Reasons to Celebrate

Tonight, we celebrated the publication of the Hedgebrook Cookbook, a compendium of delicious recipes from Denise Barr and Julie Rosten, two of the magnificent chefs at the Hedgebrook retreat. (That's Denise laughing next to Julie in the upper right hand photo on the cover.)  A group of alumnae and friends of Hedgebrook both new and old gathered at a gorgeous home in Brentwood to eat from the cookbook, to talk about Hedgebrook and its mission of supporting women writers in bringing their voices to the world. 



We ate lavender shortbread and asparagus tart, drank Cedar Deep wine name for one of the hidden places in the woods above Hedgebrook's cottages and garden.  The amazing Mayda Del Valle performed some of her gorgeous poetry.  It was a wonderful night.




Yesterday, we celebrated For Women Only, a charitable organization helping homeless and at-risk women stand on their own two feet and succeed.  I was joined by Carol M. Tanzman (Circle of Silence), Jennifer Bosworth (Struck), Erin Fry (Losing It), Gretchen McNeil (3:59)and Kathy McCullough (Don't Expect Magic), signing books and talking to the most interesting people!  Many thanks to Penny Armstrong and the Manhattan Beach Barnes and Noble for organizing a fun Saturday afternoon for such a worthy cause . For Women Only's current initiative is to help young women from underserved communities finish high school and get on a path to college.  A portion of our sales went to support the organization, and it doesn't stop there.  Please visit their site and, if you are in LA, turn out to support them.  FWO will be doing holiday gift wrap at several Barnes and Nobles around the LA area as part of their fundraising efforts.  As much as this weekend was about celebrating two amazing organizations, it was also about raising awareness.  Both Hedgebrook and  For Women Only need our help to keep their good works alive!

This weekend was about writing, books, and counting my blessings.  I know such amazing women!  It serves as a reminder to celebrate every day.  We have voices.  Let us use them well.

 

Hollyhocks in the Hedgebrook Garden this August!

Oh!  Don't forget to join me this Wednesday, October 23rd for LitCrawl in North Hollywood!  I'll be doing "A Book and A Movie" at the Republic of Pie on Magnolia from 6pm to 7pm with the fantastic Cecil Castellucci (The Year of the Beasts), Lauren Strasnick (Then You Were Gone), Gretchen McNeil and Sarah Skilton (Bruised).  Just one more reason to celebrate!

Saturday Last and Next

Last Saturday's Teen Book Fest at the Central Library in Los Angeles was phenomenal.  I started the morning out chatting with Cornelia Funke in the green room (we had a green room!  And Cornelia Funke was in it!).  If you haven't visited her website yet, please click her name and do it now.  It's wonderful, clever, interesting-- all a reflection of the woman herself.  From the green room it was on to my first panel, moderating a discussion on Historical Fiction with Patricia McCormick (SOLD, NEVER FALL DOWN) and Elizabeth Ross (BELLE EPOQUE).  What charming, intelligent ladies.  It felt like a day at a literary spa with girlfriends.  Patricia shared the fascinating true story behind the her novel, while Elizabeth delighted us with images of 19th century France and the birth-of-the-Eiffel-Tower-as-metaphor (trust me, it works). 

After our well attended (thank you everyone!) panel, I sat in the audience for the Middle Grade Book Panel, featuring Barbara Brauner and James Iver Mattson (The OH MY GODMOTHER series), Kristen Kittscher (THE WIG IN THE WINDOW), Jenn Reese (ABOVE WORLD), Ned Vizzini (HOUSE OF SECRETS) and Cecil Castellucci (LAST DAY ON EARTH).  This panel
made me want to write for middle grade.  I'm drawn to YA because I think those are the books that shape the adult you become, but the panelists all seemed to agree Middle Grade readers are at an age when magic is still possible and self-confidence has yet to be shaken.  That would explain SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS and how a bunch of kids can just sail off and live on a island for days on end without their parents calling the cops or anybody crying for no good reason.  I dig that! (And thus date myself beyond even my extensive years!)

The afternoon found me on the Other Worlds Panel, with Cecil Castellucci , Tom Leveen (SICK), Gretchen McNeil (3:59), Mary E. Pearson (THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX), and Marlene Perez (DEAD IS JUST A DREAM).  It was like a mini-reunion of writers I've met this past year.  We had a blast talking about our books and the challenges of world-building.  All in all, the day was a success.  We're hoping it becomes a regular event, so please do keep checking back here and I'll let you know if we can do a repeat next year!

So, that was last Saturday.  NEXT Saturday you can find me at the Barnes and Noble in Manhattan Beach, CA from noon to 4pm for the- Inspiring Authors for Teen Girls Author Fair.  This event is a fundraiser in support of For Women Only whose education program, “Passport to Life: A College Bound Project” is an Education Program helps prepare young women aged18—24 to pursue their academic goals.  Come on down and say hello!

GRAVITY

Okay, so movie reviews aren't my usual thing.  Well, don't worry, this is not a movie review.  I'll go ahead and say SPOILER ALERT, which isn't really needed.  I don't give anything away, but if you want to see the movie without any inkling of what it's about (other than what I just gave away in the poster) then cease reading here and come back later.  For the most part, this is a genre discussion. 


Alfonso Cuaron's new movie GRAVITY came out this weekend.  I just saw it and I confess, as much as I love Cuaron (CHILDREN OF MEN, come on!), I was reluctant to see this one.  I take issue with Man versus Nature stories.  Ever since being forced to read "To Build a Fire" in grade school, I've shivered at the thought of the futility of man in the face of the great big insert-here (world, universe, everything).

So, a movie about two astronauts trying to survive in the vaccum of space?  Kind of awful.  I just think of Jack London's protagonist and those damned matches.  And then I think of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl" and those damned matches and it makes me want to stay home forever in footie pajamas by a warm fire with a cup of cocoa.

The thing is, Man versus Nature is such a stripped down format, but it's so darned effective.  It's just Man (or Woman or Child) with nothing more than the clothes on their back-- if they're lucky-- and maybe one or two not-so-impressive tools.  And then there's Nature, red in tooth and claw, with all of her glory suddenly gone not-so-glorious for said Man/Woman/Child.  What more do you need?  These stories are about tension, hope and hopelessness, and digging deep for the will to live.

It gives me a stomach ache.

So, SPOILER ALERT (again, not really, unless, etc.)

What's impressive about GRAVITY is the way the ante, which is already literally sky high, gets upped, and upped along the way.  "The Little Match Girl" and "To Build a Fire" are short stories.  They both have one villain, manifested in one simple way-- the cold gets colder.  In GRAVITY, there's more than one way to die.

So, I'm sitting in the theater with my stomach clenched and my feet flexing at the ankles, like I'm trying to pump the brakes from the passenger seat and I come out of the theater more stonyfaced than entertained (appreciative of the effects, the camera choices, my belief in Cuaron as one of the most talented, thoughtful directors of our time, yes) and it occurs to me:  I wrote ORLEANS.  And I've been told that its given some readers the same tension tummy.  And yes, it is in some respects a Man versus Nature story in which there are many ways to die.

What was I thinking?  So, this is my apology for making any of you guys feel oogie while reading ORLEANS.  Hopefully it will stay with you, the way Andersen's and London's stories did with me.  It's funny how what you read as a child influences what you write as an adult.  It's also interesting to create something I considered "fun!" (ORLEANS, to me, is dark, difficult, but a romp with a badass heroine aka "fun!") from a place of childhood fear.

Maybe I should write something set in space?  Truly, just the thought makes me cold.  Which probably means it's worth looking into.

Hey, don't forget, I'm at the Teen Book Fest on Saturday, 10/12/13 at the Central Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.  Come on by and say hello!

Meet the Author - Booktober 2013!

Can you believe it's almost October?  Time has flown, and that brings us to a whole new page on the calendar and a few new chances to meet in the real world.  This October, you'll find me at the following events:

 

 

Sat., 10/12/13 - Teen Book Fest – Los Angeles, CA
LA Public Library Central Branch, 630 W. 5th Street Los Angeles, CA 90071

  11 - 11:45 AM - "Historical Fiction" Panel - I'll be moderating a discussion with

• Patricia McCormick (NEVER FALL DOWN, SOLD)
• Elizabeth Ross (BELLE EPOQUE)

  2 - 2:45 PM - "Other Worlds" Panel

• Me!
• Cecil Castellucci (LAST DAY ON EARTH)
• Tom Leveen (SICK)
• Gretchen McNeil (3:59)
• Mary E. Pearson (THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX)
• Marlene Perez (DEAD IS JUST A DREAM)

Sat., 10/19/13, 12 - 4 PM - Inspiring Authors for Teen Girls Author Fair – Los Angeles, CA
Barnes and Noble, Manhattan Beach, 1800 Rosecrans Avenue, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266This event is a fundraiser in support of  For Women Only whose education program, “Passport to Life: A College Bound Project” is an Education Program helps prepare young women aged18—24 to pursue their academic goals.
 

Wed., 10/23/13, 6PM - 7PM - LitCrawl YA "Book and A Movie" - North Hollywood, CA
Republic of Pie, 11118 Magnolia Blvd, North Hollywood CA 91601
Join me and my fellow YA writers for this Los Angeles Review of Books hosted portion of the new, exciting LitCrawl as we team up our books with movie trailers, clips, and a reading from our latest novels.  Includes:
 

• Cecil Castellucci (LAST DAY ON EARTH)
• Gretchen McNeil (3:59)
• Jennifer Bosworth (STRUCK)
• Lauren Strasnick (THEN YOU WERE GONE)
• Sarah Skilton (BRUISED)

What's LitCrawl, you ask? 
 
"The nationwide phenomenon known as the Lit Crawl debuts in Los Angeles’ North Hollywood (NoHo) Arts District this fall on Wednesday, October 23, 2013 from 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm. Mark your calendars now!
Restaurants, bars and other hip NoHo venues will host an evening of thrilling readings with the best of L.A.’s writers in a sampling of some of the greatest ongoing readings series from throughout Los Angeles County. Multiple literary genres will be represented spanning fiction to poetry. It promises to be a magical, vibrant literary night for all!
Los Angeles is home to one of the largest, fastest growing, and most diverse literary scenes in the world. An incredible array of local reading series and literary organizations are expected to participate in the first Lit Crawl LA: NoHo Arts District for a uniquely Los Angeles literary night."--- www.litcrawl.org/la
 
Phew!  That's a lot.  And there will be more.  Look for a panel at Comikaze the first weekend in November.  But for now, 'nuff said.  See you out there!
 
 
 
 

Fried Egg On Teflon: Holding a Story

Okay, maybe I should have used a different image.  Picture a bear scooping salmon out of a stream.  Or rather, picture a bear trying to scoop salmon out of a stream.  That was me yesterday and today, trying to grab hold of pieces of a story that has been swimming through my mind for a couple of years.  You see, I started a project about three years ago.  My lunch time project, I called it.  No matter what other book I was working on (ORLEANS, as it turned out, for much of that time), I also worked on another story.  But I only wrote it long hand, and I only wrote at lunch time.  You could find me sitting outside a fast food Mexican plate eating way too many chicken nachos, and scribbling on a yellow legal pad.  I wrote without an outline (unheard of for me, like parachuting without a parachute!), and just asked myself "what would I do next if I was her?  If I was him?"  And I wrote a book.  I typed it up, patted myself on the back, and gave it to a friend who pointed out it wasn't a book so much as a novella, and what did I mean by this, that or the other?

Clearly, she hadn't been eating the nachos.  So, my brillance was just a diamond in the rough.  And I worked on it some more and at the end of a while I had my version of a noir novel.  It excited me and I thought, why not write a cycle?  Why not write an American Gothic novel to go with it, since it had some of those undertones?  Only this time I'd go whole hog and have it all-- the big spooky house, the characters drifting into madness, the heat, the confusion, the violence.  I even have a title.

But I don't work that close to the nacho place anymore, and I can't seem to find my legal pads and, if you read this blog you know I'm supposed to be working on Something Else.

But, yesterday, I found myself on the freeway driving past my location and I thought about the story.  A lot.  And decided I'd outline it this weekend.  If only I could get a grip on more than just the idea of it.  A gist is not a story.  It's a gist.

Sometimes you see images of a story.  At least I do.  Pictures flash in my head.  If I'm very still and have a pen and pad (or a receipt or gum wrapper) I can capture those images and coalsce them into a story.  And then, sometimes, you get the flashes, you have the pad, and all that comes out is a shopping list of what you want the story to be.

So, instead of an outline, here it is Sunday night and I am left with an image of an egg sliding out of a teflon-coated frying pan.  This is my brain.  It's empty.  Maybe that's a sign.  Time to replenish the creative well.  I will try to look at art this weekend, and hear music, and maybe read ABSALOM! ABSALOM! again  (that Faulkner, what a nut). 

And maybe one day my brilliant cycle of Southern Californian Gothic Noir will be a real live salmon/egg/story on a plate in front of you.

In the meantime, back to that Something Else.  I swear, it's coming along.  (It is!)

Writing Exercises, Deep-Fried, On A Stick.

There's this writing exercise in Natalie Goldberg's innovative book on, Writing Down the Bones.  Part memoir, part workbook, there are lots of great prompts and exercises to get the creative juices flowing.  The one I'm thinking of asks the reader to make a random list of items, then choose a profession and write down verbs associated with the profession.  Now, use the verbs with the nouns.  The goal is to find innovative descriptions.  Her example uses chef-related cooking verbs, resulting in a sentence about dinosaur bones marinating in the earth.

The L.A. County Fair (yes, we have one) is going on this month.  It is a magnificent land of carnivals, games, pig races, living libraries, craft villages... and every food you can imagine, dipped in batter and deep-fried on a stick.  (For a complete list, click here and choose the "fried food" category.  There's deep fried cereal for cryin' out loud!)

It's like a culinary school drop out played madlibs with the phrase, "Deep-fried (noun) on a stick."  For example (and these are real things), insert:

1. Watermelon
2. Cheesecake
3. Pineapple Upside Down Cake
4. Bacon-wrapped pickle
5. Snickers Bar
6. Reese's Peanut Butter Big Cup
7. Ribs (okay, not on a stick, unless you count the bone.  They are described by a new word, "fry-b-que.)

The game has also been played with "Bacon (noun)":

1. Cotton Candy
2. Nutella Bun
3. covered in chocolate, sprinkled with sugar

And "Krispy Kreme (noun)":

1. Double Cheeseburger
2. Sloppy Joe

Now, the list is not as shocking broken up like this, but when you say:

1. Deep fried watermelon on a stick
2. Bacon cotton candy, or
3. Krispy Kreme Sloppy Joe

... it hits you like a heart attack, or heartburn, or worse.

If you could put any random food items together and deep fry them, what would you pick?  And how would you describe the flavor? 

I watched a young woman take her first bit of watermelon on a stick.  It looked like a giant, triangular chunk of battered fish drizzled in streaks of red (presumably watermelon) sauce.  Her first bite was all batter, which she said she liked.  The second, deeper bite resulted in something resembling a fried raw meat pocket as the pink interior fruit was revealed.  She began to laugh, covered her mouth to keep her tasty treat from escaping, and stopped laughing long enough to say, "It's good."  I asked if the watermelon was still cold.  Nope.  "It's hot... and that's weird.  I like cold watermelon.  But it's good."

Is it?  Really?

Now, you're probably wondering, where does the writing come into this?  Here, a simple exercise:  What non-food item can you insert into the above phrases to come up with a new way of expressing things?

1. Jed left Marla with nothing but an old sock and a case of deep-fried heartache on a stick.
2. It was what Stevie called a bacon blind date-- started out good, got even better, 'til you wondered if it was too much of a good thing.
3. She wrapped him up in one of those Krispy Kreme hugs, soft, sweet and a little nauseating.

Hmm.  Not too bad.  Like the deep-fried watermelon.  Now, if I can use "hot watermelon" in a sentence, you'll be the first to know.

Oh, wait:  Turns out kissing your best guy friend after discovering he has a crush on you is kind of like eating hot watermelon-- weird, but you know, still pretty good. 

Thank you, and good night!

Where I've been

I've been missing from the blogosphere for a couple of weeks now.  Want to know where I've been?



In Seattle.


Being a tourist.

 

Getting down to the basics:

 

Food.

 Nature.

My inner self.

 And the things that really matter.

 I've also been at Hedgebrook.  Celebrating 25 years of the most wonderful place.* 

 

 

Oh.  And I've been writing.  In the woods.

 

 

 

 

*In 25 years, Hedgebrook has housed, fed and inspired over 800 women.  Won't you help them continue their amazing philosophy of "radical hospitality?"  Somewhere, thousands of women writers will be saying "thank you" from the bottom of their hearts.