WriterHouse Blogs

Local author and writing teacher Kevin Quirk alerted me to the Second Chances Writing Contest.  The contest is sponsored by the website for a new book he’s co-writing, Brace for Impact:  Miracle on the Hudson Survivors Share Their Stories of Near Death and Hope for a New Life.

Contest winners will see their story of hope and transformation on the front page of the website, and will receive an autographed copy of the book.  See rules for submission and more information on the Second Chances Writing Contest homepage.

WriterHouse Public Events

»Nanowrimo Kickoff, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2-5pm—Hosted by the Charlottesville official Municipal Liasons, Rachel and Sophia. Get to know the other area Wrimos, get stoked, and then get writing! We’ll probably meet and greet for an hour or so and then settle in for some serious writing. If you have leftover Halloween candy, bring it along and swap candies you hate for candies you love. We’ll also have soda and a bag or two of chips — if you feel like contributing, please do! Drop Sophia a note so she can keep track. If you haven’t already signed up, make it official!

»Literary Journals from Both Sides of the Transom, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2:30-4:30pm—Editors and writers enjoy a symbiotic relationship. How do they find each other? What can writers do to facilitate a “good match”? Linda Fritz, editor of The Delmarva Review, Thom Didato, Publisher and Founding Editor of Failbetter.com and Barbara Esstman, an accomplished writer/teacher and a contributor to The Delmarva Review in 2008, will compare and contrast their experiences in literary publishing, share their insights, and answer questions about how to get your work published. More info…

»Save the date:

• 01-05-2010, 7:00 Launch Party for member Laura Bynum’s book Veracity

Complete Public Event Details…

Half-Day Seminars (Registration Required)

If you’ve wanted to take a class, but can’t commit to an eight-week schedule, our Saturday Seminar Series is for you.

• 11-14-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00PM Publishing Your Poetry
• 11-21-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00 PM Elements of Fiction: Dialogue
• 12-5-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00 PM Spiritual Essay—Writing into the Questions

Looking for a sneak preview of next week’s author events with Jennifer Burns and Stephen Elliott? Jennifer Burns will be talking about her book Goddess of the Market on America’s favorite faux-news show, The Daily Show with John Stewart, this Thursday, October 15. If you can’t catch the show on Comedy Central, the episode will be posted Friday at the web site. Goddess also received an incisive review in The New Republic.

As for Elliott’s The Adderall Diaries, it’s popping up all over the place. He was most recently interviewed on Gawker by none other than James Frey — very meta, as we say in the writing business (scroll down to the comments). The Rumpus is keeping a running list of Stephen’s appearances and reviews.

Both books are now available for purchase at WriterHouse and will also be available for signing at the events. We’ve had some awesome author events — if you haven’t already, go to our web site and sign up for email announcements so you don’t miss a thing.

Reading about the “worm” that is making its way around “old, unpatched” versions of WordPress, I imagined the segmented, legless creature making its way through my mother’s mending pile. Weaving in and out of grass-stained dungarees, bare at the knees. In and out of holes in the linen, scorched by Cora’s iron. In and out of the heels and toes of socks, waiting for the darning egg.

I have no idea how things get patched in cyberspace, but I am assuming that it does not require the likes of a thimble, needle, and thread. Disposing of the worm does not require touching the untouchable and tossing it back into the dirt outside the back door. I am guessing that patches are easier to find in cyberspace than they are in the twenty-first century shopping mall.

All of this has got me thinking about blogging. That insidious worm is blogging its way through open spaces. A wide open page invites bloggers to blog, making their way into unpatched territory because they can. Lately, I have been inundated with blogs. Some days as I make my way through numerous holes I feel as though I am an aimless Alice, having lost my way, having no idea where this wiggling and wriggling is taking me. Blogs are linked to other blogs, just as the worm finds the hole in the overalls on the other side of the linen napkin. My day is spent and the mending still awaits my attention.

WriterHouse Public Events

»NaNoPrepMo, 10-10-2009, 10-18-2009 and 10-25-2009, 2:00 PM—Come to meet the other local Wrimos (people participating in National Novel Writing Month) and get a jump on November. The rules allow outlines, character sketches, and any kind of planning that doesn’t involve actually writing your novel. Be ready to hit the ground running on November 1.

»Save these dates:

• 10-23-2009, 7:00 PM Ayn Rand Biographer Jennifer Burns

• 10-24-2009, 7:00 PM Stephen Elliott & The Adderall Diaries

• 11-07-2009, 2:30-4:30 Literary Journals: Both Sides of the Transom

More Public Event Details…

Half-Day Seminars (Registration Required)

If you’ve wanted to take a class, but can’t commit to an eight-week schedule, our Saturday Seminar Series is for you.

• 10-17-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00PM Elements of Fiction: Plot

• 10-24-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00PM Writing about Food—Turning Appetite into Art and Articles

• 11-21-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00 PM Elements of Fiction: Dialogue

• 12-5-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00 PM Spiritual Essay—Writing into the Questions

Last week WriterHouse members welcomed author Tammar Stein for a friendly literary salon. In case you missed it, we’ve posted a recording of Tammar’s talk on “Write What You Know: Mining Real Life for Fiction.

Not a member? Join today and be sure you won’t miss another great member event!

Today I found the Writer Beware Blogs.

From the blog header:

“Writer Beware, a publishing industry watchdog group sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America with additional support from the Mystery Writers of America, shines a light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls.”

I’m ashamed to say I fell victim to one of these in high school, promising scholarship money for poems.  Instead, I was invited to attend an awards ceremony in Orlando where the prizes included a fine sterling silver bowl (at $300 value) and a ‘free’ copy of the book of winning poems.

Meredith Cole, who will be teaching Essentials of Mystery Writing at WriterHouse beginning September 26, is currently on tour to promote her novel, Posed for Murder. Here’s a look at her recent experience at the Decatur Book Festival:

As I planned my book tour for my first book Posed for Murder, a wiser and more experienced author gave me a great piece of advice: Go where the people are.

Although it’s great idea to go to book stores on your book tour, unfortunately debut authors often end up sitting alone in the back feeling ignored. I definitely did my share of bookstore events, and have had some great experiences meeting booksellers and readers. But I also had great results doing events with other authors at libraries and book festivals. Book festivals happen all over the country, and attract huge crowds. Although most are there to see a famous or familiar author, others are willing to venture out to make a new discovery — you.

This Labor Day Weekend, I was one of 300 authors selected to be at the Decatur Book Festival in Georgia. It calls itself the largest book festival in the country, or “Bookzilla.” It’s a giant three-day festival with hundreds of volunteers, vendors, and about 65,000 attendees who love books. The festival did not pay for my transportation, but they put me up in a hotel, and ferried me to and from the airport. They also put on a party for all the authors, and provided us with vouchers for free food and drink at local restaurants. All the events (and the hotel) were around a square in downtown Decatur, so it was easy to get around.

I appeared with another mystery author, Megan Abbott, at Eddie’s Attic (a bar that launched the Indigo Girls’ career, as well as many other local bands). Megan and I each read for about five minutes, perched on stools like an acoustic act, and then answered questions. The crowd had some great ones (asking how we used secondary characters, how screenwriting was different from writing novels, how we created atmosphere, etc.), so we had a lively discussion.

We had a respectable crowd, and I sold a good number of books. Independent bookstores from Atlanta handled all the sales and signings, and I was glad to meet a new bookseller. They had me sign the rest of the books as stock for their store, and I imagine they’ll highlight them as “signed by the author” in their store.

Not everyone buys books at the festival, so it’s difficult to measure the true impact of an event. But beyond the sales, I met local librarians, talked to readers, and was advertised on their website and in their publication. My publishing house likes that I’m getting out there and doing my best to sell the book, and I’m sure that all my efforts effected their decision to buy my second book in my series this summer. So in a few weeks, I’ll be at Fall for the Book in DC, and in October I’ll be at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville. The tour continues!

I’ve spent the last few hours glued to my computer, following links on a variety of topics, one being writing. I finally arrived at Rachel’s recent post about the Stanford Study of Writing, following her links to read more. I am not sure if I agree with Stanford’s Andrea Lansford that our current literacy revolution is as significant as the beginning of Greek civilization, but I do agree that writing is alive and well in today’s world. We have all experienced sitting at the computer far longer than anticipated due to the abundance of writing that keeps us reading, link upon link.

It is interesting to ponder Ms. Lansford’s remark about her own writing education. It did not, she says, include writing for an audience. I remember having that same revelation as a teacher of writing to elementary students. Having an audience was necessary, I told them. And yet I too remember essays written for a single teacher’s eyes only. I would venture a guess that students in classrooms all over the world write more frequently and with greater purpose than I did as a child. Writing takes on more of an immediacy. Students cannot wait to share their writing with classmates. They write for an audience. The Stanford students’ comments on their experiences as participants in the writing study confirm that writing for them is a means of communication. Reason enough, I think, for rejoicing.

Perhaps Ms. Lansford is right. Perhaps we are in the midst of a monumentally important literacy revolution. What do you think?

From The Morning News, one of my favorite news aggregators, I was directed to this Wired Magazine article (Clive Thompson on the New Literacy) which highlights some changes in how younger people view writing.

The article focuses on the work of Andrea Lunsford, a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, head of the Stanford Study of Writing. From Thompson’s article:

“I think we’re in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven’t seen since Greek civilization,” she says. For Lunsford, technology isn’t killing our ability to write. It’s reviving it—and pushing our literacy in bold new directions.

She makes a good argument about the increased importance of writing in our society and how students have learned to consider the audience for their writing as part of the thought process of composition–something, I think, we all could do better. Take a look at the article.