Articles, reviews and Q&As ...
Read about Barbara in "Time is on her Side," a feature by Beth Fhaner in the November/December issue of PAGES magazine:
http://www.pagesmagazine.com/archive/nov-dec04/time.htm
OC Weekly, October
2004
THIS
WEEK IN FLAMING PENS:
BARBARA
DEMARCO-BARRETT
 Barbara
DeMarco-Barrett had quietly buried the poor thing in a
deep corner of her clutter-packed garage. Her book manuscript
that is, post two agents and a "couple of dozen" rejections
from various muscle-bound publishing houses. A few years
and false starts on two novels went by. Meanwhile, the buried
manuscript wouldn’t lie still. She realized it was
a good book and that her "heart and soul were on every page." She
also realized that yet another "how to" writing book better
damn well have a standalone enticement to keep it from
flat-lining once it hit shelves.
There
was much bookstore loitering and gnashing of teeth. Then
she had it. The book would be slanted toward women—the
multi-tasking sex—with little time. She got herself
a new agent, Betsy Amster, who tentatively agreed to take
on the kicked-around horse. Amster warned her new client
that books on writing get modest advances at best, as low
as $10,000, and probably no greater than $30,000. But Pen
on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer
Within drew bids from five publishing houses once it
went on the block. The high bid came from Harcourt—55K.
For DeMarco-Barrett it was a "sublime victory." Especially
considering an editor who had rejected the proposal years
earlier was one of the bidders.
Albeit Pen
on Fire targets women, it offers excellent time-snatching
tips, motivational insights from bestselling authors,
and road-tested exercises for male scribes as well. Hey,
we dudes lead bizzy lives too and…whoa, I see it’s
almost noon already. Naptime.
—C.J.
Bahnsen
Booklist,
October 2004
"Finally, someone has
come along to tell would-be writers the two words they desperately
need to hear: get real! Women, especially, entertain fantasies
of quitting their day jobs to spend countless uninterrupted
hours at the keyboard, whereas the reality is that in today's
hectic world, they're lucky to get 15 minutes. But, the author
advises, if you plan it right, those 15 minutes should be
all you need. A professor of creative writing, editor, and
journalist, DeMarco-Barrett has developed a wealth of 15-minute
plans, each one designed to help aspiring writers find not
only the time but the focus they need to hone their writing
skills while juggling the rest of their daily demands. Through
challenging exercises, tips from established authors, and
her own personal experiences, DeMarco-Barrett demonstrates
precisely how writing-on-the-run can produce satisfying results.
With an encouraging attitude and inspirational approach, DeMarco-Barrett
covers everything writer-wannabes want to know, from finding
an agent to finding your voice. The result is a supremely
relevant guide to the writing life."
—Carol Haggas
Pen on Fire is mentioned in a piece by Carolyn See in The Washington Post. Or read an excerpt below:
"...Books on the writing process come around as regularly as sermons on Sunday. On my own shelves -- and this is far from a definitive collection -- I find "Aspects of the Novel" by E.M. Forster, "Your Life as Story" by Tristine Rainer, "Writing From the Inside Out" by Dennis Palumbo, "If You Want to Write" by Brenda Ueland, "The Writer on Her Work," by Janet Sternburg, Anne Lamott's wonderful "Bird by Bird," "Writing for Your Life," an encyclopedic collection of Publishers Weekly interviews by the radiantly competent and sensitive Sybil Steinberg, "Writing Out the Storm," a marvelous work on writing through illness by Barbara Abercrombie, "Before We Get Started" by Bret Lott (which got roundly roasted by Jonathan Yardley in these pages), "Pen on Fire" by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett and my own personal favorite, "Making a Literary Life" by a certain Carolyn See (which, however, was dismissed by Sven Birkerts in the Los Angeles Times as "mere commerce")." Library
Journal, September 2004
"A
creative writing teacher for 15 years and host of the radio
show Writers on
Writing, DeMarco-Barrett knows the writerly type. Her book
perfectly combines inspiration and practical advice, with
the premise that anyone can find 15 minutes a day to become
the writer he or she always wanted to be. Chapters deal with
a specific aspect of writing and end with a 15-minute writing
exercise. This excellent tutorial will work for men, too.
For most collections."
—Dale RabenReview © 2004
Reed Business Information
Here's a Q&A with Barbara at RejectionCollection.com:
http://www.rejectioncollection.com
Another Q&A with Jo-Ann Mapson:
www.joannemapson.com
A review of Pen on Fire by Martin Brady at Bookpage.com:
www.bookpage.com Here's a new Q&A with Writers on the Rise: http://www.writersontherise.com/newsletter.html
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