Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing

Palm Springs: The Invigorating Spirit Of The Sun

Posted on August 10, 2010

Balance

My first SCBWI Conference in Los Angeles was an overwhelming experience. Never have I seen so many kindred spirits together – 1,136 writers and illustrators, agents, editors and publishers. Never have I been in such good and fun company. E.B. Lewis‘ words and work left me in awe. Wow, that man knows how to paint a picture! Krista Marino’s master class Finding and Revising Your Protagonist’s Voice in a Young Adult Novel was an eye-opening inspiration. Jon Scieszka: boy, that man is so funny, telling us about the do’s and don’ts of a writer. Here’s a helpful don’t: Once you start writing, stop reading all the blogs and industry magazines and get down to working. Write, write write. But if you’re Jon’s dentist – thinking of writing a book himself – don’t, don’t, don’t. Michael Reisman shot me a cinematic view of life behind the silver screen.
In short: four days of inspiration, packed with seminars, talks, master classes; four days of making tons of new friends. I wouldn’t have survived without SCBWI’s member of the year Christopher Cheng, who guided me, reassured me, introduced me and made sure I felt welcome.

Resilience

But… after four days I was totally exhausted, inspired for years to come, but exhausted and I needed some time alone to let it all sink in. I stepped out of the hotel lobby into the sun and knew where I had to go. The desert.
I took up residence in Palm Springs and went for a hike in the Mojave desert, up the barren mountain tops and through amazing Joshua tree forests. The desert is where I recharge my batteries, where I restore my balance. It’s where the wind and the sun bring me new stories, where they remind me that the desert’s story is a writer’s story, a story of balance, resilience and perseverance.

Perseverance

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, Children's books, The Views, Views Abroad, YA books

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Los Angeles View: do’s and don’ts

Posted on August 1, 2010

From the Doors to the Dead

It was a swift and beautiful ride from the Dead to the Doors, or from San Francisco’s hippie streets to the deafening din of West Hollywood. I won’t bother you with too many pictures, you just have to experience Haight-Ashbury and Amoeba Music, Monterey Pop, the Beach Boys’ burgers and Truetone Music yourself. Go there! It’s worth it.

Mall Racer

Once in Los Angeles I got immediately tangled up in buzz of the SCBWI Conference, the annual summer conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. While I was trying to master the do’s and don’ts in writing, editing and publishing, the nearby mall had some good advice as well. Safety first, is what they must have thought and sometimes that can be quite a hilarious thing to think of. What about this sign on where not to put your child when you want to race the mall in your very own mall racer. It is printed right there, on the bag and you see it just as you want to put your child in and have a go: Do not put child in bag!
But where else would you put your child when you go racing?

Where to go

Thankfully the mall had more to offer. Directions on where to go if your mom did put you in the bag when you were a child, and if that didn’t turn out so well. They have thought of that in the Westfield mall and I can only hope that they saved you a spot at the top floor of the MGM building, because that is where they want you and your wheelchair to go according to this sign.
Or would it be the pearly gates they’re pointing at?

Categories: A Bit of Everything, The Views, Views Abroad

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Lake Tahoe View: A thunderstorm building up

Posted on July 28, 2010

A beautiful day

It started out as a beautiful day, a day that, for some reason, promised it would give me the world and more. There were some distant clouds, but they did not bother me, they only emphasized the intensity of the blue sky and the deep blue waters of Lake Tahoe, they only highlighted the searing sun above me. I imagined myself floating on this crystal clear lake, warmed by the sun and cooled by fathomless depths.

A glorious day

But then it all changed when I got word from across the ocean. Bad news. Not bad news as in death or doom, but bad news as in you just gave birth to a child and it is a beautiful child, just as beautiful as this day on the lake. Deep down in your heart you know – of course you know – it is not perfect, but you are convinced that in time, with the right love and grooming it will grow into a beautiful being, like this happy boy on this glorious day at Dollar Point. And then some people come by to admire your child, but they do not see the promise. They see the ears sticking out, they point out the undefined color of the eyes, and they shatter your dream.

I found myself back floating on the lake. Dark clouds gathered quickly and my heart turned to lead, too heavy for the water surface to carry me. I sank. The water surface closed above me and changed the searing sun into an icy cold moon. The fathomless depths reached out and pulled me down. A cutthroat nibbled my toe.
Was it a cutthroat?
Whatever it was, it jolted me awake. I turned and dove up, breaking through the surface, remembering how beautiful and glorious and inspirational a sudden thunderstorm could be. I dove up knowing that nothing or no one could shatter my dreams.

A thunderstorm building up

Categories: A Bit of Everything, The Views, Views Abroad

Silicon Valley View: A Horrible Death to Die

Posted on July 24, 2010

A quiet little town

Palo Alto is where I took up residence for a couple of weeks, before I head down south to that famous city of angels and stars for a writer’s conference. From the outside it seems a quiet little town, but there is more to Palo Alto than meets the eye. Underneath, Palo Alto is a vibrant city that sucks you right into the country’s techno vortex. It is the home of Stanford University, the alma mater of more than a couple of successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Yes, graduating from Stanford definitely enhances your life’s expectancy.

Mausoleum of the Stanford family

But as you know life is closely related to death and at Stanford, too, life and death go hand in hand. Stanford’s namesake Leland Stanford Junior died in 1884 of typhoid just a month before his 16th birthday, while on a trip to Italy with his parents. Devastated by the loss of their only child, robber baron Leland Stanford and his wife Jane Lathrop Stanford founded Stanford University in his honor. Leland Stanford died of heart failure in 1893. His wife Jane took the Stanford reigns, keeping a tight grip on them. Apparently not all were happy with her dominion, because in 1905 she died of strychnine poisoning. Her famous last words: ‘This is a horrible death to die.’

Stanford family

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, The Views, Thrillers, Views Abroad

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Silicon Valley View: Where the Wind of Freedom Blows

Posted on July 21, 2010

Dead Man's Omen

It was dead silent at The Farm. No one but me and the omnipresent sun were seen on the Main Quad, that seemed to have freed itself from the usual student mêlée and now oozed an eery quiet. Was it summer recess that had put campus life on hold?

Bric-à-Brac welcome

I crossed the quad, hoping to find refuge from the sun in the university’s inner sanctuary, but despite Paoletti’s molten silica on the church’s facade displaying Christ’s welcoming of the righteous to the kingdom of God, the bronze doors were uninvitingly shut. It contrasted sharply with the message I got earlier that day, when entering a bric-à-brac not too far from The Farm. At that time life still seemed Californian happy and sunny. Why had Christ and the chaplain closed the doors on me? Was I not cut out to be one of the righteous?

A painter' palette knife

Blood on the Knife...

Wondering about life’s mysteries I strolled along the arcades and circled the quad. The silence closed in on me like the silence that closes in on you when you are spied upon by a thousand hidden eyes. Suddenly a flickering caught my eye. I rushed over, happy to find a soulmate – even though it most likely would have no soul – a mate that would lift my spirits and take away the anguish of being the last one left. I was right. It was soulless. Soulless and sinister, carelessly discarded by a murderer who knew he had nothing to fear, who knew that the wind of freedom blows over the cardinal colors of Stanford: a painter’s knife covered in blood…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, The Views, Thrillers, Views Abroad

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San Francisco View: Twin Peaks

Posted on July 20, 2010

Twin Peaks

The best way to start a day in San Francisco is to hike up one of its hills to get a bird’s view of the city. I decided on Twin Peaks and looking up from the Vista point I was welcomed with that classic San Francisco view: fog rolling in from the ocean, routed by a fierce wind, beheading all things small and tall in its course.

Lonely cyclist up on a hill

I love fog and the way it plays you, giving you the world one moment only to take it away the next, closing in on you and narrowing your view to what it wants you to see, like this lonely cyclist. What does a cyclist do up on a windy and foggy hill? Why did he bring his bike all the way up? He has got a bike lock in his hand. He could have left it down and climbed the hill unburdened.
Yes, fog inspires.

Into the teeth of the wind

But it is the wind that really gets me going. A southern breeze? You can find me outside. A northwesterly force 10? Right. I am outside. Even as a child I could not resist the wind. Whenever my mother could not find me, she only had to check the old pollarded limes in our garden. Were the tops swaying in the wind, she knew she could find me on the roof, face into the teeth of the wind.
Wind liberates the mind.

Categories: A Bit of Everything, The Views, Views Abroad

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Silicon Valley View: A Ride Through the Baylands

Posted on July 16, 2010

Every now and again a writer needs to spread his wings and find new places for inspiration. I took my writer’s residence a couple of thousand miles away from its regular place and the orange madness, and settled down in Silicon Valley for the summer. Just swapped the old residence with another writer in desperate need of a change in scenery.

Bayland's horse

On my first day out, I decided on a bike tour through the Bayland’s, a marvelous wetland area just east of Palo Alto and Mountain View.

Human decay

I cycled past the city’s outskirts, past a small lake and a golf course, past the last remnants of human presence and past what we tend to leave behind if we have no need for it anymore. A driftwood horse, bowing its head deep to the eternal winds that blow in from the bay. A building, transformed into an alienating painting of both decay and civilization.
I could see the wetlands past it, I could smell the ebbing bay, so I cycled on.

Human sound changed places with the sounds of nature, with the squeaking of birds, the rustling of tall grass and reeds, the wind breathing new words and ideas in my ears.

Flocking together like writers do

When I observed the Bayland pelicans I realized they showed an odd resemblance to writers. Like writers they get together exchanging views and ideas and slurping inspiration. Some of them already spread their wings to find new places and new ideas, others seemingly relaxed, but with a close eye on each other.

And when we are done, when we got out of it what we want, what we need, we all go back to our writer’s residences, to our little solitary islands, and we nip and we tuck our stories, we groom and we tweak our sentences, we weigh our words, over and over again. Alone.

Our solitary islands

Categories: A Bit of Everything, The Views, Views Abroad

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