Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

Ann Seymour’s I’ve Always Loved You is a book everyone interested in writing historical memoir should read. It is a remarkable example in emphasizing how to sustain a narrative voice when history is a big part of the memoir.

Fascinating and heartbreaking are the first two words that come to mind after reading Ann Seymour’s beautiful tribute to her family, especially her father, as well as all those who served in WW2.

Seymour writes achingly beautiful prose as she gives us a view of WW2 through the eyes of an enchanting, gregarious child, who doesn’t understand why Daddy has gone to war and will never return. But the well woven story goes beyond the eyes and ears of a loving daughter. I’ve Always Loved You moves between the diaries and journals her parents kept and the actual documented words of the power brokers of Imperial Japan in such a way as to give anyone a more fully rounded picture of WW2, which is an accomplishment worthy of applause.

“Only an ephemeral wall separates the past from the present,” was observed by Seymour’s father when on the battlefield he awoke from a dream of being with his wife to the utter amazement that she wasn’t by his side – he was alone.

Pick up this book, read it, and better understand WW2 through a remarkable mix of memoir and facts.

I also published this review on Amazon where you can purchase Ann Seymour’s I’ve Always Loved You, if you’re not near an Indy book store like Book Passage.

Gentle Reminder: Do something great today. Pick up a pencil or belly-up to the keyboard and write your Mother Memoir like all TellTale Souls. Doing so may be the beginning of your book length project on family history.

Well, I’m still coming up for air after the wild weekend at the San Francisco Writers’ Conference. I spent a great deal of time “manning” the Women’s National Book Association’s table, where I made connections with many, many interesting literary types from all over the country.

The conference was atop Nob Hill at the historic Mark Hopkins Hotel. Just a block away, draped in morning fog and by afternoon crowned by the brilliance of azure skies, stood magnificent Grace Cathedral, where I walked the famous labyrinth each day to get some air and quiet time for thoughtful reflection.

The conference menu boasted several memoir sessions. I was lucky enough to attend two of them: “Capturing your Life on the Page – Writing Memoirs that Sell” with Adair Lara, author of Naked, Drunk, and Writing; and “Doing an Anthology” with Victoria Zackheim, author of The Face in the Mirror. Both sessions were outstanding – full of tips and ideas from both bestselling authors.

More observations on writing memoir to come in the next day or two. In the meantime, The Story Woman reminds you to write Mother Memoir as only you can do it!

I had the rare and exciting opportunity last Sunday to hear powerful writing tips from Jason Roberts, author of A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History’s Greatest Traveler. He wasn’t there to sell books, although we coaxed him into staying around afterwards so we could purchase A Sense of the World from Book Passage and get his autograph. We have Tanya Egan Gibson, talented writer, author, and program chair for California Writers Club-Marin, to thank for coaxing him out of hiding, where he’s immersed in his next book.

While deeply serious about the craft of writing creative narrative for fiction and nonfiction, I’d have to say Roberts is an entertainer in disguise. His compelling tips, “From Silk Thread to Steel Cable,” were comprised of seven points – well, as he went along, he added another, so now there were eight – points he said he wished he’d learned before he discovered them for himself throughout years of writing. I’m sure he has a few more up his sleeve, and on Sunday he had an audience glued to his every word, anxious to hear any number of tips he took the time to graciously give his fellow writers – the crowd was enthralled.

I’m thinking perhaps he was trying this stuff out on us for our reaction prior to proposing a book on what he deems the narrative process. If he’s not planning to write such a book, he should. We’d all have bought it yesterday. Did I mention Roberts is a very clever fellow? Tricky even? And definitely handsome.

Next came the tricky part for me in trying to give you a taste of what I took away from his brilliant talk. He started off with a bang telling us, “Get over yourself. Don’t over write your prose.” Great reminder…”Get over myself” sticky note already up.

The following writing tips are my brief takes on a few of Roberts’ points. I am looking at them in relationship to the character grabbing, short memoirs that I encourage people to write. These true tales capture the character and spirit of people significant in their lives and often serve as the writers’ building blocks to longer works.

1.   “Cast your characters” by literally giving each character a role in your story. It is your job to see that your characters do something, rather than merely mentioning them. Ask yourself questions about each one of them: Why is this person in my story? Is this guy important to the story? Does the story work better without an appearance from this woman? If you think certain characters are not worth giving an active role, or if they seem to get in the way of the narrative, get rid of them.  Everyone needs a reason for being, right? Well, give them that reason for being, or out they go.

Each character, however, doesn’t need a balanced role – use or manipulate a character for a desired effect, and don’t make excuses for him. For example, you mention your dad in a story you’re writing about your mother. For the story to make sense, you need to depict him as a jerk, which is only one aspect of his character. Since this story isn’t about him, it’s not necessary or appropriate to show the reader his good side.

Roberts goes on to say, “You can clash with your characters if need be,” and “Don’t be too enamored of a character.” The resulting tension from a clash will give your work a desirable edge.  And if you’re overly absorbed in one of your characters, you leave little to the readers’ imagination. Mystery will give your audience the opportunity to read something into the characters – to see them as similar to people they know, including themselves. Moreover, when you don’t fully clothe your characters, they carry a universal appeal, which is what you need to achieve, if you want to be widely read.

2.  If it’s readers you want, remember “Readers are selfish,” so you have to give them what they need. Connection. They must feel a link or a tie between themselves and the characters when they read your story or they will simply close the book or turn off the screen, discarding the work that’s been your driving passion. So decide what you want your readers to feel before you write.

This sounds simple, but I know from my experience holding “Give the Gift of Story” workshops that many people, when they begin to write a story,  have no idea what they want others to feel. And has the idea about “how to touch others” occurred to them prior to starting their writing process? Perhaps not, since they often say they don’t even know what or how they, themselves, feel until the words start to flow. So, from here on out, I’ll put the horse before the cart and ask writers to spend time on what they want their readers to feel and what devices they can use to bring about that desired effect .

3.  “The past is a foreign country.” Capture the Zeitgeist. To successfully write creative narrative, your story must ring true with the spirit of the time in which the story takes place. In order to do this, you need to look at each place and period of time as having a personality uniquely its own. The Zeitgeist will have enormously influenced the hearts and minds and actions of your characters. Write this flavor of the times into your story to add depth and color, but also as a frame of reference as your readers get comfortable with your casts of characters.

Roberts reminded us, “You’re always writing about time.” On that note, I’ll stop now at a time and place where I know it’s up to us as writers to hone our craft with a spirit that craves more.

Thank you, Jason Roberts, for allowing me to share with my readers a bit of what I gleaned from your talk, even though you didn’t know what I was going to write. That’s trust, and I hope I have given them a connection to you, and that my rendition of and elaboration on a few of your points didn’t completely warp your intended meaning.

Links:

Jason Roberts, A Sense of the World. This book is now on my short list!

Tanya Egan Gibson, How to Buy a Love of Reading. You can also click here to read my review.

Now write like you’ve never written before as you capture the character and spirit of your mother or another significant person in your life. So they will always be remembered, write a bio-vignette and become a TellTale Soul.

I figured what could be better than to start the new year with a guest blog by my great friend and brilliant author, Tanya Egan Gibson. Thank you, Tanya, for helping make 2010 a very interesting year to look forward to. My advice – read my review - then read her book.

On Meta-Memoir 

Halfway into writing an essay about your mother’s carefully crafted thank-you notes–the handwritten and heartfelt kind that seem to have gone the way of the mastodon–you find yourself stuck.  Perhaps you’re worrying that nobody else in the world could possibly care about this story, or that you won’t be able to properly convey the nuances of your mother’s motivations.  Or perhaps you’re finding yourself revealing more emotion or truth than you’re really comfortable with–you actually resented the time she took writing those notes when she could have been helping you with your homework/Home Ec project/boy problems.  As you ruminate about how difficult it is to tell this story, a thought strikes you: Why not tell a story about trying to tell this difficult story? 

It’s Genius, you think. You will write about disconnection–about how hard it is to be a writer who is supposed to make strangers feel things about events and people the aforementioned strangers really have no reason to care about.  Like thank-you notes.  And that velour shirt for Home Ec that was missing a sleeve.

 And wait, there’s more!  Why not go even a step further and comment upon writing this story about not writing a story about your mother, narrating every moment of your writing the not-story, employing a Twitter-esque present-tense hyperconsciousness?  As in, I keep looking back at the last paragraph, the dangling preposition taunting me, but I force myself to type onward.

 Clever you.  Meta- you.  Are you feeling the heart of your story?

 By meta-, I mean writing does not encourage the reader to experience a waking dream–in fact, it keeps telling the reader, “This is just a dream.”  The writer may wax self-referential (”I am writing about writing about writing”).  He or she may employ devices normally reserved for non-narrative nonfiction (e.g., footnotes which themselves extend the narrative or even take over the narrative).  He or she might play with the structure of the narrative to make the form of the narrative as important as/more an important than its content. (Imagine the thank-you note essay structured as a thank-you note to mom.)

 It’s cool.  It’s fun.  It can be stunning, when pulled off subtly, rather than like the hyperbolic examples I gave above.  As a reader and writer of meta-fiction, however, I have a love/hate relationship with the stuff–because it can also be an excuse for heartlessness.

 Though I don’t write memoir, I do read it.  I read for emotional reasons as much as for intellectual ones.  Perhaps, to be honest, even more so.  I read to feel like I’m not alone in the world.  I read to understand what goes in the heads of people I might never meet, or I might be afraid to meet, or I might be afraid wouldn’t like me if we did meet.  I read to connect.

 Good writing is honest and brave (and by “honest and brave,” I don’t mean you tell-all).  To be brave, I think, is to embrace emotion rather than skirting it.  When I’m reading something self-referential, I hope to find a “self” nurtured by meta-devices rather than obscured by them–as in Dave Eggers’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, whose manifold footnotes seek to engage the heart instead of distance it, or Stephen Elliott’s highly acclaimed The Adderall Diaries (which I put on my wish list). 

It is lovely to be clever, and it is lovely to behold cleverness.  But as Egger’s work implies, genius and heart are often at odds, even as they inhabit the same ironic title.  And in the end, I’ll take “heartbreaking” over “genius.”

 Bio: Tanya Egan Gibson is the author of How To Buy a Love of Reading– a novel that may or may not be considered meta-fiction (and that may or may not satirize meta-fiction)–about nouveau riche parents who try to cure their teenage daughter’s hatred of books by commissioning a custom-written novel for her.  She’d love if you visited the book’s site at http://www.howtobuyaloveofreading.com and shared your own story about how reading changed (or even saved) your life.

Book Passage to host three outstanding

Women’s National Book Association authors

C.W. Gortner, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, and Tanya Egan Gibson

for our 3^rd annual National Reading Group Month Event

The San Francisco chapter of Women’s National Book Association is proud to announce a special event at Book Passage’s Corte Madera location, celebrating National Reading Group Month this October. Please join us for this exceptional reading group of three authors, all local members of Women’s National Book Association: C.W. Gortner (The Last Queen), Kathi Kamen Goldmark (And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You), and Tanya Egan Gibson (How to Buy a Love of Reading).

C.W. Gortner will bring insight into his intriguing and highly adventurous historical novel, The Last Queen, and what’s next from him. Kathi will read about one fabulous character (her health-food-obsessed mom, Betty) from both a fictional and a nonfiction perspective. Kathi warns, “Bring your own wheat grass juice.” Tanya will read and talk about writing her critically acclaimed debut novel, How to Buy a Love of Reading, where you’re sure to fall in love with reading all over again. We aren’t suggesting the love of reading is something to be bought, but we know you’ll be inspired to buy these authors’ praise-worthy books.

The Women’s National Book Association launched National Reading Group Month in October of 2007 to celebrate the organization’s ninetieth birthday. This year, WNBA will continue its tradition of promoting women and the book and literacy in general by hosting events in their chapter cities: Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

WNBA-SF is a non-profit organization that fosters professional development and exposure of our members through a variety of book-related programs, workshops, and hands-on opportunities to make valuable contacts and connections that are beneficial at any stage of one’s career. WNBA-SF is part of a National network promoting the value of books and reading since 1917 throughout ten chapters stretching from coast to coast. Annual Membership is $45.

Many thanks to our partner for this event, Whole Foods Market, for providing specialty foods.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Kathi Kamen Goldmark is the author of And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You, a novel; co-author of The Great Rock & Roll Joke Book, and Mid-Life Confidential: the Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America with Three Chords and an Attitude; and has contributed essays to several anthologies—including Feed Me! (edited by Harriet Brown). With her husband, Sam Barry, she writes a monthly aspiring-writer-advice column in BookPage called “The Author Enablers.” A 2007 San Francisco Library Laureate and winner of the 2008 National Women’s Book Association award, Kathi is the founder and a member of the all-author rock band the Rock Bottom Remainders, president and janitor of “Don’t Quit Your Day Job” Records, Author Liaison for many high-profile literary events—including Book Group Expo and the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library annual Laureates Dinner—and the producer of the nationally-distributed radio show West Coast Live.

Tanya Egan Gibson was born and raised on Long Island’s south shore, the“Egg”-less side of the island Fitzgerald didn’t write about. She earned a B.A. in English from Cornell University and an M.A. from the University of Washington. She began writing How to Buy a Love of Reading ten years ago, while teaching high school English. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two children.

C. W. Gortner is the author of The Last Queen (Ballantine Books). This book takes a look at the life of Juana of Castile, the last queen of Spanish blood to inherit her country’s throne, and it is highly praised by Publisher’s Weekly. Half-Spanish by birth, Gortner holds an M.F.A. in writing, with an emphasis on historical studies, from the New College of California and has taught university courses on women of power in the Renaissance. He was raised in Málaga, Spain, and now lives in California. He is currently at work on his next book, which is about Catherine de Medici and will be released by Ballantine Books in 2010.

Kathi Kamen Goldmark

Tanya Egan Gibson

CW Gortner

Women’s National Book Association – San Francisco

National Reading Group Month

The Story Woman asks you to write a bio-vignette capturing the character and spirit of a significant person in your life and become a TellTale Soul.

Update: Some people are emailing their comments, so that works, too, if you’d rather: lynn(at)telltalesouls(dot)com.

Tell me how Using COMMON SENSE Makes Perfect Sense

THE STORY WOMAN’S TWO-PART COMMON SENSE CONTEST 

Social, Intellectual, Religious, Political– you name it!

Winner of Part 1 receives my “how-to” book, Give the Gift of Story: TellTale Souls’ Essential Guide to Tap Memory & Write Memoir in Five Acts, since learning to capture the character of a loved one in story makes Perfect Sense.

Winner of Part 2 receives $25 USD from The Story Woman™, since my Common Sense tells me people like cash; it’s as simple as that.

Threads of Common Sense run throughout the Mother Memoirs of TellTale Souls, but collecting pieces, examples, or bits of Common Sense is not the purpose of the bio-vignettes that daughters and sons write about their mothers.   However, the purpose of this contest is to do just that.

This is a very simple contest with very simple rules because it’s all about Common Sense. What could be simpler than to use Common Sense when going about our daily lives? When interacting with others, employing critical thinking, finding solutions to problems, figuring out which path to take, teaching children right from wrong, or deciding to spend money or save it using Common Sense makes Perfect Sense.

 EXAMPLES OF COMMON SENSE, some of which have become cliché:

• Borrowing money from a friend could end the friendship
• If you don’t want a speeding ticket, don’t drive over the speed limit
• Stay alive, don’t drink and drive
• If you don’t have the money to pay for something, don’t charge it
• What you show or tell on the internet will follow you forever
• Wear layers of clothing if you’re visiting San Francisco any time of year
• Don’t be duped by politicians, think for yourself
• Don’t jump off a bridge just because your friends are jumping off

And don’t think too hard about what is meant by the term Common Sense; we’re not going to get philosophical, scientific, or psychological here. This contest is to have fun by sharing our Common Sense.

Rules for Common Sense Contest Part 1 & 2 are easy:

Part 1   Send the best piece or most interesting bit of Common Sense you have. Simply enter your comment below.

Part 2   For a chance to win $25 USD you’ll have to work a little harder.  Write an essay of no more than 500 words using your interesting bit on Common Sense combined with the 5-Ws:

1. Who gave you that piece of Common Sense
2. What good has come from using Common Sense
3. When did you last use Common Sense
4. Where could we use more Common Sense in today’s world
5. Why is it important/valuable to use Common Sense

Simply enter your essay in comments below.

I know the value of collect and using Common Sense, so this contest will run until we have 50 legitimate responses. After the 50 are in, the entries will be judged by The Story Woman and friends, the winners will be announced, and the prizes sent.

More thoughts:

• You can also write about what you wish you’d been taught about Common Sense AND why it would have benefitted you
• Where did you get your common sense (mother, father, teach, etc.)
• Essays on importance of common sense
• Essays on positive examples of using common sense
• Ethnicity & common sense
• Age & common sense
• Do our politicians use common sense
• Consequences of not having/using common sense
• Do we use common sense today, if not, why not
• Does our educational system encourage common sense – or just the opposite
• More ideas from you…

NOTE: By commenting and/or sending replies to this contest, you automatically give The Story Woman™ Blog and Lynn Henriksen the right to use what you say for publication, promotion, or as she sees fit. If you don’t want your name to be used, say so. We respect your privacy: your email address will not be sold or given away.

I’m posting this book review on an historical novel by C.W. Gortner because I think The Last Queen is a great read and highlights the difficulties women have had throughout history attempting to be taken seriously whether they are royalty or not.  Gortner will be honored this October 15th at an event for National Reading Group Month by Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco Chapter. See links below for more information.

Juana’s courage, strength, and passion amazed me as The Last Queen came of age so vividly under C.W. Gortner’s admirable pen. This historical novel is fraught with crushing battles of power and chilling intrigue throughout the courts of her parents, Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, and of her husband, Philip of Flanders, as the Infanta of Spain attempts to take her rightful place on the thrown she inherited from her mother.

My soul was struck as I witnessed, through Gortner’s well paced story, the agony Juana endured as her faithless husband raped her night after night, as she was forced to leave her first born behind in Flanders and another child taken from her breast by her father to raise as his own, and as she ultimately succumbed to the captivity that often befell women of royalty in those times. Had she been driven mad by her treacherous husband and her scheming, duplicitous father as they vied for her position or had Juana la Loca, as she came to be known, been wrongly labeled and shut away by the two men she learned to loathe?

That question is one for which we don’t have an answer, but I felt compelled to honor her sanity and believe she would overcome the perils in her path to rule over the people of her beloved Spain.  Her fate was sealed in loneliness and sorrow with no escape. I felt her loss as well as my own.

Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco October 15th event. Our partner, Whole Foods Mill Valley, is graciously supplying specialty foods to promote “Shared Reading.”

C. W. Gornter

Two other fabulous authors will also be reading for this event: Tanya Egan Gibson, How to Buy a Love of Reading, and Kathi Kamen Goldmark, And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You.

The Story Woman asks men and women to write a bio-vignette about a loved one to become a TellTale Soul.

Teresa LeYung Ryan’s, Love Made of Heart, is a stirring look at the intricacies of familial relationships, including mental illness and abuse, that for Ruby Lin, the narrator, have taken the bright, clear color from her world as she struggles to grow up as an American girl drowning in a sea of distinctly Asian values.

Although the intricacies of the mother-daughter bond are the overall theme of this heartfelt story, there is a convoluted push and pull in Ruby’s psyche as she clashes with her father, her Chinese husband, and in-laws, while leaning heavily on the powerful goodness and understanding she discovers in her sister and an adopted Jewish grandmother who has become her beacon in this violent coming of age saga.

LeYung Ryan has Ruby slowly awaken through self-reflection to a universal truth as she works over time with her psychologist. Dr. Thatcher encourages her to unravel the conflicts and mysteries within by speaking with a clarity that resonated with Ruby (as it does for all of us), “Your mother wears a pair of funny glasses which have been tinted by her personal experiences. They’re her special glasses to view and cope with the world.”

So, you see, this story goes beyond the confines of culture and speaks to both the dark and the light sides of love at work in the very heart of all human relationships.

Teresa LeYung Ryan’s link.

The Story Woman encourages all sons and daughters to write a short, true tale (a bio-vignette) about a woman who had a significant impact on their lives for possible submission in the TellTale Souls collection.

This picture says it all, but, of course, I’ll add a word or two.

When the words start to flow…

Some say our best insights come at the most unexpected times and places, so always be prepared. This picture actually reminded me of my daughter, Samantha – you just can’t keep that girl from working and creating. You go, girl!

Okay, no more excuses. Write your Mother Memoir now. That’s it; you’re on your way to honoring that most important woman by capturing her character in a bio-vignette – because you love who she is in the here & now AND want future generations to get a glimpse of that spirit you loved so much.

My friend, Judith Marshall, author of the soon to be published book, Husbands May Come and Go, but Friends are Forever, gave me permission to filch this picture from her blog. So, I didn’t really steal it, and now I invite you to steal away from my blog for a bit to check out what Judith is blathering about.

The Story Woman asks all daughters and sons to write bio-vignettes about their mothers.

First Mine for gold, then Write Memoir

Hello, all you writers and authors and artists from across the board.  I recently read a great little book by Abigail Thomas, Thinking About Memoir, so I wanted to share my thoughts with you about this book and add it to my new Book Review blog category.

By the way, my reviews aren’t confined to the memoir genre. From the inception of my blog, which wasn’t that long ago, one of my main purposes was to give voice to a wide range of nonfiction and fiction writers as well as artists in general who have caught my eye and my spirit. If you’d like me to post a blog about you and your work, please contact me and we’ll go from there.

I believe the inspiration we get from each connection we make with art, whether through books, paintings, sculptures, theatre, dance, or music breathes life into our beings as we discover new ways to view our world.

Abigail Thomas’ book, Thinking About Memoir, is oriented towards crafting the story of one’s own life, whereas my guide book, Give the Gift of Story: TellTale Souls’ Essential Guide to Tap Memory & Write Memoir in Five Acts (yes, that’s a mouth full!) is all about looking at someone other than oneself – it’s about honoring a loved one with a bio-vignette that captures that loved one’s character. Both of our books, however, are meaningful guides to writing in general; they speak to a wider audience than memoirists to be sure.

Book Review: Great things come in small packages, so Abigail Thomas gets kudos for a job well done. She is honest, funny, and tells on herself, which, I believe, is the best way to teach.

Thomas’ rambling style of instruction isn’t so much about technique as it is about giving us stimulating exercises that sometimes seem to come out of nowhere, but result in remarkable insight on how to write memoir well.
The guide, at just 108 pages, is so packed with activities that a writing instructor could use it for a semester-long course and still not exhausted all of Thomas’ unique ideas. Let’s suffice it to say she’s a delightful task master. From the beginning when she asks us to write three word sentences so we have nowhere to hide and our writing won’t take up extra space to asking us to write two pages of what we don’t remember sheds a lot of light on her brand of Thinking about Memoir.

If we aren’t afraid to dig deep, zero in on details, write an honest account, make a habit out of writing, and learn to invent our own structure, this book is a gold mine.

Link to Abigail Thomas.

The Story Woman asks you to write a bio-vignette about a loved one to honor someone other than yourself.