Writing Tip #1

I've been doing a lot of reading about writing lately. I thought it might be fun to share some nuggets of wisdom that I'm gleaning from others.  To that end, I'll post a quote every week or so.

Here's the first quote:

"Writing every day is the key to becoming a writer. Writing every day is the key to remaining a writer. It is the only secret, the only trick. Don't despise the fifteen-minute write. Don't despise writing in your journal. Don't despise writing down your complaints for fifteen minutes before going to work. Any writing counts."

Priscilla Long, The Writer's Portable Mentor: A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writing Life

Hope You Can Make It...

Oh, what a night...

Seattle’s Richard Hugo House was standing room only as Janet Yoder launched the first ever reading of Sunday Ink: Works by the Uptown Writers. We sailed through our selections of work and introductions of each other. At the close of the evening, we gathered on the stage and linked arms in an impromptu celebratory bow of appreciation to our fabulous audience of family, friends and fellow writers.

Sunday Ink: Works by the Uptown Writers is an eclectic, multi-genre anthology of fiction and fairytale, poetry and play, with a touch of memoir that adds an element of personal narrative to the collection. The Uptown Writers—Carol Bolt, Pamela Hobart Carter, Geri Gale, Sandra E. Jones, Susan Knox, Stacy Lawson, Arleen Williams, and Janet Yoder—gather for timed-writing practice every Sunday morning. Sunday Ink is a product of that process and their commitment to writing and art.

This anthology is unique not only due to the supportive nature of our writing practice, but also in the way the individual pieces came together to form a book. We did not plan our pieces, or select them collectively, or even choose a controlling theme. We each simply offered the work that we wanted to include and our talented editor, Waverly Fitzgerald, and designer extraordinaire, Pamela Farrington, melded our works into a book. Priscilla Long’s beautiful introduction completed the process. Like the reading itself, the book flows like the water of a gentle summer stream.

If you'd like to join us for a reading, we'll be at the Writers’ Cottage, the home of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association in Issaquah on Saturday, November 20^th at noon.

The PNWA Writers’ Cottage

317 NW Gilman Blvd, Space #8

Issaquah, WA  98027

For me, this reading will be a homecoming of sorts, having grown up in the Issaquah Valley and graduated from Issaquah High School.  I hope to see you there!