Life Follows You… even to the Beach!

I’ve been at Seagrove for 48 hours as I write this post, thinking that I would have written 20 pages on my novel by now, you know? After all, that’s the reason for the month-long writer’s retreat on the beach, right? But what I’m discovering is that wherever you go, life follows you.

I left home on Wednesday, where I had spent many hours over the past two weeks dealing with maintenance problems, including washing machine (3 visits from repair folks and it’s still not fixed), security alarm/smoke alarm (also took 3 visits from technician), automatic gate (fixed once, broke again), and printer (still wasn’t working when I left Memphis on Wednesday.)

As I drove down here I thought, “ah, no more maintenance issues.”

And my first two days have been filled with hours of writing, walks on the beach, and a great time at Crush (in Seaside) at their free wine-tasting and half-off sushi last night. But they’ve also been filled with:

Note on the drier saying a repair man is coming “some time Thursday” because the door won’t stay shut. But I got the door to shut and it runs fine, so I called the owner and he cancelled the service call.

Somehow I managed to pull the icemaker out too far in the freezer and the door wouldn’t close, but I didn’t know why it wouldn’t close. So, my frozen food thawed last night and half my refrigerator stuff got to an unsafe temperature and I had to throw it away… after I carefully shopped for it as I drove into Seagrove Wednesday afternoon. (I’m headed back to Publix tonight.) Dark, bloody-brown liquid started pouring out on the kitchen floor (which smelled strangely like Worchestershire sauce, but must have been something from inside the mechanical part of the fridge ‘cause nothing was leaking in the fridge itself) and I had to keep cleaning it up. Got the owner on the phone (again) and he walked me through inserting the icemaker again and voila! Door closes and everything cooling back off.

The condo has a DVD player, so I borrowed a friend’s copy of Mad Men Season 1, which I’ve been anxious to watch since I got hooked on the show AFTER Season 1, but I can’t get the player to work. Called the owner AGAIN and he walked me through all the steps (which I had already done) and every time it says “loading” the DVD, then it says “no disc.” The owner’s friend, Phil, was here (he owns 2 units in the building) so he came by to help me, but he couldn’t make it work either, so he went to Panama City and bought a new DVD player today and just DROPPED IT OFF. Yes. He said, “I don’t install these things. Good luck.”

So here I am on beautiful Friday night at the beach, headed back to the grocery to replace the foods that spoiled, and then I’ll be crawling around on the floor unhooking the old DVD player and hooking up the new one. No techies around to help. Just me. I’ve learned from watching my husband and daughter do these things that as I unplug each part of the old one, I’ll make a little note on a piece of masking tape saying what goes back in there. Kind of like leaving a trail as you go through the woods so you can find you way back, right? How hard can it be, really?

I am happy to report that the wi-fi has worked from the get-go, and my portable printer is now working fine, after I put it through a series of alignments because it hadn’t been used in a year or two. This weekend I’ll probably head to Office Depot in Destin or Panama City to pick up some more ink cartridges, since I just put my replacements in and it’s only Day 2 of my writing retreat!

So, if you were expecting my blog to say how many words or pages I’ve written each day while I’m here, that’s not my plan. That puts way too much pressure on me. My plan is to write 4-8 hours a day (some days less, some days more) and to get in two hour-long walks on the beach every day. Also to only eat healthy, low-fat foods (no chips, bread, sweets, etc. in the condo) and to limit my alcohol intake. If you’re thinking, “how’s that working for you” I’m happy to report that for 2 days, it’s working great. Even with a refrigerator/freezer crisis. Oh, and I’ve slept 8-9 hours each of the first two nights. I think as the days go on I’ll probably get in a writing mode some nights and stay up late, but the good news is that I can just sleep in the next day. No schedule.

Haven’t had time to get lonely yet… my characters are keeping me company. They are in my head all the time now, especially when I’m walking on the beach. And tomorrow I’m meeting a new friend for coffee in Seaside… she’s an artist that I met in Milan, Italy (yes) and we exchanged business cards. She lives in Destin. I’m going to the Seaside Saturday farmer’s market in the morning and then meeting her for coffee, so I’m taking Saturday morning off from writing. But I’ll be back in the chair tomorrow afternoon.

It’s such a joy to be here, and I’m so grateful to my sweet husband (of 40 years) for “sponsoring” me for this writing retreat! I’m going to see him half-way through, when he meets me in Oxford, Mississippi, where I’ll be taking a break to help co-direct the 2010 Creative Nonfiction Conference. Then I’ll head back down to Seagrove for 10 more days of writing after the conference.

Gorgeous weather today: sunny, high 74. The water is smooth and I saw my first shark! Just a small one, and the folks on the yolo boards weren’t scared of him. They say he’s a harmless one. I’ll just watch from shore, thank you very much.

Perhaps the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen. Couldn't capture the dolphins who were jumping in the sunset. Called my hubby while watching it. Wished I could feel his arms around me.

The Crossroads of Circumstance

It's my turn over at A Good Blog is Hard to Find! (the Southern Authors'blog)

Please read my post and leave a comment:

"The Crossroads of Circumstance: Setting in Southern Literature."

Off to the beach in the morning! Ciao!

Setting

So, it's almost my turn to post over at the Southern Authors' blog, "A Good Blog is Hard to Find." At first they said this month's theme was "favorite authors and why?" and "Who is your author best friend?"

I thought about those questions for a while, and then I got an email saying the "optional themes" are "writing struggles" and "setting."

Since I've already blogged on and off about my favorite author, Pat Conroy, I decided I'd chose one of the optional themes. (Read my review of Pat's latest novel, "South of Broad.") I'm still chewing on it.... but I'm drawn to "setting." Why? Because setting can actually be a character in a novel. But I won't say more... that's just a teaser until my post on Wednesday at A Good Blog.

Meanwhile, back here at Pen and Palette, I know some of you have been waiting for me to blog about our trip to Italy. We've been home for a week, and just today I downloaded my (500) photos and began going through them, and frankly it's overwhelming. If there's a disadvantage to digital cameras, it's the license it gives to shoot so many pictures! Back in the day of film (and yes, I know a lot of serious artists still use film) I would choose carefully as I shot my pictures. Now it's just here a click, there a click, everywhere a click click. (And yeh, that gladiator guy was hot.)

And I know the last thing anyone wants to read is a travel journal. Just buy Rick Steves' book for that. So, I should take time to write stories about the special people and places that stirred my soul on our trip, and maybe I'll do that one day. But not today. If you want to see lots of pictures, I'll have them up on a Facebook album later tonight. On this post, I'll just slip in a few favorites.

Meanwhile, back to "setting"... when I first read that it was an optional theme for A Good Blog, I actually thought, "do they mean the setting of the book, or the setting in which the author writes?" Of course they must mean the importance of setting in the book (which I'll address in my post on Wednesday)... but for now, I'll address the importance of setting for the AUTHOR.(That's me hanging out laundry at our villa in rural Tuscany. Now that's a setting I could write about!)

As you know I live in Memphis, Tennessee, with my husband of 40 years, (that's my sweetheart, left)and many wonderful friends. I'm active in my church, and keep a fairly active social life, meeeting various friends for coffee, lunch or drinks a day or two each week. In our home, I share a very small office with my husband, who is a physician and writes scientific papers, which he can do while: (a) talking to me, (b) watching football on TV, (c) playing games on his iPad, and (d) texting or emailing on his laptop or Blackberry. So, he doesn't understand the amount of TIME and SPACE I need in order to do creative writing. Well, perhaps he understands more than I think, because he has just agreed to "sponsor" me for a month's "writing sabbatical" in Seagrove Beach, Florida.

Yes, I'm leaving on Wednesday morning for a month on the beach, alone, writing.

I thought that sentence needed its own paragraph. I'm packing up my laptop, monitor, portable printer, paper, research notes, storyboard, and off I go to a SETTING where I hope to be able to finish the first draft of my novel-in-progress.

Oh, I'll have wi-fi and cable TV, so the usual temptations will follow me. What I won't have? A schedule. I can write, sleep, eat, walk on the beach, etc. whenever I want to. Since I was barely 19 when I got married, I haven't ever really been alone, as an adult. Here's hoping the muse will follow me to the beach! I'll be posting from Seagrove on a regular basis, and I'll be taking a weekend break for the 2010 Creative Nonfiction Conference in Oxford, Mississippi, in the middle of my writing retreat, which is really great timing, since I'm always so inspired after these workshops and really only want to WRITE WRITE WRITE.

And honestly, the best thing I can say about "setting" and the beach is that the SUNSETS are fabulous! Watch for few in coming posts. My second-floor condo is right on the beach, with a view of the ocean through the sliding glass doors, and a western (sunset) view through a side window. That's where my "desk" will be set up. This sunset? It's in Rome. Ciao!

[Over 250] Outstanding Mississippians

I received a wonderful gift in the mail this week, from my friend, Neil White. As you know if you follow my blog, Neil is the author of the memoir, In the Sanctuary of Outcasts, which I reviewed a while back. But he's also the Editor of the newly published coffee-table book, Mississippians.

This book was born of Neil's love for Mississippi, and his desire to counter the "oversimplified often sensationalized, reports about Mississippi" with his own "list" of influential people who have at one time or another called Mississippi home. Having been born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, I understand that desire. I did a short post about it last year:


"Yes, we can read. A few of us can even write."

There's something for everyone in this book, whether you're a sports fan, into music,movies, television and stage, literature, politics or whatever. Mississippians would make a terrific Christmas gift, Neil suggests that you buy it from a Mississippi bookseller (see his list here) but you can also order it online.



There's also going to be a launch party on November 2 at Off Square Books in Oxford, and signings at ten different towns in Mississippi and in Memphis over the next few weeks. See the schedule here, and catch up with Neil and get an autographed copy.

The Miracle of Mercy Land and Crossing to Safety: My First Two Kindle Reads

Not sure how I ended up with my first two Kindle reads being set in the Depression era, one in Alabama and one in Wisconsin, but reading them back-to-back while traveling in Italy was quite a trip!

My friend, River Jordan, has outdone herself with her latest, “The Miracle of Mercy Land.” I was going to do an interview with River—as I did when her last novel, "Saints in Limbo," came out--but then I found this excellent interview, “River Magic,” over at Chapter 16, so I think I’ll let you read that one.

Instead, I’ll try to just give a hint of what is so magical about River’s latest work. Set in a very believable place, with very believable characters, she surprises the reader with the interjection of something mystical, magical, that happens in their otherwise very ordinary lives. A magical book appears, and with it, powerful potential for good or evil, depending upon how it’s used. I couldn’t stop turning the pages (or rather, hitting the forward button on my Kindle) to see what kinds of life-changing decisions each character would make next.

Would Mercy give her heart to John?

“And just like that, my heart went out to the man before me, and the die of a thousand years was cast.”

But would John make the right decisions, or would he be forever a victim of his past? With Mercy in his life, he would say, “I believe I feel myself returning.”

But then, would evil triumph over good?

“I wouldn’t have moved in an earthquake, but just then something more dangerous walked in. She entered the room like smoke moving just ahead of a fire—a forewarning that something was coming that would scorch and burn.”

Oh, the pain these characters experience due to the choices they’ve made in life—even good old Doc. And Mercy felt his pain, as well: “There was a rush inside my soul then of something I couldn’t reach. A deep-seated pain like that of a wounded animal.”

The ending surprised me (and I won’t spoil it here) which is kind of a nice thing to have happen at the end of a good book, isn’t it?

And then there’s the modern classic, “Crossing to Safety,” by Wallace Stegner in 1987. I’d never heard of him, or the book, which was suggested to me by a close friend just a few days before I left for Italy. I immediately downloaded it to my Kindle and off we went on our journey together.

[In case you also don’t know him, the winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, Wallace Stegner is the author of a dozen novels and as many works of nonfiction, including Angle of Repose, The Spectator Bird, and The Big Rock Candy Mountain. The founder and director of the graduate writing program at Stanford University, he spent much of his life in northern California and Vermont. He died in 1993.]

“Crossing to Safety,” like “The Miracle of Mercy Land,” is set in the Depression, but also spans several other decades, as it follows the lives and relationships of two couples—the men both college professors. One couple is poor, the other born to money. But their struggles (polio, cancer, job security) are shared as they travel from Wisconsin to Vermont and even to Italy. (It was fun reading the part about Italy while I was in Florence, near where the two fictional couples lived!)

I loved the characters, and found myself identifying strongly with one of the women—Charity:

“All her life she has been demanding people’s attention to things she admires and values.”

“She could never have a good time without calling her own and others’ attention to what a good time she was having.”

But I also loved Sally and Larry and Sid… and was fascinated by the way Stegner laid out for us their broken humanity with all its beauty and flaws.

“What I am sure of is that friendship—not love, friendship—is as possible between women as between men, and that in either case it is often stronger for not having to cross sexual picket lines.”

I know I’m not giving you much of the plot, but that’s on purpose…. I don’t like reviews and trailers that give away too much. All I can say is I loved this book on many levels. For the sheer beauty of its literary prose, for the life lessons the characters learned (and the readers, if we allow ourselves) and for the descriptions of place and time as we traveled with the characters through several decades of their lives.

I’m a slow reader, so the fact that I read both of these books in two weeks (and yes, I did have lots of time on airplanes to and from Italy) is a testament to their entertainment value. But also to the Kindle. I’m a fan, now. Don’t worry, I’m still buying hardbacks and love to have them autographed, but for traveling, the Kindle is terrific.

The [not so] Deep Rest Room

Not sure whether to laugh or not... just spent an hour trying to sleep in the "Deep Rest" Room inside the KLM Lounge at the Amsterdam Airport. We've got a 5-hour layover and since we got up at 3 a.m., we thought we'd catch some shut eye before our flight to Memphis.

Have you ever seen one of these "deep rest" rooms inside a KLM lounge? The design is pretty cool. There are lots of little cubicles with really comfortable reclined lounges to nap on. The lights are extremely dim and the floors are carpeted. Bill and I chose two across from each other and settled in. (He set his phone alarm to vibrate in 2 hours.)

Within a few minutes the symphony started:

First there were just a few äverage snorers. Sometimes they were in sync and other times random. I couldn't help but try to find a melody there somewhere, but after a while they faded and I thought maybe I could sleep.

And then the sleep apnea guy started up. He must have been just one cubicle away. He was unbelievably LOUD... and then comes that silence where you know he's stopped breathing, and you hold your own breath, hoping that he's okay, and then there it comes--AHHHHGGGSSSHH! He breathes. I wondered what I might do if he didn't breathe. Would I run around the corner to his cubible and give him CPR? Would I just yell out for help? (Of course my husband, the physician, was sound asleep and missed all the excitement. This has always been true. There have been times in our marriage when I thought someone was breaking into the house and I would shake him and whisper, "wake up! Listen! what is that?" and then I'd hold my breath and break into a sweat and 10 minutes later I'd realize he was sound asleep. I think it's a gift given to all physicians so they can survive being on call.)

After 45 minutes I thought I'd keep trying, and then some guy's cell phone ALARM started going off. It started quietly and got louder and LOUDER and L O U D E R. This happened 3 times. Yes. So I got up and went into his cubicle (yes, I invaded his private space) and touched him on the arm gently. He had on a sleep mask. I had to shake him to wake him and he looked started. I said, "excuse me, sir, but your alarm just went off 3 times." He got it. I went back to my cubicle to try again.


It gets better. Some guy FARTED right there in the "deep rest" room in the KLM Lounge. Oh, yes he did. That was the deal-breaker for me. I was out of there immediately.

And then I realized why I've never stayed in a hostel while traveling in Europe.

The Sistene Chapel by Wheelchair

As I hinted at on Facebook the other day, here's my brief story about seeing the Sistene Chapel by wheelchair! (I'm on the hotel computer in Venice... first time on a computer in Italy... so this will be brief.)

Our wonderful guide, Carol, took us to the Vatican to see the Sistene Chapel. The day we went, the lines to get in wrapped around the block and took an hour and a half... usually only take 15-20 minutes. We found out at the door that St. Peter's was closed, which was crowding the Vatican museum. Once inside the door (and AFTER paying) we saw the the lines continue for another hour and a half! I'm feeling really sick, and my back and knees are hurting, so Carol gets me a wheel chair, and we go to the front of the line!

Everywhere we go, crowds of people part like the Red Sea. I even ride a wheelchair lift at one point. I'm a little embarassed, but at the same time, I felt so bad, physically, that it was worth it. I enjoyed the Sistene Chapel immensely, and afterwards was a bit rested after so much walking and standing the rest of our site-seeing days.

Being in a wheelchair gives an unusual vantage point.... of how it is for those who are always in such a situation. As this was happening, I was reading a terrific book, "Crossing to Safety" by Wallace Stegner, in which one of the heroines gets polio, so her world is changed forever. (It's a terrific book, by the way... the first I've ever read on my new Kindle!)

So... tonight's our last night in Venice, and tomorrow we take a train to Milan to see The Last Supper, and the next morning we're on a plane back to the States. It's been a fabulous 13 days... and I highly recommend it for YOUNG PEOPLE!! (I realize the irony is that most young people can't afford it, and by the time you can afford it, your body can't keep up!)

That's all for now. Ciao!

Preparing for a Pitch Fest at a Writers Conference

[Another post I scheduled before leaving for Italy.]

In response to an email I received last week from a woman who has registered for the 2010 Oxford Creative Nonfiction Conference (I’m one of three co-directors) about how to prepare to pitch her work to the agents and editors at the conference, I shared a three things with her:


1. At this conference, you don't make appointments ahead of time with individual agents or editors or publishers. During the pitch fest, the agents, publicists, editors and publishers will be sitting at tables in a room, and everyone gets in line to pitch to whichever person they want to. If there's time, you can pitch to several. In 2008, I pitched to an agent, an editor, and two publishers. Someone will "monitor" the session, being sure that everyone moves to the next person in 5-10 minutes.

2. Here's a good article by Vicki Britton (who has a great blog with writing tips) at Suite101.com on “How to Pitch a Novel at a Writers Conference."

3. I was encouraged to prepare a "one-pager" which I took with me, along with business cards, to the 2008 Conference. The last paragraph in this article (#10) from a 2009 issue of Writers Digest explains what a one-pager is. You can leave the page and card with the agent, etc. Don't offer to hand them a manuscript unless they ask for one.

A couple of months ago I did a blog post, “Choosing, Prepping and Networking,” which also might be helpful if you’re a first-time workshop or conference attendee.

So, whether you’re coming to the CNF Conference in Oxford or another writer’s conference, I hope this information and the links have been helpful. What other tips do you have to share with fellow writers who are attending a workshop or conference? Please leave a comment!

The Color of Coffee the Way Women Drink It

[I’m in Italy vacationing with my husband, but I set this to post before I left home. After doing three blog posts/week for three years, it’s hard to be away from Pen and Palette for very long!]

My friend, Tom Franklin, has several novels and collections of short stories out there, but his latest, “Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter,” is my favorite. Why? Not to diminish its noir side—I’m not a big fan of noir—his latest is toned down a bit in its darkness and toned up a bit in its literary quality, in my opinion. In fact, Memphis Flyer book reviewer, Leonard Gill, calls it “Country Dark.” [It’s too early to link to this review, which is in the October 7-13 Flyer: “Tom Franklin: Deep South storyteller.” You might try this link after October 7, and then click on “Books.”]

In Gill’s review of Tom Franklin’s latest novel, “Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter,” he echoes other reviewers who have said that Tom’s latest novel is “a gentler take on what Franklin’s fans have come to think of as his signature territory—the violent, male-dominated, backwoods Deep South….”

Oh, the violence and good ole boys are there, but so are the rich relationships and complicated culture of the South. And beautiful prose:

“Her drawn face pretty despite how the cold made her lips tiny, her skin the color of coffee the way women drank it….”

And Heminway-ish sentences that go on and on with the cadence of a poet, even when his subjects are “The confluence of pickup trucks” and “rebuilt carburetors.” He writes about mechanics, about fathers and sons, and about “what must have been happiness.”

Tom’s metaphors are always point on, as he writes about how “saws screamed out like people burning in a fire” and the “breath torn from her lips like tissues from a box.” His character descriptions are vivid:

“Rather than his father’s tall, pitcher’s physique and blond curls and dark skin and green eyes, Larry got Uncle Colin and his mother’s olive skin and straight brown hair and brown eyes with long lashes which, attractive on women, made Larry and Uncle Colin soft and feminine, seat belt users who ate tilapia.” (Tracking back to earlier references about seat belts and talapia.)

I’m loving the book and had a great time hearing Tom read from it at Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi, last week. He was at Off Square Books in Oxford on October 6 and Davis Kidd in Memphis on October 7.

If you didn’t get to one of Tom’s readings, you might enjoy his NPR Interview: “Unlikely Friends Color Novel’s Deep South.”

Want more about Tom? Read my blog post from two years ago about my first visit to the Neshoba County Fair, where Tom was reading.

[I still owe you a beer, Tom! Remind me when I’m in Oxford in November for the 2010 Creative Nonfiction Conference.]

Ciao!

Today is my husband’s 62nd birthday. We celebrated on Sunday night by going out with our dear friends (and Godchildren) Damon and Madeleine Boiles. We do this every October, because Madeleine’s birthday is October 5 and my husband’s is October 6.

But October 6 will also live in our memories for another reason—it was the date on which our dear friend, Urania Alissandratos died, in 2007—three years ago today. She was very much like a second mother to me… to many of us.

I did two blog posts about my experience being with her during her final days, so I won’t repeat those memories here. If you’d like to read them, just click on the titles:

“Watching, Dancing and Fishing.”

“Catch and Release, and Watching, Continued”

I’m packing for our trip to Italy (we leave this afternoon!) so this will be brief. I often look back at things I’ve written a year ago when I’m preparing a blog post, and it’s interesting to me that one year ago today I was in a bit of a funk, as I am today, actually. You can read it here, if you weren’t following my blog this time last year:

“Why Does Sobriety Have to Come With Feelings?”

I went on a walk this beautiful afternoon and talked to my best friend in Little Rock on my cell while I walked. I told her I was depressed, which feels so weird on the eve of such a fabulous opportunity as a two-week trip to Italy to celebrate 40 years of married life with my husband. But it’s true. I can’t really say why, but I do hope that I’ll find my “happy place” while I’m in Italy. (We’re going to Rome, Tuscany, Florence, and Venice.) I’m such a social media junkie, but I’m leaving my laptop at home, taking instead a sketchbook/journal, a really nice pen and a few watercolor pens, and a camera. I’m sure I can find an internet café if the monkey gets too heavy on my back, but I’m hoping to learn to just be present, with my husband, and with the beauty of the country and people we are visiting.

So…. If you don’t hear from me for a couple of weeks, don’t worry that the terrorists have gotten me. Just send up some prayers and wishes that our time together in such a beautiful country will be peaceful. And as always, thanks so much for reading. Ciao!

Interesting Times

You don't always get what you want... but sometimes, you get exceptional customer service coupled with savvy marketing. I called the New York Times on Friday to cancel our Sunday delivery. Just making some budget cuts, and as much as I enjoy the Magazine, Book Review, and Arts & Leisure sections, I don't always make time for them. So, I decided to pocket the $30/month or maybe subscribe to another literary journal instead.

But then I spoke with “Angela.” (not her real name, but then they never are, are they?) I told her what I was doing and she very politely asked, “Do you mind if I ask why you’re cancelling?”

“Oh, it’s just personal budget cuts, and also a little bit of choosing to read other things.”

She didn’t miss a beat. “Mrs. Cushman, I see that you are a long-term, valued customer of The Times. I can offer you a 50% reduced rate for the next six months, with the possibility of an ever better discount when that time is up.”

“Really? $15/month for the Sunday Times?”

“Yes, ma’am.” I could see the smile on her face. And her tone was genuine.

“Sold.” Now I was smiling.

“Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Well, yes. We’re going to be out of the country for a couple of weeks, so I’d like the paper stopped for the two Sundays we’ll be gone.”

After she got the dates from me, she asked, “Would you like the refund for those two Sundays applied to your account or donated to [can’t remember the name of the cause]?”

“Seriously? You mean I won’t be charged for those Sundays?”

“Of course not.”

I opted to apply them to our account, since the whole encounter began with budget-cutting in mind, and we already support a number of humanitarian organizations.

This experience got me to thinking, with the economy still struggling to get on its feet, maybe I should call up AT&T and threaten to cancel our cable, phone, and internet service and see what they offer? Wonder what the customer service folks in India would say if I threaten to get rid of my HP printer? Probably wouldn’t work out so well.

And so this morning I opened my Sunday Times and was immediately pleased with my decision not to cancel my subscription. A terrific op-ed piece by one of my favorite authors, Michael Cunningham (“The Hours,” “By Nightfall”) was worth the $3.75 all by itself. “Found in Translation” is about much more than what happens when a book is translated into other languages. It’s about what happens when the book is “translated” by each revision the author makes during its creation, and again by the heart and soul of each person who reads the finished work.

This article is a must read for people writing fiction—because we need to learn that, as Cunningham says, “Language in fiction is made up of equal parts meaning and music.” (Read the article to learn how!) But it’s also an insightful essay for the reader, because, again, as Cunningham says, “… writing is not only an exercise in self-expression it is also, more important, a gift we as writers are trying to give to readers.”

As I move from the “Week in Review” to the “Arts and Leisure,” “Book Review,” and “New York Times Magazine” next, I think about my phone call to the Times on Friday and my intention to cancel my subscription, and all I can say is, “What was I thinking?” Thank you, Angela.

MORE Writers Giving Talks and Serving on Panels at the 2010 Creative Nonfiction Conference in Oxford

In addition to the six writers leading workshops at the 2010 Creative Nonfiction Conference in Oxford in November, and the five agents, editors, and publishers who are also leading workshops and serving on panels, we’ve got five more treats in store for you:

John T. Edge writes a monthly column, “United Tastes,” for the New York Times. He is a contributing editor at Garden & Gun. He is a longtime columnist for the Oxford American. He was a contributing editor at Gourmet. His work for Saveur and other magazines has been featured in seven editions of the Best Food Writing compilation. Edge has a number of books to his credit, including the James Beard Award-nominated cookbook, A Gracious Plenty: Recipes and Recollections from the American South. He has served as culinary curator for the weekend edition of NPR’s All Things Considered, and he has been featured on dozens of television shows, from CBS Sunday Morning to Iron Chef. (John will be serving on the panel for two sessions on Sunday morning, “The Writer’s Life: Off the Page,” and “The Writer’s Life: On the Page,” as well as appearing at the reception and book signing at Off Square Books on Saturday afternoon.)

Beth Ann Fennelly is an Associate Professor at the University of Mississippi, and lives in Oxford, MS. She has received a 2003 National Endowment for the Arts Award and a 2006 United States Artist Grant. She's published three books of poetry, all from W. W. Norton: Open House, which won The 2001 Kenyon Review Prize, the GLCA New Writers Award, and was a Book Sense Top Ten Poetry Pick; Tender Hooks, and Unmentionables. Great With Child, a book of nonfiction, was published by Norton in 2006. Her poems have been reprinted in Best American Poetry 1996, 2005, and 2006, Contemporary American Poetry, The Penguin Book of the Sonnet, The Pushcart Prize, and Poets of the New Century. She won a Fulbright grant to Brazil and spent the spring of 2009 there alongside her husband, fiction writer Tom Franklin, and their two small children. (Beth Ann will be speaking at 6:15 p.m. on Friday night on “Curiosity as a Narrative Force in Creative Nonfiction.” She will also serve on the panel for “The Writer’s Life: Off the Page” on Sunday morning and will be at the reception and book signing at Off Square Books on Saturday afternoon. I've participated in several writing workshops where Beth Ann was on the faculty, and she is a terrific speaker and teacher!)

Robert Goolrick is the #1 bestselling author of the novel, The Reliable Wife. His critically acclaimed memoir, The End of the World as We Know It, was published in 2007. After college at Johns Hopkins, Goolrick moved to Europe to pursue acting and painting. Later, he worked as an advertising executive in New York City. Goolrick lives and writes in a farmhouse on a wide and serene river in a tiny town in Virginia. (Robert will be at the Reception and Book Signing at Off-Square Books Saturday afternoon, and then from 6:00-7:00 p.m. he will offer “Crossing Genres: Q & A with Robert Goolrick” also at Off Square Books, where he will discuss his work in fiction and creative nonfiction.)


Jessica Handler is a creative writing instructor at Atlanta Art Institute and a freelance writer. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution called her memoir, Invisible Sisters, One of the Eight Great Southern Books in 2009 and was voted Atlanta Magazine's "Best Memoir" for 2009. (Jessica will be serving on the panel for two sessions on Sunday morning, “The Writer’s Life: Off the Page,” and “The Writer’s Life: On the Page,” as well as appearing at the reception and book signing at Off Square Books on Saturday afternoon.)

David Magee is the author of eight nonfiction books, including the bestselling Turnaround: How Carlos Ghosn Rescued Nissan (HarperCollins). He is the co-owner of Chattanooga's largest independent bookstore Rock Point Books and the founder of Jefferson Press, a niche publisher distributed nationally by Independent Publishers Group. His latest book is The Education of Mr. Mayfield. (David will be serving on the panel for two sessions on Sunday morning, “The Writer’s Life: Off the Page,” and “The Writer’s Life: On the Page.” I was fortunate enough to hear David give a lecture at the Escape to Create Fall Writer’s Conference in Seaside, Florida, last October, and can’t wait to see him again.)

So there you have it: sixteen amazing writers, agents, editors, publicists and publishers at one conference. Haven’t registered? The conference is November 12-14, so what are you waiting for? Registration information is here.

Meet the Writers Leading the Workshops at the 2010 Creative Nonfiction Conference

On Monday I blogged about the agents, editors and publishers who are on the faculty for the 2010 Creative Nonfiction Conference in Oxford in November. Today I’m going to introduce you to the WRITERS/AUTHORS who are leading the pre-conference workshops on Thursday, November 11 and Friday November 12. (See Conference Schedule for a description of each workshop.)

Workshop leaders (writers) and names of the workshops they are leading:

Thomas French (“Reporting for Story,” 18 openings left) a teacher and author, worked as a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times for 27 years, writing serialized book-length narratives that appeared in the newspaper one chapter at a time. One of his projects, Angels & Demons, was awarded a Pulitzer prize for feature writing. French now teaches at Indiana University and in Goucher College's MFA program for creative nonfiction. He also teaches at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and at writing conferences around the world, from Paris to Singapore to Johannesburg. He is the author of three nonfiction books, including Unanswered Cries, an account of a Florida murder case, and South of Heaven, the story of the secret lives of high school students. His most recent book, Zoo Story, is based on seven years of reporting and research and chronicles life and death inside Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo. A New York Times bestseller, Zoo Story was recently featured on The Colbert Report, in People Magazine and on NPR's Talk of the Nation.

Lee Gutkind (“The Personal Essay, with Neil White” 14 openings left) is the founder and editor of Creative Nonfiction. He is also the editor of The Best Creative Nonfiction, an annual anthology, and Keeping it Real: Everything You Need To Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction, both by W.W. Norton. Vanity Fair proclaimed Gutkind “the Godfather” behind the creative nonfiction movement — an undisputable force whose efforts have helped make the genre the fastest growing in the publishing industry. His book Truckin’ with Sam will be released in the Fall of 2010. (Note: Lee is also reading at Thacker Mountain Radio on Thursday night, and giving a keynote lecture, “The 5 Rs of Creative Nonfiction” on Saturday morning.)

Kristen Iversen (“Manuscript Workshop: Memoirs-in-Progress,” 5 openings left) is the author of the bestselling biography Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth, winner of the Colorado Book Award for Biography and the Barbara Sudler Award for Nonfiction, now in its ninth printing. Her textbook, Shadow Boxing: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction, was the first textbook to cover the major subgenres of creative nonfiction. Iversen’s forthcoming memoir, Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Shadow of Rocky Flats, chronicles her experience of growing up near—and eventually working at—Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear bomb factory that produced the plutonium heart of every bomb manufactured in the U.S., resulting in extensive radioactive contamination of local communities. A travel writer in Europe for several years, Iversen teaches at The University of Memphis, where she directs the MFA program and is also Editor-in-Chief of The Pinch, an award-winning, nationally distributed literary journal.(I participated in Kristen's manuscript workshop in 2008, and it was wonderful!)

Dinty W. Moore (“Manuscript Workshop,” Memoirs-in-Progress, SOLD OUT) is the author of the memoir Between Panic & Desire (University of Nebraska). His other books include The Accidental Buddhist, Toothpick Men, The Emperor's Virtual Clothes, and the writing guide, The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction. He has published essays and stories in The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, Harpers, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Gettysburg Review, Utne Reader, and Crazyhorse, and edits BREVITY, the journal of concise creative nonfiction. He teaches creative writing at Ohio University.

Michael Rosenwald (“Making Words Cinematic,” 14 openings left) is a staff writer at The Washington Post. He is also a magazine writer whose work has been published in the New Yorker, Esquire, GQ, Popular Science, Garden & Gun, Smithsonian, Tin House, Creative Nonfiction, Men's Journal and ESPN the Magazine. A former finalist for the National Magazine Award in feature writing, Rosenwald's story "The Flu Hunter" appears in the anthology Best American Science and Nature Writing 2007, edited by Richard Preston. A story he wrote about the future of his body — which is good despite his accomplished eating habits — was anthologized in Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 1. He has an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh.

Neil White (“The Personal Essay, with Lee Gutkind” 14 openings left) is the author of the best-selling memoir In the Sanctuary of Outcasts. The book was one of three national finalists in the 2009 Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” award competition. It was a finalist in the 2009 “Books for a Better Life” award. And it was a finalist in the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance nonfiction 2009 “Book of the Year” award. White operates a small publishing company in Taylor, Mississippi. In his spare time he writes plays and essays and teaches memoir writing. (Neil is also co-director of the conference, and is teaching a workshop on Thursday afternoon, November 11, "The Art vs. The Craft of Creative Nonfiction — & Creating Vivid Scenes." This workshop is open to everyone attending the conference, with no limit on the number who can attend.)

Check back on Friday to meet 5 more authors/writers who will be participating on panels during the conference. It just keeps on getting better!

Conference website with registration information is here. Be sure and register for the pre-conference workshop of your choice, if you can join us on Thursday and/or Friday!

2010 Creative Nonfiction Conference Faculty Spotlight: Agents, Publicists, Editors, and Publishers

If you haven’t decided whether or not to come to the 2010 Creative Nonfiction Conference in Oxford in November, here’s a little incentive: In addition to the fabulous authors heading up the workshops and panels, we’ve got five other industry professionals bringing us their wisdom in the areas of publishing. Two of them—Jeff Kleinman and Gillian MacKenzie—will lead one of the pre-conference workshops, “A Day with Literary Agents (10:00 am-Noon; 2:00-4:00 pm).” As the CNF Conference website says of this workshop:

Renowned literary agents Jeff Kleinman and Gillian MacKenzie will spend a day with participants covering query letters, secrets of nonfiction book proposals, everything you need to know about working with agents and a "Buy this Book" role-playing workshop. Space is limited. 14 openings available (closing fast!) (This is the one I’ll be participating in.)

Here’s a little info (also from the web site) about Jeff and Gillian:

Jeff Kleinman is a literary agent, intellectual property attorney, and founding partner of Folio Literary Management, LLC, a New York literary agency which works with all of the major U.S. publishers (and, through subagents, with most international publishers). He’s a graduate of Case Western Reserve University (J.D.), the University of Chicago (M.A., Italian), and the University of Virginia (B.A. with High Distinction in English). As an agent, Jeff feels privileged to have the chance to learn an incredible variety of new subjects, meet an extraordinary range of people, and feel, at the end of the day, that he’s helped to build something – a wonderful book, perhaps, or an author’s career. His authors include Garth Stein, Robert Hicks, Charles Shields, Bruce Watson, Neil White, and Philip Gerard.

Gillian MacKenzie has spent her career creating—and helping others create—products for the marketplace. Her agency represents a wide variety of nonfiction writers and thinkers (as well as a select list of children's and adult fiction author/illustrators), including Nobel-Prize winning geophysicist, Henry Pollack; Stanford Prison Experiment social psychologist, Philip Zimbardo; best-selling author and journalist, Ulrich Boser; and award-winning literary nonfiction writers, Peter Trachtenberg and Ellen Graf; among many others. Before starting her agency in 2005, she was Vice President of Jane Startz Productions, Inc., where she spent over eight years scouting, optioning, and developing books into feature films with major studios. Prior to that, she was a product developer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she conceived of and developed merchandise based on works of art in the collections. She began her career at the literary agency Curtis Brown, Ltd.

In addition, we have three more publishing gurus participating in a panel and pitch fest during the conference:

Stella Connell, previously of Doubleday, Random House, Inc. and G. P. Putnam Sons, founded The Connell Agency in 1998. She has over 15 years experience developing and implementing successful public relations and marketing campaigns for some of the most well-known writers in America today. Connell has been the sole publicist for over 100 books, including many New York Times and regional best-sellers, and has been referred to as “the best book publicist in the United States,” by a major independent bookseller.

Donna Levine has worked in publishing for twenty-four years. After starting as a puzzle magazine editor for Dell, she was the copy chief at Vogue, the copy editor at Discover, a writer and editor at Restaurant Business, the copy editor at Golf Illustrated, and the managing editor at Waterfront Publishing. Most recently she was the managing editor of Garden & Gun in Charleston, South Carolina. She has recently moved to Oxford, where she continues to work for G&G, now as the freelance copy chief.

Margaret Lovecraft is acquisitions editor for general interest and regional trade books at LSU Press. During her years in book publishing, she has also worked as an editorial assistant, copyeditor, advertising manager, publicist, and marketing manager.

Conference Website and Registration information is here.

You can read about the 2008 Creative Nonfiction Conference (with photos) here.


Watch for future posts about the authors on the faculty, coming soon!

Getting Saved, Sex, and Writing

It's my turn over at the Southern Authors' Blog, "A Good Blog is Hard to Find." Please read my post there, "Getting Saved, Sex, and Writing," (click on the title) and leave a comment, either here or there!



So, I cleaned up my desk today (see left) and then I couldn't get online, so I
went to Davis Kidd Bookstore and worked all afternoon. Then, when I got home tonight, I called my daughter (duh, why didn't I do this first?) and she walked me through re-setting our AT&T wi-fi modem and ta-da! I'm back in business.

As long as we're here, you might be wondering what the stack on the left side of my desk is. It's a few rejections, from The Oxford American, The Sun, and a couple of others. But I've still got 2-3 essays floating around out there, so I'm hopeful!

And the bulletin board to the right of my desk? I call it my "storyboard." I put note cards with ideas for various aspects of my novel-in-progress, outlines, internet research, artwork, etc. It feeds my imagination as I work. (Thanks to Sue Monk Kidd for the idea!)

Thanks for stopping by. And be sure to check out "A Good Blog is Hard to Find."

An Abuse Survivor’s Message for the Vatican

This past spring I did a couple of posts about Kim Michele Richardson, author of “The Unbreakable Child.” Kim’s story of surviving abuse at the hands of clergy in a Catholic orphanage in Kentucky is powerful. But she didn’t stop with the memoir.

Kim continues to be an advocate for victims of abuse. Her letter to the Vatican hit the Huffington Post top page religion section this morning and is going global. Read it here:

“An Abuse Survivor's Message for the Vatican”

Kim’s book is also about forgiveness. But forgiveness doesn’t mean not working for justice. Kim spends most of her time these days helping others. She’s an amazing woman. Want to know more? Read her book. It’s coming out in paperback on October 1. Kim also has a blog where you can keep up with her crusade. And here are a few resources if you want to learn more. (They are all organizations Kim supports.)

Companions In Hope
Cultivating Healing, Protection, and Understanding


Family & Children's Place
Dedicated to helping families find solutions through counseling.


SNAP
Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests
A national self-help organization of victims of abuse by clergy.


Maryhurst
Provides treatment programs for severely traumatized children who may be victims of sexual, physical, and/or emotional abuse in Kentucky.

RAINN
Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network

William F. McMurry
For more information regarding Mr. McMurry, including updates on the KY Vatican case.

Twelve Years Ago Today

Just flew in from Denver tonight but couldn’t put the day to bed without remembering my precious Goddaughter, Mary Allison Callaway, who died twelve years ago today, at age 20.

We’ll have memorial prayers for her at St. John Orthodox Church here in Memphis tomorrow.

Mary Allison was a joy to everyone who knew her, and her young life was cut tragically short by a drunk driver. She was living with our family at the time. It felt very much like losing a daughter. Here are my posts about Mary Allison last year and in 2008.

May her memory be eternal!

On Writing Essays

I love the personal essay. As a literature genre. As reading enjoyment. But most of all, I love to WRITE personal essays. Since I discovered this in 2007, I've had eight personal essays published (see list with links on the left side of this page) and one was even a finalist in a literary competition. So, whether or not my novel-in-progress ever gets published, I know I'll always write essays.

If you've got a hankering to write them, I have 3 words for you:

Creative Nonfiction Conference

The one in Oxford, Mississippi, that I'm co-directing in November.

And if you register for this conference, you get to choose from among the pre-conference workshops, including Neil White's workshop on "The Personal Essay," and also Dinty Moore's manuscript critique workshop.

Okay, Dinty's workshop isn't specific to essays, but I took his critique workshop in 2008 and it was awesome. And October's Writer's Digest Magazine has a great article by Dinty called "Write Your Essay the Reader-Friendly Way." Whether or not you're coming to the conference in November, if you write essays, or want to write them, you should read this. Here's a teaser:

1. Be clear about the destination. "An essay needs a lighted sign right up front telling readers where they are going.Otherwise the passengers will be distracted and nervous at each stop along the way, unsure of the destination, not at all able to enjoy the ride." I think here about the phrase, "keeping the reader safe."

2. Stay On Track (more or less).

3. Find a healthy distance. "Why is finding a distance important? Because the private essay hides the author. The personal essay reveals."

Intrigued? Get the October issue of Reader's Digest and read the entire article. And come to Oxford to meet Dinty in November!