Find Support In Writing Workshops
The main obstacle facing most would-be writers is the self-consciousness that comes with inexperience.
Am I good enough? you may ask yourself. Will I look stupid? Do I have anything profound to say? Do I know how to say it correctly?
Well, dealing with those kinds of questions is the kind of personal battle each of us has to wage alone. Even so, there are several ways of achieving support.
One easy way is to attend a writers’ workshop. Here are a few upcoming writer-related opportunities that sound promising:
Virginia White teaches writing and she publishes her own books. So it’s only natural that she would teach self-publishing.
White will lead a self-publishing workshop for seniors from 1-3 p.m. Monday at the Corbin Senior Activity Center, 827 W. Cleveland.
Part of the workshop will include a panel discussion with several senior authors, including poet Joe Meiners and Elmer Freeman (author of a World War II memoir).
The workshop, which is sponsored by the Community Colleges of Spokane’s Institute for Extended Learning, is open to seniors 55 and older. Cost is $5 and can be paid at the door. For further information, call 533-3770.
If you’re interested in writing mystery stories, you might consider attending the May 23-25 mystery novel and short story writing weekend in Big Timber, Mont.
The event, which is sponsored by Montana Sagebrush Writers Workshops, will be held at Big Timber’s C.M. Russell Lodge.
Author Marlys Millhiser will teach the “nuts and bolts to help your novels and short stories sell.”
The cost is $150. For registration information, write: Gwen Petersen, Sagebrush Writers Workshops, Box 1255, Big Timber, MT 59011, or call (406) 932-4227.
Now in its tenth year, the Summer Fishtrap Gathering continues to offer quality writing instruction that is “interdisciplinary, multicultural and theme driven.”
This year’s gathering will be held July 6-13 in Oregon’s Wallowa Lake Camp and will feature a variety of workshops led by nationally known authors. Two such authors, Gloria Bird and Janet Campbell Hale, have Spokane roots.
Fees vary depending on participant status (students through Eastern Oregon State College are charged on a credit-hour basis). In general, though, each workshop costs $215.
For more information, write to: Fishtrap, P.O. Box 38, Enterprise, OR 97828, or call (541) 426-3623.
From the Web
If you’re an elementary-school reader and like to write book reviews, then you might want to enter the contest being held on the Internet by The Book Depot in Colville, Wash.
The bookstore, in conjunction with Internet Xpress, is inviting grade-schoolers to write reviews of children’s books for their Web site. Each student participant will be eligible for a drawing, the first prize of which is a $20 gift certificate at The Book Depot.
A whole class of third-graders at Kettle Falls (Wash.) Elementary School is busy at work providing reviews for the contest.
For further information, call Karla or Steve Rumsey at (509) 684-5562. Or check out the Web site at http://www.plix.com/com/ bookdepot/index.htm and just follow the instructions.
Deadline is May 5; the drawing will be held May 15.
The reader board
Pete Fromm, author of “Dry Rain,” will read from the collection of short stories at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Auntie’s Bookstore.
Diane O’Hehir, author of the poetry collection “Spells For Not Dying Again,” will read from the book at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Auntie’s Bookstore.
Richard Lancaster, author of the poetry collection “Sonnets For a Lady,” will read from the book at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Auntie’s Bookstore.
Florence Boutwell, author of a three-volume history of the Spokane Valley, will sign copies of her books from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the senior center at Mission and Bowdish.
, DataTimes