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Featured Member Interview—Concha Delgado Gaitan

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Scholarly Writing to General Nonfiction:
Author Drawn to Power of Community

Interview of Concha Delgado Gaitan, Ph. D. by Nita Sweeney

Nita Sweeney (NS): Before we dive into questions specific to writing, tell our members, with the world beginning to open but many still being cautious, how have you been taking care of yourself?

Concha Delgado Gaitan (CDG): From the beginning of the pandemic, I felt the need to stay as healthy as possible to work with my publisher and complete the last phase of publishing my 10th book. I couldn’t visit friends, museums, theaters, bookstores, or music venues. Protecting my physical as well as my mind and spirit became part of my daily routine.

Following a morning meditation, I did Yoga or QiGong. A healthy breakfast held me till early afternoon.  Walking the hills around our house gave me stamina.  I wore out two pairs of shoes during that period. Although we missed going out to eat at our favorite restaurants, cooking dinner every evening became a playful and creative discipline that both my husband and I looked forward to enjoying. When restaurants opened for take-out, we supported them frequently.

Additionally, the two most important ways that helped me keep my focus during this past year included daily talking or texting with a family member and friend.  And I also played more than ever before with my four cats. They create amusing distractions effortlessly. Their playfulness felt especially healing during part of my 2020 year as I recovered from (non-covid related) pneumonia.

NS: You’ve been a university professor in Anthropology & Education for much of your career. How does that interplay with your writing?

CDG: At Stanford University, I studied Anthropology and Education, emphasizing ethnographic research of culturally diverse communities in the US. My research expertise earned me invitations to research Latino, Hmong, Native Alaskan Athabaskan, Russian Refugee, and Laotian communities as a Professor at the University of California, Davis. Through face-to-face interaction, observations, and interviews, I understood the people’s lives and language and wrote books that represented their stories of empowerment in these underrepresented communities.

In an academic style, I began shaping my underlying premise, highlighting the importance of social justice in our educational system, our public policies, and the resources of the communities that I studied. I wrote over 70 scholarly essays. My first book, Literacy for Empowerment, described a community I researched. The book received great reviews and became very popular within the Anthropology and Education field. It was the first such story written about the importance and uses of literacy in a Latino community. 

My need for writing the book was to have a book for one of my research seminars. Although it was an academic book, it read like a story of a community finding its voice, which students and colleagues applauded. It seemed that I had found a voice. Other books followed as among some of the scholarly books I wrote during this period included, Protean Literacy, The Power of Community, and Crossing Cultural Borders. These books became the stories that led me to write stories applicable lessons for practicing educators.

After conducting ethnographic research in numerous communities, I felt it was essential to take the academic stories to a practical level. These different books reached a broader educational audience that works directly with students, families, and communities. Those titles include Involving Latino Parents in the Schools and Building Culturally Responsive Classrooms and Creating a College Culture for Latino Students. I felt that it was especially important to write the book about getting students to college when I learned that only 16% of Latino students who enter a 4-year college complete and graduate.

NS: What led you to the writing life?

CDG: I was a reader from the early years. Reading was something my mother always insisted on—that we have a book in hand. The only writing I did during those years was in English classes.

Teaching has been my mission throughout my life. After teaching elementary school, I became a school principal at the age of 26. I was the first woman principal in an Eastside San Jose school district. I was always interested in books throughout those years, and my writing effort consisted of daily journals and notebooks filled with my thoughts, disappointments, and successes. I wrote short magazine-length critiques and commentaries about children’s literature for culturally diverse students and the shortage of books that depicted these cultures in authentic ways.

My studies at Stanford pushed me into formal writing that professors evaluated. Reading opened many doors for me in my life. I’ve believed that writing about topics that inspired me would also reach those interested in the same issues. I treasure that connection with people—many of whom I know and even more that I meet through my writing.

NS: Tell us about your work in social justice and any role that played in your writing.

CDG: Social justice themes thread through many of my writings.  Discrimination has silenced the voices of many communities of color.  Through the people’s lives that I observed, I recognize my responsibility to make their stories known. 

When I wrote books about a community, I discussed it with them in a language they understood. It was part of my relationship with the communities I studied. They trusted me to write about them because they had a voice in the story about them.

In my books, I tell people’s stories of building community despite the discrimination and economic challenges.  Their stories depict the inequalities that people experience in culturally diverse communities.  I describe how people find justice by organizing themselves to change their living conditions and empower themselves. They break barriers and participate fully in the educational, social, and political institutions where they reside.  Parents work to ensure that their children obtain greater access to resources to improve their lives.

NS: You suffered a health crisis and subsequently wrote a memoir. Would you like to share something about that with us? What helped you with that writing process?

CDG: After years as a senior professor at the University of California Davis, my health took an unexpected downward turn. What I knew as my active life of being a professor and enjoying daily hour-long walks, belly dancing, salsa, and traveling around the country and overseas to lecture to work with my Anthropology and Education colleagues came to a screeching halt for a short time. One night I was awakened by severe full-body pain and high fever, the likes of which I’d never experienced. Initially, emergency rooms diagnosed me with flu-like symptoms and sent me home to rest. I spent weeks with my body weakening more each day. It would take weeks of additional visits to the specialist to diagnose me with Systemic Lupus.

Throughout the ten years that followed I continued my professorship while keeping copious notes that filled books of my health story as it unfolded. After I became stronger, I needed to change my profession and my life in general. In rethinking my career, I committed to putting my health first. I left the University and began my independent subcontract business doing community consulting, research, and writing, which I managed from my home office. Another commitment I made to myself was to end my relationship—not only with the man I was with but also with every other workaholic man that encouraged my workaholic pace.

As my new healthier life took shape, I wrote my memoir Prickly Cactus. The book took a few years to leave my desk because it was the first time writing such a personal account of my life. It was therapeutic since my life was unfolding as I wrote about the transformation that were occurring. Writing a memoir pushed me to write quite differently than my past professional books. One way I thought I could break some of my pattern of writing was to take fiction writing classes to stretch me out of my familiar writing format. In the process, I became good friends with my writing teacher. Since then, she has been a great coach; she influenced my style as I competed Prickly Cactus.  Writing my memoir taught me how to write to a general audience about a personal matter–my health.

By the time I completed Prickly Cactus, I had decided to try marriage for the second time. I married my dear partner, Dudley whom I met before I began writing Prickly Cactus. 

NS: You are a prolific writer. Can you share some tips with the WNBA-SF members as to how you produce such a large number and variety of works?

CDG: My enthusiasm for writing satisfies my appetite for learning about the topics that I write.  I also learn new techniques. My love for the people and their stories of resilience has been my joy and driving force in writing.

Where my work routine is concerned, I’m very disciplined.  However, in recent years, I find myself writing in spurts according to my inspiration rather than in defined blocks of time. It’s been productive and more satisfying at this point. I suppose it’s a form of discipline.

NS: Are you ever surprised in the writing process?  If so, how and when?

CDG: My surprises became major lessons. I’ll mention a couple of them. Moving from academic to professional books for practicing educators required me to write in a language that was accessible to educators without using the academic jargon commonly found in scholarly books.

Another new twist occurred when I wrote, Prickly Cactus called for still a different style of language used to tell a story. I wanted to describe my experience so that my younger family members would be able to read without oversimplifying the story. I fought the impulse to cite every date and new concept. And writing about my life included family members. I wanted to make sure that they felt comfortable with their names in the book. I maintained my writer’s integrity and ensured that I would not slight my story while remaining on speaking terms with family members.

NS: Is there something you wish you had been told or not told, earlier about writing?

CDG: Well into my doctoral studies, a professor at Stanford told me that I shouldn’t continue my doctoral studies because I didn’t know how to write and that I would never learn how to write academically well enough to earn a degree.  Her comments rattled me because I took it personally; I lost time and self-confidence, which took time to heal. I could have used that time more productively to work on my studies. After talking with a few professors whose teaching, I respected, I felt ready to continue my Stanford studies.

One-and-a-half years later, I graduated with a Ph.D., and I had published two scholarly articles. I am grateful that I did not devalue my work or stop writing because it was only the beginning of my rich and meaningful storytelling career in four different writing categories: academic for researchers, a memoir on health and healing, educational books for practicing educators, and aging for a general audience.

NS: In a conversation we had before this interview, we discussed aging. How has that impacted your writing?

CDG: Generally, I feel that age does not define who I am or what I do. I don’t typically relate to people according to age. I feel comfortable in intergenerational groups. This might be because we have a large family representing three age levels. We’re a close family and relate to each other comfortably across age groups. However, more recent years, I have become more aware of being a senior baby boomer as my closest friends and colleagues talk about being at this stage of our lives. The prominent issues on people’s minds include discussions on health, work, traveling, caring for parents, and losing spouses. Our conversations piqued my interest enough to research and write my recent book, Wings of a Firebird—The Power of Relationships in our Later Years. I feel strongly that aging in this society needs to be discussed and written from as many perspectives as can lead us to more humanistic policies for this age group.

NS: What is next for you, writing-wise?

CDG: My book Wings of a Firebird gives us a window into the diversity of experiences of aging in our country and the need for policies and resources to support the largest growing demographic. The storytellers in my book spoke of their meaningful relationships. However, there was one type of relationship that did not appear in this book, which I feel merits attention as it plays out in the lives of older adults. The Pandemic exposed more areas for us to explore about seniors in our society. I’m vague about the specifics of my next topic because I read a great deal and interview many people to shape and clarify my topic. I’ve begun doing that type of research to see what story unfolds. Stay tuned. 

Concha Delgado Gaitan has written extensively in the field of Anthropology and Education. Her works emphasize social justice issues of unrepresented communities. The National American Anthropological Association/Council of Anthropology named the presidential Fellowship in her honor. She also received the Anthropology and Education Award from that organization for her lifetime contribution to the field. In her capacity as a professor and researcher, she has worked with communities including Latino, Russian Refugees, Alaskans Native students, Hmong, and transnational populations in Mexico and Spain, where she has also lectured on her books.

Delgado Gaitan’s wealth of experience as an elementary teacher, school principal, and university professor enriches her family-community-school research.

Her book Involving Latino Families in the Schools was a best seller in Corwin Press, and Prickly Cactus was a best seller in the category of “Women’s Health” when it was released by Cypress House Press on Amazon.

Other titles of Delgado Gaitan’s books include Literacy for Empowerment; Crossing Cultural Borders; The Power of Community; Protean Literacy; Crossing Cultural Borders; and School and Society; Building A College Culture for Latino Students.

Her recent book is Wings of a Firebird; the Power of Relationships in our Later Years. It marks the beginning of a new direction in her writing, a focus on issues of older adults in our society.

For more information, visit her website. 

Interview by Nita Sweeney, author of the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink and co-creator of You Should Be Writing: A Journal of Inspiration & Instruction to Keep Your Pen Moving

Featured Member Interview – Gail Newman

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Poet’s latest book captures stories of the Holocaust, is a tribute to the living and the dead.

by Nita Sweeney, author of the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink and co-creator of You Should Be Writing: A Journal of Inspiration & Instruction to Keep Your Pen Moving

Nita Sweeney (NS): Before we dive into questions specific to writing, tell our members, with the world beginning to open ever-so-slightly, but still somewhat suspended, how are you taking care of yourself?

(GN): I divide my time between San Francisco and Sebastopol, and now that it’s spring I’m mostly in Sebastopol—gardening, cooking, reading, writing. The garden is blooming, the flowers raising their heads, opening buds, beaming with self-adoration. I’m with my husband, and our son is with us, so I am not alone. I don’t need a multitude, and solitude has always been my companion, but it feels wonderful to get together with friends again, unmasked, with some sense of renewed freedom.

NS: What led you to the writing life?

Gail Newman (GN): Before I was a writer, I was a reader. When I was a child, my mother often took me to the library. My ambition was to read through the shelves alphabetically. I found the world—adventure, friendship, travel, excitement—between the pages. I wanted to be a writer like Jo in Little Women, eating apples up in the attic with ink stained fingers. My grandfather was a journalist and although I never knew him, I like to think that writing is in my blood.

NS: Have you always preferred to write poetry? If so, what drew you to it and what keeps you there?

GN: I loved poetry, but I didn’t know I could write it until, in my mid 20’s, I joined a women’s workshop suggested by a friend. This was during the height of the women’s movement, a time when feminist presses began to emerge and publish women’s poetry in anthologies and collections. Once I began to write poetry, I felt a depth of perception and form of expression that absorbed me. Robert Frost said, “A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.” I think that is an apt description. 

NS: Your most recent poetry collection, Blood Memory, “traces the path of Holocaust survivors from Poland to America during and after World War II.” What brought you to write about the Holocaust at this time in your life and at this time in history?

GN: These poems have been in me all my life. I tried to write about the Holocaust and my family when I was younger, but I think I needed more experience as a writer and more distance as a child of survivors. 

When my father died, I started writing more poems about him and my mother. I decided then, in a conscious way, to write a book of poems about my parents’ lives. 

The book is a narrative that tells a story based on what my parents told me as well as my own experience and research. I think the book is a tribute to the living and the dead, and my own realization of the importance of memory and heritage. 

I didn’t know that the book would be released at this particular moment in history when antisemitism and racism-against blacks, Asian, Muslims, immigrants-has come again into our public consciousness. 

NS: If there is one key message that you want readers to get from your book, what would it be?

GN: I think of the poem, Try to Praise the Mutilated World by Adam Zagajewski. People can withstand the most horrific experiences and build meaningful and even joyful lives. We remember the Holocaust to honor the living and the dead. And we remember so that we will be vigilant and compassionate, so that we don’t stand idle when others, of any religion, culture or race, experience bigotry, hatred, or genocide. 

We remember the Holocaust in the hope that it will never happen again in any nation, to any people. We want to remember the past, those who died, our heritage and our people. We want to remember so we can live with compassion. We remember so we will not stand as silent witness to others’ suffering.

NS: You were born in Germany, raised in Los Angeles, and have lived many years in the Bay Area. What impact, if any, do these places have on your work?

GN: Though I don’t remember Germany, or the war, my parents’ lives is part of my inherited memory. The title of my book, Blood Memory, refers to what we carry with us from our parent’s past, from the places we came from and the events that brought us to the present. 

Los Angeles enters my poems in a kind of reverie of childhood and growing up. Moments flicker into my mind in the form of images, snapshots, and evoke feelings that inspire poems.

The Bay Area had a big impact on my work. It was there that I discovered poetry. I was drawn to City Lights [bookstore] in North Beach. I felt the history of the city, writers’ breath in the air and in the streets.

NS: Writers love to hear how other writers work. What is your process? Is it the same from book to book? 

GN: I would say, looking back on my life, that my writing is erratic. I don’t have a set routine. I don’t get up and go to my desk at a specific time. I love to sit by a window, gazing out, drinking coffee, daydreaming. Some nights, when I wake with the lines of a poem in my head, I get up and go to the computer. I don’t have to turn the light on, but type by the Apple’s glow. 

When I write I enter a kind of meditative state, but I think it’s just natural to my writing process and doesn’t come from training or conscious effort. I might go back later to make the details more precise. That is the editor stepping in to perfect the craft. I see images in my mind. Some are memories, some imagination. I remember once bemoaning to another writer about my poor memory and she said, “You’re a poet. Make it up.” That gave me a lot of freedom.

NS: Are you ever surprised in the writing process? If so, how and when?

GN: Writing poetry is a process of discovery, so I’m always surprised. I love poems with a turn, when a thought or images pivots into unknown territory or makes a surprising connection. It’s like walking around a corner in an unfamiliar neighborhood. 

NS: Tell us about the publishing journey of Blood Memory. 

GN: I entered a number of contests, about twenty, sponsored by small press poetry book publishers. Then I began to wait. I expected to wait a long time. I expected rejections. I thought I would continue to submit the following year. One morning I received an email from Marsh Hawk Press asking for a hard copy of my manuscript. Because I was among the finalists, my book would be read by the judge, Marge Piercy. This alone was an honor. I was surprised and thrilled to receive an email a few weeks later saying that I was the first-place winner and that Marge Piercy had chosen my book.

NS: Please share a favorite writing or publishing tip with our WNBA-SF members? Is there one thing you return to again and again, or something you wish you had known or realized much earlier?

GN: Aim high. Try and try again. If your work is rejected, don’t feel rejected. When you submit to publications — journals, magazines, contests — acceptance may be dependent on many factors. Have faith in yourself.

NS: What’s next for you writing-wise?

GN: When I finished Blood Memory, I thought, what will I write about now, without a specific idea? The answer is: everything. Small moments, the most ordinary objects can become the subject of a poem. I’m writing about time, the way it changes, slows down, speeds up, the past coming closer, the present fading away. I may remember a feeling, a sensation, and the memory grows into a poem.

I’m still writing about my parents. So maybe it’s a story that has no end. Some teachers have asked about using the book to teach Holocaust Studies, and since I’m an educator, I could help or become involved in that. I would love to share my book with readers in other countries, especially Eastern Europe, and to use it as a message of hope, resilience, and resistance.

Gail Newman was born after WW II in a displaced persons camp in Lansberg, Germany. The daughter of Polish Holocaust survivors, she was raised in a community of Jewish immigrants in Los Angeles where her mother, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday, still lives. 

Gail has worked as an educator at the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum, and as a poet-teacher for California Poets in the Schools. Co-founder and editor of Room, a Women’s Literary Journal, Gail also edited Inside Out, a book of poetry lessons for teachers, and two collections of children’s poems, C is for California and Dear Earth. 

Her poems have appeared in journals including Canary, Prairie Schooner, Calyx, Nimrod International, The Bellingham Review, and in anthologies including Ghosts of the Holocaust, The Doll Collection, and Fog and Light. A book of poetry, One World, was published by Moon Tide Press. 

Blood Memory, chosen by Marge Piercy for the Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize was published in 2020. Piercy writes: 

Writing about the Holocaust can be difficult now, not that it was ever easy….those who know, who went through it, are dying off. Those who deny what happened multiply. To make fresh powerful poems rooted in Shoah is amazing.

www.gailnewmanpoet.com

 For signed copies of Blood Memory, please contact Gail through her website.

Facebook: Gail Newman

 

Featured Member Interview – Carole Bumpus

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Curiosity and love of people, travel, and food spurs retired family therapist to pen books about European food and culture.

by Nita Sweeney, author of the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink and co-creator of You Should Be Writing: A Journal of Inspiration & Instruction to Keep Your Pen Moving

Nita Sweeney (NS): Let’s start with a question tangential to writing. How are you taking care of yourself during these “interesting” times?

Carole Bumpus (CB): When the pandemic arrived on our doorsteps, I was completing Book Two of my Savoring the Olde Ways series for publication (August 2020). The book was called Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table. On the 13th of March 2020—exactly when the shutdown came upon all of us—I was about to panic. I desperately needed to test the French recipes (can be found at the back of the book) and was now housebound without all the necessary ingredients. I decided to enlist help from readers of my monthly newsletter. Everyone, like me, was home and looking for something productive to do. The response was celebratory! Yes, they said. We’ll help! Some had access to more ingredients than others; some had plenty of ingredients on hand. And then the merriment began. It was such a fun endeavor as I received help from all over the U.S. plus England and France. All of the fellow ‘testers,’ eighty-three in all, submitted their comments about the recipes, along with photos, and those who completed the project were listed in the Acknowledgement section of my book. It became a gratitude gathering time for me, as we were all in this pandemic together, but we were feeling so creative. 

Even before that book came out, the third book in my series, A September to Remember: Searching for Culinary Pleasures at the Italian Table was pushing into my purview. Fortunately, I was able to enlist many of the same recipe testers to ‘belly up to the stove’ once more but this time for Italian recipes. It turned out to once again be great fun—a lot of extra work—but it was a delightful way to stay connected with all these friends and to make some critical changes to the recipes I am putting forth. This book is due out April 27, 2021.

NS: After you retired, you traveled to Italy and France. Many people travel to Italy and France. They tour, eat, and go home. What made you want to write about it as well?

CB: After years of working as a family therapist, I retired but still carried with me my love and curiosity about families. What is the glue that keeps them together? Once I realized that European families gather most often around the dinner table, I began to ask questions about their favorite foods. “What favorite foods bring your people to the table?” I asked. “What were your favorite foods as a child? Your best-loved traditions? Your most-beloved family stories?” My interest exploded with the generous and thoughtful responses. Of course, everyone has a favorite recipe they want to share, so off we would head to the kitchen to check it out. So, what was not to love? It became a love affair of the heart—and stomach. A glass of homemade wine, a plate of pasta or steamed clams and mussels, and I was in heaven. But that was when the tales began to flow—along with more wine, of course—and plenty of laughter. Narratives of times past, wars fought and lost, hardship but love and tenacity that saw them through—all were woven into the stories surrounding the struggle to protect the familial bond. 

This actually led me to write an historical novel based on the life of an elderly French woman, Marcelle Zabé, who was born on the last day of WWI and died shortly after our devastating 9-11. But her life as a single young mother of eighteen living in Paris during WWII was a story I heard and was compelled to tell. In order to research her background, I began to travel with her daughter, Josiane, throughout France (and twice along with her as translator to travel with WWII Army Veterans to gather history). This additional travel led to the Savoring the Olde Ways series in Books One and Two, Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table. 

The third book in the series, A September to Remember: Searching for Culinary Pleasures at the Italian Table, which came out April 27, 2021, came about because of my initial trip to Italy with my husband and actually took place a year before the French trips but was my initial incentive to peek inside the geopolitical aspects of ‘family’.  

 


NS: You began by writing a novel. How did the idea for the companion cookbooks arise?

As I mentioned above, when I did my research for the novel, I was investigating several things as I traveled throughout the regions of France. We were secretly investigating the mysterious life of Marcelle as well as capturing the stories of friends and family members of Marcelle along with their favorite recipes and traditions. With open arms they swept me into their lives and opened their homes and kitchens to all my questions. Traveling from one region to another also gave me the richness and variety of cultures and history found throughout France which led me to begin to dig deeper into the more traditional foods or ‘peasant foods’ which were more prevalent. Cuisine pauvre in French or cucina povera in Italian speaks deeply to the culture found in the hearts and souls of both countries.

NS: About you, one reviewer stated, “For Bumpus, appreciating food requires a strong sense of people and place; in fact, she regards food and culture as inseparable.” Please tell us more.

To understand who the French or the Italians are as a people is not to glibly prance through the country, eat at the Michelin-starred restaurants or laze along the touristed beaches. It is to communicate with the locals in the best way that you can. (It helps to travel with a companion translator.) You will find that each region—no, each village or town—has a specific way of preparing food and going through life; it becomes part of who they are. Their identity. This is not a small thing; it speaks to their culture, their history, their geography, their land (or sea) for gathering food. It is who they are. As was described to me in Italy by my dear friend, Lisa, in my upcoming book:

“This concept doesn’t come from what we consider as being poor or frugal, uncomfortable, undesirable, or from an inconvenient situation that people have fallen into, due to their ineptness. No, this is the idea of living in a world where gods are everywhere—where your interdependence is on the wellbeing of all of these forces, because for some reason the Mediterranean has this sense of interconnectedness.”  

Now, doesn’t that very explanation make you want to know more? Me too! It drove me to write five books so far. And, it has been lovely.

NS: What’s the best thing you’ve ever eaten?

This is a difficult question as I am definitely an aficionado of all types of foods, but what first leaps to mind is a most exquisite lemon pasta my husband and I were served in Umbria. Gubbio, I think. Having spent the morning in search of middle-Renaissance artists in an ancient cathedral, we stumbled off the street into a little trattoria well after 1 p.m. hoping for a bit of lunch. Italians don’t just ‘do’ lunch; they grace your existence with the most flavorful extensions of their simplest ingredients. In this case, the grandfather of the family stood up from his own table and went into the kitchen. Twenty minutes later he came out with a small portion of freshly made, lemon-infused pasta, piping hot and gracing a bowl. We had hoped for two portions, but he had made only one, so he immediately returned to the kitchen to prepare more. I swoon at the memory of those light, yet delectable piquant flavors which caressed each strand of linguine before us. Oh, I have attempted to create this dish many times since, but I never meet muster to that memory. In fact, I don’t even recall what our next course even was. We were in ecstasy! 

Another decadent lunch my husband and I enjoyed was when we were staying a week in Ménerbes, in Provençe, the south of France. After walking up the steep, winding road—too narrow for most cars—to the top of this medieval village, we found in an ancient castle the Maison de la Truffe et du Vin du Luberon which translates to the House of Truffles and Wine. Now, how can you possibly go wrong with delicate pillows of ricotta and spinach-filled tortellini topped with the musky flavors of summer truffles? And served with a cooling glass of Provençal rosé on a hot summer’s day, why it couldn’t get any better. Mais, oui!

 NS: Does your former career as a family therapist inform your writing in any way?

I believe it was my interest and love of people, along with a fervent curiosity to know more about their stories, that led me to interview them in a way which was not all so dissimilar from my approach with clients in my family practice.

NS: We love learning about each writer’s process. Aside from the obvious (recipes) how did writing a novel differ from the cookbook writing?

The novel, A Cup of Redemption, came out of my curiosity and interest surrounding the war-torn life of Marcelle Zabé. She and her daughter originally came into my home to teach me how to cook in a ‘French’ fashion. I was interviewing both of them about their favorite French foods, as we were sitting at my kitchen table here in California drinking coffee and eating a lemon tart I had prepared. (I was trying to impress them.) 

The stories began to flow about Marcelle’s childhood favorite foods, about the difficulty of having enough food during the war years and following, and of the traditional specialties of each region. We decided to take a trip together, all three of us, to discover more of these specialties throughout France when Marcelle suddenly died at eighty-three. So, in the novel, when I wrote about Marcelle’s life, I included all the places she lived or had visited across France. As I was writing about each place, I mentioned what we were eating. And the timeframe of that period. War time = war time rations. Lean times = stretching a few slices of bread spread with bacon grease and a slice of onion. Crêpes? A staple due to its economical ingredients – eggs, flour, and milk.

Six weeks after my novel came out, a friend of mine asked, “So, where are the recipes?” Within nine months, in the time it takes to birth a baby, my companion cookbook rolled out. It was called, Recipes for Redemption: A Companion Cookbook to A Cup of Redemption. It had never dawned on me before writing the novel that I would be writing recipes, but as I had been traveling around the country collecting these stories and recipes, it seemed an easy and happy coincidence. But little did I realize how difficult it would be to not only translate the recipes but change them from metric to our standard measurements and oven temperatures. Oh, my!

Also, I needed to come up with substitutions for ingredients that we, in the U.S. do not readily have available. But then I realized the beauty of the cuisine pauvre, the ‘poor kitchen.’ Traditional recipes come from the people and the land: they are simple, available according to the season and location, economical, and if you don’t have something on hand, make it up or change the recipe! 

NS: Has anything about the writing process surprised you? If so, what, and how?  

I started out by writing the novel, even though I had already completed over seventy-five interviews in both France and Italy. I had grown to love dear Marcelle and wanted her story and her memory to reach into the world. It took me twelve years of research. When I pulled all my notes together, I thought it would be one long book. I took my notes, interviews, and recipes and began to write. A writing teacher told me to write until I was finished. I wrote 950 pages. When I went to an editor or two with my tome, they each looked at me and said, ‘This is not one book, but maybe three or four.’ They were correct. So, I began again by using the principle of ‘How to carve an elephant.’  You simply remove what is not the elephant. In this case I removed all the stories that were not strictly about Marcelle and set them aside. After my novel was published, those ‘set-asides’ became the fodder for my next three French books. The Italian book, which should have been the first one of my Savoring the Olde Series, became my fifth book to write. Marcelle was the surprise who kicked off my writing career.


NS: What writing or publishing tips do you have for our WNBA-SF members? Is there one thing you wish someone had told you before you began?

I’m afraid if anyone had told me how difficult it could be to write a book and get published, I might have given up before starting. But ignorance is bliss, and it sent me off in so many lovely directions—researching, traveling more, taking writing classes of all kinds, learning the art and importance of a good editor, and being aware that writing and completing a book is only the beginning. 

The process of marketing and publicity which follows is essential and expensive, but if your goal is to get your best work out in the world, it takes time, money, and perseverance. Am I writing books to make money? It would be a bonus, but that’s no longer my goal. And, who knew I would be giving readings in a cooking school or have my recipes offered in a French bistro? Who knew I would be asked to give talks on World War II about France and speak to U.S. veterans groups, as well as women’s groups on writing and the art of the novel? Who knew I would be asked to be on a panel of travel writers at SFWC 2020? Who knew I would be asked to read an excerpt from my book at the WNBA-SF in cooperation with LitQuake at Book Passage in San Francisco in 2019 before the pandemic? It could happen and it did.

NS: What’s next for you? A new writing project? More travel?

I was considering taking a little time off, since I launched three books in eighteen months. But I just received a review from someone indicating he couldn’t wait until my next book. What? Already? Be still my heart. I still have many more stories to share.


NS: Is there anything else you would like to add or wish I had asked?

Thank you for the opportunity to share my writing path, and for these questions. This was quite fun, and I enjoyed walking back in time and considering the paths I’ve chosen. Thanks again.

A retired family therapist, Carole Bumpus commenced writing about food and travel after she first began traveling through Italy and France. Having been introduced to the pleasures of the palate by spending time with local families in their homes, she also was introduced to their familial stories of love and war. She completed more than seventy-five interviews of families to date for her food and travel blogs. She published an historical novel, A Cup of Redemption, in 2014, followed by her unique companion cookbook, Recipes for Redemption: A Companion Cookbook to A Cup of Redemption, in August 2015. Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table, Books One and Two in her multi-award-winning Savoring the Olde Ways series covered the first half of Carole’s culinary adventure in France. The third book in the series is A September to Remember: Searching for Culinary Pleasures at the Italian Table, due out in April 2021. The publisher for all five volumes is She Writes Press.

Selected praise for the Savoring the Olde Ways series includes a rave from Kirkus, which said, “delights at every turn…”; Foreword Reviews, which added, “[Her] exploration as an American abroad will draw in those who hunger for travel as much as they hunger for flavor. For Bumpus, appreciating food requires a strong sense of people and place; in fact, she regards food and culture as inseparable”; and French Book Worm, on Good Life France.com, which chimed in with “Mouth-wateringly delicious, evocative, and utterly charming.”

Featured Member Interview – Lisa Braver Moss

By

Author with Strong “Malarkey Detector” Drawn to Difficult Subjects

by Nita Sweeney, author of the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink and co-creator of You Should Be Writing: A Journal of Inspiration & Instruction to Keep Your Pen Moving

Nita Sweeney (NS): Before we talk more specifically about writing, how have you been taking care of yourself during this wild and unpredictable time?

Lisa Braver Moss (LBM): Like many writers, I’m an introvert, so alone time doesn’t usually get to me. Also, my husband and I are quite companionable, and we walk for an hour every morning with our little poodle, Gooby. Starting out the day that way really helps. I feel very fortunate to have a nice home and plenty of yummy food and comfy clothes to wear—plus our (grown) kids live close by. More than that, I have fascinating creative projects to dig into, so I’m not in the painful position of pondering how to give my life meaning. All in all, I have little to complain about!NS: What brought you to writing?

LBM: It began as a practical matter. I was in my thirties, and I had something I very much wanted to express. I’d been an English major, and then a technical writer in the computer field, but I had to teach myself how to “listen” to my essay writing for tone, and how to communicate the material, which was controversial, in an effective way. It was a lot of trial and error. At first, I didn’t identify as a writer; I thought of myself as an activist trying to use language as well as possible to get my point across.

NS: Your many books (fiction and nonfiction) cover a wide range of topics. Is there a common theme or thread?

LBM: My first two books were both assignments from the publisher, so I didn’t have as much leeway for my own creativity as I’ve had with my more recent books. My very first book, Celebrating Family: Our Lifelong Bonds with Parents and Siblings, emphasized the deep positive connections that many of us feel for family throughout our lives. In contrast, Shrug, my 2019 autobiographical novel, centers on the dysfunctional aspects of family life: domestic violence and psychological warfare. I think the two contrasting themes, happy bonds and unhappy ones, can coexist. Actually, Celebrating Family touches on family dysfunction in places, while Shrug does celebrate the family bond in spite of its painful content.

NS: You’ve also written extensively about the Jewish circumcision tradition.

LBM: Yes—in particular, why I find it problematic. It may seem like a strange subject, but to me, the issue remains a fascinating convergence of history, ethics, medicine, and sexuality. I wrote my first novel, The Measure of His Grief, about Jewish circumcision (to my knowledge, the first novel ever written about that topic). I also co-authored a book of ceremonies for non-circumcising families, Celebrating Brit Shalom, and have written many articles questioning this ancient tradition.

NS: Why take on such a tough topic?

LBM: I guess I like working on subjects that are difficult to write about and that I don’t see covered in the way I think they should be. Also, I have a very strong—let me put this politely—malarkey detector, and I don’t like being expected to feel a certain way. One is supposed to feel spiritually moved by the circumcision tradition. I didn’t, and I wanted to express that—but in a way that showed my deep love for Judaism.

NS: You also took on a tough topic in your coming-of-age novel Shrug. 

LBM: Yes, there’s a similarity with Shrug in that again, domestic violence is a difficult topic to write about and doesn’t usually get discussed from the point of view of a child immersed in it. Having myself grown up with it, again, I don’t like being expected to have a certain set of feelings. I wanted to tell the story in a way that was emotionally authentic.

NS: What challenges did you face writing such a personal story?

LBM: Lots! The manuscript sat in a drawer, off and on, for over twenty years. I kept taking stabs at it, but somehow, I couldn’t get it right. I would pull it out, instantly see what was wrong with it, fix it, send it out to beta readers, spend weeks or months incorporating their feedback, send it out to agents, get rejected, and put it back in the drawer. This happened so many times that I wrote all my other books in between! So even though Shrug is my fifth book, in a way, it’s also my first book.

Probably the biggest challenge for me with Shrug, and this occurred to me rather embarrassingly late in the process, was to develop compassion for the main character, Martha. Duh! you might say. But it’s difficult to have self-compassion when you grow up as I did, and this definitely hampered me in developing Martha’s character. I was just too close to her. I had to detach in order to make her more lovable and thereby have the reader root for her. In this process, I was also healing myself.

NS: It sounds very liberating.

LBM: Definitely! But what really thrills me is that, based on the feedback I’ve gotten, the book “works” independent of my personal healing. For this reason, the awards that Shrug has won feel especially gratifying.

NS: Yes, please tell the WNBA-SF members about contests or other ways of winning awards. How did you find these opportunities and how have these awards helped your writing career?

LBM: I don’t know yet whether the awards for Shrug have helped my career, but they certainly can’t hurt, even if just mentioned in a cover letter. One literary agent saw on Facebook that I’d won the gold in the IPPYs for YA fiction, and commented “Send me your next book!”

I found out about various contests from my publisher, Brooke Warner of She Writes Press. Shrug wound up winning gold or silver, or being a finalist in, nine contests. I competed in general fiction, Young Adult fiction, regional fiction (west), and historical fiction. Shrug fits all of these, so I cast my net wide.

NS: You were born in Berkeley and now live nearby. Is there anything about the Bay Area or Berkeley in particular that informs your work?

LBM: I think so. Berkeleyans have the reputation of being iconoclasts, free thinkers, with good malarkey detectors. I feel grateful to have grown up with this as the backdrop, and I think my childhood place and time informs everything I write. Maybe it does with all writers.

NS: How do you approach writing? Is there a difference in how you work when writing a novel versus nonfiction or essays? We love to hear about a writer’s process.

LBM: I always start where it’s easy, knowing I can cut and paste later. It might be a snippet of dialogue or a particular image that needs description. In terms of subject matter, there’s what I call the blood pressure test. That is, I generally gravitate toward topics that get me stirred up or angry in some way. I might be reading something and find myself exclaiming in exasperation, “Why doesn’t anyone ever mention x?”—before realizing that the proverbial bell tolls for me. This is true for me with both personal essays and my fiction.

NS: Do you have any writing or publishing tips for our WNBA-SF members? Any “must do” things you recommend?

Whether writing fiction or nonfiction, I often challenge myself to go deeper. I find it’s the best way to enlighten (myself and others). Can I get more precise in what I’m saying? More honest? Can I find a word here that doesn’t have other associations? Also, I’m pretty relentless with myself with my own malarkey detector. I sniff out sentences that feel not quite authentic, and get in there and fix them.

NS: Do you have anything else on the horizon? What’s next for you?

LBM: I think I have another novel or two in me, but I’m absorbed in another time-consuming project now, so it will wait. My current project is forming a Jewish organization to ensure that non-circumcising families and other circumcision objectors are included and feel welcome in Jewish life. It will take time to build up our team, create our website, and so on, so I’m not pressuring myself about writing at the moment, other than producing a few essays here and there. Just percolating!

Lisa Braver Moss is the author of the novels The Measure of His Grief  (Notim Press, 2010) and Shrug (She Writes Press, 2019), which has won multiple awards in Young Adult fiction, historical fiction, regional fiction, and general fiction. Lisa’s essays have appeared in Parents, American Health, the Huffington Post, Yahoo Business News, Lilith, and many other publications. She recently placed in Story Circle Network’s Susan Wittig Albert LifeWriting Competition for her piece “How I Became a Radical, an Engaged Jew, and a Writer.”
Lisa’s nonfiction book credits include Celebrating Family: Our Lifelong Bonds with Parents and Siblings (Wildcat Canyon Press, 1999) and, as co-author, The Mother’s Companion: A Comforting Guide to the Early Years of Motherhood (Council Oak Books, 2001). She is also the co-author of Celebrating Brit Shalom (Notim Press, 2015), the first-ever book of ceremonies and music for Jewish families seeking alternatives to circumcision.
Born in Berkeley, California, Lisa still lives in the area with her husband, with whom she has two grown sons.

Holiday 2020 Newsletter

By

Women's National Book Association, San Francisco Chapter Newsletter

upcoming events and news wnba-sf chapter

 

Holiday Storytelling Fest!

Wednesday, Dec. 9th, 6:00 – 7:oo pm PST

FREE – Bring your own drinks and snacks

Join WNBA-SF Chapter in a virtual storytelling fest to celebrate the holidays as only book women can! We will share jolly, charming personal stories to make up for live holiday parties and family gatherings.

After a few presenters model their holiday stories, we’ll open it up to our virtual audience—that’s you! We want to encourage the sharing of stories during the holidays with friends and family, and provide basic techniques to enhance our skills.

Contributors to Story Power who are also WNBA members will present in an informal, roundtable sharing of stories. Welcome to the table!

Kate FarrellKate Farrell is our host and facilitator. Kate is a storyteller, author, librarian, founded the Word Weaving Storytelling Project and published numerous educational materials on storytelling.  Farrell’s new book, a timely how-to guide on the art of storytelling for adults, Story Power: Secrets to Creating, Crafting, and Telling Memorable Stories, was released in June 2020. 
Website: https://katefarrell.net/   Blog: https://storytellingforeveryone.net/

Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte is a Pushcart Prize nominated author.  Her second book, All That and More’s Wedding, is a collection of fictional mystery/crime short stories. Running for the 2:10, a follow-on to A Dollar Five delved deeper into her coming of age in Oakland and the embedded issues of race and skin color. Betrayal on the Bayou, published June 2020, is her first novel. Website:  https://www.sheryljbize-boutte.com/

Humaira Ghilzai is a writer, speaker and Afghanistan Cultural Consultant. Humaira opens the world to Afghan culture and cuisine through her wildly popular blog, Afghan Culture Unveiled. She shares the wonders of Afghanistan through stories of rich culture, delicious food and her family’s traditions. Humaira is currently working on her first novel, Unraveling Lives, which is set in San Francisco and Afghanistan.
Website: www.humairaghilzai.com
FB: @afghancultureunviled

Mary MackeyMary Mackey is an award-winning novelist and poet with fourteen novels and eight collections of poetry. Mary became a writer by running high fevers, tramping through tropical jungles, dodging machine gun fire, being swarmed by army ants, making catastrophic decisions about men, and reading. Website:  https://marymackey.com/

Other WNBA contributors to Story Power also invited to tell in the roundtable sharing, include:  Ellen McBarnett, Beatrice Bowles, Betsy Graziani Fasbinder, Joan Gelfand, Linda Joy Myers, Bev Scott.

Bring your favorite holiday drink and a 3-minute holiday story to share!

Where: Zoom –Zoom (link provided via email when you register)

Register Button

Comfort and Joy: WNBA-SF Holiday Mixer


Saturday, December 12
5:00-7:00 PM
Zoom link provided upon registration

The holidays are right around the corner and our most fervent wish for you is a very healthy and happy season. This year has been one for the record books but we have been gladdened that, in many ways, 2020 knit us closer together as a community.

We are grateful for all of you and hope you can join us for some comfort and joy and a good deal of relaxing fun. We will have holiday games, and also create breakout rooms for conversations with fellow members and friends. 

It’s a MIXER, so share this post to bring a literary friend or two to join the virtual fun. We appreciate our members! We’d love for you to join us so we can hear your about how this most challenging of years went for you, and your hopes for the new year to come. 

Holiday Donation: We are organizing a donation to children and family who lost all their books
in the fire. Contact us to receive an address to send your book donations. We especially welcome children’s books for underserved kids.

UPDATE! Contest Prizes: We will have a contest for the most literary libation you can sip in style at the mixer. The top three cocktails will win $100. Merry mixology!

Cheer: While I think we can all agree that this is the strangest year ever, we still have each other! Let’s toast each other, the holidays, our chapter, and a brighter future in the coming New Year!

Brave Women: Revelatory Memoirs – A Conversation with Marlena Fiol and Nita Sweeney

Friday, December 18, 2020 at 12:00 Pacific 

How do we overcome life’s challenges? What prompts us to initiate change? And what makes some of us choose to reveal all of this in writing?

In each of their memoirs, authors Marlena Fiol and Nita Sweeney speak candidly about depression, childhood abuse, parenting issues, and inequality, and the transformation each experienced in facing these difficulties.

Join these two authors for a conversation about what motivated them to take the initial steps that led to overcoming these challenges, and a discussion of other brave women who have risen up despite seemingly “invincible” life barriers.

The two will also discuss writing memoir, why they chose to reveal themselves so fully in their writing, and the impact that vulnerability has had on their lives.

As a consultant and professor of strategic management, Marlena Fiol, PhD, has guided her students and clients in visualizing their dreams and bringing them to reality. Over half of her 85 published articles and books relate to identity and identity change.  Her new book Nothing Bad Between Us: A Mennonite Missionary’s Daughter Finds Healing in Her Brokenness (to be released by Mango Publishing on 10/27/20) is a vulnerable and inspirational tale of personal transformation. She was raised in Paraguay on a leprosy station, and today lives with her husband Ed in Eugene, Oregon.

Nita Sweeney is the award-winning wellness author of the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink and co-creator of the writing journal, You Should Be Writing. Nita lives in central Ohio with her husband Ed, and their yellow Labrador retriever, Scarlet.

Where: Zoom –Zoom (link provided via email when you register)
Dear WNBA-SF Members,

We hope to see you at least twice this holiday season, on Zoom of course! To that end, we are issuing not one but two invitations. First, our wonderful Past President Kate Farrell is hosting a holiday story telling fest on December 9th which will be memorable and meaningful; you can rsvp here.

Second, we just set our holiday mixer and would dearly hope to see you at our virtual party. We are going to use our new-found Zoom skills to have games, breakout rooms where you can have a good conversion, catch up with an old pal or make a new friend. Read all about it and rsvp here.

We are still in our membership renewal mode we’d love to have as many renewals in December as possible so we can continue our good works and contribution to the community. As you’ll see in the holiday mixer invite, we are donating to underserved families, children who need books folks who lost everything in the fires, and food banks to feed those affected by the pandemic.

Our chapter also has opportunities on the board where you can really have an impact in the literary community with event programming, Zoom events and much more. If you would love to get more involved on any level, please let us know! You can contact President Elise Marie Collins at the email below.

And, don’t forget to enter our Effie Lee Morris Writing Contest which has wonderful cash prizes and an accolade to add to your trophy cabinet. Our agent and editor colleagues are always reminding us that awards can help you get published. Find information on the contest, the prizes and a link for submitting your fiction, poetry and nonfiction HERE. 

Thanks for your support over the years and hope to share some cheer at our holiday mixer! If you have questions or suggestions, please let us know.

Many thanks and keep the pages turning,

Elise Marie Collins, President

president@wnba-sfchapter.org

Brenda Knight, Immediate Past President

brenda.knight@gmail.com

A gentle reminder to renew.
If you have not yet had a chance, please do before the end of the year. Your membership allows the SF Chapter to present events and resources for YOU!

2021 Effie Lee Morris Literary Writing Contest!

Effie Lee Morris

We honor and celebrate women authors and diverse writers and hope to include YOU with our 2021 Effie Lee Morris WNBA-SF Literary Contest, running through March 31st, 2021. 

For full information, rules, and to submit your work starting October 1, 2020, please go here:

2021 Effie Lee Morris Literary Contest!

The Women’s National Book Association San Francisco Chapter is pleased and proud to continue the Effie Lee Morris WNBA Literary Awards in honor of our founder. Ms. Morris was a pioneering Black librarian and the founder of this chapter of the Women’s National Book Association in 1968. She became the first female chairperson of the Library of Congress and was the president of the National Braille Association for two terms. She was dedicated to literacy for children as well as children in underserved communities, and those who learn differently.

ENTER the 2021 Effie LeeMorris Literary Contest – HERE!

And now, meet the distinguished judges!

Sharifah Hardie is a business consultant, talk show host and influencer. Sharifah was a Long Beach City Council Candidate in the 2020 March 3rd Primary Election and is a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Expert. With over twenty five years of business experience, Sharifah Hardie has positioned herself to become one of the top executives in entertainment, business, politics and a person on the rise. Sharifah is the author of  Signs You Might Be An Entrepreneur – How to Discover the Entrepreneur in You

Lyzette Wanzer’s work appears in over twenty-five literary journals. She is a contributor to The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays (Wyatt-MacKenzie), The Naked Truth, Essay Daily, and San Francisco University High School Journal. A three-time San Francisco Arts Commission and Center for Cultural Innovation grant recipient, Lyzette serves as Judge for the Soul-making Keats Literary Competition Intercultural Essay category. She is currently helming an anthology entitled Trauma, Tresses, & Truth: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narrative.

Sumbul Ali-Karamali, a former corporate attorney with an additional degree in Islamic law, is an award-winning writer and speaker. She grew up in California, answering questions about her religion, which is why her books engagingly introduce readers to Muslim beliefs and practices and include The Muslim Next Door: The Qur’an, the Media, and that Veil Thing and her just-released Demystifying Shariah: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It’s Not Taking Over Our Country.

Pushcart Prize nominee Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte is an Oakland multidisciplinary writer. Her autobiographical and fictional short story collections, along with her lyrical and stunning poetry have been described as “rich in vivid imagery,” “incredible,” and “great contributions to literature.” Her first novel, Betrayal on the Bayou, was published in June 2020. She is also a popular literary reader, presenter, storyteller, curator and emcee for local events.

Fourth-generation native San Franciscan, Kathleen Archambeau, is an award-winning writer and LGBTQ activist. She is author of four nonfiction works, Climbing the Corporate Ladder in High Heels (2006), “Seized,” an essay in The Other Woman (2007), edited by Victoria Zackheim, Pride & Joy (2017), and We Make It Better (2019), with gay dad, Eric Rosswood. Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black wrote the Foreword to Pride & Joy and endorsed We Make It Better. Archambeau’s work has been favorably reviewed in global and national literary publications and she has been a featured speaker at national and global Pride literary events. Her book was included as part of the Oakland Museum of California store’s Queer California Exhibit and she is a founding member of the James Hormel LGBT wing of the SF Public Library.

Michael Larsen co-founded  Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents in 1972. Over four decades, the agency sold hundreds of books to more than 100 publishers and imprints. The agency has stopped accepting new writers, but Mike loves helping  all writers. He gives talks about writing and publishing, and does author coaching. He wrote  How to Write a Book Proposal and  How to Get a Literary Agent, and co-authored  Guerrilla Marketing for Writers. Mike is co-director of the San Francisco Writers Conference and the San Francisco Writing for Change Conference.

Rose Castillo Guilbault is the author of the highly acclaimed memoir Farmworker’s Daughter: Growing Up Mexican In America. Her essays have been published in dozens of textbooks and anthologies. She also wrote the book The Latina’s Guide to Success In the Workplace. Rose was the first Hispanic columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle; her column “Hispanic USA” was honored by a number of journalistic and community organizations. A longtime television journalist, she was awarded an EMMY for her work. Ms. Castillo Guilbault was featured in the award-winning book Latinas and Their Muses. Her community activities include Chair of the Commonwealth Club of California’s board of directors and serving as a judge on the Book Awards Committee for several years.

 

ENTER the 2021 Effie Lee Morris Literary Contest – HERE!

Featured Member Interview

 BOOKTALK! The Buzz in the World of Books

Featured Member Interview – 
Melissa Kirk

Editor “Grows” Food and Authors

by Nita Sweeney  

Mental health is close to my heart…

Nita Sweeney (NS):  I must dive right in and ask what drew you to work with psychology and wellness professionals and what keeps you leaning toward people in that field?

Melissa Kirk (MK): It was kind of fate, actually. I had always been interested in mental health. I’d struggled with depression as a kid (still sometimes do) and had always felt drawn to understanding psychology and writing about wellness. I used to write zines and blog posts about my personal experiences with mental health issues.

After college I got a job as an editorial assistant at Jossey-Bass (now Wiley, in San Francisco), but after I made Assistant Editor, there was nowhere for me to go, so I started looking for a new job. I saw an editor position listed at New Harbinger Publications, a self-help and psychology publisher in Oakland, and applied. I was shocked when they asked me for an interview! It was just a lark to even apply.

But I (obviously) got it and it was the perfect job for me for at least a decade: I spent most of my 13 years there reading and researching psychology topics and working with psychology professionals. I learned a lot; I sometimes joke that, considering all the self-help books I’ve read, I should be much saner than I am!

So, when I started my own business, it made sense to make that my niche.

I see so much emotional struggle in the world, and not a lot of effective support for those of us who need to work with our brains every day to stay on an even keel. People who can be honest about themselves, who are self-aware, and who want to keep growing emotionally are my people. I feel safest with them because I know they’re less likely to judge or criticize me for my mistakes (and vice-versa, I hope!) I enjoy working with people in this field; psychology professionals, by and large, really care for others and want to help people create better lives for themselves.

NS: You bring a long history of writing world experience and strong interest in the wellness and psychology field to your clients. What other je ne sais quoi, secret sauce, or distinction have your clients come to love about you?

MK:  My clients seem to really appreciate that I offer constructive criticism with honesty but also kindness, and that I make concrete suggestions for next steps. Because I’ve been in this business for a while, I can usually help a client find a way to pivot if necessary, in order to meet their goals for their project. And because I know how things really work (the good and the bad), I can lead my clients on the path to meeting their goals, but I can also tell them if a goal is unrealistic and what a more realistic path might be. I really strive for honesty, even when it’s challenging to tell someone I’m not sure their book idea is going to work out as they’ve conceptualized it. I’d want someone to be that honest with me. 

To read more click HERE!

Featured Member Interview – Geri Spieler

Interview by  Nita Sweeney

Self-Proclaimed “Political Junkie” Reveals Her Writing Secrets

The members of the Women’s National Book Association of San Francisco come from a variety of backgrounds and careers. I’m grateful for the opportunity to ask questions of smart, successful authors like Geri Spieler. Every interview provides splendid takeaways. I hope you enjoy the ones I heard in our conversation.

Nita Sweeney (NS): What draws you to the type of writing you do?

Geri Spieler (GS): I’m strictly nonfiction. Fiction is much too difficult for me. I’m sure it has to do with being a newspaper reporter and total political junkie. My book, Taking Aim at the President: The Remarkable Story of the Woman Who Shot at Gerald Ford, was written in the creative nonfiction genre. It was very difficult for me to write it the way I wanted–like a novel but, entirely nonfiction. I took writing courses to understand things like “scene.” I hired a number of editors along the way.

NS: Your publication credentials are impressive. Please tell us how you got started and what helped you land those projects.

GS: Thanks. My interest in writing started with an awareness of news and politics. My grandmother was a Holocaust survivor in that she realized early on things were going downhill for the Jews in Poland. She left before it got really bad and tried to convince her siblings to come with her to the states. They thought she was over reacting and hence were killed by the Nazis. She taught me early on to pay attention to the government because things can get very bad and you need to be alert. My mother was a political junkie and she taught me the same lessons. 

To read more click HERE!

10 Goals for Writers for 2020

By Debra Eckerling, author of Your Goal Guide: A Roadmap for Setting, Planning and Achieving Your Goals (January 2020)

It’s an opportunity to jump into new writing projects … and perhaps revisit some old ones. Whether your long-term goal is to sell a manuscript, get an agent, or break into a new publication, start by setting some short-term writing goals. 

I’ve made it easy, and listed some goals to get you started. Keep the ones that resonate, tweak the ones that don’t quite hit the spot, and add new ones that will help you reach your long-term goals.

Here are 10 goals to set you up for writing success in 2020.

  1. Journal Regularly. I’m not going to say journal daily, because for most people that’s not realistic. However, you can make some time for journaling. Spend 5 or 10 minutes, a few days a week, brainstorming your projects, retelling funny people-watching stories, or sharing thoughts of what’s going on in your life. A journal is multipurpose, in that it’s a tracking document for what’s going on in your life, personally, professionally, and creatively. Use it as such.
  2. Research. This is going to be the year you get a leg up as a professional writer, right? Well, if what you’ve been doing is not quite working, try something new. Research new publications, agents, and professional development groups. And don’t stop there. Write a pitch, send a book proposal, go out networking, or all of the above. You never know where research and new connections may lead.
  3. Explore a New Genre or Format. Just like researching new places and people to pitch, why not switch up your writing too. Are you a horror writer? Try writing something personal. A technical writer? Give poetry a try. Here’s a secret, this is for fun. You don’t have to show your work to anyone, unless of course you love it and you want to. 
  4. Learn. There is no shortage of continuing education opportunities for writers, both in person and online. Find a conference or workshop to attend. Even better, offer to volunteer at one. By working at an event, you will make even more connections, in addition to learning new things.
  5. Do Something Creative. What – besides writing – gets your creative juices flowing? Painting? Playing or listening to music? Cooking? Gardening? Dancing? If you don’t have a go-to creative outlet beyond writing, it’s time to find one. Try new things throughout the year, and stick with the ones that resonate.

To read more click HERE!

The Power of the “To Write” List: List-Making as a Writing Prompt Tool

by Nita Sweeney, award-winning wellness author of Depression Hates a Moving Target and coauthor of You Should Be Writing

You’ve heard of the “To Do” list, but what about the “To Write” list? It can be a powerful tool in your writing kit.

• The Back of the Writing Journal

I learned about “To Write” lists from best-selling author Natalie Goldberg, of Writing Down the Bones fame. As I sat in the classroom at Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, New Mexico, I watched her pick up her writing journal, flip to the back, and show us a list of scrawled topics she’d penned on the final page. She carried a notebook everywhere and jotted ideas on the back page as they occurred to her. “If I’m stuck, I look at these,” she said.

While I’d read about these lists in Natalie’s books, to see the real thing left quite an impression.

I began to do as she did and still carry a notebook at all times. When I’m at a loss for a writing topic, I flip to the back, pick one, and go!

• List-Making Exercises

But what really stuck with me were the list-making exercises Natalie led. 

In her strong Brooklyn accent, Nat might say, “Tell me every lunch you’ve ever eaten. Ten minutes. Go!” Off we would jump, deep into the pages of our writing journals, pens flying as we wrote about chicken cordon bleu, pasta primavera, and French fries with ketchup.

To the fiction writers, she suggested writing these lists from the point of view of a character. “Tell me everything Hester Prynne ever ate.”

The topics Natalie offered varied, but here are a few of my favorites:

  • The things I carry (a spin-off from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien).
  • Write the name of every place you’ve ever been
  • List every member of your family
  • Make a list of everyone you’ve ever met
  • Write the names of all your pets
  • Describe every car you’ve ever owned and tell what happened to it
  • Write a list of every home in which you have lived
  • List all your loves
  • Tell me everything you know about the color blue (or the sky or a rock)

To read more click HERE!

 

WNBA-SF 2020-2022 BOARD

President: Elise Marie Collins
Vice President: Renee Jadushlever
Vice President: Earlita Chenault
Treasurer: A Leslie Noble
Secretary: Kathleen Archambeau
Membership Chair: Julianne Reidy
Board Development: Sheryl Bize-Boutte
Past President: Brenda Knight
Member at Large: Fran Quittel, Marketing
Member at Large: Mary Volmer, Events Co-chair
Member at Large: Nicole Wong, Events Co-Chair
Member at Large: Joan Gelfand

Communications
Social Media Manager: Elise Marie Collins
Web Editor: Sue Wilhite
Newsletter Editors: Brenda Knight & Nita Sweeney
Featured Member Interview Editor: Nita Sweeney
Bookwoman Correspondent: Jennifer Griffith
Webmaster: Linda Lee

Mailing address: 

4061 E. Castro Valley Blvd.
Castro Valley, CA 94552-4840

The Women’s National Book Association has been a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) member of the United Nations since 1959. A NGO is defined as “any non-profit, voluntary citizens’ group that is organized on a local, national or international level.”  

WNBA-the National Organization 

The Women’s National Book Association, established in 1917, before women in America had the right to vote.

The WNBA’s founding idea—that books have power and that those involved in their creation gain strength from joining forces—reaches across the decades to now serve members in 11 chapters across the country and network members in between.  
Read More…

Check out: NEW NATIONAL DIRECTORY!

DIRECTORY HOME | DIRECTORY LOGIN

You must be an ACTIVE MEMBER to be listed in the new directory and have login access to your personal profile and all other members.

 
 
 

Featured Member Interview – Melissa Kirk

By

Editor “Grows” Food and Authors

by Nita Sweeney, author of the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink. 

Mental health is close to my heart…

Nita Sweeney (NS):  I must dive right in and ask what drew you to work with psychology and wellness professionals and what keeps you leaning toward people in that field?

Melissa Kirk (MK): It was kind of fate, actually. I had always been interested in mental health. I’d struggled with depression as a kid (still sometimes do) and had always felt drawn to understanding psychology and writing about wellness. I used to write zines and blog posts about my personal experiences with mental health issues.

After college I got a job as an editorial assistant at Jossey-Bass (now Wiley, in San Francisco), but after I made Assistant Editor, there was nowhere for me to go, so I started looking for a new job. I saw an editor position listed at New Harbinger Publications, a self-help and psychology publisher in Oakland, and applied. I was shocked when they asked me for an interview! It was just a lark to even apply.

But I (obviously) got it and it was the perfect job for me for at least a decade: I spent most of my 13 years there reading and researching psychology topics and working with psychology professionals. I learned a lot; I sometimes joke that, considering all the self-help books I’ve read, I should be much saner than I am!

So, when I started my own business, it made sense to make that my niche.

I see so much emotional struggle in the world, and not a lot of effective support for those of us who need to work with our brains every day to stay on an even keel. People who can be honest about themselves, who are self-aware, and who want to keep growing emotionally are my people. I feel safest with them because I know they’re less likely to judge or criticize me for my mistakes (and vice-versa, I hope!) I enjoy working with people in this field; psychology professionals, by and large, really care for others and want to help people create better lives for themselves.

NS: You bring a long history of writing world experience and strong interest in the wellness and psychology field to your clients. What other je ne sais quoi, secret sauce, or distinction have your clients come to love about you?

MK:  My clients seem to really appreciate that I offer constructive criticism with honesty but also kindness, and that I make concrete suggestions for next steps. Because I’ve been in this business for a while, I can usually help a client find a way to pivot if necessary, in order to meet their goals for their project. And because I know how things really work (the good and the bad), I can lead my clients on the path to meeting their goals, but I can also tell them if a goal is unrealistic and what a more realistic path might be. I really strive for honesty, even when it’s challenging to tell someone I’m not sure their book idea is going to work out as they’ve conceptualized it. I’d want someone to be that honest with me. 

NS: Let’s hop back a decade. In 2010, you co-authored a book titled Depression 101: A Practical Guide to Treatments, Self-Help Strategies, and Preventing Relapse. How did that come about and what role has it played, if any, in your professional journey?

MK:  I was working at New Harbinger as an acquisitions and developmental editor, and we had come up with an idea for a series of small introductory books on common mental health diagnoses.  John Preston was one of our most valued authors–he has since passed–and we had the idea of having his name on the book. At the time, or maybe we found out after we pitched the book idea to him, he was struggling with some major health issues, so when the team talked about possibly finding someone to co-write the book (and having John vet it), I signed up. I loved working with John, and I had personal experience with depression, so it was an easy project. The book sold “just OK” (I think I make about $23/year), but it’s definitely helped my credibility. It’s a good book on understanding depression, if I do say so myself!

NS: Switching gears again, tell us about your vegetables. Growing food has found a resurgence. What’s your favorite crop and when did you realize it was something you loved?

MK: I’ve been growing vegetables since I was a kid. My mom always had veggies growing in the yard and at a young age I took to the natural world like a duck to water. I was very shy and didn’t have a ton of friends, so I spent a lot of my childhood alone, and played in our garden a LOT…. building fairy villages in among the plants, paying attention to the plants as they grew, plucking tomatoes and beans from the vine for my lunch. Nurturing plants is just like breathing to me. It’s in my DNA, literally.

I take comfort in the resurgence of kitchen gardens. We should develop the ability to support ourselves, at least somewhat. I think nurturing plants helps us develop empathy for all of life and facing gardening frustrations helps us with problem-solving. I hope this “trend” becomes more than just a trend; gardening is one of my major passions. I would love to work in some kind of plant or gardening aspect, even if it doesn’t have anything to do with writing or editing!

I really love growing tomatoes. I adore them–I love the taste, the smell of the plants, and how they grow. This summer was the worst tomato year I’ve had in a decade. It’s been depressing on top of everything else 2020 has wrought! I’m trying to take it as a message that I need to pay more attention to nurturing my plants.

NS: I’ll hazard a guess that there are parallels between gardening and “cultivating” authors and other business pros. Any you care to share?

MK: Oh, yes, definitely! Also, with friendships. I think once I realized that parallel, I got better at cultivating my relationships, both professionally and personally.

Basically, successful gardening is about paying attention to a lot of factors: soil, water, climate, protecting plants from pests, encouraging beneficial animals and insects, reading the plant in order to understand what it needs. Working with clients, in any capacity, demands the same: you pay attention to multiple factors, and each client has different needs. Clients will only thrive in their work with me if they’re getting what they need. I try to help with that as much as possible. Same with our relationships: we need to pay attention to them and give them what they need in order to thrive.

NS: Has California always been home? Is there anywhere else you would rather live?

MK: I moved to Berkeley when I was 4 and have never lived in any other state for more than a month. My family and friends are here; I have no real desire to leave the state. I do want to leave the Bay Area, though: I’m actively looking for more rural land where I can have more room to grow plants, have more animals, and have the physical space I crave.

In the current climate, I have considered leaving the country, but I honestly can’t think of a place that has more to offer than California. I mean, we can drive 2 hours in any direction and be in a new ecosystem and terrain! I just wish the state didn’t burn down every late summer. I live in a city, so I haven’t been personally threatened by fires, but many friends have.

NS: What about writing or publishing tips to share with our WNBA-SF members? Any “must do” things you recommend?

MK: Generally speaking, for writing:

  • Write to your intended audience, not to yourself, your peers, or colleagues. 
  • For most genres of books: avoid passive voice. This probably in the list of the top 3 things I spend a lot of time fixing in manuscripts.
  • Even in nonfiction, information needs to flow in a way that feels intuitive for the reader and is easy to integrate into their brains. I suspect fiction writers tend to think more about this than nonfiction writers. But it’s always important. 

For publishing, so much depends on how you’re publishing–self-publishing, traditional publishing, or publishing with a hybrid publisher. But in general:

  • Do your research and deeply understand your target audience, the comparative books, how successful authors in comparable genres are marketing themselves, and how your book fits into the niche. 
  • If you want to be successful in any sense, you’ll need to do much of your own marketing. Nobody can talk about and write about their book like the author. If you’re writing a book, take the time to learn basic marketing strategies FAR before the book is due to be published. If you wait until the book is published, it may be too late for many marketing strategies to work. 
  • And remember that marketing is really all about community-building. 
  • If you end up hiring any professional to do work on your book (such as developmental editors, copyeditors, proofreaders, cover designers, and page designers): be ready to pay what those professionals are worth. If you pay $2 for a cover, you’ll get a $2 cover. Many publishing professionals have been doing this work for many, many years and can heighten your book’s quality. I see this conversation often in author communities where people resist paying real money to their editors or cover designers. Some even question why they can’t just do it themselves, and I can tell you: even editors don’t edit their own books. And most author-designed covers (unless the author is a graphic designer) are not good. Don’t think of publishing professionals as afterthoughts; we’re vital collaborators who will help your book’s success. 

NS: Your bio hints about a new book. Would you care to tell us more about that?

MK: Well, let’s just say it’s still mostly just an idea. Even though I’m in publishing and I make my living helping other people get their books published, that doesn’t mean I have the discipline to write a book! I do have most of the intro written.

It’s about relationships, particularly how women can get into patterns of unhealthy relationships and how to get out of that pattern. The book really encourages those who are in that pattern to do some hard soul-searching about their own assumptions and expectations about relationships. It comes from my personal experience with this pattern and with leaving it behind, but as a self-help editor, I’ll obviously include lots of research and possibly even seek a co-author with a professional psychology background.

NS: Do you have anything else on the horizon?

MK: So, so much on the horizon! Professionally I want to do much more video content and also produce some courses and some group coaching opportunities. And I want to write more useful content to offer authors on their various publishing journeys (how to write a book proposal, how to organize a nonfiction book, etc). Funnily enough, with my work with clients, I just never seem to have the time or energy. I’m going to take some time off in October to try to get some of this stuff done.

Personally, I’m looking for rural land in the Sierra foothills where I can expand my gardening and live closer to nature. Typical “city girl goes to the country” stuff. But I feel happier surrounded by trees than surrounded by cars.

NS: And is there anything else you would like to add, anything you wish I had asked?

MK: Your questions have been great!

One thing I see very often in publishing and author communities is that people use the word ‘editor’ without specifying what kind of editor they mean. I’ve seen this in social media postings, job listings, even books about editing. I always point out that there are at least two different kinds of editor, three if you include proofreaders (four if you include video editors, who are becoming more involved in the book industry these days, but I won’t include them in this list).

The types of editors are: 

  • Developmental Editors – They typically take a more birds-eye view of the manuscript and look at the book concept, the organization, whether the writing and elements in the book help the author meet their stated goals, and whether those elements are going to effectively reach the target audience. 
  • Copyeditors – They usually focus on line-level and paragraph-level edits: fixing the writing, correcting grammar and syntax errors, making sure the logic is sound in each sentence, etc. They may also query the author on organizational and thematic questions. 
  • Proofreaders – They focus specifically on fixing errors in the pages, which by then have usually been typeset. Proofreading is usually the last stage before the book goes to the printer (or is uploaded to the e-book service). 

Many editors offer more than one service. I offer developmental editing and copyediting, but not proofreading. I just don’t have the patience. I really value and respect good proofreaders.

I have a goal to educate publishers and authors about the importance of identifying what kind of editing they’re talking about. Probably that’s partly because people typically use the term ‘editing’ to mean copyediting and I always think, “Hey! What about me??”

Melissa Kirk is a developmental editor, writer, book coach, publishing consultant, and agent in the psychology, health, and wellness genre. She works with wellness entrepreneurs who are ready to level up their businesses by creating engaging writing and video about how to live better and healthier lives. She has been working in publishing for 20 years in editorial and acquisitions, including 13 years at New Harbinger Publications where she grew to love the wisdom that comes from studying human psychology. She has been running her own business, Words to Honey Content Services, for 4 years, working with psychology and wellness professionals to get their messages out to the people who need to hear them. In her leisure time, she grows vegetables and is working on a book about her own quantum leap towards mental wellness. Her website is: https://wordstohoney.com/

Featured Member Interview – Barbara Brooker

By

Anti-Ageism Activist Urges Everyone to Celebrate “Age Pride!”

by Nita Sweeney, author of the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink. 

I hope WNBA-SF members reading this interview hear the way Barbara Brooker’s energy and passion pulsed through our conversation. What a tremendous opportunity to learn from a woman determined to make her dreams come true!

Nita Sweeney (NS): You are an anti-ageism activist who founded the first “Age March.” What brought you to that role?

Barbara Brooker (BB): I am 83, and want to be a movie star. I am on the path of dreams. For decades I have experienced ageism. When I was thirty-five, single, divorced I went back to college. I wanted to be an author and teacher. I was forced to wear a nametag marked “Re-Entry Woman.” I earned my MFA/Teaching Credential and published my first novel at fifty. I was told I was too old to hold a tenure position. Each decade, I have written stories about my personal experiences about ageism. Like racism, ageism for all ages is worse than ever. We have gay pride globally so why not “Age Pride?”

So, I founded www.agemarch.org, and produced the first age march in history—a march to celebrate age pride for all ages, race, sexuality, genders, and to promote a generation where numbers don’t count. I have produced three marches and hope that some organization or foundation will take it over and like gay pride, and that “Age March” will go global and grow every year.

Please endorse and put your names on www.agemarch.org. You can see the former march videos on the press button. You can also see TV interviews and press about it on my website, www.barbararosebrooker.com.

NS: Do you have any thoughts about the “OK Boomer” meme?

BB: What is “OK Boomer?” But I will tell you that I detest labels—senior, elder, age appropriate, boomer—all of it. Labels segregate people. We’re people. Why do we need these labels which are only for product, profit and a billion-dollar business?

NS: How does your passion about this topic influence your writing?

BB: Writing is expressing your inner life as well as a story. My emotions and passion about any discrimination, especially ageism, which affects all communities from the LGBTQIA, to Hispanic, African American, Asian, causes isolation, low self-esteem, and marginalization.

NS: Your new novel, Love, Sometimes, is receiving early praise and your previous novel, The Viagra Diaries, also garnered tremendous reviews. What has been your most treasured writing-related accomplishment?

BB: I have published thirteen books. Each one is a different growth and part of me. Particularly, I honor God Doesn’t Make Trash, my memoir about the first women and men in San Francisco who had AIDS. Next, I am most proud of Love, Sometimes. For two years or more, I existed under the surface of the book, into the protagonist’s psyche, to show that at all ages we can find our true selves and authentic voices.

I’d so appreciate it for those of you who buy and read the book, if you’d post reviews on Amazon. As the publishers are watching and I want to show other women in their seventies, eighties, etc., that anything is possible at any age.

NS: Tell us something about your latest novel, Love, Sometimes, we would not know from reading the jacket copy?

BB: It is very much a coming of age story for a 68-year-old woman. It is about a woman’s inner struggle, her regrets, buried pain and denial, and how through her experiences with the ageist Hollywood networks, and falling in love, she sheds her quest for fame, Hollywood, and identifies and finds her own true values.

NS: You have taught writing for decades. How did you begin teaching and can you share some outstanding moments from that part of your life?

BB: Every moment I have and still am. Teaching writing classes is a highlight of my life. First, I consider it collaborating with men and women who have hidden voices, or stories that they want to tell. I first started teaching, in the early nineties at San Francisco State University extended learning and then continued until now teaching at SFSU/OLLI to men and women over sixty who have always wanted to write a book but think they’re too old. I see miracles. As a result of my work with them, several of my former and present students have and are publishing books. It’s a constant joy and birth and I believe that our stories document life and our true legacy.

NS: More recently you have begun working with writers who have stage four cancer. Will you share an important moment from that experience?

BB: For years I have trained and volunteered at SF SHANTI-a place that helps the marginalized, those with HIV, cancer and other illnesses. It is a glorious safe haven and all the moments our support group is together are very important.

What’s really important is that we bond and share trust and friendships and support. It was very moving when the women wrote letters to cancer and trust me to put them into a book. I too am a cancer survivor and I want to inspire those women who have stage four cancers and we inspire each other.
 
NS: If you could give the WNBA-SF members your best piece of advice (writing or otherwise) what would it be?

BB: Be true to yourself. Accept yourself, who you are. Celebrate your authentic voices. As far as writing, I say just write whatever you feel and don’t think about workshop rules, grammar and all that. Break the rules. It’s the emotions that drive the writing.

NS: The media loves you. Do you have any tips on how to garner the kind of tremendous media appearances you have achieved?

BB: You know it’s been a long journey and I don’t have a publicist—can’t afford one—but I have been very persistent, collecting names, e-mails pitching, etc. If you believe in yourself and keep doing it, someone will respond. Then you build on it. Also, you have the internet and there are many ways to post your platform on social networking.

NS: You are a busy woman! Is there anything else on the horizon?

BB: I have a podcast in process called “RANT” about ageism in our anti-age culture. I plan on speaking around the country. A TV series is in the works on my novel, The Viagra Diaries and Love, Sometimes is also being considered.
 
NS: Is there anything I did not ask that you would like to share with the WNBA-SF members?

BB: I am glad I’m a member. I hope I will meet the people in the San Francisco branch where I live.

 

Barbara Rose Brooker, MA, is an age activist, teacher, painter, poet, and author. She has published 13 books, won a National Library Award for her poetry, and has appeared often on “The Today Show,” “The Talk,” “ET” and Andy Cohen’s, “Watch What Happens Live.” Also a columnist, she has published “Boomer in the City” for the JWeekly and the Huffington Post. Currently she teaches writing at San Francisco State/OLLI, and holds private writing workshops for clients and students over 50. She believes, anyone at any age can write and publish a book. She is the founder of agemarch.org, the first march in history to celebrate age pride! Barbara lives in San Francisco, has two daughters, and loves dogs. She is at work on a book of short stories about aging with glamour and never giving up on dreams. She also volunteers and teaches writing at San Francisco SHANTI, an organization helping women with stage 4 cancer.

For more information, visit her websites: www.barbararosebrooker.com and www.agemarch.org.

Featured Member Interview – Annemarie O’Brien

By

Desire to Share Overseas Experiences Prompts Dog-Lover to Write

by Nita Sweeney, author of the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink. 

Each time I interview a WNBA-SF member, the opportunity reminds me how fortunate we are to be part of a group of such interesting women. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Annemarie O’Brien and learn as much from her as I did.

Nita Sweeney (NS): As a fellow dog-lover, I must ask about yours. Please tell us about your dogs.

Annemarie O’Brien (AO):  When I wrote Lara’s Gift, I had two borzoi, Zola and Zar. They inspired the key fictional canine characters in Lara’s Gift of the same name. Borzoi are also known as Russian wolfhounds. They were the dogs of the Tsar during the Imperial era and considered a national treasure. They are very tall, slender, super-fast dogs that belong to the sight hound group. The Tsar and his court used them to hunt wolves. Today, many Russians use them to hunt hare. Beyond the squirrels who dare to steal fruit from the trees in my garden, neither of my borzoi hunt. Unfortunately, Zola passed away two years ago. She was a sweet, outgoing borzoi with a golden retriever personality. To keep Zar company we now have a silken windhound named Zeus. This is a newer breed of sighthounds developed in California, I believe, that looks like a miniature borzoi. Both of my dogs like to go to Stinson Beach and play tag with other dogs. They are both loyal and great companions.

NS: Each of your dogs sounds lovely. I’m sorry to hear about Zola. Our pets are such gifts. Changing the subject a bit, can you tell us more about Lara’s Gift, perhaps something that isn’t in the blurb?

AO: Lara’s Gift is a girl empowerment, father-daughter, historical fiction, dog story for young adults. It is set in Russia in the early 1900s during the Imperial era. The main character, Lara, wants to breed borzoi worthy of the Tsar, just like her father and her ancestors have done for hundreds of years. Lara has a special gift, or sixth sense as I’d liked to call it, regarding the borzoi such that she sees things before they happen. I got the idea from my own sixth-sense sort of experiences I had with my first childhood dog, Emma. Once when she was at a kennel while we were on vacation, I had a strong feeling that she had escaped and was lost. I begged my parents to call the kennel to check on her, but they assured me that there was no way she could escape from the kennel. Sure enough, when we picked her up upon our return, they told my parents that she had escaped and had, indeed, been lost on the same morning I had felt that something was wrong. I have other examples I could share, but I think you get the point. Well, as I researched these types of things in Russia, I learned that there was no real word in Russian for ‘sixth-sense’ and that what was more common were visions. If you read Nabokov’s memoir, you will learn that he had visions. I have dozens of other sources of Russians during this period who claimed to have visions, as well. My choice to add visions to Lara’s story reflects what people in Russia believed at that time. It is not intended to be fantastical.

NS: How interesting that dogs have played such an important role all of your life. Your bio explains that you worked in Russia which inspired the setting for Lara’s Gift. Which part were you in? 

AO: I spent about ten years in Russia. In my early years, I worked as a consultant for Soviet small businesses interested in doing business in the United States and Europe. Because of all the contacts I developed, I started a venture capital group in Philadelphia with three other people that established one of the first oil and gas joint ventures. I also launched Bill Blass menswear in Moscow. It produced $25,000 in the first hour of opening at a time when hard currency wasn’t legal. 
When USAID provided technical assistance to Russia to set up a privatization and capital markets program, I joined the PriceWaterhouseCoopers team as an economics advisor to the Russian government. I travelled all over Russia to cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg, Petrozavodsk, and Irkutsk, as well as former Soviet republics like Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. During this time, I lived in Moscow, Russia and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. It was the greatest adventure of my life.

NS: What was your favorite thing about the country?

AO: There are a number of things I adore about Russia. But my favorite would have to be the people. I have never met a more well-read, intellectual, resourceful, salt-of-the-earth group of people anywhere else in the world. When I lived there, so many people had PhDs and valued books and their friendships. Their homes (one-bedroom apartments) often consisted of one or two walls of floor to ceiling bookcases for their beloved books. In space that was limited a good chunk of it was reserved for books. Russians somehow found happiness without materialism and showed me what was important by the way they lived. Their values regarding education shaped me tremendously. A lot has changed since I lived in Russia during the 80s and 90s. I like to think that Russians still value books.

NS: Are there other things about the time you spent in Russia that inspire your life or work?

AO: I became a writer because of an experience I had in Russia. Lara’s Gift is the first part of the bigger story I want to tell from this experience. I don’t want to reveal too much about this experience or story just yet. What I can say is that it will be my best story because it comes from my deepest passion.

NS: Have you always wanted to be a writer?

AO: No. When I was in middle school, I took an aptitude test that pointed me to three potential careers: writer, veterinarian, and engineer. The veterinarian option seemed likely and was exactly what I wanted to be until I discovered I didn’t like blood and saw a veterinarian try to spay a male dog. That’s right, a spay, not a neuter. I come from a family of engineers so the engineer option didn’t seem far-fetched. But the writer option? I seriously thought that that had been a mistake. It wasn’t until decades later when I worked overseas that my interest in writing took root. It was because of these overseas experiences I was having and my desire to share them that turned me into a writer.

NS: What is the most difficult part about writing for you?

AO: Time. I work full-time for Bio-Rad in marketing where I create stories and the branding/communications for my division. I’m also a soccer mom with two daughters who aspire to play soccer in college. In the fall of 2020, my oldest daughter will play for the University of Portland where World Cup legends like Megan Rapinoe played. The dogs need exercise so it’s my job, despite promises from my kids, to walk them three miles every day. After I take care of everyone, it’s a challenge to carve out time to write. But I put it on my calendar and hold myself to it. Fortunately, I never get writer’s block. When I sit down to write, I know I have to use my time efficiently, so I don’t waste it. If I have a hard getting back into my story, I read and revise the last thing I wrote. It always jumpstarts the ideas and gets the fingers moving!

NS: What is the most surprising thing you discovered while writing?

AO: When I was getting my MFA, I attended a lecture about theme. The person giving the talk had said, “The theme of your story will often come well after you’ve completed your story.” Really, I thought? Wouldn’t I know the theme as I’m writing? I recall thinking this didn’t make sense until I was in the second round of revision edits with my editor at Knopf. That’s when it dawned on me what the theme of my story really was about: girl empowerment. 
In another lecture, the speaker stopped me when she said, “There’s a little bit of ourselves in the characters we create.” Even if I’m writing historical fiction, I wondered? My character, Lara and I had nothing in common besides our love of dogs. 
After I turned in my manuscript for publication it surprised me to discover how closely Lara’s struggle with her father mirrored my own childhood struggle with my father. Although my father always told me that I could do anything I wanted, if I put my mind to it, he also didn’t think I needed to go to college. He came from a generation that believed women got married and would be taken care of by their husbands. Luckily, I was able to persuade him that I had another plan and got to go college and get two master’s degrees.

NS: Do you have a personal writing tip you would care to share with the WNBA-SF members?

AO: Read like a writer, write like a reader. Read or listen to books on audio while you’re driving, exercising or doing chores every day. Put writing on your calendar and guard this time. Join a writing group. There’s nothing like community to help you develop your craft.

NS: That’s great advice. Thank you. Are you working on something new you would like to tell us about?

AO: I am nearly finished drafting a rhyming picture book. An early draft of it was a finalist at a recent SCBWI conference. 

NS: Congratulations! Any other projects in the offing?

AO: I also co-wrote a young adult/crossover book that’s on submission. It’s about a Thai girl who is sold into slavery by her uncle and how she escapes and starts a new life. I spent some time in Thailand and feel very strongly about empowering girls and preventing human trafficking. My co-author is a Thai-American writer who works for a non-profit that helps to educate Thai girls that are at risk of trafficking. It was wonderful collaboration. 

NS: What a worthy cause. You stay busy. Any others?

AO: I am currently working on a middle grade novel, the one that inspired me to become a writer.

NS: I look forward to seeing that as well. Thanks so much, Annemarie, for taking the time to share your experiences and insights.

  1. Annemarie O’Brien writes books for young adults. She is the author of the debut middle grade novel, Lara’s Gift, published by Alfred A. Knopf of Penguin Random House with subsidiary rights to Scholastic.  Lara’s Gift is a girl empowerment story set in imperial Russia. It is also a dog story inspired from a former life when Annemarie worked in Russia and was gifted her first borzoi puppy.  Lara’s Gift has received starred reviews from School Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews among other accolades.

    Annemarie grew up in Northampton, Massachusetts, attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where she earned a BBA in marketing and economics, and studied Russian at Smith College. She later earned an MBA in international business from the University of South Carolina and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Today, Annemarie lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her family. She is a global marketing manager and teaches writing courses at UC Berkeley Extension, Stanford Continuing Studies, and Pixar.

    Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/AnnemarieOBrienAuthor/), Twitter (@AnnemarieOBrien) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemarieobrienauthor/).

    Learn more about Annemarie O’Brien by visiting her website. (www.AnnemarieOBrienAuthor.com )

Featured Member Interview – Geri Spieler

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Self-Proclaimed “Political Junkie” Reveals Her Writing Secrets

by Nita Sweeney, author of the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink. 

The members of the Women’s National Book Association of San Francisco come from a variety of backgrounds and careers. I’m grateful for the opportunity to ask questions of smart, successful authors like Geri Spieler. Every interview provides splendid takeaways. I hope you enjoy the ones I heard in our conversation.

Nita Sweeney (NS): I have to start by asking about the ten chickens and 19 fruit trees . . . in Palo Alto. Surely there’s a story there!

 

Geri Spieler (GS): Ha. There is a story. As for the fruit trees, we live on a double lot on a corner so we have some room. The house came with six fruit trees. It was wonderful to be able to go outside and pick fruit, so I started planting additional trees with different fruit. I kept adding until now, we don’t have any more room.
As for the chickens, my husband can’t tolerate any kind of dander in the house. It’s way beyond allergies. I was raised with all kinds of animals and need them to define myself. Chickens produce amazing fresh, organic eggs, I don’t have to walk them and I can pick them up and cuddle them. They get to know you and respond. We started with three and it’s grown to ten. I take their welfare seriously because they are vulnerable to predators. 

NS: What draws you to the type of writing you do?

GS: I’m strictly nonfiction. Fiction is much too difficult for me. I’m sure it has to do with being a newspaper reporter and total political junkie. My book, Taking Aim at the President: The Remarkable Story of the Woman Who Shot at Gerald Ford, was written in the creative nonfiction genre. It was very difficult for me to write it the way I wanted–like a novel but, entirely nonfiction. I took writing courses to understand things like “scene.” I hired a number of editors along the way.

NS: Your publication credentials are impressive. Please tell us how you got started and what helped you land those projects.

GS: Thanks. My interest in writing started with an awareness of news and politics. My grandmother was a Holocaust survivor in that she realized early on things were going downhill for the Jews in Poland. She left before it got really bad and tried to convince her siblings to come with her to the states. They thought she was over reacting and hence were killed by the Nazis. She taught me early on to pay attention to the government because things can get very bad and you need to be alert. My mother was a political junkie and she taught me the same lessons. 

I realized pretty fast that if an event did not get covered in the press it might as well not have happened at all. I wanted to have that control, so to speak. I was always interested in news and politics. 

Landing projects was sheer chutzpa. I often went after jobs and assignments by pushing my way into a role. I always say that I wanted something so bad I had fire in the belly. It takes that to make a success in any form of writing or job. You have to want something and do whatever it takes to “get it.” I talked my way into many of my news jobs and did whatever I had to do to get published. It’s all about clips.

NS: Taking Aim at the President has been optioned for a major motion picture. How did that come about and what has that process meant for you?

GS: I need to remind people that I didn’t write the screenplay or do anything but research and write the book. It was published by Macmillan in 2009.

My fabulous literary agent, Sharlene Martin, worked very hard to get the attention of the movie and cable industry with no luck. I did a lot of outreach at first but slacked off after a while. I had people approach me to who wanted to make a documentary about Sara Jane Moore, others who said they would make a movie, but nothing ever came of it.

So, when I got the contact from my website from some guy named Andrew Logan, I passed it along to her as usual with no thought that it would not go anywhere. Half an hour after I sent her the note, she called. “Geri, these guys are the real deal.” It took nine months to negotiate the contract, so that gives you an idea of how long it takes to make a major motion picture. 

These are the screen writers for the movie, Chappaquiddick, so, have a track record. They won several awards for their screenplay for that movie. They didn’t even start working on the Taking Aim screenplay for two years. Nothing in the contract says they have to consult with me, but they have involved me in writing the screenplay. They are super nice and very generous with the process. 

The movie is still on track, but I don’t think about it. Who knows how long it will take? I know everything could fall apart at any time. However, it really is a kick to have my book optioned for a movie.  

NS: Do you have a writing quirk we wouldn’t know by reading your biography? If so, do you feel it helps you in some way? 

GS: I have a timer on my desk set for 45 minutes. I can do nothing except my writing task during that time frame. After about 45 minutes I get up or check email for just 5 minutes, then go back to work. Our best attention span is somewhere between 11 and 20 minutes at a time. I also organize a ShutUp & Write one night a week. I get a ton done during that one hour. I always have some kind of assignment that I need to accomplish at the MeetUp. I don’t recognize myself if I’m not writing. That’s why I have a blog, contribute to Medium, and link the piece to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

NS: What are you currently reading and why did you choose it? 

GS: Co-incidentally, I’m reading Joan Gelfand’s book, You Can Be a Winning Writer. It’s been on my shelf for many months, staring at me. I need a lot of reinforcement. I need to surround myself with confident and accomplished writers. Her book is helping me a lot. Also, coincidentally it was Joan who encouraged me to join WNBA. 

NS: If you could offer our WNBA-SF members a bit of writing or marketing advice, what would it be?

GS: Never give up and never listen to naysayers. Some people will tell why you won’t get published or why you won’t succeed. Don’t listen to them. Again, I call it the “fire in the belly” syndrome. Believe in yourself. It will happen. 

NS: Do you have any tips as to how you manage what sounds like a full and productive life?

GS: Deadlines. It’s all about deadlines with me. Self-imposed and outside deadlines. Deadlines are what drives my work. I must admit as we don’t have children in the house any longer, it’s a lot easier to control my time. There is always a reason you don’t have time to write today. The old adage that even 15 minutes of writing is true. When I look back, I was working on my book even though I had a full-time job. I was able to have control. Also, I guess I “wanted it” enough to find time. It’s a cliché, but it’s worked for me. Everyone has inside and outside obligations. Each of us has to look at our lives and obligations to see where there are corners one takes.

NS: What is the most interesting writing project you have done to date and why? 

 GS: I’m a full-time freelance writer these days and only to take assignments I like. I love research and also teach Internet Research skills. So far, I have loved writing for Truthdig.com, a news and opinion website, much like ProPublica. Their stories require a lot of research. I’ve a written a number of fascinating assignments. They are great to work with. But I haven’t done anything for the past several months as I’m “heads down” working on my new book.

NS: What’s next for you? Tell us about the new book!

GS: I never thought there would ever be another book. I always said and still do, books take too long to write, and they are very difficult. Taking Aim was brought about by circumstance. There wasn’t going to be a situation where I knew a potential presidential assassin for 27 years. However, as it happens, I am working on a new book, again, due to circumstance. My husband, Rick Kaplowitz, is my co-author. The working title is San Francisco Values: The Real Story. This book began when Bill O’Reilly said, “Al Qaida, you can come and bomb Coit Tower and no one will care.” San Francisco Values became a pejorative. I will counter that with San Francisco Values as American values.

NS: Is there anything else you would like to share with the members?

GS: I think it’s important not to compare yourself to others. I have to be careful not to because I’ll come up feeling “less than.” There are always others who are more successful, better marketers, and seem to have it all figured out. The truth is, I could never write your book and you can’t write mine.  I’ve learned it’s important to surround yourself with other writers. I owe a ton to my branch of the California Writers Club, San Francisco/Peninsula. I learned a lot from them and they were there for me in every way. I’m reaching out now to WNBA—long overdue for me.

NS: Thanks so much, Geri, for the inspiration.

  1. Geri Spieler is a former contributor for the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and has written for Forbes. 

    She was a research director for Gartner, a global technology advising company and edited two technology publications for Philips Publishing in Washington DC.

    Also, she is a past president of the San Francisco Peninsula Branch of the California Writers Club. She also is a member of the Internet Society, the Society of Professional Journalists, Author’s Guild, a reviewer for the New York Journal of Books, a member of the National Book Critics Circle and a regular contributor to Truthdig.com, an investigative reporting website. She is also a Signature Blogger for the Huffington Post and a member of Women’s National Book Association.

    Geri is the author of a creative non-fiction book, Taking Aim at the President: The Remarkable Story of the Woman Who Shot at Gerald Ford, which was published by Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press and has been optioned for a major motion picture by the award-winning screenwriters Andrew Logan and Taylor Allen.

    Currently she lives in Palo Alto with her husband, ten chickens and 19 fruit trees.

    Contact Geri at gspieler@gmail.com

    Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009876341086

    Twitter https://twitter.com/home

    LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/geri-spieler-32675391/

    Blog https://gerispieler.com/blog/

Featured Member Interview – Sheryl Bize-Boutte

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A Rich Retirement: Sheryl Bize-Boutte Proves It’s Never Too Late for the Write Words

by Nita Sweeney, author of the running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink. 

One of the many joys of participating in the Women’s National Book Association of San Francisco is the opportunity to learn from talented, successful authors such a Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte. As could be expected from even a quick review of her work, Sheryl provided generous, insightful answers to my questions.

NS: You enjoyed a rich work-life before you turned to writing full-time. Did your work experience prepare you for this phase of your career?

SJBB: The two things my work experience did for my writing career were 1) to provide a nice retirement with freedom to write and 2) to let me know that I could write in many different forms. In those ways the career off-ramp was totally worth it. Although I wrote a bit now and then throughout my government career, my work-related writing was often lauded and I became the “writer” in the office. I once wrote a section of congressional testimony for a cabinet level secretary that was delivered to the House without one word being changed. That sealed it for me. I knew what I would be doing in my retirement!

NS: Your work has won some impressive awards. Have those helped further your writing career?

SJBB: Awards are impressive to some and I am sure have caught the eye of readers and some important people in the writing game. But I have found that much of my recognition and furtherance as a writer has been a result of my readings, involvement in the writing community and face-to-face casual literary encounters out there in the world of writing. I don’t write for the award of it. I write for the love of it. I think people feel my love of the writing and sometimes that alone makes them want to hear and see more of it.

NS: You have been described as a “talented multidisciplinary writer whose works artfully succeed in getting across deeper meanings about life and the politics of race and economics without breaking out of the narrative.” What did you think when you read this review?

SJBB: I can only surmise that this is what she received from reading my stories. I will say that since an African American mother who was often treated badly because of her skin color, and a Creole father who was often mistaken as White raised me, some may view my writings about my observations of the differences as artful, but for me they are what my life was and is made of. I had an “inside view” so to speak of what it meant to be treated as Black as well as White in Oakland as well as in the South, and since I was an extremely nosey child who listened to and looked closely at everything, I remember it, I kept it and I can write it. As far as the narrative part: My favorite writing form is the short story. I learned a long time ago that be to an effective short story teller one must make each sentence a story in itself, have very few characters and stay on point. 


NS: Which of your many publications made you the proudest and why?

SJBB: I am most proud of my first published story, “Dead Chickens and Miss Anne” as it was the first short story I wrote after I retired and was published by the first and only place I submitted it. In addition to that, the comments about the story included that people felt I had found my voice, but in fact I was humbled to know that I had never lost it.

NS: Much of your work is set in Oakland. Can you talk about why this suits your work?

SJBB: I think Oakland is one of the most vibrant, creative and artistic cities on the planet and I am so fortunate to be here. As I have watched it change, grow, shrink, and morph, it has informed and nurtured my writing from the day my 12-year-old self wrote a story on my new Smith Corona, to now and beyond. My real memory and imaginary muse have their base in Oakland and both remain solid and rich with many more stories to tell.

NS: You successfully write in many genres. Are there common threads among these works?

SJBB: I think the common thread is my unique voice. My way of expression that is just me. I see things in a different way than some. I write with that difference.

NS: Crowds have enjoyed your readings, which were said to “bring down the house.” To what do you attribute your success at such events?

SJBB: I come from a family of voracious readers, storytellers, singers, poets, writers; you name it. One of our favorite pastimes as children was to act out scenes or mimic favorite characters as we told stories. I still do that. I find myself changing tone, pitch and voice when reading, especially poetry where there may be more than one character or message. Audiences are tickled and sometimes enthralled by that or perhaps how much I seem to like what I am saying. But the bigger attribution comes from the fact that I do not see myself as separate from the audience. I am not a presenter. I am a person sharing my life and work with people who have been gracious enough to sit quietly (until the end, hopefully when they applaud raucously) and listen.

NS: Do you have a go-to writing technique that you would care to share with the WNBA-SF members?

SJBB: I am not much on technique but I do have a few habits I follow. I am not afraid of breaks in writing. They provide rest for the imagination and allow words to just “fall out” when they are ready. I do not use $50.00 words when $5.00 words will convey my message and allow me to read it without stumbling. I limit the number of characters in my short stories. If there are too many, then it is easy to “fall out of the narrative” and end up with dribble.

NS: Are you working on any new writing projects?

SJBB: Yes, I am about 75% through the writing of my first novel, “Betrayal on the Bayou.” I am having a blast doing it and even I am wondering what will happen next.

NS: Is there a question I didn’t ask that you would like to answer?

SJBB: No. I think you covered it and I thank you very much.

NS: Thanks so much, Sheryl for your time, insights, and for a behind-the-scenes look at your process!

  1. Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte was born in Berkeley and raised in Oakland, California. Her first published writing experiences began while she was a student at the prestigious Mills College in Oakland as a columnist for the College’s newspaper, and as the youth editor for a local magazine called “Jump Bad.”

    After college she embarked on a 30- year management career with the U.S. Government where she tried to satisfy her need to write by becoming the “go to” person for writing and communication. When that didn’t totally scratch the writing itch, she turned to helping her math-oriented daughter with all of her school writing assignments. During this time her poem “That House” was published by the Poetry Guild’s “Gallery of Artistry.”

    Mercifully, retirement provided the freedom to engage that creative writing gene again, resulting in contributions to Harlequin anthologies “The Dog With The Old Soul” (her story, “The Green Collar”, received a positive mention from Publisher’s Weekly) and “A Kiss Under The Mistletoe”; and, the award winning “The Walrus- A Mills College Literary Journal.”

    Oakland often serves as the backdrop for her always touching and frequently hilarious works. Her first book, A Dollar Five-Stories from A Baby Boomer’s Ongoing Journey (2014) has been described as “rich in vivid imagery”, and “incredible.” Her second book, All That and More’s Wedding (2016), a collection of fictional mystery/crime short stories, is praised as “imaginative with colorful and likeable characters that draw you in to each story and leave you wanting more.” Her latest book, Running for the 2:10 (2017), a follow-on to A Dollar Five, delves deeper into her coming of age in Oakland and the embedded issues of race and skin color with one reviewer calling it “… a great contribution to literature.” In Summer 2019, Medusa’s Laugh Press published her fictional story, “Uncle Martin,” and MoonShine Star Company (Bradford Productions) will publish two more of her short stories in 2020. She is a contributor to award-winning author Kate Farrell’s upcoming book “Story Power,” an anthology on how writers build and create their stories, and has a novel in progress titled “Betrayal on the Bayou,” slated for publication in early 2020.

    An expressive and exciting reader, Sheryl has participated in readings and presentations for the Bay Area Generations literary reading series, the California Writers’ Club, Authors Large and Small, Hayward B Street Writer’s Collective, The Mechanics Institute Library, The Oakland Octopus Literary Salon, and the Mills College annual Writer’s Salon. In 2017 she was selected as the ongoing MC and co-curator for the annual Montclair Library (Oakland) reading and celebration of National Poetry Month, and proudly serves on the board of directors of the Women’s National Book Association-San Francisco Chapter.

    Contact Sheryl at Bize11@Mac.Com

    Follow her blog at http://sjbb-talkinginclass.blogspot.com/

    Check out her author profile on Amazon

    http://www.amazon.com/author/sheryljbizeboutte