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SBWC 2016: June 5-10, Hyatt Santa Barbara
Dear Writers,Thank you to those of you who entered our Annual Writing Contest.
After reviewing more than 250 entries from all over the United States, we’d like to congratulate our 3 winners and 2 runners-up. The following individuals won a full or partial tuition scholarship to this year's conference, June 5-10. You can read their winning entries on our SBWC blog in a few days. Winners: Full Scholarships to SBWC 2016 Melanie Howard Wanda Maureen Miller Sharon Brown Honorable Mentions: Partial Scholarships to SBWC 2016 Sophie Berti Anita Perez Ferguson We appreciate every writer who took a chance and submitted their writing to be considered. We know that is a small act of bravery. There were many excellent entries, but the above writers were the ones who this time around rose to the top. Congratulations, all. 10-minute Pitch Sessions with Agents and Editors
One perk of this year's conference is the 10-minute pitch sessions. Many writers who didn't have a polished five pages to send into agents for Advanced Submission can still get a chance to meet with an agent or editor to pitch their book or project. Registered attendees can sign up to meet with as many agents/editors as desired depending on availability. Don't wait too long since spots are filling up fast. Sign up here for only $25 once you are registered for the full conference. Check out the agents' bios here. The 44th Annual Santa Barbara Writers Conference will be kicking off in almost two weeks and we are looking forward to another wonderful year. If you haven't yet registered, visit our website: www.sbwriters.com. |
Our 44th Year! "A most stimulating time—a glorious week!" — Eudora Welty "The best in the nation." — James A. Michener "An important and wonderful week." — Elmore Leonard "SBWC offers aspiring talents opportunities to have their work seen by professionals who can help them reach publication." — Los Angeles Times   |
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Write On!
Grace Rachow and Erin Munsch“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” — Ernest Hemingway
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SBWC 2016 Writing Contest Winners Named
Thank you to those of you who entered our SBWC Annual Writing Contest. After reviewing more than 250 entries from all over the United States, we’d like to congratulate our 3 winners and 2 runners-up.
The following individuals won a full or partial tuition scholarship to this year's conference, June 5-10. You can read their winning entries on our SBWC blog in a few days.
Winners: Full Tuition Scholarships to SBWC 2016
Melanie Howard
Wanda Maureen Miller
Sharon Brown
Honorable Mentions: Partial Tuition Scholarships to SBWC 2016
Sophie Berti
Anita Perez Ferguson
We appreciate every writer who took a chance and submitted their writing to be considered. We know that is a small act of bravery.
There were many excellent entries, but the above writers were the ones who this time around rose to the top.
Congratulations, all.
An e-newsletter will follow with this information and more.
THE HISTORY OF THE SANTA BARBARA WRITERS CONFERENCE — 1989
An excerpt from the upcoming book by Armando Nieto, Mary Conrad, and Matt Pallamary: The Santa Barbara Writers Conference Scrapbook — Words of Wisdom from Thirty Years of Literary Excellence 1973 – 2003
On Thursday night at the 1989 SBWC, Charles Champlin, The Movies Grow Up—1940-80 and Back There Where the Past Was, long time editor at the Los Angeles Times and beloved SBWC workshop leader was billed as the featured speaker in the SBWC mailings, but decided to share the stage with Joseph Wambaugh, author of The Onion Field, The New Centurians, Echoes in the Darkness, etc., a late addition to the Conference.
Barnaby said in his introduction, Chuck Champlin coined the phrase “I love this conference. Its become the punctuation of my life.” Champlin himself endorsed the phrase when he spoke, talking about the aloneness of writing. He said his endorsement of the SBWC was heartfelt because at this stage of his life, he valued the authenticity and craft of writing, and the opportunity to rub shoulders with fellow spirits.
Champlin spoke in a homespun singsong voice reminiscent of Garrison Keillor and A Prairie Home Companion, bringing alive a time when telephone numbers were WJ5, and bicycles were the main form of transportation around town.
He finished his remarks saying, “I wish you ongoing success with your compulsions, which I share.”
Joe Wambaugh and Chuck Champlin
In his introduction of Joseph Wambaugh, Barnaby Conrad said Wambaugh was quoted as saying “All my wrinkles are on the inside,” in response to a lady’s flattery, and why not, as he was a veteran of fourteen years on the Los Angeles police force.
A special treat for the audience, Wambaugh’s “lecture” took the form of being interviewed by Barnaby Conrad and questions from the audience. For his part, Barny asked how and why Wambaugh wrote alternately fiction and non-fiction.
“Because I can’t always come up with a fiction idea,” he said, Wambaugh sometimes wrote “true crime” stories. Another benefit of writing non-fiction was his comfort level with stumping for those works.
“I was able to publicize The Blooding: The True Story of the Narborough Village Murders,” he said, “because it was a true story, and I wasn’t promoting my own idea.” It was the first time one of his books had been publicized in years.
“When I write a novel, a lot of things change, I go back and forth with my editor,” he continued. Not so much with non-fiction.
Regarding the movies made from his works, he said, “the only one I didn’t like was The Choir Boys. It was a rotten, lousy, sleazy, disgusting movie.” Perhaps it was this kind of attitude that contributed to his reputation among some in Hollywood, but he said he was a much more mature and sober man these days.
Writing for Wambaugh was a means to express a creative energy that plagued him in his adult life. He began with short stories sent to magazines that would pay a penny a word. One story he even sent off to Playboy twice over the space of a year.
“And some cruel bastard at Playboy sent it back, writing, ‘Its no better this time than it was the last!’”
He said that writing while working as a policeman was something he never talked about at work, “and my short stories never sold, to this day!” He also said he believes his first novels were clumsy and somewhat amateurish, perhaps because he first wrote novels as a moonlighting cop—in his mind. Instead of as a writer should write.
He couldn’t say enough about his editor, someone who he’s worked with since The Onion Field. “If you are lucky enough to have an editor, never let her go.” He credits his editor as half the reason for his success in writing subsequent novels.
The other half of his success he attributes to leaving the LAPD.
Barnaby Conrad and Joseph Wambaugh
SBWC Events Open to the Public -- Tickets $10 at the Door
Click on image for full size.
Aline Ohanesian at SBWC June 8 @ 7:30 PM, $10 at the door
Aline Ohanesian is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Orhan's Inheritance, which was long listed for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, a Summer 2015 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, a April 2014 Indie Next pick. The novel was also a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Award for Socially Engaged Fiction.
Aline was born in Kuwait and immigrated to Southern California at the age of three. After getting her MA in History, she abandoned her PhD studies when she realized her heart belonged to the novel. She is an alumna of the Bread Loaf and Squaw Valley writers conferences. She lives and writes in San Juan Capistrano, California, with her husband and two young sons.
Photography credit: Raffia Hadidian
Location, Location, Location!
I am not saying that we writers at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference are on the roof of the Santa Barbara Hyatt that often, but if we were, this is what we would see. We spend the week of the conference right at the edge of the Pacific viewing palm trees and sailboats--a perfect place for inspiration. For more information or to register: sbwriters.com
10-Minute Pitch Sessions with Agents June 7, 2016
We are about to sell out appointments with Annie Hwang and Corinna Barsan. If you want an appointment with one of these two agents, register on line today.
https://www.sbwriters.com/advpitch.php
Get more information at the above link as well.
What is a pitch session?
This is a 10-minute personal meeting with an agent or an editor in which you “pitch” your book project. For nonfiction writers, a pitch session is an oral proposal in which you lay out the basic idea of your project and its structure in the hopes of piquing the agent’s interest. If you write fiction, you will pitch the idea of your novel to an agent with the goal of interesting the agent to see your manuscript.
Pitch Session Fees:
The cost for each 10-minute pitch session is $25 dollars. There is no manuscript involved, but you may bring a 1-page query letter or synopsis that you could leave with the agent upon the agent’s request. https://www.sbwriters.com/advpitch.php
THE HISTORY OF THE SANTA BARBARA WRITERS CONFERENCE — 1988
An excerpt from the upcoming book by Armando Nieto, Mary Conrad, and Matt Pallamary: The Santa Barbara Writers Conference Scrapbook — Words of Wisdom from Thirty Years of Literary Excellence 1973 – 2003
In 1988 Michael Dell launched the Dell Computer company and Microsoft released Windows 2.1. and the SBWC had some great speakers, among them, Fannie Flagg.
Fannie Flagg 1988
In his introduction Barnaby Conrad recalled some of the SBWC alumns, including Spencer Johnson, The One Minute Manager, and Kitty Kelley, His Way, but said he was most proud of Fannie Flagg. Already a household name as a writer and co-host of Alan Funt’s television show Candid Camera and other television appearances, she came to the SBWC a novice in writing outside of television.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be here,” Fanny said of her first speaking appearance at the conference.
“I came here twelve years ago and heard Ray Bradbury and was inspired as I assume you were.” Flagg came to believe she could write, and eventually came to write Coming Attractions: Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man. It started as the short story Daisy Fay that won a competition at the SBWC in 1978.
“Barnaby Conrad came up to me and said, “Don’t you think you ought to do something with that?” She sent it off to a publisher and they said it was a nice story, but they wanted a novel.
“So I went out and bought 400 sheets of paper, and started writing. When I finished those 400 pages it weighed four pounds and seven ounces, and the novel ended.”
Between the first and second novel Flagg lost her parents. She returned to her home town, searching for something. Maybe her childhood. She needed an idea for another book because Barny had told her, “One book does not an author make!”
Her lecture was very much a homecoming, and she began to tell the story of her journey along the way in a soft voice, as if in confidence to a dear friend. By the time she began reading from Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café she’d transitioned seamlessly into a narrator’s voice, still imparting a confidence, but also through the dialogue recreating characters from her hometown of Irondale that you just wanted to meet and learn more about. The narrator, Ninny Threadgoode was a talker, and Flagg had to invent Evelyn Couch so Threadgoode had someone to talk to.
“So I had Evelyn walk down the hall with a candy bar in her hand so she’d have something to do while she listened,” Teri Sforza captured Fanny’s words in a Santa Barbara News-Press interview. “And Evelyn went berserk on me! She decided to have a life of her own.”
Once she got going it seemed Fanny hardly stopped to breathe. The audience stared at the little redhead who kept glancing up to make sure you were paying attention, blue eyes darting back and forth between her notes and attendees, a little confab between close friends.
1988 was also the first year that veteran Phantastic Fiction Workshop leader Matt Pallamary attended the SBWC as a student and had the good fortune to find himself in Sid Stebel's workshop and subsequently on a televised writing workshop with him. The videos of this television show can be viewed on YouTube beginning here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cCBEwV9Vtk
Another historic SBWC moment came that year when Margaret Millar, one of the best known mystery writers of the 20th century and widow of Ken Millar aka the legendary Ross Macdonald received a lifetime achievement award.
Writing Contest Open—Win a Scholarship to SBWC 2016
 SBWC 2016: June 5-10, Hyatt Santa Barbara
Dear Writers,
Enter to win a scholarship to the 44th Annual Santa Barbara Writers Conference. There are three categories to this contest. You may enter one, two or all three. You are welcome to enter multiple times, but please only one entry per email. Categories: 1) Best opening sentence: Limit 50 words 2) Prose: This can be a short essay, a short story, or the opening to your novel or nonfiction project. Limit 500 words 3) Poem: Limit 44 lines The judges will look for excellence appropriate to each category. To enter:
Contact information should include:
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Our 44th Year!"A most stimulating time—a glorious week!" — Eudora Welty "The best in the nation." — James A. Michener "An important and wonderful week." — Elmore Leonard "SBWC offers aspiring talents opportunities to have their work seen by professionals who can help them reach publication." — Los Angeles Times |
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If you haven't booked your hotel room yet, check out the amazing and cheap accommodation options on Air Bnb Santa Barbara. You can rent a single room with private bath close to downtown for only $65 a night. Now that's a steal. Don't let pricey accommodations deter you from joining us at SBWC this June.
See you in a few weeks. Write On! Grace Rachow and Erin Munsch |
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SBWC: 10-Minute Pitch Sessions with Agents
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SBWC 2016: June 5-10, Hyatt Santa Barbara
Dear Writers,
Agents get hundreds of written proposals and query letters on a daily basis. Most go straight to the bottom of the pile. A face-to-face conversation with an agent might help your project get better attention. You're in luck. Even though the Advanced Submission deadline has passed, it's not too late to meet with an agent or editor. Sign up for our new 10-minute pitch sessions here. No manuscript needed. This is speed dating for writers. Plan ahead what you want to say so that you put forth an image that reflects the quality of your project.How it works:
Pitch Session Fees: The cost for each 10-minute pitch session is $25 dollars. There is no manuscript involved, but you may bring a 1-page query letter or synopsis that you could leave with the agent upon the agent’s request. We have ten participating agents/editors who represent a variety of genres including fiction, nonfiction and memoir. Find out more about our confirmed agents/editors by clicking on their names below: Corinna Barsan —Senior Editor, Grove Atlantic Paul Fedorko— N.S. Bienstock, Inc. Lucas Hunt — Orchard Literary Jennifer March Soloway —Andrea Brown Literary Agency Toni Lopopolo — Toni Lopopolo Literary Management Jill Marr — Sandra Djikstra Agency Angela Rinaldi — The Angela Rinaldi Literary Agency Erin L. Cox—Rob Weisbach Creative Management Annie Hwang —Folio Literary Management Eric Myers —Dystel and Goderich Literary Management If you haven't already registered, sign up at sbwriters.com We hope you’ll join us for another amazing and inspirational year. |
Our 44th Year!"A most stimulating time—a glorious week!" — Eudora Welty "The best in the nation." — James A. Michener "An important and wonderful week." — Elmore Leonard "SBWC offers aspiring talents opportunities to have their work seen by professionals who can help them reach publication." — Los Angeles Times |
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10-minute pitch sessions will be available up until Agents Day, June 7 or when all slots are filled.
Write On!
Grace Rachow and Erin Munsch
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THE HISTORY OF THE SANTA BARBARA WRITERS CONFERENCE — 1987
An excerpt from the upcoming book by Armando Nieto, Mary Conrad, and Matt Pallamary: The Santa Barbara Writers Conference Scrapbook — Words of Wisdom from Thirty Years of Literary Excellence 1973 – 2003
In 1987 the country was transfixed by the Iran-Contra hearings playing out on television sets across the country, providing more reason to escape to the SBWC. If Nicholas Meyer‘s words from the previous year rang true and “all good fiction” is escapist, what better place to do so than the blue skies and blue roofs of the Santa Barbara Miramar Hotel for the 15th Annual Santa Barbara Writers’ Conference.
New and returning speakers included William F. Buckley, Jr., Nearer My God: An Autobiography of Faith, Overdrive: A personal Documentary, and See You Later Alligator, Jackie Collins, Hollywood Husbands, Hollywood Wives, etc., Dominic Dunne, Fatal Charms and other Tales, and The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, Elizabeth Gilchrist, Your Cheating Heart and Second Chances, A. Scott Berg, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius, Gerry Spence, Gunning for Justice: My Life and Times, Trial by Fire: The True Story of a Woman's Ordeal at the Hands of the Law, Dr. J. Pursch, Dear Doc, rescheduled from the prior year, Stirling Silliphant Pearl, Steel Tiger, Maracaibo, and Silver Star, and Valerie Kelley, the first SBWC speaker on erotic fiction.
Ray Bradbury opened the conference for the 15th year in a row, and seeded the attendees with visions of metaphors and lists of verbs and nouns on Friday night. Saturday afternoon acclaimed screenwriter Stirling Silliphant, The Towering Inferno, Poseidon Adventure, In the Heat of the Night, Charly, etc., also author of several novels, was introduced by movie director Ralph Nelson, Charly, Lilies of the Field, Requiem For A Heavyweight, etc.
Paul Lazarus introduced Ralph Nelson because of their past association, among a group of Hollywood friends who included many of the profession’s greats. Nelson told the story of making the film Charly, when he met daily with Cliff Robertson and Silliphant to carefully craft the movie’s screenplay. Nelson said Silliphant had an uncanny ability to “see” how the script came together—saying, “that scene will require four eights of a page; that scene will take two full pages.”
Because Cliff Robertson was in high demand at the time he formed a partnership with director Nelson to craft and complete the picture. Silliphant would then take the fruits of their efforts and perform the seemingly impossible, especially as the character Charly progressed and regressed through the arc of his intelligence. From his efforts, actor Robertson and director Nelson followed Silliphant’s direction resulting in the classic film Charly.
Silliphant said, “If you don’t stay with the film it will end up not being the movie you wrote.” He added, “I’ve been very fortunate to be with director’s who worked with me, especially with all the juggling they have to do to make a film.
“When you write a script you must, with your choice of words, inspire the people who will read it.”
“I find reviewers to be very funny and interesting people,” she said. “People Magazine ran a positively insulting review of my last book, and that sort of upset me, because the
Sunday night Clifton Fadiman was honored for his lifetime devotion to writers and literature. His credentials include book editor for The New Yorker, critic, essayist, Book-of-the-Month Club judge and author of a dozen books.
Charles Champlin introduced Fadiman displaying a passion not only for Champlin’s reverence of The New Yorker, but also his personal affection for the Santa Barbara resident.
“He influenced the fate of many writers and the tastes of the reading public,” according to Champlin.
Workshop leader Ted Berkman introduced A. Scott Berg, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius the following day. His topic, “Writing A Biography,” built off of his epic biography of Perkins.
Berg started off his remarks telling about a grade school experience where he was required to write a report on an Author. His mother led to his discovery of F. Scott Fitzgerald, for whom he had been named, and by the time he graduated high school he was certified as a legitimate “Fitzgerald nut,” which is why he convinced the Princeton admissions office that he would come anyway if they refused to admit him, and thus he matriculated to Fitzgerald’s alma mater.
At Princeton he found mounds of original documents of Fitzgerald’s tenure at Princeton, including early drafts of the Great Gatsby, and a manuscript of This Side of Paradise annotated by Max Perkins, then working at Scribner’s publishing house. Perkins suggested several corrections, which Fitzgerald accepted. Perkins continued to champion the book with the Scribner’s board including old Mr. Scribner, who eventually agreed to publication.
“Before Max Perkins, an editor was a particular kind of guy,” said Berg, and described a limited relationship between a writer and an editor. “Max Perkins redefined that relationship.”
The relationship between Fitzgerald and Perkins is documented with letters back and forth over a period of twenty years. Editor to Author is a selection of some of those letters published in one book.
To hear Berg speak about the relationship brought up images of a beloved mentorship, with Perkins the mentor and Fitzgerald the privileged mentee. It also evoked memories of a time past, when the economics of the industry and the country allowed for such special relationships, or maybe it was just a time when editors had more courage?
Gayle Lynds will Thrill Us @ SBWC 2016, June 6
Gayle Lynds
Gayle Lynds will be on stage at the Santa Barbara Hyatt on Monday, June 6, 7:30 PM. She has the generous spirit one would expect of her Midwestern roots, but the page-turning espionage thrillers she writes reflect a wide canvas of world politics and culture.
Her latest award winning thriller, The Assassins, is no exception.
Gayle is an alum of SBWC. It's rumored she met her late husband, author Dennis Lynds, at this conference many years ago. SBWC audiences have heard her speak several times over the years. Her talks are full of great stories and practical information for writers of all genres.
Have you ever wanted to be a spy? Test your SpyQ on Gayle Lynds' website. http://gaylelynds.com
The morning after her talk she will lead a morning workshop titled "The Villain Drives the Plot: Elements of Character."
The June 7 morning workshop is open to registered students at SBWC (http://www.sbwriters.com/conference/ to register)
The evening talk is open to the public. Tickets $10.
Ross Macdonald Literary Award Opening Night June 5 @ SBWC 2016
sbwriters.com
Ross Macdonald
On opening night, June 5, 2016, Santa Barbara Writers Conference will host the presentation of the Ross Macdonald Literary Award. In past years the award has been given to Ray Bradbury, Dean Koontz, Sue Grafton, Mark Salzman, Robert Crais, T.C. Boyle, and James Ellroy.
This year, the recognition will be awarded to the prolific writer Dennis Lynds who passed away in August of 2005. His widow, award winning author of political thrillers, Gayle Lynds, will receive the award on his behalf and will speak on Dennis' writing.
He is best known under the pseudonym Michael Collins, writing the Dan Fortune novels, all of which are available in both print and ebook. He wrote in multiple genres under various names over four decades, and he is known for a literary style that transcends the genres he wrote in.
Ross Macdonald, Dennis Lynds and Gayle Lynds all have had a connection to the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and we are pleased to celebrate this history while honoring Dennis' fine literary style.
The award ceremony precedes our opening night speaker Rufi Thorpe. This event is open to the public. Tickets $10.
THE HISTORY OF THE SANTA BARBARA WRITERS CONFERENCE — 1986
An excerpt from the upcoming book by Armando Nieto, Mary Conrad, and Matt Pallamary: The Santa Barbara Writers Conference Scrapbook — Words of Wisdom from Thirty Years of Literary Excellence 1973 – 2003
Thursday night was Jonathan Winters night, a Santa Barbara resident frequently seen around town, table hopping when out to dinner or entertaining other shoppers in the local grocery stores. Before moving to Santa Barbara in the ‘70s and his first appearance at the SBWC, Jonathan had a lengthy career as a comedian and comic actor in many films, including the 1963 “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” and a brilliant recurring role on the “Mork & Mindy” show. By the time he moved to Santa Barbara, he was also a successful writer and painter.
As the closing night speaker, Jonathan was introduced by Barnaby Conrad who said they’d created a special Jonathan Winters Humanitarian Award for his long friendship and volunteer work in the community. Jonathan said he preferred something else, preferably in an envelope!
Jonathan began his remarks noting “the remarkable, young and healthy audience ready to face rejection.”
“I have made some notes. People think I don’t,” he added, “but I am under heavy sedation. I know I don’t look it.” He had the audience laughing at the end of almost every sentence.
What followed was a series of comedic sketches as he introduced his audience to some of the readers from around the country who would be reading the output of their labors. It is impossible to do justice to Jonathan’s renditions, but Maude Fricker is familiar to audiences around the world.
“I’m 96 years old!” she said, “and much of this body has been used by my husbands, all of them, and I have 300 children. So you see I have lived!”
He talked about his latest book, and the rejection he faced until he finally was able to get it published. Taking it up, Short Stories and Observations for the Unusual, he read, “This is a little thing called my hobby. ‘I collect rainbows…I collect winks from beautiful women…” and the audience hushed.
To listen to Jonathan Winters read from his writing is an eerie and emotional experience. He reads and writes from the fragile place in his heart, his observations of things going out of existence, or what used to be is as moving emotionally as his comedy is belly slapping.
“I am serious about my writing,” he said, “as I am sure you are about yours — or you wouldn’t be here.”
Jonathan talked about how he was always talking about writing and painting, until he finally heeded the advice that you better put it down before time runs out.
“Most of us are out of school,” he said. “So you better know that time is of the essence, and put it down.”
For those in attendance, Jonathan showed a side that most people never saw. It was impossible not to realize that within this man was a darkness and pain for the vagaries of life, and the memories of a childhood that fueled his comedic genius. It was unarguably a most special occasion, and virtually everyone in the audience was moved and grateful to be in the auditorium on the night of June 26, 1986.
Rufi Thorpe...Opening Night @ SBWC 2016
Titles like To Fang With Love and The Girls from Corona del Mar have intrigued me ever since I heard that author Rufi Thorpe had agreed to open the Santa Barbara Writers Conference on the evening of June 5 at the Santa Barbara Hyatt in the El Cabrillo room.
Her first novel, The Girls from Corona del Mar, was long-listed for the 2014 International Dylan Thomas Prize and for the 2014 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize. Her second novel, Dear Fang, With Love is forthcoming from Knopf May 2016. She lives in California with her husband and sons.
And yet, she will find time to travel to Santa Barbara and share her wit and wisdom with the SBWC audience of eager writers on June 5, 2016 at 7:30 PM. This event is open to the public. Tickets $10.
Check out Rufi Thorpe's essays and blogs at
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THE HISTORY OF THE SANTA BARBARA WRITERS CONFERENCE — 1985
An excerpt from the upcoming book by Armando Nieto, Mary Conrad, and Matt Pallamary: The Santa Barbara Writers Conference Scrapbook — Words of Wisdom from Thirty Years of Literary Excellence 1973 – 2003
Ray Bradbury kicked off the conference with one of his more memorable lectures, at one point recalling how in a visit to his hometown of Waukegan five years past he went in to a barber shop and was accosted by the 70 year-old barber there.
“By god I’ve been waiting 40 years for you to come through that door,” the barber said. “When I was 18 years old I was a boarder in your mother’s house!”
Ray said he didn’t remember the man — “I was only three or four years old at the time after all.”
The barber said one of his favorite memories of that time was of a three-year old Ray and his brother, excited about helping their grandfather, running into the house to talk about the bags of dandelions they’d collected for the wine press their grandfather kept in the basement.
Twenty-some years later the budding writer Ray Bradbury wrote a novel entitled Dandelion Wine, wondering at the time where the idea for the story came from until he was a famous and accomplished writer in his forties visiting his home town and meeting the 70 year-old barber who reminded him of a summer afternoon when he collected gunny sacks filled with dandelions.
Ray's speeches had a similarity and an ongoing theme that he repeated every year with the same infectious, inspiring, passion. In the process of transcribing cassettes to MP3 files, we uncovered this little gem of a segment from 2002 that was classic Ray Bradbury wisdom.
[audio mp3="http://www.sbwriters.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Ray-Bradbury-2002.mp3"][/audio]
THE HISTORY OF THE SANTA BARBARA WRITERS CONFERENCE — 1984
An excerpt from the upcoming book by Armando Nieto, Mary Conrad, and Matt Pallamary: The Santa Barbara Writers Conference Scrapbook — Words of Wisdom from Thirty Years of Literary Excellence 1973 – 2003
Arguably the highlight of the conference for most attendees was Alex Haley’s return to speak on closing night. As aspiring writers, the SBWC students learned that Roots was now published in 40 languages, most recently Russian in 1984.
Mr. Haley started his talk, paying homage in his soft Memphis accent, to Niels Mortensen and Barnaby Conrad with whom he’d struck up a friendship in Barnaby’s El Matador Bar in San Francisco, despite Haley’s aversion to alcohol. He confessed that although Barnaby was probably unaware of the fact, Haley had once touched Barnaby’s coat as he walked by, just to make physical contact with a real life published writer, then one day Alex came into the bar with the idea for Roots and asked Barnaby and Niels how to get an agent.
“Well, Barnaby’s got one of the best,” said Niels. “Louis Blau.”
“I can give him a call if you’d like,” Barnaby said.
Some time later Barnaby told Alex he had set up a ten-minute interview with Louis Blau.
“I can give you ten minutes,” the attorney told a nervous Alex Haley. Two hours later Mr. Blau rose and shook Haley’s hand, saying, “If you can write that story as well as you tell it you are going to have a very successful book.”
Haley told the audience that there must be some unspoken way the world knows when something momentous has happened in your life.
“Two weeks after Roots was published my agent’s office called to ask how I was,” said Haley. “And I asked them what they meant and they said, ‘well we're just calling to see how you’re feeling.’ And no one ever cared about how I felt before Roots.”
“And I know there’s no memo that goes out to airline flight attendants, but they start asking if they can get you anything. They let you through lines quicker.”
With the burgeoning success of Roots, a lot was to change for Mr. Haley. Fresh from a visit to China, he kept the SBWC audience rapt with a rambling recitation of his life since Roots. He was in China as a guest of the government which was interested in doing a similar film production on Chinese history, for which Haley had enlisted the help of Norman Lear, but when asked what the biggest event in his career of writing was, Alex answered without hesitation. “People ask if it was winning a National Book Award, or the Pulitzer Prize, but it was something else.
“It was one of those early rejection slips,” he said. “The kind that all of you are familiar with. Everyone thinks you’re crazy, writing for years on the same idea. At that time, in the fourth year of working on Roots, I’d had at least 50-70 rejection slips.
“I went out to the post office to get the mail and I anticipated, and I was right, because when I got to the post office there was a manila envelope that I had addressed to myself. It had one of those pre-printed rejection slips, but on this rejection slip, someone had written a note in long hand with pencil that said ‘nice try,’ and, something exploded in my head, because someone had taken the time to read however many pages I had sent, and then had taken the time to write that note.”
“To this day I remember that as the biggest thrill in my writing career,” Alex said.
Everyone in the room knew exactly what he was talking about.
THE HISTORY OF THE SANTA BARBARA WRITERS CONFERENCE — 1983
An excerpt from the upcoming book by Armando Nieto, Mary Conrad, and Matt Pallamary: The Santa Barbara Writers Conference Scrapbook — Words of Wisdom from Thirty Years of Literary Excellence 1973 – 2003
As the SBWC entered its second decade Mary and Barnaby Conrad added Robert Bloch (Pscho), Larry Gelbart (MASH, Tootsie, etc.), Joshua Logan (South Pacific, etc.), and Martin Cruz Smith (Gorky Park) to the lineup of featured speakers. Most notably, conference favorite Charles “Sparky” Schulz was once again in attendance as he would not be attending Wimbledon two years in a row.
Sparky’s confederate Ray Bradbury was ready for a repeat performance, and said “this year I will wander around for the duration of the whirlwind week, try to read whatever the writers hand me, and continue to encourage them to take ideas and set them in motion.”
“Be passionate, be alive!” When Ray Bradbury opened the conference every year the emotional quotient of the audience began to soar.
Ray was the embodiment of what everyone in the room strived to be. He believed that each and everyone in the room can succeed. More than Barnaby Conrad or any other person present, Ray was the biggest cheerleader and besides his undeniable writing skill, it was his special gift.
Writers came to the SBWC for many reasons, and sometimes, they didn’t even know why they came. As Ray has said, “You come because you must!”
THE HISTORY OF THE SANTA BARBARA WRITERS CONFERENCE — 1982
An excerpt from the upcoming book by Armando Nieto, Mary Conrad, and Matt Pallamary: The Santa Barbara Writers Conference Scrapbook — Words of Wisdom from Thirty Years of Literary Excellence 1973 – 2003
1982 was the year that Ray Bradbury opened the conference saying, “For God’s sake, be in love with something madly! Don’t talk to friends—they won’t understand. Trust your intuition. Let yourself go!”
Bradbury was big on intuition that year. “Put all your loves together and try to make sense of it.”
“Make lists of your memories—turn trivia into metaphor; build on your past—create the instant now,” he said. “Care so much it makes you want to live forever.” His advice was given with passion, and those unfamiliar with him could be forgiven if they came away befuddled, confused, or convinced he was drunk or worse.
On writing, he modified something he recalled from Hemingway: “Never go to bed with someone sicker than you.” Bradbury's version was, “Never go to bed with anyone you’re afraid of, but if you do, write about it later!”
Ted Berkman, himself an accomplished writer and SBWC workshop leader, captured the flavor of all the workshops in his 1982 piece on the conference.
“A typical workshop finds some 35 women and men crowded around novelist Phyllis Gerbauer, a slim, calm literary rendition of Carol Burnett. The novices sit on camp chairs, kitchen bar stools, and the floor of a summery hotel suite, listening raptly to a student reading (strict limit: six pages at a time). At the end, hands shoot up, comments fly. ‘Terrific suspense.’ ‘Needs more personal emotion.’ The instructor is last to speak. She suggest more specific details — ‘the type of perfume your protagonist uses tells us something about her character’—and greater attention to the sensory elements generally. ‘But those are only suggestions; the decision is yours.’”
Local resident, Laugh-In, and Candid Camera writer Fanny Flagg was an early SBWC workshop attendee and in 1979 won the Fiction Award for a thousand-word story that was adapted into a television movie. Subsequently, she expanded the story to the novel Coming Attractions, which was published in 1982.
