The Reading Vacation

 Books are the things you lose yourself into.

I had a bad day during which  everything electronic was sparking, failing and frustrating (I’m looking at you iTunes and AT &T). Instead of taking it out on nearby humans, I  quit everything and read a whole book.

You have heard, often enough, that writers read.  Authors should read everything.  We should read as if our lives depended on it.  We should read as if we are  still in school and reading is a class requirement, necessary for our  job, something that we must do.  Our response, reasonably enough, is to resist those requirements and go to the movies.  Because the popcorn is better there.

What is forgotten during  all these admonishments is the shear joy of reading.  If you are  a reader,  then you know what it is to lose yourself in a book.  That day I picked up a book thinking okay fine, I can’t get on line, I can’t watch TV, it’s too cold to hike, I’ll just sit here and read.

It was  like taking a vacation.  As I dove into the novel, not only were my troubles temporarily gone, so was my whole being.  Reading launches you into  exotic places, allows you to experience the world through someone else’s eyes, passions and ideas.  It allows you to glance  into the future or experience first hand what happened in the past. And for hours, you are not in your house or your car or your in-laws.  You are on an exotic adventure.

Reading in this context is like getting away with something.  No one knows where you’ve been, what you’ve learned. No one can tell.  A good book gives you conspiracy and a shared experience: you and the author, a communication that transcends both space and time.

Don’t mind me, I’ve been far away.

I am migrating this blog to be part of NewbieWriters.com  Until we have complete lift off, both blogs will publish simultaneously.  Sorry Panda.

You are welcome to re-post this article in your own blog or newsletter – please include this entire statement, “Catharine Bramkamp is a Writing Coach and podcaster, find out if you’re ready to go from  Newbie to Known visit www.yourbookstartshere.com or bramkamp@yahoo.com for a complimentary consultation.”

Dr. Burack Featured at Day of the Book

Day of the Book – April 20, 2013

Day of the Book

                                   JFKU 100 Ellinwood Way, Pleasant Hill, CA

                       Time: 10-4

The Art of Spiritual Writing   Charles Burack, Ph.D.

Dr. Burack will discuss some of the literary techniques that writers and poets use when portraying spiritual experiences. He will also lead some experiential exercises that will help participants reflect on and write about their own sacred experiences.

Charles Burack, Ph.D., is an award-winning poet, scholar and teacher as well as a widely published writer.  Author of the literary study D. H. Lawrence’s Language of Sacred Experience, and the poetry collection Songs to My Beloved. 

Admission

$35 with lunch

Faculty, staff, alumnae:  $25

Students: $20

Morning events open to the public 10-12

Panel discussion (lunch) 12-1

Literary salon 2-4

For early reservations contact: Catharine at bramkamp@yahoo.com

Tanya Egan Gibson at Day of the Book

Day of the Book – April 20, 2013

Day of the Book

                                   JFKU 100 Ellinwood Way, Pleasant Hill, CA

                       Time: 10-4

Tanya is awesome.  I was so impressed with how much time and energy she gave to the participants at the SF Writer’s Conference.  She has graciously agreed to do the same for us during Day of the Book!

Building a Vibrant Fictional World  – Tanya Egan Gibson

How do you create a fictional world that is unique yet believable, exciting yet grounded? Learn the various ways you can get the details of places right (even without a travel budget), how to make your world exciting, and how to use your world to strengthen both plot and characterization.

Tanya Egan Gibson is the author of the novel How To Buy a Love of Reading (Dutton – 2009), and a freelance editor, consultant, and writing teacher. She has written for such magazines as The Writer, Parents, and Writer’s Digest, which will publish her latest article, “10 Things Your Freelance Editor Hasn’t Told You–But Should” in its May/June 2013 issue.

Admission

$35 with lunch

Faculty, staff, alumnae:  $25

Students: $20

Morning events open to the public 10-12

Panel discussion (lunch) 12-1

Literary salon 2-4

For early reservations contact: Catharine at bramkamp@yahoo.com

Fiction as Emotional Autobiography

Day of the Book – April 20, 2013

Day of the Book

                                   JFKU 100 Ellinwood Way, Pleasant Hill, CA

                       Time: 10-4

Sounds interesting?  Come and hear Elizabeth Rosner speak during Day of the Book!

Inheriting Identity: Fiction as Emotional Autobiography.   Elizabeth Rosner

Sometimes a novelist’s subject matter isn’t chosen so much as discovered from within.  In this talk, I’ll share my process of finding — and fictionalizing — the complicated and dramatic material inside my family’s history.

Novelist, poet and essayist Elizabeth Rosner is the author of THE SPEED OF LIGHT and BLUE NUDE.  Her prize-winning and national best-selling works of fiction address themes of inherited grief and the redemptive power of storytelling.  Her newest novel ELECTRIC CITY will be published by Counterpoint Press in 2014.

Admission

$35 with lunch

Faculty, staff, alumnae:  $25

Students: $20

Morning events open to the public 10-12

Panel discussion (lunch) 12-1

Literary salon 2-4

For early reservations contact: Catharine at bramkamp@yahoo.com

Writing as Personal Expression (Day of the Book)

Day of the Book – April 20, 2013

Day of the Book

                                   JFKU 100 Ellinwood Way, Pleasant Hill, CA

                       Time: 10-4

Writing and Self-Publishing as Personal Expressions of Liberation and Autonomy.   – K. Tutashinda

During Day of the Book, K Tutashinda focuses on how the Black Arts, Black Power, and Environmental Movements have served as a foundation for the author to use writing and self-publishing as participatory outlets.

K. Tutashinda,D.C., is a Chiropractic Physician, teacher, activist/consultant, and independent scholar. He teaches English in the Mills Upward Bound program and worked with UC Berkeley’s program for twenty-eight years. The author of five books, he owns Imhotep Chiropractic & Wellness Center in Berkeley,CA. and has been in practice since 1989.

Admission

$35 with lunch

Faculty, staff, alumnae:  $25

Students: $20

Morning events open to the public 10-12

Panel discussion (lunch) 12-1

Literary salon 2-4

For early reservations contact: Catharine at bramkamp@yahoo.com

Michael Somers featured at Day of the Book

Day of the Book – April 20, 2013

Day of the Book

                                   JFKU 100 Ellinwood Way, Pleasant Hill, CA

                       Time: 10-4

GALACTIC EXODUS: A Science Fiction Documentary or History of the Future  – Michael Somers

Focusing on the work: Galactic Exodus, we will explore the meaning of science fiction, how does science fiction  express our own socio-political arrangements, intercultural relations, the interplay of freedom and equality.

Michael Somers  is a college professor teaching  A Condensed History of Critical Ideas from a Cosmological Perspective  and authored an award winning, post-apocalyptic science-fiction epic: GALACTIC EXODUS: Counterdance of the Cybergods and Polylogue with Mythokrates).

Admission

$35 with lunch

Faculty, staff, alumnae:  $25

Students: $20

Morning events open to the public 10-12

Panel discussion (lunch) 12-1

Literary salon 2-4

For early reservations contact: Catharine at bramkamp@yahoo.com

Jump from a Plane, Speak at Day of the Book

Day of the Book – April 20, 2013

Day of the Book

                                   JFKU 100 Ellinwood Way, Pleasant Hill, CA

                       Time: 10-4

Jeane Slone has jumped from airplanes, flown upside down and bravely appeared on Newbie Writers Podcast. There is very little she won’t do in the service of her books!

Women in the Air – Jeane Slone

Did you know women flew as spies and bomber pilots in WWII?  Jeane will present the Women Airforce Service Pilots. She will discuss: training, qualifications, how they tried to receive military benefits, 38 WASPs died and never went into combat, the Soviet Night Witches, why black women pilots were not accepted in the program, the WASPs received the gold medal 60 years later.

Jeane Slone is the past Vice President and present board member of the California Redwood Writer’s Club, a member of the Healdsburg Literary Guild, Military Writer’s Society of America, and the Pacific Coast Air Museum. She is a tutor for the Library Literary Program.

Admission

$35 with lunch

Faculty, staff, alumnae:  $25

Students: $20

Morning events open to the public 10-12

Panel discussion (lunch) 12-1

Literary salon 2-4

For early reservations contact: Catharine at bramkamp@yahoo.com

Memoir Expert Speaks at Day of the Book

Day of the Book – April 20, 2013

Day of the Book

                                   JFKU 100 Ellinwood Way, Pleasant Hill, CA

                       Time: 10-4

Linda Joy Meyers is one of the premiere experts on memoir, and always delivers great information with heart. I am honored she is speaking for our event.

What’s Your Story? The Heart and Craft of Memoir Writing – Linda Joy Meyers

You have a story you’ve been meaning to tell, and you want to find a way to get started. Where to start is the biggest question memoir writers ask.

Linda Joy Myers, President of the National Association of Memoir Writers, & Co-President of the Women’s National Book Association, SF, is the author of Don’t Call Me Mother—A Daughter’s Journey from Abandonment to Forgiveness; The Power of Memoir—How to Write Your Healing Story, and a new workbook The Journey of Memoir: The Three Stages of Memoir Writing to be released in February, 2013.

Admission

$35 with lunch

Faculty, staff, alumnae:  $25

Students: $20

Morning events open to the public 10-12

Panel discussion (lunch) 12-1

Literary salon 2-4

For early reservations contact: Catharine at bramkamp@yahoo.com

Day of the Book Featuring, well, Me

Day of the Book – April 20, 2013

JFKU 100 Ellinwood Way, Pleasant Hill, CA

Time: 10-4

One of the advantages of creating a writers conference is that I get to speak.

Write your Book Now –  Catharine Bramkamp

You have a marvelous idea, you have the tools, but just how do you get started?  In this hands on workshop you will discover how to tap into your inner novelist or even tap into material  you have to create the book you want.

Catharine Bramkamp is a successful writing coach, author and podcaster. She is a dynamic speaker covering subjects as diverse as NaNoNowWhat?  to the Evolution of Language to working through writing blocks.   She works with clients creating both fictional works (three clients have published four books) and non-fiction (one client has published two books).

Admission

$35 with lunch

Faculty, staff, alumnae:  $25

Students: $20

Morning events open to the public 10-12

Panel discussion (lunch) 12-1

Literary salon 2-4

Of course there will be books for sale!

For early reservations contact: Catharine at bramkamp@yahoo.com

Day of the Book

 

Beth Barany speaks at Day of the Book

Day of the Book

Day of the Book

April 20, 2013

JFKU 100 Ellinwood Way, Pleasant Hill, CA

Time: 10-4

My friend Beth is a fabulous speaker and is so willing to share everything she knows!  Come and hear her speak at Day of the Book:

WHAT IS YOUR BIG IDEA? –   Beth Barany

Many people have something to say, a big message they want to share with the world. But they don’t know how to get it out of their head and onto the page. In this talk, by writing coach and novelist, Beth Barany, she’ll take you through the simple, yet powerful steps to get your powerful message into a book.

Award-winning novelist, Beth Barany is a creativity coach for writers, helping them complete their books, and get them into the hands of their readers. Her latest book for writers is Twitter for Authors: Social Media Book Marketing Strategies for Shy Writers.

 Admission

$35 with lunch

Faculty, staff, alumnae:  $25

Students: $20

Morning events open to the public 10-12

Panel discussion (lunch) 12-1

Literary salon 2-4

More on Beth

For early reservations contact: Catharine at bramkamp@yahoo.com