Combining History and Fiction: Eggerz PubSpeak in DC

One of the things I love about Washington Independent Writers is the Pubspeak series. This next one, on Thursday July 17, looks especially fascinating:

Combining History and Fiction:
Is it a Genre or a Sneaky Means for Imposing History on Readers? Your novel’s set in a particular time. Is it historical fiction? Solveig Eggerz, author of the novel Seal Woman, discusses this vaguely defined genre, exploring the importance of authenticity, research, and the relationship between historic timelines and the personal timelines of characters.

Seal Woman is set against the backdrop of Germany, Iceland, and Poland, 1930-1959. The main character, Charlotte, escapes bombed-out Berlin to work on a farm in Iceland. She’s part of the 1940s migration of some 300 Germans, most of them women, to Icelandic farms.

Read about the event at www.washwriter.org

Ask Not What You Can Do For Your Speech, But What Tips These Speechwriters for Washington Big-Wigs Can Give You

A very special Washington Independent Writers Workshop tonight in Bethesda MD with Dr. Rosemary King, a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Air Force who currently writes for a U.S. cabinet member (she's also the author of Border Confluences: Borderland Narratives from the Mexican War to the Present); freelancer Ed Vilade; and Fannie Mae speechwriter Jan Cook.

Speechwriting in the real world is not going to be the way it is in the classroom or in the seminar--- not as neat and clean, not as academic and cerebral. There are clients to be gotten, gatekeepers and reviewers to be circumvented and/or mollified, wooden clients to be animated, unreasonable deadlines and expectations to be surmounted. Speechwriters must address audience, message, tone, and the cadence of speaking, rather than the rhythm of the written word. While a very different style of writing, it also can be very lucrative... READ MORE AND REGISTER.

On Blogging and Writers's Blogs: Yummy Links

Blogging:
---> From Wired magazine, "The Lifecycle of a Blog Post" This is a treasure--- bloggers, and anyone interested in blogging, be sure to have a look at this.
---> From Copyblogger, "Why Brains Crave Beneficial Copy"

More on Writers Blogs:
--->Apropos of last Saturday's WIW Writers Conference panel on writers's blogs, I asked writer Andrea Cumbo which litblogs she recommends. She said she loves Book Ninja and fruitful by Gayle Brandeis.
--->WIW member and science fiction writer Nancy Jane Moore is a member of the blogging team at Ambling Along the Aqueduct, sponsored by Aqueduct Press, which publishes feminist science fiction, and wanders into interesting territory from time to time. Nancy Jane Moore also blogs on self defense at Taking Care of Ourselves.
--->WIW member Austin Camacho writes, "Of course, I could mention my blog, which I share with my wife: Another Writer's Life (and a writer's spouse). But my favorites are A Writer's Life - Murderati -The Outfit - Acme Authors Link."
---> For the archive of posts on "Gone to the Litblogs," click here.

Madam Mayo's Top 10 Writers's Blogs

Coming up Feb 9th: the Washington Independent Writers (WIW) All-Day Fiction Seminar at American University, Washington DC, for which I'm chairing the panel on writers blogs. So, what makes for a good writer's blog? I'm working on a list; meanwhile, here is a list of 10 that, though not necessarily my personal favorites, are outstanding examples of the genre.

#1. Design expert and author Edward Tufte's Ask E.T.
He calls it a moderated forum. Yeah, I'm calling the page a blog because I want to.

#2. Novelist and journalist James Howard Kunstler's Clusterfuck Nation
Once a week, a zippy op-ed style essay.

#3. Novelist and creative writing teacher Leslie Pietrzyk's Work-in-Progress
Highly focused and meaty with helpful information. Frequently updated and features many guest-bloggers.

#4. Poet and literary magazine editor Deborah Ager's 32 Poems
Wide-ranging, quirky, frequently updated. Big on Web 2.0 tools.

#5. Childrens writer Erica Perl's Pajamazon
Childrens' book recommendations (and a bit more). Part of Offsprung news.

#6. Travel writer Rolf Potts' Vagabonding
Fun, daily updates, multiple bloggers working for him.

#7. Professor of History, Middle East expert and author Juan Cole's Informed Comment
One of the go-to places for news about Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. Updated daily with multiple links and commentary. (Boy howdy does he sell ads!)

#8. Novelist Laila Lailami's Moorish Girl
She's been around almost from the time blogging began.

#9. Editor, graphic designer, translator and writer Tom Christensen's Right-reading
Eclectic quality links, and he encourages both mail and comments.

#10. A cabal of crime novelists's Naked Authors
Regular posting by Paul Levin, Patricia Smiley, James O. Born, Jacqueline Winspear, and Cornelia Read.

------>Is there a writer's blog you think I should know about?

More anon. And meanwhile, click here for the Gone to the Litblogs archive.

Travel Writing Panel at the Washington Independent Writers Conference June 9th

I'm chairing the travel writing panel for the Washington Independent Writers (WIW) conference this June 9th. Here's the official blurb and the line-up:

Travel Writing: Article, Essay, Book

What and where are the markets for travel writing? Where and how do travel books sell? Can a travel article turn into an essay and, eventually, a book? Or, vice versa? Three distinguished travel writers and an innovative travel bookseller discuss their experiences and views.

Moderator: C.M. Mayo's books are Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Whereabouts Press), Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions), and Sky Over El Nido (University of Georgia Press), which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her travel writing has won three Lowell Thomas Awards and the 2005 WIW Award for best essay.

Candida Mannozzi is the owner of Candida's World of Books, which opened in Washington DC in 2004. A native of Italy with dual Italian / US citizenship, she speaks six languages fluently, and has lived and worked in many different countries including the Czech Republic and Japan. She has a BA and and MA in language and literature from Swarthmore College and Yale Univ. respectively, as well as a graduate diploma in European Studies from Johns Hopkins University SAIS (School of Advanced International Studies).

L. Peat O'Neil, after 18 years in the Washington Post newsroom, O'Neil currently is learning Mandarin, teaching writing for UCLA and freelancing. Author of Travel Writing – See the World, Sell the Story (Writer's Digest Books 2005).

Sara Mansfield Taber was raised in Asia, Europe, and the United States as the daughter of a CIA agent. She is the author of two books of literary journalism: Dusk on the Campo: A Journey in Patagonia (Henry Holt) and Bread of Three Rivers: The Story of a French Loaf (Beacon). She has also written a writing workbook for internationally global youth entitled, Of Many Lands: Journal of a Traveling Childhood (Foreign Service Youth Foundation). Her memoirs and essays have been published in national literary magazines and produced for Public Radio's All Things Considered. Her work appears, also, in the anthologies, Notes from a Traveling Childhood and Unrooted Childhoods.

For more about the WIW conference, click here.

Washington Independent Writers Conference: Panel on Travel Writing

Quick blog post before I run out the door to AWP with Tameme: Just finalized the line-up for the travel writing panel at the Washington Independent Writers conference, which takes place this June 9th at the George Washington University's Cafritz Conference Center, Washington DC. Yours Truly, Sara Mansfield Taber, L. Peat O'Neil, and--- drum roll--- Candida Mannozzi, owner of Candida's World of Books, one of the most unusual and charming and altogether Washingtonian venues in Washington. Get on Candida's mailing list and you'll be invited to readings and signings of books on Rwanda, Turkmenistan, Italy, Iceland--- and maybe all in the same month. In the meantime, WIW's website has profiled my anthology, Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion here. Gracias, guys! Pictured left is the cover of L. Peat O'Neil's Travel Writing: See the World, Sell the Story (2nd Edition). I always very highly recommend this book to my writing students. L. Peat O'Neil has sold more travel stories than any one I know--- and now she's learning Chinese. And here's the cover of Bread of Three Rivers: The Story of a French Loaf, Sara Mansfield Taber's luminous travel memoir of her quest for the DNA of the best bread in the world. The writing is as delicious as the subject.