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WIWA NEWSLETTER
Vol. 3, No. 6 Dec. 2003 -- Jan. 2004
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CONTENTS
Message from the Editor
Letters to the Editor
On the Island
Off the Island
Can You Use a Preposition to End a Sentence With?
by Dr. Richard Lederer
Cheers
WIWC Reminder: Balance Due; Volunteers Needed
WIWA's Online Writing Classes and Advanced Workshops Begin January 14
by Wayne Ude
Recent Releases
All Done Not Writing
by Sheila Bender
Contests and Market Requests
Celebrate Writing, Adult Contest Winners
Pre-Conference Retreats
Post-Conference Retreats
WIWC Scholarship Winners
South Whidbey Reads
Receive Continuing Education Credits by Attending WIWC
by Marian Blue
Cyber Surfing
To Contact Us
To Subscribe or Unsubscribe
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MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR
Besides my family, reading is the most important thing to me. --Nancy Pearl
Every year Nancy Pearl, director of the Washington Center for the Book, reads nearly 100 books. Yet for every book she completes, Nancy starts six or eight that she never finishes. Editors, who receive countless submissions, have even lower completion rates.
Many readers feel guilty when they don't finish a book, particularly if it's a Pulitzer Prize winner or a best seller. But Nancy says, "Reading is like a holy experience," and "Reading a book you don't enjoy is a sin." Like a psychiatrist, she tries to absolve our guilt for abandoning books before the last page. "We all bring different things to our reading. If we all liked the same books, we'd be like clones."
Even the experts don't agree all the time. Several publishers rejected J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. And more than 30 years ago, an editor rejected Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, saying, "The very action of the story seems to me to become hopelessly bogged down and the book, eventually, unreadable." The book went on to receive a Hugo and a Nebula.
I have a little of the editorial bent in me and thought I was immune to the guilt trip, easily shedding books I didn't like. Not just books in genres I don't enjoy, but books written by some of America's best contemporary authors. John Updike's Rabbit series about the anti-hero Harry Angstrom and what he represents in the big picture of American life never interested me. Even Ken Kesey, one of my favorite authors for Sometimes a Great Notion, couldn't hold my attention for more than a few pages through Sailor Song.
It wasn't until my husband bought me a hardback copy of a book that Nancy Pearl recommended -- a book I put on my Christmas list, a book chosen for the program "If All Seattle Read the Same Book," a book by a Northwest writer -- that I felt a twinge of guilt. So when Nancy recently spoke at an event sponsored by the Friends of the Langley Library, I went to hear her latest recommendations and to be absolved.
How many pages does Nancy say we should read? Fifty -- unless you're age 51 or older. Then, subtract your age from 100 and the result is the number of pages you should read before asking yourself if you're truly enjoying the book. If not, cut your losses. And if you're wondering what to read next, try Book Lust, Nancy's latest compendium of recommendations organized by theme.
Editors use their own, less forgiving, guidelines. Jay Fielden, an editor for Vogue who once read unsolicited submissions as an assistant editor at The New Yorker, says, "I didn't see much good stuff come through the slush pile. But when something good did come, I found myself being tricked into reading. Suddenly I'd be in the third paragraph and I'd think 'What the hell am I doing?'"
Not everyone agrees with the cursory approach of most editors or with Nancy's rule of 50. Mothers and teachers often rightfully cluck, "Finish what you begin"; but remember, the rule of 50 applies to books you've chosen to read for pleasure. A reader once told me that you can learn something from every book, no matter how bad it is. Probably true, but with books, I prefer to multitask: read, learn and enjoy simultaneously.
If you get to page 50 and find you're not enjoying a book, don't feel guilty; give another writer a chance. Agents and editors dismiss years of crafting characters and stories without even turning to page two. Fifty pages is a luxury for a writer.
As a writer, understand that not everyone will be drawn to your work. That doesn't mean it's good or bad, just that it wasn't right for that person at that moment. Even super-authors Rowling, LeGuin and Updike don't appeal to every editor or reader. But follow their lead and write your best knowing that there is an editor -- and a reader -- out there who will become absorbed, lose track of the pages and enjoy a well written story.
May goodwill prevail,
Candace Allen
To read past issues of the newsletter see "News, Events & Resources" at: www.writeonwhidbey.com
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
More About Sex and the Singular Pronoun
To Richard Lederer's helpful comments about using (the normally plural) they to refer to indefinite pronouns (to avoid he or she), I've found an alternate solution that works at least some of the time without awkwardness. Let me use his examples:
-- Everyone attended the party, and they had a rockin' time.
Everyone attended the party and had a rockin' time.
-- If somebody wants to cut class, we can't stop them.
If students want to cut class, we can't stop them.
-- The cellular customer you have called has turned off their phone.
The cellular customer you called has turned off the phone.
-- We are required by law to post the pharmacy's number on the medication vial in case the customer has questions about their drug.
We are required by law to post the pharmacy's number on the medication vial in case customers have questions about their medicines.
Making the subject plural often provides a solution that avoids his or hers but also the (still awkward, to my sensibility) use of the plural they when referring to a singular subject.
All best wishes,
Dan Millman
P.S. See you at the WIWC in March.
In response:
I certainly agree with Dan Millman that changing the subject to a plural avoids the issue of connecting singular subjects with the so-called plural "they." I'd also add the second-person "you" as another strategy: "If you want to cut class, we can't stop you." But why must our glorious English language be afflicted with a third-person singular that speakers and writers must avoid in order to stay within the boundaries of so-called proper grammar? Why should we have to recast a natural third-person singular statement as second-person or third-person plural when the historical and graceful "they" is firmly established?
Richard Lederer
No Drama in a Digital World?
Got your latest on WIWA just as I finished polishing my Playwrighting Presentation for my hometown's "Write On The Sound" this coming weekend. Immediately went to your new website and was impressed, both with its general presentation and your list of presenters for the March sessions. They are indeed a distinguished lot. But I sorrowed to note that there was no Drama representative. With the burgeoning crop of local playwrights, from August Wilson to Craig Lucas and Steven Dietz, surely the Father of All Literary Arts should be represented. Or is the new generation interested only in the digital world?
That said, all best wishes for your new Conference.
Kevin O'Morrison
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ON THE ISLAND
WIWA-Sponsored Writing Groups
The WIWA-sponsored writing groups provide an opportunity to share your work, gain insight, and discuss the world of writing and publishing. Featuring a friendly forum and useful critiques, these groups welcome drop-ins and writers of every experience level.
The Evening Writers' Group has a new facilitator and will resume meeting December 3. The group meets the first Wednesday of every month from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Freeland Library, 5495 Harbor Avenue. For more information, contact Judy at: judyt1@whidbey.net.
The North Whidbey Writers' Group meets the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., at Great Times Espresso in Coupeville (waterside of Front Street, down one flight of stairs). For more information, contact Dot Read at: thereads@whidbey.com, or call (360) 331-2038.
The South Whidbey Writers' Group meets the first and third Wednesday of each month, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., at Trinity Lutheran Church in Freeland (Hwy 525 and Woodard Rd.) The meeting is in the small building closest to Highway 525. For more information, contact Natalie Olsen at: thegnat@whidbey.com, or call (360) 331-7709.
Skagit Valley College
Beginning on January 5, Marian Blue will teach Creative Writing, an introductory class to all genres, for South Whidbey Center, Skagit Valley College. For information about this 5 credit college class, call (360) 341-2324. Marian will also be teaching a Mass Communication class (everything you've ever feared about mass media!) at Skagit Valley College.
Winter Quarter WIWA Classes
Registration for WIWA's winter writing classes is now open. Three of the eight classes will be offered in Coupeville and five in South Whidbey. The cost is $75 for WIWA members and $80 for nonmembers. Membership in the Association is $10 per year. Some scholarships are available. For more information, call Gail Madden at (360) 341-2635, or email foggyday@whidbeyisland.com
Metaphor, Allegory, and Symbolism -- Adding Depth to Your Poetry and Prose: Mondays, noon - 2:30 p.m., 8 weeks, Jan. 5 - Feb. 23, Trinity Lutheran Church. Instructor: Susan Zwinger, M.F.A. Come ready to dig, explore, discover, saunter, and wonder. Metaphor is the basis for human language. The difference between a simple story and a great one lies in these skills. An adequate poem can shift into a significant poem with the reverberation of symbolism. This will be a delightful and intellectually stimulating class, full of surprises. Participants will read excellent examples as well as workshop their own writings.
Advanced Fiction Workshop: Mondays, 2 p.m. - 4 p.m., 11 weeks, January 5 - March 15, Trinity Lutheran Church. Instructor: Wayne Ude, M.F.A. This workshop focuses on works written by group members. You will share your own work, either short stories or chapters of longer works, and have the opportunity to present three pieces to be discussed in class and critiqued by the instructor. Limit 10 students.
Turning Up Your Voice: Tuesdays, 2 p.m. - 4 p.m., 10 weeks, Jan. 6 - March 9, Coupeville (location TBA). Instructor: Andy Clay, M.F.A. This class will explore the attributes of voice in fiction and poetry. We'll examine what constitutes a voice, what makes the writer's voice unique, and how to strengthen the writer's voice. Students will have the opportunity for both exercises and presentation of their own work in honing their unique voice.
Flash Fiction/Prose Poetry -- The Eternity of the Moment: Wednesdays, 10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., 8 weeks, Jan 7 - Feb. 25, Trinity Lutheran Church. Instructor: Marian Blue. Bring out the miniaturist in your writing: a flash of light, an image in the corner of your eye, a bolt of lightning -- each captured in the single event that epitomizes the essence of such an image. H.E. Francis says, "Writers have always challenged themselves to absolute reduction, skeletons. They tempt death." Come "tempt death" in this course that will study the craft of flash fiction and prose poetry. We'll read, we'll write, we'll critique -- we'll grab a brakeless Jaguar for a one-minute car chase of one down a midnight blue mountain road. 10 - 15 participants. Textbook: Sudden Fiction (ISBN# 0-393038-30-0), edited by Robert Shapard and James Thomas, from W.W. Norton (1996) -- there are several Sudden Fiction textbooks available, so make sure you get this edition.
Taking Humor Seriously: Wednesdays 2 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., 10 weeks, Jan. 7 - March 10. Coupeville (location TBA). Instructor: Andy Clay, M.F.A. Herman Wouk said, "I regard the writing of humor as a supreme artistic challenge." This class will explore the craft of humor writing in all genres. The poem that makes you smile, the mystery that makes you grin, the novel that makes you laugh out loud, and the essay that warms your soul. Students will have the opportunity to have their own humor writing read and critiqued by their peers and the instructor. Limit 12 students.
Essay and Creative Nonfiction: Thursdays, 11 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., 8 weeks, Jan. 8 - Feb. 26, Trinity Lutheran Church. Instructor: Marian Blue. To tell the truth -- but is it really "nothing but the truth" -- can one be "creative" about truth? The essay comes in many genres -- literary journalism, nature writing, segmented, memoir, personal -- but they all share elements of craft and shades of truth. We'll plunge into the how and why of essay and what the differences are between fiction and essay. This will include some exercises and some workshopping of participants' writing. 10 - 15 participants. Textbook: Writing Creative Nonfiction (ISBN# 1-884910-50-5), edited by Carolyn Forche and Philip Gerard.
Intermediate Fiction: Thursdays, 7 p.m. - 9:00 p.m, 11 weeks, Jan. 8 - March 25, Coupeville (location TBA). No class the week of WIWC. Instructor: Wayne Ude M.F.A. For those who have begun writing but would like further instruction and feedback. Half of each meeting will focus on a single chapter from the textbook, including one or more writing exercises. Chapter topics include: Setting, Character, Plot, Point of View, Dialogue, Scene, and Voice. The remainder of each meeting will focus on writing from class members. You may bring complete short stories or chapters for discussion, or may read aloud parts of stories for suggestions on how to continue and extend the story. Some students will choose to turn in one or more complete short stories for workshopping, while others will wish to develop a single short story over the entire course. Limit 12 students. Textbook: Fiction Writers Workshop, by Joseph Novakovich, ISBN # 1-884910-03-3 Story Press. Order the textbook at your favorite bookstore.
Mythic Structure in Film and Fiction: Saturdays, Noon - 3 p.m., 10 weeks, Jan. 10 - March 20, Location: TBA, South Island. No class the week of WIWC. Instructor: Wayne Ude M.F.A. This course will explore the mythic structure of the hero's or heroine's journey as a template for plot and structure in film and fiction, using as its guide Vogler's, The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, 2nd edition, which has its sources in Joseph Campbell's work on archetypes. Keep in mind that Vogler uses the word "hero" as we would use the word "poet" to apply to both men and women. Because Vogler's book was written with film in mind, we will watch some of the films he discusses in the book in order to explore the ways his ideas about structure apply to film as well as to fiction. The instructor will provide writing exercises designed to further explore mythic structure in fiction. Textbook: The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, 2nd edition, by Christopher Vogler, ISBN #0-941188-70-1. Order the textbook at your favorite bookstore.
South Whidbey Book Clubs' Potluck
The Book Owls Book Club invites all South Whidbey Book Clubs to a potluck Tuesday, January 13, 6:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church (tentative location). Each club will display and describe its top three book recommendations from readings in 2003. Club members may participate in a silent auction and donate used books, which will be sold as a benefit for the Whidbey Island Writers Association. Call Donna Hood at 341-1860, or email mjonent@whidbey.com for reservations or questions.
Cribbage Tournament at Greenbank Farm
Join other cribbage players at the first annual tournament at the Greenbank Farm Jan. 16 - 18. Open house and open cribbage will start Friday from noon to 3 p.m. Cash, door prizes and an optional catered BBQ will be available. The event is sponsored by Island Coffee Ltd, WIWC's coffee supplier. For more information, contact WIWC's favorite coffee man, Mike Diamanti, at diamanti@whidbey.net, or (360) 678-3598.
Whidbey Island Writers Conference
The Whidbey Island Writers' Conference (WIWC) will be held March 5 through March 7, 2004. This conference is appropriate for all levels of writers -- beginning and experienced. More than 50 presenters, including many agents and editors, will represent multiple genres including: fiction, nonfiction, sci-fi, travel writing, poetry, mystery and suspense, romance, children's, screenwriting and songwriting.
Known for its unique setting and interactive sessions, the conference takes place on rural Whidbey Island. Friday's sessions are held in private homes -- intimate settings that foster friendship between the authors and registrants. Saturday and Sunday classes are held at the local high school, and evening events take place in the seaside village of Langley. Tuition is $340. Private consultations are additional. For more information about registering, see our Web site at www.writeonwhidbey.com, or contact writers@whidbey.com.
Students can receive community college credit for the conference (2 quarter credits) through Skagit Valley College, South Whidbey Center. For information about how to register for these credits, call 360-341-2324 (South Whidbey Center, Skagit Valley College). You must register for the conference separately.
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OFF THE ISLAND
Olympia Writers' Workshop, Olympia, WA
1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month, at the Barnes & Noble bookstore on Black Lake Blvd, Olympia, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Writers of all levels are welcomed; enjoy casual atmosphere to discuss writing, publishing, and marketing. This group was featured in the October 2003 issue of Writer's Digest. OWW's facilitator is Kathleen Shaputis, author of "Grandma Online" (Ten Speed Press) and "The Crowded Nest Syndrome" (Clutter Fairy Publishing). For information contact Kathleen at shaputis@iwon.com.
Seattle Arts and Lectures
Jan. 13, 7:30 p.m., Benaroya Hall. Billy Collins, America's Poet Laureate. http://www.lectures.org/
Hilton Head Island Writers Retreat, South Carolina
Feb. 19 - 22, Instructor: Bob Mayer, http://www.bobmayer.org/courses.html#retreat
San Francisco Writers Conference
February 13-15, 2004; www.sanfranciscowritersconference.com
2004 Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop, University of Dayton (Ohio)
March 25 - 27; http://www.humorwriters.org/Sessions.html
Architecture of Fiction, Salem, Oregon
May 15, 2004, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Instructor: Elizabeth Engstrom. Cost $50 and includes pizza for lunch. Space is limited. For more information or a brochure, contact Liz@ElizabethEngstrom.com.
Richard Hugo House in Seattle
See http://www.hugohouse.org/events/ for the latest schedule of events.
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CAN YOU USE A PREPOSITION TO END A SENTENCE WITH?
by Dr. Richard Lederer
Dr. Richard Lederer, English professor/comedian extraordinaire will make you giggle, not gag, as he dishes up lessons about our loopy language. He is the author of more than 3,000 books and articles about language and humor, including his best-selling Anguished English series. Richard's syndicated column, Looking at Language, appears in newspapers and magazines throughout the United States. He has been elected International Punster of the Year, named by Toastmasters International as its 2002 Golden Gavel winner and is a board member for Writer's Digest. In December, St. Martin's will publish his latest book, A Man of My Words, My Career-Capping Reflections on the English Language. Hardcover; Book of the Month Club, Literary Guild, QPB. WIWC 2003 was fortunate to have Richard entertain and instruct us with his witticisms and his knowledge of our crazy English language. You can explore Richard's Web site at www.verbivore.com.
The rule banishing terminal prepositions from educated discourse was invented by the late-seventeenth-century British critic and poet John Dryden, who reasoned that "preposito" in Latin means something that "comes before" and that prepositions in Latin never appear at the end of a sentence. Dryden even went so far as to re-edit his own works in order to remove the offending construction. A bevy of prescriptive grammarians have been preaching the dogma ever since.
Unfortunately, Dryden neglected to consider two crucial points. First, the rules of Latin don't always apply to English. There exist vast differences between the two languages in their manner of connecting verbs and prepositions. Latin is a language of cases, English a language of word order. In Latin, it is physically impossible for a preposition to appear at the end of a sentence. Second, the greatest writers in English, before and after the time of Dryden, have freely ended sentences with prepositions. Why? Because the construction is a natural and graceful part of our English idiom. Here are a few examples from the masters:
-- Fly to others that we know not of. -- William Shakespeare
-- We are such stuff/As dreams are made on. -- William Shakespeare
-- Houses are built to live in, not to look on. -- Francis Bacon
-- What a fine conformity would it starch us all into. -- John Milton
-- . . . soil good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for and to be buried in. -- James Russell Lowell
-- All words are pegs to hang ideas on. -- Henry Ward Beecher
The final preposition is one of the glories of the English language. If we shackle its idioms and muffle its music with false rules, we diminish the power of our language. If we rewrite the quotations above to conform to Dryden's edict, the natural beauty of our prose and verse is forced to bow before a stiff mandarin code of structure. "Fly to others of whom we know not;" "All words are pegs upon which to hang ideas" -- now the statements are artificial -- people simply don't talk like that -- and, in most cases, wordier.
The most widely circulated tale of the terminal preposition involves Sir Winston Churchill, one of the greatest of all English prose stylists. As the story goes, an officious Whitehall editor had the audacity to "correct" a proof of Churchill's memoirs by revising a sentence that ended with the outlawed preposition. Sir Winston hurled back at the proofreader a memorable rebuttal: "This is the kind of impertinence up with which I will not put!"
A variation on this story concerns a newspaper columnist who responded snappily to the accusation that he was uncouthly violating the terminal preposition "rule:" "What do you take me for? A chap who doesn't know how to make full use of all the easy variety the English language is capable of? Don't you know that ending a sentence with a preposition is an idiom many famous writers are very fond of? They realize it's a colloquialism a skillful writer can do a great deal with. Certainly it's a linguistic device you ought to read about."
For the punster there's the set-up joke about the prisoner who asks a female guard to marry him on the condition that she help him escape. This is a man attempting to use a proposition to end a sentence with.
Then there's the one about the little boy who had just gone to bed when his father comes into the room carrying a book about Australia. Surprised, the boy asks: "What did you bring that book that I wanted to be read to out of from about Down Under up for?"
Now that's a sentence out of which you can get a lot.
My favorite of all terminal preposition stories involves a boy attending public school and one attending private school who end up sitting next to each other in an airplane. To be friendly, the public schooler turns to the preppie and asks, "What school are you at?"
The private schooler looks down his aquiline nose at the public school student and comments, "I happen to attend an institution at which we are taught to know better than to conclude sentences with prepositions."
The boy at public school pauses for a moment and then says: "All right, then. What school are you at, dingbat!" In other versions of this joke, the last word is saltier than dingbat.
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CHEERS
Your good news cheers us on! Please share your successes with us. email the editor at: candace@whidbey.com.
Kelli Russell Agodon's first collection of poems, Small Knots, will be published by Cherry Grove Collections in the summer of 2004.
Deloris Tarzan Ament is a winner of a 2003 Washington State Book Award, for her nonfiction book Iridescent Light: the Emergence of Northwest Art.
Pat Detmer placed in the WritersWeekly.com Fall 24-Hour Short Story contest for her story, "Roaming Charges May Apply."
WIWA instructor Cynthia Dial is a regular contributor to the Toronto Star newspaper with travel pieces such as "Getting a Haircut in Paris," "Making French Perfume" and "A Maui Horse Whisperer Experience" and a collection of spa features. Her work additionally appears in World Golfer, a new UK golf magazine. Cynthia's piece, "A Day in the Life of a Duffer," was featured in its debut issue to be followed up in October by "Duffer Goes to School" (the duffer is her good-natured husband Kent). She admits that he's a much better mate than golfer. However, the big news is that her book, Teach Yourself Travel Writing, has been re-released (Spring 2003 publication date in UK; Spring 2004 publication date in U.S. and Canada). McGraw-Hill is the U.S. distributor.
Sarah Hager's new picture book, Dancing Matilda, will be published by Harcourt spring 2005. Sarah also won first place in her category at the PNWA literary contest for her article "Second Chances."
WIWC team member Lorraine Healy was nominated for a Pushcart for her poem, "An Artifact for Life." Lorraine will be starting her M.F.A. at New England College in January.
Mike Hill was selected to write the script for the 2004 Langley Mystery Weekend. The murder victim in the script was planning to attend the writer's conference. Mike jokes, "I know attending the conference is a killer experience, but I hope these events don't mar attendance."
Dr. Gerald L. Kovacich's new book, Information Systems Security Officer's Guide: Establishing and Managing an Information Protection Program (Second Edition), was recently published by Elsevier: Butterworth Heinemann, ISBN: 0-7506-7656-6. Jerry also recently signed a contract with Butterworth-Heinemann to write his ninth high-technology security book, Acquisitions and Mergers Security.
T. Dawn Richard writes, "While attending a WIWC, I timidly allowed an editor to read several pages of my humorous cozy mystery, Death for Dessert in front of a class. The response was terrific, and my confidence was strong enough afterward for me to go full throttle in attempts to get the book published. Several months later, it was purchased by Five Star publishers, and now it's available, complete with a delightful picture on the cover, thanks to Five Star's talented artist Jen Page. Thanks and many blessings to all who gave me the nudge." www.tdawnrichard.com
WIWA team member Nancy Ruff was published in the September issue of the Episcopal Voice, the Diocese of Olympia news publication. Her article, "St Francis Blesses St. Augustine, Bishop Returns the Favor," described the dedication of sculptor Georgia Gerber's bronze statue of St. Francis, at St. Augustine's in-the-Woods Episcopal Parish. The accompanying photo, taken by Nancy, also appeared in the October issue of Episcopal Life, national newspaper of the Episcopal Church.
Past WIWC participant Otis Twelve's novel, On the Albino Farm, was short-listed for the British Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award. Otis says, "Whidbey has been a huge part of my progress as a writer and Marian Blue and Wayne Ude edited the book. Agents are sniffing. Manuscripts are being requested. Life is good."
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WIWC REMINDER: BALANCE DUE; VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
"Enrollment for WIWC 2004 is about where it was last year at this time," says registrar Whitney Christiansen. If enrollment continues at the same pace, the conference will be sold out before March 5.
To register online, go to writers@whidbey.com; click Writers Conference/Register. When you register, you should receive confirmation from PayPal of your payment. If you don't receive confirmation, you'll need to re-register. Contact Whitney at whitneyc@whidbey.com if you have questions.
Remember, if you've already registered, but have not made full payment, your balance is due no later than Jan. 15. You can mail your check to WIWC, PO Box 1289, Langley, WA 98260. Or you call the Conference phone line, (360) 331-6714, with credit card information. Balances cannot be paid online.
Volunteers are still needed for WIWC 2004. Tuition for volunteers is $205, a savings of $135. For more information about the available volunteer positions, go to writers@whidbey.com and click Volunteer. If you're interested in volunteering, contact Whitney at whitneyc@whidbey.com for more information.
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WIWA'S ONLINE WRITING CLASSES AND ADVANCED WORKSHOPS BEGIN JANUARY 14
by Wayne Ude
As part of our continued development, the Writers Association is offering noncredit online creative writing courses and advanced workshops beginning January 14, 2004. Here you'll find both beginning classes and advanced workshops in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, taught by published writers who are also experienced creative writing instructors on the college and university level. These aren't brief refreshers, but genuine 14-week opportunities to grow as a writer.
The advanced workshops will focus on discussions of writing submitted by workshop members. The beginning courses will use exercises, handouts and creative writing texts to explore the structures, techniques and methods of the genre being studied, from getting started to revising.
For more information, or to sign up online, go to our new website, www.writeonwhidbey.com, and move your cursor to the Writers Institute of the Northwest. When the small menu pops up, click on Online Campus Info and Signup. That will take you to our course descriptions and instructor bios. As with many of our programs, you may register online; just use the button that accompanies each individual course description, and have your credit card handy! These courses are open to anyone, so pass the word.
Here's the list of writing courses that will begin in January. All are taught by published authors and experienced writing teachers who have also made presentations at WIWC.
Beginning Creative Nonfiction Writing, taught by nonfiction author and poet Susan Zwinger
Beginning Article Writing, taught by nonfiction author and poet Marian Blue
Advanced Nonfiction Workshop, taught by nonfiction author and poet Susan Zwinger
Beginning Fiction Writing, taught by novelist and short story writer Wayne Ude
Advanced Fiction Workshop, taught by novelist and short story writer Wayne Ude
Beginning Poetry Writing, taught by poet and nonfiction writer Marian Blue
Advanced Poetry Workshop, taught by poet and nonfiction writer Marian Blue
Once you've registered for a course, you'll receive from us an email confirmation, which will be followed in January by your personal password allowing you to access the course on its starting date. Since some of the beginning courses use textbooks, those instructors will be in touch with you by email about any text you should order at your local bookstore or from an online bookseller.
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RECENT RELEASES
A Man of My Words, My Career-Capping Reflections on the English Language
Richard Lederer
St. Martin's Press, December 2003
Selected by: Book of the Month Club, Literary Guild, and Quality Paperback Book Club
www.verbivore.com
Popular author and speaker Richard Lederer is one of the foremost and funniest commentators on the pleasures and quirks of the English language. In this far-ranging and career-capping collection of essays, Lederer offers readers more of the irrepressible wordplay and linguistic high jinx his fans can't get enough of, along with observations on a life in letters. From an inner-city classroom to a wordy weekend retreat, from centuries-old etymological legacies to the latest in slang, dialects, and fadspeak, these essays transport, inform, and entertain as only wordstruck Richard Lederer can.
Illuminating everything from secrets of the writing life to the last word on the pronunciation of nuclear and offering his thoughts on "Sex and the Singular Pronoun" and an open letter to Ann Landers, along with games, quizzes, and a Declaration of Linguistic Independence, this collection has something for everyone who delights in our language.
Keen-eared and good-humored, A Man of My Words is sure to take its place next to Anguished English and The Miracle of Language as one of Richard Lederer's most popular and enduring works.
Book Lust
Nancy Pearl
Sasquatch Books, Sept. 2003
Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl recommends hundreds of books, organized by mood, moment and reason. A wonderful resource for selecting your next book.
The River Runs Salt, Runs Sweet: A Memoir of Visegrad, Bosnia
Jasmina Dervisevic-Cesic
Panisphere Books, 2003
http://www.panisphere.com/
This is the memoir of a teenage girl who grew up fast when the national guard turned its guns on its own people and Yugoslavia began to break apart.
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ALL DONE NOT WRITING
By Sheila Bender
Commit to pushing through the prickly leaves of doubt and keep on writing.
"I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the Heart's affections and the truth of Imagination." --John Keats
My grandson Toby turned 17 months old this October 1. He has been talking for months and he loves words. "All done Mommy phone," he says when my daughter Emily is talking with me and he wants her full attention. "All done Mommy bed," he says when he wants her to wake up in the morning. "All done elephants," he says when he is at the zoo and ready to move on to the hippopotamuses. His mom taught him sign language for this phrase very early and he has been communicating with it for quite awhile. At first, the gesture she taught him, which requires lifting and shaking both hands, proved most wonderful as an expedient way to be sure he didn't touch the soiled area of his diaper when she was removing it. "All done, Toby," she'd say, "We're all done with your dirty diaper," and Toby would shake his hands while Emily quickly pulled the dirty diaper away from his body, happy to have kept him talking with his fingers so he couldn't put them into the mess.
Soon, he was signing "all done" when he didn't want any more food or when he was tired of sitting in a lap or when his interest in looking at a particular book expired. And not long after that, he was saying, "All done."
One evening, when he was 14 months old, I took him outside his parents' third story apartment to play with the toy car they kept parked under the apartment building stairwell so his mommy could cook without interruption. He could hear her chopping through the open window, and he looked up from the courtyard toward the window. "All done. Mommy. All done. Mommy," he chanted, communicating to his grandma that he most certainly did not want to be outside another second without his mommy.
Not wanting to fail in my mission of occupying Toby for a little bit, I suggested that we look for a rock for Mommy. Toby's eyes lit up. We walked around and around the raised beds of the landscaped courtyard, but we couldn't find a rock. As we walked to the next building, Toby looked back toward his mommy's window and then reluctantly continued the search. When I spied a solitary rock, I balanced Toby on the ledge of the masonry bed that held several shrubs, a tree and flowers, and held onto him as I pointed to the rock. He eagerly reached for it, but he managed to put his hand on a shrub that had prickly thorns at the end of each leaf. He burst into tears. I kissed that hand and reached for the rock myself. "All done," I said, no longer wanting to keep him away from the woman who lit up his life. "Let's go see Mommy."
When we came in the door, Toby toddled over to his mom and held out the rock.
"Thank you," Emily said. "Is that for Mommy? Let's put it up here on the book shelf."
The rock was more than a gift. It carried Toby's feelings about being apart from Emily. Received by her, the rock healed the small wound. The world was right again.
As writers, we are in the position of being outside looking up at a window behind which those we love are busy. We want to hang around with them and tell them our deepest truest perceptions and feelings, but they often need for us not to talk so intimately. And so we go into exile for a little while to write our stories and poems, to share our impressions, yearnings, and discoveries. If we are lucky, we find the rock -- the subject of our writing or the form that allows us to say what we need to. However, reaching for the words, we may lose our balance and fall into prickly plants. Then we must keep on writing; we must call up the lessons of writers who have been our teachers. We must stay immersed in the process of writing. If we do, a force greater than ourselves seems to pull the rock toward us or even hands it to us.
When people in the world, even people quite different than those we thought we were writing for, accept our gift, they also accept our sadness at having to be apart from the world that we love in order to write about it. And for the moment we are home and can say, "All done sadness." And then more perceptions come and we will write our way into and out of exile, again and again.
Those of us compelled to write, understand these lines by the poet Theodore Roethke in The Waking: "This shaking keeps me steady. I should know." We understand what poet Philip Levine meant when he said, "Why do I write? Because I don't feel well if I don't."
On this first anniversary of Writing It Real, I rededicate myself to supporting you in having the stamina and skills to both look back at that window and not give up looking for that rock too soon. And I want to support you in writing as if your health depends upon it.
When you feel the prickly leaves of doubt hurting your confidence in authoring, remember these words from Lorca, "As for me, I can explain nothing, but stammer with the fire that burns inside me, and the life that has been bestowed on me." Then keep writing from direct experience. Don't worry about what the head wants to puzzle out -- report your experience through your senses. Write down what you heard, saw, touched, tasted and smelled. Before you know it, you will be absorbed in writing the experience, rather than explaining it. You will be putting fire on the page.
When you feel the prickly leaves of grief pulled up by your words, remember Ring Lardner said, "How can you write if you can't cry?" Write through your tears. There will come a time in the process when you are so at one that your tears dry. And when you have written the full experience of your grief, you will feel peace. When grief resides on the page, its residence is love.
When you feel the prickly leaves of fear because you cannot control your writing but must abandon yourself to what you have called up, think about Toby's rock, about the gift you are making. Imagine even one person receiving it, feeling thanks for it, and placing it among their treasured things.
When you feel the prickly leaves of distress at saying the truth and imagining others hearing you say it, remember writer Rita Mae Brown's words, "Writers are the moral purifiers of the culture. We may not be pure ourselves, but we must tell the truth, which is a purifying act." Write what you have in you to write. You can decide later what to do about those for whom this writing would not be a gift. Many times you will be surprised when the work is finished. Those you were most afraid would shun the work, may love it.
When you feel the prickly leaves of thinking you never have enough time to write because writing requires a special mood, write something down -- any thought or image will do. Soon you will notice that you have five minutes to write, then ten minutes and then you will find twenty. You will have words to get back to if you write something down. You will gain dexterity in altering your state of being to the writing state. You will begin to work on the projects you have inside yourself. Your practice will be writing rather than wishing you were writing. You might find yourself chanting, "All done not writing. All done."
Sheila Bender is a poet, essayist, and publisher of WritingItReal.com, an online writing magazine. A past columnist for Writer's Digest Magazine, her books include Writing Personal Essays: How to Shape Your Life Experiences for the Page, Keeping a Journal You Love, A Year in the Life: Journaling for Self-Discovery, Writing Personal Poetry: Creating Poems from Life Experience, and Writing in a New Convertible with the Top Down. She teaches at writers conferences and online. For information, visit www.sheilabender.com and WritingItReal.com. You can email Sheila at sbender@writingitreal.com for a free trial subscription.
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CONTESTS AND MARKET REQUESTS
Celestial Writing Contest, Sponsored by WIWC
Registered participants of the Whidbey Island Writers Conference 2004 are invited to participate in the annual Celestial Writing Contest. Categories include essay, fiction, children's literature and poetry. No entry fee is required. Entries must be postmarked no later than Feb. 1, 2004. For details, see www.writeonwhidbey.com and click: Writers Conference/Celestial Writing Contest.
PNWA Literary Contest
Submit your writing to 10 categories for Pacific Northwest Writers Association's Literary Contest. Entries ($35/PNWA members, $45/nonmembers per category) must be postmarked by February 17, 2004. Over $9,000 in prize monies. www.PNWA.org.
The Washington Poets Association 2004 Poetry Contests
The contests are open to all poets 18 years or older. A total of $1,000 in cash awards will be awarded for poetry in four categories -- free verse, traditional verse, haiku and humor. The William Stafford Award, the organization's highest honor, recognizes the best poems in any form. There are also the Carlin Aden Award for poetry in traditional rhyme and form, the Charlie Proctor Award for humorous poems, and new this year, the Francine Porad Award for haiku. The entry fee is $5 plus $1 a poem. Deadline is March 1, 2004. Further information and the 2004 entry form can be downloaded at http://www.washingtonpoets.org/.
PARSEC/Confluence Short Story Contest
This contest is open to nonprofessional writers of science fiction, fantasy, or horror. Maximum 3,500 words. No entry fee. Cash awards. April 1, 2004 deadline. For details, see http://trfn.clpgh.org/parsec/contest.html.
Million Dollar Muse Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Meeting the Muse Chapter of the Missouri State Poetry Society. Cash awards will be given to five winners in each of two categories: Best Rhymed Poem and Best Unrhymed Poem. Any subject, form and length will be considered. Entry fee is $2 per page. Sept.11, 2004 deadline. For a copy of the contest rules, send a #10 Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope (SASE) with your request to: Amy's Muse Contest, 1325 W. Sunshine St., Box 168, Springfield, MO 65807.
Living Stupid: Dumb Things Smart People Do
Stephanie Marston, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Empowered Woman's Soul, seeks stories for Living Stupid: Dumb Things Smart People Do. Send your humorous true-life stories to Living Stupid, P.O. Box 31453, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87594-1453. Or email stories to samarston@earthlink.net. Chapter headings will include dumb things people have done At Work, Around
the House, At Play, In Love, Outdoors, On Vacation, In Friendship, With Children, With Your Parents, With Your Pets, By Yourself and During Sex. The maximum word count is 1,200. For each story selected for the book a fee of $100 will be paid. Stories must be received no later than March 15, 2004.
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CELEBRATE WRITING, ADULT CONTEST WINNERS
The Whidbey Island Writers' Association recently announced the 2003 winners of the Celebrate Writing Contest for adults. The public is invited to A Literary Celebration, a reading of the winning manuscripts, at 7 p.m., January 22 at the Coupeville Library, January 29 at the Freeland Library and February 2 at the Oak Harbor Library.
The winners are:
Short Fiction: 1st, "Lost and Found," Laura Valente; 2nd, "City Creatures," Gail Madden; 3rd (Tie), "Road to Corpus Christi," John Pendleton; "Tule Lake," Rowena Williamson; 4th (Tie): "Secrets," Sandra McGillivray Ortgies; "Celestial Bodies," Siri Sobottka
Poetry: 1st, "When I Open a Letter from Frau W.," Natalie Olsen; 2nd, "Dreaming of America," Gail Madden; 3rd (Tie), "Alders," Linda Beeman; "Love's Economy," Julian Taber; 4th, "Tidewater Cat," Sandra McGillivray Ortgies
Nonfiction: 1st, "Gift of the Night," Jeanne Celeste; 2nd, "Eulogy for a Pilot," Julian Taber; 3rd, "Living with Less to Dust," Jean Steinbrecher; 4th (Tie), "Heard at the Senior Center," Barbara Aiello; "Learing Rains," Linda L. Beeman
Life History/Memoir: 1st, "Sugar Fix," Fred Alpers; 2nd, "A Cliff Hanger," P.R. McCabe.; 3rd, "The Rock," Sandra McGillivray Ortgies; 4th, "Propeller Most Foul: How I Came to Love Sailing," Alesa Lightbourne; Honorable Mention, "Prairie Child," Milly Hardy.
Children's Literature: 1st (Tie), "The Red Skates," Diane V. Adair; "The Town of Clown," Jennifer Lesko; 2nd, "The Littlest Angel," Kimberly Dayne Starr; 3rd, "Miss Butterfly," Jeanne Celeste; 4th, "Rattle Snakes and Killer Geese," Martha Martin.
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PRE-CONFERENCE RETREATS
Five pre-conference retreats will be held Thursday, March 4, in fiction, advanced fiction, screenwriting, memoir and short stories. The sessions are full day intensive workshops from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and are for the serious writer. The cost for the retreat is $240 and includes lunch on Thursday and dormitory style lodging (2-3 per room) in a comfortable, cozy setting for the entire pre-retreat and WIWC weekend (limited to 10 registrants) For more information, email writers@whidbey.com or call (360) 331-6714.
Nuts, Bolts, and Blossoms: Writing Fiction Your Way
Dan Millman, best-selling author of Way of the Peaceful Warrior and a major new upcoming novel, The Journeys of Socrates, will lead you up the mountain path of story telling from idea to published book. Although Dan will offer some stories from his own experience and lessons learned, as well as illuminating discourse, the day centers around specific writing exercises and group analysis to encourage, inform, and liberate your literary muse. Recommended background reading: Story by Robert McKee, Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing by David Morrell, On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner.
Writing the Breakout Novel
Donald Maass' intensive, hands-on writing workshop introduces key techniques for construction of large-scale and large-feeling fiction. For advanced fiction writers. Participants must bring the manuscript of a completed novel, or novel-in-progress. This intensive is based on the book, Writing the Breakout Novel by New York literary agent Donald Maass.
The Pitch
So you want to sell your brilliant screenplay? Believe it or not, very few people actually read in Hollywood. So, THE PITCH is crucial, and it requires a whole other skill set. There is the verbal pitch and the pitch document. There is the log line and the hook. And, then, there is the realization that if you have a problem in your pitch, you likely have a problem in your script. Just another reason why honing THE PITCH is so valuable. This full-day retreat will take you through the art and the science of THE PITCH, complete with insider tips and techniques, by Hollywood screenwriter, Donald Martin, who knows all about THE PITCH. Participants must have a completed screenplay which they are ready to pitch. A laptop is suggested as there will be some writing involved during the retreat.
Family Stories
This memoir workshop by Maureen Murdock is for anyone who has wanted to take anecdotes or stories about family members and understand what really happened by shaping them into works of nonfiction. As we write about family members living and dead, we probe not only their story filled with idealization, denial, anger and joy but discover the universal appeal of our life story as well. We'll discuss the basic components of memoir writing, do in-class writing exercises to shape your memoir, and discuss the work of Rick Bragg, Mary Karr, James McBride and others who have brought integrity and humor to the memoirs about their families. This workshop is designed for both beginning and experienced writers.
Short-Shorts
Short-short narratives of a thousand words or less are intense enough as it is. In this day-long workshop, Bruce Holland Rogers turns the heat up even more! Learn ways to sit down with no idea at all and stand up a few hours later with a completed story. Rogers is the author of over 100 published short stories, including dozens of short-shorts. Instruction will include various short-short strategies and forms. Participants will practice getting and developing ideas on the spot and will have an opportunity to complete a story during the course of the day. Participants may elect to read their completed work from the intensive at an early Saturday morning session.
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POST-CONFERENCE RETREATS
Travel Writing
Join Cynthia Dial and Jules Older, Ph.D., March 8 - 9, right after the Writers Conference, for a full day of tips from the pros, followed by a day of excursions and putting your new skills to work -- writing. Sessions are from 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Continental breakfast, lunches and lovely lodging are included. Class limited to 16 individuals. Cost $400 per person. For more information, contact writers@whidbey.com.
Cynthia Dial is the author of the internationally distributed book, Teach Yourself Travel Writing. She has published hundreds of newspaper and magazine travel articles and is regularly featured in the Toronto Star. Cynthia has taught travel writing for more than ten years.
Jules Older, Ph.D. is the editor-in-chief of Ski Press Canada and Ski Press USA, North America's biggest-circulation ski magazines. He's a commentator on Vermont Public Radio; a travel writer for the New York Post, Yankee and Vermont magazines, and a contributor to several inflights. Jules is an award-winning writer and an award-winning teacher. His story is out there on julesolder.com.
Ready for a Creative Leap? Poetry Retreat
Join Kim Addonizio, poet, teacher and National Book Award Winner, and Jessica Barksdale Inclán, novelist, March 11 - 14 for a poetry retreat. Continental breakfast, lunches and lovely lodging are included. Cost $500 per person. For more information, contact aleebron@aol.com.
Kim Addonizio is the author of three books of poetry and a book of stories. A new poetry collection, What Is This Thing Called Love, is due from Norton in 2004. Her awards include two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Pushcart Prize, a Commonwealth Club Poetry Medal, and the John Ciardi Lifetime Achievement Award. For more information about Kim go to http://addonizio.home.mindspring.com
Jessica Barksdale Inclán's debut novel, Her Daughter's Eyes, published in 2001, was the premier novel published under New American Library's new imprint, Accent. The book was a final nominee for the YALSA Award for the best books of 2001 and best paperbacks for 2001. Jessica recently sold her fifth novel, The Sofie Letters, for publication in 2005. She is a 2002 recipient of the CAC Artist's Fellowship in Literature. For more information about Jessica go to http: //www.jessicabarksdaleinclan.com
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WIWC SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS
This year's winners of the WIWA Scholarship Award Program will receive full tuition scholarships to WIWC 2004. The recipients are:
High School: Jared Cooke, Lynnwood WA; Lisa Lamson, Oak Harbor WA; Daniel Richards, Freeland WA; Elizabeth Waltz, Mountlake Terrace WA; Eva Wingren, Friday Harbor, WA
College/Running Start: Disko Praphanchith, Mountlake Terrace WA
Edna Hansen: Lené Muller, Montpelier, VT
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