Ink Splash Youth Writing Workshop

Only four places left! Register now!

Connect with professional writers and editors for feedback on your writing before you submit it for publication. We'll offer writing tips every storyteller should know, writing prompts, and valuable feedback on your current masterpiece in the making. Light refreshments will be provided. The Writers' Dojo is a no-shoes facility, so feel free to bring comfy and inspiring slippers.

Saturday, February 2
Where: Writers' Dojo, 7518 N. Chicago Avenue, Portland, www.writersdojo.org
When: 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Who: Young writers aged 11 to 18
Bring: A finished story or personal narrative to workshop
Cost: Free, with a $5 suggested donation. All proceeds will benefit Community of Writers, which supports creativity in youth, www.communityofwriters.com.
RSVP required: www.indigoediting.com, limited to the first 15 registrants
For more info: amccart@indigoediting.com

New Release Spotlight: Born Standing Up

Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin

“In the audience was a street poet, dressed in rags and bearded like a yeti, who had a plastic machine gun that shot Ping-Pong balls, which he unloaded on performers he didn’t like.”

Steve Martin is now mostly known as an actor who makes funny if formulaic movies. But at one time he was the biggest stand-up comedian working, playing huge, sold-out arenas. In this memoir, Martin recounts those days; it was a time period he admits, up until recently, he had turned his back on.

Born into a middle-class household, Martin sought out comedy from the beginning, diligently listening to Bob Hope and Abbot and Costello on the radio. Although he had a good relationship with his mother, the one with his father was tumultuous at best. Many years later Martin discovered his father was bitter because he never had a chance to follow his acting ambitions.

As a kid Martin got a job selling maps at Disneyland. Other jobs around the park followed until he ended up working in a magic shop. He enjoyed doing tricks for customers and soon learned that a trick that went wrong evoked a better response from the audience; namely, laughter. Martin loved to perform and began acting at local theaters, all the while working on material for his own act.

Martin paints a vivid picture of all the dingy (or empty) dives he had to perform at in the early parts of his career, lugging his banjo and magic kit all over the country. Lonely and depressed, he was never quite sure he was going to make it.

Even knowing how successful he became, it’s easy to feel bad when he slumps back exhausted to another cheap motel room, or excited when he makes Johnny Carson laugh performing on The Tonight Show.

Although there’s an underlying melancholy throughout (especially when he talks about his father) the book is typical Martin: witty, intelligent, and at times hilarious.

“I ignored my stand-up career for twenty-five years,” Martin writes at the end of the first chapter, “but now…I view this time with surprising warmth. One can have, it turns out, an affection for the war years.”

And it’s also quite easy to have a real affection for this book.

Review by Tim Josephs, Indigo Editing, LLC

ISBN: 1-4165-5365-9
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Pub. Date: November 2007
Hardcover, $25.00

Portland Literary Events

Monday, January 28
The Oregon Writers Colony presents Deborah Dewit Marchant, author of Traveling Light: Chasing an Illuminated Life
Where: Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills
When: 7:00
Cost: Free
For more info: www.powells.com

Monday, January 28
Jim Walsh discusses his new book The Replacements: All Over but the Shouting
Where: Borders, 708 SW 3rd Ave
When: 7:00 pm
Cost: Free
For more info: www.bordersstores.com

Tuesday, January 29
Tim Harford talks about his new book The Logic of Life
Where: Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30 pm
Cost: Free
For more info: www.powells.com

Wednesday, January 30
Greg Olsen and Bill Cameron will read from their contributions to Killer Year: Stories to Die For…from the Hottest New Crime Writers
Where: Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills
When: 7:00 pm
Cost: Free
For more info: www.powells.com

Thursday, January 31
Jim Wallis, author of God’s Politics, discusses his new offering The Great Awakening
Where: Bagdad Theater
When: 7:00 pm
Cost: $25.95, which includes a copy of the book
For more info: Bagdad Theater

Friday, February 1
Robin Hobb talks about Renegade’s Magic, the conclusion to her Soldier Sun trilogy
Where: Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills
When: 7:00 pm
Cost: Free
For more info: www.powells.com

Friday, February 1
Controversial author Shelby Steele discusses his new book A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited about Obama and Why He Can’t Win
Where: Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30
Cost: Free
For more info: www.powells.com

This week the Portland Fiction Project continues it’s “Zodiac Thriller” theme with “snake” inspired stories. Slither over to www.portlandfiction.net for some excellent short fiction.

New Release Spotlight: The Stylist

The Stylist by Cai Emmons

Hayden is a hair stylist in Hoboken, NY. Fitted with too much responsibility as a young girl, her mother’s sudden death leaves Hayden struggling to reconcile grief, loss, blame, and guilt. She cuts ties with her family and drops out of classes at Harvard to focus on hair and its power to create an identity for the wearer.

When criticized by her father for her choice of career and its shallow unimportance, Hayden explains, “I help people transform themselves. I help women to be who they want to be.”

The act of deconstruction and then reclamation of one’s identity is the overarching theme. For Hayden, it takes the form of decisively cutting ties to education, wealth, and family. She moves to a dilapidated apartment in humble Hoboken where she finds contentment transforming others through hair and knowing that her life is her own.

For Hayden’s friend and fellow hair stylist, Emory, the choice lies in surgery and gender. Wrestling with his sense of self and its physical manifestation, Emory’s search for identity affords the book insightful dialogue and complements Hayden’s self-discovery. Their friendship enables and empowers each to become more fully and honestly whole.

Cai Emmons creates dynamic characters that mold and change without compromising their integrity. Her attention to detail drives the story forward and keeps the reader engaged. Emmons’s experience as a screenwriter and playwright is evident in the way she seems to set the stage, introduce the actors and then share with the reader as the story unfolds.

An unpredictable tale of finding and forming identity, The Stylist and its characters linger after the last page.

Review by Adriel Gorsuch, Indigo Editing, LLC

ISBN: 978-0060898953
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Pub. Date: October 2007
Paperback, $13.95

Portland Literary Events

Monday, January 21
Michael Shermer discusses his new book The Mind of the Market
Where: Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30 pm
Cost: Free
For more info: www.powells.com

Tuesday, January 22
Friends of William Stafford celebrate the birth of the former poet laureate
Where: Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Hwy
When: 7:30 pm
Cost: Free
For more info: www.annieblooms.com

Tuesday, January 22
Gina Daggett and Kathy Belge, the authors of Curve magazine's "Lipstick and Dipstick" column, talk about their new book Lipstick and Dipstick’s Essential Guide to Lesbian Relationships
Where: Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30 pm
Cost: Free
For more info: www.powells.com

Wednesday, January 23
Rafe Esquith discusses his new book Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire
Where: Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills
When: 7:30 pm
Cost: Free
For more info: www.powells.com

Thursday, January 24
Kazia Jankowski discusses the Moon Peru Handbook, an insider’s view of Peru
Where: Twenty-Third Avenue Books, 1015 NW 23rd Ave
When: 7:00 pm
Cost: Free
For more info: www.23rdavebooks.com

Thursday, January 24
Kirby Larson talks about his new book Hattie Big Sky
Where: Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills
When: 7:00
Cost: Free
For more info: www.powells.com

Friday, January 25
George and Roberta Poinar, the authors whose research inspired Jurassic Park, discuss their new book What Bugged the Dinosaurs?
Where: Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside
When: 7:30 pm
Cost: Free
For more info: www.powells.com

Saturday, January 26
Libba Bray talks about The Sweetest Far Thing, the final volume in a series that began with A Great and Terrible Beauty
Where: Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills
When: 2:00
Cost: Free
For more info: www.powells.com

This week the Portland Fiction Project begins a new "Zodiac Thriller" theme with “monkey” inspired stories. Quit monkeying around and check out www.portlandfiction.net for some great short fiction.