Monday, October 12, 2009

Upcoming Classes

I am looking forward to teaching a new group of people in my Fiction class on Thursday night. And so looking forward to having a new class--Fiction Continuation, where people want to focus mainly on workshop and revision. Both classes start this week, and then Saturday night is Litcrawl. Hope everyone has picked out one or two events to go--I'm so glad to be reading for Instant City. This magazine is one that focuses on San Francisco stories. I love it because it catches that side of me that longs to live in the city, be a metropolitan babe. I encourage everyone to pick a couple of the readings on Saturday night and just tour around the Mission. My reading is at 6:00 at Dalva's --oopsy, forgot the name of the bar again. I'll look it up and get back to you via e-mail.

I went to two readings this weekend--one featured people who've been published in Pedestal Magazine and the other is what I consider to be my local hot spot--the Valona Poetry reading series. The editor from Pedestal--John Amen--read at both readings. Meg Pokrass had stories that were on fire. I needed some relief from all the serious, headiness that comes with poetry at these things, but I have to say, I was impressed by the caliber of the readers. I picked up a couple of Amen's books and plan to use one or two of them as examples of strong imagery and language.

My advice to you for this week if you're a writer, though, is to remember why you do it. I'm reminding myself right now. Cut back on the blogospheres, the facebook frenzy, the duotrope search engine, and just write. CULATER

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Did I get your name right?

My latest story on-line is called "Yeah, But Nobody Hates Their Dad." It's up on You Must Be This Tall To Ride, which is a coming of age stories website. Interesting concept. When I saw their site, I thought, Oh, I have just the story. And I'm glad they thought so, too. If you read it, let me know what you think.

Hey, Kerry. Is that your last name? I forget. Because I used to date a guy named Kerry and I've mixed his last name up with yours. The stuff that gets stuck to your brain flaps.

Coming up, my fiction writing class at the Writing Salon in Berkeley. It's Thursday nights from 7:00 to 9:30 for nine weeks. It's what fiction classes are like, but I like to mix it up a bit with new stories each time. I'm looking around for a new story to use besides "Hills Like White Elephants" to teach dialogue. We've seen this. We know it's great, but please. HOWEVER, if you haven't read it, it's a must-read! I also have a flash fiction class on October 10th for a couple of hours. One more listed is the Fiction Continuation class once a month for six months. Whew!
Check out writingsalons.com

Litquake is coming to town and we're all excited. Look it up and see all the scheduled readings. I'll be reading on October 17th at 6:00 for Instant City. Oops, forgot the name of that bar. Hold on for that info. I'll be posting on Facebook. There will also be lots of educational sessions. Just look and see what your preferences are and don't be shy, just go.

I want to say read the newest issue of Smokelong Quarterly for your dose of flash fiction. It's the magazine to goto for flash. Or read Elimae.

Got several great rejections this week. Spurned. I love that word because it rhymes with burned. And yet, when they say "We were glad to have had the chance to consider it," how can you be hurt.

I'm trying to get to bed at a decent hour.