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September 19 to 21, 2025. The third annual Pen & Pier retreat!
By Ute Orgassa The weather was lovely, and the spirits were high when members of Pen & Pier descended on SLO locations for their third annual writing retreat. This year’s motto was: “A Tidal Wave of Inspiration,” and we followed this theme over three days. The first evening, we did a book-binding project. Our resident…
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We Are On Social Media!
Pen & Pier is building our online presence in order to expand the group as well as promote our anthology and future events and anthology sub calls.Our leadership has put together a Substack, Facebook group, Instagram, Bluesky, and have updated our website to all match P&P!Do not feel pressured to join or follow all the…
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Writing Consistently and Persistently: an Interview with Katherine Bonn
What is your name/pen name/ name you are comfortable giving us? Katherine Bonn, for now. I suspect there may be another pen name in my future. What project or projects, if any, are you currently working on? This summer I’ve mostly been working on editing the Pen & Pier anthology, Rough Seas & Strange Yarns…
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Prompts for August 2025
August 25 Your protagonist goes to a masquerade party in which they’re completely anonymous for exactly one hour. Free from societal expectations, their true character begins to emerge. You might say they trade one mask for another. August 18 Characters find motivation when they want something they can’t have. When we can build that into…
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Get Ready to Write: Our Third Annual Writing Retreat is Coming Next Month
This Fall we’ll meet in Grover Beach and Oceano for our annual Writing Retreat. This year’s theme, “a tidal wave of inspiration,” is inspired by our 2025 anthology and will feature: Schedule Friday 5pm–8pm at SLO Life Studio & Mercantile Before we write, we’ll spend an evening learning to make our own books in a…
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The Pros and Cons of Indie and Traditional Publishing
On Aug. 17 authors Jeannin Counts and Kalyn Josephson met at Two Broads Ciderworks to discuss the pros and cons of independent and traditional novel publishing. We talked about many aspects of going with an established company versus going it alone, and a few points stood out. Marketing Using the right labels, or keywords, is…
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Two Authors Talk Indie vs Traditional Publishing
Sunday, August 17, Pen & Pier and The Cove Booksellers will host local authors Jeannin Counts and Kalyn Josephson will discuss indie vs traditional publishing. When: 2–4pm Sunday August 17, 2025 Where: Two Broads Ciderworks’ new location in SLO, (860B Capitolio Way, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401) About the speakers Local SLO author Jeannin Counts…
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Prompts for July 2025
July 28 This week’s writing prompt is an open ended one. Remember, any interpretation is appropriate! The phrase is: But these days, writer’s block feels more like … July 21 This week’s prompt gets to the heart of most character arcs: Tell us about a mistake that one of your MCs keeps making. How do…
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Writing with Gratitude: an Interview with Barbara Swihart Miller
What is your name/pen name/name you are comfortable giving us? Barbara Swihart Miller What project or projects, if any, are you currently working on? I have so many projects that are in the process of being written. The most prominent one, my WWII novel, that I believe I am ⅔ of the way through my…
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Eco-horror Book Giveaway
Local author Nicholas Belardes’ latest novel, The Deading, takes place in Baywood (that is, fictional Baywood Park) … and we held a giveaway for a signed copy of his book. To enter, writers pitched book ideas that could only take place in SLO County to our Discord server. We randomly selected a winner at our…
