Events › Building a Writing Life in the Bay Area: Community Conversation with Gail Carriger, Susie Hara and Karen Nelson

Part of Indie Author Fest 2025

Do you wonder how to build a sustainable writing routine, especially when other responsibilities and expenses make demands on your time and energy? Are you curious about local literary organizations, workshops, residencies, reading series and other outlets for connecting to creative community? Maybe you want to ask questions about indie publishing to writers with varied first-hand experiences.

For all this and more, join us for a roundtable discussion and Q&A on everything related to building a writing life, particularly here in the Bay Area.

Gail Carriger has multiple NYT bestsellers and millions of books in print in dozens of different languages. She writes book hugs--comedies of manners mixed with steampunk, urban fantasy, or sci-fi (and cozy queer joy as GL Carriger). She is best known for the Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School series. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, octopuses, and tea. Gailcarriger.com 

Susie Hara is the author of the novels Earthquake Shack, The House on Ashbury Street, and Finder of Lost Objects, which was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist and winner of an International Latino Book Award. Her stories have appeared in Fractured Lit, Best American Erotica, and The New York Times. A member of the writing communities The Ruby and Page Street Writers, she lives and works in San Francisco. https://susiehara.net

Karen Nelson is the author of the novels The Sunken Town and The Last Summer at Feather River (forthcoming May 2026 from Sibylline Press). She is also the co-founder of the nonprofit Writing By Writers. During her long career in nonprofits she has protected open space, funded cancer research, trained people to complete endurance events, and helped writers bring their work into the world. When not organizing writing workshops, she can be found hiking with her dog, reading, traveling, experimenting in the kitchen, and hosting dinner parties. She writes for various publications and is at work on her next novel.