Thursday, July 14: Film Critic Leo Braudy

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents

Film Critic & Author

Leo Braudy

Thursday, July 14, 7 pm

Brooks Institute
27 East Cota Street, Room C-3
Downtown Santa Barbara
(805) 617-4503
FREE and open to everyone!

Leo Braudy is among America’s leading cultural historians and film critics. Currently University Professor and Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature at the University of Southern California, he teaches Restoration literature and history, American culture after World War Two, popular culture and critical theory, including the histories of visual style and film genres. His work appears in journals such as American Film, Film Quarterly, Genre, Novel, Partisan Review, and Prose Studies—to name a few.

His book Jean Renoir: The World of His Films was a finalist for the National Book Award. The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and Its History was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Harper’s. His book From Chivalry to Terrorism, was named Best of the Best by the Los Angeles Times and a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times.

His most recent book is The Hollywood Sign: Fantasy and Reality of an American Icon (New Haven: Yale university Press, 2011).

Meeting minutes for Thursday, June 9, 2011

Steve Beisner offered several suggestions for "The Right Tech for Writing" at our June 9th meeting at our new venue, Brooks Institute on Cota Street. His first piece of wisdom was that sometimes the right tech was low tech, like a pad and pencil. Occasionally, the best way to research for your writing is to keep your eyes and ears peeled, and use a cardboard box full of files.

When talking about social media and email, he warned, “Don’t get obsessed or abuse it.” If we turn off the “You’ve got mail” signal, we’ll be less distracted while writing. When we do use email, he encouraged us to use it effectively, for example be sure to have a signature at the bottom with your contact information.

For sparking the inspiration to write, Steve shared a trick he learned from a lady he once knew, who would write a letter everyday to somebody she admired, whether or not she sent the letters is beside the point – she wrote everyday.

Moving on to the more “high tech” tools, Steve recommended a whole list of software for research, record keeping, and drafting and rewriting. An example of these resources was OmniOutliner (available for Mac and iPad), a program for brainstorming new ideas and organizing information. He also told us about some alternatives to the writing software many of us use, for instance OpenOffice is a free, open source, alternative to MS Word. Also on the list was the free program he developed himself, InkByte Tracker to help writers manage submissions to journals, publishers, agents, or any market. For the full list of programs Steve talked about, feel free to email him at beisner@alum.mit.edu. He welcomes writing-related tech questions from writers – it’s his way of “paying it forward” for all the help he’s gotten from other writers.

Then Steve gave the floor to his lovely wife Melinda Palacio, who opened by telling us, “If you remember one thing from tonight, I hope it’s that Ocotillo Dreams would make a great movie.” This pitch to screenwriters who might want to adapt her new novel into a screenplay was a tongue-in-cheek lead in to her point about how important community is to writers. Her connection to Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, who was in the audience that night, got Melinda her first reading as a poet. Ways she connects with other writers include blogging for La Bloga and attending the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, where she and Steve met. She uses Facebook and Twitter to meet people she wouldn’t normal meet otherwise, and this is helpful for marketing. With Ocotillo Dreams going to press soon, marketing is big on her mind, since publishers rely on authors to do the bulk of it. To illustrate her promotional efforts she brought along the book cover poster and postcards, which she also mails out to old friend. Her other plans include a virtual book tour as well as real time signings at independent bookstores.

The problem is all this promoting takes Melinda away from her writing, and distractions are not good for a writer. She says she doesn’t compose on the computer because that’s too distracting. Sometimes she uses Scrivener, one of the high tech tools on Steve’s list, to concentrate on composing and structuring, but mostly she begins her writing with the low tech pad and pencil.

Thursday, June 9: The Right Tech for Writing

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents

"The Right Tech for Writing"

with

Melinda Palacio & Steve Beisner

Publishers of Ink Byte

Thursday, June 9, 7 pm

Brooks Institute
27 East Cota Street
Downtown Santa Barbara
(805) 617-4503
FREE and open to everyone!

South Louisiana native, Steve Beisner, is a writer, musician, and computer scientist. He has published short stories and poems, and was recognized for his short fiction by the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. His short story "Matchbox" won the Country Roads Magazine fiction contest in 2008. He is currently writing a novel. Steve is an editor at Ink Byte Press, co-editing Ink Byte, a magazine for writers. Steve's long involvement as a developer and teacher of technology has led to a quest to make technology more accessible to writers more interested in magnifying their creativity than playing with gadgets. His free, professionally developed software for writers include InkByte Tracker to help you organize and manage your submissions to journals, publishers, agents, or any market.

Melinda Palacio grew up in South-Central Los Angeles. She holds two degrees in Comparative Literature—a B.A. from UC Berkeley and a Master’s from UC Santa Cruz. She co-edits Ink Byte Magazine and writes a column for La Bloga. She is a 2007 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow and a 2009 poetry alum of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Askew Poetry Journal, BorderSenses, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, Buffalo Carp, Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature, Maple Leaf Rag III and IV: An Anthology of Poems, the Naugatuck River Review, New Poets of the American West: An Anthology of Eleven Western States, Oranges and Sardines Poets and Artists, PALABRA: A Magazine of Chicano and Latino Literary Art, Pilgrimage Magazine, Quercus Review, Strange Cargo: an Emerging Voices Anthology 1997-2010, San Diego Poetry Annual 2010-11, the San Pedro River Review, Squaw Valley Review, and forthcoming in Bop, Strut,Dance: A Post-Blues Form for New Generations and Southern Poetry Anthology IV: Louisiana (Texas Review Press 2011). Her poetry chapbook, Folsom Lockdown, is the Sense of Place winner, Kulupi Press, 2009. Arizona State University Bilingual Press will publish her first novel, Ocotillo Dreams, July 2011.

Melinda and Steve live in Santa Barbara and New Orleans.