Author Archives: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

A Starbucks regular

Posted May 4 2007 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

You know you’ve been showing up at the same place for days on end when you step up to the counter and the barista says, “White tea?” and gives you a little smile. I hand over the aqua insulated cup that I bring every day and she hands it back with steaming tea.

I am more than halfway through the revision. Flannery O’Connor’s words, that writing a novel is a messy business, pong about my head. Sure is messy! So many pages, so many scenes, characters and lines of dialogue to keep track of. Where is that scene? I wonder. Did so and so say such and such to so and so, and if so, where???

I refer to my notebook where each chapter is sketched out, according to Ms. Carolyn See, and that has helped keep track. I can see the value of having a couple of huge files containing all the chapters so when you wonder these sorts of things, you can easily do a search, but I didn’t do it that way. Each chapter is its own document.

It takes time, revision does. And patience. And lots of white tea.

Writing at Starbucks

Posted May 2 2007 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

It’s still working. I started last week, and so far have been there each morning this week for two hours. The noise isn’t even as distracting as email. (I’ve kept my vow of not checking email while I’m there.)

This morning a huge group of older adults, mostly dressed well and wearing jewelry, came in and pushed a bunch of tables and chairs together and took over the place. The din rose to the point of when I was on the phone with my chiropractor, I had to go outside to hear the person on the other end of the phone.

Still, I found that noise less distracting than the distractions at home when I’m working on fiction.

A few years back I was diagnosed as being an ADD adult so I wonder if the noise makes me focus in.

Too personal…or not personal enough?

Posted April 30 2007 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

I have a friend who thinks I’m being a bit too personal about my writing woes. This friend thinks I should zip it, and just write away. And if I’m dealing with any obstacles, to just keep them to myself. This friend also doesn’t think I should go out to a cafe to work. He/she thinks I should just stay home and buckle down.

So tell me, does it make you uncomfortable when I, or any other writers with blogs, talk about what they’re dealing with, whether it be procrastination, writers block, or not being able to write at home? Seriously, i want to know.

…..

The LA Times Festival of Books was stellar, as usual. My friend Allison and I decided we liked the humor panels best. The panelists on the one I moderated (Allison Burnett, Merrill Markoe, Pamela Ribon and Amy Wallen) were hilarious. The other two humor panels we went to were great, too. Allison and Amy are going to come on the show in July, methinks.

…..

Leaving home….

Posted April 28 2007 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

….to write. Well, to work on fiction. I’ve done it sporadically over the years, but finally realized I had to do it like a job. So I went out and bought a new battery for my iBook, one that lasts almost four hours.

It works like this: I drop my son at school and go to a cafe. One morning it was Kean, the next Starbucks near UC-Irvine. I work on the revision of Starletta’s Kitchen for two hours and then I leave. I vow not to check email, although my original intention was to work at cafes that are not wireless. But now the world seems to be wireless and it’s difficult to find a place that isn’t. Maybe the beach, or a park. But I want to work at a table. Monday through Friday, unless something comes up that I have to take care of, this is what I plan to do.

At home it’s too difficult to not get distracted. And as Dennis Palumbo has said, email is death to writers.

***

Today is the first day of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA. I’m moderating a panel this a.m. on fiction and humor. So many great panels. I believe BookTV will be broadcasting some. Anyone going?

The ASJA conference in NYC last weekend was stellar. Great panels there, too. (They’re for sale at www.asja.org.)

***

I like what Melissa Bank said at the panel on Voice at the ASJA conference. She said she has a drawing of a rhinoceros being airlifted and it reminds her that writing is difficult.

What techniques do y’all use to get writing done?

The ASJA Annual Writers Conference

Posted April 18 2007 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

Are any of you going? I’m leaving on Thursday for the three day affair in New York City. I love New York. My father grew up in Harlem, then the Upper East Side (he was from Sicily, but took a ship to NY as a teen and never looked back). In the 11th grade, we bussed up to the city from my Pennsylvania hamlet and went to Times Square and Radio City Music Hall. One New Year’s Eve when I was 17, I went to Times Square. A man grabbed me and kissed me. Yuck.

Such a people watching city. Great food. Great shops. Personality.

Mostly, I’ll be at the conference, which I’m co-chairing. Great panels. Great people. Friends I haven’t seen since last year this time. But we also plan to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Little Italy.

And next week, as you know if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, is the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. I’m moderating a panel on humor and fiction on Saturday morning. Another great event for writers and for readers.

Writers conferences and retreats and talks and panels are food for writers. I always come away with inspiration or new ideas or new contacts and new friends. In the summer of ’92, I went to Squaw Valley Writers Workshop, one of the best West Coast conferences for literary writers. I met one of my idols there: Clarence Major. Of course, me being me, I didn’t introduce myself until my last night there; he so intimidated me. Later, when I had a show, he came on my show and after that, our interview was published in a book about him.

Beginning in June, for those in Southern California, we’re starting a speaking series called Novel Voices. I started yet another blog where I’ll be posting info as we get it (http://novelvoices.blogstpot.com).

If you know of any stellar events for writers, wherever you are, post them here.

Kurt Vonnegut died

Posted April 13 2007 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

He influenced so many writers. I love these Vonnegut quotes:

“Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be.”

“Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.”

“Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.”

“Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.”

“Human beings will be happier – not when they cure cancer or get to Mars or eliminate racial prejudice or flush Lake Erie but when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again. That’s my utopia.”

“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you different.”

“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”

“People don’t come to church for preachments, of course, but to daydream about God.”

His books–Slaughterhouse-Five, Sirens of Titan, Player Piano and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater–affected me. I was in college, becoming a writer.

We should have memorial services for Vonnegut all over. Read his work aloud. Remember.