I’m blessed that both of my home com­mu­ni­ties have amaz­ing book­stores:Old Har­bor Books in Sit­ka, Alas­ka, and Vil­lage Books in Belling­ham, Wash­ing­ton. Inde­pen­dent book­stores do hero­ic work to fos­ter live­ly lit­er­ary com­mu­ni­ties – read­ings, events, oppor­tu­ni­ties you won’t get from Ama­zon. Vil­lage is host­ing one of those oppor­tu­ni­ties this week­end, with their annu­al“Res­o­lu­tions for Writ­ers” extravaganza.

Saturday’s five mini-work­shops are designed to help jump-start your writ­ing year, by tack­ling clut­ter, get­ting un-stuck, lov­ing finances, inten­tion-set­ting through col­lage, and main­tain­ing vision and bal­ance. Check here for more infor­ma­tion on teach­ers and work­shop times.

As good as Sat­ur­day looks, I’m espe­cial­ly invest­ed in Sunday’s line-up:

• At noon, Cami Ost­man and Christi­na Claassen are co-teach­ing “Jour­nal­ing for the Writer.”
• At 1:00, I’m join­ing Vil­lage staff mem­bers Lind­sey McGuirk, Bren­dan Clark, andRachel Han­ley for a “Blog­ging for Writ­ers” panel.
• At 2:00, “The Care and Feed­ing of Writ­ing Groups,” with Paul Han­son, Bran­don Bryson, and Shan­non Laws.
• At 3:00, author/teacher extra­or­di­naire Lau­ra Kalpakian joins authors Janet Oak­ley,Jen­nifer Wilke, and Nan­cy Adair for a “Road Map to Writ­ing Your Nov­el This Year.”
• At 4:00, “The Many Paths to Pub­lish­ing: Self, Small, Tra­di­tion­al” with Paul Han­son, Sarah Mar­tinez, and Janet Oakley.

If you’re in the Whatcom/Skagit Coun­ty area, I hope you can join us. Check here for full details.

*****

In an oppor­tu­ni­ty open to female read­ers wher­ev­er you are, Cami Ost­man is seek­ing sub­mis­sions for anoth­er anthol­o­gy. (Her first, Beyond Belief: The Secret Lives of Women in Extreme Reli­gion, co-edit­ed with Susan Tive, will be released this spring.)

She Writes Her Life: Women Explore How Writ­ing Has Informed Their Iden­ti­ty Devel­op­ment explores women’s rela­tion­ships with writ­ing. Why we write, how our writ­ing influ­ences how we think about our­selves and who we are in the world. Essays should be no longer than 3500 words, have a $25 sub­mis­sion fee, and are due by March 4, 2013. Vis­it Cami’s site for more details.

I’ve had a few friends ask about the sub­mis­sion fee. She Writes Press is an inde­pen­dent pub­lish­er that pri­or­i­tizes empow­er­ment and com­mu­ni­ty. Your $25 cov­ers eval­u­a­tion and print­ing, but most impor­tant­ly, con­tributes to a pool for pub­lish­ing at least one pro bono project a year. (Vis­it She Writes Press to learn more.)

I sus­pect Cami’s project – and SWP’s val­ues – will res­onate with many of Hooked’s reg­u­lars. (Hap­py New Year, Patri­cia, Tina, EBW, Heather, Claire, Lisa!) Please do pass this oppor­tu­ni­ty with your own read­ers. A new year is a great time to start a new essay!