Volunteering for Writers' Conferences does you good!

After several years going to the wonderful San Francisco Writers Conference, my finances took a turn for the worst. There was no way I was going to miss it. I asked to volunteer the next year and have done it now for three years. They always say you get so much from giving, and in this case, it was really true. I got something more than the great information and meeting agents and authors. I got something deep in my soul. There is no pay higher than that! I highly recommend it if you get a chance; any writers' conference near you.
Check it out! www.sfwritersconferences.org/

Elizabeth George said: Show up!

Elizabeth George writes in her book "Write Away":
"You will be published is you possess three qualities - talent, passion and discipline. You will probably be published if you possess two of the three qualities in either combination - either talent and discipline or passion and discipline. You will likely be published if you possess neither talent nor passion but still have discipline. Just go to the bookstore and pick up a few "notable titles and you'll see what I mean. But if all you possess is talent or passion, if all you possess is talent and passion you will not be published...A lot of writing is simply showing up. A lot of writing is just being willing to show up day after day; same time, same place..."

What has weight got to do with writing?

A good writer is a good reader. And that means sitting still. And that means not moving much. A good writer spends time sitting at the computer, correcting work, re-reading work, and typing in new work. Sitting. Gaining weight. There must be a balance and that means avoiding the kitchen at night, and walking and exercising some part of every day. How can we find the time for all this? Stop doing the other things. Or shorten them. It is possible. I know. It just takes courage.

Our Weight: we can start tonight!

As teenagers, we want to look cute and be popular and liked. As we grow older, we like to be healthy. We think about calories. We buy clothes too large or too small because our weight is unpredictable. We diet. Oh, we diet! In the end, it is all about our health, both physical and mental. We get neurotic: we open the refrigerator. We feel unloved, we open it again. We search each shelf. We don't know what it is we are looking for. Could it be love? Food used to be love, way back when we could cry and get some. But tonight we could close that refrigerator door without grabbing anything at all, and we will have triumphed! Now we can run out of the kitchen! Instead of, "I'll start tomorrow," we can leave that kitchen in the dark, and start tonight!

Writer's Block

Writer’s Block

Is what I’ve got here writer’s block?
It’s quite a first, a writer’s shock.
Is my head stuck on last night’s show?
Or is it just my hands won’t go?
That lady’s shoes are clacking loud
I always wrote, I was so proud
I’m not like them, a pen to lips
Or her, those hands upon her hips
The voices at the table there
Annoy me, drink and eat, don’t stare.
The other’s write their speedy drafts
And when they read they’ll get the laughs
But here am I, my pen is stuck
My mind’s a block of solid muck
It’s New Year’s Eve and still I know
By the end of the verse
I’ll have naught to show
So here I sit, my lip is blue
Here comes that woman
With the clacking shoe
At last, a smudge across the page
Displays the heart of writer’s rage
It’s birth again, a moan, a tear
I truly want to get out of here!
I’d then let down my writing friends
Who sit here, writing stuff to send
To agents in New York and France
I know I’ll never get a chance
To publish, but you’d think I’d learn
That writing’s hope,
It’s life that burns.
A scribble starts the words to flow
Oh, girls, I’ve got a page to show.

When can I write? I don't have time!

I used to paint watercolor. I would set up a scene, set up my watercolors and proceed to rush about my day, going to work, picking up my daughter, rushing to shop, rushing to cook and sitting down, still, to eat. I discovered that with watercolors I could pick up my paintbrush, dab it into the water, dab a color onto it, and dab it right where I was dreaming as I dashed by, that it would go when I got a second. Many paintings were accomplished like that. Writing can be like that. Five minutes here, three minutes there, and a lovely twenty minutes once in awhile. After all, reading your own writing counts, too! Thinking about it counts! Those wonderful ah! ha! moments count, too! This blog has taken me three minutes. It counts, too! Join me!

Wendy Bartlett: iUniverse ebook of Cellini's Revenge is only $6.99

Wendy Bartlett: iUniverse ebook of Cellini's Revenge is only $6.99

Cellini's Revenge on Amazon

Broad Reach on Amazon

iUniverse ebook of Cellini's Revenge is only $6.99

I thought it would be great to have my books as ebooks, but I found out they already were. What I didn't know was that they are available at $9.99 from Amazon, BUT they are only $6.99 at iUniverse. Now, where is my ipad?

Our Writers' Group: the importance of those four words

I have been in a writers' group for ten or more years. It has been my anchor through other writing groups and classes. I go even if nobody turns up and I write. If nobody turns up, I write poetry. But usually four or five turn up, so then I write fiction. The secret of getting writing done is this: a member of our group brings a magazine and reads a random four or five words to us and maybe another four or five from another section of the magazine, and we jot them down, and then keep writing. This is a free write. I swear I would never write what I write in our group if we just said, okay, write. Those four words lead my mind far and wide. It is amazing!

Mumbai, 2008

Women squatting
Over bowls and buckets
Washing clothes
Washing dishes
Washing children
Squatting, knees ajar
Back towards me
Busy at the day's routine
A child just standing
Only in his dirty shirt
and curly black hair
Playing with nothing
But a brick wall.
His older brother tiptoeing at the dumpster
Peeking to find anything
Anything at all to sell
So they could eat
Something, something, this day.

My consciousness altered, then I was a writer

I remember not being a writer. It was thirteen years ago. Oh, I have written journals since age twelve with only two years missing, so really I was a writer. I just didn’t call myself one. But when I switched to fiction and after several years and maybe two of the four novels I’ve completed, I started to call myself “a writer.” I even got calling cards saying “writer, fiction, non-fiction.” I think the day I felt at ease saying I was a ‘writer,’ especially with myself, was the day I realized I had to simplify my enormously complicated existence in order to get it all written. It was a long process, getting the writing to the top of my endless ‘To Do’ list. But when my consciousness altered, then I knew I was a writer.

Peter's new book

Surviving Paradise, One Year on a Disappearing Island, is a timely book. Peter Rudiak-Gould has captured a way of life that is far removed from his California roots. As a young man, he volunteered to teach on Ujae, one of the Marshall Islands. He ventured into a very foreign way of life and studied it with a fine tooth comb. This author is obviously extremely observant of small, interesting details; the ones most of us might never know about except by reading this fascinating tale. Peter’s own values were challenged to his bones as he tried to teach the young Marshallese children. But he didn’t leave; he got in there and worked his tail off. He learned their language and he learned their values. The writing is superb; intellectual, but easy to read. Not only is it a story of his teaching, but of love, sickness, boredom and adventure. It would be an ideal introduction to an anthropology course because is covers so much in a friendly and easy-to-read way. It would be an adventure for those who might want to try something like this, but who might need a sober introduction! A fun read for any age. Well done!

Working in Cellini's Revenge, the sequel

I write backwards! I freewrite on a certain book, like Cellini's Revenge, the sequel, and I don't know much where I am going. I do know the ending. But even that can change. I think this is a very creative process and one that it takes some nerve to continue to do. Most people think you should plan a book. Well, my plan is to write it any way I can. Knowing the ending helps. But characters pop up from my imagination that I could never have planned, and I think that is fun and interesting and keeps me writing. In the end I have many writings, done in twenty minute slots, that I piece together. It isn't easy. It is very challenging. But it is like a crossword puzzle. There is a place for each piece. Note, however, that four pieces I wrote seem to be asking to be put in the sequel to the sequel. It is a wonderful process. I love it!