Dear Writers,

Thank you for getting my workbook and doing the exercises.

Here’s a question that is often asked by writers:

“Do I really have to blog?  I have a regular website, facebook page and Twitter.”

Here’s my response:

“You do not have to do anything that you do not want to do.  The ‘tags’ in blog posts function as index cards on cyberspace – those tags help new fans find you – enjoy the exercises in my workbook – you’ll see the power of consistent blogging for yourself.  Reach out, not stress out.”

Cheers!
22-Day Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan
http://writingcoachTeresa.com
the author of Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days: Attract Agents, Editors, Publishers, Readers, and Media Attention NOW

Subscribe to  “Coach Teresa’s blog”  Click here to start.

Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan answers question: "Do I really have to blog?"

Click on underscored text in this post to get to related websites . . .

Dear Writers who attended our sessions at San Francisco Writers Conference 2014,

Thank you so much for attending:

“From Hooks to Books: Grabbing the Attention of Agents and Editors with Your Talking Tagline & Platform” with Elisa Sasa Southard & Teresa LeYung-Ryan
OR
“Be Your Own Editor: Inject the 5 Ws and Core Theme Into Your Manuscript” with Teresa LeYung-Ryan and Mary E. Knippel
OR both !

Thank you for filling out our evaluation forms!

Writing Coach Teresa Recommends Contests, Meet the Agents and Editors, Conferences, Retreats, and Resources for Writers

Please help your writer-friends by sharing these events and opportunities:

• Writing Contests   3 groups of contests – through California Writers Club-Sacramento Branch, Literary Arts Division of the San Mateo County Fair, and WriterAdvice

• Meet the Agents and Editors for Pitch-O-Rama 2014!   Saturday, March 29, 2014, 8:00 am – 12:30 pm 

sponsored by San Francisco Chapter of Women’s National Book Association -  Space is limited! Cost: $65 WNBA members, $75 non-members
Mary E. Knippel & Catharine Bramkamp will be coaches at this event

• Check out my blog post  “Coach Teresa says: Who or What is the Antagonist in Your Story?“  before you send your manuscript to agents or a writing contest

• Redwood Writers “From Pen to Published” is an all-day writers’ conference on Saturday, April 26, 2014 at the Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, CA.  Craft, Genre, Publishing, Marketing: Select among four tracks with sixteen sessions.

• Click on Handout material from sessions or look inside your 2014 SFWC bag – PDFs of handouts are on the Smashwords flashdrive

• If a friend would like a CD or MP3 of sessions at SFWC – Go to VWTapes

• Women Writing in the Redwoods (retreat in the Santa Cruz Mountains)–April 3-6, 2014

• Plotting workshops and retreats with Plot Whisperer Martha Alderson

• Elisa Sasa Southard interviewed on Good Day Sacramento “What is a talking-tagline?”  http://BreakThroughTheNoise.com

• Mary E. Knippel’s online classes and blog  http://yourwritingmentor.com

• Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan interviewed on Channel 5 “What is a writer’s platform?”  http://WritingCoachTeresa.com   Subscribe to Coach Teresa’s Blog which attracts thousands of writers who want to gain new connections while building their own fanbases.

I’m cheering for you!

22-Day Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan

http://writingcoachTeresa.com 

Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan is the author of Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days: Attract Agents, Editors, Publishers, Readers, and Media Attention NOW,  She helps clients identify their themes and archetypes   “Reach out, not stress out.”

Teresa’s novel Love Made of Heart: a Mother’s Mental Illness Forges Forgiveness in Daughter Ruby is used in college courses and archived at the San Francisco History Center.

Subscribe to  “Coach Teresa’s blog”  Click here to start.

• Click here for Short, Short Story Writing Contest sponsored by California Writers Club-Sacramento Branch up to 750 words; entries must be postmarked by March 31, 2014 (no online submissions). $10 fee per entry. Cheers to Branch President Margie Yee Webb, sponsors, judges, and all contestants!

• Click here for Writing Contests  through Literary Arts Division of the San Mateo County Fair – many genres (including novels, memoirs, short stories, fantasy, science fiction, essays, poetry, children’s, immigrant experience) – open worldwide – $10 per entry -  online entries due April 1, 2014   5:00pm Pacific Standard Time. Cheers to Literary Arts Director Bardi Rosman Koodrin, sponsors, judges, all contestants!

• Click here for WriterAdvice Flash Prose Contest entries must be submitted by April 18, 2014  Fiction and creative nonfiction!  $15 fee per entry.  Cheers to to B. Lynn Goodwin, sponsors, judges, and all contestants!

Check out my blog post  “Coach Teresa says: Who or What is the Antagonist in Your Story?“  before you send your manuscripts to agents, acquisition editors, or writing contests.

Remember that a story, even a short one, has a beginning, middle, and end.  A “snapshot” of an event is not a story.  A story must have a main character, even if that character is the only character.

Writing Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan cheers for Writing Contest Creators, Sponsors, Judges, and Contestants!

Registration open to both men and women!   Pitch Your Books!

 Pitch-O-Rama 2014 Meet the Agents and Editors
Saturday, March 29, 2014, 8:00 am – 12:30 pm

sponsored by Women’s National Book Association-San Francisco Chapter

Meet our experts: Peter Beren, Amy Cloughley (Kimberly Cameron), Rachel Neumann (Parallax Press), Georgia Hughes, (New World), Brenda Knight (Viva Editons), Laurie McLean (Foreword Literary), Pooja Menon, (Kimberley Cameron), Michael Larsen, Elizabeth Pomada (Larsen-Pomada Agency), Alan Rinzler, Andy Ross, Brooke Warner (She Writes Press) Click here for full listing.

The event includes a FREE pre-pitch session and mentoring throughout the morning in our Green Room, an adjacent classroom to the main event in the Audre Lorde Room (both on the second floor) with Catharine Bramkamp, Patricia V. Davis, and Mary E. Knippel.

Immediately following the two-hour pitch session is a lively panel discussion on the controversial topic, Categorizing “Women’s” Fiction: Helpful or Hurtful? moderated by member/author Rayme Waters, with Book Club expert and blogger, Marsha Toy Engstrom, and acclaimed historical fiction author, Anita Amirrezvani.

TO REGISTER:  http://wnba-sfchapter.org/pitch-o-rama-2014/               

Space is limited! Cost: $65 WNBA members, $75 non-members

I wish everyone lots of fun!

Today is International Women’s Day and we celebrate women and girls!

Yet, this kind of atrocity is happening all over the world, even in our backyards.

On a bus this morning, I saw this poster:

“Human Trafficking in Contra Costa is Real!  12 – 14 YEARS OLD.  AVERAGE AGE OF U.S. CHILDREN BEING FORCED INTO PROSTITUTION”

How do we stop these crimes on children? How do we spread awareness?

For the full story, click on Martinez News-Gazette

Excerpts from the article by Darya Esipova January 19, 2014

DA says human trafficking exists in Contra Costa County

District Attorney Mark Peterson told about 30 participants at the conference of the significance of human trafficking, and mentioned there are 16.5 million people throughout the world that become victims of labor exploitation every year – 65 percent of which are women used in slave labor.

Contra Costa County Prosecutor Nancy Georgiou said that since January 2011, the problem of trafficking started to become more and more obvious. In 2011 she had four cases to review, and in 2013, 32 cases, with a prosecution rate of 100 percent. In 2014 there are 10 cases on the waiting list.

Police officers and probation officers are trained to rescue human trafficking victims.

“It is vital for the general public to know the dynamics of human trafficking,” she said, “and to know that behind every girl there is a person that controls her: manages her transportation – where does she have to go, what clothing to wear and when to work. In 2013, the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors created a Human Trafficking Coalition, where community members, health service providers, law enforcement agencies and others collaborate with each other and exchange the information they have.”

Devorah Levine, Chair of Zero Tolerance for Human Trafficking, stated that their main message is that the public has an obligation not to tolerate trafficking as a kind of modern slavery in our county.

“If you are a victim of trafficking or if you suspect that someone may be being trafficked, we believe you and want you to come forward and to speak to people who can help, and the first step is to call hot-line number 211. There are many people standing behind that number that are ready to help – violence police officers, health services providers and many more,” explained Levine.

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Look Beneath the Surface - Human Trafficking is modern-day slavery. A victim of trafficking may look like many of the people you see everyday.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services  http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/programs/anti-trafficking

The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Program (ATIP) identifies and serves victims of human trafficking, assisting foreign trafficking victims in the United States to become eligible for public benefits and services to the same extent as refugees.  The program also raises awareness of human trafficking through the HHS Rescue & Restore Victims of Human Trafficking campaign.

Together we can help make this world a safe place for all children.

Happy Women’s History Month – March!

http://womenshistorymonth.gov/ is a website hosted by the Library of Congress

Happy International Women’s Day – March 8, 2014!

Click on names of organizations that empower women, girls, boys, men – I’ve hyperlinked so that one click sends you to that website while this blog post remains open.

Bay Area Impact making the world safer – one woman at a time

Women Rising (San Jose area) and their page “Global Movement”

Girl Rising  “One Girl with Courage is a Revolution”

Community Violence Solutions provides support services to child and adult victims of sexual assault and their families through seven main programs.

One Billion Rising (one billion women)

Afghan Women’s Writing Project – To Tell One’s Story Is a Human Right

Women’s National Book Association was established in 1917, before women in America even had the right to vote.

Stamp Out Stigma, a community advocacy and educational outreach program dedicated to eradicating the stigma associated with mental illness

Bring Change 2 Mind is a national anti-stigma campaign founded by Glenn Close, The Balanced Mind Foundation, Fountain House, and Garen & Shari Staglin of the International Mental Health Research Organization (IMHRO), aimed at removing misconceptions about mental illness.

NAMI is the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.

The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Program (ATIP) identifies and serves victims of human trafficking, assisting foreign trafficking victims in the United States to become eligible for public benefits and services to the same extent as refugees.  The program also raises awareness of human trafficking through the HHS Rescue & Restore Victims of Human Trafficking campaign.

The Mission of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) is to organize for collective power by advancing transformative work, thinking and leadership of communities and individuals working to end the violence in our lives. NCADV strives to make issues relating to battered women and children one of the top ten political and legislative issues in the U.S.

The documentary FEMME: Women Healing the World – a celebration of women around the world actively transforming and healing our global society. Sharon Stone and leading experts in religion, science, history, politics and entertainment, discuss solutions to the multiple crises we are faced with. FEMME focuses on utilizing a feminine approach with nurturing energy to inspire a new hope for the future.

My dear colleague Margie Yee Webb is one of the producers of this extraordinary project.

There are thousands of organizations celebrating women and girls – may they all grow and grow and grow!

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Bardi Rosman Koodrin welcomes audience to Literary Arts stage San Mateo County Fair

Look at the many writing contests offered through the Literary Arts Division of the San Mateo County Fair!  Go to https://sanmateocountyfair.com/pdf/2014/literary_arts_14.pdf  and review rules and guidelines carefully.    All entries due April 1, 2014 by 5pm Pacific Standard Time

Entry Fees: $10.00 per entry       NO MAXIMUM ENTRY FEE

Writing Contests through the Literary Arts Division of the San Mateo County Fair include “Immigrant Experience Writing Contest” !

For a list of all writing contests, please go to: https://sanmateocountyfair.com/pdf/2014/literary_arts_14.pdf

Mary E. Knippel and I (Teresa LeYung-Ryan) presented a 45-minute session “Be Your Own Editor: Inject Your Manuscript with the 5 Ws and Core Themes” at last weekend’s San Francisco Writers Conference.

The first W (“Who”) – as in “Who is the Protagonist?”  And, “Who or what is the Antagonist?”

Who or What is the Antagonist in Your Story / Novel / Memoir / Book ?

For every Protagonist, there’s an Antagonist!

Antagonist is a character or a set of circumstances that threatens the Protagonist’s well-being OR the well-being of someone the Protagonist cares about.

Other powerful Antagonists are:

• the Protagonist’s reaction to circumstances
• the Protagonist’s own character flaw
• something that threatens the status quo
• illness or grief (including loss of an aspect of One’s self)

This is how screenwriter/screenwriting teacher Terrel Seltzer defines “what” is a great story.  She says:  “Someone we care about … wants something badly…  and is having a terrible time getting it.”

Coach Teresa here . . . “The Antagonist is the one who/which is causing ‘a terrible time’ for the Protagonist.”

Go through your manuscript; are you showing at least one of the antagonists within the first 5 pages?

Happy re-writing!

Teresa LeYung-Ryan   aka  22-Day Coach Teresa helps clients identify their themes and archetypes; she is the author of:

Love Made of Heart: a Mother’s Mental Illness Forges Forgiveness in Daughter Ruby (novel used in college courses)

Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days: Attract Agents, Editors, Publishers, Readers, and Media Attention NOW (workbook for all genres),

“Talking to My Dead Mom” monologues

Coach Teresa’s website http://writingcoachTeresa.com

To subscribe to Coach Teresa’s Blog , please click here.

Dear Teresa,

Thank you for your honest and poignant writing. You have a gift of writing from the heart with a sincerity that is far-reaching. Heart-felt, heart-warming and perfect. Just what I needed to hear right now.

Marlene Cullen

Please click here for “Transforming Depression Into My Writer’s Muse” by Teresa LeYung-Ryan (on Marlene Cullen’s blog)

Love Made of Heart (a mother-daughter love story) by Teresa LeYung-Ryan

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Please click  here for Writing Teacher Marlene Cullen’s Book Review of Teresa LeYung-Ryan’s Love Made of Heart

Love Made of Heart by Teresa LeYung Ryan is excellent. I read it in two sittings. Dinner could wait. I had to find out what would happen to Ruby Lin. Teresa uses her novel to advocate compassion for mental illness and to help survivors of family violence find their own voices. Teresa’s writing is evocative and from the heart. . . she reaches deep and succeeds with her genuine and authentic voice. I want to read Love Made of Heart again. Yes, it’s that good.

Teresa LeYung-Ryan is an advocate for mental health.   Advocacy For Mental Health — Resources for Women, Girls, Boys, Teens, Men, Families

Love Made of Heart Gift Shop

Marlene Cullen

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Thank you, Writing Teacher Marlene Cullen, for reviewing my book Love Made of Heart on your blog, facebook, and Goodreads. Being the author of the book gives me strength to encourage other adult children of mentally ill parents to speak openly about the stigmas. Also, thank you again for letting me guest blog to talk about “Transforming Depression Into My Writer’s Muse”  You have my deep gratitude.

Sincerely,

Teresa LeYung-Ryan

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For more information about Marlene Cullen’s blog, writing workshops and Writers’ Forum of Petaluma, please click here.

Teresa LeYung-Ryan

Teresa’s novel Love Made of Heart: a Mother’s Mental Illness Forges Forgiveness in Daughter Ruby is used in college courses and archived at the San Francisco History Center.

As author of Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days: Attract Agents, Editors, Publishers, Readers, and Media Attention NOW, Coach Teresa helps clients identify their themes and archetypes.

http://writingcoachTeresa.com   Subscribe to  “Coach Teresa’s blog”

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