BOOKTALK! Archives - Page 5 of 20 - Women's National Book Association, San Francisco Chapter

7 Ways Authors Can Support Their Author Friends: Kindled Spirits

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

As authors, we have an advantage in the online world, whether we realize it or not. Fiction. Nonfiction. Screenwriting. Poetry. Essays. Articles. It applies to all.

In order to connect with our audience, authors must be active on multiple platforms – websites and social media – as well as on live and virtual stages. This leads to a plethora of opportunities to collaborate, support, and highlight our author friends.

When Dr. Meg Haworth (author of Get Well Now; Healing Yourself with Food and The Power of The Mind) interviewed me for her YouTube series in June, I noted how in three months, we will have collaborated five times.

We met when we were interviewed for Ladies Take the Lead: Meet the Authors
We both spoke at Alina Fridman’s Finding Fabulous Summit
Meg was a guest on my live show in May
I will be a guest on her YouTube series in July
We are speaking on a self-care goals panel for the Women’s National Book Association – San Francisco Chapter Lunch N Learn on July 23

As “Kindled Spirits,” as Dr Meg calls it, we know there is more to come.

Here are 7 easy ways authors can support each other through collaboration:

Create a Joint Blog. Writers on the Move is a great example of authors coming together to share their knowledge.
Trade Book Reviews. On Amazon, Goodreads, or write one on your blog.
Do Interview Swaps.This can take place on a blog, live show, video, or podcast.
Spread Social Media Love. Make a point to tweet or post about an author-friend at least once a week … once a day is even better. Share their books, an article, or a photo. You can also take the time to comment on their posts.
Curate Panels and Events.Create events with author friends in mind, so you can ask them to participate.
Send Ideas. Do you receive a newsletter that shares podcast interview opportunities? Are you part of a cool networking group or meetup? Share the deets with author friends who would get the most out of it!
Refer and Recommend. When someone asks for a referral – whether it’s a speaker for an event, a book for a book club, or an author interview – think of who you know who would be a good fit and make an intro. Keep a list of author friends, along with their specialties. Don’t know what they focus on? Just ask.

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As an author, getting out there is a lot about the power of relationships. Authors’ relationships with other authors: priceless!

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How do you support your author friends? What collaboration opportunities get the best results? Please share in the comments.

This article was originally posted on the Writers On the Move Blog: https://www.writersonthemove.com/2021/06/7-ways-authors-can-support-their-author.html

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Goal-Setting expert Debra Eckerling is the award-winning author of Your Goal Guide: A Roadmap for Setting, Planning & Achieving Your Goals (IPPY 2021, Silver Medalist, Self-Help) and founder of The D*E*B Method, which is her system for Goal-Setting Simplified. A professional writer, project catalyst, and corporate wellness consultant, Debra helps entrepreneurs, executives, and creatives figure out what they want and how to get it through one-on-one coaching, workshops, and online support. She is also the founder of the Write On Online community; host of the #GoalChat Twitter chat, the #GoalChatLive show, and The DEB Show podcast; and VP of the WNBA-LA Chapter.

Connect on LinkedIn and learn about Debra’s #SummerGoalChallenge.

WNBA SF Chapter Emphasizes Diversity in Bylaws

By Elise Collins

The Women’s National Book Association would like to formally announce the passage of a preamble to our By Laws. With the help of board members Renee Jadushlever and Sheryl Bize-Boutte, the preamble was penned in late 2020 and officially added to our by-laws in May 2021. The Preamble will be added to our national website in the members’ section: www.wnba-books.org.

Preamble

The following bylaws shall be governed and executed through an active and demonstrative practice of diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of the Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco Chapter’s mission. The WNBA-SF Chapter will engage in a continuous commitment and intentional practice of assuring the presence and meaningful participation and celebration of Black, indigenous and people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, historically marginalized identities, and people with disabilities, in its programming, membership and leadership.

Please take a moment to reflect and remember that the Women’s National Book Association was founded to give voice through the written word to those who have had a history of not having a voice. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the founder of our chapter, Ms. Effie Lee Morris, a pioneering educator, activist and librarian. We honor her legacy of continuous commitment and intentional practice and celebration of Black, indigenous and people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, historically marginalized identities, and people with disabilities in our programming, membership and leadership. This Preamble, embedded in the bylaws of our organization, serves to assure that the implementation of equity and non-discrimination is included in all WNBA-SF programming, policy and business operations and remains a permanent and integral aspect of WNBA-SF culture.

Thank you for your continued support of WNBA-SF,

Elise Marie Collins, President

Little Free Libraries in the Bay Area

By Brenda Knight

Take a Book, Return a Book, and Other Acts of Literary Kindness

Written by Brenda Knight

Little Free Libraries are one of the quietest and quirkiest forms of literary activism to come along in years. I had never heard of this movement until I was driving around North Berkeley on weekend errands four years ago. In the space of two miles, I saw what looked like two birdhouses full of books. Berkeley boasts a man who makes lovely birdhouses out of scrap wood and sells them off an old vintage pickup truck. Neighborhood folks call him “Birdhouse Man” and I thought he had branched out his business by adding see-through doors on bigger birdhouses with shelves for books. I remember thinking Birdhouse Man was surprisingly entrepreneurial as Berkeley, California, has a very well-read populace with so many professors and students.

My last errand involved dropping a signed print off to be framed in my neighborhood frame store. Sure enough, the frame store now had one of these little book houses right in front with a bench for sitting and reading. Gingerly, I opened the door and peered inside at a motley collection of paperback novels, cookbooks, puzzle books, and a handsome hardcover of Lost Knowledge which promised itself as a collection of trivia forgotten by the world.

Suddenly, I felt an urgent need to take the volume of Lost Knowledge. I went into the store and asked the owner “Is it really okay to just take this book?” She assured me it was and added that, “People often remark it is the exact book they need in their lives.” Sure enough, at the time, I was working with an author on a compilation of “Freaky Facts” and I did need that book. I asked Ms. Glen, proprietor of the frame shop, how she found out about this new-to-me phenomenon of free libraries. She replied it was a birthday from her daughter as they were both big readers and liked to pass books on afterward. After that, I noted these charming mini libraries all over the Bay Area.

Fascinated, I investigated these sweet book bins that were cropping up like California poppies all over and discovered it had all begun in Wisconsin. In 2009, Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin, built a model of a one-room schoolhouse as a tribute to his mother who was a teacher who loved to read. He filled it with books and put it on a post in his front yard. His neighbors and friends loved it, so he built several more and gave them away. Rick Brooks of UW-Madison saw Bol’s do-it-yourself project while they were discussing potential social enterprises. Together, the two saw opportunities to achieve a variety of goals for the common good.

They were inspired by community gift-sharing networks, “take a book, leave a book” collections in coffee shops and public spaces, and most especially by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Around the turn of the 20th century, Carnegie set a goal to fund the creation of 2,508 free public libraries across the English-speaking world. The duo have gone way beyond the Carnegie’s goal and the number of Little Free Libraries stands at 50,000 and grows every day as the movement spreads from front yard to street corner to walls, parks and store fronts in all 50 states and over 70 countries around the world. Check out their website for more information or to sign up for newsletters and order a Little Free Library of your own.

As a member of the Women’s National Book Association-San Francisco Chapter, I am keenly interested in anything book-related and especially if it is advocacy as that is exactly what we do in the WNBA. I did a small survey of chapter members and was delighted to hear that many of us have a favorite Little Free Library or three in our own neighborhoods. Part of the fun of it all is that these tiny book exchanges are as unique as the “librarian” with many architectural styles and other features. Noted Alameda author Jack Mingo reported this about his local LBL, “The one in my neighborhood has late evening hours; it has a small light inside for night owls.” Agent Laurie McLean noted her colleague, Gordon Warnock of Fuse Literary had a Little Free Library at his spring wedding! Jane Denning, president of the Women’s National Book Association reports her favorite aspect of having aLittle Free Library is the notes from readers, neighbors and strangers.

Our chapter’s Membership Co-chair, Terye Balogh is a full-time librarian who shares this, “I love those little libraries. There are quite a few librarians and library clerks and pages in our system who have created those and placed them around their neighborhood. Living in the Santa Cruz Mountains, I see them quite a bit, and have also noticed that a few businesses have areas where people can take a book, leave a book. I think that speaks volumes for the need for more funding for libraries. I’m all for anything and everything around books. I know that one of the library supervisors who has a little library on his property includes information about the libraries in his area. They are absolutely fantastic for our area during the summer, so many campers and they have access to books.”

We love hearing the librarian’s point of view and would also like to hear yours, dear reader. What stories can you share about your local itty bitty book exchange or photos of a favorite you have spotted “in the wild?” Feel free to send photos and regale us with tales of “acts of literary kindness.” And keep those pages turning!

WNBA-SF President Brenda Knight is the author of Wild Women and Books, Be a Good in the World, and Women of the Beat Generation, which won an American Book Award. She served as publisher of Cleis Press and was awarded IndieFab’s Publisher of the Year in 2014. She is a Publishing Consultant to Mango Media.

How Publishing in Literary Journals Helps Your Writing Career

By Admin

By Anniqua Rana

We’ve all been writing away the turmoil of 2020 — whether to escape the trauma of the past year, or to try and create a future to anticipate. Writing has been our companion. It has helped us create worlds populated with people we would like to meet in person.

Shut-up and Write Groups

On-line Meetup Groups have also been a solace for those looking for community. Like many of us, I’ve signed up with groups around the world and it has helped me retain a writing schedule. However, I could not have anticipated the direction my writing would take. Stuck at home, I’ve been able to make the proverbial lemonade with Shelter-in-place.

Documenting Memories

In the beginning of 2020, my writing schedule was fairly predictable: a few hours every week in between teaching and grading papers. Then, in March 2020, when the Bay Area was expected to Shelter-in-Place, I started teaching on-line but was too stressed to write.

Like many of you, I reached out to my family through on-line calls. We coordinated our times and worked out a 7:00 am PST phone conversation to include a sister in Pakistan, another in the UK, and a third in Spain. By June, the family realized we needed to do more than discuss COVID infection rates, international politics, and family gossip.

So the sister in Spain, Selma, an artist, and I decided to document some important and some not-so-important memories of our lives growing up in Pakistan. We shared them with the other two sisters. They became our content editors, our fact-checkers.

This wasn’t enough. By May, I retired a twenty-year teaching career at the San Mateo Community Colleges, so I had plenty of time to write more regularly. Selma had retired a few years back. We decided to take our writing plan to the next level.

We’re both avid readers, but over the summer, we decided to coordinate our books so we could discuss them. We read works by writers like Szabo, Pamuk, and the Progressive Indian Writers. These writers inspired us to add a new element to the vignettes we were sharing with our family, a reference to the literature we love. We added images and art. We created short videos, which we posted on Facebook. Family and friends applauded them with Likes and Heart emojis.

The Blog We Made

And then, with the beginning of 2021, we decided to take our writing a step further and connect with a larger audience. We created a blog Tillism طلسم: MAGICAL WORDS FROM AROUND THE WORLD. We were having so much fun with these vignettes of memories related to literature, we decided to share the opportunity with the writing community. Within the first week of starting the blog with nine posts we’re at 2000 views from over seven countries. We’ve also had requests from poets and writers in the Bay Area and beyond who are interested in posting their work.

Just as connecting with others online has been a lifeline for us to overcome the loneliness of shelter-in-place, you might consider connecting with others through your cherished memories. This new way of life has become our norm, and we imagine it will continue for some time yet.

Some of you might enjoy the gratification of sharing a short (500 word) post of memory related to literature in this on-line community of writers. As writers, you already know the importance of submitting your work regularly.

How We Can Help

And that’s why we would like to reach out to you if you are looking for (a) a thought partner to discuss creating a blog or (b) an opportunity to submit your work without having to wait too long for feedback.

As 2021 proceeds and you’re still wondering what goals to set for this year, you might consider setting one to submit your writing on a regular basis. If you have never submitted your work before, this might be an easy win for you.

Here are three ways we can help:

A 30-minute on-line discussion on how to create a blog. We used WordPress, but have also used Google sites and Wix.
A 30-minute on-line discussion on the basics of SEO for the blog.
And lastly, because we love discussing literature, we’re open to an on-going discussion about a piece of literature that inspires you and how you would like to write a post to include on Tillism طلسم: MAGICAL WORDS FROM AROUND THE WORLD. We can set up a 30-minute google call followed by communications online.

Guidelines for Submissions

We are seeking short personal posts of no more than 500 words for Tillism طلسم: MAGICAL WORDS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

Posts should be inspired by literature and connected to a personal memory.
Posts should include at least one word from a language other than English. You’re welcome to use more.
Include keyword tags to include in the post.
Include no more than two images only if you have the copyright.
Submit the information to anniquarana65@gmail.com embedded within the email (attachments will not be opened).
We will get back to you within the week of submission.

Anniqua Rana, who lives in the Bay Area, is the author of Wild Boar in the Cane Field, shortlisted for Pakistan’s UBL Literary Award 2020 after being published by Folio Books abroad, and She Writes Press in the States. She holds a doctorate in International Education and has taught at San Mateo Community Colleges, University of San Francisco, Lahore University of Management Sciences, and Stanford University.

Her work has appeared in International Education, The Pakistan Daily Times, Bangalore Review, Fourteen Hills, The Noyo River Review, Delay Fiction, and others. She is a member of WNBA-San Francisco Chapter and CWC-SF Peninsula.

She tweets @RanaAnniqua

Writing Memoir Is Not for the Faint of Heart by Marlena Fiol

By Admin

Therapy is supposed to help, right?

Meditation is supposed to help, right?

Being on a spiritual path is supposed to help, right?

Then why am I still so afraid of being judged?

It’s scary to write a memoir that includes my many embarrassing failures as well as my hard-won successes. It’s even scarier to put it out there into the world.

In just the weeks since my book, Nothing Bad Between Us: A Mennonite Missionary’s Daughter Finds Healing in Her Brokenness, was released by Mango Publishing, I have received many Amazon and Goodreads reviews, as well as personal notes from readers.

Some of them are humbling:

“I just finished reading your book. It is a very compelling story that I did not want to put down- A very honest and courageous book. You have “dredged up for public consumption” your internal demons and allowed yourself to be vulnerable. That is a huge gift to all of us.”

Some are funny:

“My dog hated Marlena Fiol’s Nothing Bad Between Us. She is usually quite tolerant of my reading choices because she knows she can easily distract me, and I will put down my reading to tend to her every whim. Once I began Nothing Bad Between Us, however, I was a goner. I simply had to finish the story of Marlena’s childhood.”

As I write this, I have twenty-eight 5-star reviews on Amazon, some of them from people I know and many of them from strangers. I know the negative reviews will come.

They always do.

I’m already experiencing silence from some of my relatives. I’m afraid that they’re shaking their heads, judging me, just like both my parents and my childhood Mennonite church community judged me fifty years ago.

It’s frightening to put myself out there vulnerably with all of the shame that I used to associate with my past. And even after lots of self-help training, this kind of naked vulnerability still triggers within me powerful feelings of embarrassment and humiliation.

And then I remind myself of an important truth: People’s reactions to my book reflect more about who they are than about who I am, as I have shared openly in this published story of my life. Their responses to the book give me glimpses into who they are – just as surely as I’ve given them a glimpse into who I am.

When my readers send notes of gratitude and empathy, they reveal their own open and grateful hearts. When they respond with silence or judgment, these reactions may indeed express their very real concerns about me. At the same time, they also expose their own fears and anxieties.

In a large-scale study that appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers found significant evidence of this type of projection: A person’s tendency to describe others in positive terms was consistently an important indicator of the positivity of the person’s own personality. There were strong associations between how positively people judged their peers and how enthusiastic, happy, and emotionally stable they described themselves to be, and were described by others as being. Similarly, the level of negativity the raters used to describe others overwhelmingly reflected their own unhappy, disagreeable, or other negative personality traits.

What I found especially remarkable is that this correlation was highly stable over time. The researchers followed up to find out how the raters in their study evaluated their peers again one year later and found compelling evidence for the same patterns.

These findings point to two important lessons for me:

I must follow Don Miguel Ruiz’s second Agreement: Don’t Take Anything Personally. The many shortcomings and failures I describe in my book serve as a testimony to my imperfections and my brokenness. But my story also shows the possibility for redemption and healing. It is my gift to the world, and I cannot take too personally how specific individuals receive that gift.
Maybe more importantly, I must follow Don Miguel Ruiz’s fourth Agreement: Always Do Your Best. Far too often I, too, unconsciously use others as projected mirror images. When I critically judge someone, more than anything else, I am reflecting a state of dissatisfaction within myself, stemming from my own feelings of fear or inadequacy. I must do my best to see my own failings with compassion and forgiveness so as not to splatter them all over others.

We do not see the world as it is, we see the world as we are. —The Talmud

As a consultant and professor of strategic management, Marlena Fiol, PhD, guided her students and clients in coming to know themselves deeply, visualizing their dreams and identifying and removing the barriers to achieve them. Over half of her 85 published articles and books relate to identity and identity change. Her work has been cited over 20,000 times.

Today, as a blogger, essayist, novelist and memoirist, Fiol is still engaged in a similar mission. Every blog, essay, book or workshop provides an opportunity to explore who we are and what’s possible in our lives. Her new book Nothing Bad Between Us: A Mennonite Missionary’s Daughter Finds Healing in Her Brokenness (Mango Publishing, 2020) is a vulnerable and inspirational tale of personal transformation. She was raised in Paraguay on a leprosy station, and today lives with her husband in Eugene, Oregon.

You Made the News! Now What? by Nita Sweeney

By Admin

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

A media outlet interviewed you. Congratulations!!

Contributing to articles is a fabulous way to become a well-respected expert in your field!

But once the article goes live, your work isn’t over.

First, share it all around.

I’m so grateful to have landed with Mango Publishing Group. My editor and their social media coordinator share pretty much anything I send their way. So my first step is to send a link to any new piece to them.

Tweet the link and tag anyone else in the piece, including the publication and especially the journalist who wrote it.

Post on Facebook. If you have a business page, start there, but there’s rarely harm in sharing to your personal page at a different time for more visibility. If your friends won’t celebrate your success, why are they your friends? Don’t overdo the promo, of course. But people want to know what’s going on and might be interested enough to share the article.

Also post in any Facebook groups that allow promotional links. Find ones that are the right fit for you and your topic. I belong to many groups but also started my own wellness group where I share relevant information.

Are you on LinkedIn? That’s where the biz folks are. If there’s any business angle post it there.

Pin to a board on Pinterest. Create a board for a specific topic or a “Where I’m Quoted” or “Featured Ins” or some other catchy title related to your topic. Things pinned on Pinterest have a very long shelf-life.

Instagram allows you to use Link Tree to create a link in your bio where you can add articles, social media platforms, and your website since Instagram only allows one link. Post a photo from the article, preferably the one closest to your quote, then say the link to the article is in your bio.

Don’t forget other relevant organizations. Would the piece interest your high school, college, or professional association? Send it all around.

Hashtags

Be sure to find relevant hashtags because that’s how strangers find articles on social media. Check out Frances Caballo’s excellent post on hashtags for authors. Sometimes that’s what you’ll want, but if your feature covers more than writing, use a hashtag appropriate for your topic. Tons of articles cover hashtags. Here’s one I like. Choose hashtags for the correct social media channel. Popular Twitter hashtags may not trend on Instagram.

Blog It

If you’re new to this process, you could blog about the experience of pitching to a journalist and doing the interview. Write about moving forward with a more involved marketing strategy. Or blog about your topic and link to the piece. Be sure to use the WordPress plugin Yoast or another search engine optimization (SE)) tool. I love Yoast because it removes the guesswork.

Email It

Do you have an email newsletter? It’s lovely to include a link to this new “featured in” with your next newsletter. If you were quoted at length, send the whole quote as the newsletter content with a quick “Not sure you saw this” note. People subscribed to your newsletter because they want to stay in touch.

In the News Page

If it’s your first interview, now’s the time to start an “In the News” page on your website where you collect these things. Leave it as a draft at first, until you collect a few, but have them all in one place on your site.

Save It

And do save a pdf of it. In Chrome you can “print” to “save as pdf.” I do that with every article. Sometimes articles disappear and you want to save it for posterity.

Go you!

An earlier version of this post appeared on Nita’s blog.

Nita Sweeney is co-author with Brenda Knight of the writing journal, You Should Be Writing: A Journal of Inspiration and Instruction to Keep Your Pen Moving. Nita’s running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink, won the Dog Writers Association of America Award in the Human/Animal Bond and was short-listed for the William Faulkner—William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition Award. Nita’s articles, essays, and poetry have appeared in many magazines, journals, books, and blogs. She writes her own blog, Bum Glue, publishes the monthly e-newsletter, Write Now Columbus, and coaches creatives on writing and meditation in Natalie Goldberg style “writing practice.” Nita has been featured widely across media outlets about writing, running, meditation, mental health, and pet care. When she’s not writing or coaching, Nita runs and races. She has completed three full marathons, twenty-seven half marathons (in eighteen states), and more than one hundred shorter races. She lives in central Ohio with her husband and biggest fan, Ed, and their yellow Labrador running partner, Scarlet, the #ninetyninepercentgooddog. You can contact Nita via her website or follow her on your favorite social media channel.

Why Enter Writing Contests? by B. Lynn Goodwin

By Admin

You polish your writing, imagining your audience. You read it over. Out loud. Does it say exactly what you want it to say? You have a friend read it to you. Impressed, she says, “You should submit this to contests. Put yourself out there. Get some recognition for your work.”

Maybe you leap at the idea. Maybe you hesitate. After all, it’s more work. Besides, it makes you feel vulnerable. There’s almost always a fee and you’re guaranteed nothing. Why bother with contests when the judge isn’t an agent or editor who could take you on as a client?

I’ve run contests for Writer Advice, www.writeradvice.com since 2006 and for the Women’s National Book Association since 2019. I’ve been a judge for Story Circle Network and a NorCal organization seeking local books. I’ve seen a huge range, and this organization gets polished submissions. Their award will carry prestige.

Placing in a writing contest is a huge boost to your work. You all know that acceptances mater. No need to elaborate on that. Here are some other perks you might get:

It gives you a chance to see how your work fares in the world.
It gives you exposure. Contest judges know people. Maybe they’ll make a referral to an agent.
Contest winners usually get published. Published online? Share the link with agents, editors, and anyone who might be interested.
Winners get paid. That’s usually the reason that contests charge fees. Those who run the contests need to cover expenses.
The biggest payment, though, is the boost to your self-esteem. Who couldn’t use a little of that?
There’s also the matter of name recognition. Wouldn’t you like to be Caitlin Contestant, winner of WNBA-SF’s Effie Lee Morris Contest?

Wouldn’t you like to share your story with the world? Contests can help you do that. This year’s judges are eager to read your work. Learn more at https://wnba-sfchapter.org/2021-effie-lee-morris-contest-get-ready/. We’ll be accepting submissions until April 1, 2021.

Lynn Goodwin owns Writer Advice,www.writeradvice.com. Her YA novel, Talent, republished on November 1, 2020 by Koehler Books, won some awards. She’s editing the sequel, Ground Rules. Her memoir, Never Too Late: From Wannabe to Wife at 62 also won awards. Visit https://writeradvice.com/books-by-lynn/.

Her flash fiction has been published in Flashquake, Nebo, Cabinet of Heed, Murmur of Words,100-Word Stories, and Ariel’s Dream. Other works have appeared in Hip Mama, The Sun, GoodHousekeeping.com, PurpleClover.com, and elsewhere. She is an editor as well as a writer. She lives her energizer-bunny husband and their exceptional terrier.

Holiday Storytelling for Children by Kate Farrell

By Admin

This holiday season many families will celebrate with relatives miles apart. Though we may gather online in group video conferencing calls, we won’t see one another face to face. Even if some live close by, many families will prefer to visit outdoors with safe and limited social distancing for a brief interaction or to exchange gifts.

This year, children might find the holidays strange and unsettling, but we can make this a holiday to remember with simple, creative, storytelling activities. Use the quality time we do have during the holidays to share stories, playful make-believe stories with puppets, or tell stories about the good old days when you were young.

PUPPET STORIES

Young children have their own stories to tell. When creating original stories, their unique imaginations will often communicate what they cannot say—if we listen. Providing a safe space and time for the children’s story making, not only develops oral language, it offers an insight into their own points of view: What characters and situations do they create in their make believe world?

You might guide them with a story starter, like “Once upon a time,” or “One day.” But once they begin their open-ended story, listen with acceptance and enjoyment. You might encourage them to continue by asking, “What happened next?” And they may need help ending the story with a stock phrase, such as “And that’s the way my story ends.”

Wooden spoon puppets can create holiday magic. You may think that wooden spoons are only for stirring gingerbread dough, but they can just as easily stir up a good folktale or creative drama. With a handful of inexpensive, wooden spoons and a selection of non-permanent color markers, decide on the characters needed to enact a favorite folktale, like “The Gingerbread Man,” “Three Little Pigs,” or “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.” Then draw the facial features and color the skin of the creature or character. Read the folktale over a few times for its basic action, but once the wooden spoons take off, the story might stir up a different kind of trouble in your children’s hands.

Create a series of stories using action figures, telling in tandem with your child. A special holiday gift this year might be action figures from a movie or TV series. Enter into the fun by pretending to be one of them and act out a story with your child.

For example, when my son was in pre-school, he became captivated by the wildly popular ad campaign of the California Raisins, based on a make-believe rhythm and blues band with the popular song, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” The Raisins promoted a healthy snack in a series of Claymation TV commercials with fantastic, but hip adventures. We did have a few of their action figures and enjoyed eating raisins.

One night at bedtime, we started to tell original stories about the California Raisins getting into scrapes of one kind or another. The Raisins were definitely on the wild side: car chases, catching ghosts, and mountain climbing. My son and I would take turns trading Raisin episodes, some of them outrageous.

The same can be true for a favorite puppet. Ask the young child to describe the puppet’s personality, maybe its unique voice, or special powers. Give the puppet a name and ask it to tell its story. If there is another puppet, they could develop an action story together.

Tips for Telling: It’s important is to honor story characters your child finds interesting, whether they originate from a folktale, cartoon, or other media. Accepting the child’s imagination is one way to bridge the cultural gap between generations. Telling a fantasy story, back and forth, is a way for you to enter into your child or grandchild’s world as a co-creator.

YOUR CHILDHOOD HOLIDAY STORIES

Telling your own childhood memories can be among the most important stories you tell. Children love to hear about your adventures and how they turned out. It deepens the bond of shared experience, since the child identifies with you and is vicariously involved. He may ask you to tell certain stories again and again—a clue to how he/she most clearly connects with your life.

The personal story is excellent device for bridging generations and reaching out to other family members. Ask grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, caregivers, and siblings to participate.

Tips for Telling: Set aside a quiet time to reflect on a real life incident from your childhood. Close your eyes and pinpoint an age, perhaps the current age of your child or grandchild. Focus on a time during the holidays. As random images and fragments rise to the surface, choose one that is a real story with a beginning, middle, and end.

These questions might help trigger a memory:

What was your favorite holiday gift as a child?
What are some of your favorite holiday traditions and why?
What are some of the different places you have spent the holidays?
What do you like to eat the best during the holidays and why?
Did you have a holiday adventure?
What was the most memorable holiday in your childhood? What happened?

When you have found the story incident, live through it again and open your eyes. You may want to replay the event more than once. As you do, recollect all sense impressions vividly. Hear, see, smell, taste, feel all the sights, sounds, objects of your experience. Feel the emotions once more. Rehearse the dialogue. Find a quiet time to tell the story with a special setting or time of the day.

Make this a holiday to remember!

Kate Farrell, storyteller, author, librarian, founded the Word Weaving Storytelling Project and published numerous educational materials on storytelling. She has contributed to and edited award-winning anthologies of personal narrative. 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. Recently, Farrell presented workshops for adults on the art of storytelling at the San Francisco Public Library, Mechanics Institute, and the San Francisco Writers Conference. Kate is now offering virtual workshops for libraries and writing groups, as well as performing virtually as a storyteller.

Website: https://katefarrell.net/

Blog: https://storytellingforeveryone.net/

Family Storytelling for the Holidays by Kate Farrell

By Admin

This year, more than ever, as we gather around a tree, table, or screen, we can comfort one another with fond memories—a gift of continuity and hope.

Often, however, the memories we share with family members are fragmented and fluid, without a clear purpose in their telling. We might ignore significant family stories from the past or neglect to add more recent experiences. Over time, family tales can become random, superficial—their meaning lost.

Yet our family stories, once shaped into memorable forms, can still be saved and passed down through the generations. Just as pre-literate tribes shared a common sense of identity, history, and values in their stories, so we can discover exciting, new ways to both preserve and create a family tradition of storytelling.

Family stories matter. Family stories directly impact how we see ourselves because they give us an idea of where we come from and where we’re going. Each family story is a pattern in a patchwork quilt of many colors and fabrics. Like the all the pieces in a multi-colored, homemade quilt, our family stories are a combination of the cultures, histories, and traditions we’ve inherited.

And just like an embracing quilt, our stories bring us comfort: They give us a sense of belonging and create a core identity that can be a great source of empowerment. Sharing family stories can give our children an emerging sense of self, both as individuals and as members of a family. Family members overall can enjoy higher self-esteem and greater resilience—because they are able to draw from a deep, ancestral identity and contribute to it.

If we don’t preserve our family legacy through its central narratives, we will lose it by default. Each generation will be defined by the mainstream media—and given a superficial group identity: boomers, millennials, Gen X or Z.

Family Folklore

Family folklore is a ragbag collection of true stories and traditions gathered from the remembered experiences of generations—past and present. It is transmitted through the art of storytelling, either in person or recorded. Storytelling is the main difference between family folklore and the study of genealogy or family history—those record data and information of the past. Family folklore is the age-old custom of passing down stories by word of mouth from one generation to the next. Since family folklore exists as part of the day-to-day life of a family, it is always changing and growing.

Family folklore is both traditional and evolving. It belongs to the entire family, to all the branches in the family tree, and everyone participates in it. Each generation forgets or changes the stories told by the previous generation and, at the same time, adds new stories and lore. In our modern times, with its rapid social and technological change, we might believe the previous generation lived in an entirely different historical era. Yet the lessons of their stories can have as much or greater value to the newer generations.

Collecting family folklore can be a daunting project that could require direct and wide-ranging family engagement. To be practical, you might want to collect, frame, and tell stories from limited sources to share with your closest family members. Even so, preserving past stories is only half the picture. You’ll need to keep your eyes, ears, and mind open to record the stories and lore as they are unfolding.

New traditions are as valid as those that existed for generations. So, even if your focus is just your branch of the family tree, and limited to those family members who live nearby, you’ll need to develop a manageable approach: how to organize lore from the past as well as new traditions and stories from an ever-changing present.

As you reflect on your own family memories and how to retrieve them as stories, you’ll increase your ability to recall them in greater detail. You’ll develop a sense of remembered place and people, enhanced sensory images, and clarity of dialogue. Once you connect to the story making process, you’ll be more able to guide other family members in interviews and recordings.

Unavoidably, you’ll develop your unique point of view, your historical perspective of family events. But be aware that your impressions are only the starting point. Family members can often have an entirely different take on the same event and widely divergent opinions of a family member. Invite members to tell their versions.

Nevertheless, continue to begin with your own memories and refine them in an ongoing process:

Stretch your family memories into past decades
Open your mind to new perspectives
Test your information or interview relatives to verify
Identify your gaps in information
Collect new generational stories
Become aware of new traditions today

Make this a holiday season to remember!

Website: https://katefarrell.net/

Blog: https://storytellingforeveryone.net/

Holiday 2020 Newsletter

By Nita Sweeney


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 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 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)* 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 9^th 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 – 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.