Tag: craft

Wisconsin writers’ tour

~ sharon ~ Leave a comment

In one whirlwind day this month, I attended a writers’ conference and met “Agatha Christie” in southeast Wisconsin.

When I heard about an Agatha Christie “evening” as a fundraiser for the Wisconsin Historical Society, I wrongly assumed it would be at the Historical Society Library on the UW campus in Madison. But when I figured out she would be performing in Lake Geneva, I bought a ticket anyway. The drive would be a little more than an hour from my house, not the forty-five minutes to Madison, but not a stretch.

A few weeks later, friends told me they were taking part in Book Fest in Janesville, Wisconsin, a faitly new summer event sponsored by the Hedberg Public Library. And it was free! Scheduled the same day as Agatha’s visit, I RSVP’ed for two of the Book Fest events. It was also about forty-five minutes from my house. (Lake Geneva would be about thirty minutes from there.) It was going to be a scorcher, so I was looking forward to a day out of the sun.

Happily, the drive over was a bit quicker than I though and I arrived in time to sneak into the end of a session I hadn’t signed up for. That was “Everything You Need to Get Started” with Ken Brodsy in the Fireplace room. The gatherine was in an almost living room-like meeting place at one end of the main library room. He had some great tips, even at the end, and a plotting handout I was happy to take home.

I’d signed up for “Bringing Your Manuscript to Port: Navigating the Varied Channels to Book Publication.” Two of my Wisconsin Sisters in Crime–Christine DeSmet and Peggy Joque Williams, were on the panel, but so was Kristin Oakley, a friend from a now-defunct writing group in Rockford. She’d moved to Madison and I hadn’t seen her in years.

The moderator and fourth panelist, Ken Humphrey, is also the man behind the Wisconsin Writers Association email, hello@wiwrite.org. (I love the domain name. After all, the only answer to “wiwrite” is why not?) Ken and I had been exchanging email about the WWA fall conference and my membership listing. He has resolved everything with aplomb.

Each of the four panelists followed different routes to publishing from traditional to hybrid to independent (self-), and they shared boons and banes of each path. They also had some great handouts.

I ordered the optional delivered lunch but got so busy chatting with the other woman at my table, and the morning snacks had been so good, that I barely ate it. She and I stayed put for the master class with Maggie Ginsberg, Madison author of Still True, which won the 2023 WLA Literary Award for Fiction and received an honorable mention for the 2022 Edna Gerber Fiction Book Award. Her talk on “10 Ways I Got Unstuck” was full of great tips for writers in any literary genre. And, of course, there was a handout. (Do you sense a pattern in my enthusiasm?)

I think my favorite was her reminder that it’s not fair to compare a work-in-progress to another author’s finished, published work. It’s messy before those final edits, no matter who you are.

After Ginsberg’s talk, authors lined the halls at tables piled with their books and swag, and library patrons had a chance to mingle, chat, buy books and get autographs. Kudos to Janesville’s Hedeberg Public Library for putting on such a great event for four years. Hope they can keep it up.

But, by now I was hungry, so I went downstairs to The Ground Floor, the Friends of the Library’s coffee and book resale shop. I bought some tea and finally had a chance to eat my lunch before heading toward Lake Geneva.

I detoured through Delavan, another cute southeast Wisconsin town, before following my GPS to a small country school that felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. As far as I could tell, I was nowhere near downtown Lake Geneva. The school was surrounded by fields, with nary a house in view.

(Photos by Sharon)

The part I hadn’t noticed in my email with the ticket was that the school was a staging area for a shuttle to the actual performance location. Agatha was visiting Black Point Estate and Gardens on Lake Geneva, not someplace in Lake Geneva.

There were few enough at the talk that we caravanned through winding, shaded country roads to the estate. We had wine on the porch facing the lake before moving into the un-air conditioned 1888 home built for a Chicago “beer baron.” At that time, the rail service could get him from his summer retreat in Wisconsin to Chicago in about an hour.

The fence and gardens near the house reminded me of Monet’s Giverney in France, but the family wasn’t as interested in backdrops for painting as they were in fun at the lake. From the lawn near the house, you could see the sparkling water between trees at the bottom of the rolling lawn. Visiting during regula hours might be worth a trip back to the estate someday.

But I, and a couple dozen other folks, had come to meet Agatha. Local historian and actress Chris Brookes brought a circa 1950 Agatha to the event, sharing elements of her life and writing to that date. She’ll be doing another presentation Sept. 20 at Black Point, in case you’d like to hear her. It was fun. She read from a couple of her books, occasionally strolled back into the audience, and asked them questions.

After the performance, we could wander around the first floor and gardens. It made for a lovely evening, and I managed the drive home before sunset despite dawdling along the way. I even stopped in Sharon, Wisconsin, for a selfie. (I was tempted to bring a bucket of soapy water back to town, but I haven’t done it yet.)

Day trips can be lots of fun, can’t they?

À bientôt!

May needs to slow down

~ sharon ~ Leave a comment

May is departing in haste this year. At least from my perspective.

I started the month by ending my trek from Malice Domestic in Bethestda, Maryland, to Alabama to visit my son and his family. The trip was generally uneventful, but I’m not a long-distance driver. Oh, I drive long distances, but I break up the trip over multiple days. Fortunately, the weather was generally good for all my spring travels.

I stuck around a week, had lots of fun with kids and grands, and got a Mother’s Day gift a week early when my son took me to Atlanta to see a wonderful production of Wagner’s opera, Siegfried. For those who don’t know the opera, think dark fairy tale with an evil, troll-like blacksmith; a youngish lad destined to become a great warrior who wields the sword of power; a wizard akin to Sauron who ruled Mordor in The Lord of the Rings; the wizard’s wife who is effectively a prisoner of the tower wating for the Fates to release her; and a female warrior who has fallen in battle and who needs her prince (hark back to the young warrior) to come and awaken her so they can fall in love. A perfect story for a kid who grew up watching “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” cartoons on TV.

(Screenshot of IMDb site)

In this production, the sets varied from dark views of what could be the interior of the Death Star in Star Wars complete with heavy steam punk overtones to mountaintop fantasies that only lacked dragons threating, and hosts of fairies circling, the lovers. I enjoyed every minute of the four-hour opera, even when I got caught up in the music and forgot to read the translations of the German. (My German was never good enough to get me through an opera, but I’m afraid it’s so rusty now I hardly picked up a single word.)

Ok, so that was just part of great week with my farflung family.

I’d been putting off so much during the three weeks I was away that I should have jumped in as soon as I go home to try to catch-up but I just vegged the whole weekend and didn’t plunge into my third short story draft for until Monday. Got that done and off to the critique group, then read the newest versions of the other writers’ tales with twists. Right before I dug into 140 pages of another friend’s cozy novel draft. I had critique meetings online for both sets of pages in Thursday.

But in the meantime, I also received the first 120-or-so pages of awards and judges’ commentary for a journalism organization I’m still part of. I have volunteered to proof the monthly newspaper, and the June issue is always devoted to the awards presented at the annual conference. Got those read by Friday, just in time to make my 10 a.m. dentist appointment.

(Sharon’s photo illustration)

The Saturday after I got home, I went up to Madison with my sister and women’s group from an area church. We strolled around the capitol square for the weekly farmer’s market. In addition to some amazing looking vegetables, garden plants, cheeses, and so much more, we got to listen to various protests groups (respectfully placed across the street from the market), and some musicians, including Cover Fire from the 132nd Army Band and the Raging Grannies. After a great early lunch at Barrique’s downtown, we popped into Grace Episcopal Church on the Capitol Square for a free noon concert by the local Ancora String Quartet. And finally, before we headed to the Overture Centure for a performance of Clue, a genuinely funny new comedy, we strolled down the block of crafters and I finally found a UW Wisconsin Terrace Chair to go with my Bucky Badger bobblehead.

(Background petunias by Valeska Huyskens on pexels.com; foreground images by Sharon)

The next week, I finished proofreading the last 287 pages of contest winners (see last week), and on successive days, I made it to my local writing group, my League of Women Voters International Studies discussion, my Shakespeare Society meeting, Temple Beth El’s annual Food O Rama fundraiser (to buy hot dogs, pickles, challah bread and blintzes–yum!), lunch with a writing buddy, and the next day with my daughter and friends, followed by book club. And that week ended with a Saturday drive to Dixon, Illinois, the petunia capiltal of the state and host of the annual Petunia Festival. (Mark your calendar for July 3-6.) I joined a few writing friends and we spent three hours at the library working on writing projects. (Yes! I got a new short story started!) We also looked at their Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan displays, the gorgeous 1899 building. While it resembles some Carnegie libraries, that is probably due to the architectural styles of the day, but Dixon’s benefactor was local resident, O.B. Dodge. His picture hangs above a fireplace on the main floor. We really loved the display of “hidden” book covers showing the first lines of several books. As readers, we thought it was a great way to lure folks to the books. As writers, we were reminded of how important those opening words really are.

(Sharon’s photo)

Sunday, I shopped for our family cookout on Monday, which turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day.. Tuesday, I had an oil change and today I have more errands to run.

But, for those who have yet to celebrate Memorial Day, remember it was originally marked on May 30. So you still have a bit of time.

As for me, I am ready to flip the page to June. And keep working on that new short story.

À bientôt!

Short stories are fun

~ sharon ~ Leave a comment
(Pexels photo by Ron Lach)

But that doesn’t mean they’re easy.

Some writers I know have said short stories are much harder than novels because you have to make every word count.

I just happen to have a long-standing love of the short story that started when I discovered science fiction magazines when I was in high school. That’s when I wrote my first short stories, all centering around sci-fi topics.

When my kids were little, I read mostly magazine short stories for the same reason I had a subscription to Reader’s Digest. I could devote a few minutes to reading after the kids went to bed or between tasks. I could get a beginning, middle and end in one sitting, something impossible with a novel.

When I discovered audio books that I could listen to on my commute, I did get back into novels and longer non-fiction, which pushed short stories into the background of my reading and writing. But in the past couple of years, I’ve rediscovered the format and jumped back in.

I’ve submitted short stories to a few anthologies, and won a spot in the Guppy anthology, Gone Fishin’: Crime Takes a Holiday. For those, I wrote stories, and sent them into the virtual slush pile for editors to evaluate without knowing who I am. For this story, third time was a charm, and I got to work with editor Jim Jackson of Wolf’s Echo Press, who really helped me improve the final version of “Blood on the White Rose.”

I’d already run several iterations of the story through my critique partners. Four in particular kept telling me the story on the page wasn’t the story I kept saying it was. Finally, days before the submission deadline, they got through to me. At least they spurred me on to rewrite the entire story, bringing forth a more fleshed out main character, and cutting the duration of the events. In its first version, the story took place over a period of weeks. In the end, it lasted something under 24 hours.

What really intrigues me about the OCWW process, though, is the attention to the story before it ever sees an editor. I was assigned to a critique group, given a deadline of March 20 to submit a draft, and received copies of my critique partners’ stories to review before our first critique meeting on April 1.

Of course, I had more than one short story I thought might fit the anthology theme: I didn’t see that coming. I sent two and asked the group to help me select one for my final focus. We’ll see what they say, because I will need to make a first round of revisions before our next meeting, April 17.

But we have until late June to work with each other before our next submission deadline. At that point, we’ll go into a developmental editing process. I have never done anything explicitly called developmental editing, although I may find that’s exactly what I went through with Jim.

I have always imagined developmental editing is something that takes place while the story or novel is in the draft stages with the author. I’m looking forward to being more enlightened as we head toward a 2026 publication of the OCWW anthology. I’ll keep you posted.

À bientôt!

Winter market

~ sharon ~ 4 Comments

Farmers’ markets in my area are suimmer affairs that I rarely attend. I live on a country road and there are sale signs for eggs and honey and corn and more about a mile in any direction. But when the “season” is over, some of those signs come down.

I ventured south this month to drive a friend home to Houston and stayed for a short visit. On one of our outings, we went to a farmers’ market on a warm (only needed a sweater) winter day. I bought a few things, but I suspect my favorite will be my poem.

With her portable typewriter and tip jar, a young woman studying to be a midwife and doula was raising money to open a business to help women during pregnancy and birth. Her sign, painted on the typewriter case, drew me in immediately.

I’d heard of people who sell poems by request. I’ve even toyed with the idea of offering that kind of servicde at charity events, but never followed through.

Ziara Kýre York, however, has taken the plunge. Sitting at her small table between market stalls, she waited with a smile for someone to check out her wares. I asked for a short poem about vacation, dropped a bill into her jar, and waited a few minutes as she wound a pre-cut, thick sheet of creamy paper under the platten, thought for a few minues, and began to type.

I bought cookies and a mug warmer, all-natural snacks and a pottery pencil holder. I talked to farmers, crafters and a painter, listened to music from a lone guitarist in the midst of the fair. But at home, I’ll be buying a frame for my original poem about “vacation” to hang it on the wall near my computer. It’s nice to honor a crafter who works in the same medium that I do … words.

A bientôt!

Back in class

~ sharon ~ 2 Comments

The Sisters in Crime Guppy Chapter offers a variety of classes to its members every year. I just finished one about story structure last week that has not only helped me chart a path for my revision of a NaNoWriMo draft, it also led to a breakthrough on a plot hole. The former is due to James M. “Jim” Jackson who has developed another great Guppy class. The latter is thanks to my writing pal, Llewella Forgie, who spent some time brainstorming with me at the end of a writing session.

The class also left me with a notebook of great lectures, homework assignments and miscellany that Jim recommended along the way.

I also bought a couple of the books he talked about that I thought deserved my additional attention. And I decided I needed to reconsider a few characters. So I bought books about that, too.

The week before the two-week class started, I was lamenting to a few of my local writing group gals that I thought I had the wrong plot for the characters. I was considering scrapping the whole book and giving the plot elements to a completely different main character in another book, also a NaNo draft. (I have about a dozen drafts in various stages from participating in National Novel Writing Month.) The gals can vouch for the dismay I was feeling at the time.

Then I took the class. Talk about eye-opening. I tend to operate by “feel” when I throw my first drafts together. Some might consider what I do an elaborate outline rather than a draft. I firmly believe that you can’t fix what isn’t already on the page, so I do consider the NaNo stories to be my first drafts. But, unlike some, I have no illusions that they’re ready for prime time. They are, in fact, big messes. The goal of NaNo is crank out 50,000 words in 30 days. Sometimes pantsers like me run cold during the month. But, as one of my NaNo buddies says, if you get stuck, bring in the ninjas. Well, my NaNo drafts are full of “ninjas.”

And cleaning up the ninjas is what I’ve been trying to do with my drafts for the last few years. In each case, I think I have decent main plots, and I liked my characters when they came out of my head. Making them presentable has been my challenge.

Going through the class assignments — they were pretty involved — also convinced me I didn’t like what I’d done to one of my characters. I thought changing her would add drama to the story, but it just made me dislike her. I plan to go back to her original personality and make other adjustments to the plot. Hence the splurging on books about characters.

I still don’t have a finished novel, but thanks to classes, friends and bit of persistence, I hope to have one soon.

A bientôt!