AUTHOR: linda TITLE: Sliding Doors: Adventures on MUNI and the Streets of San Francisco DATE: 10:21:00 AM ----- BODY:

In the glum silence of commute-hour, squashed among earbuds, cellphones, paperback books, and pink plastic shopping bags, a striking woman dressed in a proper school-girl skirt, crisp collared shirt and a friendly crop of braids, seats herself next to me for the 33-minute rail ride.

We talk about world travels and young secretaries who think themselves too good to wipe down the office kitchen, and mystery novels... and since she has my same commute, I promised to lend her the first of Bonnie Hearn Hill's newspaper thriller series.

Sure enough, the week I put "If it Bleeds" in my bag for Antione, the kind-hearted Brit, I ran into her. But then for weeks after that, no sign of the pleated skirt and friendly braids. I had no way of contacting her other than MUNI, but I felt sure we'd run into one another again someday.

Then, on a Tuesday morning, as my commute took me up Sansome Street past Mr. Two Twenty and we exchanged a familiar wave, I spotted Antione walking the opposite direction right in front of me and the Two Twenty building.

"Why -- hello!"

And with an excited exchange like old friends under the green awning, about missing one another with no way of contact, writing down phone numbers and such things, Andre himself emerged from between the glass doors to say that he'd the story I wrote about him and how it touched his heart.

It was a real-world vortex of story!

I promptly thanked him, and turned to introduce Andre to Antione, who reflected kind energy to one another with a polite handshake.

Doppelganger?

Labels: Bonnie Hearn Hill, inner sunset, San Francisco, sunset stories

-------- AUTHOR: linda TITLE: A Post-Yosemite Writers Conference Reflection DATE: 7:11:00 AM ----- BODY:

A month after attending the fourth annual YWC, it’s time to tell the story about the Yosemite Writers Conference.

It's an exclusive destination conference on book publishing, full of dynamic panels, literary illuminati, and eager authors, against the backdrop of one of the most beautiful places in the country.

It's about inspiration and information, sharing and teaching, timely topics, readings, and eating… but most of all, it’s about people.

There's been some noteworthy souls associated with my YWC experience:

Author David Morell, creator of Rambo said in his keynote speech that “daydreams are your subconscious bubbling up as your narrative voice;”
Author and YWC founder Bonnie Hearn Hill said in the “Chick Lit is Dead” panel that “the character needs to want something on every page, even if it’s just a glass of water;”
Author and creative writing professor Steve Yarbrough encouraged attendees to “write what you want to, in the way you want to… how your heart calls you;”
Linda Rohrbough, who made the winning bid for Mindjet's MindManager software said, "I’ve heard about this and I can’t wait to use it!"
Victor Grippi from Pasadena told me he found the conference on WritersMarket.com, and that the short story is about the “single effect;”
In the “Blogging Your Way to Fame” panel, Nick Belardes called a blog a “conversation with people;”
And, Melinda Carroll from Bakersfield, who I met last year, told me that she’s currently writing women’s fiction.

To see more about this year's conference, check out ABC23’s Managing Editor Nick Belardes discuss the hot talk at the conference in “Is Book Publishing Dead?” the Sierra Star’s feature story on the conference, and conference emcee Rik Bollman's YWC photo album on Flickr.

But there’s one story I’ve neglected: mine.

The journey to the conference began in June of last year, when I was put in contact with Bonnie after a blind phone call to DNC to inquire after an ad about YWC they published in one of their newsletters. I told Bonnie about my passions and my ideas, and offered to volunteer publicity expertise in exchange for attending the conference. After attending an inspirational YWC in 2006, I resumed volunteer publicity activities in March of this year, sending out the press release, contacting each California Writers Club, posting the event listing to every online calendar I could find, spreading the word to friends, and creating a co-marketing arrangement with a local writing group and a women's radio network. And just before the conference, I created a colorful portrayal of the publicity conference activities within a mindmap, which I displayed on my personal and company blog.

And what does all this mean to my writing?

These conference experiences, along with Sunset Stories, various corporate communications, collages, SF Zine Fest, Ripe Fruit Writing, Litquake, scrapbooking, journaling, designing and networking... all works together as part of my Personal Narrative.

Labels: Bonnie Hearn Hill, David Morrell, Litquake, Mindjet, MindManager, noveltown, Ripe Fruit, sunset stories, Yosemite Writers Conference, Zine Fest

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