Save the Date!
March 27, 2010
Celebrity Authors’ Luncheon
DoubleTree Resort, Santa Barbara
Featured Authors
Elizabeth Berg
The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted
Elizabeth Berg is the New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including Dream When You’re Feeling Blue, We Are All Welcome Here, The Year of Pleasures, The Art of Mending, Say When, True to Form, Never Change, and Open House, which was an Oprah’s Book Club selection in 2000. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed short story collection The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted. Durable Goods and Joy School were selected as ALA Best Books of the Year, and Talk Before Sleep was short-listed for the ABBY award in 1996. The winner of the 1997 New England Booksellers Award for her body of work, Berg is also the author of a nonfiction work, Escaping into the Open: The Art of Writing True. She lives in Chicago. Learn more at www.elizabeth-berg.net.
Sandra Brown
Rainwater
Sandra Brown is the author of fifty-eight New York Times bestsellers, including Smash Cut, Smoke Screen, Play Dirty, Ricochet, Chill Factor, White Hot, Hello, Darkness, The Crush, Envy, The Switch, The Alibi, Unspeakable and Fat Tuesday, all of which have jumped onto The New York Times bestseller list in the number one to five spot. Her new novel RAINWATER (Simon & Schuster; November 3, 2009) takes Brown into the realm of historical fiction with a powerfully moving story about horror and sacrifice during the Great Depression, and about love in all its forms.
Brown began her writing career in 1981 and since then has published seventy-two novels, most of which remain in print. As of 1990, when Mirror Image made the New York Times bestseller list, each subsequent new novel has become a Times bestseller. In 1992, her novel French Silk was made into an ABC-TV movie. Brown now has seventy million copies of her books in print worldwide, and her work has been translated into thirty-three languages. Sandra and her husband Michael Brown live in Arlington, Texas. Learn more at www.sandrabrown.net
Kate Jacobs
Knit the Season
Best-selling author Kate Jacobs grew up near Vancouver, British Columbia, and moved to New York to pursue a Master’s Degree. A journalist, she worked with such magazines as Redbook, Working Woman and Family Life and was later a freelance writer and editor at the website for Lifetime Television.
Kate is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Friday Night Knitting Club, Knit Two, Knit the Season, and Comfort Food. Being accessible to readers is a priority: She blogs at katejacobs.com, tweets at twitter.com/KateJacobsBooks and frequently telephones book clubs to join in their discussions. Kate makes her home in Southern California with her husband and their dog.
Carol Leifer
When you Lie About Your Age, the Terrorists Win
Carol Leifer is an accomplished stand-up comedian, and an Emmy-nominated writer and producer for her work on such television shows as Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show, Saturday Night Live and The Academy Awards. She has starred in several of her own comedy specials which have aired on HBO, Showtime and Comedy Central. Her “big break” came when David Letterman unexpectedly showed up one night at The Comic Strip in New York City and caught Leifer’s show. His visit led to twenty-five guest appearances on Late Night with David Letterman. Carol has also been seen on The Tonight Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, Conan O’Brien, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. She starred in and created the WB sitcom, Alright Already. She lives in Santa Monica with her partner, their son and seven rescue dogs. Learn more at http://www.carolleifer.com
Featured Author’s (non-interviewed)
Michael Byrne
The New Adobe Home
Jack Canfield
Chicken Soup for the Soul
Michele Carbone
Friday Evening ~ Creating La Dolce Vita, One Bite at a Time
Monique Fay
Book of Fay
Deborah Hutchison
Put It in Writing
Elizabeth Layman
A Sweet Beginning
Roy Mankovitz
The Wellness Project: A Rocket Scientist’s Blueprint for Health
Arlene Radasky
The Fox
Nancy Spiller
Entertaining Disasters: A Novel (With Recipes)
Flavia Weedn
Gift Books
Dr. Ed Wimberly
Parenting with an Attitude
Ernie Witham
A Year in the Life of a Working Writer
Judi & Shari Zucker
The Double Energy Diet
*For event information please call (805) 682-3925.
Celebrity Authors’ Luncheon 2009
In March 2009, the CALM Auxiliary produced the 23rd Annual Celebrity Authors’ Luncheon. Co-chairs Sharon Bifano and Stephanie Ortale have been driving forces behind the event since 1987. Interviewed authors this year included Jaqueline Winspear, Maisie Dobbs, Kristin Armstrong, Work in Progress: An Unfinished Woman’s Guide to Grace, Leonard Downey Jr., The Rules of the Game, Larry Wilmore, I’d Rather We Got Casinos and Other Black Thoughts, and Selden Edwards, The Little Book, who was also this year’s Honorary Chair. Jack Canfield, author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, has been the Master of Ceremonies for the last twelve years.
2009 Claire Miles Award Recipients
Richard and Marguerite Berti
The CALM Auxiliary established the Claire Miles Award in tribute and memory of Claire Miles and her dedication and commitment to keeping children safe in our community. This annual award is an opportunity to remember her work and to honor an individual or individuals who embody her spirit and dedication. This year the Auxiliary honored Richard and Marguerite Berti for their outstanding support of CALM. The award was presented with our most sincere gratitude for their tremendous commitment and dedication to CALM.
Media comments regarding the March 8th, 2008 Luncheon:
CASA Magazine “One of the most highly anticipated Literary Events is just around the corner…It combines big name authors with local celebrities.” February 15, 2008
The Santa Barbara Independent-Author Lisa See said: ” … I have had so many friends who are writers who have gone to this event. For years, people have been telling me that it’s a fabulous book event-one of the best ones in the whole country-and that it’s a real coup to get invited as an author.” February 28, 2008
Author and Producer Gary David Goldberg: “The CALM event was spectacular, Lovely people. Great cause. I sold a trillion books. This was all I could have hoped for.”
