Hosted by writer Erin Byrne, LitWings brings together international writers, photographers, and filmmakers.  Presenters include National Geographic photographers and filmmakers, New York Times bestselling authors, and Emmy award winning filmmakers sharing work that highlights many places around the world.  The event is held three times annually at Book Passage, Sausalito, and every spring at La Caféothèque in Paris.

September Featured Speakers: Frances Stroh, Tania Romanov Amochaev, and Hervé Cohen!

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Frances Stroh is the award-winning author of Beer Money: A Memoir of Privilege and Loss (HarperCollins). Her work is published in The Common, Literary Hub, and the Detroit Metro Times, among other publications. She is a member of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto and the curator of the Stranger Than Fiction reading series.

Tania Romanov Amochaev is the author of Mother Tongue: A Saga of Three Generations of Balkan Women. A prize winning writer and photographer, many of her stories are featured in "The Best Travel Writing" series. Tania has climbed Mount Whitney, Mount Kenya, and Mount Tamalpais; circumnavigated Annapurna; and trekked through Bhutan, Kashmir and Slovenia.

Hervé Cohen is a French American award-winning documentary filmmaker and cinematographer. His work has taken him around the world from the Casamance, Senegal to the countryside of Sichuan, China and has been aired on tv networks and featured at various prestigious festivals. His project, Life Underground, invites visitors on an interactive journey through the subways of the world and into the personal stories of their passengers.

Erin Byrne, host. Award-winning author of Wings: Gifts of Art, Life, and Travel in France, editor of Vignettes & Postcards from Morocco and Vignettes & Postcards from Paris, and writer of The Storykeeper film, Erin is Travel Writing and Photography Curator of The Creative Process Exhibition, launched at the Sorbonne, that travels to the world's leading universities.  She teaches writing on Deep Travel trips.

Betty Ford: First Lady, Women's Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer is the inspiring story of an ordinary Midwestern girl thrust onto the world stage and into the White House under extraordinary circumstances. Setting a precedent as First Lady, Betty Ford refused to be silenced by her critics as she publicly championed equal rights for women, and spoke out about issues that had previously been taboo--breast cancer, depression, abortion, and sexuality. Privately, there were signs something was wrong. After a painful intervention by her family, she admitted to an addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs. Her courageous decision to speak out publicly sparked a national dialogue, and in 1982, she co-founded the Betty Ford Center, which revolutionized treatment for alcoholism and inspired the modern concept of recovery.

Lisa McCubbin also brings to light Gerald and Betty Ford's sweeping love story: from Michigan to the White House, until their dying days, their relationship was that of a man and woman utterly devoted to one another other--a relationship built on trust, respect, and an unquantifiable chemistry.

Based on intimate in-depth interviews with all four of her children, Susan Ford Bales, Michael Ford, Jack Ford, and Steven Ford, as well as family friends, and colleagues, Betty Ford: First Lady, Women's Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer is a deeply personal, empathic portrait of an outspoken First Lady, who was first and foremost a devoted wife and mother. With poignant details and rare insight, McCubbin reveals a fiercely independent woman who had a lively sense of humor, unwavering faith, and an indomitable spirit -- the true story behind one of the most admired and influential women of our time.

Lisa McCubbin is the coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers: Five Presidents; Mrs. Kennedy and Me; Five Days in November; and The Kennedy Detail. A former television news anchor and reporter, she currently resides in the San Francisco Bay area.

Tickets: $29 (includes book + speaking and opportunity to meet Dessa in the signing line)

Presented by CLIF GreenNotes

In Conversation with Montse Carty from Goodreads

In her literary debut memoir, rapper and singer Dessa gives a candid account of her life in the van as a hard-touring musician, her determination to beat long odds to make a name for herself, and her struggle to fall out of love with someone in her band. Raw and intimate, Dessa demonstrates just how far the mind can travel while the body is on the six-hour ride to the next rap show.

Dessa defies category -- she is an academic with an international rap career; a lyrical writer fascinated by behavioral science; and a funny, charismatic performer dogged by blue moods and a perseverant case of heartache. In "The Fool That Bets Against Me," Dessa wonders if the romantic anguish that's helped her write so many sad songs might be an insurable professional asset. To find out, she applies to Geico for coverage. "A Ringing in the Ears" tells the story of her father building an airplane in their backyard garage--a task that took him almost seven years. The essay titled "Congratulations" reflects on recording a song for The Hamilton Mixtape in a Minneapolis basement, straining for a high note and hoping for a break. The last piece in the collection, "Call off Your Ghost," relays the fascinating project Dessa undertook with a team of neuroscientists that employed fMRI technology and neurofeedback to try to clinically excise her romantic feelings for an old flame.

Her onstage and backstage stories are offset by her varied fascinations -- she studies sign language, algebra, neuroanatomy -- and My Own Devices is a prism of her intellectual life. Her writing is infused with fascinating bits of science and sociology, philosophical insights, and an abiding tenderness for the people she tours with and the people she leaves behind to do it.

Dessa finds unconventional approaches to all of her subjects -- braiding her lived experience with academic research and a poet's tone and timing. In the vein of thinkers who defy categorization, we get the debut of a deft, likable, and unusual voice.

Many fantasize about dramatically changing their lives -- living in accordance with their ideals rather than the exigencies of job, bills, and possessions. William Powers actually does it. In his book Twelve by Twelve, Powers lived in an off-grid tiny house in rural North Carolina. In New Slow City, he and his wife, Melissa, inhabited a Manhattan micro-apartment in search of slow in the fastest city in the world. Here, the couple, with baby in tow, search for balance, community, and happiness in a small town in Bolivia. They build an adobe house, plant a prolific orchard and organic garden, and weave their life into a community of permaculturists, bio-builders, artists, and creative businesspeople. Can this Transition Town succeed in the face of encroaching North American capitalism, and can Powers and the other settlers find the balance they're seeking? Dispatches from the Sweet Life is compelling, sobering, thought-provoking, and, no matter the outcome, inspiring.

An author, speaker, and expert on sustainable development, William Powers is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute and an adjunct faculty member at New York University.

Pause . . . breathe . . . smile. Three small words, yet each contains a universe of wisdom. With Pause, Breathe, Smile, Gary Gach invites us to bring the practice of mindfulness into every moment of our lives.

Writing for students of all levels, Gach draws on 50-plus years of study and practice in this elegant and accessible presentation of three central aspects of mindful living. The Pause is about setting our intention before we think, speak, or act--the ethical dimension of mindfulness. When we Breathe we unite mind, body, and spirit, making every moment an opportunity for meditation. With a Smile, we open to a wisdom beyond words. This simple process will "water your innate seeds of awakening, to help you pave your own path to total fulfillment and peace."

For all who may wish to explore mindfulness in their lives as a healing and transformative practice, remember three little words: Pause, Breathe, Smile.

Gary Gach is a writer, mystic, and lifelong meditator who has engaged in many roles: actor, bookshop clerk, dishwasher, hospital admin, office temp, stevedore, teacher, and typographer. Lay-ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2008, he has authored eight previous books including The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buddhism (Alpha, 2001). Gary lives in San Francisco.

Four Mondays; September 24 - October 15th • 10:30 am - 12:00 pm • $120

Are you curious about Classical music but unsure what you are listening to? Do you already enjoy this music but would like to understand more? In this class, we will explore how we already experience music, how we can apply what we know to this genre, and ways to gain a deeper and more rewarding listening experience.  

Susan Fritz-Prey received her Masters and Doctorate in Musical Arts from the University of Southern California with an emphasis in piano.  She has taught at USC, Cal State Dominguez Hills, San Francisco State, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and she currently maintains an active piano studio in Marin County.

The Glass Castle meets The Nest in this stunning debut, an intimate family memoir that gracefully brings us behind the dappled beachfront vista of privilege, to reveal the inner lives of two wonderfully colorful, unforgettable families.

On a mid-August weekend, two families assemble for a wedding at a rambling family mansion on the beach in East Hampton, in the last days of the area’s quietly refined country splendor, before traffic jams and high-end boutiques morphed the peaceful enclave into the "Hamptons." The weather is perfect, the tent is in place on the lawn.

But as the festivities are readied, the father of the bride, and "pater familias" of the beachfront manse, suffers a massive stroke from alcohol withdrawal, and lies in a coma in the hospital in the next town. So begins Jeanne McCulloch’s vivid memoir of her wedding weekend in 1983 and its after effects on her family, and the family of the groom. In a society defined by appearance and protocol, the wedding goes on at the insistence of McCulloch’s theatrical mother. Instead of a planned honeymoon, wedding presents are stashed in the attic, arrangements are made for a funeral, and a team of lawyers arrive armed with papers for McCulloch and her siblings to sign.

As McCulloch reveals, the repercussions from that weekend will ripple throughout her own family, and that of her in-law’s lives as they grapple with questions of loyalty, tradition, marital honor, hope, and loss. Five years later, her own brief marriage ended, she returns to East Hampton with her mother to divide the wedding presents that were never opened.

Impressionistic and lyrical, at turns both witty and poignant, All Happy Families is McCulloch’s clear-eyed account of her struggle to hear her own voice amid the noise of social mores and family dysfunction, in a world where all that glitters on the surface is not gold, and each unhappy family is ultimately unhappy in its own unique way.

Four Mondays; Sep. 24, Oct. 22, Nov. 19, & Dec. 17 • 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm • $95

In the first hour of this long-running group, we discuss the book we’ve just read. In the second hour, we talk with the author about what it took to create it and other engrossing topics. We’ve had wonderful conversations with Daniel Handler, Elizabeth McKenzie, Yiyun Li, T.J. Stiles, Anthony Marra, Tom Barbash, Elizabeth Rosner, T. Geronimo Johnson, Adam Hochschild, Joyce Maynard, Natalie Baszile, and many others.

Pamela Feinsilber is a Path to Publishing mentor, book editor, and freelance writing consultant at feinsilber@comcast.net.

September 24

A Kind of Freedom – Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

October 22

Lucky Boy – Shanthi Sekaran

November 19

Goodbye, Vitamin – Rachel Khong

December 17

When It’s Over – Barbara Ridley

In Conversation with Peter Robinson

The Tango War by Mary Jo McConahay fills an important gap in WWII history. Beginning in the thirties, both sides were well aware of the need to control not just the hearts and minds but also the resources of Latin America. The fight was often dirty: residents were captured to exchange for U.S. prisoners of war and rival spy networks shadowed each other across the continent. At all times it was a Tango War, in which each side closely shadowed the other's steps.

Though the Allies triumphed, at the war's inception it looked like the Axis would win. A flow of raw materials in the Southern Hemisphere, at a high cost in lives, was key to ensuring Allied victory, as were military bases supporting the North African campaign, the Battle of the Atlantic and the invasion of Sicily, and fending off attacks on the Panama Canal. Allies secured loyalty through espionage and diplomacy--including help from Hollywood and Mickey Mouse--while Jews and innocents among ethnic groups -- Japanese, Germans -- paid an unconscionable price. Mexican pilots flew in the Philippines and twenty-five thousand Brazilians breached the Gothic Line in Italy. The Tango War also describes the machinations behind the greatest mass flight of criminals of the century, fascists with blood on their hands who escaped to the Americas.

A true, shocking account that reads like a thriller, The Tango War shows in a new way how WWII was truly a global war.

Born in Chicago, Mary Jo McConahay is an award-winning reporter who covered the wars in Central America and economics in the Middle East. She has traveled in seventy countries and has been fascinated by the history of World War II since childhood, when she listened to the stories of her father, a veteran U.S. Navy officer. A graduate of the University of California in Berkeley, she covers Latin America as an independent journalist. Her previous books include Maya Road and Ricochet. She lives in San Francisco.

From Jo Piazza, the bestselling author of The Knock Off, How to Be Married, and Fitness Junkie, comes an exciting, insightful novel about what happens when a woman wants it all—political power, a happy marriage, and happiness—but isn’t sure just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to get it.

Charlotte Walsh is running for Senate in the most important race in the country during a midterm election that will decide the balance of power in Congress. Still reeling from a presidential election that shocked and divided the country and inspired by the chance to make a difference, she’s left behind her high-powered job in Silicon Valley and returned, with her husband Max and their three young daughters, to her downtrodden Pennsylvania hometown to run in the Rust Belt state.

Once the campaign gets underway, Charlotte is blindsided by just how dirty her opponent is willing to fight, how harshly she is judged by the press and her peers, and how exhausting it becomes to navigate a marriage with an increasingly ambivalent and often resentful husband. When the opposition uncovers a secret that could threaten not just her campaign but everything Charlotte holds dear, she has to decide just how badly she wants to win and at what cost.

A searing, suspenseful story of political ambition, marriage, class, sexual politics, and infidelity, Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win is an insightful portrait of what it takes for a woman to run for national office in America today. In a dramatic political moment like no other with more women running for office than ever before, Jo Piazza’s novel is timely, engrossing, and perfect for readers on both sides of the aisle.

2018 Mystery Writers Pre-Conference Class
$90 for Conference Participants, $125 for General Public

The Character of Crime: Creating the Character Web in Crime, Mystery/Detective and Thriller Fiction

In this pre-conference lecture and workshop, award-winning crime novelist David Corbett will guide students in exploring the key roles that make crime fiction work, with specific focus on the specific demands of the three major subgenres of crime fiction—mystery/detective, crime, and thriller—and an emphasis on maintaining dramatic tension, creating moral complexity, and avoiding cliché.

In particular, students will learn:

• How to create strong, compelling protagonists who push the action forward and serve the story’s theme—instead of victims of circumstance, intrepid boy scouts, ciphers, stiffs, or sleepwalkers.
• How to create equally compelling opponents or villains who aren’t just another iteration of Lucifer or the Creature from the Black Lagoon—with the purpose of gaining an understanding that the hero’s only as compelling as his enemy, that evil must be justified to be dramatically interesting, and that there’s “no beast so fierce” as man.
• How to create secondary characters—from Watsons to wheelmen to femmes fatales to sympathetic heavies—who elicit nuance and subtlety from the main characters, flesh out the values in conflict in the story, create moral complexity through ‘four-corner conflict,” serve the hinge points of the plot, and bring to life the story world.

David Corbett worked 15 years for the famed private investigation firm of Palladino & Sutherland. He is the author of several novels including Done for a Dime (A New York Times Notable Book), His latest is Thirteen Confessions: Stories. His writing text, The Art of Character, has been called “a writer’s bible.”

In Conversation with Rebecca Solnit

Women are angry, and it isn’t hard to figure out why.

We are underpaid and overworked. Too sensitive, or not sensitive enough. Too dowdy or too made-up. Too big or too thin. Sluts or prudes. We are harassed, told we are asking for it, and asked if it would kill us to smile. Yes, yes it would.

Contrary to the rhetoric of popular “self-help” and an entire lifetime of being told otherwise, our rage is one of the most important resources we have, our sharpest tool against both personal and political oppression. We’ve been told for so long to bottle up our anger, letting it corrode our bodies and minds in ways we don’t even realize. Yet our anger is a vital instrument, our radar for injustice and a catalyst for change. On the flip side, the societal and cultural belittlement of our anger is a cunning way of limiting and controlling our power.

We are so often told to resist our rage or punished for justifiably expressing it, yet how many remarkable achievements in this world would never have gotten off the ground without the kernel of anger that fueled them? Soraya Chemaly makes the case that anger is not what gets in our way, it is our way, sparking a new understanding of one of our core emotions that will give women a liberating sense of why their anger matters and connect them to an entire universe of women no longer interested in making nice at all costs.

Following in the footsteps of classic feminist manifestos like The Feminine Mystique and Our Bodies, Ourselves, Rage Becomes Her is an eye-opening book for the twenty-first century woman: an engaging, accessible credo offering us the tools to re-understand our anger and harness its power to create lasting positive change.

2018 Mystery Writers Conference Event
Free & Open to the Public

Born in Peru and raised in Chile, Isabel Allende is the author of a number of bestselling and critically acclaimed books, including The House of the Spirits, Eva Luna, Stories of Eva Luna, Of Love and Shadows, The Japanese Lover, and the thriller Ripper. Her most recent novel is In the Midst of Winter. Her books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages and have sold more than 65 million copies worldwide. She lives in California.