Day 3 - Writer's Conference - Sanibel Island

 

 

great day

 

the first workshop with Andre Dubus III was fabulous

( The House of Sand and Fog, which if you have not read is also fabulous)

 

he is brilliant, funny, articulate and he hates hand held digital devices

he thinks they are putting us in a trace and they are making us rude

hard to argue with that

 

here is his definition of art:

 

"transferring feeling from one heart to another"

 

 

I went to the social hour before tonight's talks

hoping I would see Susan Orlean

(actually I did see her walk across the large patio when she first arrived,

then she disappeared)

it was hard to find a seat, but my new friend B and I spotted a bench from someone leaving
I left my stuff and went to get a plate of food, (the poo poos were really good...)
as I was walking back to our seat with my goodies, someone says Deborah
then again someone called my name, who knows me here I am thinking
I turned around and this lovely young lady said, excuse me I have been wanting to talk to you
since you were in one of my workshops
she wanted to tell me about this blog she knew of that I might like based on something
I said at the workshop, we had a great chat, just what I had hoped would happen at this conference

when I got back to my seat someone was sitting in it
not someone but Andre Dubus
and he was signing a book for the lovely young lady who I had just been talking with
we all talked together and again it was just what I had hoped would happen at this conference
 when he was signing my book, well his book I guess
he wanted to know all about my book, he seemed genuinely interested
I was so lucky to get that one on one with him, better than I could have hoped for


finally Susan Orlean
seeing her made my night

her presence smaller than I thought, and more fragile
flaming red hair against white skin
but a powerful speaker, confident of who she is and her ability to write
her ability to follow her curiosity and to make us curious too

she did not say specifically but I would say her definition of art would be
curiosity

and when she was signing my book, I told her how "The Orchid Thief"
really opened me up to how non-fiction can read even better than fiction

and she said I made her night