Archive for the ‘Non Fiction Writing’ Category
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
I’ve known about the book for a while now, but when I received the cover it it really sunk in that I’m going to be published–in a book!
I may be biased, but this is the most beautiful book cover I have ever seen. I can’t wait to hold a copy in my hand, hope there are many more that feels the same way and that it will make a ton of money for the kids in India. It’s an honor to be part of this project with Rita and to be published among such fantastic writers.
Posted in Essays, Inspiration, Non Fiction Writing, Tales of Breaking Free... | Comments »
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
When I read Rita Golden Gelman’s Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World in 2005, I immediately wanted to know more about the fascinating author. Actually, what I really wanted to do right after reading the book was to sell all my stuff, pack a backpack and start living a nomadic life like hers. I had travelled around in South East Asia and Europe for most of 2002 and was very keen on adapting that lifestyle full time. After I calmed down a bit, I logged on to Rita’s website instead of listing all my possessions on Craigslist. What I found is that she’s a fantastic inspiration as well as a fabulous writer. I sent her a note through email and to my surprise she emailed me back with gracious advice about traveling and writing. On the website, I also saw a note about a collaborative travel essay/cookbook project and after some encouragement from my critique group, I sent in a submission. I wrote about my first American Thanksgiving and included the recipe for the chocolate cake I baked for the dinner.
Since then, Rita and Maria Altobelli (who writes about living in Mexico and maintains http://www.mexicoinsmallbytes.com/) selected which essays they liked best, tested all the recipes, found an agent for the project, who then found a publishing house. Today I found out that our editor for Random House’s Crown division picked my essay to be included in the book. The working title of the book is Break Free, Break Bread, Break Rules: Stories and Recipes from the World at Large and should be out next year. All the proceeds, including the advance, will be used for scholarships for vocational education for high school graduates living in the slums of New Delhi.
Today is a very, very happy day.
Posted in Agents & Editors, Authors I Admire, Essays, Firsts, Inspiration, Non Fiction Writing, Submissions & Queries | Comments »
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
Back in March, I queried the editor at INWH&L for a profile of a local writer. I just got an email from her saying she wants the article but didn’t have space until now. It will be in the August/September issue of the magazine.
The profile is of Jamie Leigh Hansen, an amazing writer and friend who writes paranormal romances that takes place in Spokane. I wrote a nine page profile of Jamie for a class last fall quarter. For this article, I had to decide what I really wanted to say about Jamie and then use only 800 words to do it. It was a very interesting exercise. (My writing teachers would tell you that it’s one I really need to learn.) The original essay touched on many aspects of the author. Her background, her family, her writing, etc. For the article I chose to focus mainly on Jamie as an author and incorporate a little bit about her background since it’s a local magazine and she lives in Spokane. It was super hard to be so concise and still paint a clear picture of my friend. I learned a lot about saying much with fewer words. (My husband would tell you he wishes I could learn how to do that verbally too.)
So, look for the magazine around the end of July. If you are a Journal of Business subscriber, then you’ll automatically get a copy. Otherwise, pick one up at any AAA office or other tourist information places around Spokane. Also, pick up copies of Betrayed and Cursed, the first two books of Jamie’s fabulous trilogy.
Posted in Article Writing, Authors I Admire, Non Fiction Writing, Profiles | Comments »
Monday, December 15th, 2008
Just heard from the editor at Bylines that the new calendar is out, including my contribution to the writer’s insights on the writing life that appear on each weekly page. I’m not sure which page my contribution is on, but here’s what I wrote:
Clark Kent and Me
While his alter-ego used super powers to fight super villains and keep Metropolis safe, Clark Kent wrote for the Daily Planet. My life is the exact opposite of his, well kind of. I’m not a super-hero during the day–I’m a science teacher–but my alter-ego is a writer.
My other personality side is always alert, always a part of me, just like Clark’s was. When I’m calling roll in class, I notice how my students’ names would be great for characters in novels. When my hands are occupied by mundane tasks that frees up my brain, such as folding laundry or washing dishes, I create plot twists for my novels. My dog is used to taking walks with me muttering dialog lines under my breath. During Tuesday night bowling, I make notes of my league members’ expressions of disappointment when the pins don’t fall as they should. It makes for a great library of tough-guy talk or even pirate dialog.
As it was for Clark, this split life is both a curse and a blessing. At times, my projects frustrate me so much; I wish I could stop writing all together. But then, there are moments that make it all worth it. When an editor or agent writes me a nice or supportive rejection letter or my article gets picked up by a magazine. That’s when I feel like I’ve just slain the super-villain and all of Metropolis wants to be my friend.
To get your own copy of Bylines Writers’ Desk Calendar, check out: http://www.bylinescalendar.com/. It’s a perfect gift for any writer on your list.
Happy Holidays!
-Åsa
Posted in Article Writing, Inspiration, Non Fiction Writing, Submissions & Queries | Comments »
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Wow, talk about a testosterone shower. This book is full go from the beginning to end. Here’s the last craft essay I’ll post from the profiles class.
Righteous Now and Then
Tom Wolfe was not present when a lot of the conversations and other events he reports on in The Right Stuff took place. He started writing about astronauts in 1972 for a series of articles for Rolling Stonesmagazine about the Apollo 17 mission and eventually began researching the whole of the space program. The only way to find out what happened during Project Mercury, which ran from 1959 through 1963, and the related events at Edwards (formerly Muroc) Air Force Base during the 40’s and the 50’s were to interview the people that had been there. (And of course to read and watch already published media.) Maybe that is why Wolfe didn’t include very many direct quotes in The Right Stuff. Direct quotes and its fiction equivalent, dialog, usually speed up a story and allow the author to place the reader right in the middle of an event; Tom Wolfe chose to use other tricks to create the same effect.
In The Right Stuff, the author switches tenses when he wants us (the readers) to pay attention to a particular scene and when he wants to speed up the narrative. An example of a “mock dialog” is on page 249, when John Glenn is asked to convince his wife, Annie, to admit Lyndon Johnson into her house. It is line spaced as and reads like dialogue, but none of the sentences are in quotation marks, so instead we get the spirit of what the conversation was like. (Contrast this with the conversation between Pete Conrad and General Schwichtenberg on page 73, which do use direct quotes.) In the Glenn scene, the tense shift from past to present happens on page 248. First we were with Annie in the house where “the curtains were pulled” and “the lawn, or what was left of it looked like Nut City” then, starting with the next paragraph, we’re with John in present tense “Meanwhile, John is on top of the rocket….” The only transition needed is that one little word, “meanwhile.”
Wolfe also often switches tenses when we are in the head of one of the characters, such as in chapter 1 when Jane Conrad reflects on all the funerals she and her husband attended. Another example is the scene where Chuck Yeager is testing the NF-104 on pg. 242. We start out in the past, “At 40,000 feet Yeager began his speed run.” but make the transition into the present by one little phrase “At precisely that moment….” The rest of the scene uses present tense and sentences chopped up by ellipses to place us not just on the page, but right in action inside Yeager’s head.
The effect of Wolfe’s cleverly placed time transitions (and all the other tools he’s using: chopped paragraphs, word choices, voice, etc.) is that it feels like we’re getting the story from the characters in the book. It’s as if we’re sitting in Pancho’s, knocking back a few beers while one of the pilots is telling us a story, or maybe we’re at an AWC tea party, chatting with one of the astronaut wives. (Next time a friend tells you a story, pay attention to how often he or she switches tenses, especially if the tale is about an action filled moment.) Wolfe strengthens this effect by the way he sometimes establishes the time line of the book. He uses direct dates, as on page 172 “On January 19, the day before Kennedy’s inauguration…,” but often he adds a little time transition, so that we feel like we’re there with the character retelling the event, as on page 182 “By now, late February of 1961…,” or as on page 223 “Last year, 1962, they created the new….” The events aren’t in chronological order, but we’re never lost in the time line.
As someone who constantly lost in the order of events and verb tenses in my own writing, I wish I could sit down with Tom Wolfe in a bar somewhere, having a drink while he teaches me how to manipulate time and tenses as effortless as he does in The Right Stuff.
Posted in Authors I Admire, Essays, MFA, Non Fiction Writing, Profiles | Comments »
