Writing Seminar? Why? -- Ashleen O'Gaea

Why should you attend a writing seminar? After all, you've never had anything published, so you're not really a writer; or you have had something published, so you don't really need any how-to -- right? Wrong! No matter where you are in the process, and no matter what your goals are, attending a writing seminar is a good idea.
If you want to be a writer but don't feel like one yet, come and spend a day with other people who write. It'll remind you that your not alone, and it will inspire you -- with ideas, and with the sense that you're a writer too, that you can do this! If you think of yourself as a writer, come and encourage others. If you've been published, you have some stories to tell. Telling them will put your experience in useful perspective for you, and will help those who've yet to face what you've been through.  Learn or be reminded that when writers share, they gain without giving away: even if somebody likes your idea enough to use it, they'll have a different take on everything about it, and there will be two -- maybe more than two -- different stories coming out of that one idea.
No matter how trained or experienced you are, you'll learn something. Maybe it will be that  the person sitting next to you at lunch is a friend you hadn't met yet. Maybe it will be a technique or a point of grammar or an editing trick. Maybe it'll be a new outlook on something you already knew in a different way. Maybe it'll be a certain turn of phrase or a picture on a book cover... You might not know what you'll learn, but you can trust that there will be something new or renewing in it for you.
You've probably heard about those two- or three-day seminars, and maybe you've sighed, thinking you don't have that much time, or you can't afford to go to and stay in California or New Mexico or Colorado or Hawaii .... But you might be able to find a day-long local seminar that you can fit into your schedule and your budget. (Even if you can go to out-of-town seminars for a few days at a time, it's nice to stay home and day-trip once in a while, too.) And now here's the pitch you knew was coming: the Gecko Gals are hosting just such a seminar, on May 18th. You get two hours of interactive expertise in the morning, lunch, and two more hours in the afternoon, for just $50. (Sign up through the link on this very page!)
At "Write Start: Start Writing," you get to talk to local writers who are rooting for you to meet your writing goals, and who have a wide range of writing and publishing experience. And if you want more, you can arrange to meet with them privately for editing and other consultation - for reasonable fees, because no, we're none of us rich snobs who think we're better than you. We're all in this together -- on the same page, you might say. So -- come and indulge your inner writer, inspire your outer writer, and join us on May 18th to make the "write start" and start writing!

-- Ashleen

 
www.AshleenOGaea.com
www.PentagramConsulting.net

The Glam Life of a Writer--Ashleen O'Gaea

My life as a writer is ever so glamorous. I'm compelled to primp my hair just thinking about it!
Today, I sat peering at my monitor for about an hour, changing quotation marks that "selecting all" and "replacing" did not change them to the correct font. Now, in the same book, I get to print the table of contents and correct the page numbers, which have changed because before I fixed the quotation marks, I edited the manuscript. Then I'll save it as PDF, and I'll probably do that five or six times before the PDF conversion program gets tired of making random line breaks and other annoying changes. Then I'll upload it to CreateSpace, and in a day or two be able to go their their PDF version, wherein I'll spot more errors -- some of which I won't be able to find in my manuscript.
The upside, of course -- apart from the fact that eventually I'll get the book I want out of this process -- is that I can be as rude as I like and not offend any of the programs. (This is fortunate because when the conversion program takes the initiative, I like to be very rude indeed.)
Some people say that what they like about being a writer is that they can work in their grubby clothes, or jammies. Not me. I write best -- most creatively, patiently, and with fewer typos, actually -- when I dress as if I were meeting the public. I am always hopeful that through every book I write I will meet the public, and in large numbers. Neither the monitor nor the keyboard has asked me for my autograph, but I haven't given up hope for that yet, either. So I always -- well, almost always -- dress professionally (admittedly a variable standard) when I write ... because I want my life as a writer to be ever so glamorous!

~Ashleen 

-- 
www.AshleenOGaea.com
www.PentagramConsulting.net

Gecko Gals Ink at the Tucson Festival of Books

Gecko Gals Ink will once again have Booth # 133  

at the

TUCSON FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

Saturday and Sunday, March 09 and 10, 2013

9:30 AM till 5:30 PM each day

We are at he West end of the campus mall, across the sidewalk from the Student Union Building and next to the U of A Bookstore Tent.

Authors signing at our Booth #133:

Saturday, March 9

  11:00AM - 1:00 PM               Matt Marine [Suspense];  
                                                 Mary Ann Hutchison [YA; Suspense]
    2:00PM - 4:00 PM               Michael Orozco [Police procedural]
   3:00 PM - 5:00 PM               B.J. Kurtz     [Fantasy/YA]

Also from 1:00PM - 5:00PM    Carol Costa [Mystery; historical] 
                9:30--all day           Jude Johnson [Historical; nonfiction]


Sunday, March10

  10:00AM - 12:00 PM             Michael Orozco [police procedural]
    1:00 PM -   3:00 PM            Mary Ann Hutchison [suspense; YA]
    1:00 PM -   5:00 PM             Carol Costa [Mystery; Historical]

Also from 9:30 AM--all day      Ashleen O'Gaea [Fantasy; inspirational]
                                                 Jude Johnson  [Historical; nonfiction]


For additional information such as workshops and PARKING map, go to
http://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/

THese Boots Are Made For...Writing?

Is it the cowboy boots? It could be the cowboy boots. They do bring out my inner all-powerful, and I've been wearing them often recently, 'cause they're the only shoes I have that aren't intimidated by puddles, and it's been raining lately. Then again, it could be the rain, which in Arizona is always refreshing and inspiring. Could be both; could be something entirely else. Whatever it is, I'm feeling like writing again. Little bits -- revisions to things I'm already working on, ideas for new stories, ways to reclaim stalled projects -- are coming to me almost faster than I can jot them down. And although I do have other things to take care of before I can sit down for hours uninterrupted and Write, I'm feeling that those other things won't take long, and I'll be back at the keyboard before my hair's an inch longer.

This is, of course, Good. The other stuff I have to do is worthy and all, but it's been overwhelming for the last couple of months. Not depressingly, just filling-my-timely. And now, though I still have it to do, and will keep having other things to do, the Writing, the writing that makes me feel like a writer, is reasserting itself. I'm happy about that. Whether you will be, when you get a chance to read what I'm working on, is a different question, but .... If it keeps raining, and/or you wear cowboy boots too, maybe you'll like my books and stories as much as I like writing them.


~Ashleen

-- 
www.AshleenOGaea.com
www.PentagramConsulting.net

Blessed to Be a Writer by Ashleen O'Gaea

There are many reasons I feel blessed to be a writer, but I don't mean to count them all here; I mean to mention one in particular. Being a writer requires me to ... think outside my own box.

Given that I spend my writing days in a box - namely my office - that may sound ironic, but it's not. Whether I'm writing novels or non-fiction, writing needs me to consider life from other perspectives than my own. I have to remember that not everyone sees the world the same way I do. Not everyone likes the rainbow Mohawk that kid is wearing. Some people think anyone wearing clothes a couple of sizes too big is disrespectful or dangerous. Others believe every problem is a matter of will, and that all pharmaceuticals are bad, bad, bad. When I write a character whose behavior is determined by such ways of looking at life, or when I have to remember to acknowledge readers who disagree that ... oh, that children will not starve themselves and it's okay if they don't eat all their veggies tonight ... I'm not just becoming a better writer. I'm becoming a better person.

Better able to understand other people's fears, angers, joys, confusions, hopes, dreams, self-images .... If I have a character whose childhood or previous chapter experience has closed her mind and made her insensitive to another character's needs, I have to dig around in my own experience and observation for ways to write about that character so that she comes across as real, not a cardboard foil for the plot. And if, when I do that, I come across an attitude of my own that is similarly insensitive, I can recognize it, use it, and then change it. I can still use it again for other characters, but I can let myself grow even if my character decides she doesn't give a rat's anatomy. That's different than when somebody tells me I'm narrow-minded: if I find something like that when I'm writing, there's no guilt involved, no present regret that I've hurt someone. That means I can develop my own character before my story becomes too much like ... my story.

In the same way that I think each of my novels is better than the last, as I practice the skills of this craft, I trust that I am always improving, too, as I practice the skills of living. If you haven't known me for a long time, you may not be able to see my personal character development -- but (good news!) there's plenty of time to read my books and see how I'm coming along as a writer. ;-)

~Ashleen

-- 
www.AshleenOGaea.com
www.PentagramConsulting.net