Letters Between Us read by BC: Housewives of Encino

Last Wednesday evening, I was fortunate to have been invited to the stunning Encino Park home of my friend and CSUN colleague Julie Todd. This terrific book club of seven erudite and well-to-do women took the time to discuss Letters Between Us and take a trip back to remember those swinging sixties. They asked me many questions about the whole process of writing and publishing this first novel of mine. The gourmet food and elegant wine helped me unwind and get over my nerves at being queried about this novel which is so close to my heart.

We all enjoyed remembering those years when President Kennedy was assassinated...those difficult and challenging years of an unwanted war and the whole counterculture lifestyle that so predominated that decade.

As you can tell by these photos we also enjoyed the libations not to mention that all of the food was green except the corned beef tacos and the chocolate cake..since it was the day after St. Patricks....erin go bragh ladies... and thank you, Julie, for inviting me to share a wonderful discussion with such great women. Thank you all for allowing me to read excerpts from the novel as well. As it turns out one of them-Debbie-and I knew each other a while back when our kids were in elementary school together in the nineties (was it so long ago?). Six degrees of separation never ceases to amaze me.
Thank you so much to all as shown in second picture:
l to r top row--Debbie Spino, Marijo Demattos, Eileen Kaires, Tish Amborn.
bottom row--Julie Todd, Ann Egan, Nancy Futterman, Anita Rezzo.

P.S. for Letters Between Us from the BC: Housewives of Conn.

Imagine my surprise when my colleague and friend Prof. Meg Florio who facilitated a rousing discussion of my novel in January with her Connecticut book club--sent me this photo. No pictures were taken of the event at the time as all were too busy discoursing about Letters Between Us!

Thankfully, I think that is because they all actually liked the novel, which was a great complement to yours truly! Not to mention that Prof. Florio was hosting this salon in her gorgeous NYC apartment on the Hudson in the middle of a snowy and icy evening in January to which all of these women drove in from Connecticut to attend.

Subsequent to that book club the following month, they met to discuss yet another novel but wanted to take a photo with mine, which I appreciate wholeheartedly!

Thanks to all of you lovely ladies who honored me so (seated): Kate, Meg, Anne, and (standing) Debbie, Suzy and Denise.

LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books Featured Authors: Find Us (& Linda Rader Overman) in Booth 610

Signing Saturday and Sunday, April 25 and 26
Booth #610. It's by the food booths! Yay!

 Get a FREE book with your purchase of any book while supplies last.
 Browse books of other authors.
 Sign for Free handouts on promotion, editing and more (to be sent by e-mail).

UCLA Campus, Sat. & Sun, April 25 and 26
FREE Admission/Parking $9.
Easiest Parking at Structure 3 near Hilgard & Sunset Boulevard, Westwood (Los Angeles Area), CA.
Use the map of the on-campus event: http://www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/eventmap.html.
Look for the Authors Coop banner above booth #610.

Booth Sponsored by:
Marshall Turner's WebforAuthors.com, Red Engine Press, HowToDoItFrugally.com Series of Books for Authors, 4RVPublishing

Gift with Purchase Books Furnished by:
Leora Skolkin-Smith, Diana Raab, Philip Henderson and others.

Scheduled Authors Saturday 04/25/09
10:00 AM Loren Woodson
11:00 AM Lynn Goodwin
12:00 PM Janet Goliger
1:00 PM Marilyn Meredith
2:00 PM Anne Megowan
3:00 PM Linda Overman
4:00 PM Julie Spira
5:00 PM Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Christine Alexanians


Scheduled Authors Sunday 04/26/09
10 am Linda Ballou
11:00 AM Lynn Goodwin
12:00 PM Janet Goliger
1:00 PM Marilyn Meredith
2:00 PM Anne Megowan
3:00 PM Pamela Kelly
Poetry Reading Hour
4:00-4:15 PM Sona Ovasapyan
4:15-4:25 PM Don Kingfisher Campbell
4:25-4:35 Pardis Bagherzadeh
4:35-4:50 PM Carolyn Howard Johnson
4:50-5:00 PM Christine Alexanians

At Butte College students stop for a chat with Linda Rader Overman & her writing colleagues-Part 2

According to the Press Release touting a Butte College Master class on Friday Febrary 27: "Presentations and Q & A session for Linda Rader Overman, Letters Between Us (Plain View Press 2008) epsitolary novel, Zu Vincent, The Lucky Place (Boyds Mills 2008) literary novel, and Bryan Tso Jones, Raking the Hollow Bones (Bedbug Press 2008) poetry occured where each author spoke for about 20 minutes, mixing in readings from their own work with discussions about point of view, storytelling, revisionist mythmaking, structure, character development and inspiration.
Bryan focused on how poets (and fiction writers) reuse old stories and myths, and adapt them to their lives, connecting that larger literary discussion to some of his own poems, which use Chinese myths.

Linda discussed creating distinct character voices and the epistolary form, along with the necessity to record or journal one's own experience.

Zu used excerpts from her own novel and contrasted them with Joyce Carol Oates' "Where are you going? Where have you been?" to draw attention to how writers use setting, pyschic distance, anticipation, and overall effect (or 'singular effect') in fiction."

After the class, Prof. Kiara Koenig's students stayed for quite a while to chat and get autographed copies of the three different works, which they are required to read in her Intro to Literature and Creative Writing classes.

Letters Between Us & Linda Rader Overman joined a panel of writers in the Butte College classroom: Part 1

Poet & Professor Kiara Koenig (of Butte College) invited a panel of writers to teach a Master Class on Feb. 27 from 1-3:30p @ the Chico Center in Butte College. The idea for the class was in part formed to bring more multicultural and contemporary literature into the classroom.

With her particular group of Intro to Literature
and Creative Writing students in mind,

Prof. Koenig invited poet Bryan Tso Jones

and


novelists

Linda Rader Overman,

and Zu Vincent

to participate in a joint presentation / Q&A session
on aspects of writing and literature.

Letters Between Us and Linda Rader Overman did a reading/signing along with Zu Vincent (author of The Lucky Place) on February 26, 2009 Thursday at 7p.m. at Lyon's Books in Chico, CA through the good graces of store owner Heather Lyon/. Her event coordinator Jay Castor hosted us for the evening as Heather was out of town.
We had a fine turnout of listeners who appreciated our readings and asked lots of interesting questions about the writing process.






The experience of reading with a colleague and a writer who so embraces the love of writing and literature as I do helped to enhance the supportive atmosphere that evening!

Many thanks to Heather for believing in us enough to schedule the event, and to Jay for his gentlemanly ways, for enabling us to use this delightful bookstore (I wanted to move in) to promote our love and passion for the craft of writing.

The weather couldn't have been more beautiful in the quaint town of Chico...known among many things for California State University, Chico where I did some of my graduate work beginning back in 1999.

Professor Kiara Koenig of Butte College attended the event as did some of her students.