I just got back from a terrific weekend teaching at the Central Coast Writers Conference in San Luis Obispo. Hundreds of enthusiastic participants and a whole bunch of writer friends who were conducting workshops. Old friends, including Victoria Zackheim and new friends including Mara Purl (above). Jack Grapes was the inspiring key note speaker and Judy Salamacha was director of the conference and made all her faculty very happy. It was like camp! Lots of interesting people showed up for my workshops (Writing Your Life Story and The Personal Essay). If you were one of them please stay in touch and let me know how your writing is going.

We stayed in Morro Bay – my kind of town – where a place called Top Dog serves coffee so delicious and strong that you don't need a car to back to L.A.