Writing workshop, 2006 Nov 11 : Alice McLerran

By Dominique Garde Torres (Nikki)

Another workshop done.

As I settle down to write this entry, I realize that it’s been a long time since we updated our blog. No excuses – this is one thing I cannot pin on typhoon Milenyo, nor on my work at the CCP, nor even on the SCBWI activities I have been so busy with. Just really on the extremely busy state my mind has been in for the past few weeks.

Yes, I have been using a bit more of my brain power than usual. And this is all the fault of Chris Eboch, who gave a workshop earlier this year and Alice McLerran who gave another workshop just last Saturday, November 11.

Chris, through all of our long, long hikes, spoke to me about nothing and everything and in her quiet way encouraged me to speak up, express myself and write. Alice, through her many, many personal anecdotes has given me truly valuable tips on how to write.

As I told Beaulah, at the end of the day, I felt immense satisfaction with both women and with both workshops – but the flavor was somehow different for each. The visit of Chris of course was recorded almost minute by minute in 5 entries in this blog. So now, I proceed to Alice.

Preparations for this workshop went quite smoothly. I know it is patting myself on the back, but by this time, Beaulah and I have evolved a routine for the preparations, one which allows us enough time to get things ready to our satisfaction. Camping out at Figaro in Greenbelt (NOT Glorietta), we made our plans and without much fuss executed them. We sent the e-mails, made announcements, booked venues, accepted payments and spoke to caterers – almost all these activities we managed to do at “our” corner table in the little coffee shop. Sometimes, for a change of pace, we would stay at McCafe. The waiters grew used to us and would even direct various registrants to our table.

See, that was all we needed to put this workshop together : a table at a coffeeshop which was WiFi ready, and our cellphones. In between our marathon meetings, we e-mailed each other (5 to 10 messages a day) and texted many, many times.

Things were going so smoothly that I think we decided to rock the boat a bit and (a) have Beaulah form a family owned publishing house, (b) print six editions of one, wonderful book.

Actually, the book was in the picture from the very beginning. We knew we would be doing it and thought we knew the preparations needed. And so we dove into the exciting, exhilarating world of publishing.

To begin with, Beaulah had already gotten Alice M’s permission to illustrate and translate her beautiful story “The Mountain That Loved the Bird” into five Filipino languages (Tagalog, Iloko, Hiligaynon, Kinaray-a, Binisaya). This plus English meant we were going to launch, on November 11 as part of the workshop, six books and introduce Mother Tongue as a publishing house.

So we went to our sources and found translators for each edition. As each translation was finished, we found still other friends who would back-translate to English, just to be very, very sure that the poetry of Alice’s language and the beauty of her story was captured accurately. In our conversations with these artists, we learned that there are some words which are really, really hard to translate: cellphone, copyright, published by. And, we found that there are phrases in the local dialects which capture the meanings of Alice McLerran so wonderfully.

And then, there were the endless trips Beaulah had to make to the printer – to negotiate, to barter for more time, to supervise. Thankfully, Mark and Homer were also there to help.

The morning of the workshop dawned bright and early. The threat of a new typhoon never materialised and the day was actually quite sunny. As organizers, we were at the venue by 6 am, Alice came by 8. By 8:30 as instructed, the workshoppers were there, and by 9:15, we started.

Here I am below with Beaulah and Alice, having an early morning meeting.

In the morning, Alice shared stories of her life as a writer. Through her many, many colorful tales, we learned. I don’t know what the others learned but I certainly got a bit more focus to my writing after finding out how Alice worked. I also found little bits and pieces of what I had been doing wrong (or not quite right), and just as important, I found out that I was not hopeless after all, and that some of the devices I used to encourage myself and my daughter to write were also used by this brilliant writer and teacher as well.

Alice, a very opinionated yet gentle lady, had a million stories to tell. Not every story was meant to teach I think, there were no hard and fast morals here, but certainly they were all quite entertaining. It became my unhappy task to signal her, “Alice, time’s up,” or “Alice, lunchtime.” Sigh…. It sure made me feel like the dragon lady.

The afternoon was devoted to group critiques, preceded first by the entire class talking and commenting on Carla’s manuscript. After that, it was the launch of “The Mountain that Loved the Bird.”

I must be honest and admit that as Alice read the book, and later as Hermie read the Iloko translation, I had to stop myself from crying. Quite apart from the pathos and the beauty of the story itself, the experience of having, in some small way been part of the birth of this book just hit me. I am not prone to public displays of affection but for one of the very few times since Beaulah and I met in 1987, I had to go over and hug this woman, in gratitude for having given me the opportunity to be part of this project and out of sheer joy that the books, which up that morning were still at the printer, were finally, actually done. Wow! and again wow!

Here below are Alice and Beaulah signing copies of their book.

As always with these activities we made many new friends and strengthened our ties with some old buddies. Jane and Euly of Filipinas Heritage made our lives easier by providing us with everything we needed at the venue. Cindy and her husband Resty of Goblet Catering were a new and delicious discovery. My tokayo, Nikki Dy-Liaco showed up with cheer and copies of her award winning book. Our hardworking and greatly rushed translators – Hermie, Genevieve and Grace came to share wonderful readings from the book they had worked so hard on. Carla Pacis, initially surprised that she alone would be critiqued by the entire group, gamely read her story and accepted all comments with grace. The young ladies of Miriam, our ever present pre-school and grade school teachers, writers, illustrators, people from advertising, Jitz and Neni Aguirre, a mother and son team, and the cheerful team psychologists, so many professions were represented – all came and all shared. Other old buddies, Neni, Lina, Karina were roped into being “leaders” of each group discussion, something they did with more than competence.

Here below is one of the group discussions, with Alice in attendance.

Finally, there were the translators – Rene (I wish you had been able to come), Grace of the gentle voice, Genevieve who could concentrate through the din of McCafe, and Hermie of the boundless enthusiasm. Bravo to all of you and to my buddy Dingdong and my Daddy too, who in one morning helped out with one aspect of this book.

Of course, there were glitches. Murphy’s Law will always apply. But between myself and Beaulah, her two sons and the rest of her household who came to help, all was resolved, and in the end, we achieved what we wanted. Manuscripts were critiqued, we learned quite a bit from Alice, and six editions of The Mountain that Loved The Bird weres launched. Mother Tongue was presented to the world for the first time.

And so ended another activity of SCBWI Philippines! Tomorrow, Beaulah and I meet to discuss 2007. Watch out everyone, there will be many more activities like this and, God willing, many more books from Mother Tongue.

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