The balcony curmudgeons are my favorite muppet characters. I hope, in the future, to offer some need-based scholarships, and if you send me an email, I'll contact you if/when that happens. I've made a genuine effort to price my workshops fairly. For example, my UCLA extension courses run $575. Novel manuscript consultations are usually a few thousand. In New Mexico, I did some web work for the Senior Writer's Outreach Project, which ran workshops from a local Senior Center. There might be a similar program at work here in Sacramento. If I hear of any, I'll let you know.

I'm not surprised, and in fact, am delighted to hear writing is thriving in Sacramento. I know the poetry community is strong, and I admire the organizational ability and efforts of the folks at the Sacramento Poetry Center, who seem tireless in their efforts to promote local writers. What I haven't seen so far, with the exception of California Lectures, which clearly brings venerable writers to Sacramento, is a regular prose reading series geared more toward showcasing local writers. If one already exists, I'd be happy to learn more about it, and help support/sustain it if I can. If not, I have some ideas about how/where to begin one. I can be reached via my website or via Facebook if anyone would like to start a dialogue about this and/or writing in general.