KaBooM WritersKaBooM Writers

Welcome to the online presence of KaBooM, a writing group that has sustained the creative lives of a diverse group of women for over a decade. We hope that getting to know us will inspire you, too!Welcome to the online presence of KaBooM, a writing group that has sustained the creative lives of a diverse group of women for over a decade. We hope that getting to know us will inspire you, too!

Welcome to the online presence of KaBooM, a writing group that has sustained the creative lives of a diverse group of women for over a decade. We hope that getting to know us will inspire you, too!

The KaBooM Writers Notebook: Our Blog

Try This! At the Saturday February 27 Writing Retreat!

By Jan, February 22nd, 2010 | Click to Comment

How easy to love a word like retreat that lives in the world both as action and as thing! How fortunate to look forward to a day of renewal in the company of like-minded individuals! How important this time we take for our work and our writing selves!

Join members of KaBooM on February 27 from 10 am to 4 pm at the Carnegie Center for a “Saturday Writing Retreat: Try This!” We’re assuming that it’s your dream—as well as ours—to have an entire day without agenda or distraction—to have nothing to do but write, write, write.  Bring work in progress or a notebook and pen to capture new words. We’ll present invitations to write from our book, When the Bough Breaks, or you are welcome to develop or extend a piece you’ve already begun.

If you prefer working on a laptop, bring a flash drive as you’ll have access to a printer. Maximize your writing time by bringing a brown bag lunch. Day also includes time for sharing and responding.

The cost for the retreat is $100. Our goal is to make sure your well as a writer is replenished many times over, your store of words restocked and ready to go. We look forward to retreating with you!

Comments (0) — Categorized under: Creativity, Events, Jan Isenhour —

KaBooM Panel Featured During Arts Showcase Weekend

By Jan, January 31st, 2010 | Click to Comment

Join KaBooM this Saturday, February 6, at 10 a.m. at the Carnegie Center, when the members of the group discuss the challenge of “Wearing Two Hats: From Writer to Publisher.”

When KaBooM began to plan an anthology to honor the group’s tenth anniversary, we first took an inventory of what we considered our strengths: plenty of pieces of writing to choose from, editorial experience, familiarity with book design, and artistic talent.

However, we also knew that we wanted to design a new kind of anthology: high quality in appearance and in content; original in its approach; affordable to produce and to purchase; and usable by writers, teachers of writing, and students. And we had limited financial resources to contribute to the project.

Join us as we discuss the process of moving from concept to product, including seeking and writing proposals to secure grant funding, designing a book that takes advantage of both letterpress and offset methods, learning to sew individual books signatures, and creating a media presence. We’ll answer your questions about forming a group and carrying out a publishing process as well.

Our panel will end around 11:45. At noon, plan to stay to hear our friend, poet and Accents Radio Program host Katerina Stoykova-Klemer as she presents a workshop titled “Bigger than They Appear: How to Write Very Short Poems.”

These programs are offered as part of Arts Showcase Weekend. The weekend is organized by LexArts and is designed to encourage local citizens to discover ways to cultivate their creativity year-round. Please visit www.lexarts.org for the latest information.  All events are free!

P.S. Stay tuned for additional information about the Writers’ Retreat we’ll offer at the Carnegie Center on Saturday, February 27.

Comments (0) — Categorized under: Events, Jan Isenhour — Tags: , ,

Getting Back to Writing

By Jan, November 30th, 2009 | 2 Comments

Over the long weekend I closed out one writer’s notebook and prepared to begin using another. For me this process involves leafing through the pages of the filled book, looking for nuggets that might be left behind and eventually forgotten.

I was surprised to see that my old notebook, begun in early summer, is mostly filled with notes from KaBooM meetings. Here’s a to-do list, made as the manuscript neared completion. Here’s a list of questions to take to Larkspur Press, followed by a set of instructions on how to hand sew book signatures.

Here are thoughts for blog entries, made when our web site was fledgling. Here are ideas for the panel discussion we led at the Kentucky Women Writers Conference, and the descriptions for two workshops we’ll lead this winter at the Carnegie Center.

It’s a rich history of the process of creating and then taking public When the Bough Breaks. I’m glad to have it. Problem is, there’s more note taking than writing, more listing than generating.

This, I see, is the rhythm of a writer’s life: writing, then bringing to fruition, followed by reflecting.

I also see that it’s time to get back to writing.

Comments (2) — Categorized under: Creativity, Jan Isenhour —

Celebrate the National Day on Writing, October 20

By Jan, October 18th, 2009 | Click to Comment

This Tuesday morning, October 20, the members of KaBooM will join millions of other Americans as they observe the National Day on Writing.

Conceived by the National Council of Teachers of English, the day is devoted to celebrating and spotlighting one of humankind’s “most central and important activities.” The US Senate recently passed a resolution commemorating the day.

The National Day on Writing is intended to capture what Americans are doing as writers and to document the breadth of that effort—from social media posts to journaling to writing family histories to composing poems and stories to gathering together with the members of a writing group to create an anthology of pieces.

If you would like to post a piece of your own writing to the National Gallery, you can visit www.galleryofwriting.org and find the perfect home for your words. (By searching Kentucky galleries, you can post your work directly to the Carnegie Center Gallery. Or choose another gallery if you prefer.)

Or stop by Third Street Stuff and Coffee between 9 and 11, where the members of KaBooM will be busily engaged in their regular Tuesday occupation—setting pen to paper as they practice the art of writing.

Comments (0) — Categorized under: Jan Isenhour —

How did Argiope Press get its name?

By Jan, October 3rd, 2009 | 1 Comment

ArgiopeSeveral of you have asked about the origin of the name Argiope Press, the branch of our collective responsible for transforming manuscript into book.

Two years ago in August I was in my garden weeding (crouched on my knees) when I lifted my head and saw an enormous spider just inches away from my face. She had concealed herself in a clump of balloon flowers, where she was busily spinning a web. By her girth and markings I assumed she was something special, so for the first time in my life I was interested in identifying a spider.

An internet search led me to a picture of argiope, an orb weaver or “writing spider,” named for the way she stabilizes her web by appearing to create letters. I grabbed a camera and snapped a photo. After several days, argiope had disappeared, but the inspiration stayed, and we decided she was a perfect mascot for our group—a Kentucky gal who writes and thrives in a natural landscape.

This August, just as copies of When the Bough Breaks arrived from Larkspur after their letterpress dust jackets and bindings had been completed, I saw another argiope busily writing in the midst of my hostas and took it as a sign of great good fortune than once again our endeavor had received this blessing.

P.S. Argiope Press is not able to accept other manuscripts for publication at this time.

Comments (1) — Categorized under: Jan Isenhour —