Posted on

Remington Roundup: #Watch, #Listen, #Learn.

1960's photo of woman at Remington typewriterNow that it’s October and Fall is well under way, we are back into a routine (at our house anyway) of scheduling and schooling. Some of this is formal education, some of it just life. Like navigating through the days, evenings, and weekends of a teenager on the go and mediating the transition of a young girl on her way to pre-teen.

Outside of that excitement, I’m also keeping up with cool finds on the Internet. This month’s Roundup offers links to goodies for lovers of story, whether you enjoy reading them or writing them.

#Watch

Blank on Blank is a collection of animated video interviews from PBS spotlighting celebrities from all corners of creativity and notoriety. Neil Young, Bette Davis, Nora Ephron.

And this one with Stevie Wonder, where he talks about the Keys of Life.

“I’ve never accepted stupidity and ignorance as making me then determine how good I was or how less I was.”

Careful, you’ll get lost in these short videos, but they do make for great lunchtime viewing.

#Listen

Podcasts are still all the rage these days with an endless list of opportunities to subscribe to one or another. It’s tough to choose. If you enjoy listening to stories, LeVar Burton hosts his podcast (which I’ve mentioned before), where he reads short stories for grown-ups.

But there’s another podcast of…tidbits, really. Excerpts from essays and books as read by the author himself, Michael Perry, on his podcast, ReWriting. This episode, “Guitar Girls,” in particular settles in nicely, with five minutes of Happy:

“Life goes better if you have a sense of pitch.”

Fall into more episodes HERE.

#Learn

I bet you didn’t know there is a tiny treasure-trove of free online courses from the International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa. The IWP regularly offers mass open online courses (MOOC) for writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and now it has packaged several of those past courses into what they call MOOC-PACKS. So former students can revisit the lessons. Or new students to dive into them for the first time. Or, teachers of writing can incorporate them.

MOOC-Pack (mook-pak) n. The core contents of an IWP MOOC, packaged with a guide that explains how to use it to teach a class or lead a study group.

Visit the IWP Distance Learning MOOC-PACK Library for courses like How Writers Write Fiction 2016: Storied Women. In skimming the overview of each, you’ll learn a little about the faculty and glimpse at the list of authors they will spotlight throughout (Naomi Jackson, Margot Livesey, Rebecca Makkai–oh my!).

Closer to home, tune in next Wednesday for a Q&A with Michael Shou-Yung Shum about his debut novel, Queen of Spades (there’s a giveaway!).

And generate a few of your own new stories by signing up for Principles & Prompts, a fun, low-stakes 6-week online writing class aimed at inspiring your muse and keeping your pen busy. Registration ends November 3rd!

Posted on

#Writing Prompts: It’s a Family Affair

“Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary.”
~ Boris Pasternak (as quoted in Patty Dann’s The Butterfly Hours)

A few weeks ago, I opened up my studio as part of a city-wide event and scheduled a couple of writing sprints. Visitors were shy to pick up a pen (it took several invitations to convince some folks that yes, the pumpkin bread was for eating).

But one group of familiar faces (husband, daughter, in-laws) plopped down in the chairs minutes before the next writing sprint was set to begin, and it was my husband who said finally, “It’s 4 o’clock. Let’s get this thing started.”

Writers will surprise you, especially writers incognito. I had no idea. But four clipboards and two prompts later, we had the beginnings of several stories.

In The Butterfly Hours, Patty Dann writes about the power of prompts, not only as a way to explore memory but as a way to explore story. In my time teaching groups of writers, I’ve seen how one prompt will work differently for two people. A father and son, for example, starting from an image and a sentence, will reveal vastly different tales.

In her book, Dann give us sample after sample of her students’ work in order to prove her theories on prompts. Following in her footsteps (& with permission), I give you two of the stories written and shared that afternoon in the studio to illustrate mine: Father and Son and a moment in the salon.

She told her everything.

Father

When I was a small boy, my mom always went to the same beauty parlor to have her hair done, which she called a “permanent.” The shop was on the southwest corner of North Oakland Avenue and East Linwood Street. It was called “Marge’s Beauty Shop,” and I will always remember how her hair smelled when she came home. It smelled like vinegar and some other noxious chemicals. She was always proud of how she looked, I think.

Son

This beauty parlor is part church, part tavern. Hopes are built there, dreams are shared. Short, bobbed, blunt, shaved. A place of comfort, a place of hope. If you can dream it, she will achieve it. The tales that are shared can be cut, cropped, and sometimes even washed away. Rinse and set, rinse and set…on that day, as the secret was revealed, she told her everything.

I love both of these tiny stories for the surprises within:

  • In Father, a son’s recollection of (likely) a most important day of the week for his mother, where we anticipate admiration but read “noxious chemicals,” (I laugh out loud every time I reach that phrase). But then, in the next line, the last line, the story and narrator go soft again.
  • And in Son, the dreams shared, as so often they are, when we sit in those chairs at the salon, “short, blunt…[sometimes] shaved” after reasoning them out. Plus, the truth in the repetition of Rinse and set. Rinse and set. Dreams, like writing, are always in flux; formed, reconsidered, and pressed into shape again.

Often, writers approach prompts with fear, but in truth, prompts are meant to be fun, to loosen the mind, and the pen. We had such a good time in the studio that day that there was a group consensus: this would be our next family party game. Pen & Paper, Prompts & Play.

While we’re planning our grab-bag of words and phrases for the next Holiday gathering, know that you can join the party online during Principles & Prompts, a 6-week course for writers here there and anywhere. Starting November 5th, you can log in weekly with others and enjoy a little inspiration, camaraderie, time with pen and paper. And by “enjoy,” I really do mean F.U.N!

CLICK HERE for more information on the course, fees, and registration.
Deadline to sign up is November 3rd.

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”
~ Anaïs Nin

Posted on

Remington Roundup:
Upcoming Events, an Online Course, & Giveaways

1960's photo of woman at Remington typewriterSeptember rolls in with a new season in the air, a new perspective as the sun shifts its angle in the sky, and a new Remington Roundup. This month, find information on a few upcoming events (where we might see each other in person), my next online course (where I hope to get to read your great writing), and two upcoming author interviews and book giveaways!

Upcoming Events

DOORS OPEN MILWAUKEE
When: September 23-24, 2017
Where: Metropolitan Milwaukee

Doors Open Milwaukee is an annual event during which buildings all over the city make their spaces free and open to the public. Explore architecture, the arts, and the outdoors (this year, you can visit 170 buildings…if you have the stamina!).

Inspiration Studios (pictured above and located at 1500 S. 73rd St., West Allis, WI), the creative space that houses my tiny writing space, is open from 12-5pm each day.

Stop by, hear about a bit about the building’s history, check out the theater and the gallery, and be sure to head to my studio on the 2nd floor to say hello! There’ll be treats to nibble on, raffles to enter, and no-pressure writing sprints (F.U.N.). The sprints are scheduled for Saturday @ 1pm & 4pm and Sunday @ 12:30pm & 2pm. So if you stop by and see people scribbling furiously, know you are witnessing stories in the making.

WISCONSIN WRITERS ASSOCIATION FALL CONFERENCE 2017
When: October 6-7, 2017
Where: Riverwalk Hotel in Neenah, WI

If you’re in or near central Wisconsin at the start of October, join me and a host of other writers and authors for a weekend of craft and creativity at the Wisconsin Writers Association Fall Conference.

I’m presenting on Flash Nonfiction: the art of the short essay, but there is a long list of excellent workshops where you might uncover new ideas, critique a few pages, or craft a new poem.

Check out the full list, pack up your pen and paper, and meet me at the Riverwalk!

Online Course

Drawing of online connectionSeptember also kicks off registration for one of my favorite online courses: Principles & Prompts.

I’ve taught this 6-week class for a while now, and I love it every time. It’s a low-stakes learning experience that promises to keep you inspired and connected with writing during a time when holiday planning (and, who are we kidding…eating) takes precedence. You know how it is: you turn your calendar to November, start planning a family festivity (or twenty) and suddenly that writing journal becomes a book of to-do’s.

Each week in Principles & Prompts, you’ll find a link to an inspiring video or text, a tiny lesson on creativity & craft,  and a writing prompt. We also share our work with others, which means this course also connects you to a greater community of writers. In other words, your inspiration and encouragement doesn’t end with the last day of class.

Principles & Prompts runs from November 5th to December 16th. Join us!  REGISTRATION IS OPEN.

#Giveaways

This month, I’m hosting Patricia Ann McNair for a Q&A and giveaway about her new collection of essays, And These Are The Good Times (Side Street Press). I already have her interview in the queue, and you don’t want to miss her thoughts on writing–the questions, the reflections, how we respond–and her love of a city where connection and story are everywhere. Never mind the fact that if you stop by the interview, you could win a copy of her book (but not my copy…I’m not letting this one go!).

In October, Michael Shou-Yung Shum will talk about his debut novel, Queen of Spades (Forest Avenue Press), a book that Frederick Barthelme (Bob the Gambler) calls, “a lovely and complex gambling fairy tale that twists and turns in intriguing ways on its way to a most satisfying conclusion.” I’m loving this read so far. And when you stop by for the giveaway–where you eye up what’s available to win, drop your name into the hat, and cross your fingers your number pops up–it will be *almost* like playing the tables.

These two upcoming interviews mark both the 58th and 59th author Q&A I’ve posted on the blog. That’s an average of 9 books a year since my first Q&A with Beth Hoffman. Maybe that doesn’t sound like much to you, but considering what a sloooow reader I am, it’s a thrill to see that number grow and think of the stacks of stories I’ve had the chance to share.

But none of this happens without you. If you’re a subscriber, thanks for reading. If you found this via some internet search or social media, thanks for making that extra click to get here.