Monday, January 14, 2013
Ron Rindo teaches POV January 26
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
So what is point of view anyway?
WAUKESHA – Many fiction writers puzzle over point of view. Whose head should we be in? Should we be in first, second or third person? The decision affects your entire story. Author Ron Rindo comes to Waukesha on January 26, 2013, to explain it all in “The Crucial Point of Point of View,” an AllWriters’ Celebrity Saturday event. The class will run from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and has a fee of $85, which includes lunch.
Writers labor over opening sentences, plot, conflict, setting, figurative language, carefully crafted sentences, and resonant endings, and yet, point of view is the story. Choose poorly there, and there is no story worth telling, no matter how carefully one writes and revises everything else. If a story is made of cloth, point of view is the thread, inextricable from the whole and yet seemingly invisible. Point of view (which must include some discussion of character) will be the focus in this class session—how it works, why it works, which choices are best, and why. We’ll spend some time examining and discussing examples of the many different options and then we’ll complete several engaging exercises that provide you with hands-on opportunities to explore the strengths and weaknesses of several of these options in your own writing. By the end of this class session, you will know far more than you thought possible about point of view, one of
the most crucial elements in a fiction writer’s toolbox.
RON RINDO has published three award-winning short story collections, most recently Love in an Expanding Universe (New Rivers Press, 2005) and nearly two dozen short stories and essays in journals and magazines. His 2009 essay, “Gyromancy,” appeared in The Gettysburg Review and was reprinted in The Best American Essays, 2010. Two recent short stories, “The Return of Migrating Birds” and “Horses,” can be read on-line at www.terrain.org/fiction/23/rindo.htm and www.summersetreview.org/11summer/horses.html. A 1981 graduate of Carroll College, Ron is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin in Oshkosh. He lives on a hobby farm in Pickett, Wisconsin, where he and his wife and family keep a small orchard and raise chickens and Shetland sheep.
To register for this class, call 262-446-0284 or go to http://www.allwriters.org/ and click on Celebrity Saturdays.
AllWriters’ Workplace and Workshop is located at 234 Brook St., Unit 2, in Waukesha. We offer on-site and online writing courses in all genres and abilities of creative writing, as well as coaching, editing, and marketing services. A schedule of classes and registration is available online at http://www.allwriters.org/ or you can call 262-446-0284.
Kathie Giorgio
Director, AllWriters' Workplace & Workshop LLC
Author, "The Home For Wayward Clocks"
234 Brook St., Unit 2
Waukesha WI 53188
Phone: (262) 446-0284
AllWriters' Website: www.allwriters.org
Kathie's Website: www.kathiegiorgio.org
Monday, January 7, 2013
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Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Armchair World Tour with Jill Dobbe
FORMER WISCONSIN EDUCATOR WRITES MEMOIR ON
LIVING, TEACHING, AND TRAVELING OVERSEAS
HERE
WE ARE & THERE WE GO
TEACHING
AND TRAVELING WITH KIDS IN TOW
Who says you can’t travel with kids?
My husband, Dan, and I do just that as we set off with our two very
young kids, first to live and work on an island far out in the Pacific, then on
to the continent of Africa with a few stops in between. Armed with strollers, diapers, and too much
luggage, we travel to over 25 countries throughout a 10-year span, while
working together as overseas educators. After surviving typhoon Yuri, almost being mauled by lions, and,
nearly shot by a presidential guard, we happily endure all of the good times
and bad, while living life to the fullest.
A decade’s worth of experiences and lifelong memories remain with us, as
we return to the U.S., now with two teenagers in tow, and begin to experience
our very own version of reverse culture shock.
I wrote this book mainly because I wanted to share our many travel
stories with others who are contemplating living and teaching overseas or enjoy
traveling, with or without children. I
want others to know that it can be done if you are willing to make it happen
and are open to living a life full of adventures.
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
Since writing her first memoir about her travels, Jill Dobbe has
lived in Cairo, Egypt, Gurgaon, India, and Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where she now
resides with her husband. A Shawano, Wisconsin
native, Jill continues to work as an elementary administrator overseas and
writes on the side. Her two children are now adults and continue to travel on
their own. Every June, they all meet up
together at their home on a lake in Wisconsin. Connect with Jill: www.facebook/JillDobbeAuthor
Publisher: Orange Hat Publishing, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, www.orangehatpublishing.com
190
pp
ISBN:
9781937165215
c.
2012
$5.99 eBook
Buy from all online retailers
My review:Educator
Jill Dobbe, along with her husband Dan, recount their journey to live and teach
and visit all over the world. Thirty countries later, Jill shares this
not-quite-over memoir of life abroad.
Beginning
in 1991 in Guam, Dobbe discusses the culture, tidbits tourists would miss about
living among different cultures – for instance, although tourism is a major
trade in Guam, the beaches are dangerous. The first ten years and four
countries of working overseas, Jill taught elementary school and Dan high
school science. It wasn’t easy adjusting, especially as different cultures
treat education much differently. Discipline, language, lifestyle, and
childcare were all issues the Dobbes had to deal with.
Jill
relates several lessons about traveling and working, such as most people wait
months and months for household shipments to arrive and pass through customs;
by which time the items arrive, they are nearly forgotten or the Dobbes had
learned to do without.
Some
of the more quirky, frightening and poignant experiences of Guam, Singapore, Ghana,
and Mexico include having to pinch pennies until the first payday and needing
to sell off possessions and keeping or throwing out even teaching materials, a babysitter
who wanted to take one child on a family visit in another country; living
through natural disasters of earthquakes and hurricanes; two attempted adoptions;
maps that mean nothing, uniforms in daycare, needing day and night guards, shopping,
shopping, shopping, lizards, cockroaches, and touring all over the work during
holidays and vacations.
The
Dobbes raised their children from one-year-old Ali and two-year-old Ian for ten
years overseas. When the children were old enough to be in school, life got a
little easier, and Jill wrote many times about how grateful she was to raise
her kids globally. From 2001-2007 the Dobbes experienced a reverse culture
shock in the craziest of all lifestyles—American—while they lived and worked in
Wisconsin until Ian graduated from high school. After that, they returned to
work overseas in Egypt and India.
While
Here We Are and There We Go is primarily a memoir, I enjoyed the universal
appeal of Dobbe’s story. Wisconsinites do tend to feel as though we need
nothing else to complete us, and I well understood her complaints of enduring the
usual Wisconsin questions, why would you want to go there, why are you doing
that, how can you take you kids so far away? We don’t deal with things like cat
scratch fever and mango fly infestations too commonly in the States.
Experiencing
life in many cultures isn’t for everyone, but Jill’s experiences of meeting
celebrities like Jane Goodall and the Clintons, seeing humpback whales,
learning different languages and adapting to the most unusual customs wherever they
went is like a vicarious world tour. Throughout it all, her main lesson is: “Home
is not the material place but the refuge where we spent time together.”
Readers
who love to experience different lifestyles, even from an armchair, will find
much to treasure in Here We Are and There We Go.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Carol Wobig's Poached is not an option
By Carol Wobig
·
Paperback: 98 pages
·
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (October 20, 2012)
·
Language: English
·
ISBN-10: 1479139122
·
ISBN-13: 978-1479139125
$9.99 paperback
About the book:
Eight knockout stories about women who know what
"authentic" is really all about.
Carol Wobig spent a few years in a convent and
many more years working in a pizza factory, before she retired and started
writing. Her monologues were performed in community theater, and her stories
attracted fans in Gray Sparrow Journal, Clapboard House Journal, and on
Milwaukee Public Radio's Flash Fiction Friday.
Very real, indeed. Delightful, heartfelt,
poignant and hysterical, each story appeals to a different temperament, from
parents of young children to the widowed, a lost young girl, a hopeful
romantic; a woman who is forced to take charge of her life at the death of her
sister, to a woman caught up in modern incivility. You’ll want to cheer and
laugh, and certainly take a stand…on something, or at least hug someone and pat
her on the back.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Former WI Author Steven Farrell is headed for the big screen with Mersey Boys
Steve says:
Ladies and Gents,
Mersey Boys, my new book at Amazon.com, is being made into a movie (low budget) out in New York-New Jersey. The casting call has gone out. It's being filmed by La Muse Venale, a Broadway group. They're working with MNN, an affliate of Time Warner. The movie is being filmed during the winter and should open at the famous Actor's Temple in the Broadway district.
Cairan Byrne, a Broadway actor, is one of the guys who'll be in it.
I'm not actively involved in the film process. I am providing the first two film screenplay drafts. I also will be going over three headshots on all of the finalists to render my opinions.
About the Book:
Publisher: World Audience Publishers (November 5, 2012)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00A2VGDQ2
Kindle: .99
Print: $9.99
Mersey Boys is a Beatles novel that introduces John, Paul, George, Ringo and Al to the world outside of Liverpool, England. Al? Al! Welcome to a ferryboat ride across the Mersey River and backwards in time by over fifty years into an enchanting musical world that shall never be seen again in history. Join Professor Al Moran, a college art professor of John Lennon, on his magic carpet ride with the four young men who would soon morph into the internationally known Beatles. Gaze upon the beautiful Ginny Browne, the sexiest female character penned in these opening days of the Twenty-first century. Hear the music, dance to the beat and relive the heady days of a long ago golden age in England.
The book was reviewed favorably by Copperfield Reviews and Small Press Watch Review.
Among Steve Farrell's many other books, check out:
Bowery Ripper on the Loose
"Bowery Ripper on the Loose" is a comic mystery, featuring the notorious Jack the Ripper and the hilarious Irish Clowns of the Lower East Side of New York City. Jack the Ripper, the most infamous serial killer in history, is back plying his bloody trade after a fifty year hiatus. This time Saucy Jack is on the loose on the Bowery, New York's poorest neighborhood, in 1938. A slew of murders beneath the 3rd Street elevated train tracks has the entire city in a state of panic. Is the slaughter the work of the Communists, the Nazis, or Own Madden's West Side Irish Mafia? When Bugs McMaster and his gang, the Irish Clowns, are rounded up as possible suspects, they decide to solve the puzzle themselves. "Bowery Ripper on the Loose" is a leap into the surrealistic world that merges comedy with murder.
ISBN-13: 978-1935444732
$20
Steve says, "Bowery Ripper is a fun read for a rainy Halloween night. It helps if one loves the old Bowery Boys movies of the 40s."
and
Liverpool Roared
Shake hands with the Scousers: Darcy, Conn, Keith, Jem, Roddy, and Al. Al? Dr. Albert Moran, an art professor at a college in Liverpool, recounts his sexy and merry romp through Beatlemania with his mates, the Scousers.
Publisher: Bookstand Publishing; Revised edition (March 10, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1589096231
ISBN-13: 978-1589096233
Visit the author's Amazon biography page to find more books.
About the Author:
Steven M. Farrell is a Professor of Speech-Communication at Greenville Technical College in Greenville, South Carolina, as well as a professional public speaker. He is orginally from Kenosha, Wisconsin and is a member of the Wisconsin Writers Association.
Ladies and Gents,
Mersey Boys, my new book at Amazon.com, is being made into a movie (low budget) out in New York-New Jersey. The casting call has gone out. It's being filmed by La Muse Venale, a Broadway group. They're working with MNN, an affliate of Time Warner. The movie is being filmed during the winter and should open at the famous Actor's Temple in the Broadway district.
Cairan Byrne, a Broadway actor, is one of the guys who'll be in it.
I'm not actively involved in the film process. I am providing the first two film screenplay drafts. I also will be going over three headshots on all of the finalists to render my opinions.
About the Book:
Print: $9.99
Mersey Boys is a Beatles novel that introduces John, Paul, George, Ringo and Al to the world outside of Liverpool, England. Al? Al! Welcome to a ferryboat ride across the Mersey River and backwards in time by over fifty years into an enchanting musical world that shall never be seen again in history. Join Professor Al Moran, a college art professor of John Lennon, on his magic carpet ride with the four young men who would soon morph into the internationally known Beatles. Gaze upon the beautiful Ginny Browne, the sexiest female character penned in these opening days of the Twenty-first century. Hear the music, dance to the beat and relive the heady days of a long ago golden age in England.
The book was reviewed favorably by Copperfield Reviews and Small Press Watch Review.
Among Steve Farrell's many other books, check out:
Bowery Ripper on the Loose
"Bowery Ripper on the Loose" is a comic mystery, featuring the notorious Jack the Ripper and the hilarious Irish Clowns of the Lower East Side of New York City. Jack the Ripper, the most infamous serial killer in history, is back plying his bloody trade after a fifty year hiatus. This time Saucy Jack is on the loose on the Bowery, New York's poorest neighborhood, in 1938. A slew of murders beneath the 3rd Street elevated train tracks has the entire city in a state of panic. Is the slaughter the work of the Communists, the Nazis, or Own Madden's West Side Irish Mafia? When Bugs McMaster and his gang, the Irish Clowns, are rounded up as possible suspects, they decide to solve the puzzle themselves. "Bowery Ripper on the Loose" is a leap into the surrealistic world that merges comedy with murder.
ISBN-13: 978-1935444732
$20
Steve says, "Bowery Ripper is a fun read for a rainy Halloween night. It helps if one loves the old Bowery Boys movies of the 40s."
and
Liverpool Roared
Shake hands with the Scousers: Darcy, Conn, Keith, Jem, Roddy, and Al. Al? Dr. Albert Moran, an art professor at a college in Liverpool, recounts his sexy and merry romp through Beatlemania with his mates, the Scousers.
Visit the author's Amazon biography page to find more books.
About the Author:
Steven M. Farrell is a Professor of Speech-Communication at Greenville Technical College in Greenville, South Carolina, as well as a professional public speaker. He is orginally from Kenosha, Wisconsin and is a member of the Wisconsin Writers Association.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Book Review: Journeys: An Ice Age Adventure
By Tim Fox
c. 2012
Amazon Digital Services
$2.99 for e-book for Kindle and Nook
$12.95 for paperback
$6 cross-curriculum for teachers
YA
202 pages
Tim Fox connected with me through Wisconsin Authors and
asked for a review. Although he sent me his story, I did buy the book.
Fox’s richly-imagined story takes place in Ice-Age central
Wisconsin where good and evil and life and death, as they always do, hang in
the balance. There are mastodons, boys with candy bars in their back backs,
good aboriginals and evil-intended aboriginals, lots of laughter, discovery of
new foods and even a highly-embellished language.
Twelve and ten-year-old brothers Mark and Barry go on a
camping adventure at Natural Bridge State Park with their uncle. Uncle Steve
and the boys’ father have been estranged since the death of Steve’s sister, Mom
to Mark and Barry. Using a mastodon tooth and stone spear point found on the
book-opening adventure, the boys travel back in time to Ice Age Wisconsin,
where they encounter a lost Ice Age boy and two mastodons. Running from a band
of warriors intent to kill them, the odd little family joins together to
survive. Through the Natural Bridge, which becomes a time portal, Steve can
peek at the events the boys experience, as well as the Ice Age boy’s
grandfather. Conquering fear of the unknown encourages life-changing decisions.
Fox sums up his story in a quote near the end:
“There’s a purpose. Are you ready to listen? Somehow it
clicked. He (Mark, main character) realized he would never understand it all,
but it was enough to know there was a purpose. He realized that the joys, the
struggles – they were all part of something greater. It made their lives more
than just a collection of experiences. They were a part of a rich tapestry – an
interweaving of time, events, people, and animals that challenged and enriched
not only their own lives, but the collected experience of creation.”
Although the author, a former school teacher, breaks away
from most common guidelines of YA literature, I found the story interesting. Touching
up the text by tightening, staying in one perspective per scene, choosing
language for the audience – average three years younger than the characters, or
elementary set, a few less bathroom jokes, and watching formatting issues, Journeys
would make a great classroom read. Fox provides a cross-curriculum guide at
extra cost on his web site. Visit http://www.journeysiceageadventure.com
for more information.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Living, Teaching, and Traveling Overseas by Jill Dobbe
BOOK PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jill Dobbe, Author
FORMER WISCONSIN EDUCATOR WRITES MEMOIR ON
LIVING, TEACHING, AND TRAVELING OVERSEAS
HERE
WE ARE & THERE WE GO
TEACHING
AND TRAVELING WITH KIDS IN TOW
Who says you can’t travel with kids?
My husband, Dan, and I do just that as we set off with our two very
young kids, first to live and work on an island far out in the Pacific, then on
to the continent of Africa with a few stops in between. Armed with strollers, diapers, and too much
luggage, we travel to over 25 countries throughout a 10-year span, while
working together as overseas educators.
After surviving typhoon Yuri, almost being mauled by lions, and,
nearly shot by a presidential guard, we happily endure all of the good times
and bad, while living life to the fullest.
A decade’s worth of experiences and lifelong memories remain with us, as
we return to the U.S., now with two teenagers in tow, and begin to experience
our very own version of reverse culture shock.
I wrote this book mainly because I wanted to share our many travel
stories with others who are contemplating living and teaching overseas or enjoy
traveling, with or without children. I
want others to know that it can be done if you are willing to make it happen
and are open to living a life full of adventures.
414) 212-5477, Shannon Ishizaki, Owner
Available: Amazon.com (Paperback and Kindle)
BN.com
The Bookstore, Appleton, WIBook World, Shawano, WI
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