October 2009 Archives

October is college fair time in the Pacific Northwest.  Selling Simmons is not a difficult activity.  Many colleges and universities across the U.S. are represented -- even other wonen's colleges.  Simmons usually is the only one in Boston 

I completed a tour of four fairs this past Thursday, all 731 miles.  My husband provided

the necessary company.  These fairs are usually scheduled on successive days. The PSAT was given one day, so there was a welcome travel day.  The ice in centrral Oregon slowed travel, but nothing else hampered driving.

It is exhilirating to share Simmons information with high school students.  In this area, the trend is to attend Oregon schools.  The girls have no idea that a Simmons education might cost less than the local offerings.

As the economy has tightened here, the number of high school guidance counselors has decreased.  Those who would be the first to go to college from their families 

do not have the support and tools to address college admissions.  It is a challenge talking to the students who have no idea of the process nor the benefits of small colleges.  Simmons offers smaller class sizes than many experience in high school.

I encourage all of you to consider volunteering for a fair or to take admissions information to your local high schools.  Many years ago before I stopped working, I helped on a smaller scale in Michigan.  

If that doesn't interest you, there is an easier way to make Simmons known.  Wear a S.C. shirt or cap, put a decal in a car or house window, use Simmons pens or pencils,

carry a Simmons tote, or many other such activities.  I wore a Simmons shirt to a picnic one time.  Someone remarked that their housemate was a S. C. graduate.  We live 20 miles apart.  She was re-connected to Simmons.  At a U. of OR track meet I met a M.I.T. student whose mother was a Simmons grad.  This spring I sat with a Tufts employee at a sporting event who noticed my shirt and told of her connection to Simmons.

I am excited about the progress I've witnessed on campus.  The students are not bound by restrictions I felt fifty years ago.  The dorm rules were necessarily strict then.  Students did not have the freedom in coursework present now.  I continue to be amazed by the variety of majors, minors, and combinations of them that a single student might consider.  The balancing of academics, volunteering, sports, foreign travel, and other activities is mind-boggling.  Our graduates are succeeding in so many areas.  The days of "women's work" are gone.  

Go Sharks!

Ever since a student in one of my creative writing courses interrupted my opening spiel with, "Excuse me. Could you tell us what your qualifications are?," I begin my Tools & Tactics for Creative Writers lecture by stating my experience.

Undergraduate English degree. Graduate degree in communications management. Published author of articles and essays. Awards. So, that's how I began the Lexington adult ed lecture.

Then I asked what the participants' writing goals were. As mentioned in my previous post, they were clear about what they wanted to do and what they needed from my lecture.

I let them in on a dismal secret, meant not to distress them, but to spur them on.

• Book publishers receive many millions of manuscripts a year.
• Only 1% of all manuscript submissions are published.
• 93% of books sell less than 1,000 copies.
• The majority of books sell only 99 copies.

And twelve--that's right, 12--authors make 85% of all the money made by book authors!
And most authors only get 10% of the cover price.

Besides talent and persistence, writers need good resources, plain and simple. We need tools to beat the odds against getting our work published.

I offered tips to help them become bona fide writers. Begin identifying as a writer. Read books, such as If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland, designed to inspire writers. Join a community of writers, either live or online. Get a job as a writer--although commercial writing will affect your creative writing. We'll discuss that later.

Take writing classes. Some of the best and most numerous are offered through Harvard University Extension School, in Cambridge, Mass. The Cambridge Center for Adult Education is another place with writing courses in many genres, and instructors with loyal followings.

Blog postings are supposed to be about 275 words long, and I'm over that limit. So, I'll go over the pros and cons of both online and in-person writing classes and writing groups, and tell you where to find some of the best in my next posting.

No sooner did I post my blog entry about Egg Donation then the Boston Sunday Globe weighed in on the topic. The Globe's lead editorial on Sunday, October 11 dealt with anonymity in egg and sperm donation.  Inspired, I guess, by the widely reported story of the woman seeking child support and more from an anonymous sperm donor, the Globe declared that donors are and should remain anonymous. While I agree that an egg or sperm donor, has neither parental rights nor financial responsibilities, the Globe goes way too far when it endorses anonymity.

"President Obama told a story on the campaign trail about a young volunteer named Ashley who, when her and her mom were on food stamps, would eat ketchup and mustard sandwiches and convince her mom that they were her favorite thing to eat. I'm a hunger advocate because I don't want any kid to ever have to eat ketchup and mustard sandwiches, and I don't want any parent to ever have to experience the heartbreak of not being able to afford nutritious food for their children." ~ From an advocate

My cousin Lindsey (who is basically my sister), works in DC for Feeding America, the nation's leading domestic hunger-relief charity whose mission is to feed America's hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and to engage the country in the fight to end hunger. While she works on issues of hunger and poverty in the U.S., I watch from the sidelines at the amazing work her and her organization are working on. For example, did you know 13.3 million or approximately 18% of children in the U.S. live in poverty--the rate of poverty for children under 18 remains higher than those aged 18 - 64 and for those aged 65 and over. It is these startling facts and figures that prompted me to write this particular post.

Today, on the front page of the New York Times was an article about a woman who used to run a homeless shelter and is now homeless. The economic climate has been tough for everyone but for those who were already struggling, it is even worse. I know I am fortunate to not have to worry about where my next meal will come from or how I am going to feed a family, but there are many out there who think about these issues on a daily basis. As the weather has begun to shift, so have people begun talking of the upcoming holiday season. While the thought of hearing jingle bells in November is already haunting me so is the thought of not having enough food in our nation's food banks to really help those in need this holiday season.

Although I have decided to study and follow issues relating to international affairs, I am reminded by my cousin that many of the important issues that I look at through the international lense are in fact right here in our own backyards. As we begin to think about 2010 and the holiday season, think about how fortunate you are and do what you can to make a difference for others. As Sheri West, the woman in the New York Times said today, "No one could have told me in a million  years: I'd wake up in a homeless shelter. I had a house for homeless people. Now I'm homeless." Take this time to think about how fortunate you are and what you can do to make a difference for others.

Until next time I ask all of you--who inspires you to make a difference?? What are the causes that matter most to you and to your communities?

  This photo is of First Lady Michelle Obama, Jill Biden, and other congressional spouses at a Feeding America event at the Capitol Area Food Bank in Washington, DC.

* Note: For more information, to donate or to get more facts and figures you can go online to Feeding America

Wednesday night (October 14), I held my first Tools & Tactics for Creative Writers lecture, a condensed version of my six-week course.

As I'd mentioned in an earlier posting, I'd been apprehensive about the lecture because I couldn't fathom what the participants' level of creative writing would be.

I spent the morning nipping and tucking my presentation, which refused to print in "Notes" view. So I had to copy all the notes for the slides into a Word document, and hope for the best.

Afterwards, I went over to Waltham to teach my 2:00 class there, and hoped my lecture audience would be half as engaged as my Waltham students.

Back home, I collated everything and put the handouts into nicely colored, plastic pocket folders. My business cards arrived 30 minutes before I left home, so I slipped them into the folders, too.

At Minuteman High School, where I was to present, no one met me in the gigantic cafeteria area as planned. But someone with a walkie talkie managed to locate the adult education coordinator, who took me to the room where my class was to take place. The laptop worked, but the projector didn't--until the program director frowned over it and fiddled with it. Then suddenly, voila.

An even bigger voila: My husband Joe was standing in the door. He had just registered for the course moments earlier and showed up to offer me support. The man is truly my treasure.

The students arrived. I started my presentation. I didn't need my notes after all. (The group I forgot to mention--Chicks Who Write--my husband reminded me of.)

Two class members had already written novels (impressive). One wanted to write articles and essays (my specialty). One wanted to write a nonfiction book about science (my hobby is reading science books and articles). What could have been better? We had a blast.

I've seen one of the evaluations. It's glowing. I'm thrilled.

In my next post, I'll tell you what I covered in the presentation. I hope it will help you.

This past weekend, thousands flocked to Washington for the National Equality March where President Obama committed himself (although sometimes being quite vague) to pushing forward for equal rights for gay's and lesbian's across the U.S.

Although I was unable to attend (since I was a bridesmaid in one of my Simmons friend's wedding), I thought it important to call your attention to this timely issue.

Since pictures are worth a thousand words....here are some mighty powerful one's from the march for you all to think about.

(Note: Part 1 of this post appears below this entry. Blame the logic of the publishing software.)

Since I don't know anything about the audience for my Tools & Tactics for Creative Writers lecture next week, I thought I'd start out with a quotation that most writers could relate to.

It could be a fairly neutral "call  to arms," like Ben Franklin's: "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."

Or one that just adds to the conundrums writers face: "There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately no one knows what they are." That one's courtesy of Somerset Maugham.

Probably not a good idea to start with a downright discouraging one: "Millions find their voice; few find an audience." Robert McCrum, former Observer literary editor.

There's one I like to tell women audiences, who arrive at my classes looking simultaneously weary and frantic. It's by Linda M. Hasselstrom, author of Windbreaker: A Woman Rancher on the Northern Plains. She's referring to the question women ask her whenever she gives a reading.

"The first question is always, 'How do you find time to write?' I'm always very polite, because I know people have varied priorities and most of these women are wives, mothers, and/or grandmothers. But I want to shout: Don't have children, don't clean the house, tear the telephone off the wall, throw a brick through the TV. Say NO; say it again, all together now: NO! NO! NO!

I will NOT bring a hot dish to the Ladies' Aid Society meeting.
I will NOT pick up your child or your cleaning.
I will NOT serve on a committee, no matter how high minded its purpose."

Wonderful, huh?

I'm preparing to give a lecture next week. It's called Tools & Tactics for Creative Writers. I teach this because unless (and even if) someone's earned a Masters in Fine Arts creative writing, they won't know what steps to take to get their work published. Or, they'll be familiar with the steps only in the broadest and vaguest terms.

So, in the past year, I've done a huge amount of research not only about the steps writers need to take to get their short or long work published, but about the resources that exist to help them/us.

I'd considered naming my presentation "Tools & Tricks" for creative writers, because successful writers use tricks in their work. If the work is good, those tricks are invisible to us as readers--unless we're performing a literary analysis of the text, for some reason. (I did a lot of that as a literature major in college.)

As Somerset Maugham wrote, "Art conceals art, in writing as elsewhere. The skill of a skilled writer tricks you into thinking that there is no skill [involved]."

But I've got a dilemma. I have no idea who will be in my audience this time. I don't know what they know. As I prepare, I waver between advanced information so that the experienced writers won't get bored and introductory information so that the beginning writers won't get frustrated.

I like a lot more certainty than that, but there you have it.

I've been talking with people about egg donation for the past fifteen years or so, but this is the first time that I'm writing to prospective donors.  You see, most of the people I talk with are infertile couples who are thinking about becoming parents through egg donation.  But with a "Simmons audience, " I'm guessing there are more prospective "donors" than "recipients" reading this. Those of you who are are undergraduates or graduate students, have probably seen ads for egg donors. The ads tell you that this is an opportunity to do a "wonderful thing."  The ads also tell you you will be generously compensated.  The ads are inviting and they surely make egg donation seem like a "win-win" endeavor. Should you do it?

I teach at two senior centers. At the beginning of each course, I always ask what the students are reading.

The first time I did this, only one out of eight students responded that she read books. All the others looked sheepish, and admitted that the only thing they read was the daily newspaper. In teaching subsequent courses, I'm always amazed at how few of my would-be writers actually read anything.

In his memoir, On Writing, Stephen King relates an experience he says he's had more times than he cares to recall. After he's given a reading, someone approaches him and says,

"I've always wanted to write a book."

"What books have you read lately?" King asks.

The would-be author replies, "Oh, none. I don't have any time to read!"

King thinks, but doesn't have the heart to say, "Then you don't have time to write a book."

There are many, many reasons that those who want to write not just a book, but anything, must read, and read voraciously.

1) That is how you learn how it's done. It's how you internalize the words, rules, structure, strategies, tricks, and everything else that makes a piece of writing work.

2) You've got to ask yourself: If you don't read anyone else's writing, why expect them to read yours?

3) And of course, if you don't have time to read, you don't have time to write.

There's a huge world out there in books (and articles, essays, poems, and so on). Treat yourself to that world.

This afternoon, while relaxing with my girlfriend DC I came across this New York Times article, High Price of Being a Gay Couple. While I understood a long time ago it is a constant uphill battle for myself and other gay and lesbian couples, it never occured to me to think about, let alone add up all the costs and complexities they laid out in this article. From paying to file joint and seperate tax returns to social security to the countless legal costs, the price tag to be gay is quite high. And that is just the physical dollar amount, not to mention the other "costs" associated with being gay (like losing friends or family who disagree with your 'life choice,' not being granted equal rights, harassment, hatred, etc.). While I am one of the lucky ones whose family and friends have always been supportive, there are so many others who are not so lucky.

When I think about equal rights it seems silly to me that there are so many people out there who disagree with the concept. While the issue over gay marriage is quite controversial, it is a basic fact that the term marriage brings with it a host of rights that gay and lesbian couples just do not get. As we approach 2010 it seems ludicrous (to me) that it is such an issue. While I understand that everyone may not be as liberal minded as myself (something I am reminded often by my conservative republican brothers) or that many may not even know someone who is openly gay, I think it is terrible that gays and lesbians in most of the country are treated as second class citizens. Sure, living in huge metropolitan areas I am lucky--if I were to get married in a state that has legalized same-sex marriage, my marriage would be valid in both DC and NY (where my partner and I live)--if we walk down the street holding hands no one even notices, but I have to remember that that is not the norm.

While the topic, for many, will forever remain taboo I hope in the coming year(s) we can continue to see positive changes, both legally and socially. Recently there have been a host of articles published on the topic. Last weekends New York Times Magazine ran this as its cover article: Coming Out in Middle School--an article that I thought was very enlightening and gives me hope for the next generation. I see positive steps being taken across the country and can only hope, that with time and more education, others will begin to realize that we are not so different from them--we want to be married, have a family, and a normal life, just like our heterosexual counterparts. And in the end we will have equal rights for all. Until then, I will continue to be active in the LGBT community, be vocal about these issues that directly affect my life, and push others to think differently.