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At our March 1 meeting, Brian Schwartz of selfpublish.org taught us how to use two new AI tools, Perplexity and NotebookLM, for research, promotion, and marketing. Here is the Deep Dive Podcast Brian generated for his client Carole Wagener’s, screenplay, The Girl with the Dark Red Hair, using Google’s free program NotebookLM. Carole states, “This is incredible technology. Despite having difficulty pronouncing my first name, AI did a great job in capturing the complex theme and story of my 1960s screenplay.” Click on this link to listen to it, from Carole’s website: Podcast.

Carole’s movie poster was also generated using AI:

The Allan Hancock College Bulldog Bow-Wow Day Booth was a success!

The response of the Allan Hancock College students to the Coastal Dunes CWC’s mission and services far exceeded our club’s expectations this semester. Among them were those interested in writing, some already published, editors, and illustrators interested in joining us for our meetings. Our gratitude goes out to our volunteers Robert Faust and Paula Murphy, who along with V.P. Viviana Hall attended to our booth.

Good news keeps knock, knock, knocking on the door of Carole Wagener.  You might recall that her screenplay The Girl with the Dark Red Hair was a Semi-Finalist in the Glendale International Film Festival in September 2024.  Knock, knock in January 2025 Wagner’s screenplay won Honorable Mention in the LA Independent Women Film Award.

Keep knocking, Wagener just received official notice that this screenplay is a finalist in Best Script Awards London 2025, an international screenwriters contest.  Dark Red Hair competed with more than 1,000 entries to attain this distinction.  In the letter announcing her finalist status the jury wrote, “The jury wanted to highlight the uniqueness of your project, which is why you got the FINALIST status.” Does this sound like good news, no it is great news!  Let’s keep our eyes on Wagener’s The Girl with the Dark Red Hair.  The screenplay is based on her book The Hardest Year: A Love Story in Letters During the Vietnam War available on Amazon.

By Philip Henderson

Member Carole Wagener’s first screenplay, The Girl with the Dark Red Hair, is one of five semi-finalists in the 2024 Glendale International Film Festival to be held on September 26-October 1 in Glendale, California. Carole has stars in her eyes and will be attending to receive her award. The screenplay has also come in as a quarter-finalist in the Reno-Tahoe Fellowship Screenwriting Contest. Carole recommends using FilmFreeway to enter contests and is awaiting result from six more contests. Her screenplay is a fictional adaptation of her memoir, The Hardest Year: A Love Story in Letters During the Vietnam War, which was awarded as one of four finalists in the 2023 International Book Awards.

On May 10th, Viviana Hall did a poetry reading from her book “Poems of Love” at an American Club in Rome event in Rome, Italy. The event was held at the Caffee Delle Esposizioni. She read poems from her book’s collection, with messages of hope and unity through poetry. Congratulations, Viviana, for this prestigious honor!

Coastal Dunes Member and Branch Secretary Carol Wagener will have a book signing for her new memoir, The Hardest Year: A Love Story in Letters During the Vietnam War on Sunday, December 17, 2023 from 12-3 p.m. at the Book Loft in Solvang. The Hardest Year was one of four finalists in military history for the 2023 International Book Awards. Her co-author veteran husband, William, and Carole will autograph your book.

On Sunday, October 22nd, Coastal Dunes Secretary Carole Wagener was presented with the Jack London Award, given to members who have generously given their time and talents to their local California Writers Club branches. Carole writes about the experience:
“I’m counting my blessings and am thankful for being a charter member of Coastal Dunes for the past eight years. Everything I know about writing, I learned here. Jack London, one of our founders said, “You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.” I was honored by our Coastal Dunes branch to be the 2023 recipient of the Jack London Service Award. It was an awesome experience as the California Writers’ Club gave out twenty-two Jack London Awards and three Ina Coolbrith Awards.”
From all of us in the Coastal Dunes Branch, Congratulations, Carole!!

We are excited to announce that two of our members will be participating in a local author fair on Sunday, March 26th, from 2 to 4 PM at Monarch Books, in the village of Arroyo Grande. Their address is: 201 East Branch Street.

Our Founder Catherine Kitcho, and our past President Jenna Elizabeth Johnson, will be selling and signing their books at this event, along with five other local authors. Please stop by and help support our member authors, and if you haven’t been there yet, you can also check out our new local independent bookstore, Monarch Books. Hope to see you there!

The popular and prestigious Santa Barbara Writers Conference is back this year, June 18-23, 2023, celebrating its 50th anniversary. Check out the schedule, faculty and registration info at: https://www.sbwriters.com/

You can register for the whole week, or just attend for a day – it’s just a 90 minute drive from the Nipomo area. They have an impressive faculty, and daily workshops in the mornings and afternoons, on a variety of topics/genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, Memoir, Screenwriting, Short Stories, Poetry, Humor, Children, Publishing/Marketing, and general writing topics.

Note from your Founder: I attended this conference in 2016, and it was probably the best writing conference I’ve ever attended. They make you work during the morning and afternoon sessions, and the panel discussions and featured speakers are amazing. I learned so much, and gained fresh insights and inspiration for my writing. I highly recommend that you treat yourself, even if it’s just for one day!
Catherine Kitcho

Did you know that if  you join Coastal Dunes CWC between January and June, the membership fee is only $22.50 (half price) plus the one-time initiation fee of $20?  As Secretary of Coastal Dunes CWC, I look forward to welcoming new members and becoming friends. Any questions about the club, please contact me via our Contact form

Carole Wagener