Guest post by Gemma Whelan

Gemma Whelan reads from her new book, Fiona: Stolen Child, on Sunday, October 10, at 2pm on the Oregon Education Association Stage. She also appears at 1pm for the panel discussion “First Book, First Person” on the Wieden + Kennedy Stage.

Until recently, when I met new people and they asked me what my profession was, I said that I was a theater director and educator. Friends who have known me for over 20 years, many working alongside me as actors, designers, playwrights, and stage managers, were gobsmacked when they found out I had a novel coming out. They didn’t know I was writing.

The first serious writing I did was when I embarked on my PhD dissertation at UC Berkeley. I had already passed my written and oral exams for the PhD, and done a huge amount of research on my topic, The Image of Ireland in American Drama. My dissertation advisor had a very clear picture in HIS mind of what my “book” should look like, and assumed from the beginning that it would be published. Determined to keep me working, he made me sit in his office and write while he hovered over me. The day he tried to browbeat me into picking up a sharp letter-opener and acting out a portion of the section I was writing was the day I decided to drop out of the program. I knew I wanted to pursue directing rather than academia, so I collected my MA and Candidate in Philosophy in Dramatic Arts and carved out a career as a director and an educator.

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Guest post by Lauren Kessler

At Wordstock 2010, Lauren Kessler reads from her book, My Teenage Werewolf: A Mother, A Daughter, A Journey through the Thicket of Adolescence, on Sunday, October 10 at 2pm on the Columbia Sportswear Stage; she also appears at 4pm on the McMenamins Stage for the Brave New World panel discussion.

In my new book, My Teenage Werewolf: A Mother, A Daughter, A Journey through the Thicket of Adolescence, I took on that challenge by embedding myself in my about-to-be-teen daughter’s life. It was an 18-month immersion experience (and, I probably need not add, a wild, wild ride) that took me from middle school classrooms to the mall, from practice fields to summer camp to online chat groups as I observed, chronicled—and sometimes participated in—the vibrant and scary world of a 21st-century teen. I wanted (I needed) to understand who my changeling daughter was as she moved from (as a People magazine review put it) “sweetheart to snark-mouth.”

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Make sure to check the Wordstock Schedule to see these fine authors and more at the Wordstock Festival!

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Breakthrough’
Washington Times
By Thea Cooper and Arthur Ainsberg The word miracle is one of the most overused in our language and so often engenders a skeptical reaction. …

Nabob of Negativism
New York Times
By BILL SCHEFT The book jacket of “Half Empty,” David Rakoff’s third essay collection, contains not only the warning “No Inspirational Life Lessons Will Be …

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Guest post by: Diane Hammond

Author of Seeing Stars, Diane Hammond appears at the Wordstock Festival on Saturday, October 9 at 11am on the Wordstock Stage.

Seeing Stars, the story of four child and teen actors seeking fame in Hollywood, was inspired by the two years my own family spent in Hollywood supporting our teenage daughter as she pursued a professional acting career. While Stars is not autobiographical, I certainly relied heavily on the things I saw, heard and discovered while we were there. And while upon returning to Oregon we had few regrets besides leaving good friends behind, I will always be grateful for the amazing, exhilarating, alarming and transformative experience those years proved to be for all three of us.

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Guest post by: Glenn Rockowitz

Author of Rodeo in Joliet, Glenn Rockowitz appears at the Wordstock Festival on Saturday, October 9 at noon on the Wieden+Kennedy Stage and again on Sunday, October 10 at 11am on the OEA Stage.

Ironic.

That’s probably the best word to describe the lion’s share of my adult life.

Actually the word fucked is probably more appropriate.

Here’s the nutshell of the last 10 years of my life:

When I was 28 years old, my wife eight and a half months pregnant with our only child, I was diagnosed with a very aggressive, late-stage cancer and given three months to live.

Fucked.

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Guest post by: John Addiego

John Addiego reads from Tears of the Mountain on Saturday, October 9 at noon on the Wieden+Kennedy Stage.

For years I wanted to write something that evoked a sense of the life of my California pioneer ancestors, and in the early stages of gathering thoughts for this novel I took a midsummer road trip with my daughter, Emily, through the country of our ancestors. We sped down I-5 from Oregon to Redding and approached the Napa Valley the next morning by back roads from the north. Through twisted hills to Clear Lake and the switchback highway along the flank of Mount St. Helena, we came to Calistoga. This is where my great-great-great grandfather, John York, built a cabin in 1845 after trekking across the continent. The dwelling has since burned to the ground, but the state historical society placed a plaque on a large rock there: California Landmark 682.

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Guest post by: Guy Maynard

Guy Maynard will read from The Risk of Being Ridiculous at Wordstock on Sunday, October 10, at 1pm.

I had finished a complete draft of my book, The Risk of Being Ridiculous, and I still didn’t know what it was. I asked the folks I sent the manuscript to for critical readings to help me to define its genre. “Fictionalized memoir,” is the term I first used when I started submitting chapters to my writing group long ago. I was kindly told that that genre didn’t exist. One of my potential critics upon reading my description of the book and my categorizing dilemma reminded me of the roman a clef tradition. And so my book became a novel.

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Rakoff battles mindless optimism, cancer, with new book ‘Half Empty’
Lethbridge Herald
Author David Rakoff pauses during an interview in Toronto on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010. The impulse to write about pessimism seemed like a natural one for …

Q & A with Author Stephen Elliott
The Chronicle
Stephen Elliott, author of “The Adderall Diaries: A Memoir of Moods, Masochism, and Murder” was showcased at Frequency North, the Visiting Writers Reading …’

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Guest post by: Conrad Wesselhoeft

Author of Adios, Nirvana, Conrad Wesselhoeft appears at Wordstock Festival on Saturday, October 9th at 12pm on the McMenamins Stage, and again on Sunday, October 10th at 2pm on the Target Stage.

Writing process: I work three to five hours each morning–at the kitchen counter instead of at my desk. (It’s nearer the coffee pot.) Before I start, I open my day journal and write “Bash” and then “Swoop.” These are Kurt Vonnegut-isms for a): the act of writing with painstaking attention to detail, usually at a snail’s pace; and b): the act of writing with little attention to detail, usually more quickly. First, I bash the pages I’ve been working on all week, then I lower my standards and swoop into new territory. The balance is not even: I bash more than I swoop, unfortunately.

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Guest post by: Joëlle Anthony

Author of Restoring Harmony, Joelle Anthony appears at Wordstock Festival on Sunday, October 10^th, at 4pm on the Target Stage

As a recent immigrant to Canada, I’m faced with the dilemma of where to set my books. For accuracy, I’m more inclined to choose my hometown of Portland, Oregon, or possibly rural Tennessee since I lived there for four years, but part of me wants to embrace my newfound country and set my books here. I’m a little cautious about doing it though because of language.

My first book, Restoring Harmony (RH), takes place mostly in Oregon, but also a bit in Washington and British Columbia. The main character, Molly, is a Canadian and this made me somewhat concerned. The longer I live here, the more I realize how it’s word choices and phrasing that differentiate Americans and Canadians in regards to language. And if you get them wrong, it’s obvious to Canadians you’re not really one of them.

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