Jessica Barksdale shared Stephen Dobyn’s poems with us, particularly “How you Like it.” The link below has three of his poems that were printed in The Cortland Review Issue 26. I agree with her the dog in “How you Like It” is memorable. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes Dobyn as “American poet and novelist whose works […]
Experiment with Novel Revision
Jack Heffron in The Writer’s Idea Book, suggests a way to revise by cutting out five details in a chapter or short story. Details could be objects, colors, dialogue, etc. Then add five different details. How has it changed? Are the new details, the right ones? How do details shape a story? Thomas Wolfe debated […]
Jessica Barksdale Writing Retreat 2015
Last day of Jessica Barksdale’s writing retreat. I’m happy I found two Beta readers for Norman in the Painting. Kari Ann Flickinger and Gretchen Nordstrom. Now all I have to do is get the remaining one third of the book written, send it to them, make revisions from what they find is confusing, then send […]
Novel Revision on My Mind
Outside at a friend’s party in Pleasanton to see tonight’s sunset. On the patio after the stunning view. I’m thinking of the changes I need to make on one page in my novel before tomorrow morning. It’s the last day of Jessica Barksdale’s writing retreat. Each participant will read a revision of a page that […]
Food in Writing
What does your story’s characters eat? Today at Jessica Barksdale’s retreat, she suggested we write about food for 20 minutes. In Norman in the Painting, Jill wants to stall before going to her sister’s house. Viv, who has had too much to drink, tells Jill that the body of her colleague was found by the […]
A short story called “Duration Matters”
In Written Across the Genres, the last Mainstream Fiction short story, is “Duration Matters” by Arleen Eagling. It’s written in first person. The protagonist, Jennifer, is a high school student and she’s in trouble. Here are the first couple paragraphs: “Three months after I transferred from prep school to Ramsey High, I waited outside the […]
Writing Retreat Weekend Coming Up
My writer mentor teacher from years ago at Diablo Valley College, Jessica Barksdale, will be leading a writing retreat this coming weekend. I’ve submitted my ten pages and look forward to hear what is working and what isn’t. A chapter from Norman in the Painting will be scrutinized. She supplies us with breakfast and lunch, […]