Left Coast Writers®: Remember Traveler and Writer Ethel Mussen

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Please join the Left Coast Writers for our celebration in memory of past LCW Member and beloved Wanderland Writers Contributor Ethel Mussen

Saturday April 12th, 2025 — 2PM
Book Passage- Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
Join us as we celebrate the life and work of writer, traveler and centenarian Ethel Mussen, who passed away this year, a few years ahead of her 104th birthday. Some of us had the pleasure of her friendship, of knowing and traveling the world with her. Many of us have been delighted by Ethel’s travel tales published in the Wanderland Writers anthologies and elsewhere.
We have  fond memories of Ethel Mussen, the world-traveling centenarian who—when she wasn’t out and about sharing her life stories, her wisdom and her the wide-eyed enthusiasm for ideas, people, places, good works and life in general— lived high on a hill above Berkeley.
Ethel, who spent fifty years in providing health care of various sorts—the last 35 in teaching about and treating speech and hearing disorders honed her anthropological approach to people and customs. through work and travel. A collector’s interest in potters and their ceramics offered the additional slant on production and the business of local craftsmen. to her travel tales. Repeated spells of living in New Zealand, France and Italy gave more insight into the effects and variety of cultural assumptions in local politics, business and behavior. She always said her late husband, Paul, used to regale her and their two children with the assurance that with every discovery, good or bad, “This is a cultural experience!” She also made this her mantra.

On this the day before what would have been her 104th birthday, we gather at Book Passage in celebration of Ethel’s work, her writing, her adventures, and her inspiring spirit.

Wandering in Japan: The Spirit of Tokyo, Kyoto and Beyond

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I Will Be the Woman He Loved: Learning to Live Again on the Thames Path A Memoir

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Please join us for a reading by Tania Romanov from her book , I WILL BE THE WOMAN HE LOVED: LEARNING TO LIVE AGAIN ON THE THAMES PATH A MEMOIR, organized by Left Coast Writers and hosted by Book Passage in Corte Madera.
Saturday, March 8, 2025 2pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
One of the first women CEOs in tech, in this, her fourth and most personal memoir, Tania Romanov chronicles her search for a new identity after the end of her career and the loss of her soulmate, her husband Harold. Over a two-week walk along England’s Thames Path, Tania reflects on her love story with Harold and their battle against cancer—reflections that reveal a lifelong fight to be herself.

Tania Romanov

A child immigrant ostracized for being a “Communist” and a white girl at a mostly Black school, in “I Will Be the Woman He Loved”, Tania revisits past lives, loves, and lessons. She recounts her challenges as a trailblazer in a pre-#MeToo, male-dominated workplace, as well as the joys of her adventures around the world with Harold. All the while, she struggles to come to terms with a future very different from what she imagined—one in which she must rediscover her love of life and redefine herself yet again.

Tania Romanov Amochaev is the author of Mother Tongue: A Saga of Three Generations of Balkan Women (Travelers’ Tales, 2018), also published in Serbian as Po Našemu (Akadems Kaknjiga, 2020); Never a Stranger (Solificatio, 2019), a collection of award-winning travel essays; One Hundred Years of Exile: A Romanov’s Search for Her Father’s Russia (Travelers’ Tales, 2020), published in Russia as СТО ЛЕТ ИЗГНАНИЯ (Rosspen Publishers, 2021) and winner of Gold for Memoir in the Northern California Publishers and Authors Book Awards; and San Francisco Pilgrimage (Solificatio, 2022). 

Tania’s work has been featured in multiple travel anthologies, including The Best Travel Writing and The Best Women’s Travel Writing series. Born in the former Yugoslavia, Tania spent her childhood in a refugee camp in Italy, before emigrating to the United States, where she grew up in San Francisco’s Russian community. A graduate of San Francisco public schools, she went on to serve as CEO of three technology companies: Comserv (NYSE), QRS (NASDAQ), and Natural Language, a start-up acquired by her board member Bill Gates’ Microsoft. Tania subsequently served on the boards of numerous companies, including Symantec.

 

Matthew Félix is the author of four books, a certified life coach, and a speaker. Publishers Weekly called his debut novel, A Voice Beyond Reason, “(a) highly crafted gem.” Former host of the San Francisco Writers Conference Podcast, Matthew regularly conducts interviews at San Francisco Bay Area bookstores and cultural institutions. He also ghost-writes, edits, designs, publishes, and markets books for other authors. matthewfelix.com

 

“The thread tying together Romanov’s story is the determination to be herself. Her tale reminds  us that no matter the challenge, we always have the choice to reinvent ourselves.” —Eva Auchincloss, former executive director Women’s Sports Foundation  

“Tania’s walk proves full of insights as she struggles to envision a future in the wake of  devastating loss. I Will Be the Woman He Loved is a book to which every woman—single,  married, divorced, or widowed—can relate.” —The Hon. Julie M. Tang, retired San Francisco  Superior Court Judge

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Becoming Ghandi

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Please join me for a chat with  Perry Garfinkel and a reading from his new book, BECOMING GHANDI, organized by the Left Coast Writers and hosted by Book Passage Bookstore in Corte Madera, California
Saturday, February 8th, 2025 — 2PM
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera, CA ||

 This narrative follows New York Times contributor, Perry Garfinkel’s journey follow Mahatma Gandhi’s code of ethics in modern times―and to discover what it actually takes to “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

In Becoming Gandhi, veteran journalist and author Perry Garfinkel sets out on a three-year quest to examine how Gandhi’s ideals have held up in a world beset by troubling trends. 

“I have always believed that the best way to preserve the legacy of the great statesmen of the past is to try to abide by the values they upheld and to apply them in our contemporary situation. I am glad to see that writer Perry Garfinkel has done precisely that with Mahatma Gandhi and shares his experiences in this book. The author provides readers with an opportunity to discover the many ways in which Gandhi-ji contributed to making the world a better place and what each of us may learn from his example.” – His Holiness the Dalai Lama, from his Foreword to Becoming Gandhi

“Perry Garfinkel’s engaging and delightfully funny Becoming Gandhi shows us how the Mahatma’s message can matter in our lives. Brilliant. Highly recommended.”

—Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence and most recently Why We Meditate, with Tsoknyi Rinpoche 

“It is beautiful to be inspired by Gandhi. It is even more amazing to learn to embody his love and freedom, honesty and blessings in our own lives. Perry shows us how this is possible.”

—Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart and cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society 

Berkeley journalist and author Perry Garfinkel has contributed  to many sections of The New York Times for more than 35 years. He’s the author of national bestseller “Buddha or Bust: In Search of Truth, Meaning, Happiness and the Man Who Found Them All (Crown/Harmony, 2006). Publishers Weekly named his “Becoming Gandhi: My Experiment Living the Mahatma’s 6 Moral Truths in Immoral Times (Sounds True, 2024) among the top ten books to watch for in the spirituality category for 2024. 

 

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AN INVITATION…

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TO A 2025 LITERARY INTENSIVE SET IN PROVENCE
WITH AUTHOR AND EDITOR LINDA WATANABE MCFERRIN AND LITERARY AGENT ANDY ROSS 
September 24 to October 1, 2025

 

“When the Good Lord begins to doubt the world, he remembers that he created Provence.

— Joseph Étienne Frédéric Mistral, winner of the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature

 

Please join us this year in Provence, a landscape that has, over the centuries, inspired artists of every genre, for an immersive literary journey into the art and heart of writing and publishing.
Award-winning poet, novelist, travel writer and editor Linda Watanabe McFerrin and literary agent Andy Ross will review, discuss and personally advise you on your selected literary projects and publishing goals.
We will stay, as we have on previous journeys of this kind, in a lovely estate in the heart of historic terrain, and spend some of our week visiting sites that feature in the work of world-renowned poets, novelists, painters, chefs and musicians of Provence.
Let Old World villages, flower-filled landscapes and a camaraderie that has stimulated the completion of many of the finest examples of art and literature motivate you to new levels of creativity. Add daily literary workshops and activities as well as a number of fabulous lunches and dinners at the region’s top restaurants and cafes for an artistic journey like no other.
Should you decide to stay longer to write and explore on your own, you’ll find plenty of places in Provence to entertain you when you aren’t wrestling with pages.

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Dying of Curiosity

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Please join us for a reading by Cyn Lubow from her new book, DYING OF CURIOSITY,  organized by the Left Coast Writers and hosted by Book Passage.
Saturday January 18th, 2025 at 2PM
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||

When Berkeley psychologist Jordan Wilder learns that her cheerful, college-bound patient was found dead under the Golden Gate Bridge, an apparent suicide, she wrestles with a storm of sadness, guilt, and confusion. Haunted by her failure to prevent this tragedy, she’s determined to understand what went wrong.

Jordan struggles to maintain her professional boundaries as she juggles a secret investigation, her therapy practice, and the needs of her Hollywood-actor wife and their young adult children.

By the time Jordan realizes her secrets are putting her in jeopardy, she’s in too deep to get out.
Cyn Lubow, LMFT is a psychotherapist in private practice and an award-winning poet and filmmaker. Her professional articles have been reprinted and referenced in numerous publications on the web, and her “Transforming Depression into Empowerment” chapter is published in the anthology Goddess Shift: Women Leading for a Change. Cyn’s films have been distributed worldwide. Her feature documentary is included in the catalogs of dozens of college and university libraries. This is her first novel.
Cyn lives in the San Francisco Bay Area adjacent to her spouse. She has two grown sons she adores.
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In Conversation with Pauline Frommer and Linda Watanabe McFerrin

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What are you doing Sunday morning?

JOIN me on Sunday, December 1, for a book chat with travel industry leader Pauline Frommer on Frommer’s Podcast. The podcast features an assortment of travel pros—journalists, Frommer’s staffers, and other industry insiders discuss trending travel topics and dive deep to explore the human instinct to wander in her podcast series. In this episode, I’ll be chatting with Pauline about the latest anthology (#9) in our “Wandering Wandering in the American Deserts.

More about the anthology:

After more than a decade of wandering with writers around the globe, editors and workshop leaders Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Joanna Biggar and Laurie McAndish King bring their contributors home to the salt basins, the shifting sands, the sunbaked plateaus, the starry-starry nights of American deserts.

What they find—shamans, fault lines, bird singers, and both hidden and not-so-hidden treasures—is sometimes mystifying, often satisfying, and always surprising as landscapes slip, slide and shape-shift around them. It may not be settling, but it certainly sets the stage for a deeper understanding of what the American desert and, by extension, the planet we inhabit have to teach us about ourselves and our place in our rapidly changing, sometimes confounding world.

In this volume, readers visit the Joshua tree, a strange plant the Mormons named after the armies of the biblical Joshua marching in the desert. They see odd natural formations, such as rock caves fit for shamans; earth reshaped by the force of earthquakes; an ancient sea brought to life by human folly; the night sky as it was in the beginning. They encounter birds, coyotes and lizards. We hear the power of silence.

And they meet people of every type: members of the present-day Cahuilla tribe who share their music and culture; pop singers and cowboy poets; inventors and artists; and eccentrics who thrive in the desert air: a wizards, a drop-out, a misfit who finds salvation in painting a mountain.

ABOUT THE EDITORS:

Editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Laurie McAndish King, and Joanna Biggar have travelled the world and written about it in novels, short stories, essays, poems and articles for many publishers and publications. They’ve also edited stories in numerous collections and series. This is the 9th book of the “Wandering”.

The anthology includes work by: Madeleine Adkins, J. R. Barnett, Daphne Beyers, Hugh Biggar, Michael J. Fitzgerald, Peg Wendling Gerdes, Cyndi Goddard, Thomas Harrell, Naomi Lopez, Mary Jean Pramik, Anne Sigmon, Tatum Tomlinson, Maw Shein Win, Judy Zimola and more …

 

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Author Conversation with Bernard F. Clarke

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Please Join Me on Zoom for Left Coast Writers with Bernard F. Clark

Monday, February 3rd — , 2025 6PM

LCW is Zooming an “Author Conversation” with poet and “historical fiction” author Bernard F. Clark: Historical Fiction of Biblical Proportions. We’ll be discussing the writing of historical fiction: history, popularity, technique and changing expectations as evidenced in Bernie’s latest book: The Agnostic Gospels as well as other current historical fiction.
Is the Bible historical fiction?
Well, that’s a good question. It is certainly a precursor of the most successful collection of storytelling ever, anywhere in the world. It’s had a lot of editors in a lot of different languages, and many hands have shaped its various versions and antecedents. It has been a cause of great strife over the millennia, and it’s still popular enough to be branded, to shape beliefs, to win elections … in any of its many avatars.
So for this discussion Left Coast Writers will be taking a look at this form, a book and historical fiction of biblical proportions.

Who was Jesus of Nazareth? Man or God? Aside from the New Testament and other gnostic writings, there is scant historical evidence that he lived. The Roman historian, Flavius Josephus, is the most reliable source, and even the provenance of his writings is in question. Yet the New Testament Gospels are compelling.

Could a simple man have gathered such a following, fulfilled all the ancient prophecies and performed astounding miracles? Or was he, indeed, The Messiah, The Son of God? A Christian believer will say yes. An atheist will say no. The agnostic will say it is possible and not presume to know.

The Bible, confoundedly, overlooks at least eighteen years of the life of The Messiah, from his preaching to the priests in The Temple at age twelve, to the start of his ministry, around 30AD. What happened in those ‘missing years’?

Based on Biblical writings, apocrypha, folk lore and historical facts, The Agnostic Gospels trilogy recounts a possible course of events.

The first volume, Arimathea, tells how Yeshua’s (Jesus’) Great Uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, is the major mentor and architect of his early life. The story also explores the importance of Mary Magdalene and her relationship with Yeshua. Why was she portrayed in the gospels as being so troubled? Why did Yeshua tell her she was the most favoured of his disciples?

The second volume, Magdalene (in progress), expands upon Mary Magdalene’s story and sows the seeds for historically relevant events of the first century AD.

The third volume, Yeshua, explores the apocryphal stories of Jesus (Yeshua) in the East and his connection with Buddhism, before recounting the canonical gospels of the New Testament, set in the new context of his personal journey and what we have learned about his intended mission to cheat death and reveal the glory of God to all.

 

By profession, Bernard F. Clark (Bernie) is a systems consultant specializing in the design and coaching of software development methods. By Spirit, he has always been a traveler, photographer, artist, storyteller and poet.
Born in 1958 in Hertfordshire, England, it wasn’t until he moved to America in 1983 that he found his creative voice. During his ‘working years’, he hosted poetry open mics at Java Beach and Sacred Grounds in San Francisco and published three poetry books: Caffe Latte, Spritzers, and GooGooG’Joob, the latter also comprising a collection of short stories. He was also inspired to create a children’s book, David Oodle’s Doodle (illustrated by K. Plottner) that poetically relates the adventure of a boy who draws fantastic doodles with his magical pen and plenty of Zen.
Since retirement, Bernie has been able to spend more time focusing on one of the great mysteries that confounded him and his childhood friend, Cliff, when they were choirboys; did Jesus really exist? This exploration led him to the revelation that The Bible fails to account for at least eighteen years of Jesus’ life. This was too much of a challenge to not resolve and most of his time is now spent researching and weaving a tale of facts (such as they are known), folklore, legends and fiction that plausibly accounts for who Jesus was and how he became The Messiah.
Now residing in southern Nevada, Bernie and his partner enjoy international travel and exploring the national parks and awe-inspiring landscapes of the western USA in their trusty RV.

Reviews

From GooGooG’Joob:

‘Some people have a gift for joy that is contagious. They infect the rest of us on contact. Bernard F. Clark (I think I’m one of the few who know what the ‘F’ really stands for) is a gift to those who have been privileged to enjoy his friendship. His often brilliant, mostly joyful, frequently hilarious literary creations speak for themselves. Bernie is a natural poet and a spontaneous lover of life. His work is a reflection of his spirit overflowing with love, art and wonder.’

  1. M. Clarke
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New: Wandering in the American Desert

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Join us for a reading of the new, WANDERING IN THE AMERICAN DESERT, organized by Wanderland Writers and hosted by a Great Good Place for Books.

Friday February 7th, 2025 — 7 PM
A Great Good Place for Book- Oakland || 6120 La Salle Ave Oakland ||

After more than a decade of wandering with writers around the globe, editors and workshop leaders Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Joanna Biggar and Laurie McAndish King bring their contributors home to the salt basins, the shifting sands, the sunbaked plateaus, the starry-starry nights of American deserts.

What they find—shamans, fault lines, bird singers, and both hidden and not-so-hidden treasures—is sometimes mystifying, often satisfying, and always surprising as landscapes slip, slide and shape-shift around them. It may not be settling, but it certainly sets the stage for a deeper understanding of what the American desert and, by extension, the planet we inhabit have to teach us about ourselves and our place in our rapidly changing, sometimes confounding world. 

In this volume, readers visit the Joshua tree, a strange plant the Mormons named after the armies of the biblical Joshua marching in the desert. They see odd natural formations, such as rock caves fit for shamans; earth reshaped by the force of earthquakes; an ancient sea brought to life by human folly; the night sky as it was in the beginning. They encounter birds, coyotes and lizards. We hear the power of silence.

And they meet people of every type: members of the present-day Cahuilla tribe who share their music and culture; pop singers and cowboy poets; inventors and artists; and eccentrics who thrive in the desert air: a wizards, a drop-out, a misfit who finds salvation in painting a mountain.

The anthology includes work by: Madeleine Adkins, J. R. Barnett, Daphne Beyers, Hugh Biggar, Michael J. Fitzgerald, Peg Wendling Gerdes, Cyndi Goddard, Thomas Harrell, Naomi Lopez, Mary Jean Pramik, Anne Sigmon, Tatum Tomlinson, Maw Shein Win, Judy Zimola and more …

 

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Laurie McAndish King, and Joanna Biggar have travelled the world and written about it in novels, short stories, essays, poems and articles for many publishers and publications. They’ve also edited stories in numerous collections and series. This is the 9th book of the “Wandering”.

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New: POST-Apocalyptic Valentine and Left at the Ruin

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POETRY FLASH PRESENTS…
Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author of POST-Apocalyptic Valentine will read with Jackie Berger author of Left at the Ruin
Thursday, November 14th – 7pm
Art House Gallery 2905 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94705

This new poetry collection by Linda Watanabe McFerrin, novelist, travel writer and winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, navigates the spaces between depression, humor, and dark revelation. With inspirations as varied as Sylvia Plath and Lenny Bruce, “Post-Apocalyptic Valentine” spans time, space, and even our galaxy in exploration of what it means to love.

McFerrin is the author of two poetry collections and past editor of a popular Northern California guidebook. Her novel “Namako: Sea Cucumber” was named Best Book for the Teen-Age by the New York Public Library. In addition to authoring an award-winning short story collection, “The Hand of Buddha,” she has co-edited 12 anthologies, including the “Hot Flashes” sexy little stories and poems series. Her latest novel, “Dead Love,” was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel.

“I have loved everything I’ve ever read by Linda Watanabe McFerrin. Her prose and poetry are filled with amazing women, charm, wisdom, and light. She is both soulful and precise, eloquent and full of life.” — Anne Lamott, author of “Bird by Bird” and “Hallelujah, Anyway”

 

Although the poems in this fifth book by Jacqueline Berger grapple with such subjects as sex, sorrow, and shame, there are also celebrations of delight and joy. Together they provide abundant insights about the past and present, as well as intriguing considerations of the future, “a ride that arrives // before we are ready to leave.” With powerful emotional concision, she explores, unabashedly, what it means to live. Left at the Ruin is an exceptional collection.

 

  Jacqueline Berger is the author of five books of poetry. The Mythologies of Danger (1998), selected by Alberto Rios, won the Bluestem Award and the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association Award (BABRA). Her second book, Things That Burn (2004), selected by Poet Laureate Mark Strand, was the 2004 winner of the Agha Shahid Ali Prize and was published through the University of Utah Press. Her third book, The Gift That Arrives Broken (2010) won the Autumn House Poetry Prize, judged by Alicia Ostriker. The Day You Miss Your Exit (2018) was published by Broadstone Books. Her latest collection, Left at the Ruin, arrived in August from Terrapin Books.

Several of Jacqueline’s poems have been featured on Garrison Keillor’s Writers Almanac. Her poetry has also appeared in numerous anthologies and journals, among them: American Poetry: The Next Generation (Carnegie Mellon), On The Verge (Agni Press), Old Dominion Review, Rhino, River Styx, Nimrod, and The Iowa Review.

She is a professor emerita of English at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California, and lives on the Central Coast.

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This Fresh Existence at Book Passage

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Please join us for a reading by Cindy Rasicot from her book, THIS FRESH EXISTENCE, and a Q&A hosted by Book Passage for this event organized by the Left Coast Writers.

Saturday October 12th , 2024 — 2 PM

Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||

Bhikkhuni Dhammananda defied convention to become the first woman fully ordained in the Thai Theravada Buddhist tradition. Dubbed “Rebel Monk” by the Thai press, she faced enormous opposition by the media, the public, and senior orthodox Thai monks. She has given a fresh existence to the ancient tradition.
What makes this book unique is that it’s a story of beating the odds, courage and making history, in Bhikkhuni Dhammananda defying orthodoxy, and establishing the women’s lineage of Theravadin monastics.
American author Cindy Rasicot became her student and disciple in 2005. This compelling book tells the story of Venerable Dhammananda’s remarkable path from TV personality, author, academic, wife and mother to ordained Bhikkhuni. Cindy Rasicot writes beautifully of their relationship, and shares Bhikkhuni Dhammananda’s gentle wisdom and direct insights about how to live a more powerful and compassionate life.

 

Cindy Rasicot is a retired Marriage, Family Therapist and author of This Fresh Existence: Heart Teachings from Bhikkhuni Dhammananda. This book tells the remarkable life of Venerable Dhammananda and shares her gentle wisdom about how to live a more powerful and compassionate life. In 2005 Cindy travelled to Thailand with her family where she met Bhikkhuni Dhammananda — an encounter that changed her life forever. In 2020 she wrote the award-winning memoir Finding Venerable Mother: A Daughter’s Spiritual Quest to Thailand. Her memoir is a soulful story of spiritual healing through her loving connection with Bhikkhuni Dhammananda. The book was a finalist in the international Book awards, The Sarton Awards, and Chanticleer International Book Awards.
Cindy received novice temporary ordination twice from Bhikkhuni Dhammananda at her all-female monastery, Songdhammakalyani Temple, in Nakon Pathom, Thailand. She hosts the YouTube program, Casual Buddhism, a series of conversations with Venerable Dhammananda about spiritual issues and Buddhist practices. Guests have included Jack Kornfield, Sylvia Boorstein, Joan Halifax, and many others. The link for the program is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcMU-5kE2ux_PbRPwT6HMOg Cindy lives in Pt. Richmond where she enjoys beautiful views of the San Francisco Bay. Learn more about Cindy at www.cindyrasicot.com.

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