TheWGroup’s monthly drop-in sessions are open to all Xyz [craft] — both members and non-members. (Out-of-town guests are welcome too.)

Robin Quinn, our host

We have several satellites to cover the various areas of Zyx or the Greater Xyz area.

During the Covid-19 restrictions, our Satellites are meeting online. This makes it possible for EVERYONE to get there, so we hope you’ll consider attending.

Xyz Westerly Group — online for now

TheWGroup’s Westerly Group is in full swing, thanks to Robin Quinn — a long-time TheWGroup member and an LA Book Coach and Editor specializing in self-help, memoir and uplifting fiction.

Our Westside Satellite serves writers from the Palisades south to LAX, and those in Culver City, Inglewood, Ladera Heights, Westwood — even Beverly Hills.

We welcome all interested writers — TheWGroup members or not, published or not, Westside resident or not.

The Satellite had been meeting at St. Mary’s of Palms on the first Saturday of every month, followed by a meal at the Grand Casino Bakery & Café in downtown Culver City. However, for the time-being, due to Covid-19, we’re meeting virtually via Zoom.

Next meeting [not really but it was real]:

Talking Sci-Fi Book Writing & Publishing with Carole Stivers

Saturday, Month 22, 2021
12:30 – 2:30 p.m. Pacific
$10 for nonmembers
Online using Zoom
Carole Stivers book, The Mother Code
Beginning to write in retirement, Carole Stivers Ph.D. managed to get a book deal with Penguin Random House, and her sci-fi novel The Mother Code was one of the most highly anticipated titles of 2020. Her book was even optioned by Hollywood.

For our May TheWGroup Westside Satellite, Host Robin Quinn will interview Stivers about her experience of publishing during a pandemic and the tools of the writing trade she has learned. How did Stivers go from a science career in medical diagnostics to an agented literary contender?

Topics covered will include:

How her book idea was inspired
Tips for working with beta readers
Dealing with the many edits her manuscript underwent
How she connected to and selected her agent
Getting interest from publishers and Spielberg
The challenge of predicting the technology of the future
Getting the science right
Working with scenes and beats as a plotter and being a pantser
Why her next book is a standalone, not a sequel

About our Author — Carole Stivers PhD

Author Carole Stivers

Born in East Cleveland, Ohio, Carole Stivers received her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She went on to post-doctoral work at Stanford University before launching a career in medical diagnostics.

Carole now lives in California, where she has combined her love of writing and her fascination with the possibilities of science to create her debut novel, The Mother Code.

You can learn more at her website, CaroleStivers.com