Brainerd Writer's Alliance Writer's Workshop

Quote of the Day:  Great Quotes from Lorna Landvik, Minnesota author, actor, comedian, and storyteller. She's one of the best speakers you could get for a book event.

I'm not going to accept "No" as my final answer. Lorna Landvik, regarding her numerous rejections. She now has 9 books published and one on the way.

The zone of play is the sheer discovery in creating characters and story. Lorna is a panster (is that how you spell it?). She doesn't plot. Her characters lead the way. I'm that kind of writer myself.

My muse is my permission to write. According to Lorna Landvik, the muse is a myth. The muse is the time we spend with our Ass In Chair. It is also giving yourself permission to be creative and to pursue the creative life. (We're working on that over at Primo Art Spa.)

Lorna Landvik says that "Place is a character." One of the other presenters was quoting the Writer's Encyclopedia in saying that "setting is not the essence of the story." I took issue with that right away. In my play, Coffee Shop Confessions,the coffee shop held the essence. It was the place where truth spilled out, like an overturned coffee mug.

A fine group of writers:

Jodie Tweed Norquist, Candace Simar, Mary Aalgaard, Lorna Landvik, Kathleen Kruger

Candace Simar, author of the Abercrombie Trail Series

Lorna Landvik, author of nine novels, her latest is Mayor of the Universe

It was a great day for a Writer's Workshop. The Brainerd Writer's Alliance hosted the workshop at the library. They'd held a contest and the winners of each category received an award, and several were there to read their work. I enjoyed all of them. One young woman, Laura, drove up from Mankato to be part of this event. She said she wasn't sure that writing was something she'd pursue seriously. I told her, "You've come all the way from Mankato to find your 'peeps', I think that writing is your thing and that you are pursing it." How fun. It was great to mingle with other writers, hear their stories, and learn from two of my favorite Minnesota authors, Candace Simar and Lorna Landvik.

Lorna gave us a writing prompt that started out feeling a little bit like we were doing Mad Libs. She asked for an adjective (purple), a noun (sneakers), and a place (Bangkok), then she gave us a few minutes to write about a character using all three words. I popped out a bit of flash fiction, and the group wanted to hear more! Lorna says that when you think you're stuck in your writing, introduce a new character, or wonder about the ones you have. As in, I wonder how this character would react if a rock song was blasting on the car radio? Or, I wonder how this character would react to a fresh pan of brownies? Maybe even write a bit of flash fiction to get the flow going again.

I hope you all have a chance to attend workshops or events in your favorite areas of the arts.

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Now, it's your turn. Use the above words to create a character and a scene. 

Wine and...

Quote of the Day:  The days of wine and roses laugh and run away, like a child at play. Henry Mancini

I started my weekend by waving good-bye to my big boy as he drove off into the sunrise of another year at college (in Texas, far, far away from his Mom in Minnesota). Off to the continued adventures of education, college life, and driving further down the road to a career. It was his first big road trip alone. I worried. He sent a text "Made it past OKC" (Oklahoma City), where he rested, then got up again the next morning and drove on, and texted one more time. "Made it to ttu."
Whew.

Wasn't it just last year that he was wearing his Star Wars t-shirt and holding my hand as he walked to Kindergarten?

Bye, Mom, see you in December.

 

To distract myself from separation anxiety, I attended the Wine and Words library event in the evening.

 

Ran into my hair-stylist and character inspiration, Aubrey!

Joined the writers and word lovers with the Blue Cottage Agency

 

We lingered long at the event of librarians, linguists, and lovers of words. The food was delicious and the wine was wonderful. I bid on a couple silent auction items (Chocolate & wine which went high) and stampers, which I thought I'd won, but alas, was outbid at the last minute.

It was a great basket of stampers.

Would have been fun at our Art Spa!

 

The library committee went all out and brought in five fabulous authors. Lorna Landvik, one of my favorite Minnesota authors and speakers, was the emcee. She used the song in the above quote to introduce the other authors, hilarious! I heard her speak a few years ago at the library, where I confessed that I am also a writer, and she wrote in her book, The View from Mount Joy, which I bought that day, "never accept no as the final answer".

 

Lorna Lanvik with my friend and publicist Krista Rolfzen Soukup

I bought Welcome to the Great Mysterious. Love that title. It will be the first in my new stack that I crack open and start reading today!

 

I told her that her comment that last time I met her meant so much to me. She asked me how my writing was going. I told her I was writing plays and reviews. She said that she also likes to write for the stage, which I knew. She's a fabulous actor, speaker, writer, stand-up comic. If she's ever speaking or performing near you, go! She's a hoot and a half. Plus, her books are terrific, her characters like friends.

 

I also met William Kent Krueger, author of Cork O-Connor mystery series and admitted that I was new to his novels, so I bought two.

The gals in my group, laughing about how many books we bought!

 

The other authors that shared their inspiration were Wendy Webb, also a mystery author, The Tale of Halcyon Crane and The Fate of Mercy Alban which is a murder mystery set at the Congdon mansion in Duluth (but, not the infamous murder, a fictional one). I had to buy that book! And, I met Sarah Pekkanen (a good Finnish name) who writes great women's fiction. I bought The Best of Us which is set in Jamaica, because it would be fun to go to Jamaica, at least virtually through a great girlfriend novel. Also, Sandra Brannan was there from the hills of South Dakota. (I think she sees dead people.) Her family runs a mine out in the hills and she seems influenced by the underbelly of the world, those dark tunnels where things are hidden, waiting to be discovered and brought to light. I bought Widow's Might after she described a very intriguing beginning of an 80-year-old widow, dying of cancer, who is being strangled...but why? I thought I was all set, standing with my gal group (since we're the wild and crazy book girls lingering to the last), waiting for Sandra to sign my book. She started talking about Lot's Return to Sodom which takes place during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. I just returned from the rally, my second one (read all about it on Ride off the Page). She told us that the details in that novel are real, as told to her by an FBI agent and a member of the Hell's Angels. It's a look into the dark side of motorcycle gangs, the part that the tourist industry doesn't really want us to know. I couldn't resist. I went back to the table and bought it, and had her inscribe it to The Biker Chef. She offered it up with a warning, "It's dark, hard to read at times, and very real." I'll let the Chef read it first.

 

I have one more confession, while the speakers were changing places, I checked my phone. (I thought it might be my big boy, and I was still a little worried even as I enjoyed the event.) I read a message from the Biker Chef that I might get an invite to the Food & Wine Extravaganza at Madden's for Saturday night. I'll give you the culinary tour in my next post. Until then,

 

Go. Create. Inspire!

 

Journaling Prompt:  Have you ever bought a book that you were afraid to read, and yet, had to open it just to see?