Memoirous

Okemos held a Pride event this past weekend. Not sure why it isn’t in June, but nice that things get spread out a bit. Apparently it was the first one. There was a pop-up library which I though was ultra-cool, since libraries are now on the front line in some of these culture wars. Also there was a proud dog contest. The dog that had the most rainbow scarves on, I’m guessing. They were all cute. There was a bubble machine and a DJ emceeing dance tunes. A couple kids were break dancing like crazy. Overall, it was a family event. Waaaaay smaller than anything in Chicago and—of course—no gun shots or shootings! Speaking of Pride: 2 of the folks from Story Studio Novel in a Year class that I participated in in 2021 have LGBT+ YA novels out. James Klise who teaches the class has an interesting totally Chicago book that just released about Chicago in 1930s gangster times. The dialogue and euphemisms are SWELL. There are (so far, not quite done) tense moments in the story, but mostly I’...

In 2021 I took a course at Story Studio --the highly selective Novel in a Year with James Klise. One of  the workshoppers got a book contract and her new novel is due out this year. Good luck Maxine, Max, you hardly need luck, but fingers crossed for your writing path! PUBLICATION AUG 22, 2023 Cold Girls Eighteen-year-old Rory Quinn-Morelli doesn’t want to die; she wants refuge from reality for even a minute: the reality where she survived the car crash eight months ago, and her best friend, Liv, didn’t. Yet her exasperating mother won’t believe the Xanax incident was an accident, and her therapist is making it increasingly hard to maintain the detached, impenetrable “cold girl” façade she adopted from Liv. After she unintentionally reconnects with Liv’s parents, Rory must decide: will she keep Liv’s and her secrets inside, or will she finally allow herself to break? And if she breaks, what will she unearth amid the pieces? For publicity or ARC requests, please contact publicity@no...

At the end of 2021, after finishing a novel-in-a-year course with James Klise at Story Studio Chicago, I was wondering: What next? I’ve always kept tucked away in my brain something I heard Walter Dean Myers say at a Zena Sutherland Lecture at the Chicago Public Library. He told the audience that he wrote every day. Even if traveling, he’d sit in his hotel room. Every morning. And, I believed him. The man, he has since passed, was prolific. He wrote for about EVERY audience: picture books, coffee table books, middle grade, young adult, historical fiction etc etc. He was a great man. A progressive, breaking so many barriers with his humanity and words. So how does one write every day no matter what? I, on the other hand, need to be pricked and prodded. Thus, I signed up for Jumpstart Your Novel with Sheree Greer through Story Studio Chicago. The premise was that as I began a dreary, Covid-filled year, our third since the pandemic, a weary white winter in Michigan, a 2022 yawning before...

First time writing that year. Must train fingers to not substitute a 1 instead of a 2. I started the year off with an acceptance of a small, brief flash. After last year’s novel in a year workshop at Story Studio I thought: Why not? And signed up for Jumpstart Your Novel with Sheree Greer. Sheree looks to be a queer writer hailing from Florida. There are not a lot of similarities between my and Sheree’s writing—mostly I loved the description of the class: In this class, we begin with intellectual and creative inquiry, asking the tough questions of our characters, our stories, and ourselves. This is the kind of work I shy away from on my own. Hopefully, I’ll be pushed to examine myself, my characters, and their motives. https://www.storystudiochicago.org/classes/creative-writing/jumpstart-your-novel-with-sheree-greer/ Through readings and interactive writing exercises, we’ll explore strategies for developing our ideas into stories and our stories into novels. We will discuss how...

There was a relief to be in a van heading back toward Uptown and my apartment building along the lakefront. I’d retrieved my 2 bikes and checked-luggage and, after cramming it all in the mini-van thought to myself: Oh my God how am I going to move with 100x this amount of stuff in a mini-van? You see, I refused to acknowledge I had stuff. I’d flown to Eugene in December with a bike and a suitcase and was still subconsciously suspended within that model. Except now, I had 2 bikes and a whale of stuff to transport. Change of plans. Let’s just say once I went to my storage unit, I saw the light. I’d need a truck   So for the past 5 days I’ve been on a treadmill of packing, meeting up with old friends, appointments with bank, haircut, etc. Oh, and plus my Zoom class for Story Studio . I was packing more than just stuff, I was packing life into these 5 days left here in Chicago. On Saturday I had a full day of storage unit, meeting up with Rian, the friend who came out to see ...

This class has been one of the best things ever! And, I’ve done a lot of conferences and workshops.  https://www.storystudiochicago.org/advanced-writing-programs-at-storystudio-chicago/novel-in-a-year-ya-middle-grade-with-jame-klise/ I think it was the right things at the right time. First applying in a pandemic and then getting the grant from the city of Chicago. Then, Story Studio threw in a scholarship, making the whole thing obtainable. I, again, am taking this one payment at a time. But, the thing that has been so helpful is the peer workshoppers themselves. They are sooo supportive. We are actually a community, though remote. We do daily meetups online via Zoom to write together. This gets me out of bed in the a.m. (a two-hour time difference between Pacific and Central time) and accountable. If even just to chat for 15 minutes before making tea and getting started, I can check in and not feel so alone. Writing is a solitary task. There’s a quote attributed to Willia...

I heard I’d been awarded a DCASE grant from the city of Chicago, for an individual artist. Essentially this is money in and money out. When I applied at the end of 2020, recognizably a terrible year, I wanted to set my sights, hopes on 2021. There is not much agency a poor artist/writer has except dreams. I thought what can I do if awarded this grant, a big if, and went for another big if: the Novel-in-a-Year program out of Story Studio a Chicago literary institution. I’d been aware of Story Studio for the past 17 years since it was started by Jill Pollack and had writer envy when studying the catalog, but, alas, it was a bit too pricey for me. Again, I’d had friends and colleagues take classes and rave about how it was JUST THE THING, a boost to their writing/professional life. It was a way to broaden contacts and network with fellow writers. So at the end of a dreary pandemic-filled year, a year of impending doom and real-life death, I applied for both the DCASE and a slot in th...

  So to start this new year . . . 2021.   I applied for a grant from the City of Chicago, deadline Dec. 1—but, first, in order to get the money I needed a project, which propelled me into researching possibilities. Since there was/is a pandemic, I couldn’t apply for residencies or conferences. As a mid-level (at best) writer/author I didn’t want to do seminars, especially of basics. I’ve been a part of OCWW, SCBWI for the past ten to fifteen years—and wanted to go beyond what those organizations offered. The grant was specific: monies couldn’t go to a graduate program. As a Chicago resident I’ve been aware of and actually visited Story Studio  (coincidentally up the street from where I lived). Lived. I was also contemplating some left turns. Story Studio Novel-in-a-Year class for YA/MG with James Klise  seemed perfect. The class was selective; I had to apply at once and still not know if I made it in by the deadline for the grant. Well, I got into the cla...

In this blog entry I’m going to reference a writing acquaintance of mine here in Chicago, Molly Backes who works at Story Studio , which if you haven’t checked out any of their classes, then click here . Molly recently wrote at her blog about writing : How to be a Writer. This blog was picked up by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a senior editor for The Atlantic and reposted everywhere. Here is a snip: A few weeks ago, a woman asked me for advice about her teenage daughter. “She wants to be a writer,” the mother said. “What should we be doing?” To be honest, I was kind of stumped. (In part, I think it was the way she asked it – “What should WE be doing?” I didn’t really know what to do with that “we.”) (Also, it was quite early in the day, and I hadn’t yet had sufficient coffee to be giving anyone advice.) I suggested a few upcoming creative writing classes, but the mother wasn’t satisfied. There must be more – what else could they do? “Well,” I said, “you know. Writers read a lot… ...