More about New Orleans conference

I thought I'd share a little more about the Saints and Sinners conference. This has become an annual event for me. When I first attended, I was an unpublished, unknown writer, there at the insistence of a friend of mine. By the next year, I had a contract for my first novel and was there to meet with my publisher and editor. The next time I attended, it was to meet them again and receive the very first copy of my book, do a reading, and sit on a panel for the first time.

This conference holds a special place in my history, then, and it is always a special time.

This year, I meet with my publishers to present them with the final, rewritten, finished ms of What's Best for Jane.

I've been talking to my oldest and dearest frined Lori. She and I are trying to coordinate plans to meet in New orleans during the conference. I've haven't seen her very often since moving to Florida, so that will be a big thrill. I have another reason for hoping Lori can attand, and it has to do with What's Best for Jane. My friend already knows that she serves an an inspiration for one of the characters in the book, but I don't think she knows just how significant a role this character plays, and I think it would be interesting to do a reading with her in the audience, or discuss the book and the character on a panel while my friend listens in.

Plan now to attend the 2009 Saints and Sinners Literary Festival!

Ellen Hart

Benoit Denizet-Lewis

Yes, it's time to start making your plans to join us in the French Quarter for Saints and Sinners 2009! This year, we've bowed to pressure and moved the Festival back a week--so instead of Mother's Day weekend, this year it's the weekend of May 14-17. We're putting together a pretty amazing line-up of panels and speakers this year, and you definitely don't want to miss out! Speakers this year will include Michael Thomas Ford, Michael Lowenthal, Elana Dykewomon, Jess Wells, Greg Herren, Radclyffe, and a whole lot more!

This year's master classes are pretty amazing--here's the line-up: Michael Gross from the Authors Guild: Book Contract Workshop; Ali Liebegott: Me, Me, Me, and More About Me: A Personal Narrative Workshop; Jess Wells: Writing Credible, Creative Historical Fiction; Michael Thomas Ford: Reality Check--Can You Really be a Full-time Writer?; Benoit Denizet-Lewis: Telling (True) Stories: Researching and Writing Compelling Nonfiction; Radclyffe: The Truth about Blood and Guts: Writing Realistic Medical Scenes; Greg Herren: Let's Talk ABout Sex: How to Use Eroticism Effectively in Prose; and Ellen Hart: Learning to Love the Wastepaper Basket: The Art of Revision. The master classes are always interesting and in formative. They also tend to fill up fast, so definitely get your tickets sooner rather than later!

As you know, Saints and Sinners was originally founded not only to provide a place for LBTQ writers, editors, and publishers to get together, network, and share experiences in this crazy publishing business, but also to raise money for the NO/AIDS Task Force as it continues its ongoing struggle to fight this epidemic, prevent new infections, treat and assist those already infected, and spread awareness in the New Orleans community.

The Gut

I'm sitting here with a file open, waiting, waiting. Where to begin? I am about half way through the rewrite. I should push forward to the end, right? I quote John Steinbeck in Writers at Work, Penquin edition: "Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on."

So I should keep going through to the end. But my instinct, my gut, is telling me I missed something, that I should go back and correct it. Sometimes, craft and a sense of duty override instinct. I make notes about the thing my gut is screaming about, that visceral, feral, not-a-step-further feeling., and keep going. That is the smart thing, the professional thing, right?

Experience tells me that when something is screaming at me, it's too real and immediate to pass by, that getting that screaming thing on paper will have more vitality than the slogging forward because it's the right thing to do. Pressing onward will produce dull, listless writing, but the thing that screams at me, what will that bring forth? I have to go and see.

Red Audrey and the Roping has just made the short list for a Lambda literary award in debut fiction. I am very excited about this. I found Jill Malone's first novel surprising, written with a sure hand to complex character, style, setting, tone. Go find this book.

Butt in the Chair

I had a fun and interesting talk with the women's book club of OutLoud Books in Nashville yesterday. They seemed intrigued by my routine of getting up at 2 or 3 am every morning to write. I verified that this is absolutely true, every morning, seven days a week. They seemed to think this indicates great dedication. Maybe, but for me, as I tried to explain, writing is a habit, an avocation, a necessity. My routine does not work for every writer, and your not getting up so early each and every day does not indicate you are less devoted to your craft. Ideas and inspiration, the enthusiasm and passion for writing don't always magically appear at the designated time. But being there, in the chair, every day, making it a habit so ingrained that I can't do without it, means that I am open to it, and that the sometimes hard slogging, the mundane and dreary tasks of writing, editing, etc, gets done while waiting. I quote author Cynn Chadwick, who quoted Flannery O'Connor: writing is a habit of being.

As we began our talk, I pointed out that yesterday was the 44th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, that day in 1965 when about five or six hundred peaceful marchers were beaten back at the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, dozens sent to the hospital, and all of it shown on the national news. That is the day I chose for the ending scene in Miss McGhee.

I talked a little about the progress on What's Best for Jane. Set a decade ahead, the new novel opens in 1975, and moves from a great national force that swept the country to the affects on the individuals in the small town, from the political to the personal. I talked about that narrowing of focus and about writing from the point of view of a child, which I found very difficult.

A very interesting discussion.

See the cover of the new book? The one that's not out yet, because I've had some trouble, and because of it, I've been struggling with writing. See the manila folder? That's where outlines, ideas, notes, are stashed. The photo was taken at an authors' event at Java Nirvana in Gulfport, FL on Feb 15th, as I waited for it to begin. I sat fiddling and tweaking and writing yet more notes to myself about what comes next. I came to the event hoping to be energized and inspired by watching other authors read from their work and answer questions from the crowd. And I was rejuvenated. It was so helpful just to be there in the audience and to listen and get to talk a bit with other writers.

Gulfport is a lovely little village, a gem, one that I hope keeps on the wayside of the mainstream of tourists to Florida, though it has a beach, a pier, and inns, and wonderful shops and places like Java Nirvana. It's our secret here in St Pete, and I would hate to see this place change.

So I am writing again, pushing forward after the trouble, getting somewhere with the rewrite of What's Best for Jane. The new, and final, target for release is October 2009. Of course, troubles are never over simply because you declare them to be over. They have a way of popping in on you, no matter how determined you are to put them aside and move on. It has been my experience that the moving on occurs without pause or consideration for our individual stumbling blocks.

Sunday, Feb 15th: 10 am till 2 pm: three authors, Lee Lynch, KG MacGregor, and Ruth Perkinson, will be at Java Nirvana in Gulfport, Florida. Come join them for coffee and conversation. They will read, sign books, answer questions.

I'll be there, in the audience, lending support and taking notes. Stealing ideas and inspiration.