LARA RWA Upcoming Meetings and Topics

LARA RWA (Los Angeles Romance Authors) publishes its meeting schedule on lararwa.com, and the site currently lists monthly meetings running from February 2026 through February 2027. Meetings are held via Zoom until the organization is cleared by the State of California for group gatherings. Each listing pairs a date with a speaker and topic, though some details are still marked TBD. Visitors and guests get their first meeting free.

Meeting Schedule at a Glance

The site lists the following upcoming dates:

Note that the source page lists "January 18, 2026" and a second "February 15, 2026" after December 2026, which appears to be a typo for 2027 dates. Treat the later entries as unconfirmed until the site updates them.

What the Two Detailed Sessions Cover

February 15, 2026 — Alexis Roark on Direct Selling

This workshop focuses on what selling books directly to readers actually involves. According to the session description, it covers the costs that are usually left out of the conversation — ad spend, the time spent packing orders, and the mental overhead — and frames the reality bluntly: "you become Amazon." Attendees fill out a worksheet during the session to map out what direct sales would look like for their own situation. Time is reserved at the end for questions.

This is a useful session if you are weighing whether to sell direct versus staying with a single retailer or distributor, and you want a realistic cost picture rather than a success story.

March 15, 2026 — Laurie Schnebly on Description and Dialogue

This workshop targets two craft elements: dynamic description and delicious dialogue. The premise is that most writers are stronger in one than the other, and the session offers tools for both. The speaker's background includes advertising copywriting, counseling therapy, and romance writing — she reportedly beat Nora Roberts for "Best Special Edition of the Year" — and she teaches for WriterUniv.com, with 51 first sales from her classes.

This is a fit if you want craft instruction rather than business strategy, or if you find one of the two "D's" consistently harder to write.

Practical Details for Attending

• Format: Meetings are held via Zoom until the State of California clears group gatherings. Check the site for the current status before planning to attend in person.
• Cost for first-timers: Your first meeting is free as a visitor or guest.
• Pre-meeting sessions: Some listings include a pre-meeting slot, currently marked TBD for the February and March dates.
• Dates to verify: The January 2026 and second February 2026 entries appear out of sequence and may be errors. Confirm before relying on them.

How to Decide Which Meeting to Attend

If your goal is business strategy — pricing, distribution, whether direct sales make sense for your career stage — the February session with Alexis Roark is the more relevant one. If your goal is improving the prose itself, the March session with Laurie Schnebly is the better fit. For the remaining 2026 dates, the site has not yet posted speakers or topics, so there is nothing to compare yet. Since the first meeting is free, attending one session is a low-commitment way to see whether LARA's programming matches what you need.