Hoffman Center Blog

Matt Love read from his collection --Super Sunday in Newport-- and quizzed the audience on Oregon facts.

The highlight of the Dark & Stormy Book Weekend was Saturday night’s evening author reading.   Author and publisher, Matt Love read from his new book Super Sunday in Newport and was followed by the Open Mic.  Over 70 people came to listen and/or to read.

Love engaged the audience immediately with his “true Oregonian” contest and prize. He started the group standing up, telling people to sit down when they could not answer yes to one of his questions.

“Have you visited Crater Lake?’

“Have you sat on the beach by a bonfire?”

“Have you been to the Country Fair?”

The questions continued until only one person was still standing.

Sharlene Hanlon of Olympia won the True Oregonian prize.

Local audience member Karen Reddick Yurka was quick to point out that Hanlon was raised in Klamath Falls and lived in Portland for a long time before moving to Olympia to care for her dad, so the rumor that a Washingtonian won the prize isn’t quite true.

Love is founder and publisher of Nestucca Spit Press, an independent press that exclusively publishes books about Oregon. He has published several hundred Oregon writers in his anthologies, as well as Old Nehalem Road, a collection of poems by Manzanita’s Travis Champ. This year Oregon Literary Arts presented Love with the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award, “in recognition of significant contributions that have enriched Oregon’s literary community.”

It was appropriate that he was the featured author for the first literary weekend and that he read from his new book, Super Sunday in Newport, because that book evolved from pieces he wrote and read weekly at an Open Mic at Café Mundo in Nye Beach.

Love drew extra applause when he mentioned a recent conversation he had with a writer from a certain publication.

“He asked me what was the best book town along the Oregon Coast,” Love said, “I told him it was Manzanita — the community supports two independent bookstores and they support Open Mic evenings like this one, in force. Other towns have events but they are not as well-attended.”

After Love’s readings, the Open Mic session triggered lots of laughter and applause, with writers from as far as Astoria reading their pieces.

The event continued past that evening into the rest of the weekend, in at least one instance.

Tobi Nason of Overboard read to much delight at the Open Mic. On Sunday, she had two different people walk into her store to ask her to read her piece to them because they’d missed it.

“Then I closed my shop and stopped in at Vino,” she adds, “Sarah asked me to read it again since Dixie had to miss the reading.”

Nason and another local writer who read at the event, Holly Lorincz, said they were inspired by their experience reading to commit to writing a piece for every monthly Open Mic.

We look forward to it!

Local writers get creative with Susan Wooldridge

When it comes to getting creative, there are few writers that haven’t picked up an exercise or two from Susan Wooldridge’s book poemcrazy.  There’s at least one writing group in town that regularly uses that resource in its weekly writing sessions.  But, just ask anyone who was in the workshop on Sunday, November 8, and they’ll each say having the author lead the exercises was even better.

“The impact was so much bigger than just reading the book,” said Kathie Hightower, co-founder of the Manzanita Writers’ Series.

In addition to creating a group ‘word pool’,  doling out her famous ‘word tickets’ , pages from an old dictionary, and books by other poets, Susan also passed around postcards of paintings and paint chips from a hardware store to inspire participants and trigger new ways of expressing themselves.

“I want you to steal words,” she exclaimed.  ”Be a thief!”  And that’s just one way she gets writers to get off their regular track.  She also exhorted participants to lie.  ”Lie to tell the truth,” is how she puts it, again to encourage writers to stretch beyond their usual writing habits. Along with the writing, Susan had the group laughing and dancing.

If you don’t already have poemcrazy, there are still some signed copies at Cloud & Leaf Bookstore in Manzanita.  Plus, Susan’s new book Foolsgold:  Making Something from Nothing (and freeing your creative process) is also available.

Local writers Garry Gitzen, Judy Crandall, and Marko Smith at the Self-Publishing Workshop

Local writers got an in-depth look at all the options available for publishing their work.  Print-on-demand technology has opened the door for a lot of writers who might otherwise not get their work in print.  According to Helen Gallagher, author of Release Your Writing, there are many writing projects that lend themselves very well to the self-publishing model.  If you have a very specialized topic that’s aimed at a narrow audience, need the book to establish your professional credentials, have a collection of essays or articles, or want to release a book that has gone out of print, you’ll be well-served to explore your options.

In the past, self-publishing meant you had to contract with a printer on your own and then ended up with a garage full of books to sell.  That’s still an option–especially for books where the paper quality or images are especially important.  However, now you can upload your book to a variety of print-on-demand publishers and order books just as they’re needed.  Several will also make your book available at online retailers and in the databases regular retailers use to order books.

Just because you can easily get your book into print, though, doesn’t mean you can forego important key elements.  The cover has to be well-designed and compelling, and solid editing is mandatory.  And once your book is available online, it’s all the more important to focus on marketing it.

For more information and resources, go to Helen’s web site www.releaseyourwriting.com, or pick up her book at Ekahni Books in Manzanita.