WAG
Tales
In which stories of the
writing life are told for the edification of Writers Alliance members
and visitors. Here you will find tales of life and death struggles with heroes, the affliction besetting the semi-colon,
the rise of giant metaphors and the eternal struggle between adverbs, adjectives and clean writing.
Here you will find stories of publishers and blogs and every form of bedevilment
known to those who live to tell stories.
If you have a WAG Tale (members only) that will be interesting and/or instructive or howling mad fun - but is true
to the life of the scribe, the seer, the prophetess, the blind man testifying, the life we know on this mortal
plain - contact the editor at WAG Tales and prepare to dish to the gentle (and, yes, we admit,
sometimes addled) voice on the other end of the telephone....
and visitors. Here you will find tales of life and death struggles with heroes, the affliction besetting the semi-colon,
the rise of giant metaphors and the eternal struggle between adverbs, adjectives and clean writing.
Here you will find stories of publishers and blogs and every form of bedevilment
known to those who live to tell stories.
If you have a WAG Tale (members only) that will be interesting and/or instructive or howling mad fun - but is true
to the life of the scribe, the seer, the prophetess, the blind man testifying, the life we know on this mortal
plain - contact the editor at WAG Tales and prepare to dish to the gentle (and, yes, we admit,
sometimes addled) voice on the other end of the telephone....
On motivation Sandra Lambert always sits in a black chair. On wheels. Almost always. "I'm in a wheelchair," she says. So how does this disability inform her world view and, subsequently, her writing? "It absolutely does, in the same manner as being a woman in this world. I've been disabled all my life and it affects me the same way as spending one's life caring for an ageing parent or loving the Florida landscape. All those things make up who you are in the world. "Disabled people write all sorts of different things, but one thing we have in common is that we never leave the body out of our writing. A disability makes one pay more attention to the body. It's always there and I think that adds value and maybe a depth of insight to our writing. "I've had success publishing essays about my travels through the landscapes of Florida ... and consequently, the journey of my own body. The landscape of Rolling in the Mud for example is Paynes Prairie." But what's her motivation? Is it money, income from writing? "It isn't money. I don't make enough from writing to pay for an ink cartridge. Writing makes me feel like a person. It's fun and it makes me feel real in a certain way that is satisfying and motivating. Writing feels central, somehow. "I don't write every day, but on the days I don't write, I don't feel good. Writing has become a positive part of my emotional life in a personhood sense." And reading? Does she have time for that? "Since the day I learned to read, I've always been a huge reader. I'm not one of those persons who began writing early in life, though. For years I ran a feminist book- store in Atlanta where I was surrounded by writers." |
 Sandra Lambert: Sandra has a page on Facebook.com (that's her paddling the kayak) and a blog where some of her published stories are reprinted and where friends can keep up with her upcoming publications. Check out Rolling in the Mud which begins, "I've never touched the earth much. Water, yes. As a child, I'd unbuckle knee pads and thigh straps ..." |
Why blog? WAG member Felicia Lee says she loves food and she loves to write so, "What could be more natural than combining those passions?" Thus Felicia's food blog is titled the "burnt-out baker" although she says it could also have been titled "always hungry." Why blog? What's the point? Who's reading or listening and paying attention? Well, that's all part of the evolving mystery of the web, Felicia believes. "I'm really anal about my blog, write several drafts and run it by my writing pod before I post it," she says. "I've also found that it is crucial to readership and to attracting higher-level editors to have great photos." In this regard, it helps that Felicia's husband, Glenn Price, is a professional photographer! Felicia's writing has been featured on Salon.com in a curious, but entirely understandable manner. The popular and seemingly indestructible Conde-Nast magazine Gourmet ceased regular publication. About that time, Salon.com Senior Writer Francis Lam was developing opportunities for food writers and Felicia entered the Salon "Kitchen Challenge" with an I hate peas story. Voila! A foot in the door. Now you can see more of her work at Open.Salon.com ... and she has expanded to cover local subjects as well. So the enterprising reader can not only discover such delectable topics as "Half-Fast Cooking: Brunch for the Lazy," but "Funeral for a Friend: The Last Days of Books, Inc." And getting paid? Felicia says the blog helps her showcase her other writing. "It's all about learning and practicing a craft," she says. Today the blog, tomorrow the jackpot! |
 Felicia Lee: Leaving the academic life of linguistic studies to become a professional pastry chef and eventually a full-time writer and blogger has been a hilarious and, at times, painful journey for this WAG member. |
Writing Through a Slump How does a prolific writer, someone who is passionate about expression, write through the occasional slump? One way, says WAG member Kaye Linden - who writes, reads, edits, critiques and teaches writing full time - is to get each day started right, with an hour of exercise. "A slump in writing?" she says. "Only if I'm really tired. But exercise invigorates me, energizes me for the day." But what about "emotional energy?" Surely someone who is as passionate about her writing as Kaye, uses a lot of emotional energy.... "I receive sustenance for writing from my students or from incidents I see or hear or read about and," says the Australian bred and borne lass, "from my memory of the people of Australia, especially the poor people. I write about them and their condition a lot, because they are on my mind. Sometimes I'll play a CD of aboriginal music and that gets me going." - - - - - Kaye, by the way, has recently been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Read her story "A Shaman Goes Walkabout" in The Linnet's Wings Spring 2011 magazine. So who is this desperately poor, obscure and yet obscurely famous shaman? "I'm Ma, I suppose," Kaye says. "I have a foot in two worlds just like her. She has one foot in Sydney and one foot in the outback. I have one foot in Australia and one foot in America. It makes for a lovely and, occasionally, a disturbing existence." (Her web site is here.) |
 Kaye Linden: "I am Ma," she says, referring to the Aboriginal shaman who figures so magically in her stories. |
Editing & Deadlines Susie Baxter published a memoir about her father and mother in 2008 -CG & Ethel: A Family History - and says she is working on her second volume of memoirs now...or the third volume. She isn't sure how it's all going to come together although she has considered several possible titles such as "I Susinette...take thee Gilbert," Gilbert or Gil being her husband's name, the couple having been married for 49 years. Of the first printing of CG & Ethel, she gave away 75 copies to close family members and sold "about 400" to more distant relatives and friends. A surprise writing problem that Susie struggles with is when to stop editing. A "surprise" because good writers write and re-write continuously. (Fitzgerald mentioned that he re-wroteThe Great Gatsby nearly to the point that he couldn't finish.) Her preferred writing style is to let everything flow or "just write it. I could edit forever and still find something to change," she says. One of the foundations of WAG is its writing critique groups or "pods," which Susie coordinates and which are open only to members. Apparently one benefit of her regularly scheduled memoir pod is to give her a deadline. "I never feel my work is ready for the pod," she says, "never feel that it's quite good enough. Still, the necessity to submit to pod members gives me a date certain and ready or not, I have to email it several days in advance." Susie Baxter
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Desire Wendy Thornton is WAG President and she is consumed by the desire to communicate. Her efforts benefit WAG members directly and inform her leadership of WAG as she and her husband Ken Booth (ex-Gator football stand-out, saxophone player and computer whiz - and we say this with profound respect) produce the almost-monthly "WAG Digest." Wendy's latest story - her latest "accepted" story, that is -Donegin Takes on the God of the Sea has been designated for inclusion in the Fall/Winter 2011 issue of ep;phany which you can find online.ep;phany also publishes print volumes. Now, that, in itself is a fine accomplishment becauseep;phany is no fly-by-night publication, but Wendy says - and here's the secret - she submitted this story 14 times (to 14 separate publications) beforeep;phany finally recognized its merit and accepted it. After each rejection, she re-imagined and re-wrote...and re-wrote and the results were - bingo! An acceptance in a fine magazine. Wendy says she originally (before the re-writing and rejection process began) "channeled" Donegin. "It all came in just a few minutes," she says, "about a year and a half ago. Now, I'm thinking about turning it into a novel." |
 Wendy Thornton:
Wendy writes and with her husband, Ken Booth, produces the monthly WAG Digest
for the Writers Alliance. (A little WAG shout-out here: Ken was the
unpaid and patient web developer for this site and assists with the
sound at each WAG event, by the way, and so is more than just another
pretty face in the crowd! Thanks, Ken!)
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