helping writers, and sometimes that means a welcoming place.

1204 Preservation Park Way, Oakland, CA 94612

Our meetings are right off 980 in downtown Oakland, at beautiful Preservation Park. Just off 12th Street, naturally you can get there from the 12th St. BART station. Those with limited ability can use the parking lot off of MLK Way; otherwise there should be plenty of FREE parking within the park and on surrounding streets.

• Preservation_Park_Map (good for printing)
• This map has an arrow to our building
• Here’s another cute map
• Google Map

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SAVE THE DATES!
Our Forthcoming Events:

• June 5 Setting that Works!  A workshop with John Byrne Barry
• May 4 Writers Social at Bay Area Book Festival 3-6pm at the Saturn Café. Sponsored by the Wolf Pack Writers Action Group: let’s talk about the weather—and how to change it BACK.
• May 4-5 Visit our booth at the Bay Area Book Festival!
• May 27 CWC Writers at Bay Area Generations 
• June 15 Member Book Launch & Showcase at the Octopus Literary Salon!