Big Hat Books & Arts

04/25/2024

Hey Indy Writers!

This Saturday, I will be standing behind a table at Golden Hour Books talking to people about my Recovering Writers’ Workshop. From Noon to 4pm. Please come by and say hello.

It’s Independent Bookstore Day!

And I’m holding a raffle for a $200 GHB gift certificate.

The Recovering Writers’ Workshop is the most exciting development in my teaching since I began teaching. We’ve discovered a great way to structure a writing workshop, and I’d love to talk with you about it.

Or just stop by and talk with me. And buy books.

Big Love,

Dan

04/21/2024

Dear Indianapolis Writer Friends,

I'm writing to announce the start of the second incarnation of the Recovering Writers Workshop on May 16th.

This workshop is an extension of the wonderfully successful Advanced Prose Project Workshop, which is now in its sixth iteration.

The principles of the APPW have revolutionized my approach to teaching. We’ve had so much success, and — maybe more importantly — we’ve all been so happy in our success, that I wanted to share the principles of our community to a larger audience.
And make a workshop more focused on either *beginning to write* or *recovering a writing practice* from the past.

That word “recovering.” I suppose I should start by explaining that. Although the principles of the RWW will not be unfamiliar to members of Twelve Step programs — daily practice, honesty, a certain lack of preciousness about results — I mean that word “recovery” to be about recovering yourself as a writer.

And maybe even *as an artist.*

And maybe even *as a person.*

Do you want to write but can’t seem to find the “discipline?” Have you imagined many projects but can’t quite get started? Are you thinking about applying to graduate school but can’t quite finish the application? Don’t think you’re ready?

Are you blocked by shame and self-hatred when you try to imagine doing something that’s not the kind of thing you’ve always done?

These are the sweet spots of the RWW.

The Recovering Writers Workshop will be about three things:

1. *Creating a community* which will hold and support your ambition to start writing seriously again (or for the first time).

2. Stress and support *a daily practice of writing.* Not only because the success of any writing project is built on daily practice, but also because any person who identifies (or even half-identifies) as an artist cannot be truly happy without a daily practice.

3. Introduce you (or re-familiarize you) with *the basic elements of narrative storytelling.*

The workshop will start on May 16th and will last for twelve weeks. We've reserved a very cool space at North Mass Boulder with coffee and food nearby. The cost will be $900 with room for one scholarship.

Please send me a note, detailing your experience as a writer -- although it's okay to have no experience as a writer -- and your reasons for wanting to be in the workshop. Please don't sweat this: I value honesty above all things.

Big Love,

Dan

317-340-5668, [email protected]

11/13/2013

Much as I love Hoosier humility, PLEASE let's brag a bit about our own Susan Crandall - Author and, VOTE! Her heart and soul moving novel Whistling Past the Graveyard from Simon & Schuster has been chosen as a semi-finalist (top 20 out of 13,000 major releases) for Goodreads Choice Awards, the only major book award decided by readers. Voting ends in about 48 hrs! Check out the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, NY Times Best Seller, etc. company Susan is holding her own with. This is BIG, make a difference, vote NOW! (Promise the books angels will shine on you.)

Discover the Best Historical Fiction in the 2013 Goodreads Choice Awards, the only major book awards decided by readers.

11/06/2013

“What’s your story? It’s all in the telling. Stories are compasses and architecture; we navigate by them, we build our sanctuaries and our prisons out of them, and to be without a story is to be lost in the vastness of a world that spreads in all directions like arctic tundra or sea ice.”
― Rebecca Solnit

Wonder why I love books? Reading Rebecca Solnit's "The Faraway Nearby" and loving every word!

In “The Faraway Nearby” (which takes its title from a painting by Georgia O’Keefe), Rebecca Solnit examines how we escape through stories, why we tell them, and the role of empathy in storytelling. Throughout this consoling and inspiring book, Solnit reflects on how storytelling shapes relationships...

10/24/2013

Indianapolis Star Music Reporter Dave Lindquist shares insights on Indy's music scene over the past 15 years.

10/24/2013

Fall break kid fun! Read story on awesome local author Jeff Stone , meet him 6pm http://t.co/POelv49atD

10/20/2013

Midwest’s premier event for businesswomen and entrepreneurs offers education, inspiration and community INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., Sept. ...

10/19/2013

Cheers better be heard around the world tomorrow when Peyton Manning walks on to the field at Lucas Oil Stadium. Peyton and Brad Stevens gave me my Hoosier pride. Eli Manning makes me proud to be a native New Yorker. Mike Lupica's "QB1" was inspired by Archie Manning's amazing family - make sure your teens read it!

If you were a high school quarterback, a Texas high school quarterback, this was the moment you imagined for yourself from the first time somebody said you had some arm on you. This was football now, pure football, the way you drew it up, but not in some playbook.

10/17/2013

Poetry, Women, and Wine - How can you say no?! Please join us for a toast or two, a delightful reading, followed by a book signing of "The Company of Women."

Don't think about it, just come and celebrate Mary Sexson, Lylanne Musselman, and Jayne Marek. There can't be anything better to do, or so I thought when I forgot the 25th is also my husband's birthday...we best get festive!

10/15/2013

Dare a 9-13 yr old to read the first page of a Jeff Stone book https://www.facebook.com/readjeffstone?fref=ts and you will have a reader. The award-winning author of The Five Ancestors series from Random House Children's Books, ratchets up the adventure and delivers a winner in "Lion", the second book in "The Five Ancestors: Out of the Ashes" trilogy.

Set in Indiana, biking is the scene - I say with a heart stop remembering my old friend Steve Tesich's perfect screenplay for the movie "Breaking Away". Stone, like Tesich, knows friends and family are everything, history is the key to the future, and a ripping story relies on competition, mystery, and a world outside our four walls.

Please be sure to join us Thursday, October 24th at 6pm.

Jeff Stone delivers an action-packed adventure perfect for bike racing fans, readers of the popular Five Ancestors series, and anyone who loves a fast-paced page-turner. Ryan Vanderhausen is psyched. After his mountain biking disaster, he discovers that his size and strength make him a natural for r...

09/12/2013

If you haven't read your The Indianapolis Star today, get to it already and let's hear how much you love rock star of letters Jeffrey Eugenides! You too can have an up close and personal if you show up at Butler University Monday, Sept. 16th @ 7:30pm.

Jeffrey Eugenides is a gentleman.

09/05/2013