A Writing Workshop Works

            I've been away from blogging due to a five day writing conference I attended at Foothill Community College.  Replete with readings and published writers from many places, it was a feast for both mind and heart.  As usual, I bought too many books, and now I really must take the rest I need this summer by giving myself time to read!
            Classes were about a wide range of topics, including ones I haven't seen in the many writer's conferences I've attended.  Today, as in other days, I had a difficult time choosing which ones to attend. "East coast, west coast, two views of American writing."  Alan Cheuse, who hails from Washington DC and New York and does NPR's book reviews, told us that New Yorkers are provincial. When they take vacation they go to Maine or Martha's Vineyard or Cape Cod.  If they fly, to Europe.  Rarely, California.  We hardly exist to them, so book publishers don't like books that take place in California.  Hmm, I'm glad mine will take place in Japan.
          A class with Marianne Villanueva on "Writing about another culture" as well as a class by Houston and Wakatsuki on "Writing to cross cultural barriers" dealt with many questions I've had as a, an Anglo American, try to write a novel about Japanese people.  When some recently written pages from my novel were work-shopped, the instructor liked them. She and a student both familiar with Japan said I truly succeeded in capturing a Japanese voice. 
         Anyways, this conference is a real steal with its incredibly low price of $55.  Each day two sessions of 1.5 hour seminars and manuscript workshops are offered in the afternoon. In the offerings of roughly 5--7 seminars in poetry, fiction and memoir and 2-3 manuscript workshops even the experienced writer can find something of interest.  And the noon time and evening readings were captivating and inspirational.
         I know already I'm going next year.