Writing News...

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Our friend and fellow RMFWer, Mark Stevens, was at the Barnes and Noble in Grand Junction, CO on the 20th.

Mark Stevens at the Grand Junction, CO
Barnes and Noble

He was doing a book signing for his new release, "Buried by the Roan," and we just had to stop by and show him some love (and buy books, of course).

Mike, Vicki, and Marne stopped by to show him some love. (And Mike put up the rabbits)
Huge Congratulations, Mark! We wish you well!

Our Gail had a book-signing at Barnes and Nobles in Grand Junction, too (but we don't have any pics of the event, and Marne is so sad). So, at the next time Gail has a book signing for "Images of America: Ouray," we will be there with bells on!

And on September 1, Marne went to Denver for RMFW's 2011 Writer of the Year Event. It was a blast! Here's a great pic of Robin D. Owens, the 2011 Writer of the Year, Laura Reeve, and Maggie Sefton, the other nominees. These ladies are all wonderful authors and they really made the night special! Pam Nowak, the 2010 Writer of the Year, moderated the event, and she did an amazing job, too!

Then, last weekend, Mike, Vicki, and Marne went to the Colorado Gold Writers' Conference. It was fantastic (and a blog for another day...)

Sense of Place: Writing Settings

I spent the weekend in New Mexico helping my son and his family clean up after the fires in Los Alamos. I did get to attend a workshop in Taos presented by the University of New Mexico. The subject was “a sense of place” led by author Summer Wood.

We visited the farm of Patricia Quintana. A former Washington D.C.lobbyist, she’s living her dream on the land she inherited from her grandmother. Churro sheep, who were brought from Spain as many as 500 years ago, wander on her fields. She has kept the culture of her ancestors and integrates her lifestyle with land. So how do you incorporate setting into your writing? The main point I came away with is that characters need to be placed into the landscape or the descriptions will sound like a travel log. The “character” can be a human or one example given was animal, perhaps a dog, moving across a landscape. History, food, building styles, and human interface with their environment are all a part of “place.” Examples include nostalgia for a time when the land was in a healthier condition or a desire to profit from development. Summer’s list of books that “contribute something fresh and valuable to the role of place in writing” include:

The Meadow by James Galvin

Home Ground by Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney

Mayordomo by Stanly Crawford

Power by Lin Hogan

Wisdom Sits in Places by Keigh Basso

Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Is that “sense of place” important to you as a reader/writer?  How do you write setting so they are more than the physical location of your story?

<posted by Vicki Law, however written by Gail Saunders>