Ready for a summer writing reboot? Crayons optional!

This week, I dropped off a shiny new backpack full of notebooks, paper, pens, pencils—and crayons--for my church’s annual school supply drive. It made me want to go back to school. OK, not to go back to the boring parts of school. Just the parts where you show up for awesome instructors, in classes full of wonderful people who are all excited about the very same thing – writing!--that excites you. Maybe even with a fistful of bright new crayons in hand!

August 5: Writers in need of readers? Writing Workshops Dallas offers a seminar this Sunday, 3-5:30 p.m., on how to build a wildly-engaged readership (with more joy and less stress!), led by multiply-published author Mary DeMuth. Cost is $60 ($45 for current and former WWD students), at Writing Workshops Dallas. Oh, you’re out of town and don’t want to travel to hotter ‘n’ hell Dallas for a writing class? Check out the live stream option to beat the heat. 

Want more classes about writing? Check out the Writing Dallas Workshops site for August and fall classes for all stages of writing in fiction, nonfiction, screenwriting and more! 

August 7: Wondering about the SMU Writer’s Path program? Registration for fall classes in the program opens August 8, but in the meantime, check out a free information session next Tuesday, at 7 p.m., in Room 115 of Dallas Hall on the SMU campus. See the site for registration.

image: pixabay

August 11: Rail Riders -- Deep Ellum Blues. If you thought writing classes were only for kids, adjust your attitude. Here’s one with a minimum age requirement – 21 years. This is a reboot because the first Rail Riders (August 4) sold out so fast. Hop aboard Dallas’s DART rail as poet/singer/teacher Lisa Huffaker guides a group of writers through the complex history of Dallas’s Deep Ellum neighborhood. 

Participants will venture on foot into Deep Ellum’s cafes, bars and cultural venues, tour its visual art and historical locations and more, while writing poetry and performing impromptu readings. This Dallas Writer’s Garret event is free, but space is limited, so sign up now at Writer’s Garret. Rail Riders are responsible for buying their own tickets, food and drink expenses. Meet at the Mockingbird Station (5307 E. Mockingbird Lane) promptly at 3:30. Additional questions? Call 214-828-1714 or contact Emmy at gen@writersgarret.org.

August 24-26: OK, this is not a class, but it’s definitely bookish – Dallas Public Library’s semi-annual sale. Billions and billions of books. Or at least, thousands, maybe tens of thousands of books for all ages, audio and visual materials, and more from the library’s vast warehouse. Hours are 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Friday, August 24; 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. August 25 (Saturday); and (Friday), from 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., August 25 (Saturday); 1-4 p.m. August 26. At the library’s Central Branch, 1515 Young Street, Dallas. 

August 25-26: Take your book-length story from premise Story 360, with author/editor/instructor/agent Lorin Oberweger. Early bird pricing now available: one-day (August 25 or 26) $139; both days, $249. Sorry, Dallas, readers, you’ll have to travel for this one, at eConsortium Offices, 2401 Fountain View Dr., Suite 920, in Houston, Texas. Classes run 10 a.m. -4:30 p.m. daily. Cost includes lunch and all workshop materials. For registration and additional information on this and other Story 360 workshops, including September’s Breakout Novel Intensives in Tampa, Florida, and San Antonio, Texas, see the Free Expressions site. 

October 13-14: Wait – that’s not still summer, is it? Officially, October is fall, aka, State Fair season, but don’t wait too long to get your tickets to this year’s Writers in the Field, a hands-on research opportunity for writers. At the Amber Inn Academy of the Arts, Mansfield, Texas. Cost of a weekend pass is $65 (fully refundable through August 13). See the Writers in the Field site for details.

Wordcraft -- A new path to follow

Attending J. Suzanne Frank’s reading and signing of her newly-released book, Laws of Migration, was the top item on my to-do list last Friday. After all, Frank is my former writing teacher. And I knew she was teacher and mentor to many other writers through her work with Southern Methodist University’s creative writing program. What I didn’t know was just how big a fan base she has in North Texas.

The balcony section the Lincoln Park Barnes & Noble bookstore uses for most author signings was packed with listeners. 

Her new novel is the story of Elize, a woman whose lifelong disappointments have taught her not to trust human beings. Instead, she turns to birds, especially the endangered white ibis whose migration patterns she hopes to study. She hopes to head the bird refuge she’s dedicated her life to, expecting to delegate others to “do all the stuff I hated, like dealing with people.”

Instead, the refuge’s trustees pass over Elize in favor of pass her over in favor of someone she despises -- “She has a wonderful way with the public,” a trustee explains. Humiliated, Elize flees to Morocco, the breeding ground of her beloved ibises, determined to do the research that will restore her professional credibility as an ornithologist. Little does she realize, to accomplish her goal, she must learn to rely on the species she despises most -- the human one.

Frank has already published seven novels -- a time travel series under her own name and a series of mystery novel under the pseudonym Chloe Green. But Laws of Migration is her first foray into non-genre writing.

“I had to learn how to write a book that didn’t have an overlay of form,” she told her audience. “I found myself learning how to write from a character base rather than a plot base.”

Fortunately, she had plenty of experience developing fictional characters. A former journalist, Frank became involved with SMU’s continuing education program, the Writer’s Path, while writing her earlier novels. She moved on to teaching in the program, which she now directs.

For those who know her writing, the character of Elize in Laws of Migration -- a scientist journeying in search of a rare bird -- triggers images of Frank’s time travel character Chloe. Frank, however, insists Elize was written to be the opposite of Chloe. “Part of writing Elize,” she said, “is that she’s different from me and from every other character I’ve written.”

The book is also a debut for Frank in the use of in-depth multiple points of view. It’s the first of three, each following a different member of the trio introduced in the prologue.

And if Frank could be a bird, which would it be, an audience member asked. “I would totally be an ibis,” she said, the bird her character Elize seeks. “The real question is, what kind of ibis?”

Frank’s Laws of Migration is available at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com/.

Suzanne Frank

For more about SMU’s Writer’s Path program and where it leads, see www.smu.edu/Simmons/CommunityEnrichment/CreativeWriting/.

#

Speaking of creative writing classes, the Dallas Writer’s Garret still has places available for its one-day intensive on short fiction and creative nonfiction this Saturday, January 26, taught by Michael Mortone and Robin Hemley. For details and registration, see www.eventbrite.com/event/5196492850/.

#

And an oops -- in January 11’s Totally Texas post, I implied Dallas’ Bookmarks library branch is open on Monday holidays. In fact, like all Dallas Public libraries, it will be closed today, January 21, in honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday.