Writers Helping Writers
Hosted by San Mateo Public Library
2nd Thursday of most months (check back for updates)
Produced by the San Francisco Peninsula branch of the California Writers Club
Thursday, April 9
Writers Helping Writers
Geri Spieler
The Reporter’s Toolkit:
Bringing Journalistic Skills to Fiction
This presentation shows how investigative techniques—research, interviewing, and fact verification—can bring fiction to life. Award-winning journalist Geri Spieler reveals how reporters’ methods build authenticity, depth, and credibility in storytelling. Perfect for novelists seeking truth in their imagination.
Geri Spieler has written about a woman who shot at a sitting U.S. president. Using her high-level investigative skills, she got Washington to open the file of what really happened the day she shot at President Ford instead of what the FBI covered up. In her breakthrough book, Housewife Assassin—The Woman Who Tried to Kill President Ford (Diversion Books), Spieler reveals the true story of Sara Jane Moore, a mother and doctor’s wife who lived in the country club community of Danville in 1975 for 18 months, and tried to assassinate the president, missing his head by six inches. The book has a three-book deal with a new publisher.
Geri is the immediate past president of the San Francisco Peninsula branch of the California Writers Club and has authored articles in numerous publications. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Forbes. As a Research Director for Gartner, a global technology advising company. She was a regular contributor to Truthdig.com, an award-winning investigative reporting website and also a contributor for the Huffington Post. She is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Authors Guild, the Women’s National Book Association, the Internet Society, and the Book Critics Circle. Her latest published book is the first of the Regina trilogy. It is historical fiction based on her grandmother’s life.
~~~
Attend these free events at the San Mateo Public Library.
Upcoming presenters
May 14, 2026 - TBD
Presentations are on the second Thursday of the month, from 6:30 - 8:00pm.
Geri Spieler
The Reporter’s Toolkit
About Writers Helping Writers at
San Mateo Public Library
The San Francisco Peninsula branch of CWC hosts a Writers Helping Writers program at the San Mateo Public Library on the second Thursday of the month from 6:30 to 8 pm. This event is managed by CWC member David Strom and co-sponsored by Tuula Laine, a librarian at the library and a member of the San Francisco Peninsula CWC.
Each month, CWC SF Peninsula branch members share learned techniques and experiences in their craft. From scoping out your memoir to finding inspiration for a poem to plotting your novel to learning the ins and outs of blogging—we teach what we’ve learned. This is an opportunity for all writers to meet and share their experiences.
Our purpose? To pass on what we’ve discovered to help other writers.
Anyone can attend, free of charge.
Watch this space for announcements of the month’s topic. Meetings are in-person only.