Christina’s Get Known Book Tour Continues

LIVE APPEARANCES:
I love chatting with readers and former students. Come and meet me!

Sunday – Tuesday
May 3-5, 2009
King County Libraries Tour
Seattle, Washington

• May 3: Mercer Island Branch, 2 p.m.
• May 4: Covington Branch, 7 p.m.
• May 5: Belleview Branch, 7 p.m.

More Info

Writer’s Digest/BEA Writer’s Conference
Wednesday, May 27th
All day
NYC at the Jacob Javits Convention Center
More Info

Writer’s Digest Author Webinar, June 4th
Are You a Specialist or a Generalist?
Evaluating Your Skill Set to Survive in Today’s Publishing Environment
by Christina Katz (60 min)
More info coming soon!

News!
Check Out the May/June Issue of Writer’s Digest magazine!

I have a six-page feature, “Build Your Power Platform” appearing in the May/June issue of Writer’s Digest magazine. My article is part of a twenty-page feature section on how to stand out to agents and editors. Other contributors in the feature section include M. J. Rose, the Writer’s Digest Staff, Jeff Yeager, and editor Jessica Strawser. The May/June issue features an interview conversation between Stephen King and Jerry B. Jenkins and the announcement of the annual 101 Best Websites.

The Fiction Writing Workshop: Let Your Characters Speak

By Kristin Bair O’Keeffe “Kristin?” “Yes?” “Do characters have to talk?” “Yes, unless, of course, your character is a true mute or her mouth is bound shut with duct tape.” Silence. And then the sound of nails drumming on a wooden desk. “Kristin?” “Mmmmm?” “Why?” “For a lot of reasons, but three pretty important ones.” “Such as?” “Well, first, dialogue helps readers get to know your characters. Look how much you learn about the narrator’s dad in Marisha Pessl’s Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Penguin Books, 2006) when on page five he gives his opinion about people writing their life stories: ‘Unless your name is something along the lines of Mozart, Matisse, Churchill, Che Guevara or Bond-James Bond-you best spend your free time finger painting or playing shuffleboard, for no one, with the exception of your flabby-armed mother with stiff hair and a mashed-potato way of looking at you, will want to hear the particulars of your pitiable existence, which doubtlessly will end as it began-with a wheeze.’ “Ooh, that guy’s got some attitude, huh?” “Exactly. And you know it both from what he says AND how he says it.” “Okay, I get that. But why else should I use dialogue?” “Ever get stalled in the forward motion of a story?” “Oh, yeah. All the time.” “Well, dialogue helps you figure out what happens next.” “It does?” “Yep, on page fifteen of Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Vintage, 2003), the first-person narrator says to a girl he meets, ‘I’m looking for my cat…’ Simple sentence. Simple introduction of a problem via dialogue. And so begins a relationship and a journey that takes you places you never thought you’d go.” “Wow, that’s pretty cool.” “Told ya.” “But you said there were three reasons, didn’t you?” “I did, and the last one is the simplest. Dialogue is interesting to read. Readers love it. In fact, I had a friend in college who only read the dialogue in books. She skipped all the narrative. She said dialogue was all she needed to get a full story. A little extreme, but telling.” “Any examples of dialogue readers love?” “Actually that’s a great assignment for you. Grab your favorite book. Study the dialogue. Look at it for characterization, story movement, and entertainment value. Then write your own.” “Hhhmm, me and my big mouth.” Kristin Bair O’Keeffe’s debut novel, Thirsty, will be published by Swallow Press in 2009. Since moving to Shanghai, China, in 2006, Kristin has been chronicling her adventures (and misadventures) in her blog, “Shanghai Adventures of a Trailing Spouse.” Her essays and articles have appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Poets & Writers Magazine, The Baltimore Review, San Diego Family Magazine, and The Gettysburg Review. She teaches fiction and nonfiction writing and is the curator of Out Loud! The Shanghai Writers Literary Salon. To learn more, visit www.kristinbairokeeffe.com.