Nostalgic Monterey

The last time we were on the California road trip together, back in November, I shared my adventures in San Jose and Salinas, where I visited the Steinbeck Center, Steinbeck boyhood home, and a number of haunts from the author’s childhood and settings for his work.


Join me now as we venture to Monterey — visiting my own boyhood home (or at least the place where it once stood) and haunts from my own childhood.


The nostalgic trip is a part of my continuing California book tour travel story published in serial form by Atticus Books.


Join us at the Atticus Books Blog.

http://atticusbooksonline.com/blog/2015/09/02/8095/

Examining Perspective in The Examiner

As you may know if you’re a regular reader of The Examiner, or if we’re connected on social media, I was recently profiled by Baltimore book columnist Eric Campos in The Examiner.

The article mentions my fiction writing, travel articles, and the Lit and Art Reading Series, among other things.


The meat of the article gets into my exploration of perspective and setting, both in reading other works (like Steinbeck) and in creating my own work (like Tracks). Over drinks in a bar, we consider how our own setting is seen differently from each person around us, and how examining that makes for good fiction.


Check out the article yourself at The Examiner.


www.examiner.com/article/baltimore-writer-spotlight-eric-d-goodman-author-of-tracks

Hanging Out in Steinbeck's House

I know the way to San Jose; I was born there. I also know the way from San Jose to Steinbeck Country, where I lived as a teenager.


Join me as I hang out in the house where John Steinbeck grew up, tell the staff there a few things about the Steinbeck family pictures, experience the Steinbeck Center, walk through the scenes featured in East of Eden, check out the Steinbeck Library, and spend a little time in Cannery Row.


Etched in stones are Steinbeck quotes, like “Books are the best friends you can have: they inform you, and entertain you, and they don’t talk back” and “I nearly always write—just as I nearly always breathe.”


It’s all a part of my continuing California book tour travel story being published in serial form by Atticus Books.


Join us at the Atticus Books Blog.


ttp://atticusbooksonline.com/blog/2015/08/26/booking-it-along-the-california-coast-a-book-tour-road-trip-across-the-pacific-coast-7/

Meeting Steinbeck with Writers Weekly

You may remember late last year, Atticus Books published my literary travel story, “Searching for Steinbeck” on their book blog. "Eric D. Goodman's passion for John Steinbeck is contagious,” said Dan Cafaro of Atticus Books. “His imagery-filled essay about searching the west coast for his literary idol is now on the Atticus Books blog. If you're not intimately familiar with Steinbeck's works, it will encourage you to experience them."

There’s a sequel to “Searching for Steinbeck” in which I actually find him. Thomas Steinbeck, the son of John Steinbeck. During the west-coast leg of my book tour for Tracks, I was fortunate enough to participate in a book event that Thom Steinbeck helped me set up and promote.

Writers Weekly, the highest-circulation freelance writing ezine in the world, published my “feature article” on the experience.

Thom Steinbeck shares some good advice. "My father used to tell me that you should never sit down to create a story. You sit down to write a story, but the creation of it comes before you ever begin to write. You don't create at the desk. You need to dream the entire story first, from beginning to end."

Read “Meeting Steinbeck” in Writers Weekly.

http://writersweekly.com/this_weeks_article/008143_09042013.html

Or begin at the beginning by reading “Searching for Steinbeck” at the Atticus Books blog.

http://atticusbooksonline.com/blog/2013/12/09/searching-for-steinbeck/

 

Searching for Steinbeck with Atticus Books

What happens when you combine the leg of a book tour with a literary pilgrimage? Find out on the Atticus Books blog as I search for Steinbeck.

"Eric D. Goodman's passion for John Steinbeck is contagious,” said Dan Cafaro of Atticus Books. “His imagery-filled essay about searching the west coast for his literary idol is now on the Atticus Books blog. Such a wonderful tribute. If you're not intimately familiar with Steinbeck's works, it will encourage you to experience them."

Steinbeck's writing is contagious, and I'm infected.

Read “Searching for Steinbeck” now at the Atticus Books blog.

http://atticusbooksonline.com/blog/2013/12/09/searching-for-steinbeck/

Art Imitating Death Imitating Art

Sometimes moments or scenes or feelings can stay with you for a long time.

In the summer of 1987, my grandfather (father’s side) died. My family was on vacation in Seoul, Korea. We lived in Sasebo, Japan at the time. I remember the Navy Chaplain visiting us in our tatami-mat hotel and delivering the news. We cut our vacation short and flew from Korea to Wyoming for the funeral.

I don’t remember who said it or how it was said, but my teenage self took to heart when a person mentioned how unfortunate it was that the one time you could count on the entire extended family gathering together was for funerals.

When I wrote a story for Tracks about a woman dealing with the death of her parents, that childhood memory still lingered in the back of my mind. That, and a vivid scene from East of Eden when the Hamilton family gathers to talk about their plans after their father (John Steinbeck’s grandfather) died. Of course, on some subconscious level, I realize that I must have been writing through fears of the inevitable as well.

I named the story “Reunion” and wrote this line of dialogue from an estranged neighbor friend: “Why is it that it takes tragedy to bring old friends together?”

On May 9 of this year, about a month ago, my grandmother (mom’s side) died, leaving behind a husband of 68 years who is 95 years old. 

At the viewing and funeral and house, family, friends, and community gathered. It was nice to see so many people paying their respects. But that same feeling echoed and I even had to voice it. “We should try to get together more often,” I said to cousins and uncles and family and friends.

Here’s to art imitating life imitating art.

I read an abridged version of “Reunion” for WYPR’s The Signal. You can catch a podcast under “Reunion” at www.tracksnovel.com/radio.html.  

You can also find it here: http://yourlisten.com/channel/content/84379/Reunion.

British Aristocracy, California Royalty, and Me

Richard Mineards has a distinguished career as a journalist. He covered the Royal Family for Britain’s Daily Mirror and Daily Mail before moving to New York to write for Star Magazine. He’s a regular on CBS, ABC, and CNN. After moving to Montecito (just outside Santa Barbara) about five years ago, he began covering the local celebrity scene.


When Thomas and Gail Steinbeck hosted me for a book event at Tecolote Books in Monteceto this past summer, Richard Mineards covered it in his weekly column for Montecito Journal.

Unfortunately, his column is print only, so I’m not able to share a copy here. In his weekly “Montecito Miscellany” column, Mineards wrote about Chris O’Donnell, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, Paul Simon, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Douglass, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Tommy Lee Jones, Drew Barrymore … and me!

“Author Eric Goodman is clearly on the right lines … his tome chronicles a single train journey from Baltimore to Chicago and the people on board, with each chapter about different characters, including a hitman, a Holocaust survivor, a former mobster, and a poet.

“Goodman is now finishing off his second work, Womb, he told me at a bijou launch bash at Tecolote, the lively literary lair in the Upper Village, hosted by his friends Thom and Gail Steinbeck.”

It was a brief five-paragraph bit in a celebrity column spanning several pages, but I was honored to be covered (in context with the Steinbecks) by someone used to covering Kings and Queens and Hollywood royalty.

Learn more about Richard Mineards at Montecito Journal.

www.montecitojournal.net/writers

Learn more about Thomas Steinbeck and his great work at his website.

www.ThomasSteinbeck.com

Gone Writing: The (Second) Ox-Bow Residency

This weekend, I’m headed for my second two-week writing residency at Ox-Bow!

Affiliated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Ox-Bow is located along the shores of Lake Michigan and offers 115 acres of inspirational space: pristine natural forests, dunes, a lagoon, and historic buildings.

Writers at this artists’ colony are provided with a small apartment, private lodge with inspirational views, three gourmet meals a day, and snacks around the clock — all from local farms.

Last time I was in Ox-Bow, as I prepared for Tracks to be published, I was working on a revision of my novel, Womb.

This time, I plan to plunge into a new novel: Setting the Family Free.

I also plan to take some appropriate reading material to start and end my days: Thoraeu’s Walden, O’Brien’s In The Lake of the Woods, and Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven.

Ox-Bow offers the opportunity to meet other artists from around the world, and (most importantly) uninterrupted time to write. Not to mention gourmet meals three times a day using local, organic food.

Ox-Bow’s residency program is all about immersion, commitment, freedom, and focus. Founded in 1910, Ox-Bow is celebrating 102 years as a haven for artists, writers, and thinkers.

I plan to live by the bell for the two weeks, leaving my watch behind. I may spend an hour a day online, but plan to spend most of the two weeks unplugged, and writing.

If I stay the course and manage to get in a full day of writing each day, maybe I’ll even have time to partake in other writer-in-residence duties, such as eating, hiking, canoeing, and carousing.

Learn more about Ox-Bow by visiting their online campus.

www.ox-bow.org

Thomas Steinbeck Reveals the Secret to Writing

Want to know the secret to writing? Thomas Steinbeck, son of Nobel Laureate successful author himself, wants to key you in.

Take a few minutes to watch this short, video; in less than three minutes you’ll have Steinbeck’s fiction formula.

Steinbecks’ secret is “the minimalist school” of writing. Don’t go to the desk to create. Go to the desk with the story already worked out in your mind, ready to report the story you already know.

“Let the audience do the reading,” advises Steinbeck. Good writing is a two-way street.

Drawing from his background as a journalist, Thomas Steinbeck covers the essential details: “Who, when, why, where what – you only cover those things in which the reader really needs the information in order to form picture for themselves.” What makes the book your own is that “you’ve decorated it” and your passion comes through.

Watch “The Secret to Writing” at  

http://thomassteinbeck.com/thomas-steinbeck-video-secret-to-writing/

Thomas Steinbeck Shares Fiction Tonight

Tonight is your opportunity to enjoy a reading and signing with the great Thomas Steinbeck. He will be reading and signing copies of his latest book, The Silver Lotus, which was published on 11/1/11 by Counterpoint Press.

The event takes place at the Tecolote Book Shop in Montecito (upper village) this Friday, November 4th from 5 to 7 p.m.

Learn more about this evening’s event at the event’s Facebook Page.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=123468777762318

Learn more about Steinbeck’s new book at his website.

http://www.thomassteinbeck.com/Welcome.html

Writers to Ride With

Train trips and road trips can be an exhilarating experience for writers.

When alone, the open road provides a time to ponder story ideas, explore plot turns and character developments. Or, a time to relax with an audio book and enjoy the written word read aloud.

The same goes for an open window from a train, the scenery passing by.

When with another person, a train ride or road trip can be a bonding experience, conversation cruising along as comfortably as the ride itself.

The choice of traveling companion can make or break a voyage.

If you had the opportunity to hit the road with any writer, who would it be? Any author at all: a rising star, a contemporary great, or a past classic. Who would you want to share the road with?

For me, the choice would be easy: John Steinbeck. Steinbeck has long been my favorite writer. He doesn’t just know how to use the written word – his stories have heart, feeling, soul, and often a strong message. He knows how to convey things without having to say them. A reader gets to know his characters by their actions, not just their thoughts.

I could get lost in a long conversation with John Steinbeck, discussing my favorite novels – Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden – and talking about the great art of writing as a train carried us along, or as we rode in his “Rocinante.” I’d even be willing to take a back seat to his poodle, Charlie, for travels with Steinbeck.

That’s my choice. What’s yours? Which writer would you ride with?