Welcome!

I know what you're thinking... what is an author's staircase?

Imagine a staircase. Can you tell us what yours looks like? Are you climbing up it, traipsing down it, or sliding down the banister... where is it leading you, and what level of those stairs are you on? As an author or aspiring author, we know that it's a climb to the top. There are many steps that come with the process and many landings to rest on. Whether it's screenplays, short story collections, novels, or works in process, we hand-picked qualified, yet diverse, women to interview. They all have a story and a vision of what their dream staircase would be. In asking one single question, we can learn a lot about a person. Each one, equally important, just as you are to us.

There were a lot of exciting things that happened in preparation of this issue:

We got to know all of you a little better by responding personally to your e-mails.

December marks the close of our very first contest! It's been a lot of fun reading and answering all of your questions. There were a bunch of terrific entries, and we know that our guest judge is going to have a tough time! But, that's what makes it good... knowing that you writers have got what it takes. In advance, we congratulate every one of you.

A warm "Welcome to the team!" goes out to our new freelancers, D'lynne Plummer and Ruth E. Thaler-Carter. Great job ladies!

"Writing has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I wrote short stories when my creativity kicked in, which was usually around midnight and beyond. After I married, my husband told me that wasn't working for him. So, I turned to creating business plans, presentations, brochures and everything else we needed as business owners.during the daytime. Close to three years ago, my husband of thirty-six years died, and I returned to writing."

Beryl is a published non-fiction writer, a writer of flash fiction, personal essays and is currently working on a novel.

Angela owns a graphic design business in Orange County, is an award-winning artist and a published short fiction writer. She is currently working on a collection of intertwined short stories for a novel.

EVENT RECAP:

An Evening with
AMY TAN

Garrison Theater
Scripps College
Calendar of Events

After our interview with Amy Tan, both Beryl and I were famished. Earlier we'd spoken to the event coordinator for Scripps College, and she suggested that we check out the campus cafeteria for some good fare, and use a special discount. So, with arms twisted, we decided to take Suzanne Zetterberg's advice and made our way over to "Malott Commons," and wrangle ourselves a bite to eat. We 'older' ladies bustled around a crowd of students that were gathering in the quad for an acoustic concert and a crafts fair, and watched as they scurried to the side, thinking that we were important professors of some sort, and proceeded into the dining room where we retrieved our well-rewarded discount.
Suzanne was right. The cafeteria food was pretty good and the selection was diverse. It was a little Hometown Buffet style, starchy in goodness, but with an amazing salad bar full of fun toppings. The giddiness from interviewing Amy must've made our appetites voracious and our eyes enormous, because soon we were balancing a stack of clean plates on our trays, and suddenly, my pants seemed a little too tight.

Beryl and I have this long standing tradition when it comes to driving anywhere. If we don't do at least one u-turn, we don't feel complete. So, back in the car, we carried out our tradition and tried to find the Garrison Theater. Luckily, a few students were able to point us in the right direction.
We made our way inside the packed theater and found Suzanne. Even though she was busy making sure all the little details of the event went off without a hitch, she graciously found time for a quick chat. "Did you eat at the cafeteria?" she asked, and "How was your interview with Amy?" Then she ushered us to a pair of roped off seats that were tagged "Reserved." Boy, did we feel like rock stars!
The lights dimmed, the crowd hushed, and a student came on stage. The next few minutes the girl recited Amy Tan's biography, her long list of achievements and awards, her work with Lyme Disease and how she started LymeAid4Kids, and her band The Rock Bottom Remainders, a band featuring Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Stephen King, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount, Jr., Matt Groening, and Kathi Kamen Goldmark ... then Amy came on stage.

"When people give you these introductions, they always leave out the bad stuff. I heard her talking about The Rock Bottom Remainders, and she left out the part that I'm not the lead singer, like a lot of people say, I'm the lead rhythm dominatrix."

"The rhythm dominatrix comes out and sings the song 'Boots.' She wears thigh-high boots and fishnet stockings, a leather bustier, a police cap, she has a bunch of cuffs and collars with studs on them, and she carries a whip. At the end of her song, the boys turn around, and I whip them... Then everyone thinks I sing very well. So, those are the credentials of the person who you've asked to come and speak for you."

Amy was on. She was dynamic and very, very funny. It surprised Beryl and I a little, because she'd been so candid with us in the interview. Our chat was like sitting down with an close friend and listening intently, while she told us her secrets. This Amy, was rock-star Amy, a seasoned pro, a comedienne, an entertainer extraordinaire!

Although, I love both Amys, I felt honored that she let us see a very real side in the time we spent together. But this side had me in stitches. Of course, I don't have the time or space to include all the things she said, but I'll try and give you a little more of the intro so you get the idea of what a great speaker she is, and how she can tame any crowd.

"I can also say, that I have a 100% rating on 400 transactions on Ebay. I also have a very good score in Bejeweled, which I once played for hours straight, and the only reason I stopped was that my hand cramped up... it's a wonder that I write any books at all!"

"When I was back there and listening, I was thinking... it's so amazing, because sometimes I still think of myself as that six-year-old kid, who wondered who the people were who had their names on the spines of books. Of course, when I read them, most of them were dead. Sometimes I wonder if I'm really dead when I'm back there and they're giving my eulogy."

"As a writer, we tend to be obsessed about the subject of death. I hear a lot about it from the people I meet. A librarian would say, 'Doesn't it give warm fuzzy feeling, that your books will be in circulation long after your gone.' And I'd say, No!"

"The worst reminder of my mortality was when I was in a bookstore in Denver. This bookseller was giving me an introduction, and it was so long that I started looking at a wire rack filled with these familiar yellow and black book covers. I'm sure the students of Scripps have never seen these before, but let me tell you what they were. They were called CliffsNotes."

"When I saw them I was mortified because I saw the three booklets I actually used when I was an English honors student. I have to say, that the reason why I used them is because I come from a $1.99 eat-all-you-can family, and when I was in school at Santa Fe State University, you paid $80 a semester and you could take as many classes as you wanted to. So, one year I signed up for seven literature classes, which meant I had to read a novel a day and write a paper a day. I was working my way through college and had a job at a pizza parlor, and had a guy I was in love with, and I fell behind on three occasions. The three occasions were: Lord Jim, Ulysses, and Hamlet."

"There I was, in the bookstore, recalling these past sins, and I gave a silent apology to my fellow authors Jim Joyce, Joe Conrad, and Bill Shakespeare... I'm glad they were dead. Then my eyes fell upon another familiar title... I'll show it to you, The Joy Luck Club. I stared at those CliffsNotes, thinking to myself, But I'm not dead yet!"

"The bookstore was really nice and gave it to me as a gift, so later on I took it back to my hotel room for a little bedtime reading. It was a real page turner! It started with the background of the author, that would be me, Amy Tan. After awhile it began to feel really creepy because it sounded like an obituary."

"There are versions of the truth...and this is Cliffs, and I have my own. He tries to give students information so that they have 'critical abilities' he says. So, he felt it necessary to tell the students of serious literature about my first boyfriend! Cliff described this as 'A relationship with an older German man, who had close contact with drug dealers and organized crime.' I read that and I thought, is he talking about my Franz? He's older...he was 22. He was friends with a couple Canadian hippies who sold hashish...but I don't remember them being that organized about it!" (the audience roared with laughter)

This is a little of what it's like to see Amy Tan at a speaking engagement. You'll laugh out loud, uncontrollably, and you'll walk out with a side ache. The best part for Beryl and I, was when Amy let us in on an inside joke. At the hotel, I'd asked her what she was going to do with her little doggie, and she said, "I don't know." "Why don't you bring him onstage and put him in a chair," I suggested, jokingly.

At the end of the performance, after Amy had taken questions from the audience, she turned around, unzipped her bag behind the podium and walked off stage. And who should pop out of the bag and follow her? You guessed it. Her little dog appeared, looked at the audience, and trotted off behind Amy. Beryl and I smiled at each other, the audience laughed, and the two of them disappeared behind the velvet drapes.