Wanda Snow Porter's Blog, page 5

There Really Is a Santa Claus

Every Christmas Eve, I enjoy reading Clement Clark Moore's poem, The Night Before Christmas. A saint from the 4th century, Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, known for secret gift giving and many miracles, was the example Moore used for the jolly, old elf who travels over the world with a team of flying reindeers and bounds down chimneys on Christmas Eve to deliver gifts to deserving children. Much lore surrounds the story of Santa Claus. Visit http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/home/ if you'd like to learn more about the real Santa. 
I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, and may the spirit of the real Saint Nicholas be with us all in 2012. 

Spurs for Jose Book Signing

December 3rd, in the community room of the Nipomo library, Dana Adobe Nipomo Amigos and Friends of Nipomo Library hosted a book signing and reading for my newly released novel, Spurs for José. All proceeds from the event went to raise funds for the Dana Adobe. The Friends gave away book bags, Christmas ornaments, and free tickets to win a basket of books. 

I want to extend a big Thank You to all the Dana docents and
Friends of Nipomo Library that helped at the event, and all my friends who came to say "hello", buy books, and give a huge welcome to Spurs for José. I hope all who attended had as much fun as I did.     Dana Adobe's Director of Research, Education & Programs, Doug Jenzen, with docents Jean Morrill and Barbara Watson

Guest Post by Michael O'Brien~A Poet's View of the World

I just noticed yesterday that I'd recently begun first drafts of two different poems with "I watched." Which is a good thing, I guess, to be a watcher. I enjoy watching, usually, especially if I am watching children or grandchildren. I also enjoy watching the narrative that is going on outside, with animals, plants, trees, weather --the whole pageantry. And it is interesting to write down
observations and think about the meaning of what I have seen.

Speaking of watching, here is a poem about quail, connecting to Wanda's blog posting about quail. I read somewhere that as we get older we tend to become even more interested in birds, and I think that is true:

This Morning I Saw Two…

then four
then seven quail
pop to the top of our fence.
The males wore crisper whites and blacks
in patterns about the head and crest,
a rich auburn breast,
while females tended towards gray
elegant in their more demure way.
The seven sat feather to feather
(no youngsters close by,
it being late November)
their heads bobbing up and down
necks turning back and forth,
seven fat quail on our fence this morning
busily taking a quiet moment in the sun
before hopping down one by one
to forage beneath the orchid rock rose.

My eyes must be wired directly to my spirit.
(The blind or those
who will not see
do they have detours into the soul?)

Last year a western tanager
flashed his brilliant yellow and orange
among the oaks,
burning a hole into my soul's retina.

It seems to me that many of my poems, like this one, pose questions about what I have watched. I have got many more questions than answers. I like to take a single incident or object and try to draw larger conclusions. Although I try to be accurate in my thinking, I realize that I am often mistaken, misguided.

As we age, we tend to think that we know so much more than anybody else, especially than younger people. The philosopher Montaigne, however, warned us older folks that we just get more arrogant, petulant, and that we are frequently wrong. I agree. To find modern examples, just look at the letters to the editor any day in the local newspaper. 

I have gotten poems accepted over the many years that I have been writing. Most have gone into small magazines. I've had work accepted into a couple of anthologies, one on living in Southern California and the other on marriage. I even had the poem from the Southern California anthology published years later into a college textbook of California literature. I have no idea what it was doing in there because I don't think of myself writing literature. 

Guest Post by Traci Markou~Dreams Are Hard Work

Visit my blog http://www.WandaSnowPorter.com and read about book cover designer, writer, and publisher, Traci Markou, who designed the great cover for my young adult novel, "Spurs for Jose."

Guest Post by Traci Markou~Dreams Are Hard Work

When I was very young, about five years old, my mom and I were filling out a keepsake book that documented my school years. One of the questions in the book was what did I want to be when I grew up. I answered then in scrawly handwriting that I wanted to be an artist and a farmer. I think it had something to do with the bright orange finger painting I had done in school that day and the fact that both sets of my grandparents always had huge gardens that I loved to explore.

I have come a long w...

Spurs for Jose

Yipee! My young adult, historical novel, Spurs for Jose, is now available at http://www.whimsicalpublications.com.
Please visit the Parents/Teachers Vaquero Page on my website http://www.WandaSnowPorter.com to learn more about the book.

Meet Barbara Watson, Dana Adobe Educator

Barbara Watson and Joe Dana at the Dana Adobe

Barbara, thanks for visiting my blog. I know you were
instrumental in creating the Dana Adobe's school education program. 
How did the Adobe's school field trips begin?

Thanks for asking, Wanda. I love talking about the Dana Adobe.
Dana Adobe is a California Historic Landmark being restored and retrofitted by the non-profit organization Dana Adobe Nipomo Amigos. Shortly after the DANA came into being, we accepted the stewardship to save and protect the old Dana Adobe that had been neglected for many years. Our vision was to restore the house and the land around it in order to create a historical place where visitors could learn the stories of the people who lived here long ago.

Then we met a teacher from a local school who had been bringing his students to the Adobe on field trips and began thinking of all the children who did not have the opportunity to experience the adobe. So a small group of us got together to plan a field trip program and decided to concentrate on fourth graders as that is the year in school when students learn about California history. We followed the California curriculum standards in choosing the activities that would be supplementary to the classroom experiences. We then determined the objectives that would be followed at each station. After rehearsing our program we notified fourth grade teachers of our plan and invited them to bring their students to the Dana Adobe. This is how the field trips at the Adobe came about.

Over the past ten years we have averaged close to one thousand students a year who visit the Adobe and participate in our program. Some classes come for the morning activities, others spend the day and have lunch between activities. Stations are set up, with each providing a different experience. Students, in small groups, travel from station to station, learning about who lived and worked on the rancho, the stories that were told, the animals who lived there, the music and dancing that took place and many other wonderful things. 

The most recent addition to the Dana education program is the Nature Walk. Students spend the morning studying the trees, plants and birds that inhabit the Dana Rancho. They learn about the trees and plants that have been growing at the rancho for many years and why some of them are known as native plants. They also learn to recognize plants that do not belong on the ranch but have been brought here or arrived on their own.

The interactive activities assure that each student's experience is successful. Eventually, we hope to have summer programs at the Dana Rancho where visitors will have the opportunity to study both the past and the present at this special
place.
To see all the happenings at the Adobe visit Danaadobe.org 

Guest Post Spotlight

Check out my guest post  spotlighting my soon-to-be-released young adult novel Spurs for Jose on Barbara M. Hodges blog http://www.barbhodges.blogspot.com/2011/09/guest-post-by-wanda-snow-porter.html

Interview with Screenwriter John Porter

Hi, John. 
Congratulations on your movie "Lost Mother." I really enjoyed it. How did you start writing screenplays?   

Hi, Wanda, thank you for asking. 
In the mid-1990s, while my brothers and I were feeding cattle on the Porter Ranch in San Luis Obispo County, California, my brother Chris suggested that we write a screenplay about two historical figures: our great-great-grandfather Isaac J. Sparks, who had received the ranch from the Mexican government in 1843; and Allen B. Light, Sparks's friend and hunting partner, and the first black resident of Santa Barbara. The result of Chris's suggestion was "Sparks and Light," my first feature-length screenplay.
I continued to write screenplays; and in 2006, I joined a group
called InkTip.com , which allows writers to post descriptions of screenplays--features and shorts. A director, Monalisa Dasgupta, read some of my shorts, then asked me to write a
feature with her. The result of our collaboration was "Lost Mother," a docudrama set in America and India, written in English and Bengali, about a single mother who must choose between pursuing a career in film and developing a relationship
with her teenaged son. Monalisa produced, directed, and acted in the film, then showed it in India, Australia, California, and Texas.

What else have you written?

A couple a weeks ago, a director from Alaska bought my short called "Can We Partner This Deal?"--a romantic comedy about a young businessman and a young businesswoman who, with buzzwords on cellphones, try to plan their future.
And I've just finished another feature called "Big Steve Long," a Western set in Wyoming during the 1860s, inspired by the true story of an outlaw who vows to tame Laramie City, and a lawman who vows to kill him.

Are there books you'd recommend on writing screenplays?
 
I suggest The Screenwriter's Bible, by David Trottier, who is a script consultant. I've read David's book, and it's very good. David also offers editing and teaching services. Although I've never hired him, I'm sure he's very good. There are a lot of other consultants on the Internet; but, again, I suggest that anyone interested in writing screenplays should start with David's book.
Here are a few other books I've found helpful: Save the Cat, by Blake Snyder; Story, by Robert McKee; and Screenplay, by Syd Field.Your readers could go to InkTip, too; they'd be able to get a notion of the screenwriting world; and they wouldn't have to join (although joining is free).

Thanks, John.

Bird Watching

This summer, I tossed seed outside my front window to attract birds and        
now quail and their chicks,
camouflaged in lovely
pine-cone-patterned
feathers in various shades
of brown, white and gray, are coming into my yard.
When I first began bird watching, I bought The Backyard Birdsong Guide by Donald Kroodsma. It's a great book to take on walks to try to identify birds by listening to the many recordings of bird songs contained in it. And listening to and learning bird songs is even more fun because I'm not the only one enjoying it. My cat likes to listen, too.