About Us
Word Pirates is an independent writing group in Petaluma, California. We get together twice a month to practice the art of creative writing. Our goals are to:
a. produce new work, preferably short, publishable pieces
b. focus on and encourage publishing
c. practice reading aloud and critiquing each other
d. socialize and have fun
We consider ourselves a professional group for people who take writing seriously. However, we do not take ourselves too seriously—thus our name.
Word Pirates was founded by Leona Laurie, Joy Lanzendorfer, and Marcia Simmons. Our inaugural meeting was Thursday, April 6, 2006.
Founders:
Marcia Simmons is an author services manager for Federated Media Publishing. She was managing editor at the North Bay Business Journal, a New York Times publication in Santa Rosa and a contributor and editor for Project Censored’s annual book of the top censored stories. With the help of Word Pirates, Marcia hopes to write more creative non-fiction, humorous essays and short stories. She maintains a very silly blog here.
Joy Lanzendorfer is freelance writer living in Petaluma. Her work has appeared in Salon, Writer’s Digest, The Writer, Bay Nature, San Francisco Chronicle, Bitch, Paste, Scholastic Instructor, East Bay Express, and many others. She just completed her MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and is working on a novel.
Leona Laurie is a recovering entrepreneur, currently paying her bills as a marketing professional, who is taking baby steps as a writer. She has recently transitioned from writing and speaking about professional organizing to writing about things she
finds interesting. Her online portfolio can be seen here.
