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WIWA NEWSLETTER
Issue: 002 May 2001
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CONTENTS
Message from the editor
Writers' Groups
One World Journeys by Marian Blue
The Working Writer by Susan Wiggs
Cheers
Poetry Contests
Celebrate Writing With Young Writers
Cyber Surfing
Quotes
Whidbey Island Writers' Conference
To Unsubscribe
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"Easy reading is damned hard writing."
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne
Light flickered from the oil lamp as Nathaniel Hawthorne dipped his quill into an inkwell as dark as puritan New England and wrote The Scarlet Letter. A year later, he moved from Salem to Lenox, Massachusetts and penned the equally oppressing House of the Seven Gables.
Award winning romance novelist, Susan Wiggs, taps away at her keyboard, words appearing magically across a screen, and disappearing just as quickly when she presses the delete key. Hawthorne wouldn't recognize the computer Wiggs uses or even the electric lamp that illuminates her office. As an author whose allegorical books are steeped in guilt and moral complexities, he might find the plot and characters of Wiggs' books even more amazing than the tools she uses to write.
Although these two authors are separated by 150 years of technological, social and moral change, they share a common thread. They know that writing is hard work; the muse does not come easily. We hope you enjoy this issue's feature by Susan Wiggs, her tongue-in-cheek article, The Working Writer, that describes a typical day in her writing life.
We also hope you enjoy this second issue of the WIWA Newsletter. Some of you received the first about six months ago, but like Hawthorne and Wiggs, we find writing to be hard work. Our organization is made up entirely of volunteers, and sometimes our heart says "yes," but our schedule says "no way." Our hope is to bring you this newsletter on a more regular basis. We want it to be the clarion for all your writing successes. We want it to be your source of information about the Whidbey Island Writers' Association and its activities, about authors who have spoken at our conferences and about future presenters. We want it to pique your literary interests and to be a place to share news about good works and good writing. This is your newsletter, so let us hear from you. If you have writing or literary news to share, please email us at: candace@whidbey.com
Write. We want to hear from you,
Candace
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WRITERS' GROUPS
For more information, contact Michele Griskey: smwatson@mail.whidbey.com or 331-6099.
South Whidbey -- The WIWA Writers' Group meets the first Wednesday of every month from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Freeland Library. Anyone interested in writing is invited to attend. It is a place to discuss writing techniques or problems you are having with your work. Informal brainstorming and support are encouraged. If you would like, bring something you have written and read it aloud to the group.
North Whidbey -- The WIWA would like to start a Writers' Group for north-end islanders. Several people have expressed interest in joining a group that meets in Oak Harbor or Coupeville. If you would like to join a north-end group, contact Michele Griskey at: smwatson@mail.whidbey.com.
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ONE WORLD JOURNEYS
by Marian Blue
One World Journeys is going "live" with the Palmyra site on May 15th, so we've almost finished all the preliminary writing and editing (history, overview, etc.). Local author and past WIWC instructor, Susan Zwinger, has done a great job on South Pacific migratory birds for us and Terry Tempest Williams will be our live expedition lead writer; Jeff Foote is the lead photographer. One of the special aspects of the site is the opportunity for people to post questions but also post bits of their own experiences in/with the natural world; this is a terrific opportunity for people to place writing about the natural world on a site that is making a difference for the environment...and it's also a great place to correspond with professional nature writers. We have more expeditions planned already, so the work is continuing for this great Whidbey Island company! www.oneworldjourneys.com
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THE WORKING WRITER
by Susan Wiggs
Each morning, I wake up bright and early at the crack of noon, blinking like a bear coming out of hibernation. If I’m lucky, Jay has taken Elizabeth to school and made coffee; on unlucky days I make it myself and it never tastes nearly as good. Every other day, I go to Step Aerobics, otherwise known as "Stoutness Exercises" or "The Longest Hour." I come home invigorated, unforgivably sweaty, and ready to work.
Well, almost ready. First, I have to take a shower and see if Jay brought home any fresh bagels because as we all know, an hour of Step Aerobics burns off more bagels than surfing the Internet. Sometimes the phone rings. If it’s a fellow writer, I can usually count on a good forty minutes of energetic and self-delusory chatter about our books, our careers, George Clooney, and the importance of carbohydrates in an athlete’s diet. Then, because I really can’t put it off any longer, I have to Go to the Office.
I do this, I really do. We have guest quarters on our property and that’s where my cozy little office, decorated in lighthouse kitsch, is located. Trudging twenty-six steps through sleet and snow to the office makes me feel very professional. I fire up my computer and can already feel the creative juices starting to flow. But I have to have the perfect environment or it won’t work. My water--in a 64-ounce squeeze bottle needs to be exactly 45 degrees to the starboard tack and parked on the "She Who Must Be Obeyed" coaster. My mousepad--the one with the picture of the burning martyr who looks eerily like Yours Truly, has to be on the left, because I’m left-handed (but right-buttoned). My picture of Jay and Elizabeth has to be above the desk propped against the RITA statue, who holds a tiny sled that says "Rosebud," (to remind me of the importance of plot devices). My picture of Joseph Fiennes--for some reason twice as big as the family photo--is leaning against the lamp. Oh, and last but not least, my Positive Reinforcement Devices have to be poured into a bowl on the desk.
When I was in graduate school I took a course from B.F. Skinner, the famous behavior scientist, who taught us the importance of PRDs in self-motivation. He suggested rewarding increments of work with single kernels of popcorn. The true artist substitutes M&Ms for popcorn because really, how motivating is dry popcorn, anyway?
Now I’m almost ready. I have to make sure everything on my computer is in working order so I zip through a quick game or twelve of Solitaire. And then, just because it’s my Vital Link to the Outside World, I have to check my email and read the latest from my far-flung friends, family, editors, and critique group, and jot down a few of those solicitations for cybersex because, being a shut-in, I have no life.
When I can’t possibly put it off any longer, I take the plunge, opening my work-in-progress. Before I can write a word, I have to glance quickly over the last chapter or twelve, just to make sure the story’s on track and--wouldn’t you know it?--there’s a little glitsch in Chapter 8. I likened somebody’s orgasm to the eruption of Krakatoa, and now I’m starting to wonder...just when did that volcano erupt? If it was after 1884, then it post dates my story and I can’t use it.
Being a cutting-edge sort of writer, I zip into my Internet Explorer and go online to sleuth out the answer because really, how can I possibly compose a new chapter if I don’t have the whole scoop on Krakatoa? Aha! Yahoo found a bunch of sites matching my query, and off I go. Well, look at that. Did you know that the eruption (1883--whew!) caused a 50-foot tidal wave and 36,000 deaths? Man, that was some orgasm! Just looking at this site gives me at least a half dozen story ideas. Isn’t the Web a blessing?
Since I’m already connected to the Web, I might as well surf over and check out the latest bestseller list. If my book’s not on it, I’m slitting my wrists, because it means no one’s buying it. If my book IS on it, I’m slitting my wrists because it means it’s going out of stock and I’m losing sales by the second. Thoroughly demoralized, I coast to that snippy book review site where they love to trash books, and I get even more demoralized to see an animated dagger repeatedly stabbing into my latest title. To cheer myself up, I scoot onto the E.R. site and download some stills of George Clooney, and then it’s time to shop for that Green Day CD I’ve been wanting and...Oh, dang. Got the dreaded "Integer Divide by Zero" error message. Don’t you just hate when that happens? You’d think a computer would know better than to try to divide by zero.
I’d best get back to work. Eat a couple or twelve M&Ms to get my brain revved up, and we’re off! My fingers fly across the keys. And then they fly backward as I make copious use of the delete button. Two words forward, one word back, that’s the rhythm. The anguished yet manfully attractive Hunter is just about to bear his...well, soul...to the hopelessly prim yet deeply conflicted Emily. It’s a great scene, all two paragraphs of it.
Flush with triumph, I lean back, smile at the monitor and reward myself with a few or twelve more M&Ms. My fingers feel a tad cramped, so I zip over to Solitaire for a double-or-nothing round. We’ve all heard the warnings about sitting for more than ten minutes at a stretch, so I get up and wander around the office, decide the Edward Hopper print needs to be a little higher, fetch a hammer and raise the nail. Oh, and then my book order arrives in the UPS truck, and for the next half hour, it’s like Christmas in...What month is this, anyway? One of the books is something I’ve been dying to read so I just take a peek and then let myself read the first chapter or twelve, just to see if it’s as good as I’d hoped.
Uh-oh! My little sticky-note reminder program pops up on the screen. Today’s my day to drive carpool, and wouldn’t you know it, school’s out already. Now it’s time to get dinner and help with homework and play duets on the piano and bond with the daughter and husband and watch "Survivor"...Heavens, where did the day go?
At about two in the morning, when even my computer won’t talk to me, my characters will. My brain doesn’t even crave the M&Ms. Zombie-like, in some sort of beta fog, I pick up my notebook and the Magic Pen (the one with all the words and paragraphs up inside it) and I begin....
Author bio: You can find Susan on the Web at www.susanwiggs.com. Author of more than novels and one or twelve works-in-progress, Susan Wiggs swears she actually gets two novels a year written. Her latest book is THE FIREBRAND. Wiggs lives on an island in Puget Sound with her husband, her child, an Airedale, and a lifetime supply of M&Ms.
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CHEERS
Your good news cheers us on, please share!
Good news comes in threes -- Association member, writing instructor and editor Marion Blue had a short story published in the March issue of Snowy Egret. Another of her short stories will appear in the May issue of Eureka Literary Magazine, and one of her essays was accepted for the next issue of the Raven Chronicles.
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POETRY CONTESTS
Lorraine Healy, a poetry presenter and instructor at WIWC 2001, submitted the following information about poetry contests.
Solo Prize
Judge: Mark Doty
$15 for 3 unpublished poems not to exceed 10 pages. No name on poems, send cover letter w/ usual. Include SASE.
Deadline June 30
Mail to:
Solo Prize
PMB 348
2022 Cliff Drive
Santa Barbara CA 93109
Comstock Review
Muriel Craft Baily Award
Judge: Mary Oliver
NO simultaneous submissions
40 lines max per poem, $3 per poem, SASE
Name, address and phone ON REVERSE of each poem
Mail to:
2001 Poetry Contest
Comstock Writers' Group
4958 St. John Drive
Syracuse NY 13215
Announces in the Fall
Marian Blue, WIWC instructor, submitted information about the following poetry contest.
The inaugural Davoren Hanna Poetry Competition is now accepting submissions. Sponsored by The Muse Cafes, Eason Bookshops (Ireland's largest chain of bookshops), the competition offers a first prize of $5000 and second and third prizes of $2000 and $1000 respectively. The judges are Sean O' Brien, poetry critic of The Sunday Times and editor of the highly acclaimed anthology Firebox: British And Irish Poetry After 1945, and Medbh McGuckian, award-winning poet and director of the MA program in creative writing at Queens University, Belfast. The closing date for entries is the 31st May 2001, and the competition is open to both published and unpublished poets worldwide. For entry forms, rules and guidelines send a stamped addressed envelope to: The Davoren Hanna Poetry Competition, The Muse Cafe, Eason Bookshop, O'Connell Street, Dublin 1 Ireland. Alternatively, entry forms are available on Eason's website at www.eason.ie, or from:
Cian Cafferky
Competition co-ordinator
Ph: 353 1 2693322
email: cian@focusadvertising.ie
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CELEBRATE WRITING WITH YOUNG WRITERS
The Whidbey Island Writers' Association is helping sponsor the first writers' conference for students of the South Whidbey Intermediate School, Friday, May 11. The conference hopes to reach children who appreciate writing, those who could take it or leave
it, and even those who don't like it at all.
Students will hear authors speak about their writing experiences, participate in writing workshops and hands-on writing activities, and share their stories with each other. WIWA will facilitate the workshops and writing sessions.
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CYBER SURFING:
Have you encountered some helpful Internet sites? Send us the address and your brief review?
http://www.nwu.org/bite/gloss.htm
Need a quick primer in contract language? Check out this National Writers Union's Web page, a glossary of commonly used terms in writers' contracts.
http://main.travelwriters.com/
This Marco Polo Productions' Web page offers information of interest to travel writers and photographers. Columns include writing markets, travel publication updates, writing tips, and more. You must register to read most of the columns.
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QUOTES
Please send us your favorites.
"Fool!" said my muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write."
--Sir Philip Sidney
from Astrophel and Stella (1591)
You write with ease to show your breeding,
But easy writing's curst hard reading.
--Richard Brinsley Sheridan
from Clio's Protest (1819)
All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer.
-- Ernest Hemingway
Old Newsman Writes. From Esquire (December 1934)
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WHIDBEY ISLAND WRITERS' CONFERENCE
March 1 through 3, 2002
The Spirit of Writing
http://www.whidbey.com/writers
writers@whidbey.com
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