Continue reading »]]> Voice in The Sweet Dead Life

In The Sweet Dead Life (May 2013, Soho Press) and its sequel, The A Word (May 2014, Soho Press),  narrator of Jenna Samuels, 14 when the series opens and turning 15 as the sequel begins is a Texas girl – Houston to be specific—and feisty and loyal and brave and funny, even as her life is falling apart. Even when she’s dying – which she thankfully doesn’t do, because her far from cherubic brother Casey comes back from a fatal car accident to be her guardian angel—Jenna maintains her narrative presence.

Writing Jenna has been and continues to be an exercise in language and word choice. When, for example, she tells the reader that the doctors don’t know what’s wrong with her, she observes, “The doctors have been shifty about actually telling me there’s no cure for what I have.”Notice her choice of the word “shifty.” Or when the clog-wearing nurse questions her eating habits, Jenna internally comments,

I decided that the clogs were making Ed cranky. Just because the Crocs kiosk in the mall was still in business did not mean that one had to shop there. I chose not share this observation with Ed. Anyone who thought that Gulf oysters could make your pee look like St. Patrick’s Day beer was probably not interested in my fashion tips (29).

When I write Jenna I look for a combination of the right details to define her world view and the right rhythm of words to express it. Problems don’t distress Jenna, they ‘flummox’ her. She does not suspect criminal doings as much as she does “chicanery,” which she defines in her own special way. She does not manipulate, she ‘finagles.” By immersing the reader in her world and her view of it, Jenna imparts much between the lines: Her life is falling apart. She very well might die. The adults who are supposed to help her aren’t really paying attention. Nor are the institutions, which we see with her description of life at Ima Hogg Junior High:  “Ima Hogg believed in collaborative learning—which never failed to piss me off when I got stuck doing work for the Collaborative Slackers.”

Ima Hogg, by the way, was the real name of the daughter of Texas Governor  James “Big Jim” Hogg. By having Jenna refer to her school by its first name – almost as though it is a person—brings forth not only her opinion of the academic philosophy but also builds the tone and it’s absurdism.

Jenna’s voice also comes through her wry observervations of a very specific sub-category of Houston life – the North Houston suburbs, where people wear  cowboy boots but don’t live on ranches, eat at Olive Garden and other ubiquitous chains, attend mega churches and consume vast quantities of Tex Mex and kolaches and don’t venture into the big city as often as you’d think. In fact, as Casey races possibly-dying Jenna to the hospital in their beat up Prius, she rallies enough to observe:

Just to paint the full picture: we passed Woodhaven Cemetery, Houston North Rehab, and a strip center that housed a spinal surgery facility with a prosthesis clinic attached, a Vietnamese noodle house, Café Monterrey Mexican restaurant, and Stacy Carrigan Legal. In the Texas suburbs we like to cover all bases. If the ER or the rehab couldn’t fix you, at least they didn’t have to cart you far. After that your loved ones could get a bite to eat and chat about who they could sue (17).

Jenna calls it like she sees it. She knows that her best friend Maggie thinks Jenna’s brother Casey is “a weed-loving pissant.” This mildly vulgar but specific language is juxtaposed against the secret truth –that Casey is now back from the dead as an angel, but no one except Jenna can know this, again helps create voice and in turn, character.

Jenna is sassy and self-aware. She occasionally curses but not gratuitously.  She is a character and therefore flawed. She is not supposed to serve as as a role model of teen perfection, my only task in creating her was being true to her and that’s where voice comes in. The voice of the novel itself and the voice of a girl that reads real enough that the reader could pick her out of the crowd at that kolache bakery. A character whose life has fallen to bits but whose brother loves her above all else. Who asks him in a moment of more innocent candor rather than the feisty bravado that she uses to cover up: “Did dying hurt? …Were you scared?” Of course not much later, she says in response to something sad, “I was damned if I was going to let it ruin my love of breakfast tacos.” Jenna is a mass of contradictions and secret thoughts—as we all are when we dig deep enough.

Want to find out more about Joy’s books? Head over to joypreble.com or follow her on Twitter at @joypreble

For an event report on Joy’s Austin release of The Sweet Dead Life, see Cynthia Leitich’s Smith Cynsations blog report here.

Joy Preble is the author of the popular and highly acclaimed Dreaming Anastasia series. A former English teacher, Joy grew up in Chicago and is a graduate of Northwestern University. She is now a full time writer and lives with her family in Texas, where she has learned to say “y’all” without any hint of irony. A tireless advocate for literacy and great books, she is at the center of the all-important Texas YA scene.

Continue reading »]]> Writing for Tweens and Teens

with Shana Burg

Have you always have wanted to write for young readers but aren’t sure where to begin? Or do you have a decent draft of a manuscript you’d like to sharpen?  In either case, this workshop will help you improve your craft and give you an inside glimpse into the world of publishing.

In this weekly seminar, we’ll examine a variety of books and complete hands-on exercises designed to strengthen our writing muscles and improve our own works-in-progress. We’ll explore character, theme, plot, dialogue, and research. We’ll discover tools for helping these essential elements breathe life into our own manuscripts. Each session will include a critique/workshop of attendees’ sample pages. We will also explore the business of getting published and marketing your work.

Shana Burg is the award-winning author of two novels for young readers.  A Thousand Never Evers (Random House, 2008) was named one of the Top 10 Middle Readers by Amazon in 2008 and was the National Parenting Publications Award Gold Winner. In a starred review, Publisher’s Weekly said A Thousand Never Evers is “Gripping…delivers an emotional wallop.” Laugh with the Moon (Random House, 2012) is currently on the Texas Bluebonnet list for grades 3-6 and was named a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People by the National Council for Social Studies. This novel received a starred review from School Library Journal. Shana is an educator and can’t wait to teach her first class at the Writing Barn!

This workshop meets five Wednesday nights from 7-9pm: July 10, July 17, July 24, July 31 and August 7.

To register, email info@thewritingbarn and an invoice for the cost of the class, $365 will be sent to the attendee. Payment is due upon acceptance to the class. There will be no refunds but class registration may be transferred to another writer if needed. Class size is limited so REGISTER NOW!

Continue reading »]]> Recently on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, friends, family, and the dog loving public gathered at The Writing Barn to celebrate author/illustrator Mary Sullivan’s new picture book, Ball (HM/13).

Mary had thought of everything! As the book is a comic style one word pb about a dog’s obsession with his ball, Mary choose to have the event at The Writing Barn and to have books sold by local indie BookPeople. (The best of both book loving worlds, if you ask us.)

Mandy, from Austin Indie BookPeople, and Writing Barn Owner & Author, Bethany Hegedus

In keeping with the dog theme, Mary served an assortment of book launch party foods in doggie bowls.

Curried hummus in doggy bowls.

Ball book display. Each buyer rec’d a red doggy ball!

Cookies!

The event was also a fundraiser for Austin Pets Alive.

Donated items for Austin Pets Alive

Music and doggy songs were performed by Mr. Mark, of Rock-a-Doodle.

Mr. Mark signs a song

There was an activity table for young readers with pages to color. Young and old alike, enjoyed.

Ball activity table

Austin author, Owen Egerton and son enjoy Ball.

A new fan!

At the Writing Barn, we have a tradition–all authors and illustrators are asked to sign the “party porch.” Mary, as the guest of honor, drew the dog from Ball right before the guests arrived.

Mary Sullivan’s autograph

Guests mingle

Mary even remembered to thank her husband, Carlos, when she addressed the crowd.

Mary and her husband, Carlos as the book party begins

And, about 3o minutes before the party ended, we announced BALL had SOLD OUT. Though Mary’s hands were tired she signed a copy for the Writing Barn bookshelf.

Soon to be on the Barn bookshelf.

For those wanting signed copies of Ball, visit BookPeople or order from your local indie. The week after the launch event, Ball was featured in the New York Times Book Review. 

Literary Events THIS WEEKEND!

Don’t miss Houston author, Joy Preble, celebrates the release of The Sweet Dead Life at BookPeople on Saturday, May 18th at 3pm.

Austin author, Lindsey Scheibe, celebrates the release of her debut novel, Riptide Sunday May 19th at BookPeople at 2pm. 

Want to Host a Launch Event or a Book-Themed-Party for children or adults at The Writing Barn?

We’d love to have you! For more information, read here.

Continue reading »]]> Today Michael Noll, who is teaching Read Well, Write Better with us at The Writing Barn on June 1st, shares with us a writing exercise based around examining a scene from Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. To register for Michael’s class, go here.

Using Setting to Establish Character

A Facebook friend recently wrote that she was rereading The Great Gatsby simply to enjoy the way F. Scott Fitzgerald crafted his sentences. It’s a pleasure I know well. I’m not alone. When I was a graduate student in Tim O’Brien’s workshop, he copied a page from The Great Gatsby and talked about why one particular passage was among the greatest ever written. Here it is:

We walked through a high hallway into a bright rosy-colored space, fragilely bound into the house by French windows at either end. The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house. A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding cake of the ceiling—and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.

The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall. Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind died out of the room and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.

Notice how easily Fitzgerald makes this description look. If you’ve ever tried to describe the inside of a house, then you know how easy it is to become overwhelmed with detail. What do you show the reader? What do you leave out? Fitzgerald solves this problem by focusing on a single detail: the breeze. As a result, the description is guided by a single question: if the wind blows through the window, what moves?

So how can we learn from this scene? I once heard another writer from that class with Tim O’Brien say that after reading this passage, every description she wrote had items blowing about.

To avoid that problem, let’s think about character rather than setting. One of the oldest storytelling strategies, typified by many Greek myths, is to define characters by a force of nature, emotion, or virtue/vice. This is, in essence, what Fitzgerald did in the passage from The Great Gatsby. The women are light as air, and Tom is a thunderclap followed by stillness. As a result, Fitzgerald isn’t using the breeze merely to spice up a lengthy description. The point of both the breeze and the description is to establish character. When passages of description fall flat, it’s not because everything is still—we don’t need to be like my classmate who made every passage breezy. Rather, description fails when the only thing it does is describe.

Here’s an exercise, a la Fitzgerald, to help establish character with description:
1. Create two characters (or choose two that you’re already working with). Describe each in a few words, focusing on how the characters resemble—or are defined by—a force of nature, an emotion, or a virtue/vice. Ideally, the characters will be identified by opposing forces, emotions, or virtue/vices.
2. Create a room or place. List the objects that can be found there. The list doesn’t need to be exhaustive. You’re simply giving yourself material to work with.
3. Write a passage in which one character is already in the place/room. The second character will enter. Describe how the room/place is when only the first person is present. Then, show how the room/place changes once the second person arrives.

Note: Don’t be subtle. If the first person is represented by sloth, focus on the aspects of the room that are slothful (the indentations in the couch cushions, the dust and silverfish on the stacks of old magazines, etc.). If the second person is represented by optimism, focus on the way the light enters through the open door or the smells that follow in that person’s wake.

This may sound like hackwork, but once you’re aware of this strategy, you’ll see it everywhere, especially movies, where lighting, music, and camera angles tell the viewer things that the characters never say. When done well, no description will fall flat again. And your characters will come to life.

For more excercises like this one, check out Michael Noll’s blog, readtowritestories.com, and his upcoming craft workshop at The Writing Barn: The Read Well, Write Better Workshop.

Please feel free to share excerpts from your exercises below in our comments section.

About Michael: Michael Noll has been the writer-in-residence at the Katherine Anne Porter House and an assistant editor at Narrative Magazine. An experienced teacher of fiction and nonfiction, Michael created the magazine writing correspondence course at Texas State University, and his students have published work written for the class. His website,readtowritestories.com, publishes free writing exercises based on online stories and novel excerpts.

Michael’s own work has been published in American Short Fiction and The Owls, and he’s appeared as a storyteller at The Story Department, sponsored by The Austin Bat Cave. He’s currently at work on a novel.

Continue reading »]]> Launching our What My Last Book Taught Me Wednesday blog series is the lovely and talented Janet Fox. Janet stayed with us at The Writing Barn this past January when she was on her Texas book tour for her roaring 20′s novel, Sirens. (To read about Janet’s writing retreat time with us, go here.) We loved having her with us in person and again here today at the Barn blog.  Welcome, Janet.

What My Last Book Taught Me: The Universe Whispers and I Must Listen

 When I sit down to write a new novel I have no plan. I have no outline, template, or sense of direction. When I begin something new all I have is a character and a dream.

A dream? Really? Well, yes. Maybe an image, maybe a passage, maybe only a few sentences, but each of my novels has begun with something shady and incoherent and I wonder where it will all end up. My character comes out blaring, like Athena, exploding from my head triumphant and trident-wielding and ready to take on the world. But the rest of the narrative…that’s the mystery of writing for me. Sometimes this approach works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

Sirens (Speak/Penguin) by Janet Fox.

While writing my last book, Sirens, I made progress toward discovering how to help it work more often.

Sirens was written on request from my publisher. Could I write a novel set in the 1920s? I said yes, partly because I’ve always been fascinated by that time period, and partly because, as soon as the question was asked, the answer came out in the form of an image. Water, medals awarded in service during the Great War, stars, city lights, and something indecipherable hovering at the edge of the picture. That was all I knew about the novel.

I set to work in my usual fashion, putting one word on the page after another, and finding my character (the easy part), and searching for her story. Yes, I did research, and discovered the usual stuff about my subject. Prohibition. Flappers. Gangsters. Good, but the usual. About halfway through, the work felt static. I hadn’t been able to figure out what it was, that indecipherable something hovering over there, and so I’d been avoiding it. Sticking my fingers in my ears. Turning up the word music to drown out my ignorance.

I was pretty frustrated, because deadlines are deadlines, and I wasn’t sure where to turn. I had most of a plot, I had most of my characters, but the novel was as flat as an Iowa cornfield.

One evening after supper I was listening to the radio, listless and irritable. An interview with an author. Yes, yes. He’d just written a book about a magician. Sigh. This particular magician, Howard Thurston, had been friends with Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. My ears pricked. These three and a number of other famous types had all been involved in the Spiritualism movement of the 1920s. I sat bolt upright. They had debated among themselves about whether or not there was life after death, and so on…but by that time I’d run to the computer, writing it all down, ordering a copy of this author’s book, and finding images that were as indisputably significant to me as the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are to Nick.

That indecipherable something I’d been unable to figure out was grounded in the Spiritualism movement, which led me to address in Sirens the question of whether there is life after death, which led me to the heart of my story.

The universe had provided the information I needed to me at the very moment I needed it.

I thought about this coincidence a great deal as I reworked the book, and I keep on thinking about it now that Sirens is out in the world. What if I hadn’t been listening to the radio that evening? What if I hadn’t made the connection? Here’s the thing: I believe that as long as I am the least bit open, as long as my ears are ready to receive, I will hear the universe whispering.

Here, it says. Here is the important thing. Here is what you need to think about. Here is what is most significant. Here is what is going to resonate. Here is the heart of your story.

What writing Sirens taught me is that I have to be ready. The universe whispers; it doesn’t shout. I need to be listening, and not sticking my fingers in my ears. There are messages resonating within me and across the landscape, and they are messages that I must be tuned to receive. Listening is excellent practice.

In our noisy, hasty, cluttered world, I’ve discovered, thanks to Sirens, the essential art of listening to the universe.

Janet Fox is the author of award-winning books for children and young adults. FAITHFUL (Speak/Penguin Young Readers 2010), set in Yellowstone National Park in 1904, is a YALSA Best Fiction for YA nominee and an Amelia Bloomer List pick, 2011. FORGIVEN (Speak 2011), set in 1906 San Francisco during the great earthquake, is a Junior Library Guild selection 2011, and a 2012 WILLA Literary Awards Finalist. Her most recent novel, SIRENS (Speak 2012) is set in 1925 New York. Janet has numerous MG and YA projects underway. She is a former high school English teacher and received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults in 2010 (Vermont College of Fine Arts). Janet lives in Bozeman, Montana

Continue reading »]]> Welcome to Craft Talk Tuesday! Once or twice a month, The Writing Barn, will be posting in-depth essays on craft issues on Tuesday’s–waalah–that’s how we came up with the CTT title.  On opposite weeks from CTT, we will be hosting What My Last Book Taught Me Wednesday’s, where authors will be sharing personal and professional insights around the creation of their most recent projects.

We are thrilled to launch this new series with Carol Brendler’s essay on the objective correlative. Without further adieu…

Don’t Do Emotion, Huh? Try Faking It with an Objective Correlative

If you come from a family where openly showing emotion makes others uncomfortable, you might struggle with showing emotion in your fiction. I had that problem. When expressing emotion in our real lives has been equated with, oh, say, walking through a museum with one’s fly open or eating Twinkies in church, evoking emotion in our work can be daunting, if not downright inscrutable. So what’s a writer to do?

Here are two typical methods writers use to make emotion happen in their fiction:

1. They just name it. They say outright that their character feels sad, mad, glad, or whatever (I call this the lame approach.)
2. They use actions and gestures, showing emotions by having their characters clench their jaws, smile, cry, tremble. (The problem with this is, if we write that a character felt, say, pleased, that word slips right past the reader without making an impact. You usually want the reader to stop and feel the emotion alongside your character.)

There’s a third way, and it’s a better way. It’s called the objective correlative, aka the OC. The OC is a way of evoking emotion by using other things that your character sees, touches, hears, etc. in the scene in order to show their emotional state. Here’s a definition:

“a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula for that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in a sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked.” T. S. Eliot in “Hamlet and His Problems” (1919)

Man, that’s dense. Let’s break it down. First, try this easy exercise. Describe what your point-of-view character’s state of mind would be if he were to:

⁃  smell his missing father’s cologne

⁃  look out of a frosty window on a bleak, snowy day

⁃  run his fingers over a velvet cloak in the dark

⁃  hear the opening notes of the Brady Bunch theme song

⁃  bite into a jelly bean he thought was going to be cherry but it turns out to be chili pepper-flavored

Any of those descriptions/situations could evoke an emotion. Here’s what they brought out in my character: Sadness, Wistfulness, Pleasure, Curiosity, Repugnance.

Now turn to your work in progress, to a scene that needs an emotional punch. Identify the emotion needing to be evoked. Next, find something in the scene (you may already have placed it there subconsciously–if not, add it) that you can correlate to the emotion.

Imaginary example: Say your character, a finicky princess, is feeling pleased. A lesser writer than you might write “She felt very pleased about the luxurious treatment the servants gave her at the castle.” But why write something so lame when you can have your character actually feel the velvet duvet, smell the fresh flowers by her bedside, and enjoy the faint strains of harp music from the chamber below, evoking the emotion without ever once use the word “pleased”?

How I find the OC in my scenes is to begin with the emotion my character is feeling, then show (not tell) the reader in an oblique but (paradoxically) more effective way by correlating that feeling to something tangible in the scene.

Here are a couple of examples from my forthcoming middle grade novel, Radio Girl (Holiday House, September, 2013):

The scene is the tiny bathroom in the Maloney apartment. While her father shaves, main character, Cece Maloney, tries unsuccessfully to ask him to let her work at his radio station. After he finishes shaving and leaves the bathroom, she stays behind:

Pop made for the kitchen while I stayed seated on the toilet lid, the work permit rolled up in my hand. I watched the water in the sink swirl and swirl and finally disappear down the drain, leaving Pop’s reddish-blond hairs and bits of shaving cream behind.

“I don’t think so, baby,” Pop had said. I don’t think so. Just like that, my dreams of a radio career went down the drain, too.

I could’ve just written “She was so disappointed.” Blah. That’s almost meaningless and, let’s face it, too obvious.

But wait, there’s more! Much later, Cece is on the ferry, sneaking off to New York by herself, having just left the stifling heat back home in Newark:

I leaned against a damp railing on the Hoboken ferry, bound for the 39^th Street dock. The mist on the river cooled my face and arms. Waves on the Hudson caught the sun and glimmered like the sequins on a radio star’s evening gown. I’d never been across the Hudson by myself before, and the freedom of it made me feel like one snappy piece of work.

Okay, so I did use the more direct word “freedom” to describe her emotion, but I think describing the feel of the mist and the look of the waves does way more to show the exuberance Cece feels. To quote Tim Wynne Jones quoting Emily Dickinson in his Vermont College of Fine Arts lecture “Smoke and Mirrors” (where I first learned of the OC), “tell it slant.”

You’ll know when an author has not yet embraced the OC by how often their characters grin and cringe and sigh. There’s nothing wrong with those actions, but sometimes they’re overused. Also, you’ll sometimes come across  a new author struggling for a fresh way to show his character’s emotion through action and ending up with a convoluted description that only calls attention to the writer’s plight, as in:

• “Her mouth turned up at the corners and her lips opened, showing her teeth.” (aka, she smiled.)
• “He exhaled audibly in a frustrated way.” (In other words, he sighed.)

It happens because the author’s trying to avoid too much smiling or sighing in her story. It could be because she was like me once, and thinks she can’t “do” emotion. My advice, get hooked on the OC. It’s a strong tool for evoking emotion.

It won’t, however, stop you from eating Twinkies in church. And as far as your zipper goes, you’re on your own.

——————————————

More on the objective correlative:

Author Cori McCarthy‘s fun-to-read OC essay: http://kidlit.com/2011/07/06/vcfa-guest-post-props-for-emotion-the-objective-correlative-unveiled/

This essay by Scott W. Smith comes at the OC from a dramatic point of view: http://screenwritingfromiowa.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/objective-correlative-tip-48/

OC Trivia:

• Term first coined prior to 1850 by Washington Allston , but later given its more literary meaning by T.S. Eliot in an essay about why Hamlet is a failed play.
• Emily Dickinson’s “Tell All the Truth” http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/tell-all-the-truth/ (but tell it slant) is one of over 1,700 poems she wrote.

Carol Brendler

Carol Brendler is the author of WINNIE FINN, WORM FARMER (FSG, 2009) a picture book illustrated by Ard Hoyt. Her middle-grade novel, RADIO GIRL, (Holiday House) will be released on September 5, 2013. Another picture book, NOT VERY SCARY, illustrated by Greg Pizzoli, is on the way from FSG in July, 2014. Carol holds a Master’s Degree in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts (2008). She grew up in a small town in the crook of Michigan’s “thumb.” Now she writes, dabbles at playing ukulele, kills houseplants, and knits in the suburbs of Chicago. Visit Carol’s blebsite (blog+website): www.carolbrendler.com

DON’T MISS THE CHANCE to Bid on a 5 day/4 night Writing Retreat Stay at The Writing Barn, in sunny Austin, Texas over at the Hunger Mountain e-bay auction. We’ll even throw in some Shinerbock beer for the winning writers.  And check out all the agent and author critiques up for auction, here.  Bid now! Bid often!

Continue reading »]]> Read Well, Write Better: A Fiction Workshop with Michael Noll 

When: Saturday  June 1^st, 2 to 6pm

Cost: Sliding scale, $85-150

To register: visit http://readtowritestories.com/read-well-write-better-workshop/

About the Workshop:

Have a story idea kicking around in your head? Or maybe you’ve banged out a few pages but ran into a wall? This energizing fiction workshop may be the jumpstart your writing has been looking for.

Whether you’re an experienced writer finishing a collection or an aspiring beginner Googling “How to Write a Short Story,” this class will provide you with a wide range of tools and techniques to help you draft and revise your work.

The Writing Barn is nestled among gorgeous Live Oaks.

Led by acclaimed writing instructor Michael Noll, the workshop will examine excerpts from a few stories you may have read  and some you likely haven’t discovered yet, covering writing strategies that you can apply to your own work.

The class is inspired by Michael’s time as the writer-in-residence at the Katherine Anne Porter House, where he helped organize workshops and craft lessons by writers such as Ron Carlson, Percival Everett, Carole Maso, Tim O’Brien, William Vollman, and Francine Prose. Michael has taken the best aspects of each class and integrated them into a workshop method that that left one student writing, “I’ve been in lots of workshops, a few brief encouraging ones with Joy Williams and Robert Stone, and have worked one on one with a few good writers, but I’ve gotten more from this than any workshop I can remember.”

For a preview of the workshop, check out these writing exercises at Michael’s website, readtowritestories.com.

An afternoon working on the craft of fiction at The Writing Barn is the perfect way to begin a long summer of writing.

Michael Noll, Read Well, Write Better

About Michael: Michael Noll has been the writer-in-residence at the Katherine Anne Porter House and an assistant editor at Narrative Magazine. An experienced teacher of fiction and nonfiction, Michael created the magazine writing correspondence course at Texas State University, and his students have published work written for the class. His website, readtowritestories.com, publishes free writing exercises based on online stories and novel excerpts.

Michael’s own work has been published in American Short Fiction and The Owls, and he’s appeared as a storyteller at The Story Department, sponsored by The Austin Bat Cave. He’s currently at work on a novel.

Continue reading »]]> We’ve had a number of weddings at The Writing Barn, ranging from 150 guests to more intimate ceremonies, but this weekend The Writing Barn grounds were the setting for the most intimate ceremony yet. Bride. Groom. Officiant. And photographer.  Harried by the larger wedding awaiting them this summer and all that involves, our elopement couple wanted an official yet private ceremony tailored to their personal wants without all the hubbub. Private. Serene. Earthy.

The morning ceremony, set to begin at 10:30 am, began after engagement pictures in the bluebonnets.

 Bonnie Berry Photography was the photographer and writer/wedding officiant Spike Gillespie served as officiant.

The lovely couple changed into their ceremony attire: a tie for the groom, and a beautiful short off-white gown for the bride, with matching Birkenstocks. After some first glance pictures, the foursome marched out under the large live Oaks outside the Barn and there, their private ceremony, was held.

After the ceremony, the newly married couple had booked an overnight at The Writing Barn, where a gift basket of fruit, champagne, Writing Barn mugs and other goodies awaited them. And, they left this Writing Barn Rave:

Bethany,

We had an absolutely wonderful time staying here. Thank you for helping make our special day everything we dreamed it would be. We will certainly recommend this beautiful place to everyone we know.

E & J

Continue reading »]]> My friend Bonnie contacted me last winter and asked if I would like to join her on a writer’s retreat at The Writing Barn in the Spring. Being thoroughly enthused about an opportunity to get away, have uninterrupted quiet time and visit Austin, TX, I immediately replied, “Yes.” From January through March, I plowed through my work and daily “mom” responsibilities, knowing that a silver lining awaited me in April.

Bonnie and I arrived at The Writing Barn on Monday, April 1^st.  We were like two kids approaching a carnival as we drove down the winding road to the lovely building at the far end of the property.  Bethany, the owner, was there to introduce us to the inspirational haven that she and her husband created.

Bonnie and I were clear.  We had entered the wonderful world of EASE and FLOW.

I remember one of the first things we did was to walk along the library wall. Immediately struck by the plethora of books – we perused them and saw craft books, children’s, biographies, romance and beyond… Bethany’s collection was amazing.

While surveying the wall, one book called to my spirit, “Read me” – so I did.

Write Your Heart Out, one of the many craft books at The Writing Barn.

Write Your Heart Out by Rebecca McClanahan was just what the doctor ordered for me. Her musings, suggestions, ideas about writing helped me to get in the frame of mind for continuing my screenplay.

On Tuesday, I sat and stared at my computer.  Half way through my screenplay, (which I had put off until now) I felt lost.  It was like I couldn’t find my Mojo. Deep inside, I knew what was happening. My brain was cluttered. It was going to take some time to shed the thoughts of home, family, work…my busy life and some serious love/relationship issues clashing in my head. Then, Bonnie suggested free writing to me. So I did. I must admit I certainly didn’t have any problem releasing it all.  I had so much in my mind and heart, it poured out of me.

Then, like a gift from the Divine, two deer appeared outside our door and the rain came, gently, softly as I listened to “Love’s Divine” by Seal. Pure serendipity.

The deer at The Writing Barn

I listened more intently and…..intensely.

Later that afternoon, the drizzle turned into a storm. I’m talking about the kind of southern storm that fills the sky with lightning and releases thunder, rumbling and shaking the earth.   Now, that I look back, I feel that nature was reflecting all that was going on inside me…in the most magical way.

Those sounds went on most of the night Tuesday and all day Wednesday….right into the evening.  As a matter of fact, when dinnertime came, Bonnie and I had to wait for one of the minuscule breaks in the storm to run to our car.  We didn’t mind at all.  I think we were both happy about the torrential downpour.  I suppose because we live in Los Angeles, California where we (joyfully) have sunshine most of the year, the rain was purifying, cathartic and even soul cleansing. It created the perfect environment for reflection.

And, yes…throughout those days and hours I wrote…and I read…and I wrote some more.

In between, I studied the Buddha statues that Bethany placed perfectly around the Barn.  Each seemed to have a special message for me:

Rest.

Be still and know.

Seek Clarity.

Be true to yourself.

Open your heart.

Release.

Claim your freedom.

Love again.

I felt my heart relaxing.

I felt my Mojo returning…and writing turned into a feeling again…which is really the only way I can create.  Finally, on Thursday morning, the sun peeked through the clouds and I knew I was experiencing a new day…for writing, for loving…and for living.

This is a small glimpse of the precious moments that I experienced at The Writing Barn.

I am thankful for this place.

I treasure my special friend who brought me there.

I will keep these memories in my heart always.

May each writer or non-writer who goes there experience the peace, inspiration and pure delight of the Writing Barn.

Peace to all,

Jamie R. Balthazar

aka J. Renee LaCour (pen name)

 About Jamie R. Balthazar

A passion for visual arts and storytelling gave Jamie Balthazar her start in the field of television production. Early on she combined her skills in writing and art to produce on-air image campaigns at several top TV markets including Miami, and Washington, DC and her hometown New Orleans. After many years in television promotion and public affairs, she decided to pursue long format television.

From 2005 through 2012, Balthazar was a principal of Ruby Red, Inc., overseeing program development and serving as Director and Executive Producer on shows produced by the company.  There, she’s co-produced the T.D. Jakes film entitled, On The Seventh Day, which was a part of the Woman Thou Art Loosed Series. The film starred Sharon Leal, Blair Underwood, Pam Grier, Nicole Beharie and Nicoye Banks. In 2011, she directed a documentary short, Irvin Mayfield’s Road to Carnegie Hall, about a dynamic New Orleans musician who created a 90-minute jazz composition, dedicated to Hurricane Katrina’s victims.  Balthazar directed a one-hour documentary, Breast Cancer Examined: An African American Perspective for TV One Network and Susan G. Komen for the Cure in 2009. The compelling documentary took an inside look at the lives of women and men who are affected by this deadly disease. She also produced and directed a doc short for the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, America’s Broken Promise, highlighting the inequalities of the dispensation of Road Home Funds in New Orleans, La.
In 2008, Balthazar directed the hilariously funny TV One unscripted comedy special, Cruisin’ for Love with Kym Whitley.  In the fall, she directed a 20 min documentary short, entitled The University of New Orleans – 50 years of Changing Lives.  In 2007, Balthazar produced the standup comedy series, The Funny Spot with Tony Rock for TV One Network. Prior to that, she was EP of the 2006 NAMIC Vision awards and BET’s Comic View series (28 episodes), hosted by Sheryl Underwood.  She served as co-producer of the independent film Contradictions of the Heart due for release in 2010. Balthazar directed New Orleans: My Home, My Life, My Love, an award-winning documentary about Hurricane Katrina victims that premiered on AOL Black Voices and aired on TV One Network in 2006.  She also directed the TV pilot and webisode series for the comedic reality show, Kym Whitley’s Hollywood Hustle.

Prior to Ruby Red, Balthazar was Executive Producer of BET’s Comic View and Executive Producer of BET’s Music Department, Jamie R. Balthazar has enjoyed an exceptional career in providing entertainment to urban audiences. In 2004, Balthazar was Supervising Producer of BET’s highly acclaimed Celebration of Gospel show and Coming to the Stage, BET’s hit comedy competition show (NAACP Image Award Nominee). Balthazar created the first R& B live band shows on BET in 1997 with the highly rated, Planet Groove. There, neo-soul stars like Maxwell, Erykah Badu, Lisa Stansfield, Eric Benet and many others revived R&B with their unique new styles. Balthazar also managed the extremely popular hip-hop show, Rap City, nationally and internationally.

In the late 90’s, Balthazar played a key role as a producer for BBC America, shortly after its launch.  There, Balthazar re-versioned comedies, dramas, movies, talk, reality and variety shows originated by BBC in London, tailoring them to the specific tastes of American audiences.

In between shows, Balthazar works on passion projects in her hometown New Orleans.  She has worked on several projects over the past 10 years for Cox Communications, Brass Coupe’ Films, and the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation. She is one of the producers of The Legacy of Louis Armstrong,- a half hour documentary highlighting the rich heritage of the jazz legend and line producer of Fauborg Treme – the Untold Story of Black New Orleans – a documentary exploring the history of the oldest African American neighborhood in the U.S.  In 2001, she produced the Million Man March a documentary for Cox Communications cable. (Cable Ace Award winner).

Today, Jamie R. Balthazar continues to specialize in writing and producing entertaining, inspiring and family themed films and television shows. She has also become an author under the pen name J. Renee’ LaCour, writing and publishing her first novel entitled The Unsimple Truth.  The book received Indiereader.com approval in 2012 and excellent reviews from readers around the world.

WEBSITES:

USA Today:

http://books.usatoday.com/happyeverafter/post/2012-05-11/indiereadercom-indie-pubbed-e-book-recs/691782/1

Good Reads:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13499096-the-unsimple-truth

Indiereader.com

http://indiereader.com/2012/06/the-unsimple-truth/

Continue reading »]]>  

Kiddos and dog lovers of all ages this event is for you! Join us as we celebrate Mary Sullivan’s latest release Ball. This event is also a fundraiser for Austin Pets Alive, so please be sure to visit their wish list and make a donation. BookPeople will be on site to sell books and Mary will be signing  and human treats will be provided. YUM!