Share a little about yourself. And take some time to settle in and read each other’s bios.
Who’s in the salon? Our group is a mix of writers currently in the Inlet’s Novel Salon, and writers who signed up specifically for “Metaphor in the Making.”
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Use these prompts when you write your bio:
- Include the name you’d like us to use, and if you’d like, your chosen pronoun (he/him or she/her or they/them).
- Tell us where you’re from, and if you’d like, include something unique or distinctive about that region (i.e., it may be the home of the largest pancake in the world, or the site of a famous battle, etc).
- Share what you plan on working on while you’re in salon. For example, maybe you’re working on a 2nd draft of a novel, or a book proposal for nonfiction, or a poetry collection. Or maybe you’re just working on a handful of short stories. And if you’re working on a novel or memoir, include genre, title, and (optional!) a short one-to-three sentence logline (no more than 50 words).
- Describe one metaphor that characterizes your writing process.
- And if you’d like, share your own personal “writer’s inlet.” Was there an entry point into your writing practice, one that that helped you come to understand that you not only wanted to write but that it was important and maybe even necessary to write–and possible? Maybe a friend or teacher or other writer said something to you or inspired you in some way? Or maybe your Inlet was something written: a passage in a book that made you think, I can do this! Perhaps you read or heard a story about a writer you loved, or a quote you read or heard that sparked you to enter more deeply into writing as a practice, and inspired you to keep moving forward.
How do you post your bio? Put it in the “Leave A Reply” box as if it were a blog comment.
And if you’re having a hard time seeing the box for the bio, it’s at the bottom of the page. So scroll allll the way down (and read your peers’ posts as you go).
Hello. I’m Juliet Wilson (she/her), currently residing in Green Bay, WI. This session I’ll be working to lock in a first draft of a women’s fiction novel, specifically focusing on a tighter storyline. I’d like to use our metaphor salon to explore enhancing the settings and character emotions in the story.
These days, my writing process is like a messy closet. Only a few things are hanging neatly on the rod, the rest are scattered around, wadded up on shelves, tumbling out of half-open drawers, and duking it out for space alongside some stunning, yet ill-fitting and mismatched designer shoes. And then, there’s that annoying pile in the corner that keeps growing and never seems to get sorted.
I don’t remember my original inlet into writing, but it’s always been my preferred form of communication. But as I move about in the world, particularly with travel, I’m inspired to leverage my writing to prod myself and others with open-mindedness and optimism.
I love the way you extended the metaphor of writing being a messy closet, Juliet. Messy definitely resonates with me! And coincidentally, I’m sketching out a novel in which the two main characters (wardrobe consultants and personal image stylists) spend a lot of time in their clients’ clothes closets!
Hi. I’m Helen Romanowsky and live in Marion, Iowa. I’ve been working on the first draft of a cozy mystery novel. My working title is Gone with the Jewelry. A college professor’s suggestion to me was my inspiration to consider writing something bigger than class writing assignments. Now, many years later, I’m trying to write a novel. With a degree in Computer Science and many years working in related fields, I am working on doing something requiring creativity instead of following rules. After assessing my path of writing a first draft, I can say my process is a lot like the stopping and starting that happens when learning to drive a stick shift car. I’ve been working on smoothing out the process and following a road to the destination of a completed draft.
My name is Jane Grimm (she/her) and I live in Hinsdale, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago. Prior to 1833, members of the Potawatomi tribe lived along the Salt Creek, which runs through the northern part of Hinsdale and where my husband and I walk every day. Potawatomi means “Keepers of the Fire.”
I am writing my first novel, “Tumbling into Trouble,” a middle-grade historical mystery. I am working on what I hope is close to the final draft. I hope not only to finish this draft in the next six to nine months, but make it a much better read in the process.
Logline: In the summer of 1965, a plucky eleven-year-old American girl and her older brother and sister living in West Germany race to uncover the villain who is trying to murder their friend—an Auschwitz survivor—before he can strike again.
A metaphor for my writing process is trudging in the snow. Sometimes the snow is deep, and I can only take a few small steps. It’s cold, it’s wet, I’m miserable. Sometimes there’s just a dusting of snow so the going is easier. There may even be a path shoveled. I need to prepare before I got out, wear a coat, gloves, hat and boots. Sometimes I may need other tools like snowshoes or skis. On those rare days, the sun is shining, the snow is sparkling and I’ve never felt better.
When I retired from being a lawyer a few years ago and contemplated how I would spend the rest of my days I came up with four goals: volunteer/give back, travel, take classes and write a novel. The premise for “Tumbling for Trouble” had been niggling in my brain for over forty years. It was time to write it down.
This is the poem which includes the metaphor of the chicken with its head cut off.
Grandad’s Hands
Grandad was a diminutive man. His hands,
scarred and mottled with age spots,
were in constant motion doing chores.
Each day, he milked forty cows before dawn.
His touch was so soft he was never kicked.
My feeble attempts to mimic him
frustrated the farm cat waiting for a squirt.
Those hands reached into a lowing cow’s
womb, reversed a breech and pulled out a calf.
With one hand, he grabbed a rooster’s feet,
then chopped its head off with the other,
while I watched in horror as the headless
body ran around the barnyard, blood squirting
from its neck in a frantic final dance.
Those hands wrestled barb wire
into place and nailed it onto fence posts,
and led a team of Percherons to plow
a farrow straight and true for planting.
They hauled ten-gallon milk cans onto
wagons and filled trucks with cauliflower.
They drove a tractor, baled hay, then tossed
it on to a wagon to be loaded into the loft.
At age ten, I told him I wanted to farm, too
He shook his head and said “No, Bobby
I suspect you’ll want to do something else.”
When I turned eighteen, headed to college,
my larger hand shook his smaller one, man
to man. His vice-like grip made me wince.
Seeing that, he smiled, let go of my hand,
patted my shoulder, and went back to work.
My name is Patricia Watts, also known as Trix. I live in Urbana, Illinois, home of the University of Illinois. It’s a good thing I like orange because people wear a lot of it around here!
I’m a retired Language Program Coordinator and ESL teacher, which means I have a professional interest in language as well as a creative one. Sometimes those two intertwine. For example, my background in Phonology sometimes helps with the sound aspects of writing poetry. I write both poetry and fiction, though I’m not sure which I plan to focus on for this class. A metaphor related to writing? It must be that I get lost in the woods and can’t find my way out. Whoo, novel writing is probably not my match but I just may be stubborn enough to give it another go.
Looking forward to meeting all of you! It has been great fun to read your bios.
I’m Doris (she/her). I reside in Westerville, Ohio, a place affectionately termed as “the city within a park.” I’ve lived in central Ohio for three-fourths of my life. I recently learned I was born in Lancaster, Ohio, so my father — a newly-minted lawyer at the time — could run for office as a State Representative. Fortunately, he lost. However, his interest in politics set the stage for a youth seeped in history, politics, and current events, leavened by an appreciation for musical theater and political comedy, all of which — for better or worse — I’ve carried with me to the present day.
I’m excited to dip my toe into Angela’s inlet — in no small part — to let the gentle current of imagery and syntax carry me away (at least for a time) from the fraught political landscape we find ourselves in. The mere act of writing — of putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) — nearly always makes me happy.
I’m working on a novel (current title: The Secrets of Our Souls), which tells the story of how a bright but very private girl who harbors a love of rock and roll, a desire to see the world, and a deep-seated fear of pregnancy, deals with an unwanted pregnancy in the pre-Roe-v-Wade Midwest. (Okay, I’ve been working on it for a while; when I started it, Roe-v-Wade was still the law of the land.)
The novel could be classified as either a comedic coming of age story for septuagenarians or historical fiction for young adult readers. I want to make the story as highly textured, multi-layered, and multi-dimensional as my imagination allows. I think Angela’s Metaphor in the Making offering will greatly aid me in my quest, and I look forward to her insights and gentle nudging as I continue my journey.
Although I enjoy traveling solo, the older I get the more I like to linger with others who are on their own writing pilgrimages. Stopping to talk and listening to others, I always learn something new and surprising. That makes the journey all so much more fun, and, as a song I very much identify with goes, “Girls just want to have fun.”
Hi, I’m Sondra Retzlaff. I grew up in the Fox Valley area of Wisconsin and currently live in a little town called Little Chute, which is home to a historic windmill that occasionally still is used in real-time to grind flour, and then they bake bread for the people who stop by to see it working. I was 11 years old when I knew I was a writer–(of all things!) a soap opera storyline on a snow day inspired me to write a poem that I showed my mom as soon as I was done. Her astonishment at the result (she looked at me, back at the poem, and back and me and kind of fell back onto the couch asking, “You wrote this???”) told me that maybe I was on to something. So, poetry is my sweet spot, and I also write short stories, or want to.
This segues perfectly into the metaphor that works for my writing process-shopping for clothes, where I am trying a lot of things to see what works, but not really developing a personal sense of style. During the salon, I will be working on a series of poems. I’m interested to see if working with metaphor helps me focus that a bit more, and like Maren, my intent is for the writing salon to help me establish a routine and writing process. I can be sporadic, and I want more consistency.
My name is Mary Rodriguez (she/her) and I’ve lived in McFarland, WI, for the past 20 years. McFarland is located on ancestral, sacred and continuously inhabited Ho-Chunk land; west of Lake Waubesa, north of Mud Lake, and southeast of Madison.
I primarily write fiction but also dabble in poetry. Some of it has been published. I am currently re-working a novel about the early days of computer design.
A metaphor that describes my writing process might be gardening. Beginning a piece is like planting a seed. As it slowly becomes established, I try to step back to enjoy what it is and imagine what I can do to make it better.
I’m looking forward to Metaphor in the Making.
My name is Maren Knutson, and I am originally from the very small town of Clinton, Wisconsin. I work as a grant writer at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. Outside of work, I enjoy writing fiction, painting, and getting outside. My writing is influenced by nature and memories of growing up in rural Wisconsin. I hope to use this class to get into a regular writing practice and break through writer’s block.
Hi! I’m Jane Curtis (she/her). I was born in LaCrosse (the pull of the Driftless area!), grew up in Shorewood ( magnificent Lake Michigan!!), went to Madison for grad school (stayed for 30 years) and recently moved back to Shorewood. Wisconsin landscapes play a major role in my short stories and poems.
My PhD is in Contemporary American Literature. Stories have been published in Midwest Review and Rosebud. My collection of fiction Reach Her In This Light was published in 2023 by Cornerstone Press , University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point.
I’m just beginning my second book, based on Eleanor, one of the characters in my first book.
example: murmurations of starlings, so many punctuations in the sky!
My name is Robert Paul Allen. (he/him) I am a physician and began writing poetry in a serious way when I retired. It was at that time I first encountered Angela who was a great help.
I write mostly narrative poetry in free verse and I’ve played with other forms. I have published 50 poems in various journals and published one chapbook and have a second ready to publish.
I live in a rural part of Maine, the second congressional district for you politicos. I am surrounded by beauty four seasons a year and live on a lake which is gorgeous.
My wife and I are very active and love to hike Maine’s woods and we are involved in a host of volunteer boards and activities. We love to travel and just got back from a trip to Germany, Austria, and Croatia.
My first zoom meeting will be from my Sister’s house in New York where I am going tomorrow to help her deal with her husband who is in his last days.
I get my inspiration from a long life of events and relationships, children and grandchildren, and my wife who has put up with me for let’s just say a very long time.
When I am writing a poem it undergoes about 100 drafts. Sometimes at night I wake up with a revision and run out and tap it in.
I belong to another poetry workshop group which is ongoing and the members of it have give me a lot of support.
Metaphor is of great interest to me because if I can learn to understand it, and manage it, I think it will make my poems more intriguing, meaningful, and memorable.
I’m Kris Majdacic (pronounced Majacic without sounding the d) (she/her).
I currently live in Glendale, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee and was born and raised in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, an hour north of Milwaukee. Sheboygan was settled by Potawatami, Chippewa, Ottawa, Winnebago, and Menominee tribes. The Menominee name for the city means “at a hearing distance in the woods.”
My novel is a medieval fantasy and is called The Last Queendom.
Logline: An illegitimate warrior-poet attempts to save the Crestean Princess from having to marry for money, but he finds he could need to save the queendom, its independence, its soul from her.
I have completed several partial first drafts and one complete first draft. I am revising a detailed outline for the next revision.
I’ve recently learned to follow my gut sometimes, especially when there are many and sometimes contradicting recommendations by the experts.
Email address: kmajdacic@gmail.com.
Ann McPhail here, of Northern Michigan. Ancestral home of the Anishinaabe people in the Great Lakes region. I am surrounded by fruit orchards and vineyards, bunnies, bobcat, and beaches populated by fossils older than the dinosaurs.
I write creative non-fiction essays. My current goal is to write about my days in the Peace Corps working for someone who was my polar opposite. At the time I didn’t appreciate how my presence upended his world, just as his beliefs made my life miserable. It’s this facet of our relationship in the context of economic development that I want to explore.
I mostly write about nature and climate and my beloved Petobego, a coastal marsh just down the beach where I spend inordinate amounts of time watching wildlife and taking photographs, my dog in tow.
One day I hope to write something worthy of sharing with readers and other writers. It hasn’t happened so far but I’m still new at creative writing and have much to learn, esp around using metaphors.
Not sure if bio page is the same as this page?
Yup, this is the bio page!
OK! This is Sandy, from the 2 1/2 blocks off Wingra Park and Lake Wingra neighborhood in Madison WI, famous for lovely moonrises
off the lake, sandhill cranes flying to and fro (over my house!), sharing walkways from the Arboretum, and a busy SW Bike and Pedestrian Pathway. This influences my writing a lot, happily.
Working on a frame for newest collection of poems….likely have written and redone enough poems, but organizing it to fledge and
fly on its own internal compass is harder this time….climate change?!