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

Hungry for Good Writing

By Gail, July 12th, 2010 | Click to Comment

Homegrown Authors! KaBooM at the Lexington Farmer's Market: photo by Susan C. Brown

This past Saturday members of KaBooM were at Lexington’s Downtown Farmer’s Market at a booth cosponsored by the Morris Book Shop and the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning called “Homegrown Authors.” The event turned out to be one of the most successful sales days ever for our group; you might want to check out the Morris Book Shop site for details on more selected Saturdays this summer when you can meet area authors and buy signed copies of their books.

But as Jan said in her immediate previous post, these days are not only about selling the book. Continuing her theme, I’d like to reflect on what I learned from our time at the book table on Saturday: many of the folks we met at the Farmer’s Market are hungry not only for fresh, locally grown produce.

They are hungry for good writing.

We set up the sewing frame to let people know that the object we were selling was hand-sewn, and a number stopped to have conversations about book binding and the beauty of hand crafts.

Sewing Frame entices passersby to see hand sewn signatures: photo by Susan C. Brown

But an even larger number of passersby were fascinated by the content of When the Bough Breaks.  One person who read through the table of contents was completely stopped by the title of Lynn’s short story.   “Heartichoke!” she called out: “Oh, isn’t that just perfect, that’s exactly what it’s like!”  She bought three copies.

A retired English teacher stopped to tell us of his frustration that high school students are not guaranteed opportunities to do their own writing in English classes.  We showed him the structure of our book: the brief essays after each entry that reflect on the creative process and the role the group plays in our continually developing craft; followed by individual writing prompts—“Try this”—to encourage written responses.  At that, he was sold, too.

And a number of folks were simply pleased as punch that this joint venture meant they could buy literature with their produce: “that’s fantastic,” they said.

We couldn’t agree more.

Comments (0) — Categorized under: Events, Gail Koehler, Jan Isenhour, Lynn Pruett, Susan Christerson Brown, Uncategorized, Writing Exercises — Tags: , , , , , ,

On the Subject of Book Fairs

By Jan, June 28th, 2010 | Click to Comment

Last week I had a conversation with a nice man who anticipates his self-published novel arriving at his house any day now. “Once they arrive,” he asked me, “what do I do next?”

I thought about this conversation Saturday as fellow KaBooM members and I sat in the middle of Main Street in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, in 90-degree sunshine. Our umbrella tent provided some shade but was unable to keep us from noticing how heat shimmered above the asphalt or how good it felt to pour cold water over our heads and let it trickle down our necks.

Harrodsburg’s first Festival of Books and Arts coincided with an unseasonably warm June day in Kentucky, which meant that the crowds of book buyers were thinner than might have been expected, and, as a result, sales were lower. Had the newly-published novelist been present, he might have been disappointed by the results of his day and the undiminished stack of books in his trunk.

I concluded that you have to attend book fairs and local festivals for a multitude of reasons, not all of which include selling lots of books and making lots of money. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t.

Those other reasons might include the following:

  • Meeting other Kentucky authors. We were happy to chat with the famous and the soon-to-be-famous authors and publishing house representatives who happened by.
  • Noting how other writers go about making a sale. Those authors who sell books are accessible and inviting when browsers happen along. They make eye contact. They chat. They answer questions.
  • Checking booth arrangements for clues to success. Another writer also sold bracelets; Accents Publishing gave away pocket-size notepads. A basket of candy can help attract potential customers; if you are afraid the candy will melt, a vase of flowers is eye-catching.
  • Figuring out what equipment to invest in: Umbrella tent? Portable chair? Cash box/credit card swiper? Tablecloth? Display signs? Cart on wheels? Long-suffering friend, spouse, or partner who will help you with all this stuff?

And most importantly, recognize that you won’t sell out every single Saturday. Marketing your book is a time-consuming and time-spanning endeavor. You may have to convince yourself that the best reason to attend was to get your name and the name of your book before the public eye one more time.

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

Leaving a Paper Trail

By Jan, May 17th, 2010 | Click to Comment

This Saturday, May 22, I’ve been invited to speak at a conference called “Meeting the Challenges and Opportunities of Aging,” sponsored by our local government. As I recall, the last time I spoke at this event, the title included only the word “challenges” and neglected to mention “opportunities.” Perhaps the event organizers know that I have since entered a new decade and hoped to soften the blow.

My topic will be “Leaving a Paper Trail,” and I plan to encourage attendees to set their life stories down on paper. I know what it’s like when a loved one leaves no written record, because when my mother passed away in 2004, she left no paper trail: few letters, no journals or diaries, not even any lists from which to tease secrets. She had assured me that family records would be available in the central section of a behemoth-sized family Bible, but when I opened its yellowed pages I found what I call “the family tree in winter”: all black outline with no leafy verdancy to give it bulk and color.

I plan to make the case that it is essential to tell our personal stories, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem. My rationale came to me as I read Diane Ackerman’s nonfiction book, The Zookeeper’s Wife, in preparation for her upcoming September visit to the Kentucky Women Writers Conference. Her book focuses on the director of the Warsaw Zoo and his wife, who worked with the Polish Underground Movement during World War II. They successfully helped approximately three hundred Jews, hiding them both in their villa and on zoo grounds, in outbuildings and animal cages.

The book is filled with details of their lives as zookeepers: the particular personalities of the animals they kept as pets, an inventory of a beetle collection developed by a Jewish friend, the layout of the Warsaw ghetto, the names of trees. I won’t remember all the details that Ackerman includes, but my sense of the reality of the Holocaust in Poland is heightened and enriched by this reading. As a friend commented, “It supplies a micro-story to accompany the macro-story.” The book describes acts of individual courage and sets them against the drama of the larger war effort.

I now understand why college history courses didn’t always work for me. The sweep of history was overpowering. It’s when I consider individual stories that I am able to do the slow work of understanding, one life at a time. In this way I have been encouraged to continue as a lifelong student of history. I’m willing to bet that Saturday’s conference includes people who have important micro-stories to set down on paper, which will add threads of understanding to large and complex historical events.

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Spring into a New Writers Notebook

By Jan, April 12th, 2010 | Click to Comment

I bought a new writers notebook over the weekend. As I planned my blog post, I realized that I had already written about reading an old notebook as I made way for the new (Nov. 30, 2009).

I observed that my summer/fall writers notebook was full of plans for When the Bough Breaks: production schedules, numbers of copies, notes for who would staff which book fairs at what times. It was all about the business of writing, necessary to be sure, if not exactly the date that invited me to the dance in the first place.

In looking through my winter notebook, I noticed a couple of things. For one, I filled it up faster. It took just four months to write my way to the back cover. However, quantity should never be confused with quality.

Instead, I focused on the nature of those contents. My winter notebook holds more starts, more responses to prompts offered in writing practice, rich notes from two conferences, a few short poems begun during a Saturday seminar, even a sketch of a murex shell that I picked up on the beach at Sanibel.

I complained a lot this winter. The cold was dispiriting; the snow and gray skies oppressed me, turned me inward. I kept repeating that this year, winter got me down. But my notebook bears witness of a fruitful time, a time of productivity, of nurturing seeds that may grow into something larger.

Once again, the evidence of my notebook corrects my misapprehensions and reminds me that I somehow kept pace with the world as it turned toward longer days.

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

Tips for Revising

By Jan, March 22nd, 2010 | 1 Comment

Sometimes it takes me an entire week to solve the Sunday New York Times crossword. Not long ago I put the finishing touches on my solution to the puzzle. Smack in the middle I penciled a circle around one particular intersection of across and down. I had expended all mental effort possible over whether the answer to “Yanks and others” could really be “ALers,” which made the cross clue “Strand” solve as “enisle.” I stashed my pencil and checked my grid against the solution. This week, they matched.

It felt a little bit like the protocol I follow when revising a piece of writing: give it a try; come back to it after taking a break; use a pencil with a good eraser—it makes editing easier.

Revision, one of the most important steps of any writer’s process, means following different strategies at different stages. For your writing to achieve its best, you’ll probably have to engage in a revision process that’s more complex than the simple steps I mention above.

One of the best conversations that took place at the Carnegie Center February Writer’s Retreat led by KaBooM resulted in shared wisdom about revision strategies that work. The ideas generated are summarized below.

  • Writing can be being something like weaving threads into cloth. Sometimes the cloth has to be cut up and refashioned into a different cloth; sometimes the cloth has to be tailored so it becomes a well-fitting garment.
  • Distance yourself from the material—then look back at it for a leap, a lurch, or a life pulsing. Circle that leap and write it on a fresh sheet of paper. Start making a mind map by drawing lines out from the circle (like spokes around a wheel). Put words on the lines as associations come to you.
  • Ask yourself about the purpose of a scene. Is it present only to advance the plot or is it also doing something else? Check for sensory detail—have you covered each of the senses? You may need to help the reader see what you see. Add noise and taste and smell. Be sure the sensory world is present in your writing.
  • Remember that perfection is achieved when there is nothing left to remove. It is sometimes necessary to kill your darlings.
  • Underline adverbs and adjectives and replace them with strong verbs when possible.
  • Don’t be afraid to try another starting point.
  • Look at models of writing that you respect. (Cf. Francine Prose’s book Reading Like a Writer.)
  • Join a group—find readers who are critical but supportive, who can give you ideas on how to make something right.
  • Read your work outloud. Use the mirror test. Look in a full-length mirror and read your work to yourself.
  • Go do something physical for a time. Walk, do the dishes, or solve a crossword puzzle.
Comments (1) — Categorized under: Creativity, Jan Isenhour — Tags: , ,

Try This! At the Saturday February 27 Writing Retreat!

By Jan, February 22nd, 2010 | 1 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 (1) — 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.

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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 —