Blisscraft Life With Christina Katz

Fellow Willamette Writers Member, Jon Dragt introduced me to Melissa Hart and I’ve hosted her at The Northwest Author Series. She’s an inspiring presenter and just a delightful person. Enjoy!

Melissa Hart is the author of two memoirs: Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood (Seal Press, 2009) and The Assault of Laughter (Windstorm, 2005).  She’s a contributing editor at The Writer Magazine, and her articles and essays have appeared in The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Advocate, The Los Angeles Times, Fourth Genre, Other Voices, Northwest Review, High Country News, Orion, The Chicago Tribune, The Oregonian, Hemispheres, Horizon Air Magazine, Woman’s Day, Cat Fancy, and numerous other publications. She lives in Eugene, Oregon with her husband, photographer Jonathan B. Smith, and their young daughter, plus two dogs, and five cats. Learn more about Melissa at http://melissahart.com/.

Book Description:

Torn between the high socioeconomic status of her father and the bohemian lifestyle of her mother, Melissa Hart tells a compelling story of contradiction in this coming-of-age memoir. Set in 1970s Southern California, Gringa is the story of a young girl conflicted by two extremes. On the one hand there’s life with her mother, who leaves her father to begin a lesbian relationship, taking Hart and her two siblings along. Hart tells of her mom’s new life in a Hispanic neighborhood of Oxnard, California, and how these new surroundings begin to positively shape Hart herself. At the opposite extreme is her father’s white-bread well-to-do security, which is predictable and stable and boring. Hart is made all the more fraught with frustration when a judge rules that being raised by two women is “unnatural” and grants her father primary custody.

Q&A:

1. How has writing (either just the act of writing or writing this book or both) impacted your self-confidence?

I’ve been writing since nine years old, and it’s an integral part of who I am.  Writing has insisted that I become an extrovert, a teacher, an owl trainer, a filmmaker—all of which feed my self-confidence.

2. What are three words that describe your creative book-writing process?

Three words that describe my creative book-writing process are faith, focus, and revision.

3. What good has your book created in the world?

Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood, has made readers laugh and cry. It’s inspired them to belt out songs from old MGM musicals. It’s challenged their ideas about parenting and disabilities, and it’s inspired them to make Frito Boats.

• • •

Thanks for participating, Melissa!

Personal writing, like essay or memoir—I am curious how many of you have had any personal writing published.

Have you ever submitted an essay for publication? Have you every had an essay published? How is this experience different from writing and submitting other types of writing for you?

Answer in the comments in 50-200 words (no less and no more to qualify to win one of today’s books). Please read the complete rules at least once!

Melissa is allowed to answer too, but not until tomorrow, after her winner is drawn, because she can’t win her own books.

Thanks for participating in the Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway! Please spread the word.

I am going to put the “Creative Every Day” blog series to sleep and wake it back up in June. (Not the whole blog, just this one series that I have been doing for a while.)

I’ll be plenty creative in the meantime but I’ll save the stories for later when the Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway is over. It’s going to keep me busy and I’d better pace myself.

In the meantime >>> the series will be back before you know it! 🙂

And the winner of Cindy Hudson’s wonderful celebration of literary moms and daughters, Book By Book, The Complete Guide to Mother-Daughter Book Clubs is…

Mar Junge!

Congratulations!

My daughter, Samantha, and I had fun counting down the list of names until we came to the winning number. This has become our nightly ritual.

Mar, I need you to send me an e-mail with your mailing address so that I can send it on to Cindy and she can send you your signed book!

Please send your address in an e-mail to “katz christina at comcast dot net.”

Everyone CAN comment on this post.

So feel free to comment or kvetch or whatever.

Please refrain from commenting on the giveaway post until after the drawing each day.

First I’ll close comments. And then I’ll open them back up after the drawing. We’ll see how that goes. 🙂

Today, I’d like to present Judy M. Miller, Samantha Ducloux Waltz, and Emily Chadwick Baker, for our anthology day. These lovely ladies will each give away a signed anthology copy today, so that’s three chances to win a book today for three participants! Enjoy…

Judy M. Miller

Scared to pieces at first, Judy M. Miller has found writing to be centering and cathartic. She rediscovered herself and confidence in the process of finding her voice. She finds blocks of time to write while her four kids are in school, typically loosening up with a few prompts. Her essays and articles appear in adoption and parenting magazines. Judy’s stories are included in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom (Chicken Soup for the Soul), A Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Families: Stories That Celebrate a Special Gift of Love (Adams Media), Pieces of Me: Who Do I Want to Be? (EMK Pres), Sensational Journeys (Future Horizons), and Women Writing on Family: Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing (Key Publishing House). Learn more about Judy at JudyMMiller.com.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom (Chicken Soup for the Soul), is an amazing tribute to mothers the world over. The stories will make you smile, laugh and cry. Perfect for Mother’s Day or those special women in your life. Judy’s essay, “The Chest,” is included in the inspirational Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom. Chicken Soup for the Soul editor Wendy Walker said, “I chose ‘The Chest’ because it captured the essence of the mother-daughter relationship. A mother has been through the stages of life the daughter will soon pass, and yet for the daughter to pass through them, she must separate from her mother. So here we had this mother knowing what would be important to her daughter years down the road.”

• • •

Samantha Ducloux Waltz:

Samantha Ducloux Waltz is an award-winning freelance writer in Portland, Oregon. Her personal stories appear in the Chicken Soup For The Soul series, A Cup of Comfort series, and numerous other anthologies as well as Redbook and Christian Science Monitor.  She has also written fiction and nonfiction under the name Samellyn Wood. More at  http://www.pathsofthought.com.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Dog’s Life is the most recent in the acclaimed Chicken Soup series. “Double Love” by Samantha Ducloux Waltz is one of 101 heartwarming, entertaining and inspirational stories about all the ages and stages of our best friends and faithful companions, from puppyhood  to the senior years.

Q&A:

1. How has writing (either just the act of writing or writing this book or both) impacted your self-confidence?

My success as a writer is essential to my sense of self.  I’ve always been very achievement oriented, and that is evidently something one does not outgrow. When I get a contract for a story I feel better about myself. Like getting an “A” in school. My mother was a successful writer and maybe I inherited a “must publish” gene.  Although I value the work of other writers whether they are published or not, I feel driven to see my work in print.

2. What are three words that describe your creative book-writing process?

Three words that describe my writing process are: meditative, focused, and centering.

3. What good has your book created in the world?

A woman contacted me who ended an abusive relationship after reading one of my stories about my divorce.  A man from Iraq contacted me who said his world view became much more positive and hopeful after he read a story I wrote about my older son’s successful battle against depression that followed his disabling accident. The man explained that he turned to the story frequently, and he quoted parts of it that particularly influenced him. (The credit really goes to my son.)  I’ve had other comments and compliments, but these are the two most dramatic examples.

• • •

Emily Chadwick Baker

Emily Chadwick is a freelance writer with regular gigs as a small town columnist, general reporter and feature writer.  Her monthly newspaper column, “On a shoestring,” currently runs in two Pacific Northwest newspapers. In 2010 Emily co-founded the Terroir Creative Writing Festival which has featured several nationally acclaimed writers including Ursula K. Le Guin, Jean Auel, Molly Gloss, Monica Drake and Larry Colton, Christina Katz and many others. She continues to help organize the event by coordinating authors, building schedules, negotiating contracts, and writing copy. She lives in a 102 year old house in the heart of Oregon’s wine country with her husband and children. Learn more at www.emilychadwick.com.

Just Moms: Conveying Justice In An Unjust World
Edited by Melanie Springer Mock and Rebekah D. Schneiter
Conveying the principles and the practice of justice to young children is no small task. In this poignant, honest, and sometimes witty collection of stories, 27 women share their adventures and misadventures modeling social-justice principles for their children and communities. Just Moms is about moms bending their own rules and redefining success as they work to raise kids who value peace, equality, truth, simplicity, and love.

Q&A:

1. How has writing (either just the act of writing or writing this book or both) impacted your self-confidence?
Writing my essay, “Digging for Answers,” which was included in the book, Just Moms, has given me the confidence to set goals and pursue them.  For a brief moment when the book was released, I celebrated the accomplishment of publication, then I quickly shifted my focus to “next time.” Before this anthology I wondered if a book deal was in my future. Now, I think about how hard I must to work to ensure that one is.

2. What are three words that describe your creative book-writing process?
Write despite distraction

3. What good has your book created in the world?
Stories, both fiction and non-fiction, help us make sense of the world and our experiences. I think readers of Just Moms walk away from the book knowing they are not alone as they negotiate, and sometimes struggle with, important child rearing issues and decisions.  Though this book is written from a Christian perspective, the experiences shared by  mom writers feel familiar to any mother, regardless of religious creed or beliefs. At its best, the book might even change the way moms think about each other.

• • •

Thanks for participating, Judy, Samantha, and Emily!

I am curious how many of you have written for anthologies or maybe even created one. My “first” book was an anthology of my former students’ work called Rhapsody In Writing.

Have you ever submitted your work to an anthology? If so, which one or what kind? Let us know if you are a member of the anthology creator’s club.

Answer in the comments in 50-200 words (no less and no more to qualify to win one of today’s books). Please read the complete rules at least once!

Judy, Samantha, and Emily are allowed to answer too, but not until tomorrow because they can’t win their own books.

Thanks for participating in the Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway! Please spread the word.

And the winner of Hallie Ephron’s book, Come And Find Me is…

Taniadakka!!!

Congratulations!

My daughter, Samantha, and I had fun counting down the list of names until we came to the winning number. I suspect this will become something of a nightly ritual. 🙂

Taniadakka, I need you to send me an e-mail with your mailing address so that I can send it on to Hallie and she can send you your signed book!

Please send your address in an e-mail to “katz christina at comcast dot net.”

This is fun. I’m glad we revived it. I think the giveaway might be even more fun in May than it was in September with all of that back-to-school madness. 😉

Everyone CAN comment on this post. So feel free to comment or kvetch or whatever.

I first met Cindy in early 2006 when she took my class Writing & Publishing Nonfiction Articles (a class I no longer offer). Five years later, she has been repeatedly published, built up a blog and a following, wrote a book proposal, and landed an agent and a book deal. Today Cindy is an author and an internationally known family literacy advocate, who has  recently added a series of Book Club Guides to her growing repertoire of helpful resources. Please help me welcome Cindy!

Cindy Hudson is the author of Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs (Seal Press, October 2009). She is the founder of two long-running mother-daughter book clubs, and she lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two daughters. Visit her online at www.MotherDaughterBookClub.com.

Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs has all the advice moms need to start reading groups with their daughters and keep them thriving as the girls grow. Each chapter includes practical ideas from the author, other book-club moms, parenting experts, librarians, and other writers. Book recommendations, recipes and other resources are also included.

Author Q&A:

1. How has writing (either just the act of writing or writing this book or both) impacted your self-confidence?

While writing this book I realized just how much I knew about book clubs and how my experience really could help others. That confidence carried through into my other writing as well. Now I am more likely to see what I have to offer as valuable to the right audience, I just have to do my work to find the right audience for it.

2. What are three words that describe your creative book-writing process?

Energizing
Exhausting
Fun

3. What good has your book created in the world?

More mother-daughter book clubs! Any time moms and daughters are reading together, they are also usually talking about what they read and may discuss things that would otherwise be difficult to bring up on their own. These reading groups create a community of friends who get to know one another better through the years.

• • •

Thanks for participating, Cindy!

Cindy writes nonfiction. She started writing for publication with regional reporting for The Oregonian.

Have you ever written for a local, regional, or state-wide newspaper? If so, what did you like or not like about the experience? If not, would you like to try it? Answer in the comments in 50-200 words (no less and no more to qualify to win today’s book).

(Cindy is allowed to answer too, but not until tomorrow because she can’t win her own book.)

Thanks for participating in the Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway! Please spread the word.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Hallie Ephron in person and getting to interview her for a Writer’s Digest article. She is not only a prolific author and champion of other writers, she’s just an all-around great gal, too. So without further ado, let’s kick the giveaway off with a real writer’s writer.

Hallie Ephron writes suspense and mystery novels. Booklist calls her newest novel, Come and Find Me from William Morrow, “A suspenseful tale of high-tech skulduggery that even low-tech readers will appreciate.”

Her novel Never Tell a Lie, was made into the Lifetime Movie Network film, “And Baby Will Fall.” It was also a finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and for the Salt Lake Libraries Readers Choice Award, and won the David Award for best mystery of 2009.

A book lover and award-winning book reviewer for the Boston Globe, she is also the author of The Bibliophile’s Devotional and 1001 Books for Every Mood.

Hallie lives near Boston and blogs with Jungle Red Writers. Learn more about her at www.hallieephron.com.

Come And Find Me tells the story of a recluse who works and lives online. When her sister disappears, she is forced to do what seems impossible: brave the outside world. By assuming the identity of her alter-ego, an avatar who is as fearless as Diana herself once was, she finds the courage to set out. But soon she finds herself wondering: Has she become a character in someone else’s game?

With seven novels and four nonfiction books published in the last eleven years, Hallie says that on one level, getting published has boosted her self confidence—as in, “You mean someone wants to PAY me to do THIS?”

On the other hand, as she gets more experienced, she keeps raising the bar, which has the opposite effect on her confidence.

Hallie calls her creative book-writing process ugly, ugly, ugly.

“I teach writing but I almost never do what I tell people to do. I’m forever getting stuck and finding myself spinning my wheels. I talk a good line, but when it comes to actually writing, I’m just glad no one’s in the office with me. At the end of the day, I just hope my books divert and entertain—like scary carnival rides where everything comes out well at the end—but also give readers something to chew on.”

• • •

Thanks for participating, Hallie!

Hallie writes fiction and nonfiction, so let’s start the giveaway off with an easy question. Here goes:

Which do you prefer writing: fiction or nonfiction? And why? Answer in the comments in 50-200 words (no less and no more to qualify to win today’s book).

(Hallie is allowed to answer too, but not until tomorrow because she can’t win her own book.)

Thanks for participating in the Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway! Please spread the word.

Please read these rules before you start participating in the giveaway:

The giveaway starts at 12:01 a.m. on May 1, 2011 and runs through midnight on May 30, 2011. I will be offering at least one new prize each day (some days more than one!).

1. You must comment to the post that describes the daily prize(s) you want to win, in order to be entered into the drawing for that day. No exceptions. Please be sure to comment to the correct post. The comment link is located just under the post title. Your comment will be posted after it is approved (usually within a few hours after you post…unless I am sleeping, in which case give me a little extra time).

2. You may comment only once per day on the Giveaway posts (and therefore be entered to win once per day). And you are welcome to comment every day. If you make a spelling or grammatical error in your post, just let it go. Don’t comment twice to correct it. Winners are selected by random drawing, and don’t worry, a typo will not eliminate you. 🙂

3. All comments must answer the question of the day, which will be posted at the end of each post each day. In other words, no drive-by commenting, like, “I want to win!” All questions will relate to discovering more about ourselves as writers. Answering the questions will only take a few moments out of your busy day, so thanks for being thoughtful. Your post must be between 50-200 words or it will not be approved. (Use Word Count in Microsoft Word if you want to be sure you have enough words. Some people have put all of their responses in a Word file so they could keep them for themselves, and you are welcome to do this. Just copy and paste in each response for each day when you are through.) However, you will not be able to win by commenting anywhere other than in this blog, so don’t forget to cut and paste, if that’s how you roll.

4. Comment to win beginning on May 1st at 00:01 a.m. PST and continue to comment each day for 30 days for maximum chances to win. Each day’s drawing closes at midnight (12:00) PST. Please note that I am on Pacific Standard Time, not Eastern Standard time. The winner is chosen by random drawing the next day. There is no set time for the drawing, because I’m here, I’m there, I’m everywhere. So, stay tuned! I’ll get it up there as soon as I can each day.

5. Please allow 1-2 weeks for delivery of your item. Prizes will only be shipped to United States locations. You may participate if you live abroad and have your own US mailing address. And yes, sure, if you have a friend who loves you so much that he/she is willing to ship your books from the US to you elsewhere in the world, that is fine, too. I can send the books “care of.” Please provide a “care of” name, if you want to go this route. Naturally, if there is double-shipping involved, expect to wait longer for your book.

6. There is only one way to win (in the past, there used to be two ways, but I’m going with one this time) and that’s by winning a copy of a book. You may be selected as the day’s winner through a random drawing held from the pool of folks who comment for the listed items each day during May. Only posts that answer the day’s question will be considered. Your post must be between 50-200 words or it will not be part of those in the running to win.

7. Thanks for keeping things jolly. Everyone involved is a volunteer including me. Please be patient while waiting for your book. If two weeks have passed since your winning date and you still do not have it, please e-mail me and I will follow-up with your author.

Thanks for spreading the word about The Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway! If it’s anything like year’s past, it’s going to be a ton of fun!