The Lit Camp Report

I returned from the first ever Lit Camp on Sunday, but I'm still in a post-camp haze of happy tiredness. I don't think I've ever been a part of planning something that came off so spectacularly well. It felt so good to be a part of something that benefitted what turned out to be the most awesome emerging writer-campers in the world. There were a lot of things that made it all so fantastic, but primarily it was the people. From the staff at the gorgeous Mayacamas Ranch (and their crazy-good cooking), to the aforementioned wonderful campers, to the refreshingly pretense-free faculty who were all so generous with their time and attention and at no time acted like gatekeepers, to my fellow volunteer staff who made it so fun to take turns driving the golf cart to deliver tables, and who sincerely kicked ass at making people feel welcomed, to our fearless leader who is already busy planning next year's conference. I couldn't have dreamed up a better scenario for a weekend of writers.

You do a lot of sitting at a writing conference; luckily there were beautiful chairs

View to inspire, check!

Just add coffee

A great spot to dream from

Some of my personal highlights during the weekend included watching all the things we'd planned (i.e. rooming assignments, workshops, cocktail fundraising auction, etc) go better than expected - it made my heart sing when I saw one roomie high five another one after performing in the talent show. I was blown away with how accessible the faculty made themselves. Case in point: Adam Johnson (author of The Orphan Master's Son) and his brood of smart children joined in an evening game of Apples to Apples that lasted hours. That's just one example of about 300 that I witnessed of generous inclusion. I want to bottle this no-pretentions-lets-just-talk-about-how-much-we-love-writing-and-books and infect the entire writing community with it.

Happy Campers

During the free-writing portion of Mark Morford's Yoga for Writers we were directed to consider our muse and our ego, and to describe them. I never landed on a good image for my muse (but was inspired to steal another camper's when she mentioned her nine-year-old self who wrote just because she loved it so much), but an image for the ego came immediately to mind: a mangy cat that only knows scarcity and hates everyone, even though he craves attention madly. We then free-wrote a conversation between our muse and our ego, having them talk to each other about our writing. Holy cow! I dare you to do this, it will reveal more than perhaps you want to know about yourself.

What a gift it was to get to be a part of this. Can't wait to get

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My Litquake 2012 Report

I've been avoiding putting this together, because a part of me really doesn't want this year's Litquake festival to be over already. The other part of me is still cranky-tired, wandering around trying to get to all those projects I said I'd get to after Litquake, and feeling post-Christmas like. In short, this year's Litquake was AMAZING. Every year has been awesome, but this one was particularly special for me because I got to actually help plan the awesome. As a volunteer during the festival for the past several years, I definitely felt like I contributed to making each event I helped at awesome, but this year, being on the committee,* I got to witness the tremendous build up to the festival that happens the whole year prior. The amount of love, sweat and time that goes into it is incredible, and I'm not sure I've ever been part of something so cool. Which is not to say I'm not still cranky-tired and looking forward to feeling fully recovered.

Writing Exercise #2 for Setting as Character

Today I tromped all over San Francisco to collect sensory details, photos (and a snack or two) from each of the neighborhoods that my novel's characters live in. Now, they are not real people, but they do live in a real city, so the fun of it all is finding little details that I would never have noticed before because I'm trying to look for them through my character's eyes. I discovered a few inconsistencies that I'll need to go back and fix (silly things like the wrong bus line, or the fact that type of architecture doesn't appear in that 'hood), and found a few details I will want to pepper the text with. Mostly, I just had a really fun time walking all over the city (I clocked 6.5 miles of walking!), and BONUS, the water in my apartment was shut off for the day so it really was the perfect excuse to get the heck out. Oh, and the weather was about as gorgeous as could possibly be. Okay, now I'm just annoying myself with my own happiness. Here are som

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