I was at the top of Telegraph Hill with my little sister, at the base of Coit Tower. I would be nine or so, and she would be six. We crawled through a hole in the fence and sat on a rough rock at the edge of the cliff, in the wind, and I broke […]
Archive | Writer
Sheet Music
I grew up not allowed to sing. My father was a jazz musician all his life. He started playing professionally when he was 15, and was still doing that two or three weeks before he died, at age 86. He was a perfectionist, very critical, highly respected in his community, the west coast traditional jazz […]
Magic
My mother, Marguerite, was very bright, absurdly literate, pathologically insecure, and a poet. As a young mother she gradually became aware that her first and most loved child was a psychopath, and believed that recognition of his defect would destroy her life. She could lose everything she loved most, both her son and her husband. […]
A First Draft of the Pitch
By Sylvia Allen on February 5, 2019 in Getting published, Like Light From Stars, Sylvia Allen, Writer
At the writers’ conference next week, I’ll have to pitch my novel to as many suitable agents as I can manage. I will have only, like, three minutes to say what the book is about in such a way that the agent is interested in hearing (or reading) more. I just wrote a first draft […]
Going to the San Francisco Writers Conference
By Sylvia Allen on January 28, 2019 in Getting published, Like Light From Stars, Sylvia Allen, Writer
I’m going to the San Francisco Writers Conference! It’s February 12-17. I’m going to this particular conference because the novel that I’m trying to publish is very definitely set in San Francisco. I went in 2016 and had a wonderful time but did not use the contacts I made in any kind of useful way. […]
Interview Questions: St. Johns Memories
These are the interview questions for when I ask people for their St. Johns memories. What year were you born? Were you born in St. Johns? Or when did you arrive here? Have you lived here all your life? Or where else have you lived, and at what ages? Where are your parents from? When […]
The Interview Strategy
For that perfect day job that I recently quit, I became adept at interviewing people. I learned how to prepare a detailed, thorough list of questions in advance. I learned how to keep the interviewee happy about talking to me, and how to control the conversation so the person doesn’t wander off into long stories […]
Maybe It Never Happened
In addition to its being set in a place where I personally did not grow up, my new story also includes incidents that never happened to me. This means that I have to go find people who did have these experiences and ask many, many questions. How did it happen? What, exactly did you do? […]
Research at the Blow Fly Inn
I am doing research for my next book. Like my completed book, _Like Light from Stars_, this story takes place over multiple generations in a place with which I am familiar—in this case, St. Johns, where I have lived since 2005. However, that is not exactly several generations’ worth. I need to find out a […]
Metaphor and Dementia: Dancing in the Sky
In the metaphorical conversations I had with the patients on the dementia ward, certain themes came up again and again. Not surprising for people with late-stage terminal illness, a common theme was concern about work being finished. A teacher was anxious about whether the materials were ready for the next day’s classes. A caterer […]