All I Still Have

Better Than Shoes: A New "Chica Lit" Writing Workshop

Love novels like Dirty Girls Social Club, Bridget Jones’ Diary, The Devil Wears Prada and Waiting to Exhale? Have an idea for a novel of your own? Want a supportive writing community led by an author who has actually written and published “chica lit” with major publishing houses?

This 8-week course is for you! Join me and other aspiring Latina writers and begin your journey toward getting that novel out of your head and onto the page. By doing fun writing exercises, reading excerpts from some of the genre’s best and getting supportive feedback, you will learn how to develop interesting characters and entertaining plot lines, all without having to leave your latinadad at the door. And isn't that far more important than a fabulous yet expensive pair of shoes?

By the end of this workshop, you will have major character sketches, a complete outline for your story, and both inspiration and strategies to keep you writing that first draft to the last page.

What: Better Than Shoes: A Chica Lit Writing Workshop with
Who: Sofia Quintero, author of Divas Don't Yield and more
When: Thursdays, 6:30 to 8:30 pm from April 14 - June 2, 2011 (8 weeks)
Where: Latino Experimental Fantastic Theater at the Clemente Soto Velez Center, 107 Suffolk Street, Lower East Side, New York City, 10002
Cost: $250

If you want more details you can email thefelttheater at yahoo dot com or therealblackartemis at yahoo dot com. You can also call LEFT at 212-288-3705.

My Finish Your Writing Project Teleseminar with Felicia Pride of the Backlist

Last Thursday evening I had a wonderful (at least it was for me!) teleseminar on how to finish your writing project. If you missed it, you can listen to it here:



Have questions? Just post them below from now through Friday, February 11th, and I will answer them. As is usually the case, there were so many other things that came to mind after the call, including other techniques I use to get writing projects done. An hour is never enough when you are discussing healing and creativity. At least the conversation has begun so join in with your questions and comments here. I may not have an answer to everything or with complete thoroughness that I would like in this particular venue, but I will give it a good faith effort.

And if you're a woman in or near NYC who wants to enroll in my Seshat Writing Intensive on February 19th, there are a few slots left and still time to enroll, but you have to act now. See the link to my post about SWI here or send me an email at therealblackartemis at yahoo dot com.

Seshat Writing Intensive February 2011

Are you a woman who has resolved to finish a manuscript in 2011? Then this is the workshop for you. As an author who has published five novels and over a dozen novellas and short stories with practically every major house in the industry, I want to help women find their voices and tell their stories. On this all-day event, I will lead you through exercises where you will:

1. Set realistic goals for moving forward your project.
2. Identify potential blocks and strategies to overcome them.
3. Create a specialized action plan for the rest of the year.

Most of all, we will WRITE. This intensive is open to all genres and crafts e.g. memoir, fiction, screenplays, poetry, etc. At this time, it is only open to women and that includes our trans sisters.

The workshop takes place on Saturday, February 19, 2011 from 10 AM - 6 PM. Because I want to be able to devote time to each participant, space is limited to only TEN women and slots are filling quickly. The registration fee is $250.00 which must be paid in full by February 11th. Installment plans are available so do inquire. Those who are registered will receive a coaching questionnaire, the address of our meeting place and other details. Because of the intensive and personalized nature of this workshop, there will be no drop-in or on-site registration available. In order to serve you best, I require time to assess your needs and design a program that speaks to them.

Please share this invitation with others who may find it of interest. More details to follow. If you have any other questions, do not hesitate to email me at therealblackartemis_at_yahoodotcom.

Oh, and who is in that gorgeous photo? That is Seshat after whom I named this event. She is the Egyptian goddess of writing. After this intensive, you, too, will be on your way to being one, too.

Call for Submissions by Dominican Women Writers

I'm pleased to share this, and hope you will pass it on, too.
__________
Saludos escritoras,

I am writing to you because I have finalized the call for submissions for the anthology of Dominican women writers. I am currently in Santo Domingo on the Fulbright grant I received to conduct this project. As I collect stories from creative writers here, I would also like to ask Dominican women living in the U.S. to submit pieces for consideration. A publishing contract has still not been finalized because of the current financial crisis but an editor is willing to look at the book once it is compiled, so we are moving ahead.

Following is the call for submissions in English and Spanish. Please distribute widely. Forward it to other Dominican women writers you know, or to people you know who may know other Dominican women writers etc. I appreciate all of your help in getting the word out there. I look forward to reading your work.

Erika
www.erikammartinez.com

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Quisqueyanas: Contemporary Writings by Dominican Women
Edited by Erika María Martínez
To be published in the United States in English and in Spanish
Dominican writers are under-represented in literary discourse. And most literary studies of the Caribbean focus primarily on some male writers of the past century such as Jose Martí. There is a similar unfamiliarity of female writers in comparison with male writers of the Dominican Republic, yet Dominican women, at home and abroad, have created a space for literary and artistic production. The body of literature developed by Dominican women depicting the cultural, social and political life of the country, is a testament to the talent of all Dominicans. Quisqueyanas: Contemporary Writings by Dominican Women, an anthology of prose by women in the Dominican Republic, and women of Dominican descent living in the United States, will strengthen the voice of Dominican women in the world of literature.
This project develops at a crucial point in the history of Dominicans and Americans; during the nineties the Dominican-American population grew by two hundred percent, making it the fourth largest Latino community in the United States. With this growth, the community's cultural values were often merged with the larger Latino identity. In order to genuinely associate with our numerous parts, it is essential to reconnect with origin-based artists. Writers give a viewpoint that is informed by history and tied to the Dominican Republic, yet at the same time it is affected by the greater American culture. Through a sampling of various Dominican and Dominican-American women's narratives the literary legacy and unique history of the island will be highlighted in content and style. In addition, it will be evident how the history and the future of the two countries are intertwined. This anthology will be a step in the direction of greater understanding between these two cultures and how each one affects the other as we approach the turn of another decade.
This collection will be unique yet use successful techniques from preceding anthologies. As in Lillian Castillo-Speed's anthology Latina: Women's Voices from the Borderlands the work will include both fiction and nonfiction. Like Edwidge Danticat's anthology The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States, the book will have a thematic structure according to the contributions received.
Possible themes include but are not limited to:
Family
Feminism
Exclusion
Femininity
Fertility/Infertility
Maternity
Migrations/Immigration
Racism/Prejudice
Silence
Double lives
Politics
History
Work
Relationships
Infidelity
Machismo
Editor: Erika María Martínez is a Dominican-American writer with an MFA in English and Creative writing from Mills College in Oakland, California. She is currently residing in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic as a Fulbright Fellow. Her work has been featured in Colorlines Magazine, The Womanist, Homelands: Women's Journeys Through Race, Place and Time and in Terror?, an exhibit at the Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco.

Publication: The anthology will be published through an independent press in English and in Spanish to be distributed internationally.

Guidelines: Dominican women living on the island or women of Dominican descent living in the United States are encouraged to tell their stories. Submissions may include fiction, creative nonfiction, personal essays and memoirs. Please only send unpublished work. No simultaneous submissions. Writings submitted will not be returned.

Deadline: January 31, 2009

Length: 3,000-5,000 words

Format: Pieces should be typed, double-spaced and paginated. Please include your mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number and a short bio on the last page.

Submitting: Electronic submissions are preferred. Send work electronically as a Word or Rich Text Format file (with .doc or .rtf extension) to Erika María Martínez at HYPERLINK "mailto:antologiaquisqueyana@gmail.com" Put "Anthology" in the subject line. If e-mail is not possible, mail essay to
Erika Martínez 1-12682
3508 N.W. 114th Ave. Suite A
Doral, FL 33178
Reply: Please allow until June 1 for a response. If you haven't received a response by then, please assume your work was not selected. An effort will be made to contact each writer.

Solicitud de Colaboración
Quisqueyanas: Narradoras Contemporáneas Dominicanas
Editada por Erika María Martínez
Se publicará en los Estados Unidos en Ingles y Español
La literatura dominicana tiene escasa representación en el ámbito internacional, donde los estudios literarios del Caribe se enfocan principalmente en algunos escritores importantes como José Martí. El mismo desconocimiento ocurre cuando se comparan los escritores dominicanos con las escritoras dominicanas. A pesar de esto, la mujer dominicana ha estado envuelta en procesos creativos, tanto en su país como en el extranjero, donde muchas se han radicado en busca de mejores condiciones de vida y espacios para la producción literaria y artística.
Esta presencia de la mujer dominicana pone de manifiesto la capacidad creativa y el talento del pueblo dominicano. Muchas han escrito obras interesantes en las que reflejan la realidad de su cultura y de la vida social y política de esa nación. Quisqueyanas: narradoras contemporáneas dominicanas surge como un proyecto que procura producir una antología de narrativa de escritoras de la República Dominicana y de escritoras de ascendencia dominicana residentes en los Estados Unidos, y que tiene como objetivo dar voz a la mujer dominicana en el quehacer literario.
Durante los noventa, la presencia dominicana en los Estados Unidos experimentó un considerable aumento que la llevó a convertirse en la cuarta comunidad latina emigrante más grande de esta nación. Este crecimiento ha conllevado una mayor presencia de los valores culturales de nuestra comunidad, los cuales se han fusionado en gran parte con los valores de otros países de América Latina; factor este que contribuye al alejamiento de la identidad de nuestra población en el devenir de sus vidas en el extranjero.
Esta realidad plantea la necesidad de fortalecer la expresión cultural dominicana en la sociedad norteamericana, a fin de que, los referentes culturales y la identidad de nuestro pueblo mantengan una presencia dinámica que nos permita encontrar las manifestaciones producidas por nuestra gente a través de la narrativa, el cuento y otros géneros literarios con los que se expresa la manera de ser del ente dominicano.
Una muestra de escritoras dominicanas y dominico-americanas contribuirá a preservar la herencia literaria e histórica de la isla a través del contenido y del estilo. Esta antología será un paso hacia un mayor entendimiento y una mayor dinámica entre estas dos culturas.
Si se identifica con este planteamiento, la invito a formar parte de esta propuesta en la que se utilizarán técnicas de antologías estadounidenses como la editada por Lillian Castillo-Speed, Latina: Women's Voices from the Borderlands, que hemos tomado de ejemplo por el éxito tenido al incluir ficción y memorias. Como en The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Diaspora in the United States, seleccionada por Edwidge Danticat, elaboraremos una estructura temática. Nuestra antología seguirá el mismo modelo escogido por esas dos autoras. Como pueden observar, habrá una gran amplitud para desarrollar diferentes temas en áreas como:
Familia
Feminismo
Exclusión
Femineidad
Fertilidad/Infertilidad
Maternidad
Migraciones
Racismo y prejuicios
Silencio
Doble vida
Política
Historia
Trabajo
Relaciones
Infidelidad
Machismo
Editora: Erika María Martínez es escritora Dominico-Americana con una Maestría en Bellas Artes y Escritura Creativa de Mills College en Oakland, California. Actualmente reside en Santo Domingo, República Dominicana como becaria Fulbright. Sus publicaciones están incluidas en Colorlines Magazine, The Womanist, Homelands: Women's Journeys Through Race, Place and Time. También colaboró en la exposición Terror? del museo Intersection for the Arts en San Francisco.
Publicación: La antología se publicará en inglés y español con una casa editorial independiente que se encargará de la distribución internacional.
Requisitos: Se solicitan obras literarias de escritoras dominicanas residentes en la isla o escritoras de ascendencia dominicana que residan en los Estados Unidos. Escritoras interesadas pueden colaborar con ficción, ensayos personales y memorias con un mínimo de 3,000 palabras y un máximo de 5,000 palabras. Favor de enviar trabajos que no hayan sido previamente publicados o que se encuentren en proceso de estarlo o de participar en un concurso No se devolverán los trabajos entregados.
Última fecha de entrega: 31 de enero de 2009
Formato: Los trabajos deben ser escritos a doble espacio y tener las páginas numeradas. Favor de incluir en la última página dirección de domicilio, correo electrónico, número de teléfono y una breve biografía (50-100 palabras).
Presentación: Preferiblemente vía e-mail. Favor de enviar trabajos como un documento en formato Word o Rich Text Format (extensión .doc o .rtf) a Erika María Martínez al correo electrónico <antologiaquisqueyana@gmail.com>. En la linea de asunto escriban "Antología."
Si no es posible entregar por correo electrónico enviar a:
Erika Martínez 1-12682
3508 N.W. 114th Ave. Suite A
Doral, FL 33178
Respuesta: Se enviará informaciones con respecto a la antología antes del 1ero de junio del 2009. Si no reciben respuesta para esa fecha es porque su trabajo no ha sido seleccionado. Se hará lo posible para contactar a todas las escritoras.

When Life Refuses to Imitate Art

 

Sometimes things change for the better, and it totally screws me up.  

 

This morning I turn on the television in time for the reading of the names of those lost on 9-11.  The ceremony always interests me for more than the obvious reasons.  In one of my novels-in-progress, a character who lost his father in the World Trade Center attack still cannot bring himself to join his family on the annual pilgrimage to Ground Zero. Angel’s last conversation with his father Emilio was a heated political argument over who to vote for in the Democratic primary scheduled that day.  He grows so frustrated with his immigrant father’s increasing conservatism, he hangs up the phone on him. An hour later Angel learns that his father – a server at Windows on the World on the top of the North Tower – died in the attack.

 

Now every year Angel watches the reading of the names with conflicting emotions. While he appreciates the diversity that the organizers use in selecting those who read the names, it bothers him how the immigrants who died that day remain unacknowledged. It particularly grates Angel in the face of the rising xenophobia in the United States since the attacks. He watches the ceremony on television while sipping gin and juice and making makes sociological observations and political judgments, all in an effort to avoid the guilt of having disrespected his father for expressing admiration for then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani. 

 

But watching this morning’s commemoration, I immediately discover that I have some rewriting to do.  The organizers have changed little this year. The readers – loved ones of a life taken that day – still take the podium two at time. They read a dozen or so names as each soul’s name, picture and town scrolls at the bottom of the screen.  Virtually all the duos are interracial, but this year, the reader on the left has been charged with making a special pronouncement.   

 

 

 

 

 

“I came to read with love on behalf of the people of the commonwealth of Dominica.”

 

“And I’m here today on behalf of Cyprus.”

 

“I’m proud to have read on behalf of my fellow citizens of the Dominican Republic.”

 

“I’m here honoring and remember the people of Ethiopia.”

 

“I came today with the hearts and best wishes of the people of the Gambia.”

 

“And I’m honored today to have represented the people of Ireland.”

 

“I’m proud today to have represented my country the Iran.” 

   

After the moment of silence at 9:59 AM when the South Tower fell, a Latina dressed in NYPD blue takes the podium. Her father was a pastry chef on Windows on the World. She says that whenever she and her father parted ways, he would say te quiero y vaya con Dios. She says, “Today, I want to tell my Papi the same thing. I love you and go with God.” It is one of the few times the solemnity of the proceedings is broken with applause.

 

So this minor change throws a bit of a monkey wrench into my beloved scene about this young man who harbors tremendous guilt because his liberal politics were not changed despite the personal cost of what occurred that tragic day. Yes, I have quite a bit of rewriting to do. This is not the first time that changing tides have disrupt my creative flow like when Harvard’s decision to offer free tuition to admitted students whose families made less than $60,000 per year threw my young adult novel Efrain’s Secret into a tailspin.  The writer who doesn’t admit that the occasional change for the better doesn’t sometimes trigger a moment of petty frustration with life’s failure to imitate art is a liar.

 

But for the first time, a tiny shift toward progress demands a rewrite for once I will be very happy to make. 

 

 

Going Out of Print

Today, I received an email from agent informing me that Burn and Picture Me Rollin’ are going out of print. Although I saw this coming, it’s no less disheartening. And yet despite the bad news, something inside my soul resonated.

I’m more than an author. Damn it, I’m a writer. I’m truly a fuckin’ writer.

Many thoughts – overwhelmingly negative thoughts – flashed through my head first. Fuck publishing. People getting imprints for trafficking in stereotypes, and I’m going out of print? Just stop writing novels and stick to…

Whoa! Slow your roll, Sof. Stop writing novels?

I can’t even imagine that. Some of the stories inside me – the ones I feel most compelled to tell – are novels. They’re not supposed to be films or plays, at least not in their original incarnation. The novels I write are meant for people who value the intellectual and emotional engagement demanded of literary text, whether that person is the feminist professor who assigns it to her (or his) students to the teenage girl who yearns for a protagonist who is much like herself or someone she loves. These stories were meant to be conveyed with the intimacy that only a book can deliver. That is, experienced one person at a time through words that can be absorbed at a pace the reader sets. A story such as Picture Me Rollin’ is meant to be revisited in an effort to discover layers and nuances. They are meant to be opened and closed, entered and exited, put down and picked up, ll to a rhythm that is unique to the person who signed onto the journey, his or her ideals and accomplishments, insecurities and regrets, passions and aspirations, in tow.

So many other things you can do with your eyes closed with much more reward and less frustration, but, no, you won’t pick up your marbles and go home. Dique you can’t do it. Yeah, you’re a writer.

I have known for some time that something needs to change. For example, I certainly need to become a much more effective promoter of my own work. Gripe what you want about what the house won’t do for you, the bottom line is, no one can care about your work more than you. Maybe I should consider self-publishing. Sure, I’ll trade off one set of problems for another, but what I gain will make prove them worthwhile.

And it can never hurt to do as much as I can to become a better writer. As paradoxical as it may sound, the less the industry values craft, the more imperative it becomes to cultivate it. Don’t ask me to explain that. I can’t. I just instinctively know it to be true and suspect that artists of all stripes will intuitively understand what I mean when I say that.

But not writing the stories that I feel compelled to tell, stories that I know have a broader audience than my sales indicate, stories that I truly believe can do more than provide a few hours of mindless entertainment… the idea crossed my mind, but my spirit immediately rejected it. Do you know what that means?

Yup, I’m a writer.

Maybe the trick is to invest in breast implants and make my way through a particular industry on my back, keeping a meticulous diary along the way. No, I just need to fuck one person. Someone strategically placed in the publishing industry, gender, sexual orientation, and marital status be damned. Or I maybe I can spend a few days cranking out something ridiculously commercial, wholly unoriginal and unapologetically salacious and submit it under a pseudonym of nondescript ethnicity. Or better yet, do something incredibly stupid yet public to become famous then hire someone else to write it for me under my own name.

Nah, I’m a writer.

If one of my novels had been optioned for film, made a bestseller’s list or received a rave review, I’d probably share that on my blog as most authors would (and should.) I decided to blog about my last two Black Artemis novels going out of print because, while few will admit it, this is the more realistic and common occurrence of being a novelist in the mainstream publishing industry. And oddly enough, the very compulsion to blog about this proves one thing that no one can deny.

For better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness or in health, I’m a writer.

Actors of Color, What is Your Favorite Monologue?

This fall one of the courses I'm going to teach is a high school class on writing and performing monologues. I'm very keen on using monologues delivered by characters of color as examples, and I'm on a particular quest to collect film adaptations so that I can play the performance of these monologues for my students. If you are an actor of color, perhaps you can help me out. While I welcome monologues from plays -- especially those by playwrights of color -- ideally, I'd love monologues available on video (e.g. the film adaptation of play) and which can stand alone without requiring too much context.

I find that your average book of monologues -- especially those geared toward youth -- are not very diverse with respect to culture or even scenario. Furthermore, while they may be serviceable for teaching performance, I find them inadequate for teaching writing, especially the unique art of writing the standalone monologue.
Here's an example of a great monologue I discovered while conducting research for a different writing project altogether. It comes from the 2000 HBO miniseries The Corner which was created by the same talent behind the TV series The Wire. In this monologue, Gary, a 34 year old dope addict is getting high with some friends.

I went to see this movie. The one about what they did to the Jews in the war. Lord, what they did to them people. The Germans decided that they weren’t human no more. They just said, “No, you ain’t human like we human.” And when they said that, hey, man… it just got easier for them to do all kinds of dirt. By the end, all the Germans could do, man, was like get rid of them, you know. Kill them all. ‘Cause, you know, they couldn’t see them being anything better than rats or bugs. But it was real, all right. And I’m sitting there, and I’m watching this movie, and I’m realizing that it’s happening again. We sit here day after day making ourselves a little bit less human, and the world is happy to see it. It seems like they happy to see it, man. I mean, when I was making money, it didn’t matter because I was still a nigger. And now that I’m sitting up here getting high with y’all, it’s still the same. Don’t you see what I’m saying? The Germans made the Jews into niggers. That’s what that was about. And that’s what this is here except we’re doing it to ourselves. It seems like the world just can’t wait for us to finish until we all end up dead.

This monologue is perfect because you can either read or watch it with no context and still understand it. The actual movie had a few lines of interjecting dialogue from the other characters present in the scene, but their lines can be deleted with nothing lost. It's a great piece of writing (I especially love the subtext), and it gives the actor several moments to mine.

Another good example is a monologue from Romeo Must Die starring Jet Li and the late Aaliyah. In the scene after Aaliyah's character Trish learns that her brother has been murdered, she tells how she and her brother used to get a kick out of scaring their mother by crying wolf and pretending he got hurt. The scene uses this anecdote to reveal Trish coming to grips with her brother's death which this time is real and no laughing matter. She experiences how her mother felt the moment she thought her son had been hurt yet. Unlike her mother, however, Trish realizes that she'll never know the relief of learning that her brother is actually OK.

So if you can suggest any more monologues like these, drop me a line. I'm looking for all ages, genders, sexual orientations and genres. And by people of color, I do mean also Native American, Arab and Asian as well as Black and Latino. If you've seen great monologues in any independent films, even better as I'm sure that information will come in handy for future initiatives. At the very least, any other character's lines should be minimal and can be cut out without the primary character's speech losing meaning. Again, movies readily available on DVD are ideal so that I can play them for my students as well.

Sadly, as many wonderful solo shows many actors of color have produced in recent years, very few of them have been recorded for sale never mind for educational use. What I would give to Sarah Jones' Surface Transit, Staceyann Chin's Border/Clash or Calvin Levels' wonderful Down from the Mountaintop on DVD. Right now a gal is relying on Danny Hoch's Jails, Hospitals and Hip Hop, Roger Guenveur Smith's A Huey P. Newton Story and The Vagina Monologues and even the film The Breakfast Club, but it's just not enough. Even John Leguizamo' s Mambo Mouth, Spic-o-Rama, and Freak are hard to find and mad expensive!

So if you're a person of color who produces or develops solo theatre, do your creative kin -- be they emerging and aspiring, practicing and teaching -- a favor and plan on eventually making your show available and affordable on video. :)