BizArt 5th Annual Conference!

The Business of Being an Artist for Written, Visual, Performing and Media Artists!

BizArt 2-Day Conference

Friday and Saturday March, 26 & 27

8am – 5pm

In Brier Hall, at Edmonds Community College, Edmonds, WA

BizArt is designed to help artists develop the business acumen they need to pursue their career dreams. Artists in all disciplines, musicians, dancers, designers, photographers, actors, sculptors, painters - from students to professional artists - have much to gain in this artist friendly, business based, learning environment.

Registration Cost *Please register by Friday, March 19th

$99 Pre-Registration participants

$59 Currently Enrolled College Students

$129 Registrations at the Door

Fee includes two full days of workshops and presentation, along with a breakfast and lunch each day.

BizArt’s Schedule for Friday and Saturday has been posted to the webpage but is subject to change.  For more information please go to BizArtinfo.com.

Keynote Speaker  Skye Burn

Executive Director – Flow Project

“Allowing the Wisdom of Art to Change the World”

The Flow Project brings the wisdom of art to leaders by providing art-based principles and practices they can apply in creating businesses, organizations, and communities.

The MFA program run through the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts has a sister. Her name is the Whidbey Island Writers’ Association and is renowned in the Pacific Northwest for hosting the Whidbey Writers’ Workshop, one of the best writers’ conferences in the country.

Sadly, with our current economy, the conference had to be canceled for 2010.

The good news is why it was canceled: the organization has wisely decided to raise monies up front, have them “in the bank,” before the conference is mounted again. So 2010 is going to be a year full of fund raising events and wonderful, educational, classes.

How can you be involved? Easy! Click here to learn a bit more about the fund raising and how YOU can support the arts in our beloved Pacific Northwest.

Also for 2010, there are a multitude of one-day workshops being offered under the heading of Whidbey Island Writers Conference Workshop Series – stop by and check them out! There is a wonderful variety of topics offered by talented, published authors as well as specialists – like Tom Masters on blogging – and a return of one of the favorite aspects of the traditional conference: the chat house series. Truly incredible offerings.

Additionally, Whidbey Island Writers’ Association (WIWA) also offers some creative and challenging courses, from poetry to memoirs – taught by a truly gifted group, and from authors to agents – like Andrea Hurst of Andrea Hurst & Associates. Definitely worth your time to investigate the possibilities.

Some of us hope for inspiration – some of us are out making it happen every single day.

Sunset on Whidbey Island

Rocker missing its occupant - Smoky Mountains

2010 has not been kind to the literary world – we’ve lost luminary JD Salinger, poet extraordinaire Lucille Clifton, and two of the most popular mystery writers to ever dance their pen across a page – Robert Parker and Dick Francis.

I’ve mourned as eulogies have riddled the TV and radio waves, printed pages, and cyberspace. Many of my friends have written about one, or more, of these writers in their blogs and I shared their grief, finding camaraderie with others suffering the same punch to the gut.

Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye changed the landscape of fiction forever. Holden Caulfield, narrator with a casual, irreverent, tone, takes his readers on an adolescent ride. Written in 1951, it remains a staple for most high school reading lists – one students almost inhale.

Lucille Clifton’s poetry – so accessible! – is to be savored. If you haven’t had an opportunity to enjoy her work, check out this video clip of her reading “won’t you celebrate with me.”

Dick Francis, with his jockey  background took us into the world of horses as never done before. I picked up my first Francis novel when my son was taking hunter/jump riding lessons. After that first one, I scoured the shelves for older publications and followed his publication history with enthusiasm.

But my reader’s heart is truly shaken at the passing of Robert Parker. Yes, most people know him as the creator of the Spenser novels (remember the TV series with Robert Urich?) – and my pure, lover-of-all-things- mystery heart relished these compact jewels. He created the quintessential “buddy” story – his best scenes, in my opinion, were the ones with the Boston PI Spenser and the street-smart, colorful Hawk (played by Avery Brooks in the TV series) – a favorite quote describing Hawk is, “He’s big, he’s black and he’s mean.” That leaves off smart.

As a writer, I strive to create dialogue as snappy and pace-flying as Parker. He is, I’m sorry, was, the master of flying dialogue.

But to sign off here without mentioning Parker’s other works is a disservice. Check out some of his meatier texts – like All Our Yesterdays. The man could write!

So it is with a sad heart at the passing of these great writers that I post today – but I am celebrating and rejoicing in their lives. In their art. In their words.

Today’s post is going to be very short – I am currently mired in thesis work. My deadline of March 1^st looms large in front of me; so much so, I almost skipped today’s post. But I realized there is something I wanted to write about…

Recently, I had a conversation with a writer friend – I asked if she was attending an author reading at a local bookstore. She said no, her favorite television show was on that night.

WHAT?!

With the publishing climate, changing, it seems, almost second by second and many of us uncertain as to the future of publication, can any of us afford not to support fellow writers? There are many ways to support – giving reviews and posting them, giving interviews and posting them are just a few ways.

One of the easiest is to attend an author reading. And author readings abound! Just a quick search showed me that in my area, the independent book store Third Place Books is having eleven author events before the end of the month. My public library is offering not only author readings, but writer workshops!

If any of us is fortunate enough to have a book published, we’re all going to want a full house when we have our readings and events.

Someone I greatly admire told me that this writing and publishing business is all one village. Let’s get out there and support one another so our village can thrive…

This is a guest posting from children/young adult author Michele Torrey. Please read, be inspired, and lend a hand…

Author Michele Torrey in Tanzania

From the Desk of Michele Torrey

Calling All Author-Friends!

Desperately Needing Books!

As many of you know, in 2007 I co-founded Orphans Africa (OA). Part of our mission is to educate some of the 2.5 million orphans in Tanzania, East Africa. On February 27, 2010, we are holding a benefit dinner and auction at the Liberty Theater in Puyallup to help raise funds for OA. These funds will go toward building a kitchen and dining hall and finishing construction on the dormitories for our Marilynn Primary and Nursery School. The dormitories will house 72 orphans, ages 3-12.

So, I’m pulling in any and all favors from all my dear writer-friends and asking you to please donate at least one signed copy of one of your books. I’d like to create book baskets according to age; the baskets will be auctioned to our guests. (Books for adults are fine, too! New books only, please.) Please send books to: Michele Torrey, PO Box 1371, South Bend, WA 98586-1371. Please try to get them to me no later than February 10; if you want your donation listed in our evening program, I must receive them by the 1st of February.

*****

You can read about my work in Tanzania by visiting my spankin’ new OA website!And I’d LOVE it if you’d come to the benefit! Consider this an official invitation!  We’ll be auctioning such things as photo safaris in South Africa and vacations in Maui, as well as TONS of other cool stuff! For more info on the benefit, including how to order tickets, visit our OA Benefit Blog.

Lastly, please let me know if you plan to send books or order tickets.

Tuko Pumoja! (“We are together!” in Swahili.)
Asante sana,

Michele Torrey

Author

Lucky me - this was the view for my morning jogs

So my residency on Whidbey Island (north of Seattle) ended and I immediately hopped a plane for Maui. My mind was crammed full with all the fantastic material I’d been given at the residency (see previous post from 1/16/2010). It was also full with the stress of the approaching deadline for my thesis novel. Yep, I’m down to the final 5-weeks for completed first draft. Yikes!

And, as wonderful as a trip to Hawaii is, this trip was not vacation; it was a work event for my spouse. This means being “on” for much of the week. Not that this is a bad thing, but it’s definitely a thing, adding stress to an already overfilled level.

Every day I’d fire up the computer and try to figure out the new structure plan for my novel. I’d pull up all the notes from professors and fellow students and advisers with great suggestions (thanks again, John and  Flip). And then stare at the proverbial blank screen. So I returned to my exercise plan, which includes a 2+-miles morning run. And guess what? All that beauty – from what the eyes could see (take a look at this photo), to the ears hear (that crashing surf), and the nose smell (those gorgeous flowers) – seeped in. It took up so much room, the beauty shoved away the stress.  As hokey as it sounds, with the mind clear with nothing but beauty, it was so easy to find the inspiration I’d been grappling to find.

By day three of my runs, the revised structure for  my novel began to flesh itself out. And I feel as if I’m back on the path.

On my final day on Maui, I wanted to dance in celebration – but this beautiful girl (humpback whale) jumped for joy on my behalf. I thank her…

Jumping with joy...

Sunrise in Penn Cove

It’s been too long since I’ve been able to post – but it’s great to be back.

Have recently been attending my creative writing MFA residency on Whidbey Island and it’s terrific for finding muse in the moment.  There were some fabulous guest speakers in attendance – like literary agents Regina Brooks and Elizabeth Wales and writers Bob Mayer, Craig English, George Shannon, Melissa Hart and poets Kelli Russell Agodon and Tess Gallagher as well as jack-of-all-trades, Lori A. May – that my head is spinning. I filled an entire spiral notebook with the scribbles and scratches from their collective shared bits of wisdom. So much to take in, in such a condensed time frame.  But it’s an experience I’ve had the fortune to share with my other MFA students for the last few years.  Hard to imagine that, as long as I finish my thesis (big wish with that one!), there is only one more residency for me to experience.  It’s going to be so hard to say good-bye…

So I won’t think of that now.  For now I’ll enjoy the bald eagles that have formed a nest not far from my bedroom; I’ll relish the lapping surf as I take my morning jog around Penn Cove; I’ll savor the seal that decided to pop his head above the surface in the early morning hours as my friend and I sipped our morning coffee.

The above photo is another friend, kayaking her way to class at the Captain Whidbey Inn, paddling her way toward the sunrise.  It’s a moment captured on digital that I can use to reflect as I continue to plow my way through this thesis novel.

Roy Public Library (Photo from KomoNews.com)

Recently, a friend told me a story about some very extraordinary kids in a small town. What do kids normally rally together for? I can think of many reasons – from planning a Homecoming Dance to plotting ways to get the keys to Mom and Dad’s car. Never have I heard about kids working together to save a library.

How fantastic is this?!

It’s all happening in Roy, Washington, a small town hit hard in today’s economy. On the chopping block, as a way to save funds, is the town’s only library (read the full news report here at KomoNews). It’s a tragic tale, one requiring action. So the kids are acting.

They aren’t alone. The outpouring of support that I’ve seen – from news articles, to bloggers, to everyday Joe’s – is heartwarming. In a world filled with cynicism at every turn, the efforts to save this library remind us all that we are on this journey together. For those creative writers out there seeking inspiration, there’s not much that can beat this story.

Anyone who’d like to donate is urged to contact the library by phone at (253) 843-2331or via email at roylibrary@comcast.net.

Class start is quickly approaching – check out the details at Edmonds Community College’s information page. This hands-on course focuses on creating a great plot for a novel. Sure hope you check it out!