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Too Hot, Too Cold, Rarely Just RightNonfictionNick O’Connell
N o one said it was going to be easy. Some books sell quickly, but most require a huge amount of time and effort to win final acceptance. Authors have to show drive, perseverance and imagination to get their work into print.My novel, The Storms of Denali, took five years to place. Two agents pitched it to some 30 publishers without getting a contract. Book publishers are a lot like The Three Bears: the porridge is too hot or too cold--rarely just right. I read all the rejection letters, especially those which included a critique, kept revising and finally placed the book with The University of Alaska Press, which released the novel this summer. An excerpt from the novel appears in this issue of The Writer's Workshop Review, along with an interview with me by Scott Driscoll. I hope you enjoy it; please let me know what you think! Perseverance also paid off for Patricia Wells. Today, Wells is a world famous food writer and chef with a wonderful house, Chanteduc, in Vaison la Romaine, Provence but it wasn’t always this way. When she first arrived in Paris in 1980 as a reporter for the International Herald-Tribune, no one thought she could make a living as a food writer. Wells proved them wrong. We are delighted to publish the first chapter of her memoir, We’ve Always Had Paris…and Provence, co-written with her husband Walter, the former executive editor of the International Herald-Tribune. Anyone who has enjoyed Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast will devour this sumptuous story. This issue also features "Correct Cakes," Rick Bailey’s essay highlighting the ethical agonies of the contemporary foodie (Organic? Local? Biodynamic? Low carbon?); “The Gift of a Stranger's Touch,” Carolyn Hubbard's remarkable story of discovery and self-transformation through travel; Janet Yoder’s essay, “The 10 Things I learned from Vi Hilbert,” revealing epiphanies occur just as readily close to home as on foreign shores. I'd like to thank the following people for their help with this issue: all the writers who contributed to it; Patricia and Walter Wells for permission to use an excerpt from We’ve Always Had Paris…and Provence, Managing Editor Kathleen Glassburn, Irene Wanner, and Scott Driscoll for careful reading and editing of manuscripts. We hope you enjoy the seventh issue of The Writer's Workshop Review. Please let us know what you think, and if you have a story that might work for us, please send it. We read all year and welcome submissions at any time. We look forward to hearing from you! Finally, there is still room in the spring Travel, Food and Wine Writing Class in Tuscany:
The landscape of Tuscany soothes the soul.
Travel, Food and Wine Writing Class in Tuscany -
May 19 - 25 in Montalcino, Italy-
Travel writing, Food writing and Wine writing are some of the most appealing genres of nonfiction, calling on all of an author's skills-dramatic scenes, character sketches, concrete detail, point of view, scene by scene construction-to compose compelling, engaging travel narratives. This writing course will emphasize how to use dramatic outlines in both fictional and nonfictional travel stories. This six-day intensive travel writing class will introduce you to essential techniques of travel, food and wine writing and give you expert, insider advice about how to submit and publish finished travel stories. The course will feature the five best ways of opening a story.
In addition to learning these skills, you'll dine at outstanding restaurants, visit some of the world's best wineries, and explore fascinating historic sights. You'll enjoy exclusive behind-the-scenes tours unavailable to the general public. Best of all, you'll receive up-to-date story ideas from local industry experts that you can turn into finished travel, food and wine stories by the end of the course and submit to newspapers and magazines for publication.
The six-day travel writing class (May 19 - 25) will take place in Montalcino, Italy, one of the most appealing hilltowns in Tuscany, and a center of the region's cultural and epicurian life since ancient times. The cost will be $2,600, which includes accommodations and most meals. (Single supplement, $500 per person) Plane fare, transit to and from Montalcino and some meals extra (see itinerary via link below).
To enroll, please send me a non-refundable deposit of $800 to 201 Newell St., Seattle, WA 98109. Enrollment is limited to 10.
For more information, contact me at nick@thewritersworkshop.net, 206-284-7121, or take a look at my website: http://www.thewritersworkshop.net/travel.htm.
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