The Next Chapter
Bel Canto Writers' Group, which helps Deming writers get their pages out of the desk drawer and into books on shelves, plans a book fair Oct. 13.
Bette Waters is a woman who expresses her enthusiasm quietly. Talking about the Bel Canto Writers' Group in Deming, Waters' smile and the light dancing in her eyes are almost at odds with the way she methodically ticks off on her fingers the impressive number of the group's members who have published books. Waters herself has six titles in print and owns her own publishing house, Bluwaters Press.
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(L to R) Rev. Maria Reynolds, Paul Bringman, Bette Waters and Esther
Bohuslov, members of the Bel Canto Writers' Group, meeting at the Bel Canto
Cafe in Deming. On the table are books the authors have published. |
She pauses, casting her thoughts over the faces she obviously sees in her mind's eye, then adds another name, another successful project. "I just don't want to leave anybody out," Waters says with a laugh.
To anyone who's tried (or even seriously thought about it), getting a book between covers and out into the world is no small feat. The group's success rate is striking.
Waters lets a little more excitement leak out around the edges of her smile when she mentions the group's ambitious project coming up this month: the first annual Luna Lizard Book Fair, Oct. 13.
"Oh, I think it will raise our local authors' profiles," she enthuses. "It will be good for all of them and I think the community will definitely be surprised to see what's been going on with publishing locally."
The Bel Canto group grew out of a 13-week memoir-writing class at Dona Ana Community College just over a year ago. That class was taught by Barry Dunleavey, a writer and impressively credentialed actor who performs and does live play readings at the Bel Canto Cafe in Deming (see the April 2007 Desert Exposure).
"Class was over and we liked each other," Waters says. "We wanted to keep seeing each other, and keep helping each other with our various writing projects, so we formed this group." The group chose to meet at the Bel Canto Cafe, she adds, because they wanted to support the venue.
"I appreciate and respect what they (owners Bridget Kelly and Charles Blanchard) are bringing to the area through the cafe and its arts offerings. Also, it's just a really great place," she says, smiling at the mention of the cafe's top-notch baked goods and cozy, unique theater atmosphere. "We use the name 'Bel Canto' for our group with their permission," she adds.
Waters emphasizes that the Bel Canto Writers are not a "how-to-write" group, but one focused on getting to the next level: publishing success. Of those nine original students, two have since published books and several others have projects in the works and nearing completion.
The group's every-other-Tuesday sessions are a "cut-to-the-chase" experience, she notes, intensively focused on sharing resources and problem solving. "We email each other and share stuff before we get together," Waters explains. "That way we can be more productive with our session," which may include reading and editing.
"People come in with their own ideas and projects, things already in the works. Participants have to be actively writing something. The group is there to help them move ahead."
And moving ahead they have been! Reverend Maria Reynolds, a member of the group, recently published her first book and has two more in the works. Waters describes Reynolds' first book, Autopsy of the Soul, as the minister's true story of success over domestic violence. Another member, Paul Bringman, has just published his first book, River Sioux, a three-generation novel that tells the fictionalized story of his own relatives' history. Laura Leveque, aka "Jackass Jill" of Jackass Junction fame, has published Whoa, You Donkey, Whoa: Adventures of a Lady Prospector, a collection of her columns previously published in Gold Prospectors magazine.
Waters, also a certified nurse/midwife, published her first book in 1995. It was the first book published on the topic of pregnancy and massage, she says. Shortly thereafter, she founded Bluwaters Press publishing house, which has published 11 books to date, six of them by Waters.
Bluwaters Press has also published a collaborative book by three of the group's members, Leveque, Dunleavey and Waters. 13 Weeks, an anthology of six screenplays, was published in August 2006. Subjects include mysteries, family issues, environmental abuse in the Southwest, murder in an old mine in New Mexico and a young man's dream of Hollywood. Dunleavey wrote the introduction, he and Leveque served as editors, and Waters was a contributor on the project. Next, Waters and Dunleavey are writing a screenplay from one of her books, Vaginal Politics: A Midwife's Story — for which they have an agent, she adds with a smile.
Two founding members of the writers' group, Brad White and Debra Henry, currently are writing memoirs, Waters says. Another member, oral historian Nancy Johnson, is working on a local history project. And C.A. Gustafson, who used to write for Deming-based Desert Winds magazine, is writing a book on New Mexico's governors. Doubtless Bill Richardson, now making his presidential bid, will make an interesting chapter.
Helping each other make productive connections, giving each other support and feedback, getting chapters in a drawer turned into books on shelves — these things have been the group's main goals, Waters says.
Raising local authors' profiles is the next logical step, she adds, and that's the primary goal of the group's first annual Luna Lizard Book Fair to be held at the Bel Canto Cafe this month. At the daylong book fair, local authors will read from their works in the afternoon and vendors will sell new and used books.
"We hope to have around 20 vendors — but not craft vendors," Waters says. "Books, plays, we have one member who is a songwriter, who'll have original music CDs."
The group has secured funds from the Deming/Luna County Tourism Development Committee to help promote and support the event, she adds.
"We think it will generate interest in all this writing and publishing activity that is going on here," Waters says. Letting a little more enthusiasm seep out, she smiles and adds, "We hope this is just the first one, that this will be an annual event for our writing community."
— Donna Clayton Lawder
The Bel Canto Writers' Group meets every other Tuesday, 10 a.m., at the Bel Canto Cafe, 300 S. Diamond St., at the corner of Diamond and Hemlock in Deming. Next meeting is Oct. 9. The group's First Annual Luna Lizard Book Fair will be held at the cafe Oct. 13, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Local authors will read 12-1:30 p.m. Box lunches for sale. Authors and new and used book vendors are invited to participate: 544-7745, (888) 541-5381.
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