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SDWEG member, Muffy Walker celebrates the release of her debut novel, Dream Weavers. The book has received the Firebird Book Award, the Literary Titan Silver Book Award, the Hawthorne Prize, and was selected as finalist for the 2025 International Impact Book Awards in the Women's Fiction category.

Rachel, in her early twenties, was raped in her college dorm. Traumatized, she quit college. At age 28, she continued to suffer from panic attacks and sometimes hallucinated a replay of her rape.

Hadley, in her forties, has three children and a loving husband. Unfortunately, she has a form of early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Meeting in a psychiatric practice waiting room, the two women form a supportive friendship. Their bond strengthens as each struggles with individual memory issues.

Memory Weavers helps the reader to understand the struggle of each woman and shows how their conditions affect their family members. The story attests to the power of friendship. Rachel gains needed help to recover and heal while Hadley’s husband and children benefit from Rachel’s friendship as they cope with the painful decline of their parent and wife.

The KPBS San Diego Book Festival will be held on Saturday, August 23, 2025, 10 AM – 4 PM.

 Location: University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park Way, San Diego, CA 92110. 

 Admission: General admission is free; however, registration is strongly encouraged. Parking on the USD campus is complimentary for Festival attendees.

 Activities: This event is for book and library lovers of all ages. Enjoy workshops, photo booths, live entertainment, panel discussions with award-winning authors, and more!

Long time SDWEG member, Dr. Ruth Leyse Wallace, recently released her fourth book, Integrating Nutrition and Mental Health Care.

While the book is written for clinical settings, it is written in plain English and offers sensible nutritional facts. I found it helpful in my everyday life and recommend it to the general public

Here is an excerpt from the book:

Mental health counselors, psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists realize that nutrition may be a factor in their clients’ mental health, but a lack of nutritional science background and resources makes it difficult for them to incorporate nutrition into the care they provide. Likewise, registered dietitian nutritionists new to the field of mental health care (whether in a facility or in private practice) may feel the need for succinct resources geared to this area of nutritional care. Integrating Nutrition and Mental Health Care illuminates the intersection between nutrition and mental health, bridging the gap for professionals in both fields. It presents resources in areas such as caffeine intake, family history of a genetically transmitted nutrition-related condition, interpretation of laboratory nutritional assessment, and safe upper limits of supplements, as well as additional nutrition factors, helping practitioners easily incorporate selected nutritional aspects into the mental health care of clients.

Wallace received her doctorate from the University of Arizona in Tucson. She practiced clinical dietetics in the areas of mental health, eating disorders, substance abuse, and general psychiatry at Osawatomie State Hospital in Osawatomie, Kansas; at The Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas; and at Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital in San Diego, California. While in Topeka, in the early 1980s, she established one of the first private practices for nutrition counseling in the state.

Wallace served as an adjunct faculty member at Pima County College in Tucson and Mesa Community College in San Diego. She has published three books: Nutrition and Mental Health, Linking Nutrition to Mental Health: A Scientific Exploration, and The Metaparadigm of Clinical Dietetics: Derivation and Applications.

A 50-year member of the American Dietetic Association (ADA), now the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, she has been an active contributor to the Behavioral Health Nutrition (BHN) dietetic practice group in the Academy serving as Mental Health Resource Professional on the Executive Committee and as co- author of the 2018 revision of the Standards of Practice and Standards of Professional Performance for the BHN dietetic practice group. In 2010, she was presented the BHN Excellence in

Guild member, JR Stayer, JR has produced his third book in the Braxton Century series — a historical fantasy set in the late Victorian, Edwardian, and early 20th century. Braxton, as Europe hurtles toward war and revolutions ignite across continents, possesses the foresight to shape the future. He builds wealth that rivals that of Elon Musk, all while navigating two world wars, secret intelligence networks, and the deadly schemes of those who would see him ruined. Being a prince, a financial genius, and a man of varied sexual appetites, Braxton lives an enviable life and eventually becomes King of the British Empire.

For those who revel in historical persons of power and influence, your fantasies will be fulfilled.

These Truths: A History of the United States, by acclaimed historian and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore, is a one-volume history of America that is devoted to facts, proof, and evidence. The American experiment rests on three ideas―"these truths," Jefferson called them―political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. Has America lived up to them?

American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804 by Alan Taylor provides a comprehensive overview of the era. The Constitution, which provided the nation its democratic framework, is the book’s focus. Alan Taylor is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner.

1776 by David McCullough offers a compelling narrative of the Revolutionary War's early years. The book tells how the average American and Brit felt about the war. Center stage was George Washington, whose actions made a critical difference in America’s claim to independence.

Washington's Crossing by Pulitzer Prize-winning David Hackett Fischer, focuses on the pivotal battles of Trenton and Princeton. American guerrillas, defying military convention, fought in plain clothes, believing they had a natural right to take up arms in defense of their laws and liberties. It was their uprising that created an opportunity for George Washington to succeed.

In Harm's Way is an action-packed historical story set during America’s War of Independence, which is based on actual naval battles. The author explores how the settlers could not pay ship captains to work for their cause, so early American sea warriors lived as pirates and lived off their plunder of English ships. In the end, they struck fear into the hearts of British shippers around the globe.

The Central Oregon Writers’ Conference, October 17-19, 2025, at the beautiful River House Lodge will help you get where you want to go as a writer, not to mention, the conference will be so. much fun!

Register by July 1 and save $50. If you apply the discount code: COWG2024, you will save an additional $25—that’s $75 in savings if you act soon! 

PLEASE NOTE: On the shopping cart page, the banner will appear as the Southern California Writers’ Conference (tech glitch they haven’t been able to fix). BUT the cart will list your item(s) as COWC. Rest assured, you are paying for the Central Oregon Writers’ Conference.

Here are a couple of session descriptions to whet your appetite include:

Setting the Mood with Place and Purpose
Workshop leader: Kathryn (Kat) Mattingly, accomplished author and writing instructor. Setting, location, is more than just backdrop—it’s a powerful tool for establishing atmosphere and reinforcing narrative grounding. Here, we’ll distinguish the “what” from the “who,” the how, and the why.

Soul Therapy: Sculpting Your Memoir’s Story
Workshop leader: Cherie Kephart, accomplished author and writing coach who specializes in memoir (see bio on website). Writing a memoir is a journey beyond words. In this workshop, we will explore the fears that block us, the truth behind our intentions for writing our stories, how to discover the real message we are communicating, what to focus on, what to let go of, and how this entire experience transforms us.

The cart banner will be fixed by the first week in July, but if you wait until the website is perfect, you’ll miss out on your $50 discount, so register NOW!

Carpool with your writing friends [or grab a quick flight to the Redmond airport]. Enjoy a beautiful room at the Riverhouse Lodge on the Deschutes River—maybe share it with a friend. This conference will be an experience to remember.

The organizers can’t wait to see you there!

SDWEG Member, KC Grifant, has released a second in her Monster Gunslingers series. Sharpshooters Melinda and Vance come out of retirement to fight an unbeatable foe.

Melinda uses her steady hand, cool head, and a no-nonsense attitude. Her partner, Lance, brings charm along with firepower. Together, they fight a psychologically persuasive swarm of gremlins who are hellbent on world domination.

Fast-paced, full of novel twists and unexpected outcomes, Melinda fights monsters from her past as she struggles, to mentally and physically, overcome the Gremlin Queen and her hive.

 Can the couple survive and overcome?

Sounds of Yesterday is about a romantic relationship during COVID as experienced by an autistic man.

For five years, Rob and Ana overcome career challenges, achieve emotional stability, and survive a global pandemic. Though they each achieve successes, Ana ends their relationship. 

Rob’s world is shattered. He blames himself. Traumas are reopened, and forgotten insecurities play center stage in his thoughts.

As he mourns, he comes to see that Ana worked in an abusive workplace and had a harsh, demanding mother. Unable to share about the pains in her life, she slowly falls into a depression, and becomes unable to give or receive love.

SDWEG member, Peter Shaw, has released his debut novel, Murder on the Way. 

A bag of money has gone missing and the Italian mob wants it back. Joey, who found the cash in a cave, intends to make a new life, beginning with a Camino pilgrimage from France to Spain. The mob sends a hitman, Max, who poses as a pilgrim. On his way, he learns about the Camino and the history of its sites. Meanwhile, Joey hopes to evade detection with plastic surgery. Will he escape Max’s notice?

Long-time SDWEG member, M. Lee Buompensiero [we know her as Marcia] has released an award-winning novel, Sumerland. The story is full of romance, unusual hauntings, and heart-warming dog crises and mishaps.

Kate Post inherits the San Diego historical Liebersohn mansion after her mother, whom she rarely saw and barely knew, dies. Kate doesn't want the house, nor any reminder of her mother's abandonment. Leaving with every intention of returning to San Francisco, Kate stumbles and falls in front of the house. An odd inscription etched in concrete beside a garden pathway catches her eye that haunts her dreams and changes her mind. She will do a period restoration on the house and make for a quick sale. This will take it off her hands for good.

Francis and Marie-Claire Liebersohn have unfinished business—they want someone to set the record straight seventy years after their deaths. Their hauntings reveal family secrets and awaken Kate to paranormal realities. Prompted by her friend, Lulu, Kate adopts a new mission to set matters right for living relatives, including herself.

Kate’s romance with her dog’s vet seems real to life. The dog that pulls Kate into committing to a totally new life is endearing. The melting of Kate’s heart by the dog is realistic and heartwarming. The disturbing hauntings that Kate witnesses turn out to have a positive purpose. I loved this story. I couldn’t put it down.