by Carmen Peone
Have you
ever wanted to write? Fiction? Non-fiction? Short Stories? Memoir? About women
and girls in the west…west of the Mississippi? I recently came back from our
WWW conference in Redmond, OR. What a trip! I mean both journey and event.
I met agents
and editors, I was the committee chair for this year’s conference, and just got
to know those scary people, finding out they are not scary at all, but actually
people who want to see writers and authors succeed. Succeed. Isn’t that what we
all want? To succeed at our gifts and talents?
The first
and basically only workshop I was able to attend was Reader’s Brain, Writer’s
Brain: The Science to Connect, by Stephany West Allen. We learned about the 7
synapse supporters to deepen synapses so reader will remember what they read
and how the writer can hone in their craft and pull in readers from their
emotions. How the brain works to connect with words on the page. Ms. Allen
talked about the “Big 6” to get the reader’s attention which include: intensity,
novelty, scary, interactive, diverting, and emotion. She discussed how we as
writers need to trigger the reader’s body for them to mirror the character’s
emotions. In essence, to feel what the characters feel. That’s the hook.
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| 2016 Board |
Then on
Friday morning we toured the High Desert Museum. It was like coming home to the
Colville reservation. It felt like home. When I saw names of relations to my
husband in the Native American Section of the museum that spotlight the Palouse
tribes, I knew it was from home. I felt peace and comfort as I studied each
Native artifact, taking in the descriptive tags that went with each basket,
tipi, regalia, and beaded bag.
On Saturday
Jane Kirkpatrick and I presented our workshop entitled: Weaving Life on the
Reservation into Fiction. We talked about our experiences with Native
Americans: Jane mostly with the Warm Spring Natives of Oregon, and myself with
my time on the Colville reservation studying with elders, one in particular,
Marguerite Ensminger.
I shared
pictures of tule-mat tipis, cattails, and my coveted language notebook I used
with Tima Mugs.
Jane shared
stories of working with children and families on the Warm Spring Reservation
and how she wove what she’d learning into her stories. She used four threads:
landscape, relationships, spirituality, and work. We both
talked about the ceremonies and ties to land and food, about legends, and
family.
Dinners were
shared with winners from the LAURA Short Story contest and the WILLA finalists
and winners. Authors read short excerpts of their winning stories and delighted
the audience. What an honor to hear what was written from the heart.
Most of all
we were able to fellowship, writer to writer. We know that writing is a lonely
craft, but worth it when we able all get together and uplift, encourage,
applaud. We are members of Women Writing the West. We’re one big family. Wouldn’t you
like to join?
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Carmen
Peone has lived in Northeast Washington and on the Colville Confederated
Reservation since 1988. She had worked with a Tribal Elder, Marguerite
Ensminger, for three years learning the Arrow Lakes-Sinyekst- Language and
various cultural traditions and legends. With a degree in psychology, the
thought of writing never entered her mind, until she married her husband and they moved
to the reservation after college. She came to love the people and their heritage
and wanted to create a legacy for her sons who are tribal members.
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Carmen
Peone has lived in Northeast Washington and on the Colville Confederated
Reservation since 1988. She had worked with a Tribal Elder, Marguerite
Ensminger, for three years learning the Arrow Lakes-Sinyekst- Language and
various cultural traditions and legends. With a degree in psychology, the
thought of writing never entered her mind, until she married her husband and they moved
to the reservation after college. She came to love the people and their heritage
and wanted to create a legacy for her sons who are tribal members.
