Tulare-Kings Writer’s Consortium

I ambled into the Tulare-Kings Writer’s meeting at the Café 210 in Visalia Saturday morning. It’s a happy group of writers hoping to become a bigger consortium and do great things for local writers.They meet the third Saturday of every month.

Steve Pastis, the moderator, brought us up to date regarding Visalia’s TASTE OF THE ARTS that will be held in September.

The speaker this month was my friend Marilyn Meredith. Marilyn has written over 30 books, and so she knows more about the publishing industry than she could tell us in the time allowed. She talked about e-book publishers and how to find one that is right for your book. One website she mentioned that might be helpful was epicorg.net and she stressed that legitimate e-publishers are not like the vanity presses, they do not charge the author. Some even produce a trade paperback as well.

Every writer needs a marketing plan, according to Marilyn, whichever way you choose to publish your book. That was the second topic she covered. It starts with a “brand,” meaning what type of book you are promoting: fiction or non-fiction, mystery, romance, erotica, adventure, whatever. In any case, your name comes first – on your website, your blog or on Facebook. Every possible means should be used to get your name out there, except robbing a bank. Some other ideas were: book trailers, book reviews, press releases, an author page on Amazon, and Kindle boards. All great places to promote a book. She mentioned that Vistaprint.com is a good place to buy business cards. It’s not too pricey and the results are very good.

Marilyn practices what she preaches, so of course, she brought along a few of her books just in case someone wanted to buy one. I went home with her latest: No Bells.

2012 Central California Writers’ Conference

The kickoff to the Central California Writers’ Conference was held at Willow Bridge Books in Oakhurst where Mary Benton and I had an opportunity to chat with many of the people who would be conducting workshops the next day on April 28th. It was also a good chance to choose a couple of books to buy. Not that I don’t already have more books at home than I’ll ever be able to read. Still, I couldn’t resist.

The two-day conference itself was held at Sierra Sky Ranch, a rustic 100-year-old converted ranch house just 10 miles from Yosemite's southern entrance. Set in a wooded area with a sloping lawn and a long veranda, the resort lends itself to relaxing. Among the lesser-known charming features of the ranch are the pet cats: John Wayne, Mo and a calico, who is an avid hunter. John Wayne, a fluffy, black and white fellow, is seriously overweight, so evidently he is on good terms with the cook.

Ghosts occasionally prowl the ranch house. I didn’t see any, but last year one of the attendees swore she caught a glimpse of one on the veranda. Over the years, the kitchen and the bunk house have had numerous visitations. I wonder if the owners have a high employee turnover rate because of it. Nothing like having a ghost peek over your shoulder to check on dinner.

The conference organizers limit attendance to 100, and that means the workshops are small enough for everyone to get acquainted, exchange ideas and e-mail addresses. I recognized several people I’d seen last year. As I listened to people talk about their projects, I was impressed with the many great stories that will soon become books that I want to read. In one of the sessions, a man talked about a real life work situation that he wanted to turn into fiction. The group brainstormed and gave him some great ideas of how to structure it to make his story come alive without getting sued.

Although all of the workshops were excellent, I gleaned the most from two. The first was Bonnie Hearn-Hill’s Focus on Character: Who’s Driving Your Story. Even though I’d heard much on the subject before, there was one particular point she drove home that gave me much to think about. And that is the “hole in the gut” that our protagonist must have to drive him or her to action in the story. She stressed that it should be the result of something that happened in the character’s childhood. And that the antagonist must have a “hole” of equal proportions to drive his or her action.

The second was Steve Mettee’s presentation was on The Hero’s Journey: Making Your StoryResonate with Readers at a Primal Level. Steve’s workshops are always relaxed and fun. He used The Hunger games and The Lord of the Rings to illustrate his points. At the end he reminded us that in essence all of us are on a hero’s journey in our own lives. There is much to overcome in a writer’s life.

The banquet Saturday evening was chance to relax and make new friends. The highlight was the short story awards. Best of all, my friend and fellow Sister in Crime, Mary Benton, won first place, including a check for $100, for Bernetta, The Not So Good Witch. It’s the first chapter of a book that will soon be in the hands of an agent as a result of the conference. Congratulations Mary!

Mystery Readers book for April

The Mystery Readers group I belong to chose to read a mystery either written by a California author or a mystery that takes place in California. I chose Silence is Golden by Penny Warner. Warner's feisty heroine, Connor Westphal, is deaf and that's the unique part about the book. Warner carries off the disability with style. The fact that Connor can't hear, but gets along very well anyway, is very refreshing. The story takes place in Flat Skunk, a town situated in gold country. When local prospector, Sluice Jackson, finds gold in an old mine, the town is flooded with gold seekers. Soon after a gold tooth is found at the same site, a skelton is unearthed and Sluice claims that it is his great-grandfather who went missing for 150 years ago. A murder follows (of course) and an attempted murder, which Connor must solve. It was a fun read with good natured eccentrics and a little romance for good measure.

Penny Warner: Blog: Writing for Kids? Don't forget the Bows and Arrows

Penny Warner: Blog: Writing for Kids? Don't forget the Bows and Arrows

John Noel, another Exeter Writer

I want everyone to meet John Noel, another member of the Visalia-Exeter Writers and contributor to Leaves from the Valley Oak.

Welcome, John and thanks for joining me on my blog. Tell us a little about yourself.

I was born in York, Pennsylvania, a small industrial city with a claim to being the first capital of the United States. I grew up playing in Penn Common, which had been given to the city by the Penn family.  Across the street from our row house Revolutionary War General “Mad Anthony” Wayne had executed mutinous soldiers. Confederate troops had camped on the common when York became the northernmost city captured by the Rebels in the Civil War. Perhaps such surroundings gave me my lifelong love of history.

My family moved to California as I entered high school, and I went on to Fresno State to graduate with a degree in history. I taught in the Exeter area for 39 years. My wife Patsy and I have five children and seven grandchildren. Other than reading and writing, my main vice is playing in rock bands with other old guys.

How long have you been writing, and what was the stimulus that got you started?

I started early. The men of my family were newspaper men of one sort or another, so writing was natural and encouraged. As I got older, my skills saved many a grade as I whipped out a credible paper on a Sunday for Monday delivery.  To supplement my teacher’s salary, I began writing part time for local newspapers.  Needing to fit the information within the limitations of column inches taught me how to whittle away excess verbiage and leave the good stuff.

But my real stimulus was teaching writing in the era of Whole Language. The movement emphasized metacognitive thinking: How do we learn to write? What do writers do? I read a myriad of how-to books on writing, reading, and organizing a writer’s workshop within the classroom. As part of the teaching process I wrote along with my students. They had to see my own trials and tribulations, my own successes and failures as I prepared pieces for classroom publication. We had to establish a community of writers within the classroom, a safe harbor where budding writers could take risks and rely on each other for support. One learns to write by writing. That’s what I did, and that’s what I hope my students took away from their time with me.

The stories and poems in the anthology are really fun to read. Where do you get your ideas?

Ideas have always been hard for me. I worked best in a newspaper-type environment. My editor would tell me what he or she wanted and give me a certain space to fill. These days I mostly write autobiographical vignettes that I hope my grandchildren may get a kick out of some day.

How did your upbringing color your writing?

As I said, my family was in the newspaper business. Even as a child I read two newspapers every day. My early attempts at writing were encouraged both at home and in school.

What books or authors have influenced you in your writing style?

I have always been drawn to nostalgic writers who tell of their youth with warmth and humor. Jean Shepherd (A Christmas Story) would be my go-to example. When I dabble in poetry, my style (but unfortunately not the depth of my talent) leans toward e.e. cummings and Charles Bukowski. I also write poetry for children in the vein of Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky.

What’s been your most rewarding experience during the writing process?

I guess my most joyful single moment would have to be when I got the phone call from Children’s Writer that I had won the grand prize in their history article contest. But overall, my most rewarding times were when I was writing with kids. To see young writers making breakthroughs was priceless.

What’s your latest project?

I have two that I am polishing at the moment. Both are slightly embellished but mostly true stories from my youth. The Chronsiter Chronicles is about unrequited puppy love, and The Spelling Bee is the tale of childhood adventures with creative spelling.

Journaling, Diaries and Such

The nice thing about any kind of journal is that there’s no wrong way to do it, and no one proper thing to write about. I keep my journal in my computer. It’s much easier for me than a notebook. I prefer typing to longhand—too slow. My journal is a catch-all for story ideas, notes about people and the things I learned during conferences I attend, and progress on my book. It’s also filled with remarks about things I observe when I’m out and about town. Journaling is such a habit now that I wouldn’t feel the day was complete if I didn’t leave a comment.

As I was about to enter junior high, my brother, eight years my senior, gave me a diary for my birthday. He gave me a piece of advice along with it. “Don’t write anything in this that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the local newspaper.” I’ve kept that in mind. Years later, I tossed that diary in the trash. I regret doing it. Although I doubt there was anything of significance in the contents, I’d like to be able to go back and read what that girl had to say about her world.

I kept a diary during my early high school years too. I ran across it the other day and read a few pages. Not very inspirational, mostly comments about the amount of homework I had, the movies I saw, and the boys I was dating, and not much about what I was thinking. But with only five lines, what can you say? I did a lot of homework and complained about it almost every day.

After my marriage, not long after graduation, and the birth of my children, I had no time for a journal, though I sure wish I had kept one. I also wish I’d kept a journal when I was in nurse’s training. Some very interesting and funny things happened.

 I’ve kept copies of the letters I’ve written over the years, and in a way, they are a journal too. I’ve always been a letter writer, mostly to my favorite aunt, but also to cousins in Wisconsin where I was born. When I got my first computer in 1984, I began printing a copy of my letters for a file. The file is pretty thick now, and though I rarely read them, I know they are a record of the ups and downs of life. I was doing a lot of genealogical work then, and I wrote numerous letters related to that. Now I keep my copies in a file in my computer.

My first real writer’s journal started in 1991 because I was taking a creative writing class at the local college. It was a requirement for the class. We had to turn in our journals once a week for review and comments from the instructor. From that point on, I knew that journaling would be important to me.

With email, twitter, Facebook and blogs, I sometimes wonder if journaling will become a thing of the past—like letter writing. I hope not. Do other writers keep a journal? I’d be curious to know how many do.

Starting a Writer's Journal

A journal is one of the best tools a writer can provide for themselves. And it’s so easy to start. You can use a hard bound notebook, a composition book from the local drug store, or a file in your computer. Or you could simply write on scraps of paper and toss them in an empty shoe box, though I wouldn’t advise that method.

The first thing to decide when you’re thinking about starting a writer’s journal is where you are most likely to use it. It’s important to keep it in a place that will draw your attention, such as beside your bed, your easy chair, or maybe in “start up” in your computer so that it will pop up when you start your computer.

If you’ve never kept a journal before, you might wonder what you’d record. How about story ideas for future projects, observations of scenes or people you come across in everyday life, or the progress made with current writing. It can be used to keep notes when you attend a writer’s conference or comments from your writer’s critique group. Recording dreams might lead to story idea. If you’re a poet, a line or two scribbled might lead to a new creation.

You read books, I’m sure. Use your journal for a book review. It’s for your eyes only, so expound on the book’s strengths and weaknesses. Record a quote you really liked or an example of badly written parts. Did it have too many adverbs or run on sentences? Give it your best critique.

Most people think they don’t have time for journaling. You might be surprised, if you give it a try. Take the first step. Write a line a day. Or a whole page on the weekend. After a month, go back and read what you’ve written. You might decide to add to it, or you might want to edit what you’ve written. Either way, it’s good practice. And months later I think you’ll be glad you started your journal.

I’ve been journaling since I was a teenager, and next time I’ll tell you about some of my experience.