Field's End Events

How do you know when you are ready to seek a literary agent? How then do you find one? Elizabeth Wales, who founded Wales Literary Agency in 1990, addresses these two important questions for writers looking for professional guidance. Mediabistro.com has called the agency a "discerning Seattle outfit in search of literary nonfiction and fiction from the Pacific Rim and beyond."

Elizabeth Wales, owner and principal agent of Wales Literary Agency, began her career in publishing at Oxford University Press in 1980. Wales also worked at the Strand Bookstore and in trade sales and marketing at Viking Penguin in New York. The Seattle-based agency has come to be regarded as a competitive boutique agency with a quality list. Client titles have appeared on The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and other national bestseller lists; earned strong reviews; and attracted a long list of awards and grants. http://waleslit.com

Do you wonder how romance writers make their readers' hearts sing? Learn how to keep them turning the pages into the wee hours of the night with this quick guide to the secrets of writing romance. Lisa Cach, an award-winning author of more than twenty romantic novels and novellas, discusses this and more. Learn about character growth, emotions, tension, and “the naughty bits” of romance writing.

Lisa Cach writes across sub-genres including romance, paranormal, historical, contemporary, chick-lit, and young adult. Her latest novel is Great-Aunt Sophia's Lessons for Bombshells (2012). Dating Without Novocain was named one of Waldenbooks’ “Best Books of 2002.” Cach is a two-time finalist for the prestigious RITA Award from the Romance Writers of America. She has hiked the foothills of the Himalaya and sailed the Caribbean as a working crew member of a research schooner. She is a writing instructor aboard the MV Explorer during a 2013 Enrichment Voyage around Europe. http://lisacach.com

What goes into a piece of fiction? Canadian Sarah Ellis, author of fourteen books for children, details her own process. She describes how the news, documentary films, city walking, magazine articles, and the squirrels she sees from her study window all found their way into her latest novel for young readers.

Sarah Ellis’s published work includes picture books, short story collections, middle grade novels, and nonfiction. Her books have been honored with the Canadian Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. After 30 years as a children’s librarian she took up a new career teaching at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She also writes book reviews for The Horn Book Magazine and lectures internationally. Ellis lives in Vancouver, BC. www.sarahellis.ca

Writer, blogger, and social media maven Trish Bittman tells how and why you should use social networking to promote your writing. A frequent user of Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites, Bittman discusses how writers can build their brand in just one hour a day.

Trish Bittman moved to Bainbridge Island after discovering it on the Internet. Life on the island has turned out to be all she hoped it would be and more. She is a freelance writer, a social media manager for several companies, and a regular contributor to Bainbridge Island Magazine. Bittman also maintains a humorous blog, “3 Kids and a Breakdown.” www.3kidsandabreakdown.com

Photo credit: Sally Chabon

Spiritual writing moves us beyond outlines and plots and beyond religious creeds and professed beliefs toward discovery. Freed from expectations of what and how we should write, spiritual writing opens us to encounter mystery. It also helps us delve into the unknown and attempt to name what is powerful, moving, and true for ourselves at a heart and soul level. Come for an evening of inspiration and leave with tools for the journey.

Cathy Warner holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Seattle Pacific University and serves as Literary Editor for the “Good Letters” blog in the journal Image. A former United Methodist pastor, she has led spiritual writing workshops for more than a decade, and was published by The Upper Room. Her short stories have appeared in literary journals. A Californian for fifty years, Warner now lives on Bainbridge Island where she blogs, writes, works as an editor, and hosts writers on retreat. Her website, Bainbridge Island Ink, can be seen at www.cathywarner.com.

Bainbridge Islander Dylan Tomine describes the process of sifting through the clutter of ordinary life to find stories. Ultimately, Tomine found more than enough to create a book—Closer to the Ground: An Outdoor Family’s Year on the Water, in the Woods, and at the Table.

Dylan Tomine is a writer, conservation advocate, blueberry farmer, and father—not necessarily in that order. His book Closer to the Ground was published in October, 2012. Tomine’s work has also appeared in The Flyfish Journal, The Drake, Golfweek, The New York Times, and numerous other publications. He lives with his family on Bainbridge Island, where they run a u-pick blueberry farm. www.dylantomine.com

Representing the world’s diversity in imaginative fiction makes flights of fancy more believable as well as more accessible to a wider audience. Using examples from her own and others’ work, Nisi Shawl shows what is gained through this strategy: which tactics are potentially powerful, ambivalent, or a total failure when it comes to getting everyone involved in your speculative fiction story.

Nisi Shawl’s story collection Filter House won the 2009 James Tiptree, Jr. Award. Recently her stories have appeared in Strange Horizons and Crossed Genres. In 2011 she was WisCon 35’s Guest of Honor. Shawl is a founding member of the Carl Brandon Society and serves on the Board of Directors of the Clarion West Writers Workshop. With Cynthia Ward she co-authored Writing the Other: A Practical Approach, which helps writers create believable characters whose race, gender, and other demographics differ from their own. www.nisishawl.com

Photo credit: Caren Ann Corley

Shanna Stevenson, Coordinator of the Washington Women’s History Consortium, comes from Olympia to help celebrate National Women’s History Month. She describes her use of the Women’s Suffrage Collection archives to research and write her book, Women’s Votes, Women’s Voices: The Campaign for Equal Rights in Washington. In addition to sharing her expertise about the archives, Stevenson relates how Washington women gained the right to vote ten years before the Nineteenth Amendment. 

Shanna Stevenson is a longtime local historian in Olympia. Formerly the Historic Preservation Officer for Olympia, Thurston County and Tumwater, she joined the Washington State Historical Society in 2006 as the Coordinator of the Women's History Consortium project. She has a BA in History and Education from Gonzaga University and a Masters in Public Administration from The Evergreen State College. She also directed planning for the commemoration of the Washington Suffrage Centennial in 2010. www.washingtonwomenshistory.org

Poet Jeannine Hall Gailey discusses how to make an impact on your local literary community. Possibilities include volunteering to lead a reading series, partnering with other artists, or working with schools or local government. Come learn how each of us, as writers, can make a difference by bringing our unique gifts and contributing to the creative space we're looking for ourselves.

Jeannine Hall Gailey is the Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington. She is the author of the poetry collections Becoming the Villainess and She Returns to the Floating World. Her third book, Unexplained Fevers, is forthcoming in 2013. Gailey’s work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily, and in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The Iowa Review, American Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, and other journals. She volunteers for Crab Creek Review and currently teaches in the MFA program at National University. www.webbish6.com