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*** CALENDAR ALERT ***SAVE THE DATE

WRITING IN THE GARDEN OF THE GODS
Field’s End Writers’ Conference 2008

WHO: This year’s line-up of authors and speakers includes: Roy Blount, Jr. (keynote speaker), Stephanie Kallos (opening speaker), Knute Berger, Alice Acheson, Lyall Bush, Laura Kalpakian, Thomas Kohnstamm, Rosina Lippi aka Sara Donati, Jennifer Louden, Nancy Pagh, George Shannon, Charley Pavlosky, Sheila Rabe aka Sheila Roberts, Suzanne Selfors, David Wagoner, and Timothy Egan (closing speaker). Professional actor Ron Milton will be on hand for the Page One sessions.

WHAT: Third annual Field’s End Writers’ Conference, “Writing in the Garden of the Gods.”

WHEN: Saturday, April 26, 2008
9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

WHERE: Kiana Lodge
14976 Sandy Hook Rd. NE
Poulsbo, WA 98370

DETAILS: This one-day conference, held at the spectacularly beautiful Kiana Lodge near Bainbridge Island, is a combination of lectures and breakout sessions presented by an eclectic group of people in the literary world.

The day offers three groupings of breakout sessions. Guests will select three workshops to attend according to their interest (literary fiction, poetry, nonfiction, screen writing, dialogue, genre, travel writing, editing, journalism, historical fiction, and commercial fiction). Each breakout session will also offer a Page One workshop, where conference guests can anonymously submit the first page of something they’ve written for possible live reading and critique by the guest authors.

Lunch is provided and there will be an early evening wine and cheese reception and book signing providing conference guests, authors, and speakers a chance to mingle. Shuttle buses will be available to carry walk-on ferry passengers to and from Kiana Lodge.

Registration begins February 1, 2008. Early registration is recommended as the conference is limited to 250 guests and has sold out in the past. Cost to attend is $135 if you register before February 28, 2008 and $150 after March 1, 2008. Groups of 5 or more can register for $130/person. To register for the 2008 Field’s End Writers’ Conference, visit www.fieldsend.org.

Founded in 2002, Field’s End is a writers’ community whose mission is to inspire writers and nurture the written word through lectures, workshops, and instruction in the art and craft of writing. Located across the Puget Sound from Seattle on beautiful Bainbridge Island, Field’s End is an affiliate of the nonprofit Bainbridge Public Library, which is located at 1270 Madison Avenue on Bainbridge Island. For more information, call (206) 842-4162 or visit www.fieldsend.org.

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MEDIA CONTACT:
Kirsten Graham
Concept 2 Launch
(206) 890-3435
kirsten@concept2launch.net

kirsten graham
c o n c e p t 2 l a u n c h, LLC
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innovation.connections.results
t.206.890.3435
e:kirsten@concept2launch.net
www.concept2launch.net

Back when I was an aspiring writer, I would have done anything to get my material read. The Internet makes it easier these days, sort of. Check this out–an article about the Amazon/Penguin search for new writers, with a mention of the Gather/Borders/S&S writing competition. What do you think? Is this a good opportunity for aspiring writers? Does it motivate you? If you need inspiration, there’s still time to register for The Fire in Fiction workshop.

I used to really not like Donald Maass, an author, literary agent and lecturer on the art and craft of writing. He had a habit of saying things that annoy writers, like, “Who cares?” and “How can you make this matter more?” Why didn’t I like him? Why did I get annoyed? Because his insights and questions, outlined in his books and workshops, forced me to work harder than ever on my novels.

His directness forces a writer to take a cold, hard look at her own work. And painfully often, to spot its weaknesses.

Then, as I internalized the lessons in Don’s books and workshops, I noticed a deeper understanding of craft, and I started liking this guy. A lot. I used to be stuck in a quandary about some of the most fundamental aspects of the novel–stakes, antagonists, theme, premise. Particularly building high stakes and creating a compelling antagonist. I used to think my books were lacking in that area. There’s no fate-of-the-world-hanging-in-the-balance. No evil overlord or great battle of good v. evil. Then, reading Writing the Breakout Novel, I had an epiphany: These elements were all present in my fiction. I could make the reader believe it by using techniques of craft like building high human value–making the reader care deeply about my characters.

Donald Maass’s upcoming book, The Fire in Fiction, further explores the concepts that consume a fiction writer. He offers practical methods of bringing passion to fiction writing—every day, every page. The book is slated for publication in 2008 by Writers Digest Press.

He also discusses a topic near and dear to our hearts–how to write not just one terrific book, but to build an entire body of work with consistent quality.

“You know how some novels by your favorite authors disappoint?” he asks. “You wonder, did the author rush or have a bad year?” Not only does he pose these tough questions. He has some answers for us.

“Then there are other writers whose every book is a powerhouse,” Maass observes. “Every novel feels passionate. How do such authors stay on top of their game? More to the point, how does passion find its way on to the page? What does ‘passion’ mean when you’re creating characters, or building the world of the novel?”

Field’s End, an affiliate of the Bainbridge Library, is bringing us an exclusive preview of The Fire in Fiction on Saturday, October 13 at the Bainbridge Pavilion. Both the book and the workshop are geared for professional, published novelists…and for fiction writers who are on their way.

All of Maass’s works have guided writers through the process of making a career out of creating fiction. The Career Novelist addresses the writer’s journey from creative dreamer to published pro. Writing the Breakout Novel and The Breakout Novel Workbook contain practical advice for marrying good writing with good storytelling, elevating craft to the level of art.

Maass is one of the most well-read professionals in the industry, and his books cite techniques from a range of writers, from Barbara Cartland to Margaret Atwood to James Patterson.

“I’m a literary agent in New York City,” Maass explains. “I opened my agency in 1980, after working as an editor. Today my company represents more than 100 novelists and sells more than 100 novels every year to major publishers here and overseas. I…teach workshops all over the country. I’m a past president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, Inc., the national trade association for literary agents. I’m also a fan of the Northwest. My wife [independent editor Lisa Rector-Maass] is from Vancouver, B.C. I spend a lot of time out here.”

He’s been a library patron from birth–or maybe even before that! “My mother is a librarian. She worked at Yale University most of her life, but in retirement she works part time at her local town library. Now, my mom is proud of me but doesn’t completely get what I do. One day the head librarian at her library asked me to come give a talk on getting published. I did, and the place was packed. It was the largest turnout they’d ever had. My mom stood in the back, beaming. I’ve written seventeen books, have sold hundreds of others to major publishers, run a multi-million dollar business…but it was a talk at the local library that finally convinced my mom that I’m for real.”

You can find out more about Donald Maass at his web site, www.maassagency.com, and about the upcoming workshop at www.fieldsend.org.

So join us, if you’re in the area. Registration info and directions are here.

Maybe he’ll annoy you. But–no maybe about it–he’ll make you a better writer.

I have the best little writers’ group on the island and we’re celebrating the debut novel of one of our members. Suzanne Selfors is having a gala launch for her novel, To Catch A Mermaid, an exuberant adventure for young readers. If you’re in the area, stop by the Eagle Harbor Book Company on Sunday, September 9 at 3:00pm. Wear your Viking helmet!

Never has the term “homegrown” been more fitting. Everything about debut author Suzanne Selfors is homegrown, from her Bainbridge Island childhood to her spectacular organic garden, which surrounds the historic house built by her pioneer ancestors. On a storybook farm, filled with blooming flowers and orchards, heirloom tomatoes, free-ranging chickens, ducks and bunnies, Suzanne might seem as though she inhabits a Disney movie.

However, like many writers, she has her dark-and-twisty side, too. This is evident in her first novel, To Catch a Mermaid, a rollicking fantasy adventure with an irresistible balance of humor, the sort that’s broad enough to appeal to kids and sly enough to please their parents. Suzanne’s books also feature the sort of pathos and danger that brings to mind Roald Dahl at his very best. Maybe it’s that Nordic sensibility–Suzanne’s ancestors came from Norway and settled on Bainbridge in the 19^th century.

Although she has homegrown roots, Suzanne also has a first class education. She studied at Bennington College in Vermont and graduated from Occidental College in Pasadena, California. She earned a Master’s in communications from UW, married a pilot and moved into a house on the island that has been in her family for generations.

Suzanne’s favorite library memory is of the day she found a stray dog hanging around outside the library door–an adorable cockapoo. “We ended up adopting her and she was the family dog through most of my childhood. We always joked that she was the very best thing we ever checked out from the library.”

Today, one of her favorite features of the library is the books on tape, which she listens to on long walks. “Right now I’m listening to StarGirl by Jerry Spinelli,” she reports. And of course, the library is the ideal place for this busy mother of two to get some writing done. “I use the back tables all the time. Plug in my laptop and escape from the distractions of my house. I get tons of work done.”

Note that she calls writing work. Over the years, I’ve encountered many emerging and aspiring writers. Hundreds, really. But of those hundreds, very few understand the work involved in the process and then make the journey to being published. Like Dorothy’s journey through Oz, there are all kinds of pitfalls along the way. The first time I met Suzanne, she was an emerging writer just finishing her first full-length novel. Almost immediately, I knew she would one day join the ranks of the published. She had the smarts, creativity, drive and stick-to-it-iveness that it takes to launch and sustain a writing career. And the talent.

Behind every “overnight success” is a plan that might be years in the making. Suzanne joined the first-ever novel-writing class offered by Field’s End through the library. Instructor Michael Collins, an acclaimed writer based in Bellingham, was her teacher and mentor in the class.

Suzanne’s writing quickly gained the attention of one of the top literary agents in New York City. Michael Bourret of the Jane Dystel Agency responded to the unpublished manuscript with the kind of enthusiasm a writer dreams of: “When I first read To Catch a Mermaid, I was blown away,” he says. “It’s rare to find a novel that feels like a classic the first time you read it, but that’s exactly [the way this story] reads. It reminded me so much of books and authors I’d loved from my childhood, like Mary Rodgers’s Freaky Friday or the novels of Roald Dahl, and I could imagine children for decades falling in love with this timeless story.”

Michael was not alone in his enthusiasm. The book was sold at auction–something that is exceedingly rare for a first novel–and landed with Little, Brown. Michael has high hopes for To Catch a Mermaid, certain of its broad appeal, “which feels both nostalgic and modern.”

In addition to writing an incredibly strong novel, Suzanne followed it up with not one but two encores–a second middle-grade fantasy novel for Little, Brown and a young adult literary comedy for Bloomsbury. The author’s professionalism and creativity were a huge plus for this agent. “Suzanne, as an author, is a dream,” Michael comments. “She writes from the heart, and has a burning desire to tell stories (and not just for children). She will have a long, successful career writing many kinds of books, and I’m really honored to be a part of her world.”

He has no idea. I wonder how Michael, a native Brooklynite, would fit in with the duck pond and henhouses?

Way to go, Suz! You’re living the dream!

How to Read Like a Grown-upSuzanne Selfors’s All-Time Favorite Books

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

The Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

…take a class from Field’s End. Registration starts tomorrow. Fall Writing Classes from Field’s End 

Bainbridge Island, WA - Registration opens August 15 for three Fall 2007 writing classes from Field’s End, named “Best Writers’ Community 2006″ by Seattle Weekly.  On tap are a college entrance essay class, an historical writing class, and a class on new forms in creative nonfiction. 

For the college bound student, Marian Merkel will teach “Who I Am: Writing the Personal Essay for College Applications.” New York Times best-selling author Susan Wiggs will facilitate the class. This is an opportunity for motivated high school students to examine the college essay from the standpoint of writing craft and then create an essay that truly represents who they are. Participants will learn how to find their voice and write about their dreams and goals with emotion, specific imagery, and self-awareness.  The class will be limited to 12 students and cost $80.  It meets Tuesdays September 25 and October 2 from 7-9:00 p.m. at the Kallgren Room, Bainbridge Commons.  Pre-registration is essential. No on-site registration will be permitted. 

Instructor Marian Merkel has guided high school students to select the appropriate university and helped them write their personal essays for more than a decade.  She has had many years experience as a speech writer for local government officials.  Merkel holds degrees from Whitman College and Yale University.  Award-winning novelist Susan Wiggs, facilitator for this class, holds an MA from Harvard University, taught for eleven years in public and private schools, and has served on the Harvard Schools Committee.  For the past five years, Wiggs has mentored students in their college application process.

Award-winner Kathleen Alcalá will teach “Bringing History Alive in Fiction” on Monday evenings October 15, 22, 29 and November 5, 12, and 19 from 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. at the Bainbridge Public Library, 1270 Madison Avenue North, Bainbridge Island.  The class costs $240 and is limited to 15 students.  Writers of all levels are welcome.

The timeless appeal of a beautifully imagined historical novel is one readers of all ages find irresistible. This six-week course will focus on shaping historical research and source materials into fiction that appeals to the modern audience. The facts and sensory details of history help evoke a vivid sense of time and place, but it is the emotional development of characters that brings fiction to life. Participants will explore the balance of keeping characters true to their historical period while also establishing commonalities with the contemporary reader.

Alcalá is the author of the recent essay collection, The Desert Remembers My Name: On Family and Writing, a short story collection, Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist, and three novels: Spirits of the Ordinary, The Flower in the Skull, and Treasures in Heaven.  Her work has received the Western States Book Award, the governor’s Writers Award, a Pacific Northwest Bookseller’s Award, and a Washington State Book Award.  A co-founder and contributing editor to The Raven Chronicles, she is currently serving on the board of Richard Hugo House.  Alcalá’s work has been included in several anthologies and a conversation with her was included in Multicultural American - Conversations with Contemporary Authors, recently published by Nibir K. Ghosh. 

“Writing the Literary Collage” will feature popular writing instructor and award-winning author Priscilla Long.  This class will meet on Wednesday October 10, 17, 24, and 31 at the Kallgren Room, Bainbridge Commons, from 6:30 - 9:00 p.m.  The class will be limited to 12 students and cost $200. 

The collage and its first cousin, the abecedarian, are marvelous forms of creative nonfiction that suit a wide variety of subject matters. In this nonfiction class students will scrutinize models of the form, and each will write one as well. In the process participants will work intensely on craft skills (language as sound, sophisticated sentencing, etc.),  honing observational skills to make writing more keenly observant and deeply insightful. 

 Priscilla Long is an award-winning poet, short story writer, journalist and master writing teacher.  In 2006, Priscilla Long was honored with a National Magazine Award for best feature writing for her work, “Genome Tome: Twenty-three Ways of Looking at Our Ancestors” (The American Scholar: Science Matters.  Summer 2005).  Her work has appeared in The American Scholar, Raven Chronicles, First Intensity, American Letters & Commentary, among many others. She serves as Senior Editor of the online encyclopedia of Washington state history, www.historylink.org.  Long is author of Where the Sun Never Shines: a History of America’s Bloody Coal Industry.  Among Long’s many awards is The Journal’s Creative Nonfiction Prize, the Richard Hugo House Founder’s Award, and a Seattle Arts Commission award. She holds an MFA from the University of Washington. 

Registration materials for the Fall 2007 Writing Classes may be found online at www.fieldsend.org and at the Bainbridge Public Library, 1270 Madison Ave. N, Bainbridge Island.  Pre-registration for each class is essential. Questions? Ask the Field’s End Registrar: registrar@fieldsend.org. 

Tuition assistance is available through the Jack Olsen (Memorial) Tuition Assistance Fund. Apply for tuition assistance through the class registration form. 

Field’s End, founded in 2002 by PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author David Guterson, among others, exists to inspire writers and nurture the written word.  Field’s End sponsors writing classes, the free monthly Writers’ Roundtable on the third Tuesday of the month at the Bainbridge Public Library, lectures and special events, and the third annual Writers’ Conference, “Writing in the Garden of the Gods,” to be held on April 26, 2008 at Kiana Lodge, Poulsbo.  Information about Field’s End’s programs may be found at www.fieldsend.org.

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 Writing Classes at Field’s End

Registration opens August 15 for Field’s End Fall 2007 Writing Classes.  “Who I Am: Writing the Personal Essay for College Applications,” with Marian Merkel, “Bringing History Alive in Fiction” with Kathleen Alcalá, and “Writing the Literary Collage” with Priscilla Long.  Details and registration materials available online at www.fieldsend.org or at the Bainbridge Public Library.  Pre-registration essential. 

Reminder–registration is about to close for both the online workshop, Making a Good Book Great, and the live one on Whidbey Island, Washington. Hope to see you there!

Here’s a chance to meet one of the best writers and teachers I know. Work with the incomparable taskmaster on the deepest, most essential part of your story. His most popular workshop will take place online throughout the month of July, so it’s a short commute for everyone on the Web. No excuses! Go for it.

The Original Idea: The Heart of Your Story

Instructor: Bob Mayer

Can you say what your book is about in 25 words or less? This is essential to both writing a tight book and then selling it. In our first online class, we’ll discuss ways to find and state your original idea so that you can excite the reader and stay on course while writing the book. Participants will get the opportunity to share their idea and have it discussed by the instructor and group in an interactive e-mail format. The instructor will post daily with topics for discussion, assignments, general commentary, feedback and responses to specific queries from students. We’ll find out what you really meant to write and the level of interest it generates. All will profit, not just the students whose ideas are discussed, as this workshop will show you how to focus your creative energies.

When: July 1-31, 2007

Tuition and class size: $50, limited to 50 participants

Where: In Cyberspace

Registration: Click here to register online. There will be no registration by mail for this class.

‘Tis done. We talked, sang, laughed, cried, created, learned, ate and had an incredible day at the Field’s End conference. Thanks to all the amazing speakers and writers who participated. Special thanks to the Bainbridge Island Beach Cottage for providing accommodations. There’s a slide show of the event here. Happy writing to all!

Authors Carol Cassella, Michael Donnelly, Mickey Molnaire at Kiana Lodge.

I inhaled this book. My copy of The Penny Tree came in the mail last week, and I took a peek, thinking I’d just sample it and then put it on my TBR pile. Many hours later, in the middle of the night, I was still curled up in my favorite chair, still reading. And when I got to the end, I felt like flipping back to the beginning and reading it all over again. It’s that good. So good that it made me want to take my daughter out into the garden and nail a penny to a tree. So please, treat yourself. Do it now. You’ll thank me.

I first met Holly at the Maui Writers Conference, in the intensive pre-conference retreat. Picture ten writers in a room at a tropical resort, madly reading, critiquing and revising each other’s novels. Okay, don’t picture it. Not a pretty sight, especially because they put me in charge of a group, and I am notoriously messy.

The students in my group that year were talented, intense and driven, but none moreso than Holly. The first thing that struck me was how very generous she was with her fellow writers in the group. But what I remember most of all is reading the draft of her manuscript, a novel called The Tin Box, and getting that twisty feeling in the gut that you get when you realize you’ve discovered something. I was thrilled for Holly, but not at all surprised, when the book was picked up by publishers worldwide and released to great acclaim. Attending the right writers’ conference can be invaluable–believe it.

Now Holly’s third novel, The Penny Tree, is about to be published, yet again to great acclaim. It’s been picked up by foreign publishers and book clubs. If you like really delicious, emotional women’s fiction, this one’s for you. Here’s a brief interview with the always-entertaining Holly Kennedy. She is a kindred spirit, a woman with a great heart, a busy life and a first-class blog. Enjoy!

Q. Okay, tell us what The Penny Tree is all about.

It’s a story about a woman (Annie Hillman) who’s offered a second shot at happiness while coping with the fall-out from her failed marriage. It involves a determined anonymous admirer, a handful of anonymous ads, and the complicated emotional terrain of a family slowly torn apart by their child’s life threatening illness. 

Q.  Do you have a Penny Tree of your own?

A.  No, but I wish I’d been given one when I was growing up, because there were times when I sure could have used one!

Q.  Are parts of the story based on real-life events?

A.  Yes, there are a few that were borrowed from my life. For example, at a recent family reunion, one of my nieces walked into a plate glass window at a restaurant, followed later by my husband, who was followed by his father moments after that. To me, it was hilarious, because they were from the same family, and I knew I wanted to use this in The Penny Tree. There are more, but any smatterings of fact have been carefully blended into the story. However, to clarify, I’ve never seen a drive-in movie theater burn down, I’ve never met a crazy woman with a feather duster in her back pocket, and my boys have never shaved their heads (yet).

Q.  Are any of the characters based on people you know?

A.  None of them, although there are coincidences that have been ‘borrowed’ from my life here, too. Unlike Annie, I wasn’t adopted. I’ve never been fired. And I can say with confidence that I’d make a horrible physical therapist. Sadly, though, my nephew was diagnosed with Hystiocytosis when he was three, although he did survive and is now a healthy young man. I have a Newfoundland dog (Sully) and like Annie, I bought my boys goldfish that refused to die, the same goldfish my husband revived with a turkey baster four years later when our air stone tanked.

Q.  Your main character often lacks confidence in her role as a mother. Was this intentional? 

A.  Yes, mostly because this reflects how I feel as a mother. No matter how old we get, we never stop growing or changing, and being a mother is a delicate balancing act as you guide these little minds through life, even though yours often needs guidance as well. So to me, making Annie appear wholly confident in her role as a mother wouldn’t make her real. 

Q. In the book, it says, ‘Some people meditated or did yoga before they started their day. Others jogged. Annie paddled with her eyes closed.’ What do you do to unwind?

A. I make a double shot of espresso and I write. For me, nothing else comes close.  

[Special note to writers: Registration for the Field's End Writers Conference ends April 24! And to readers: Come see me at the Everett Library on Sunday, April 22, at 2pm.]

Page One is probably the most important page of your manuscript. It’s so important that we’ve given Page One its own room at the Field’s End Writers’ Conference this year. We call it the Moose Room thanks to the trophies on the walls. And no, those are not the heads of failed writers. They’re just part of the audience. A staff of expert instructors–Editor Veronica Randall and authors Robert Dugoni, Garth Stein and Katherine Ramsland–will be on hand to critique and comment on your page one, which will be read aloud to the group. Scary enough for you?

For the courageous, the workshop will give you invaluable feedback from seasoned professionals. If you wish to have your work considered, bring one page, between 250-300 words, double spaced, in a 12 point font.

For the timid, you can learn from listening and watching, and perhaps joining in the discussion.

So I’m feeling courageous. Here’s Page One of Just Breathe, which will be published in hardcover in September 2008. I have a horror of reading my own work aloud, but for the sake of my art, I humbly submit:

Just Breathe

© 2007 Susan Wiggs

One

            After a solid year of visits to the clinic, Sarah was starting to find the décor annoying. Maybe the experts here thought that earth tones had a soothing effect on anxious, aspiring parents. Or perhaps that the cheery burble of a wall fountain might cause an infertile woman to spontaneously drop an egg like an overly productive laying hen. Or even that the soft shimmer of brass chimes could induce a wandering sperm to find its way home like a heat-seeking missile.

            Forty-five minutes, flat on her back with her hips elevated, was starting to feel like forever. It was no longer standard procedure to wait after insemination but many women, Sarah included, were superstitious. They needed all the help they could get, even from gravity itself.

            There was a quiet tap on the door; then she heard it swish open.

            “How are we doing?” asked Frank, the nurse practitioner. Frank had a shaved head and a soul patch, a single earring and a tattoo. At six foot two, he looked a bit incongruous in pastel pink surgical scrubs with little bunnies on them. Mr. Clean showing his nurturing side.

            “Hoping that it’s a ‘we’ this time,” she said, propping her hands behind her head.

            He smiled, offering a look so filled with compassion and hope that Sarah wanted to cry. “Any cramps?”

            “Plenty. Maybe that’s a sign that things are working.” She lay quietly on the cushioned, sterile-draped exam table while he checked her temperature and recorded the time.

            She turned her head to the side. From this perspective, she could see her belongings neatly lined up on the shelf in the adjacent dressing room: her cinnamon-colored handbag from Smythson of Bond Street, designer clothes on padded hangers, butter-soft Manolo boots set carefully against the wall. The keys to her SUV, bought in anticipation of the blessed event that refused to happen. Her mobile phone, programmed to dial her husband with one touch, or even a voice command.

            Looking at all this abundance, she saw the trappings of a woman who was cared for. Provided for. Perhaps – no, definitely – even spoiled. Yet instead of feeling pampered and special, she simply felt…old. Like middle-aged, instead of only twenty-six, the youngest client at Fertility Solutions. Most women her age were still living with their boyfriends in garrets furnished with milk crates and unpainted planks. She shouldn’t envy them, but sometimes she couldn’t help herself….

“I’ve always wanted to write a novel…”

I hear this a lot. It comes as no surprise to me because I truly believe everyone has a story to tell. But only a few end up actually doing it–getting their stories down and then sending them out into the world. Which ones actually pick up pen and paper, or fire up their computers and actually go for it? There’s such power in taking action on your own behalf, in finally saying, “Today’s the day.”

I have a little card stuck on the bulletin board in my study with a handwritten reminder: “This is your shot.”

Don’t take my word for it. Here’s a quick note from Mary Guterson, author of We Are All Fine Here.

“In college, I didn’t know what to do with myself so I became a speech therapist. I figured I could work in the schools, have my summers off, and make enough money to live off of until some Hollywood director discovered me and made me into a movie star. I’d always wanted to be a movie star. Turned out no Hollywood directors were seeking their next discovery in the halls of my suburban Seattle elementary school. Turned out also, I didn’t care for other people’s children. Major career mistake, any way you looked at it.

“One day, a friend of mine pulled a draft of a novel she’d written out of a drawer and handed it to me. I couldn’t believe it. An entire book, written while I’d been doing my best to enjoy the world of lateral lisps and teachers’ lounges. For years, I’d dreamed of writing, but it had always seemed an impossible dream, as unlikely as my becoming a movie star. Who could just sit down and write a book? I stared at my friend’s pile of typed pages. Then I went home and gave it a shot….”

So there you go. What have you done for the writer in you today?

Elsa Watson is proof that you can have a gentle soul, a rapier wit and a fierce intelligence all at once. Could be it’s that degree in Classics from Carleton, combined with service in the Peace Corps, where she and her husband served for two years in West Africa, in Guinea-Bissau, and her tireless work on behalf of West Sound Wildlife Shelter.

In Africa, to pass the long evenings, she tapped into her passion for old stories and myths, and began writing stories of her own. “By the time we returned,” Elsa explains, “I’d finished a few ‘practice books’ and knew I’d found something I loved to do. In 2001, I took my first stab at historical fiction and the pieces began to fall into place. I love balancing my days between research and writing, digging up details about what life was like eight hundred years ago.”

Currently, Elsa is working on two historical novels–The Thieves’ Handbook and The Pirate’s Apprentice, both featuring strong, smart young women who are down on their luck. Crown Books published Maid Marian, a stunning first novel Booklist calls “an intriguing new twist on an old legend.”

A winning blend of action/adventure and female empowerment, Maid Marian gives us her side of the Robin Hood legend, beginning when Marian is a child, long before she meets the famous outlaw of Sherwood Forest. The story is set in medieval times, during the reign of Richard the Lionheart, and follows Marian from Warwick castle to Sherwood and beyond. “Because she was born both an orphan and an heiress,” Elsa explains, “Marian is an unusually independent soul. She struggles through the intrigues of court life and regents, and more than once comes face to face with the imposing Eleanor of Aquitane. Marian’s wits and courage are her best assets, and she uses these to create the future she wants for herself.”

The author was inspired by curiosity about the legendary character. “Maid Marian has intrigued me since childhood. I’ve always been a fan of the Robin Hood story, but I could never understand why so much of the attention went to Robin, and so little to Marian. It struck me as strange that her name is so well known, yet no one has a sense of her character beyond her role as Robin Hood’s consort. Once it occurred to me to write her story myself, I couldn’t let go of the idea. I wanted to show how complex her own life might have been, and how she might have struggled with the choices she made.”

The novel is bound to appeal to anyone who loves historical fiction or an old-fashioned romance. “It’s a great choice for young women, since it involves a young heroine who has the will to shape her own destiny,” Elsa says. “Maid Marian is set in England’s Midcountry during the late twelfth century…Tensions ran high during this time–a huge class division separated the ruling Normans from the Saxon underclass. Taxes were also very high, since King Richard needed to finance his Crusades into the Holy Land. Marian sees a great deal of the land and falls in with people from differing classes. She is therefore able to compare castle life with small village life or with the hidden camp in Sherwood forest.”

Elsa approaches the writing process in shifts. “First I spend a month or so on research only, bringing home huge stacks of books from the library on everything from clothes to food, weapons, and animal husbandry. Next, once the story is roughly planned, I’ll begin writing. I write each morning until I’ve finished about six book pages, then I spend the afternoon doing follow-up research and planning out the next day’s writing. And last comes the editing process, in which scenes are cut, scenes are added, and many, many paragraphs are rewritten. It’s a wonderful thing, really, to be able to spend weeks and months shaping a story into whatever it ought to be.”

The library is a key player during the process. “I would be sunk without our library. When I’m researching, I have regular moments of panic that the librarians will see me coming with my huge stack of books and flee the building. But so far, so good! No one batted an eye even when I ordered the Young Sea Officer’s Sheet Anchor five different times over as many months while I was working on a book about pirates. I needed it desperately, but it was popular - I kept having to turn it in so other people could have it, then put myself back into the hold queue.

“I make good use of the inter-library loan system, which lets you order books from all over. I also love the children’s section. I always begin researching a time period there, since kid’s books give such a wonderful overview (and include pictures!). The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] is a real treasure for historical fiction, since it can tell you when words were first used in written English. Lately, I’ve begun to make use of the library’s database system and am looking up New York Times articles from 1916!”

Want to meet Elsa (who is one of my favorite people in the world, btw)? She’s teaching a workshop at the Field’s End conference on April 28. She is irresistible! To visit Elsa online, go to www.elsawatson.net.

Women Take Center Stage:

Author Elsa Watson Recommends…

I, ELIZABETH by Rosalind Miles. “A wonderful, first-person account of Elizabeth I’s life, including the dramatic events within her own family and court.”

PERSUASION by Jane Austen. “Seven years after she turned him down, Anne Elliot meets her former suitor, Captain Wentworth, when he returns from the Napoleonic Wars.”

WIVES AND DAUGHTERS by Elizabeth Gaskell. “A touching, wide-ranging novel that follows half-sisters Molly and Cynthia through the complexities of English society.”

A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E. M. Forster. “Whether in Florence or southern England, Lucy Honeychurch struggles with the same question - to follow convention or her own heart?”

MY ANTONIA by Willa Cather. “Experience the hardships and joys of immigrant life in 1800s Nebraska.”

[Real quick - Alison Kent was nice enough to have me as her guest blogger today. Check it out.]

In my endless quest to make less work for myself, I finally found a use for the Nigerian banking scam e-mails. If you have an e-mail address, you know what these are–Floridly-worded, gorgeously flattering missives to you, the writer’s “cherished and most trusted friend.” Begging your precious indulgence, they also need your banking information so they can make a $53million deposit of their family wealth into your safekeeping, offering you a cut of several million for your troubles.

Why is this working well for me? Because I’m a fiction writer, of course. At present, I’m writing a sequence that involves minor characters from a made-up diamond-rich small nation in Africa. Sophie, the main character, needs to bankrupt the bad guys, so she creates her own version of the scam and cleans out their treasury. The whole shady procedure is outlined in my e-mail. Talk about a step-saver.

Another bonus–the names! I needed some authentic-sounding names for my African characters, and who can make up something as good as “General Sani Abacha,” or “Barrister Momoh Sanni Momoh”? That stuff is priceless. A quick scroll through my spam catcher yielded some other lovely examples: Mr. Femi Gidado (ACCOUNTANT OFFICER), Clement Okon, Mr Madu Frank, “Colonel Timi Phillips,” “Dr. Bisi Odum, Notary Public” and the adorable-sounding “Bibi Nilini,” who salutes me respectfully from her hiding place in a temporary safe house in Abuja. Inspiration!

And today, I have a little gift for the writers out there. As you get going on a novel, sometimes you notice that everyone’s name starts with the letter “M” or that you have a Harlon, a Harley and a Harry in the same story. Here’s a simple way to avoid names that look and sound too similar on the page. It’s a copy of my handy dandy character Character name chart, an idea I cribbed from the ever-resourceful and talented Debbie Macomber. When you create a character, write his or her name in the appropriate box, and you’ll quickly see if you’re overusing something. Have a great writing week.

You know who she is, that angsty girl who stayed up late and cried a lot and lived a deep inner life all through high school. She kept journals and never showed them to anyone. She wrote lines like “i am the moon in the water/stillness surrounded by skim milk…” Okay, maybe you didn’t write stuff like that but I know one teenage girl who did. On second thought–if you say you didn’t write stuff like that, you’re fooling yourself. But here’s the good news. You’re not alone.

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My writer profiles on this blog are starting to look like a Gallery of Hotties, which believe me, is not intentional. I just happen to know a bunch of writers who are talented and hot, and they would probably hate me for saying that, but it’s my blog, so there. And stay tuned, because there are more where these came from. In some ways, Kelli reminds me of Garth, in that she is accomplished as well as gorgeous and talented, and yet instead of wanting to set her hair on fire, you find yourself liking her. A lot. And wishing you could meet her. (Which you can.)  

The original interview with Kelli was done by Jeannine Hall Gailey, a Seattle-area writer whose first book of poetry, Becoming the Villainess, was published by Steel Toe Books. Poems from the book were featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily, and will be included in 2007’s The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her work has appeared in The Iowa Review, The Evansville Review, and The Columbia Poetry Journal. She’s currently helping edit Crab Creek Review.  This interview was previously published in Rock Salt Plum. I’m reprinting Kelli’s comments in their entirety because it’s all just so good. Enjoy!  

Kelli Russell Agodon was born and raised in Seattle and educated at the University of Washington and Pacific Lutheran University where she’s recently completed her Master of Fine Arts Degree in Creative Writing.  She is the author of two books of poems, Small Knots (Cherry Grove Collections) and Geography, winner of the 2003 Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award. She is the recipient of two Artist Trust GAP grants, the William Stafford Award, the James Hearst Poetry Prize, as well as a Puffin Foundation Grant for her work towards peace with her international poetry broadside series: The Making of Peace. Her poems have appeared or will soon be appearing in places such as The Atlantic Monthly, Prairie Schooner, Meridian, North American Review, the print version of Poets Against the War edited by Sam Hamill and on NPR’s “The Writer’s Almanac” with Garrison Keillor.  Kelli’s work is also featured in Keillor’s Good Poems for Hard Times anthology.  She has been a featured poet on the ABC News website for National Poetry Month and awarded a Soapstone Writer’s Residency in Oregon. Currently, she lives in a small seaside community.  Visit her website at: www.agodon.com 

Small Knots originally started out to be what my chapbook Geography became—a book about one woman’s experience with breast cancer. But the more I wrote, the more I realized that I couldn’t condense a life to only a disease because there was so much more I wanted to explore as a poet and as a woman. I wanted the book to have a greater complexity to it.   The subjects I wanted to write about and add to the collection also reflected many of the same themes I had written about in Geography, the idea of loss and the events that happen in our life that slow us down, make us pause and consider the philosophical questions, the basic “why am I here?”  When I began to explore the other ideas on my mind, I saw them falling into three categories: generations, love and illness. Those became the three sections of the book and from there, it was just a matter of choosing the best poems to tell the story I wanted to tell….The first section, “Tangle,” focuses on generations, both in our histories and stories, as well as having a daughter and losing a father. The second section “Interweave,” focuses on love and relationships. I wanted to show younger love and also consider the idea of retirement and growing old together. The last section “Stitch,” is the diagnosis of breast cancer and the story of  living with the disease. Once I understood my sections, then it just came to be a matter of choosing the best poems to complete the stories.

There were a lot of favorite poems that I didn’t use. Mostly in the first two sections, I had to make choices on which poems helped the reader move forward and gain a better understanding of the book/narrative as a whole, and which poems took the reader out of the story or sent them in other directions.   I actually have two other manuscripts in process because for me, theme, coherence and a larger vision for a book is very important.  I wish I could just pack all my favorite poems in a book and say, “Here you go!”  But my mind doesn’t work that way.  I think at heart I’m a storyteller and so I’m constantly trying to weave a narrative thread through my work. The positive of all this is that I have some great poems ready for my second collection.

Many of what I consider the “Northwest writers” have had a strong influence on my work, Richard Hugo, in making me rethink my sentences and deleting words like “but” and “then.” I always remember his suggestion that the reader will put two ideas together without us holding his or her hand. William Stafford, in the simplicity of language, and using words not to show our own intelligence or appear perhaps wiser than we actually are, but to convey an idea to another. Also, I’m influenced by Stafford’s dedication to peace as well as writing political poems. I was definitely influenced by Sylvia Plath’s wordplay, creating words and images like “moth-breath” “wedding-cake face.” I like the noun-noun combos in her poems very much. I’m influenced by [Edna St. Vincent] Millay, less by her individual poems, more in the way she chose to live her life as a poet. Her confidence, her activism─she was ahead of her times in what she was writing. More recent poets I’ve been influenced by are Li-Young Lee, for the spiritual aspects that layer his poems, Olena Kalytiak Davis for her edginess (of which I have none), Naomi Shihab Nye for how to tell a story and write with a larger vision, Aimee Nezhukumatathil for her playfulness, Martha Silano for her incredible use of language, Susan Rich for her strong narrative poems, and Bob Hicok for being able to go from image to image and somehow make it all work out. 

My first poetry mentor in college was Linda Bierds at the University of Washington. She was incredibly supportive to me as a poet and many of things I learned from her twelve years ago, I still return to today. In the mid-nineties, I met another poet named Paula Gardiner, who was the person I turned to for support when I left my 60-hour-a-week corporate America life to move to a small rural village and focus on my writing. Currently, I have a couple of writing groups I turn to when I need feedback on poems, as well as a few other poets I can email poems to if I need to work through something….I’m a perfectionist myself and I revise poems extensively, but the feedback from others helps me understand what isn’t coming across in the poem and where I may be losing people.

I think we are all writers of some sort. Everyone has their own unique, individual story; I guess the key is to know which parts to tell. Picasso said “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”  I think we’re all creative beings, the challenge is to keep that, whether it is writing, painting, dancing. We need to keep that creativity in a prioritized place in our lives. 

I think it’s important for writers and artists in general to have solitude, time strictly for themselves and their art.  I think women, mothers in particular, have a harder time of taking or finding that time for themselves.   For so many years, women were asked to put their goals and passions to the side so they had enough energy and time to take care of whatever else needed tending. The problem with that attitude is that you can’t care for others if you aren’t taking care of yourself and it’s an easy to way to bring feelings of resentment into your situation. I definitely don’t believe people with families (male or female) can take off for a year and disregard the family part of their life, but there needs to be a balance.  It’s a mix supporting the people you love by caring for them as a mother, wife, friend, or daughter, but also making sure you are being supported by them in that you’re allowed the time you need to create. 

Balance is the key.  For me, Soapstone allowed me a chance to intensely focus on my collection.  Don’t get me wrong, it was incredibly hard to leave my family for a week and I had a lot of guilt about leaving my young daughter with my husband while I drove to Oregon to be alone.  But the time there was so important to me, I probably wouldn’t have finished Small Knots or learned so much about myself had I not gone. And through the experience, we all gained confidence; my husband in knowing he could take care of my daughter without my help, my daughter in knowing that her father could give her the care she needed and that I would return to her, and I gained confidence in my writing and knowing that what I do is important. And when I returned, I was greeted with the best welcome home hug. By the next day, things were back to their regular routine, as if I hadn’t gone.

[My blog and] the internet definitely keep us better connected to our favorite writers, especially poets and writers who keep a homepage with their reading schedule, blog or new projects.  For me, I love to read other poets’ blogs because it reminds me that we are all going through the same things—rejection, self-doubt, and insecurity, mixed in with some success, acceptances, and joy. I forget many times when I’m writing on my blog that others are reading it. I do a lot of it as a sort of free-write meditation, high-tech journaling, I guess. It’s nice when people comment or email me about something I’ve written. It’s also been good for me to return to earlier times in the blog to see where I’ve been, either good or bad, as it reminds me that things pass and that it’s not always about rejections or acceptances, just a lot of everything in between. And a few of these blog entries have gone on to be poems or parts of poems. I think the net is a positive place for poets and poetry lovers because there is an enormous amount of well-written poems out there to consider. Readers and writers can step away from their region and see a much greater variety of poetry. It takes away “regional writing” because we have so many poems from so many places at our fingertips. The diversity of writing is incredible.

I’m not really someone who writes when they’re inspired. If I waited for inspiration, I’d probably have two poems a year. I’m usually inspired by reading other poets, so if I need a jumpstart to my writing, I’ll grab a favorite book of poems and read a few and see if anything comes from it.  Mostly, my work begins with me sitting down and starting a poem to see if it goes anywhere. I have a huge number of poems in my “In Process” file that will never see the light of day. But I keep them and occasionally I’ll go through that file and something will get my attention and I’ll start the revision process. Sometimes it works, sometimes not and it returns back to the file until another day. I am always revising. When I can’t write, I open four or five poems on my computer and begin revising them. Sometimes something great comes out of it, sometimes not. I always sort my “In Process” poems by date and I pull up the newest poems first to work on. After awhile I’ll look further back in the file and find some older poems, which is always fun, especially if I don’t remember working on them. Then it’s as if I’m revising someone else’s poem, which seems easier for some reason.   I think the distance in time does a lot when I’m revising. A poet I know always says, “We love our newest poems most,” and it reminds me of how a baby can do no wrong. I’ll look at the poem a few months down the road and I’ll start to see its weak points, where the reader could get lost. When a poem is new and so close to us, we just see its beauty and freshness, and it can take awhile to see its flaws. I guess that’s another reason for workshops or critique groups.  I take some poems there, though some poems never go. But it’s a good way to see how others are receiving your poems. I use workshops less for the details (though they are always helpful), but more to understand what ideas I’m conveying to the readers and what story they are getting from the poem.

The best advice I can give [to emerging writers], which was given to me as an undergrad from my professor David Wagoner, is to “read, read read.” At the time he gave it to me I thought it was terrible advice, but I’ve learned there is nothing that makes you a better poet than reading a huge amount and large variety of poems.   Read as much poetry as you can, old and new. Buy books of poems and subscribe to literary journals. Learn from the poets that are alive today. Learn what works and what doesn’t from their poems. The more you read, the more you will discover your own voice and what you have to say.  Read as much poetry as you can, then write. The other advice I’d give to young writers trying to break in is “Don’t fret rejections.”  We all get them. They aren’t the best thing in the world, but they aren’t a reason to quit writing or submitting either. If you feel poetry is your path and you need to write, keep going despite the rejections and continue to work to get better. Also, start submitting to local and regional literary journals first. Community colleges have great journals, and if you’re accepted, a lot of times you get to participate in a reading. They are a great place to break into publishing. As you gain a few credits, continue submitting but start to choose more competitive journals. And always be as professional as you can when submitting, clean, easy to read copies, clear cover letter, things like that. I think writers’ conferences and poetry festivals are wonderful and fun places to learn and improve. They are also a great place to meet other poets, hear what’s being written today and discover new poets. I always appreciate hearing the “behind the scenes” stories that poets tell. These are the people future generations will be studying; we have the opportunity to hear and support them now, which I think is wonderful. 

Now that I’ve finished my Master of Fine Arts, I feel as if I’ve just come to a new town; I’m just going to have a cup of coffee and look around for awhile.  As for writing projects, I’ve just finished a second poetry manuscript and have started submitting it.  So right now, I see a lot of open doors in front of me, I may choose one or just sit back for a while and enjoy the view. 

Mrs. Larson and the Constant Flow of Thoughtful Books or, Meet Garth Stein at the Field’s End Writers’ Conference, April 28, 2007.

Garth Stein has published books, created documentary films, written a play, won an Academy Award and a prize from Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. He embodies the best of many cultures, interests and education. His mother, a native of Alaska, is of Tlingit Indian and Irish descent; his father, a Brooklyn native, is the child of Jewish immigrants from Austria. He received both his Bachelor’s and his Master of Fine Arts degrees from Columbia University in New York City.

Couldn’t he at least be ugly? Um….Sorry, I can’t help myself. I notice stuff like this. Did it have anything to do with Garth being tapped for the Field’s End conference? Ohferpetesake, it’s a writers’ conference. What do you think?

The novelist has worked in stage and film, directing and producing documentaries and short films, including the award-winning “When Your Head’s Not a Head, It’s a Nut,” which documents his sister’s brain surgery for epilepsy. Some of his other notable films include “The Last Party,” starring Robert Downey Jr.; “Philadelphia, Mississippi,” and two music videos which he produced that were directed by Johnny Depp.

Garth’s first novel, Raven Stole the Moon, was published to critical acclaim and was translated into German and Italian. His second novel, How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets, was published in 2005.

The Boy Who Returned From Heaven is a sequel to his first. He also has written a full-length play, titled Brother Jones, which was a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference, a finalist for the Northwest Playwrights Competition, and was selected for the 2004 Shenandoah International Playwrights Conference. The work at the Lyric Hyperion Theater in Los Angeles, and was hailed as “brimming with intensity,” by the L.A. Weekly.

The accomplished writer and teacher reports that he’s “totally psyched” about his next book. “It’s currently titled The Art of Racing in the Rain. The story is told from the point of view of a dog named Enzo, whose master is a race car driver. It’s funny, poignant, observant….the Jonathan Livingston Seagull for dogs, if there could possibly be one.”

One of Garth’s early influences was a school librarian. “When I was a freshman in high school, the school librarian, Mrs. Larson, stopped me one day. ‘We just got this book in,’ she said. ‘I think you’d like it. Why don’t you check it out before I shelve it?’ I did, and I liked it very much.

“A few weeks later, I was leaving the library after finishing my afternoon homework, and Mrs. Larson stopped me again. ‘Have you read this yet?’ she asked, holding up a book. I hadn’t, so I checked it out and read it.” Over the next four years of high school, Mrs. Larson sent books my way. Most of the time, I really enjoyed them–but not always. Still, she provided me with a constant flow of thoughtful books.

“Sure, I’ve forgotten many of the books Mrs. Larson gave me. But many of them–Farhenheit 451, Kim, or the poems of Walter de la Mare (yes, I actually read poetry for fun when I was a teen)–have stayed with me.”

“For me, libraries aren’t about storing books for my convenience. They are about people and communication and interaction. Libraries are about Mrs. Larson, my high school librarian, who knew what