Saturday, August 9, 2025
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM 

Where 

Napa Valley Unitarian Universalists
1625 Salvador Ave., Napa 

Open to the Public 

NVW Members: $5
Guests: $10
Students: Free with ID 

Beth Barany is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist and certified creativity coach for writers. Through her courses and coaching, she helps writers experience clarity and get writing. She co-wrote *Plan Your Novel Like A Pro* with Ezra Barany, and she's here to help writers bring their stories to life. 

With over two decades of experience, she’s helped hundreds of writers transform their creative journey from struggling with writer's block to confidently completing their novels. 

A passionate advocate for empowering storytellers, Beth has presented internationally at prestigious venues including the Ithra Center in Saudi Arabia and the Women's Fiction Festival in Italy. 

For more information about Beth's services for writers, visit https://bethbarany.com/

The Way of the Story
A provocative storytelling workshop

Drawing on 20 years as a UC Berkeley Extension journalism instructor, Tom will lead a workshop to help us think about how to make an impact and attain our goals in these topsy-turvy times.

In this engaging session, Tom will share hard-won insights and invite you into a guided brainstorm to help you:

• Clarify your creative goals

• Understand how storytelling is evolving

• Think differently about message, medium, and audience

Sample prompts from the session include:

• If storytelling is humanity’s superpower, why do so many storytellers feel powerless?

• If “the medium is the message,” is interactivity the message of the internet?

• Are modern conspiracy theories any weirder than the printing-press-era myth that women were cutting off men’s penises?

Don’t miss this fun, thought-provoking session with a writer who’s done it all—and still has questions worth asking.

To learn more about Tom or sample his current writing, visit tomabate.com/ruminations

Saturday, July 12, 2025
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM 

Where 

Napa Valley Unitarian Universalists
1625 Salvador Ave., Napa 

Open to the Public 

NVW Members: $5
Guests: $10
Students: Free with ID 

Tom Abate has worked since 1974 in nearly every medium of communication—from Navy broadcast operations in the South China Sea, to running a startup newspaper in Redwood Country, to covering Silicon Valley for the San Francisco Chronicle. He joined the Chronicle just as the internet exploded into public life, and spent nearly 20 years reporting on how tech was changing everything—from biotech to newsrooms.

Tom later became a science writer at Stanford and has taught journalism through UC Berkeley Extension for two decades. Now retired, he focuses on storytelling in the Attention Economy—where creatives struggle to find an audience as tech rewires how we think.