Article on editors

If you've ever been mystified by the editorial process or even nervous about sending your work to an editor, "Let us now praise editors" is a great article to read. Written by an editor-gone-writer, the article not only praises editors (thank you!) but also clarifies the purpose of the editorial process--to make the writing stronger. Editors really aren't scary, and this article proves it. Take a look at Salon.com.

Local Events of the Week

Wednesday, July 25
Matthew Pearl—author of The Dante Club—presents his lastest novel, The Poe Shadow
Where: Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton
When: 7:00 p.m.
Cost: Free

Wednesday, July 25
Local writer, Erin Ergenbright, reads from The Ex-Boyfriend Cookbook
Where: The Press Club, 2621 SE Clinton St
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $5 suggested donation

Wednesday, July 25
Two local poets read: Judith H. Montgomery and Kate Gray
Where: Northwest Library, 2300 NW Thurman St.
When: 7:00 p.m.
Cost: Free

Saturday, July 28
Eva Rutland will sign copies of her memoir, When We Were Colored, A Mother's Story
Where: Talking Drum Bookstore, 446 NE Killingsworth St.
When: 4:00 p.m.
Cost: Free

Saturday, July 28
Award-winning poet and PSU Professor Primus St. John will read work
Where: Collins Gallery, Central Library, 801 SW 10th Ave.
When: 2:00 p.m.
Cost: Free

Sunday, July 29
Editor Justin Taylor presents The Apocalypse Reader
Where: Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free

Monday, July 30
Lisa See presents her historical novel, Peony in Love
Where: Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton
When: 7:00 p.m.
Cost: Free

Tuesday, July 31
Jasper Fforde presents Thursday Next: First Among Sequels
Where: Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton
When: 7:00 p.m.
Cost: Free

The New Release We've All Been Waiting for...

That's right! Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.

This latest edition contains almost 100 new entries, including the ever-popular ginormous and fabulous Bollywood. To see more examples of newly indoctrinated words (by Merriam-Webster, at any rate) or learn more about their word-recognition process, visit Merriam-Webster OnLine.

BEA Spotlight: Discover Wellness

Discover Wellness: How Staying Healthy Can Make You Rich, by Dr. Bob Hoffman and Dr. Jason A. Deitch

Discover Wellness had a strong presence at BookExpo America this year. Readers lined up to receive their signed copies and to chat with Dr. Hoffman.

Doctors Hoffman and Deitch tackle a sensitive topic in Discover Wellness—health care. They argue that people’s individual wellness choices not only affect their own budgets, but all of America’s. The high numbers of unwell people in America are forcing the rest of us, our employers, and our government to pay exorbitant prices for health care benefits.

The first half of the book breaks down seven of the most common illness issues Americans face, analyzing their causes, impacts, and financial effects in great detail—to the point of reiterating common knowledge. The second half focuses on steps Americans can take to improve their wellness, including eating right, exercising, and reducing stress. The doctors’ mantra: “we need more people who are less sick.” They theorize that this will bring health care costs down while bringing national wellness statistics up.

While this concept is intriguing, it’s a bit optimistic. Illness doesn’t happen solely as a result of dietary or exercise choices. And while the authors acknowledge this, their math does not. The book is filled with statistics skewed to support their argument, averaged health care costs across the country to figure the money each person would save if health care costs disappeared—not exactly an accurate representation on who is spending, or saving, what on health care costs. Their advice for achieving wellness is to surround ourselves with a “Board of Directors” of eleven health care professionals. But they neglect to point out the costs involved in hiring nearly a dozen health care professionals. The redeeming trait of Discover Wellness is an extensive section on exercises busy people can do at their desks and a list of recommended products to help to improve wellness. However, while the doctors take extra time to explain common knowledge about the effects of stress, they skimp on the information about some of these products—such as the “special patented cotton bedsheet” that channels the earth’s electrons to your body’s benefit. While Discover Wellness might complement corporate health care seminars, it’s not the fountain of knowledge and wealth it claims to be. Individuals concerned about their health and finances should probably just remember their home ec teachers’ advice: walk when you could drive, eat an apple when you could eat an apple fritter, and save when you could spend.

Review by Ali McCart, Indigo Editing, LLC

Local Events

Friday, July 13
Gabe Kaplan
Where: Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free

Sunday, July 15
Andrew Ferguson Presents Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America
Where: Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free

Sunday, July 15
Christina Henry de Tessan & Lara Triback
Where: Powell's on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free

Sunday, July 15
Biodiesel America Author Joshua Tickell
Where: Powell's Technical Books, 33 NW Park Ave
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free

Monday, July 16
The Back Room Farwell to Creator Matthew Stadler
Where: Podkrepa Hall, 2116 N Killingsworth St.
When: 6:30 p.m.
Cost: $8, $16 with a copy of The Back Room Anthology

Monday, July 16
Robin Romm Presents Mother Garden
Where: Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free

New Release Spotlight: The Life Room

The Life Room, by Jill Bialosky

Named for the classroom in which models sit for student artists, in which there is “a range of boxes and pedestals, ropes and poles, all of which can be used to extend your range of poses,” The Life Room examines thirty-eight-year-old Eleanor Cahn’s own contortions to express her true self as both passionate lover and academic and responsible and stable wife and mother.

Jill Bialosky is multi-talented in the world of the written word, editing for W. W. Norton, publishing two books of poetry, and completing this her second novel. Her prowess as a poet is evident in The Life Room. As with the snap of a stanza’s final line, her paragraphs often end with a lyrical, powerful thump to the heart and mind. On Eleanor’s mother’s feelings toward her runaway husband: “Elizabeth was strong and determined. Her terrible forgiveness had filled the rooms of Eleanor’s childhood.” And on Eleanor trying to quiet her racing mind: “Eleanor stopped and sat on a street bench in front of a church. She sat still in one place, looked at the intricate building, at its masonry, its magnificence, to quiet the unrest.” Bialosky also pays attention to senses often forgotten by the fiction writer, but perhaps not the poet. In one paragraph, the reader hears “the patter of his bare feet on the wood” and tastes, intriguingly, that “time had slowed down to just a morsel.”

For all of these intimate hooks, the characters remain at a distance from the reader, and for a novel tied up in internal struggles, that’s problematic. Stephen, William, Adam, and Michael, the loves of Eleanor’s life, speak only in riddles or philosophy, or short emotionless statements. While this explains their own walled-off natures and how Eleanor has struggled to connect with anyone, it also keeps the reader at bay. There was some respite in the second of the book’s four parts, which is an excerpt from Eleanor’s diary. Third-person narration can make as much of a connection to the reader as first-person journaling can, but in this case, one-fourth of the novel shined above the rest.

Cahn is a professor of literature, and comes to realize she is determined to create a life story that ends differently than the focus of her academic research, Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. In a world that needs as many untraditional heroines as it can get, that’s a worthwhile enough reason to read this book.

Review by Kristin Thiel, Indigo Editing, LLC

Tin House Seminar Sessions

Here are some great seminars and panels at Reed College to check out:

Monday, July 9

2:00 p.m. The Agent Game: Panel with Sarah Burnes, Betsy Lerner, Maria Massie, Jim Rutman, and Amy Williams
3:00 p.m. The Artful Edit: Panel with Judy Clain, Sarah Burnes, and Abigail Thomas. Moderator: Susan Bell
4:00 p.m. From Not to Hot Getting First Books Off the Ground: Panel with Josh Goldfaden, Mary Otis, and Michele Matheson. Moderator: Lee Montgomery

Tuesday, July 10

2:00 p.m. Editing Ourselves with Susan Bell: What a bitch of a thing prose is! --Flaubert

3:00 p.m. Show vs. Tell with Aimee Bender: Deconstructing the Old Adage

Wednesday, July 11

2:00 p.m. Who Gets to Write About What? The Question Of Authority: Panel with Dorothy Allison, Yiyun Li, and Karen Shepard. Moderator: Michelle Wildgen
3:00 p.m. Mastery of the Unspoken with Jim Shepard: Constructing Subtext through Context

Thursday, July 12th, 2007

2:00 p.m. Creating a World and Living by its Rules: Panel with Charles Baxter, Lee Montgomery, Colson Whitehead. Moderator: Jonathon Raymond

3:00 p.m. Concision without Compromise with Whitney Otto: Small Packages, Big Rewards
3:00 p.m. A Conversation with Poet D. A. Powell, Hosted by Brenda Shaughnessy

Friday, July 13th, 2007

2:00 p.m. Writing from Experience with Stephen Elliott: The Freedom of Sticking to the Facts

3:00 p.m. Hard-Up for a Hard-On with Steve Almond: The Ins and Outs of Writing Sex

Saturday, July 14th, 2007

2:00 p.m. Getting to the Heart of the Matter (and Making it Worse) with Charles D'Ambrosio: The Essential Nature of Conflict

3:00 p.m. The Period with Marie Howe: Understanding the Elusive Power of the Sentence

For complete descriptions and more information, click here.
All readings to be held in Cerf Amphitheater on Reed College Campus.
Door charge to readings is $5. *Free event

Local Events

Thursday, July 5
Elizabeth Haydon presents The Thief Queen's Daughter
Where: Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.
When: 7:00 p.m.
Cost: Free

Friday, July 6
Tin House New Voices: Josh Goldfaden, Michele Matheson, and Mary Otis
(see June 11 New Release Spotlight: Human Resources for review of Josh Goldfaden's book)
Where: Powell's City of Books on Burnside, 1005 W Burnside St.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free

Monday, July 8
Pia Ehrhardt and Michelle Wildgen
Where: Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free

Monday, July 8
Broken Word: The Alberta Street Anthology Volume 2
Where: Powell's on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free

Tuesday, July 9
Nanci Hamilton Presents Portland's Multnomah Village
Where: Annie Bloom's Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free

Tuesday, July 9
Carol Goodman Presents The Sonnet Lover
Where: Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free

Tuesday, July 9
Pacific Northwest: The Ultimate Winery Guide
Where: Powell's Book at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.
When: 7:00 p.m.
Cost: Free

Declaration Editing's Poetry Contest Winners

Congratulations to the winners of Declaration Editing's
Four and Twenty Short Form Poetry Contest:

Melancholy
by Nikole Williams

Bridge Street Rain
by Doug Huston

Barefoot, Age 2
by Constance Culver

Swimming
by Karen Brattain

Hunger Pangs
by Rachael Cate

Bread Man
by Tim Harnett

The Gods Live In The Classics
by Patrick Haas

Pulling A Doctor Strange
by Mattie Cagle

The winning poems can be read online at http://www.decedit.com/

New Release Spotlight: Ironside: A Modern Faery’s Tale

Ironside: A Modern Faery’s Tale By Holly Black

Ironside: A Modern Faery’s Tale lives up to the hype of its title. It is a modernized tale of mystical creatures, with a punked-out fairy as the main character and with a thorough mixing of today’s teen culture with the mythology of mythical creatures. Holly Black takes familiar fairy tale plotlines—a quest to obtain a love, a power struggle between two kingdoms, a happy ending—and creates a modern day twist, making this faery’s tale one that today’s teens can relate to.

The kingdoms of the Seelies and the Unseelies are eternally in conflict. Roiben, a faery once of the Seelie court becomes the king of the Unseelies. Kaye, Roiben’s only true friend, declares her love on the eve of his coronation. To prove her love, she is sent on an impossible quest, banished from the Unseelie court until it is complete. While she contemplates her quest, she finds that Roiben and the queen of the Seelie court are at battle again and that Roiben intends to follow a plan that will only cause him harm. Throw into the mix that Kaye must reveal to her human family that she is not actually their human child, but a faery playing the part, and the whole plot becomes a complicated, angst-filled mess, just as it should be in any realistic young adult novel.

Holly Black uses exquisite detail to create her characters and to mix the world of reality with the fantastical. She has a firm grasp on the language of the teenage world and give her characters realistic voices that will resonate with today’s teens. Though aspects of her books are fantastical and larger than life, she captures the true hearts of the audience by basing her story in events that today’s teenager may actually face—love lost, unsure identity, fitting into the real world and into one’s own family, and the battle of what is considered bad and what is considered good that wages in each teenager’s life today.

Review by Katrina Hill, Indigo Editing LLC

Ink Splash

Ink Splash
Writing Workshop for Youths
Tuesdays, July 17 through August 21, 2:30–5:00 p.m.



We know you've been writing stories, and we know you aspire to be Portland's next great writer. We also know feedback opportunities are limited for young writers. Let us help you turn your compilation of characters, narration, and adventures into the masterpiece you know it can be. This six-session writing workshop will focus on mastering a different literary device each week while dedicating time for new writing as well as for constructive feedback on existing pieces.

For writers aged 12 to 15.

Instructors: Ali McCart and Kristin Thiel of Indigo Editing, LLC
*Cost is $375 and includes class materials and light refreshments. Need-based scholarship assistance is available.
Register for the class and apply for scholarship assistance at www.indigoediting.com/Classes. Class size limit of 10.

Classes will be held at Ink & Paper Group, LLC, 1825 SE 7th Ave., Portland, OR 97214.

Participant comments from our first workshop:
"I got good advice, and it was a very positive atmosphere with individual attention."
"It was nice to have feedback and to be able to write."