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Your Willamette Writers Dispatch
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| Feeling lonely? Overwhelmed? We hear you. Sometimes the writing life can be a challenge. Don't worry -- we're here to help! This week, we've got revision strategies and Anthony St. Clair coming to the rescue. Read on for more. |
The Business of Being an Author | Mid-Valley Meeting
We all want to do the writing, but we soon learn there's a lot more to being a writer and author than just getting words on the page. We have to make room for what many consider the dark, disreputable, dirty part of writing. The business of being an author means also dealing with finances, marketing, time management, and more. But here's the thing: these are essential... some can even be fun.
Anthony St. Clair was a wannabe author from middle school until 2011, when, with his pregnant wife's blessing, he left a stable job to start his own business as a professional writer and author. Now nearly five years later, he's still going, with regular articles, 4 books, and more. In this engaging discussion session, Anthony shares what he's learned to help you take care of business while leaving time for what matters most: the writing.
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Revision Strategies
I just wrote "The End" on the first draft of a manuscript I've been picking at for months. My normal M.O. is to write a very fast, very bad first draft. But my revision strategies have been changing lately. You see, this book was slow, slow, slow in coming. It was also very squirrely. Every time I wrote an outline for the book, the characters turned left, not right, and my outline went out the window.
Some writers might be discouraged by this tangled mess of a draft, but not me...
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FilmLab Director's Panel | Workshop
Join us at the Post 5 Theater on Saturday, March 5th for our FiLMLaB Directors Panel. Free to Willamette Writers members ($10 non-member paid at the door) this event features all of our FiLMLaB directors from the past four years and a chance to have your questions answered!
Join these three directors: Christopher Alley of Ampersand Productions (2012 and 2013), Martin Vavra of Galaxy Sailor Productions (2014) and Michael Parisien of Going Street Films (2015).
Moderated by executive producer and screenwriter Randall Jahnson, this is a unique opportunity for writers and screenwriters to query these talented directors and filmmakers about filmmaking. They will discuss the FiLMLaB Contest, collaborative experience, and will answer other cinematic questions, from script to screen. Alley, Vavra, and Parisien are multitalented individuals who wear many different hats on many different sets. We are excited to have such a wealth of knowledge on the stage. Get your questions ready!
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Janet Fisher | Member Announcement
WW member Janet Fisher's The Shifting Winds comes out March 1, a historical novel set in and around the area Portland eventually grew up. It's the story of reluctant pioneer Jennie Haviland, whose father takes the family west over the Oregon Trail in 1842, tearing Jennie from her prestigious academy in New York to face a wilderness across the continent. In Oregon she meets two men, handsome Hudson's Bay Company clerk Alan Radford and brash American mountain man Jake Johnston. The two vie for her as their nations vie for this rich contested territory, but Jennie wants her own choices.
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Bill Johnson | Member Announcement
Bill Johnson is reading and reviewing manuscripts as part of the Write on the River conference May 13-15th in Wenatchee, WA. Bob Dugoni is a workshop leader and literary agent Rachel Letofsky teaches workshops and offers feedback on attendee query letters. Jason Brick, 2015 WW conference program director, is also a workshop leader.
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Patricia Brooks | Member Announcement
Patricia L. Brooks, author of newly released Three husbands and a Thousand Boyfriends spoke on Saturday the 20th with two other women authors at the annual fundraiser Authors and Appetites in Sun City, AZ. The event was sold out at 225 attendees. She sold a lot of books! Patricia shared her personal stories of trauma and recovery, surviving and thriving that are part of her new book, as well as why she writes memoir and what motivates her to tell her truth about love, addiction, domestic violence and post traumatic stress. Patricia also read from her book and talked about her community involvement with speaking for those who still suffer in silence.
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