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California Writers Week

by | Jul 23, 2013 | Events

Celebrate the Writers of California!

By decree of the Governor and California State Legislature, the third week of October is perennially designated as

California Writers Week

Jack London, Eugene O’Neill, Sam Shepard*, Alan Ginsberg, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jerimiah Abrams, Tamim Ansary,  Gertrude Atherton, Peter S. Beagle, Ambrose Bierce*, Tom Wolfe, Sue Grafton, Jean Ardell, Anthony Arnold, Mary Austin, Dora E. H. Crow, Ann Bastian, Helen Benedict, Rhys Bowen*, John Blumenthal, Michael Chabon, Dr. Leo Buscaglia, Richard J. Boyle*, Gina Berrault*, Jean Shinoda Bolen*, Mike Blake, Sylvia Boorstein, Gayle Brandeis, Stewart Brand, Keith Bailey, Raymond Barrio, Bill Barich*, Richard Alan Bunch, Dean Edell*, Michael DiLeo*, Mark Coggins, Evan Connell*, Susan Dunlap, Raymond Chandler, Ernest Callenbach,  Julia Child*, Ina Coolbrith, Nik C. Colyer, Sharleen Cooper Cohen, Phil Arnot, Acosta Adali, Catherine Coulter, James Dalessandro, Jim Dreaver, Maria Espinosa, Beverly Cleary, Percival Everett,  Marc Allen, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Phil Frank*, John Steinbeck, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry Miller, Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel, T. Jefferson Parker, Robert Frost, Paul Erdman*, Elizabeth George, Isabel Allende*, Dean Koontz, Pam Houston*, Norman Mailer, Melba Beals, Robert A . Davies, Baba Ram Dass*, Mark Twain, Jack Kerouac, Ray Berry, T. C. Boyle, Ray Bradbury, Richard Henry Dana, Allen Drury*, Isadora Duncan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Lisa See,  Jack Kerouac*, Joan Didion, Ken Kesey, Joe Eszterhas*, Annie Lamott*, Robert A. Heinlen, Raymond Carver, Clive Cussler, Jack Canfield, Wylene Dunbar, John Gregory Dunne, Alan Epstein, Richard Ford,  Dana Gioia, Elliot Feldman, Jaime de Angulo, Armistead Maupin, Yusef Komunyakaa, Whitney Otto, Registered_Logox250Carlos Castaneda, John Collins, Suzanne Forster, Lacey Fosburgh*, Jane Futcher,  Amy Tan, Thomas Harris, George Sterling, Yolanda Nava, Thomas Pynchon, Upton Sinclair, Alyson Noel, John Gray, Jennifer Ann Kogler, Herbert Gold*, Helen Hunt Jackson, Edith Tacher Hurd*, Jessica Barksdale Inclan, Jack Kornfeld*, Dashiell Hammett, Barbara Seranella,  William Saroyan, Molly Dick*, Paul McHugh, Robyn Schneider, Delilah Beasley, Herb Caen, Devid Meltzer, Anna Deavere Smith, Molly Giles, Andrea Siegel, Barnaby Conrad*, Stewart Emery*, S. I. Hayakawa,  Jonathan Kellerman, Alan Rifkin,  Susan Kelly-DeWitt, Isaacs Menken, Joaquin Miller, Paul Liberatore*, Dan Millman, Terry Black, Jack Hicks, J. S. Holliday, Anh Do, John Muir, Michael Scott Moore, Carolyn Follett, Carl Reiner, Victoria Silva, Audrey Wood,  Don Miguel Ruiz, Rebecca Solnit,  M. F. K. Fisher, Firoozeh Dumas, Lisa Alpine, Steve Martin, Khaled Hosseini, Edward Humes, Faye Kellerman, Susan Ito, Pico Iyer,  D. P. Lyle, Eric Shapiro, Bonnie Domrose Stone, Kathleen Sharp, Joe Quirk, Ross Macdonald, Lynette Brasfield, Gail Tsukiyama, Jo Anne Van Tillburg, Bret Harte, K. C. Cole, June Dutton, Alexandra Haslam, Elizabeth McKenzie, Deanne Stillman, Jessica Mitford, Pat Morrison, Rupert Hughes, Thom Gunn, Susan Straight, Rayn Roberts, Randy Shilts, Peter Richardson, Veronique de Turenne, Ursula K. LeGuin, Tony Lazzarini, Peter Lefcourt, Yone Noguchi, Vladimir Lange, Tony Johnston, Malcolm Margolin, M. L. Malcolm, Michael McClure, Ruthanne Lum McCunn, Lucille Lang Day, Oakley Hall, Robyn McGee, Kelly Lange, Nancy Huebotter,  Stanton Delaplane*, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Thomas Steinbeck, Theodora Kroeber, Alan Clements, devorah major, Joie Davidow, John Lescroat, Linda Palmer, Robert Haas*, Louis B. Jones, Robert de Heer, Leora Krygier, John D. Grissim*, John Gilmore, Robinson Jeffers, Molly Fish, Kathryn J. Abajian, John Forbes, William O’Daly, Shirley Ann Parker, Maxine Hong Kingston, Wardlaw Lee, Penny Warner, Taylor Smith, Ruben Martinez, Peg Bracken, Joe Gores*, Jean Harfenist, Lee Lofland, Kimball Livingston*, Carolyn See,  Ona Russell, Shesshu Foster, Molly Katzen, Mikel Dunham, Laurel House,  Judy Reeves, Marybeth Bond*, Judith Greber*,  Jack Hirschman, Edwin Markham, Donald DeNevi, Ishmael Reed, David Masumoto, Andrew Sean Greer, Floyd Salas, Jimmy Hopper, Tillie Olsen, Michael Parenti, Fanny Osbourne, Daniel Handler, Frank Chin, Julie Williams, Lacey Fosburgh, Kevin Starr, Julie Wallace, Francisco Garces, Daniel A. Olivas, Anthony Marais, Louise Steinman, Mary Mackey, Louise Clappe, Martin Cruz Smith*, Richard Rodrigues, Alice Sebold, Erik Erikson, Aimee Liu, Reyna Grande, Regina Louise, Jack Shelton*, Wallace Stegner*, George Sterling*, Raymond Strait, Hector Tobar, Danielle Steele, Martin Cruz Smith*, Gertrude Stein,  Ellen Sussman, Curt Gentry, Eric Stone, Victoria Zackheim, Elizabeth Stromme, Susan Vreeland, Alan Watts*, John Wasserman*, Joseph Wambaugh, Alice Walker, Jessamyn West, Marianne Williamson, D. J. Waldie, Ashley Wolff, Richard Vaughn, Al Young, Gary Zukav, Tobias Wolff, April Halpri Wayland, Dr. David Viscott, Oscar Zeta, Rick Wartzman,  . . . and the list goes on

* = Marin Writer

John Muir, naturalist and author.
John Muir, Muir Woods National Monument
Lantern Press

Picnic, Poetry & LitCake

by | Jun 26, 2013 | Events

JOIN US!
Saturday, July 20
Joaquin Miller Park
Oakland
PICNIC PARTICULARS

R.S.V.P.: BrownCalifornia@aol.com

Food n’ Fun
Open Mic
Literary Cake-Decorating Contest

CWC WILL PROVIDE: Hamburgers and all the fixin’s, plates, napkins, tableware, etc.

YOU BRING: Side dish, appetizer, salad, or dessert to share, plus drinks for you and your guests.

NOTE: In keeping with the spirit of Our Founder, alcoholic beverages are permitted. Please imbibe responsibly.

Joaquin Miller was famous for his outdoor literary salons. In honor of this tradition, we invite you to bring a sample of your writing to share during the Open Mic portion of the picnic.

Four Things About Writing

by | May 1, 2013 | Craft

The first thing: When writing stories, long pieces, articles, memoirs, anything, the first thing to realize is: be nice to yourself, or better yet, kick yourself down the stairs, that feel better? You choose.

How silly, of course you will be nice to yourself. Of course you will put your critic in the back closet and ignore all those voices that say your critique group won’t like this. Of course you will ignore voices in your head that say your friends will think this is so stupid, that you shouldn’t be doing this, that there is nothing you can write about.

You have all heard these voices. These voices will be there no matter what you do. See how you can ignore them.

The second thing: if you think of something really goofy, like “She talks to bees”, use it. First drafts are to put anything down that comes to mind. It’s okay. You hear character voices in your head, and they don’t make sense, use them. If your characters take off in new directions and you want to control them, don’t even try. If they will want to play, let them.

The third thing: time yourself. Set an hour a day to write. Write down your start time. You only have to sit with a pencil or paper, or typewriter or computer for that hour only. And write down whatever comes to mind. Use cafes and use other people’s conversations to start. Or have your characters in your stories talk like people in a cafe. Or have them playing cards like people in the cafe. The thing is to use everything. Want to stop? Wait for that hour to come up, then put down your pencil. When you write first drafts, anything goes. Honor the process. This is called creative writing for a reason, be goofy, be terrible, and while you do it, you may think this is the worst thing you ever wrote. So?

The fourth thing: don’t edit as you go, don’t erase anything, and don’t edit what you’ve written. Read over what you have done, admire your ability to sit quietly for an hour, and give yourself praise. You are a genius.

See? Told you so.

Now, you have a manuscript to edit.

Susanna Solomon is author of Sheriffs’ Calls From the Point Reyes Light, 
Aahort story collection, coming out this year from Harper Davis Publishers.

Book Review by Jo Haraf

by | May 1, 2013 | Newsletters

The Emotion Thesaurus

A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression

My first-draft protagonists exhibit two emotions and two postures. They smile. They frown. They lean forward and back. Sigh. They’re a stiff lot.

To put emotional meat on my characters’ brittle white bones, I created a three-by-five-card file of evocative physical reactions from a variety of sources. Here’s one example from an interview with actor Michael Caine: “Strong characters never blink.” Good one, Michael!

By last measure, eighteen inches of my bookcase is devoted to discarded craft books designed to help my characters giggle and shriek in the most lifelike manner. My most recent acquisition is my favorite: The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression self-published in 2012 by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.

The book begins with a recap of Common Problems. Given that I suffer from every single problem, it’s a short but sobering read. But Ackerman and Puglisi don’t leave you to wallow in despair. After a short primer on how to discover just the right gestures and feelings for your characters, they launch into the details of their seventy-five emotions. Randomly excerpted sentiments include: agitation, contempt, disgust, envy, insecurity, rage, scorn, uncertainty, and worry. Roughly the same emotions experienced by the average teenage girl before lunch.

Emotional elaborations include Definition, Physical Signals, Internal Sensations, Mental Responses, and Cues of Acute, Long-Term, or Suppressed Emotions. “Writer’s Tips,” such as this one following “smugness,” end each emotional exploration: “When describing a character’s feelings, the word ‘felt’ is often a cue for telling emotion, not showing. Run a search for this word and challenge yourself on its use.”

Visit the author’s website at http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com to download a free copy of “Emotion Amplifiers, a collection of fifteen states that naturally galvanize emotion and make a character more volatile.” While you’re online, you may want to purchase a hardcopy ($10) or PDF ($5) version of The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression.

“It’s a great addition to your library,” Jo said as she leaned forward with a smile. (Damn first drafts.)

Written and Contributed By CWC Marin Board Member Jo Haraf

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