Buy a new book at any of our events, and get a raffle ticket. Buy a new book by any member of WOMBA, and get two raffle tickets. Win Book Club or Writers Group Visits, Manuscript Consultations and Signed Book. Here are some of the amazing  you might win:

Book Club or Writers’ Group Visits

A one-hour conversation with fiction writer and former Yale University faculty member Harriet Scott Chessman, the author of three acclaimed novels, including Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper and Someone Not Really Her Mother. This gathering could be with a book group or more informally, with one or more people.  Interested in Impressionist art? Alzheimer’s? Fiction?  Let’s talk!

Bestselling novelist Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Wednesday Sisters, will host your book club gathering in her Palo Alto home, where she’ll serve Mint Juleps and Kath’s horse-racing pie!

Win three copies of Maria Espinosa’s novel Dying Unfinished and Maria will give a talk to a your group on  the theme of mother-daughter relationships.

Distinguished journalist Linda Himelstein, author of The King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire, will provide a special event for you and your book group. In addition to discussing her book and answering questions, Linda will host a delicious vodka tasting for you and your friends. Cheers!

A book group visit with playwright and novelist Lynne Kaufman on her steamy novel Slow Hands, set in a Berkeley full-service spa where the clients are women and the staff male Zen students who are experts at paying perfect attention. Slow Hands was optioned by Madonna’s film company.

Maud Carol Markson, author of Looking After  Pigeon and When We Get Home, is offering a paper back copy of her novel, When We Get Home (Bantam) accompanied with a talk to a local book club (Peninsula/South Bay) about her latest novel and its theme of family and marital relationships.

New York Times bestselling novelist Michelle Richmond, author of No One You KNow and The Year of Fog, will visit your book club in San Francisco. She’ll show up with her own special homemade coffee cake, and coffee from her favorite neighborhood cafe, Simple Pleasures, which makes an appearance in No One You Know.

Ellen Sussman, best-selling author of the novel On A Night Like This, and editor of two critically-acclaimed anthologies, Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave and Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex, will meet with your book club or writers group to discuss any of her books or to lead a writing workshop.

Critically acclaimed memoirist Brenda Webster, whose  novel about the early days of psychoanalysis, Vienna Triangle, serves as inspiration for a play collaboration with a New York producer will host your book club gathering  in her Berkeley home, where, in addition to discussing her book with your group, she’ll serve champagne and assorted goodies from Masse’s Pasteries.

Jill Wolfson, award-winning author of young adult novels (most recently Cold Hands, Warm Heart), will visit your group, armed with heart-shaped sweets. She will answer questions about her books, her work as a journalist and writing/publishing for the youth/teen market. Great for mother-daughter book clubs and writing groups.

Manuscript/ writing consultations

The brilliant Thaisa Frank, author of four collections of fiction, works with poetry, flash fiction, short fiction, novels, and creative memoirs, is offering a free hour and fifteen minute consultation in her Oakland studio.

Win an hour of consultation in Joan Gelfand’s speciality: Building Your Writer’s Resume. Get help strategizing your submissions process and support along the way to publication from the author of two acclaimed collections of poetry, Seeking Center and A Dreamer’s Guide to Cities and Streams. Joan is also the President of the Women’s National Book Association, a national organization of publishing industry professionals with nine chapters and over 700 members. “My intention is to share resources and develop a workable plan to reach your goals.”

Win a one-hour consultation on your fiction or nonfiction book proposal with Dorothy Hearst, a former acquiring editor at Jossey-Bass and author of Promise of the Wolves, which was sold to Simon & Schuster as part of a three-book deal.  “We can either review a proposal you have already written (or partially written) or discuss the best way to get you started.  We can also talk about ways to present yourself to editors and agents, how to craft your “elevator speech,” and other questions you have about navigating your way through the publishing industry.”

Author, editor, and writing coach Ericka Lutz offers a one-hour consultation on both “product” and “process” for fiction and creative nonfiction writers. Kind, honest, and insightful critique for up to 25 pages of material. Honor your instincts and personal process, find your voice, get unstuck, silence the inner Evil Editor, and celebrate your successes. http://www.erickalutz.com/consultation.html
“Ericka is truly a writer’s teacher, insightful, perceptive, and — perhaps most important — deeply caring. She deftly guides writers in unlocking their own creativity.” — Camille J. Cusumano (TANGO: an Argentine Love Story)

A one-hour consultation with award-winning novelist Wendy Nelson Tokunaga, author of the much-praised Midori by Moonlight and the forthcoming Love in Translation. Wendy offers practical advice and insight for your writing project, and can also help you with your query letter, and any questions you have about the publishing industry, writers conferences, and MFA programs. Writers of all levels are welcome.

Win a place in Elizabeth Stark’s book writing sequence, an online course: plan, write and revise your book this year! Elizabeth Stark, organizer of the WOMBA tour, is the author of the novel Shy Girl, and co-director of two films, FtF: Female to Femme and Little Mutinies (which she also co-wrote).

Signed Books

Leslie Berlin’s The Man Behind the Microchip

Catherine Brady’s Elizabeth Blackburn and the Story of Telomeres: Deciphering the Ends of DNA

Jessica Barksdale Incan’s Complete set of first romance trilogy.

Cynthia Gentry and Dana Fredsti’s Secret Seductions.