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OC Weekly, October 2004

THIS WEEK IN FLAMING PENS: BARBARA DEMARCO-BARRETT

Barbara DeMarco-Barrett had quietly buried the poor thing in a deep corner of her clutter-packed garage. Her book manuscript that is, post two agents and a "couple of dozen" rejections from various muscle-bound publishing houses. A few years and false starts on two novels went by. Meanwhile, the buried manuscript wouldn’t lie still. She realized it was a good book and that her "heart and soul were on every page." She also realized that yet another "how to" writing book better damn well have a standalone enticement to keep it from flat-lining once it hit shelves.

There was much bookstore loitering and gnashing of teeth. Then she had it. The book would be slanted toward women—the multi-tasking sex—with little time. She got herself a new agent, Betsy Amster, who tentatively agreed to take on the kicked-around horse. Amster warned her new client that books on writing get modest advances at best, as low as $10,000, and probably no greater than $30,000. But Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within drew bids from five publishing houses once it went on the block. The high bid came from Harcourt—55K. For DeMarco-Barrett it was a "sublime victory." Especially considering an editor who had rejected the proposal years earlier was one of the bidders.

Albeit Pen on Fire targets women, it offers excellent time-snatching tips, motivational insights from bestselling authors, and road-tested exercises for male scribes as well. Hey, we dudes lead bizzy lives too and…whoa, I see it’s almost noon already. Naptime.

—C.J. Bahnsen



Booklist, October 2004

"Finally, someone has come along to tell would-be writers the two words they desperately need to hear: get real! Women, especially, entertain fantasies of quitting their day jobs to spend countless uninterrupted hours at the keyboard, whereas the reality is that in today's hectic world, they're lucky to get 15 minutes. But, the author advises, if you plan it right, those 15 minutes should be all you need. A professor of creative writing, editor, and journalist, DeMarco-Barrett has developed a wealth of 15-minute plans, each one designed to help aspiring writers find not only the time but the focus they need to hone their writing skills while juggling the rest of their daily demands. Through challenging exercises, tips from established authors, and her own personal experiences, DeMarco-Barrett demonstrates precisely how writing-on-the-run can produce satisfying results. With an encouraging attitude and inspirational approach, DeMarco-Barrett covers everything writer-wannabes want to know, from finding an agent to finding your voice. The result is a supremely relevant guide to the writing life."

—Carol Haggas



Pen on Fire is mentioned in a piece by Carolyn See in The Washington Post. Or read an excerpt below:

"...Books on the writing process come around as regularly as sermons on Sunday. On my own shelves -- and this is far from a definitive collection -- I find "Aspects of the Novel" by E.M. Forster, "Your Life as Story" by Tristine Rainer, "Writing From the Inside Out" by Dennis Palumbo, "If You Want to Write" by Brenda Ueland, "The Writer on Her Work," by Janet Sternburg, Anne Lamott's wonderful "Bird by Bird," "Writing for Your Life," an encyclopedic collection of Publishers Weekly interviews by the radiantly competent and sensitive Sybil Steinberg, "Writing Out the Storm," a marvelous work on writing through illness by Barbara Abercrombie, "Before We Get Started" by Bret Lott (which got roundly roasted by Jonathan Yardley in these pages), "Pen on Fire" by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett and my own personal favorite, "Making a Literary Life" by a certain Carolyn See (which, however, was dismissed by Sven Birkerts in the Los Angeles Times as "mere commerce")."



Library Journal, September 2004

"A creative writing teacher for 15 years and host of the radio show Writers on
Writing, DeMarco-Barrett knows the writerly type. Her book perfectly combines inspiration and practical advice, with the premise that anyone can find 15 minutes a day to become the writer he or she always wanted to be. Chapters deal with a specific aspect of writing and end with a 15-minute writing exercise. This excellent tutorial will work for men, too. For most collections."

—Dale Raben
Review © 2004 Reed Business Information



Another Q&A with Jo-Ann Mapson:
www.joannemapson.com

A review of Pen on Fire by Martin Brady at Bookpage.com:
www.bookpage.com