VaBook: What’s in your bookbag?

The schedule for the Virginia Festival of the Book is up, so I moseyed on over there to put some events in my “bookbag.” Here’s what I selected:

Opening the Vein: Pouring Life into Writing

I inevitably end up attending the presentations by The Moseley Writers group (no relation to author Walter Mosley); I only wish there were more sessions about craft. I wish it every year, actually. Speaking of which, what do you suppose has happened to the usual Friday line-up of publishing sessions (Buzz Your Book, the agents’ forum, etc.)? Cut from the schedule, or just not scheduled yet? They were hugely popular.

Self-Help, Twelve Steps and You

with Jennifer Niesslein (Practically Perfect in Every Way: My Misadventures Through the World of Self-Help and Back), Martha Woodroof (How to Stop Screwing Up: Twelve Steps to Real Life and a Pretty Good Time), and Al Weatherhead (The Power of Adversity).

Trying to Get it Right: Fiction About Marriage

Jenny Gardiner (Sleeping with Ward Cleaver), James Collins (Beginner’s Greek ), and Joshua Henkin (Matrimony)

Wayward Sons: Fiction with Nathan Englander and Colm Toibin

Nathan Englander (The Ministry of Special Cases) and Colm Toibin (Mothers and Sons) explore characters grappling with the parent-child relationship.

Colm Toibin! Yeah! Loved The Master.

Short Stories

Cary Holladay (The Quick-Change Artist), Quinn Dalton (Stories from the Afterlife), and Gerald Duff (Fire Ants).

Here I’m looking for some insight into that most mysterious of forms, the short story. And then maybe I can finish one of mine someday.