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Occasional Newsletter / #5 / February 2022
In this Issue:
Interview with Bonni Goldberg, author of The Write Balance: How to Embrace Percolation,
Revision, and Going Public

NEW: Weekly Writers' Tip Sheets on my website
Since the beginning of the year I have  posted Weekly Writers' Tip Sheets on the Help for Writers Page of my website. They are free to download, but at year's end I will compile them into a print / pdf book that I will be selling with proceeds going to Literacy Central Vancouver Island
      The first six tip sheets: Marketing Self-Published Books, Public Readings, Nine Signs That You're Telling Not Showing, Making a Scene, A Circle of Senses and the most recent one Say What? Dialogue. I hope you'll check them out here.
     And please send me suggestions for tip sheets that you might find useful. in your work. 


Recognition for Shelter - Homelessness in Our Community
        I am thrilled with the response to my book, and proud to have received some really postive reviews from Booklist, The Canadian Children's Book News, CM Magazine, Quill and Quire, School Library Connections - and biggest thrill, a starred review from The School Library Journal. Also, the book has been named a Notable Book by the US National Council of Social Studies. 
2022 got off to a busy start with presentations to support the release of Shelter - Homelessness in Our Communitywhich came out in October during Homelessness Awareness Month. I have recently:
  • Along with Jen Sookfong Lee, author of Finding Home - The Journey of Immigrants and Refugees, made a presentation for the Vancouver Writers Festival Writers in the School program.
  • Visited my grandson's school to talk about my book, and about writing in general - my first in-person school visit in nearly two years.
  • Visited a Ladysmith, Vancouver Island school online.
  • Prepared a video presentation 'Talking to Kids About Difficult Subjects',  along with Jen again, for the Ontario Library Association SuperConference, and attended by Zoom to answer questions from teachers and librarians.
  • Was interviewed by Today's Senior publication and the Arts Council of Surrey's Spotlight magazine about my writing and art. 
  • Interviewed by Joseph Pugh of People First Radio for the Vancouver Island Mental Health Society. You can hear it here
  • Posted various videos about the book on my YouTube channel, with more to come. 
Coming up:
I am giving over this space this issue to help promote Bonni Goldberg's excellent new book The Write Balance: How to Embrace Percolation, Revision and Going Public.     
      An inspiring mentor and writing teacher, and author of a range of books, including those that support writers in their journey of self-discovery and craft development, Bonni very generously spent time answering my questions within days of the release of the book. Please take the time to read this rather long interview, not a word of which I wanted to leave out. 


Q. Who was your earliest writing supporter or mentor? How did you 'get started and keep going'?
I started writing in fifth grade. Our teacher, Mrs. Margaret Thaine told our class about a poetry contest for children. It hadn't occurred to me that I was capable or even allowed to write poems. I wrote three rhyming poems. I was instantly hooked– delighted by the process and the result. Looking back, I think I was taken by the ability to express my deep emotions and ideas with a few words. Plus, those words stayed put on the paper, and I could share them and go back to them. In high school, I took my first creative writing class. I entered a city-wide high school poetry contest and received an honorable mention. My high school teacher praised my poetry, but when it came time to award my own school’s creative writing prize, he gave it to another student. I was devastated.
        The reason I’m telling you this is because it’s a fair microcosm of my entire writing life. I went on to major in creative writing in college and graduate school. Some students and teachers appreciated my work and others were indifferent or deeply disliked it. The same has been true of editors, agents, publishers, reviewers and readers.
      I was, and am now, most consistently supported as a writer by my love of doing it. And yes, there were many essential early mentors. Most of them were the poets I read: June Jordan, Nikki Giovanni, Nzosake Shange, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. I also loved Whitman, Dante, and Emily Dickinson. Grace Paley’s short stories at once blew me away and sustained me. Over the years, there were times when I was fortunate enough to spend time with Grace in person. Those were sublime times. But to this day, they weren’t as inspiring to me as her stories, essays and poems were and continue to be. 
      These days, I’m nourished  the most by the critique groups I’m part of (three of them at the moment), an online international writing community The Creative Academy for Writers, and the Facebook group, Jewish Kidlit Mavens. 

Q. What what obstacles do you still encounter as you develop new ideas and projects?
When I first started writing, I struggled with revising what I wrote and insecurity about my ability as a writer, due to all the rejection letters I received from the literary magazines I submitted poems to. 
        All these years later, I struggle with, and dislike, writing the first draft. I much prefer revising. I get frustrated and weary from submitting my projects, but I no longer feel insecure about my ability to write. I know I have ability. It is less than some and more than others – like every other writer. 
     So given the above, I suppose it’s fair to say that what hasn’t changed is my struggle with impatience. I still worry I might not be up to the task of certain ideas that come to me. I’m also capable of being lazy as a writer. I always have to check myself in that area.

 
Photo: NPR

Q. What is the most effective marketing strategy you used with this book that perhaps you did not know with earlier books.
I’ll have to let you know in six months to a year when I see what worked! I can say that this time around, I feel a lot calmer and less rushed about promoting The Write Balance.
       I liken it to giving birth. Like many having their first baby, I focused almost entirely on the birth–taking birthing class, writing up a birth plan, etc. Then the birth was over and I realized I was so focused on the birth, I forgot to take time to read up and take classes on parenting! The birth is one day. Parenting is forever. So this time around, I’m not just focusing all my energy and efforts on the first week or month the book is out. I’m scheduling activities and events throughout the year and probably beyond.
       The advice I give to others is to understand that the same book has many launches, not just one. The reason is that every time you do something to promote the book, you bring it to the attention of a new audience who is learning about it for the first time. Or, if you’re connecting with the same audience it can take hearing about a book at least 3 to 7 times before many people buy it. Marketing & promoting, like parenting, are long games. 
     I will say that getting as many positive book reviews as possible is critical. Reviews encourage others to buy your book. You can use quotes and language from them in ads, press packages, and social media campaigns as social proof. And there are paid promotion opportunities that are only open to a book with a minimum number of positive reviews.

Q. You also write picture books. What is it that appeals to you about them and what is the biggest challenge in writing and/or finding a home for them?
I love writing picture books for two main reasons. Craftwise, they’re similar to writing poems and poem making is how I fell in love with writing. Message and audience-wise, picture books speak to a multi-generational audience. The message(s) in the books plant seeds of perspective early in the minds of future generations as well as the adults that read the books to children, often more than once. How many authors of adult books have readers read their book multiple times over? So my reach and influence is greater.
     One challenge of writing picture books for me is to limit the number of layers and themes in one book. As for finding a home for them, there are many challenges. I’m still learning how to master picture book forms (I suspect this will be a lifelong education). There are also major hooks that I lack talent with. Humor is an example. I would love to be able to write funny, but I can’t.

Q. Is there one piece of advice to other writers that you'd like to end with?
Writing is an ever-evolving creative practice. To be fulfilled by it, embrace and respect this truth and appreciate all it has to teach you. As the poet Marge Piercy writes in her poem to writers, To the young who want to: “You have to like it better than being loved.”


Thanks, Bonni.


I was fortunate to see an Advance Reading Copy of Bonni's book, and was happy to climb down from my Amazon-averse high horse long enough to write this review.
      "Writers have access to many resources on craft - how to plot, avoid 'telling' instead of showing, write dialogue, research... But it's rare to find a book that delves deeper, embracing the bigger issues that make thoughtful, considered writers rather then 'mere' craftspeople.
      Writer, teacher and mentor Bonni Goldberg has expanded on her previous book Beyond the Words - The Three Untapped Sources of Creative Fullfilment for Writers' to explore numerous important issues under the categories of Percolation, Revision and Going Public. In a coherent, empathetic and often inspiring way Goldberg acknowledges writers' natural fears, along with the internal and external obstacles they face in developing their ideas, creating good work, getting useful feedback and putting it in front of readers.
      This book gives writers so many ways and reasons to keep going, whether they are at the beginning of their journey or already fully committed to their craft. Highly recommended."

      My bottom line advice to any writer, at any stage of development - buy this book! And for a chance to win the eBook, contact me with the words 'Write Balance' in the subject line. 

More about Bonni
Check her website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
 
THANKS FOR READING
Next issue - May 2022

Please
contact me with your comments and questions.

"There is no secret tip. The more you write, the better you get. The more you write, the easier it gets. That is all!"
LP
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