A Visit with Dawn

On Monday, I had the pleasure of interviewing over at Dawn Malone's blog, host of Here's the Story, about the release of Story Sprouts. Dawn learned about the book after a writercize post, and was kind enough to interview my co-editor and founder of Children's Book Writers of Los Angeles, Nutschell Anne Windsor, and me.

Please take a look at the interview, which reveals the steps we took to publish as a writing group, and some insight on how other groups can do the same!

If anyone else is interested in an interview or guest post, we'll be rolling out a January blog tour, so stay tuned for details. If you already know you'd like to play host for a Story Sprouts related post, leave a comment here and we'll be sure to get you on the calendar!

Story Sprouts Launch Party Photos

This past weekend, 13 newly published anthology authors and their biggest supporters gathered together at the Torrance Municipal Airport to celebrate the launch of Story Sprouts Writing Day Workshop and Anthology 2013: A Collection of Writing Exercises and the Resulting Creative Works of Fiction by the Children's Book Writers of Los Angeles.

I posted about the book Friday and have a tab on writercize with more information, so check those out to learn more about the book. 

In the meantime, here are a few photos from the launch! Thank you to Maiko and Nutschell (The Writing Nut) for the pics!

CBW-LA Board Members Angie, Lucy, Nutschell, Alana (that's me!) and Tiffani
jump for joy to celebrate a successful launch party!

The cake. Delicious!
Thanks King's Hawaiian for the yummy cake and for incorporating the book cover in the design!

Anthology Authors at the Launch Party.
What a lovely group of talented writers!

Signed books!
Thanks Keela Jacks for the beautiful cover design!

CBW-LA Board Members search for the next "great" idea.

The book was teamwork in the truest sense of the word! Our authors trusted us with a full day writing workshop, knowing that the work they produced would be edited and published in an anthology. (Can you imagine? Nineteen authors willing to workshop and write for publication in one day? Such brave individuals ... and very talented to boot! There are incredible new voices in this anthology.)

I edited the pieces for content and grammar and wrote the narrative surrounding the anthology based on a workshop presented by my co-editor, Nutschell Anne Windsor, while she handled the business side of publication, setting up a publishing wing for our non-profit group, called CBW-LA Publications, and preparing all of the minute details that go into producing a book! 

Fellow board members Angie Flores, Lucy Ravitch and Tiffani Barth secured donations for door prizes and prepared the food and decorations for both the workshop and launch party. 

Every person poured their heart and soul into making this the best anthology (slash) writing resource it could be!

As noted Friday, the book is now available on Amazon (and listed at Goodreads) and we are happy to send a review copy to book bloggers and indie reviewers. We'll also be putting together a blog tour, and would be happy to answer interview questions now or during tour dates, TBD! Send a note if you'd like to review the book or conduct an interview!

PS - Today is #StorySprouts Authors and Producers Day! Be sure to check out the link party on our Facebook page for posts from other anthology authors, CBW-LA guest speakers (hey Arlee Bird!), and the people who assisted by formatting, copy editing and designing our book!

Thank you Keela Jacks of Garrigues Graphics, Rachel Morgan of Morgan Media and Erin Elizabeth Long of Biblio/Tech for all that you did for this book!

Hip! Hip! Hooray! Three Cheers for Story Sprouts!

Hear ye! Hear ye!

I am pleased to announce today is the official release date for

Story Sprouts: CBW-LA Writing Day and Anthology 2013, a collection of stories by members of the Children's Book Writers of Los Angeles created during a one day creative Writing Day workshop this past June.

It is a BIG accomplishment for our group, founded in 2010 by Nutschell Anne Windsor of The Writing Nut, and I am so excited. The book comes complete with 10 writing exercises, a bunch of writing tips and techniques, prompts, and - best of all - a glimpse at the talent of 19 published and aspiring children's book authors.

We've been highlighting those authors on our Facebook page for the past month, so take a look!

Nutschell spearheaded the workshop and our board members collected the anthology entries, which I then compiled and edited for the book. I also took her fantastic workshop presentation and translated it into a narrative form so that writers could follow along from home.

If you like to writercize, chances are you will be a fan of the exercises and prompts. And if you love to support and discover new talent, this is the place to look. I was floored by the stories that came out of three hours of writing and revising, from story seed to complete product! 

Each author contributed two pieces - one poem or short prose "On Writing," and one short story based on a photo prompt and exercise called Shopping for Story Ideas. Our writers played with voice and point of view during revision exercises.

Our Launch party is this Saturday, so if you are in the L.A. area, I'd love for you to attend and support these great writers! (Details at www.cbw-la.org)

After the launch, we will be going on an around the world BLOG TOUR, so if you are interested in obtaining a complimentary copy for a fair review on your blog, or if you'd like to interview Nutschell or me, please leave a comment here and we'll get in touch! 

Thank you for your readership and support!

And - I will see you tomorrow for a very fun Weekly Writercize! ;)

Weekly Writercize Coming Soon: From Regular to Scarce to ... ?

Hello Writercizers!

It's been several full moons since my last post, and I felt like stopping into say hello.

As always, life has been a whirlwind of busy. Including a ton of time writing, which is always good! I still have a Chicken Soup giveaway to take care of, so watch for that in the coming days. I also have some writing news to share with all of you, and some blogging news to share as well!

Writing News first:

1 --- My writing group, Children's Book Writers of Los Angeles (or CBW-LA for short), is preparing to launch a new book! It will be fantastic for all writercizers out there - as well as English students, aspiring authors, published authors, teachers, writing groups and more! Late last year, we had a concept to create an anthology created out of a one-day writing workshop, complete with writing exercises. It would be a Writing Day Anthology. The idea was all of us have manuscripts we love, but ultimately want to publish as a stand-alone book, so by taking ideas sprouted in the moment, we could encourage our writers to exercise their minds, get published and have some fun.

It was a wonderful experience, and very successful! As the group's Publications Editor, I had the honor of compiling the pieces, doing some minor content edits to help the stories flow better, and writing the narrative around the anthology! The book includes ten writing prompts, photos, character types, all the hand-outs from the workshop on four short literary types - Picture Book Manuscript, Flash Fiction, Poetry and Essay - and descriptions and thoughts on the writing craft.

Our authors completed two published works each - one On Writing, and the other a fictional piece based on a photo prompt. There are some outstanding, creative brains in our midst and I am very excited to announce the Anthology, entitled STORY SPROUTS, will be released on October 29, 2013! I encourage you all to buy a copy when it comes out - available on Amazon in digital or print form - and I will keep you posted here with the link and a giveaway. In the meantime, follow our Facebook page for updates. 

We are patting ourselves on the back at the moment for a whole new approach to the anthology, so we'd appreciate some pats on the back from you as well. ;)

And, if you have not met Nutschell Anne Windsor yet, aka The Writing Nut, check out her blog! She is the co-editor of STORY SPROUTS, and she designed the exercises and the workshop. She is also the incredibly smart, talented, creative, resourceful founder of CBW-LA. It has been an honor to work with her on this very important project.


2 --- My creative nonfiction work about building an orphanage in Benin, West Africa is well underway and I hope to have the first draft completed by the New Year. In the meantime, I am planning a two-week research adventure in Africa the end of next month. Wahoo! This will be a FUNNY book, something we've coined the humorous humanitarian, and the critique group response was strong. 

Blogging News:

I have decided to attack this blog again in manageable spurts, so I would like to post a Weekly Writercize. I am not ready to re-launch the WeekendWritercize competition yet, but I am looking forward to a weekly interaction with the blogging world. 

So, what day should I post my Weekly Writercize? What's your preference? Shall we make it Wednesday for good alliteration? Over the weekend? First thing Monday morning? I'm up for any day but Tuesdays, so send me a shout-out with your preference.

10 Questions with Ian Doescher, Best-Selling Author of William Shakespeare's Star Wars

Ian Doescher, photo by Shan Applegate

Ten Question with Ian Doescher,  
Author of William Shakespeare's Star Wars


Today I am honored to host Ian Doescher, friend and New York Times Best-Selling Author (!) of William Shakespeare's Star Wars. My friendship with Ian pre-dates his writing career, and it has been quite the whirlwind adventure watching his burgeoning writing career! He still maintains a nine to five day job, but he and his family are enjoying quite the voyage around the country this summer to launch his book.

William Shakespeare's Star Wars by Ian Doescher

Please welcome Ian and feel free to leave a question or comment for him in the comments section! I'm sure he'd love to connect with fans and future readers, as well as all of you aspiring writers and authors who read this blog.







Here goes!

1. First things first, let's get something out of the way. My mom taught you in elementary school, I'm featuring you on my blog, you're married to my childhood best friend, and you now own my grandparents' house. Let's call a spade a spade. To me, this all means - my family is directly responsible for your genius. Thoughts?




ID: Definitely.  In fact, the idea didn't come to me until al of those events had happened, so it must be due to the perfect alignment of the Garrigues planets.(Ha! Thanks for indulging me.)

2. Kidding! Seriously, you were already a genius. I think. We just get the honor of knowing the man who married the literary titan of William Shakespeare with the film titan of George Lucas' Star Wars in person. Lucky us. :)... So, how the heck did you come up with the idea to marry the two? Did you just see potential dollar signs dancing in front of your eyes with the realization that you are taking the world's two most popular franchises and meshing them into one? This is like real-life literary Frankenstein.

ID: There was a lot of serendipity involved.  I watched the Star Wars trilogy with some friends from high school in April last year, then read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (published by Quirk Books), and right after that went to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival with my family.  It was this mix of things swirling around in my subconscious -- mashup-literature, Star Wars and Shakespeare -- that put the idea in my head.  And of course I knew I was picking two hugely popular cultural icons, so though I can't claim to have had visions of dollar signs, I will admit to thinking there was a good chance it would be successful.

3. Would you say that conjuring up Shakespeare and Han Solo was more inspirational or frightening? Big shoes to fill. Did you ever find yourself crying, "I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!"

ID: There were definitely moments when I thought to myself, "I'm having a hard enough time even getting this line into iambic pentameter, to say nothing of being clever or witty or metaphorical or whatever."  I really have no idea how Shakespeare did it.  And I knew I would be watched closely by every Star Wars fan everywhere for how I handled a few scenes.  So far, so good.  I haven't been accosted on the street.  Yet.

4. This is your first book. (Congrats!!) What surprised you about the publishing industry?

ID: First of all I have to admit to incredible luck in getting this book published.  I emailed Quirk Books with the idea, they responded and said they would read a sample, I wrote a sample, and they wrote back and said, essentially, "let's do it."  All just under a year ago today.  It's not supposed to happen like that, and I don't take my luck for granted.  The big surprises along the way are little things I've learned -- things like how complex a literary contract can be, how early a final manuscript is needed to hit a certain publication date, and just how many copies a book sells when it becomes a bestseller (fewer than you probably think).  I was surprised on all three of those, and others.

5. What advice would you have to unpublished writers?

ID: Keep trying.  Don't be afraid to email people out of the blue with your samples.  Find an agent.  Do it because it gives you joy, not because you think it will be a career.

6. What's your next project? Walt Whitman's Avatar? Herman Melville's Titanic? George Carlin's Simpsons? F. Scott Fitzgerald's ET?

ID: I love the idea of Herman Melville's Titanic -- wish I'd thought of that one.  It would have 400 pages of intense details about glacial formations, the Atlantic ocean and the ship itself, and then 25 pages of Kate and Leo's romance.  For my next project, I think it would be great fun to do the rest of the original Star Wars trilogy -- there's more I can do there, I think.  I'm developing a children's book with a friend of mine, too.  So we'll see!  I will say that for the last several months, knowing my first book was coming out, I have felt an intense pressure to figure out what the next one will be.

7. Who are your literary heroes? (Clearly, we already know one of them.)

ID: Alphabetically -- since I wouldn't dare rank them -- and ranging from long dead to still writing: Jane Austen, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, David James Duncan, Tana French, Theodor Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss), Alex Haley, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Herman Melville, Sena Jeter Naslund, William Shakespeare (indeed!), Zadie Smith.

8. Please share your bio in iambic pentameter.





ID:

Meet Ian Doescher, now age thirty-six,

Who all his life has loved the Star Wars flicks.

In eighth grade he discovered Startford's Bard,

And for that gentle poet he fell hard.

A Portland native, Ian travelled east,

And spent twelve years in higher ed (at least!).

Now back in Portland, he enjoys his life

With two great kids and world's most awesome wife.

This William Shakespeare's Star Wars, his first book,

Is something that he hopes you'll give a look!

9. Please tell me why everyone should buy your book in iambic pentameter.


ID:  
‘Tis said that William Shakespeare, all his days,
Hath written only thirty-seven plays.
‘Tis said, as well, George Lucas never slipp’d
To Stratford, so to write his famous script.
But what if those two souls had been as one,
Their works combin’d as not to be outdone?
What if, long time ago in days of yore,
The bard hath written Star Wars, Ep’sode Four?
What if A New Hope were young Shakespeare’s work?
Would not such an event be thought a quirk—
An accident of time and history,
And sign of a galactic mystery?
Good souls, to thee my news I do rehearse:
Of th’Star Wars story penn’d in Shakespeare’s verse.
Hast thou e’er wondered how Luke’s thoughts did run,
When he saw Tatooine’s great double sun?
Or hast thou heard the dirge that Leia sang
Once Alderaan hath gone out with a bang?
How did the knave Han Solo understand
His transformation unto hero grand?
Upon these answers thou shalt have thy looks
In William Shakespeare’s Star Wars from Quirk Books.
The book is at a bookstore near to thee,
And always, friends, the Force with you shall be.

10. Any last words for William Shakespeare, George Lucas or Quirk Books?

ID: Thank you, thank you, and thank you.  All three have have been huge and very kind to me (in different ways) throughout this process.

BONUS Question - This interview is coming out just after you learned your book debuted at #12 on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction best selling list. WOW! Share your giddy joy with the world in a sentence.

ID: The news about the Times list has been unbelievable for me because I'm just a normal guy who had an idea; I am beyond honored to be on the list.  (I cheated and separated two sentences by a semicolon!)

Ian - Thanks for taking this interview. May The (Sales) Force Be With You!

And for all you writercizers out there, may this interview inspire a writercize! Pick an author and match it to a seemingly unrelated film, song or play. See what magic transpires! I always love to see your work, so please share as you are willing in the comments section!

Comments welcome directed at Ian or in response to the suggested writercize.

Happy Dance Time! Here @ Writercize

Hello all! I'm just stopping in for a quick little happy dance.

Fun things happening in my little writing world - I got a couple of emails last week about books I get to preview and share with all of you (HOORAY!), so once I have them in hand I will ferociously read through them and share. One will even be a give-away! (Even bigger hooray for you!!)

Keep your eyes open for those reviews coming soon. Of course they will be attached to a couple of fantastic writercizes so that you can get the writing juices flowing along with your reader curiosity.

In case you might be interested in an Amazon order without the review or writercize, they are:

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for Writers - 101 Motivational Stories for Writers Budding or Bestselling from Books to Blogs (available now!)

and

William Shakespeare's Star Wars by Ian Doescher (available July 2, open to pre-orders)

I love when fun opportunities fall into my lap!

Now, the BIGGEST reason for a happy dance?!

I am delving full throttle ahead deep into my Work In Progress, a creative non-fiction book I am co-authoring with Sarah Chapman, the founder of Build a Better Benin, a nonprofit to improve education and health practices in West Africa. 

I am ridiculously excited, over-the-moon, happy, happy, happy about this book. We are still in the early stages, but the manuscript is really starting to take shape and I'm feeling good about it. After much hemming and hawing about the first chapter, I had some divine inspiration a couple of nights ago and sat down to pour my soul into it, and it's looking good.

I don't want to give too much away yet, since it is still so early and we don't have representation yet, but ... it's fun. Sarah calls it the humorous humanitarian, which is pretty spot-on. We're aiming for the full range of emotions from belly laughs to crocodile tears and everything in between recounting her story of dropping everything to live alone, in the bush, in a third-world country.

She's spent the past several months sharing her incredible journey with me, and now it's time to translate it into a work of art. Huge feeling of contentment watching the story develop.

I'll continue to check in here as writercizes strike, and to share those book reviews with you, but in the meantime, please to join in the happy dance with me! Cha-cha-cha!

Zee End! - writercize #AtoZChallenge 3.26

Congratulations to all of the A to Z Challenge participants this year! It was a real treat to visit your blogs and get to know you. Nice to reconnect with "old" bloggers and meet several newbies!

I have a couple of posts to fill in towards the end of the alphabet, but overall it was a great month of blogging here at writercize. :)

Thank you to Arlee Bird for including me on your team and again, congrats to all of the wonderful bloggers who kept up your posts and shared your voice this month!!