Resolution: Attend a Writers Conference in 2011

This is a short follow-up post to remind you of your New Year's resolution: write more. Okay, one way is to attend your writer's group. (Don't have one? Start one!) That will spur you on to write, because otherwise you'll have to say "I didn't write anything this week/month" to more people than just a few of your personalities (and the voice of your grandmother in your head).
My writers circle (we like the word circle better than group) of six warm and talented women, has been meeting in some incarnation for about 5 years, almost monthly; we always enjoy the opportunity to share new and revised short stories and poetry, encourage new work, and, of course, to constructively critique each other's writing. So start attending or creating a writer's group!
I talked about writers conferences and workshops (like the Southern California Writers Conference and San Diego Writers, Ink) last week, but I bet you haven't signed up for a conference or a workshop/class this Spring, yet, right?
Check out this short piece on Divine Caroline (a very cool site that is a virtual "writers community") on how and why writers conferences benefit writers.
And see info and links for my amiga CM Mayo's latest fiction writing workshops here.
Meanwhile--until you get to your group, or find your circle, just resolve to write or rewrite something today...or this week, and I will, too.
I'm re-reading "Anna Karenina" and loving it--"A Tale of Two Cities" was much better than I remembered.
hasta pronto!

What Is It About Dog Stories, Anyway?

My mother claims that I learned to read at age 3, so I could read a dog book--probably "Go Dog Go!" which was long a favorite of mine. I may have simply memorized, rather than read the book, but I certainly wanted to. The lure of reading was strong already, as I had two parents and two siblings who could read by then.
But dog stories--that was the real prize...I desperately wanted to be able to read those books whose pictures told me they revolved around my favorite life-forms: dogs. Not many years later, I was given a book called "Brave Tales of Real Dogs" (published in the 1940s, it was already an "old book" by the mid-1960s) and I read and re-read it so often I nearly did memorize that book.
Recently, I was sent a copy of Huck: The Remarkable True Story of How One Lost Puppy Taught (blah-blah-blah, I hate subtitles that take up a whole sentence). Anyway, it's a cute idea, but the book itself was no more than a plumped-up feature article posing as a book, and of course, bound like one. The cover photo will get you--it's a really cute puppy, after all--and the book begins well, and has a heartfelt message, but as a dog book, it was disappointing.
Marley and Me was a good example of what one looks for in a dog story (yes, it was a terrible movie, but let's move on, shall we?). It had warmth, humor, then the inevitable tears, but you were left somehow feeling better about the world. (Huck did leave you with a good feeling but it was short-lived, like the book.)
For writers, the dog story poses a unique challenge, because we have to get inside the head of a non-human creature. Whether we narrate the story from the dog's point of view (I tried this in my short story "Dodger Dog") or try to relate the tale from the master's POV and imply what the dog is thinking and feeling, as in "Marley," we still don't have the familiar props and tricks at our disposal. Sex scenes with our main character are pretty much out--as are drugs, booze, and cigarette smoking (or attempting to quit any of these). We have to show character through action--always a good idea for writers, but one we avoid like the plague, usually choosing to fall back on dialogue and inner monologue.
A few great dog stories I remember from my youth are: Beautiful Joe, which I see is back in print and even re-released (could be a movie in the works), the classics Old Yeller and Sounder and Where the Red Fern Grows (three dog stories that are really about people), The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams, Lad: A Dog, and of course, Lassie Come Home.
For those who love audio stories, check out my friend CM Mayo's fine audio story "written" by the irresistable pug Picadou: The Essential Francisco Sosa or, Picadou's Mexico City, available here from cdbaby.com
Most of the dog stories mentioned, and many many more, are available in your library or bookstore...Bring one home to share with someone younger than you, or simply for your own "guilty pleasure". Happy reading--hasta pronto!

Short Summer Reading List and Some Recommendations

It takes a while for summer to feel like summer in Southern California...And this year the "June Gloom" has lasted well into July, shocking many of the tourists shivering on our beaches. But summer reading lists are always hot, so here goes:
My Short-List of Summer Reading:
Tinkers by Paul Harding
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
I'm only a couple of chapters into "Tinkers", but the book is beautifully written from page one (guess that's why it won the Pulitzer Prize, huh?). The other two I'm looking forward to on the strength of "popular" acclaim.
Odd to have 3 books on my reading list and not one woman author, but this summer started for me with "The Lacuna" which I'm still touting (along with C.M. Mayo's wonderful "Last Prince of the Mexican Empire.") And of course you know I've been re-reading some Austen this summer, one of my favorite authors.
As usual I'm reading some other classics as well, and I just finished The Old Curiosity Shop, by Charles Dickens, which I had never read. It was not his best story, by far, but it's full of strange, wounded, quirky characters who combine to make the whole book memorable. Some of his best "bad guys" are in his "worst" books.
There are some good new books out for young adults, too, and my friend John O'Melveny Woods' "Return to Treasure Island" is one of them. Obviously, it's a sequel to Stevenson's "Treasure Island" and a great deal of fun. The Foreword was written by LeVar Burton, who approached the book with caution, as did I, but was won over completely (well, duh, he wrote the Foreword, right?). Perfect for parents and kids to read together, this swashbuckling adventure story could lead to teenage boys actually wanting to read for fun...The author offers a free download of the original "Treasure Island" and a short prequel called the "Spanish Galleon" on his website, along with videos and puzzles, so there's family fun in the offing!
Another fine book out this summer for a mature Young Adult audience is Gary Winters' The Deer Dancer . I talked about this title before...But there are so few literary books written for this key audience, and even fewer are written about a Latino or Indian protagonist. The book recently won Best Book of the Year in a national contest and the honor is well-deserved.
I'm reading some good manuscripts this summer, too, and I'll expound on them at a later date...It's probably best for me to know when books will actually be coming out before going on and on about them.
hasta pronto!

Arts writing, and the writers life

Friday night's "community forum" at Warwick's Books in La Jolla was a surprising and revealing evening.
Surprising because:
1.) About 300 people cared enough to come spend about 3 hours (seats were mostly all gone by 7pm and we didn't break up till 9:30, with everyone standing around inside until much later) talking about the arts and about arts coverage and the future of newspaper writing...
2.) Most people seemed more concerned about Bob Pincus' job than about the future of Arts writing in general...
3.) No one threw anything or even cursed...
Revealing because:
1.) The new editor of THE daily paper here (the San Diego Union-Tribune), Jeff Light, was willing to say he'd consider working with a "coalition of partners" to try to find a new and creative way to keep Arts critic Robert Pincus writing about our local arts scene--though not in his paper.
2.) No one mentioned Books Editor Art Salm (except in passing) though his being "let go" a couple years ago was the beginning of the end for local book coverage...By which I don't mean coverage of local books--which never happened much and happens less now--but local events about, and reviews of, "national" books.
3.) No one much supported KPBS arts producer/reporter/blogger Angela Carone's suggestion that we look forward--to new concepts of, and new paradigms in arts coverage--instead of backward to the way things used to be. (Nor did anyone clap when I suggested that lack-luster, unengaged arts "consumers" share some blame for losing arts coverage.)
For those who like Facebook, Warwick's was posting some snippets of the discussion on their FB fan page.
Anyway, it was a very good event, on balance, and I'm very glad I went. If nothing else, it's nice to hear raised (but civil) voices, speaking passionately about big ideas in a bookstore, these days. Warwick's is a good venue, too, as well as one of the last of the indie stores here in SD County.
My take is that we need to make the discussion about books and writing and all the arts, as passionate as the discussion about what NBA team LeBron James was going to play for next...Or the discussion about local politics!
Let's do it...I'm trying to do my part in a small way here. Maybe you are doing yours by spreading the word about what you are digging reading/seeing/hearing; that is an important part of the new culture; check out Seth Godin on the importance of the "new sorting."
Also very cool and inspiring this week--a new podcast with my friend C.M. Mayo, on "The Writing Life"...Listen to it here.
Hasta pronto!