Saturday, April 05, 2025

The Weekend Writer: Getting Started Living Like a Writer

I recently took a Zoom workshop (Zoomshop? Let's make Zoomshop a thing.) with Lori Rader-Day through the Off Campus Writers' Workshop. While checking out her website, I found her suggestions on how to get started writing

What I like about them is that they are things anyone can do. She says nothing here about MFA programs. She says nothing about writers' retreats in remote places. She says nothing about putting your butt in a chair and writing every day or you really aren't interested in being a writer, are you?

What she does do is write about things you can do right away. Like this afternoon. 

 A lot of what she's talking about is what I think of as how writers live. We do:

  • Look for low-cost resources (Say, Off Campus Writers' Workshop)
  • Take individual classes and workshops (Why, OCWW again.) 
  • Go to local book events (Look for bookstore and library events. A self-publishing writers' organization in my state runs enormous numbers of gatherings at vineyards, breweries, and other outside-the-box locations.)
  • Follow other writers on social media
  • Read and write
You don't need to do something big and elaborate to get started writing. You certainly don't have to wait to get started living like a writer.


Thursday, April 03, 2025

We Need Diverse Books Day

We Need Diverse Books began in 2014 as a Twitter hashtag and from there became a nonprofit group. In addition to providing books to schools and libraries, it provides support to and publishes marginalized writers. Today they are celebrating the first We Need Diverse Books Day.

To support their effort, here is a list of books dealing with subjects under the diverse books umbrella that I've enjoyed here at Original Content. 

Picture Books

 A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin by Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet


Fancy Party Gowns by Deborah Blumenthal and Laura Freeman

Bad News for Outlaws by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and R. Gregory Christie 

Company's Coming by Arthur Yorinks and David Small  


Middle Grade

Figure it Out, Henri Weldon by Tanita S. Davis

Don't Hold Me Back by Winfred Rembert

March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Ayden, and Nate Powell      

Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Jasmine Toguchi, Mochi Queen by Debbi Michiko-Florence and Elizabet Vukovic

Strange Fruit by Gary Golio and Charlotte Riley-Webb


YA

Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler

Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite

The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz

Open Mic: Riffs on Life Between Cultures in Ten Voices, Mitali Perkins, editor

A Sitting at St. James by Rita Williams-Garcia

Adult Books

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell                                              

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty