Seminars Help Put Kids’ Book Writers on Path to Publisher

Despite the appeal of electronically delivered entertainment and information, the business of writing and publishing children’s books is still thriving. And many people continue to weave tales that they would love to see published for children.

So consider attending the “Children’s Writers Retreat” sponsored by the Ventura/Santa Barbara chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators at the historic Santa Barbara Mission from March 13-15.

Conducted by authors and editors, the conference seminars will cover nearly every aspect of writing, illustrating and getting work published. And award-winning Ventura bookseller, Jody Fickes Shapiro of Adventures for Kids, will review books coming out this spring. Registration deadline is Feb. 27.

If you can’t attend the conference, join SCBWI or at least subscribe to its newsletter Kite Tales, which costs $18 a year for nonmembers. Call SCBWI regional advisor Alexis O’Neill at 581-1906 for details.

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Jim Woodard, whose mission is to turn kids into book lovers, continues to lead a Storytelling Club program for youngsters, ages 8 to 12, every Friday at 3:30 p.m. at the Boys & Girls Club of Ventura, 1929 Johnson Drive. Call 658-6697.

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Gold Coast Fiction Writers (a chapter of Romance Writers of America) will meet tonight at Carrows Restaurant, 2401 E. Harbor Blvd., Ventura. Come for dinner and fellowship at 6 p.m. The meeting begins promptly at 7 p.m. Call 644-6153.

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Events at Borders Books, 125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks: Emmy award-winning documentary writer Don Altman will discuss his book “201 Unique Ways to Make Your Wedding Special” at 7 p.m. Friday. And Carolyn Costin will sign her two books, “Your Dieting Daughter” and “The Eating Disorder Source Book,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Also at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Pepperdine University professor Michael Collings will lead the poetry-writing workshop.

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There is still time to register for editor Richard O’Connor’s “How to Get Published” seminar scheduled from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Learning Tree University’s Thousand Oaks campus. Call (818) 706-0180.

In Santa Barbara

Two local writers (one a nationally known award winner, the other a first-time author) will appear Sunday in local bookstores. T. Coraghessan Boyle, recipient of the PEN/Faulkner award for “The Tortilla Curtain,” will sign his new novel, “Riven Rock,” based on the convoluted lives of a real Santa Barbara family, at 3 p.m. at Chaucer’s Books, 3321 State St.

Frances Laurence, whose stories of unusual and fascinating 19th century women so intrigued Virginia Cornell, a local self-published author, that she offered to publish “Maverick Women” under her Manifest Press imprint. Laurence will sign at 3 p.m. at Earthling Bookshop, 1137 State St.

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* Frances Halpern and Jon O’Brien are co-hosts of “Beyond Words” at 10 a.m. Sundays on KCLU-FM (88.3 Ventura and 102.3 Santa Barbara), Ventura County’s National Public Radio station.