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Come join the annual Gold Rush Writers Conference, Sept 27th, 28th, & 29th in 2024 , at the historic Leger Hotel in picturesque Mokelumne Hill where writing professionals will guide you to a publishing bonanza through a series of panels, specialty talks, workshops, and celebrity lectures.

Go one-on-one with successful writers in the field. The conference includes a picnic supper Friday evening, Saturday dinner and Sunday lunch.

NOTE! Change of date to Sept was caused by hotel renovation!

Contact: manzanitawp@gmail.com
209-754-0577
209 286-8012
Look at last year's website             

Come back here soon for all the details of the 2024 conference
                    Testing
Gold Rush Writers
Antoinette May & Monika Rose
Co-Directors
8437 Center St
Mokelumne Hill, CA 95246
209 286 8012
Email Questions from Participants

email to Antoinette May
email to Monika


Hotel Leger
About Us

Maps

Registrations open January 1


Headliners
Mary Mackey
Mary Mackey
After Dinner Speaker (Saturday night)

Mary Mackey became a writer by running high fevers, tramping through tropical jungles, being swarmed by army ants, and reading.
She is the author of fourteen novels including The New York Times bestseller A Grand Passion and the Earthsong Trilogy, which follows the priestess Marrah on a heroine's journey through pre-historic Europe. She is also the author of eight collections of poetry including Sugar Zone, winner of a PEN Award; and The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams, winner of a Women's Spirituality Book Award from the California Institute of Integral Studies and the 2019 Eric Hoffer Award for Best Book Published by a Small Press. In 2023, her screenplay The Stand-In (adapted from her novel of the same title) was selected for Best Feature Film Screenplay by the City of Angels Women's Film Festival in Los Angeles. Her most recent book Creativity looks at the origins of inspiration told in a way that encourages other writers to find their own unique paths to the place where inspiration begins. Creativity was a Northern California Book Award Finalist for The Best Book of Creative Nonfiction Published in 2023.

To learn more about her and her work you are invited to visit her Website: https://marymackey.com/

Ace Antonio Hall
Ace Hall
Friday Speaker
(Ace Antonio-Hall) was born Acemandese Nzondi Hall in Queens, New York. Hall received his BFA from C. W. Post, Long Island University.

His science fiction/horror work, Oware Mosaic (Omnium Gatherum, September 2019), is the 2019 Bram Stoker Awards® Winner for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel.

Hall is a two-time Honorable Mention winner of the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Award. He is also the author of the novel, Confessions of Sylva Slasher, (Montag Press, April 2013) and a non-fiction book, Lord of the Flies: Fitness for Writers (Omnium Gatherum, April 2017).

His new novel, Lipstick Asylum (The Girl Who Could Raise the Dead) will be available in 2021, also from Omnium Gatherum Media. Follow Nzondi on his social media platforms @Nzondi3 on Twitter or as Ace Antonio Hall on Instagram and Facebook for news, books and updates.

Sands Hall
Carlos de los Rios
Sunday Brunch Talk

SANDS HALL is the author of the memoir, Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology (Counterpoint), finalist for the Northern California Book Award, and a Publishers Weekly Best Book in Religion and Spirituality. She is also the author of the novel, Catching Heaven (Ballantine), a Random House Reader's Circle selection and Willa Award finalist for best Contemporary Fiction; and a book of essays and exercises, Tools of the Writer's Craft;.

Her stories and essays have appeared in such journals as New England Review, Iowa Review, and Los Angeles Review of Books. She brings her extensive theatre experience as playwright, actor, and director, as well as her work as a singer/songwriter and performer, to her teaching. Professor Emeritus at Franklin & Marshall College, she teaches annually for the Community of Writers and for the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, among others.
She lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California.

Founder
Antoinette May

Antoinette May
Antoinette May
Antoinette May's third novel, The Determined Heart: the Tale of Mary Shelley and Her Frankenstein was published in October by the Lake Union Publishing Division of Amazon Press. Her first novel, Pilate's Wife, published in 2007 by William Morrow, has been translated into 18 languages. The Sacred Well, her second William Morrow novel, was chosen best of 2009 by the San Francisco Book Festival.

Antoinette's non-fiction includes Adventures of a Psychic which spent 44 weeks on the New York Times best seller list. She was the recipient of La Pluma de Plata, an award conferred by the Mexican Government for the best travel article on their country. She writes weekly columns for the San Francisco Chronicle and SF Gate and is a frequent contributor to the Sierra Lodestar. Antoinette's articles have appeared in Cosmopolitan, Self, Country Living, San Francisco and Sacramento magazines.
Visit antoinette's website http://www.antoinettemay.com/

Back to the Top
Determined Heart

novel The Determined Heart

Pilate's Wife

novel Pilate's Wife

Sacred Well

Latest novel Sacred Well

Hounted Houses of California

novel Haunted Houses of California

Witness to War

Witness to War

Passionate Pilgrim

Passionate Pilgriml


Co-Directors

Antoinette May
Antoinette May
Antoinette May reads Tarot cards, chases ghosts, and collects myths. Her fascination with the unknown led her to write Adventures of a Psychic which spent 42 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

Antoinette’s love of legend inspired her debut novel, Pilate’s Wife, which has been translated into 19 languages and The Sacred Well, the San Francisco Book Festival’s top place winner in 2011. A former newspaper editor, Antoinette has for years written weekly columns for the San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate. Her articles have appeared in Cosmopolitan, Self and Country Living magazines.
www.antoinettemay.com

Monika Rose
Monika Rose
Founding Director of the 501(c)3 publishing company in the Mother Lode region, Manzanita Writers Press, Monika has been affiliated with the Gold Rush Writers Conference since its inception and has attended and taught at several of the conferences over the years.

She is honored to be co-director this year and thanks the Manzanita Writers Press Board for their commitment to the project’s ongoing success. MWP facilitates local writer support groups, including Voices of Wisdom free writing classes for seniors (Zoom and live), and Manzanita Night Writers, weekly manuscript review meetings (Zoom and live).
https://monikarosewriter.com
https://manzapress.com

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