How’s this for three straight weekends of talking about writing?
The first was at the La Jolla Writer’s Conference, where I did workshops on “What the Greats Have Taught Me,” based on my 20 years of interviewing writers at our annual Writer’s Symposium By The Sea; “10 Things I Hate About You,” based on my more than 40 years of professional writing, where I discuss what editors hate most about writers; “Modern Travel Writing,” based on workshops I recently did in Iceland for the Society of American Travel Writers and on my experience writing travel stories for the New York Times, Westways Magazine and elsewhere; and “The Truth is Interesting Enough — How to Make Creative Nonfiction Interesting Without Making It Up,” based on my 30 years of teaching Creative NonFiction at Point Loma Nazarene University.
The following weekend I was in Chicago with Donald Miller and Susan Isaacs, for an all-day Writer’s Workshop, which followed Miller’s Storyline Conference. There, I spoke to the audience of about 300 on “Why Your Voice Matters,” and “How to Avoid Mistakes That Rookie Writers Make.” The audience was amazing — some came from as far away as Australia and Egypt.
And a week after that I was on the USS Midway aircraft carrier for their Military Book Fair, where I led a panel of crime and thriller writers that included Deborah Coonts, Patricia Gussin, Iris and Roy Johansen, D.P. Lyle and C. J. Lyons in a discussion about their craft. The topic’s title was Guns and Needles. Just what you need on an aircraft carrier!
Yes, that’s a lot of talking about writing. Now I have to get back to my own!
