Amazon review of "Liz."

http://www.amazon.com/review/R37BL5JNPCVRM0/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

In case you've been on the fence about buying Liz A. Stratton Closes the Store, perhaps this review will convince you.

And, I didn't pay this person, and I don't think I know who it is, either. So there. :)

m

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

 Fresh fun take on an old story..., December 27, 2012

By 

Imez

This review is from: Liz A. Stratton Closes the Store (Paperback)

"Liz Closes the Store" is a retelling of the old Greek story of Lysistrata, where women decide to end a war by cutting their men off, sexually. Anderson updates the story into a fun, fast, feminine-power read. It isn't quite on purpose that Liz Stratton finds herself running for president in a country mired in a deadly but pointless war. But her brash, no-nonsense wit is just what the people, at least those with double x chromosomes, have been waiting to hear. The women of the country are so taken by their reluctant heroine that she soon motivates them to stop the war killing their sons and husbands by denying the men of the country the one thing they want most: their bodies. Along the way Liz must contend with her own budding romance, a difficult thing to have when you're the face of feminist abstinence.

Anderson's book is pure fun, reality trimmed to fit delightfully into fantasy. Nothing is dull. It's a new kind of chick lit and romance, smart, fast, and a little crazy.

Nov. 9, Falls City Library Authors' Night

Poetry Workshop and Author Event in Falls City
Henry Hughes to give the poetry workshop

Authors including Maren Anderson to participate in the Authors' Night. 

Come to Falls City for Literary event to support the Falls City Wagner Community Library. 

First, from 4-6 PM, Henry Hughes will teach a poetry workshop for $15. I am taking Henry's poetry class at WOU this term, so I can vouch for what a wonderful teacher he is. 

Then at 7 PM, the Authors' Night begins. I will be there with other Willamette Valley writers signing books and giving readings. I plan on reading a short work that is not associated with Liz A. Stratton Closes the Store, so if you want to hear some of the other work I do, be sure to drop by. Cost for the author night is $5 or free if you attended the poetry workshop and includes dessert!

Details:

Where:  

Falls City Community Center, 320 N Main St., Falls City.

When: 
November 9, 2013
Poetry workshop: 4-6 PM
Authors' Night: 7-9 PM

Cost: 
Poetry workshop: $15 (a steal)
Authors' Night: $5 or free if you paid for the poetry workshop
Donations are tax-deductible. 

More information: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20131105/UPDATE/131105002/Falls-City-library-plans-poetry-workshop-author-event?nclick_check=1

TWO Options for Nanowrimo classes

Do you have an idea for a novel? 
Do you want to participate in NaNoWriMo, but want to do it with the support of a (for-credit) class? 
Do you need one more credit this term? 

Then the Novel in a Month Class is the class for you!

Do all of the questions above apply to you, but you can't go to a weekly class? 

Then the One Day Novel Power Planner class is for you! 

Thee classes will be held In downtown Monmouth, Oregon. 


Option One: The Novel in a Month Class 

Write Your First Novel In Thirty Days is a 6-week class aimed at people who want to write a novel by participating in the deadline-driven, community-supportive atmosphere. The class will focus on:
     
    * preparation for writing a book-length first draft (including idea generation),
    * completion of the book-in-a-month challenge,
    * and end with a workshop on what to do with a freshly written novel.

Held at Rick's Place Cafe in Monmouth at the following times: 

• 7:00-8:30 PM ,   One Wednesday and 5 Thursday nights 
• October 24, November 7, 14, 21,  27 (W), and December 5, 2013 (concurrent with NaNoWriMo.org)
• Registration Fee: $75* (includes required text) 
• (1) Credit Fee: Additional $50 (see form below) 

*This is the last time I will offer this class for under $100. If you've been waiting for the perfect time, accept that there will be no perfect time and do it now to save yourself some money!

Option Two: One Day Power Planner:
Don’t have the time to commit to driving to Monmouth each week during Nanowrimo? 
How about one Saturday? Can you commit to that? 
This 6-hour class is aimed at people who want to write a novel by participating in a deadline-driven, community-supportive atmosphere. 
The class will focus on: 

• preparation for writing your book (including idea generation), 
• planning of the first draft of your book, 
• and end with a workshop on how to complete that first draft. 
• Students will have the option of dropping in  2 times to the six-week Novel in a Month class for free! This includes the last day lecture “I’ve written a novel, now what?” $5 per each additional class meeting. lecture.
  
• 9 AM to 4 PM ,  Saturday, October 19
• Ballroom above 125 Main St E, Monmouth, OR 97361 
• Registration fee: $100 (includes required text) 
• Sorry, we can't offer credit for the one-day class

http://marens.com/MarensWorld/Classes.html

Gearing up for Novel in a Month, Summer 2013!

Hi Writers!

I'm getting ready for the first Novel in a Month class this year! We begin July 3 (Weds) and then switch to Thursday nights through August 1.

If you are doing Camp Nanowrimo, this might be the support you need to get you to the end.

If you have a trunk novel that needs to be completed, this class can help.

If writing a book is on your bucket list, check that item off by the end of the month!

Read the long description here.

If you're sold already, email me at andersm@wou.edu for more information.

Hope to see you this summer, writers!

m

Free Workshop: The Self-Publishing Revolution

Hi!

Here is a fantastic workshop by my pal, Scott Carter. If you write short stories or novels and want to make money with them, this is essential information. 

m


Faculty, staff, and friends: You're Invited!

Ready to take on the summer? Time to get some publishing done? Give yourself a head start by joining us for an inspiring brown-bag presentation by our own Scott Carter:

The Self-Publishing Revolution:How to Create a One-Person Publishing Empire from Your Laptop 

Wednesday, June 2611:30am—1:00pmWillamette RoomWerner University Center

In the last few years, the publishing industry has undergone a revolution unrivaled since the invention of the Guttenberg Press.  With the rise of online bookstores, ebooks, and print-on-demand technology, a writer can reach a worldwide audience at virtually no hard costs -- as long as the writer has the skills to do it.  Scott Carter, an instructional technologist at WOU and key support person for our online course offerings, is also an accomplished fiction writer and Oregon Book Award winner.  He has sold books to traditional publishers like Simon and Schuster as well as published novels under his own press.  In this 90-minute presentation, he will talk about the pros and cons of both traditional and independent publishing, as well as lay out all the nuts and bolts a writer needs to know to take advantage of the exciting opportunities that exist today.

We hope you will join us for this exciting presentation, offered for free as a part of the MSEd Information Technology Summer Institute. 
For more information, contact: Mary Bucy, bucym@wou.edu

Noveling in the Summertime!

This is the first noveling class for 2013!

I've timed the class to be at the same time as Summer Session at WOU and OSU, and with Camp Nanowrio. We're going to have a great time!
maren

Summer Session of the Novel in a Month Class!

Hi!

Do you have an idea for a novel?
Do you want to participate inNaNoWriMo, but want to do it with the support of a (for-credit) class?
Do you need one more credit this term?

Then the Novel in a Month Class is the class for you!

The class will be held at Rick's Place Cafe in Monmouth at the following times:

one Wednesday and Thursdays 7:00 to 8:30 pm
July 3 (Wednesday) July 11, 18, 25, and August 1(Thursdays) (concurrent with Camp NaNoWriMo.org)
Registration Fee: $70(includes required text)

(1) Credit Fee: Additional $50(see form below)

If you are interested in this class, please fill out thisformand email it back to me atandersm@wou.eduor snail-mail it to me at:

NIAM
c/o Maren Bradley Anderson
PO Box 305
Monmouth, OR 97361

If you mail the form, you may include your check, or you can bring money to the first day of class.

If you are interested in taking the class for course credit, please visit this email me at andersm@wou.edu.  

Class size is limited to 20. Early registration is recommended!
* Do you have a great idea for a book, but haven't gotten around to writing it?
* Perhaps you have no idea, but do possess a deep, burning desire to write.
* Maybe you are convinced you don't have time to write a novel.
Really, who has time?
Lots of people! Every November, hundreds of thousands of people participate inNational Novel Writing Monthby pledging to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days.
In fact, our instructor, Maren Bradley Anderson, has "won" NaNo for three years by writing over 50,000 words in thirty days.
Write Your First Novel In Thirty Daysis a 7-week class aimed at people who want to write a novel by participating in the deadline-driven, community-supportive atmosphere. The class will focus on:
* preparation for writing a book-length first draft (including idea generation),
* completion of the book-in-a-month challenge,
* and end with a workshop on what to do with a freshly written novel.
The emphasis of this class is not quality, but quantity. Without a completed first draft, the writer cannot revise a better second or third draft. In this class you will get that elusive first draft.
Youcanwrite the first draft of a novel in just thirty days!

I hope to see you this Fall, fellow writers.
Maren Bradley Anderson teaches literature and writing at Western Oregon University. She has won numerous awards for her writing, including having a film she wrote chosen for the Mid-Valley Video Festival in Salem. She has written three novels' first drafts in 30 days each. She lives on an alpaca farm near Monmouth, Oregon.

Learn to Edit Your Novel in a Month

The May Edition!

• Have you got a "trunk novel" sitting around, just waiting for you to spit-shine it to perfection? 
• Did you finish NaNoWriMo, but don't know what to do with the completed first draft? 
• Have you sent out the first chapters of your book over and over and keep getting rejections that complain about the quality of the writing? 

Then this class is for you!

Writers often have completed manuscripts lying around in drawers which the writers do not know how to edit into better drafts. This class will teach you how to edit you own writing for smoother, more readable prose.

The emphasis of EIAM (Editing in a Month) is quality, not quantity. The idea is that after a completing a  first draft, a writer needs to be able to revise it into a better second or third draft. EIAM helps writers re-work that first draft. This class is aimed at people who want to edit a novel by participating in a deadline-driven, community-supportive atmosphere.
At the end of the class, you will have at least fifty pages of edited manuscript (more than enough to send as samples to editors at major publishing houses) and the knowledge to spit-shine the rest of your book. 

The last class will feature a  discussion about what to do now that you have an edited novel.

Pre-requisite: One completed manuscript, first or second draft (novel or memoir OR 50 pages of narrative fiction).
Where: Rick's place cafe, 123 Main Street, Monmouth, Oregon
When: Thursday nights, 7:00- 8:30 PM, April 25, 2013, through May 30. Non-credit fee: $70 (includes required text)
(1) College course credit available for an additional $50
Email andersm@wou.edu for further information. 

Praise from a former student

http://ameliael.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/to-succeed/

I just found this. Thank you, Amelia!
m

2-23-13 Wild Women Recite! reading info

Airlie Press and River Gallery present the 12th Annual Wild Women, Recite! reading.

On Saturday, Feb. 23, Stephanie Lenox and Maren Anderson will read from their work as the central event of the ongoing Wild Women show at the River Gallery.

Doors open at 7:00 pm. Reading starts at 7:30 pm.

River Gallery 

184 S. Main St., Independence, OR

Light refreshments, no cover.

The reading will be followed by an open mic and book signing.

Stephanie Lenox is a Salem poet whose book Congress of StrangePeople (Airlie Press, 2012) includes a section of poems based on the “federation of freaks,” the group of humans born into the world with a variety of highly obvious abnormal physical characteristics, who are often condemned to earn their living by exploiting these features. With delicate tact and enormous craft, Stephanie places these poems side by side with character sketches and stories from her own family, and arrives at the “congress of strange people” that, in the end, includes us all.  

Maren Bradley Anderson teaches literature and writing at Western Oregon University and raises alpaca in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Her most recent work is the novel Liz A. Stratton Closes the Store: A Novel about Sex and Politics. With wit and passion, Maren modernizes the ancient Greek tale of Lysistrata, transposing it into the story of one Liz A. Stratton, who finds herself running for president, promoting her feminist strategy for ending war, and trying to deal with a budding romance of her own.

Wild Women Recite! Poster 2-23

here is the beautiful poster for Wild Women Recite!

Feel free to print and plaster!

m

Feb. 23, Reading at Wild Women Recite!

Announcing the 12th Annual
Wild Women, Recite!

Saturday, February 23, 7:30 p.m.
The River Gallery
184 S. Main St., Independence


Featuring readings of poetry and fiction from award-winning writers

Maren Bradley Anderson
and
Stephanie Lenox


Doors open at 7:00; program begins at 7:30.

 Book-signing and open-mic will follow the featured performers. No cover. Refreshments served.

For more information, visit the River Gallery website at www.rivergalleryart.com or contact series coordinator Donna Henderson at 503-510-3789 or dnnhndrsn@gmail.com.

Maren's 2012 Recap

This year (2012) has been a good year for me as a writer.

I self-published my novel in print, I taught three novel-writing classes, I started an editing business, plus I completed two drafts of one novel and began another. I estimate that I wrote 150,000 words this calendar year alone.

Holy crap, that’s a lot of words.

I’ve made money teaching the classes and editing, but I am also in the black from selling my books, which makes me inordinately happy. It is lots more fun for me to make money selling my book or teaching people how to write their novels than it is making money teaching quasi-resentful freshmen how to write a research paper. Go figure.

I had a reading at WOU which was standing-room only. I have also been invited to be a featured reader at Wild Women Recite! on February 23, 2013,  a yearly reading at a local gallery that is always well-attended by local literati.

I’ve got one novel that I am submitting, one that is being read by an alpha reader, and a nearly-completed manuscript. The books are all in different genres: rural fantasy, straight-up romance, and “monster in the house.” I don’t have plans for my next project, but I am not lacking in ideas, and I’m not afraid of different genres, either.

Like I said, 2012 was a good writing year for me. I think I crossed over into that “serious writer” category; at least, it feels like I did. If I keep it up, someone will surely take notice and offer me a giant pile of money and fame, and Jon Stewart and Brian Williams will arm wrestle over who gets to interview me first. Right? Right?

Here’s to a productive 2013.