Working Titlez

Whether  a novice or veteran, writers need inspiration – and sometimes instruction – in developing or improving their manuscripts. But where to turn for sage advice?

Local colleges, community centers, and writers’ groups offer advice and support, and often classes … but they can be costly as well as difficult to schedule.

Now through iTunes, writers can access a veritable plethora of courses, both general and genre-specific, for free! Check out the list below, courtesy of MediaBistro.com:

New Mexico State’s Mythology Course

Open University’s Creative Writing Course

Washington College’s The Tolkien Professor Course

Oxford University’s Approaching Shakespeare Course

Liberty University’s Composition & Rhetoric Course

Open University’s Start Writing Fiction Course

Oxford University’s Tolkien at Oxford Course

Stanford University’s Literature of Crisis Course

Missouri State University’s Knights & Maidens Literature Course

University of Alabama’s Zombies! The Living Dead in Literature Course

While preparing to speak at the Ames, Iowa public library about her most recent book, The Home for the Friendless, author Betty Auchard spent time with Laura Millsaps of the Ames Tribune. A wonderful article where Betty shares some of her fondest memories of her childhood in Iowa. For the full interview, click here:

Great news this morning! Three of our books placed in the National Indie Excellence Awards — Higher Than Eagles by Maralys Wills and The Home for the Friendless by Betty Auchard are Finalists in the Memoir category, while Friendless received a second award in the Interior Design category. And Dancing in My Nightgown, also by Betty Auchard, WON the Indie Excellence Award for Non-Fiction Audio. What’s extra-wow is that Betty, herself, is the narrator. Local production house Dog & Pony Studios were producers. So proud of everyone involved. Here’s book designer Sue Campbell’s report.

. . . the memoir, like the novel, is all about shape. It’s not a biography, not a life story, not a transcript of events. In a memoir, a writer tells a story, and whatever is extraneous gets left out. ~ David L. Ulin

I agree with David Ulin. This brouhaha is much ado about not much — but it does give us a moment to reflect on the meaning and purpose of memoir. What do you think? ~ CHU

From the Department of Tempest in a Teapot: In the current issue of the New York Review of Books, Joyce Carol Oates responds, in a letter, to Julian Barnes’ April 7 review of her memoir A Widow’s Story. Oates, Barnes suggested, was susceptible to the charge of “breach of narrative promise” — huh? — for not having mentioned in her book, which traces her reaction to the death of her husband, Raymond Smith, that she is now remarried. The implication, I suppose, is that her grief was more fleeting than it appeared, and that her book is less than honest — or, at the very least, incomplete. Here we go again, discussing memoirs as if the form itself, and those who write it, were not allowed the imaginative expression of their art.

Read it here.

Back by popular demand, we’re reprising our Nuts & Bolts Workshop for Authors.

Saturday, from 1:00 – 5:30 PM, we’ll cover publishing basics from submissions to industry trends, followed by manuscript polishing and what to expect from the editing process.

Sunday, from 1:00 – 5:30 PM, we’ll present a new workshop, specifically for memoir writers.

Presenters include Author and Writing Teacher Maralys Wills, Book Editor Jami Carpenter and Publisher Carolyn Hayes Uber. This is the perfect opportunity to get the lay of the land and ask questions. Location: Clark County Library on East Flamingo in the Main Theater.