Summer Camp for Writers

Dr. Andy catches up with some old friends in San Francisco's largest writing salon

Dear Friends,

Some kids spent every summer at camp, hatching careers as athletes or photographers, or attempting puppy love romances. I attended camp for only one summer. I came home from the World Community Camp a vegetarian, and my dad refused to have me return. Little did he know that camp would turn me into a vegetarian eco warrior with a penchant for geodesic domes, all of which is still true today, 45 years later.

These days, I don’t get to travel much. Although members of my immediate family will get to see New Orleans, New York City, and Chicago in the coming month, I will get to visit the south fork of Putah Creek, the part of the creek that only has water after the sort of rainstorms that we have been enjoying this week. Jukie and I will walk some familiar paths and dine in favorite Davis restaurants.

But tomorrow, tomorrow I return to camp, or at least the adult equivalent. Tomorrow, as I have for the past 20 years, I return to the San Francisco Writers Conference.

Taking place every February at the Hyatt Regency, home of the largest lobby in America, the San Francisco Writers Conference is a place where over the decades I have made dozens of presentations, counseled hundreds of writers, run many marathon open mics, and, in this decade, hosted a handful of micro pub quizzes, entertainment for the Friday breakfast.

I also get to perform the closing poem of the conference. Here’s the version I performed in 2023, having written it the night before after hosting a looong open mic.

Flights Before Frights

“Poetry will not leave me alone.” Tongo Eisen-Martin

Yesterday the elevator in Coit Tower was broken!

Can you imagine walking all the way up Telegraph Hill to the base of Coit Tower

Only to discover that 13 flights of stairs await you?

So it is with your writing project – no one will build you an elevator.

Nothing – not the agent you might have snagged,

Not the new friends you made at SFWC,

Not even Chat GPT – will make this process any easier than it has to be.

Your published book might make you accomplished,

But better than that, it will make you grow.

You must do the thing you cannot do, Eleanor Roosevelt said.

If she had voiced that today, we would never stop retweeting her.

But as it is, on the last day of the San Francisco Writer’s Conference,

You may be paneled out, and thus you have too many voices in your head.

Maybe even last night your writing project visited you during sleep,

Singing to you with plot twists, with images, with transcendent themes.

I’m here to warn you: Those images, they fade quickly.

Keep a notebook at your bedside.

Trace symbols on your foggy mirror like a mad mathematician.

Note the details. Permit yourself to get granular, to narrow down.

When it comes to books, the riches are in the niches.

Tongo Eisen-Martin says “Draw on your psychic landmarks

to get to the bottom of reality.”

Distribute hot mics around your home.

Say something nonsensical or scandalous, and then write it down.

Oscar Wilde says that “Everything that is true is inappropriate.”

Create with abandon -- social convention doesn’t need any more cheerleaders.

This weekend I talked to a writer whose mother was a librarian

and whose father was a magician.

Each of us should be so lucky.

Carry with you from this conference a librarian’s faith in books,

Both those of the people around you, and your own.

Also, like a magician, endeavor to traffic in awe and wonder.

"Be ambitious for the work and not for the reward," Jeannette Winterson said.

My wife’s smartwatch says she climbed more than 40 flights yesterday.

She climbed so high she made it to the Mark Hopkins Hotel!

My goal-oriented son paid $15 to climb a bonus 210 feet to the top of Coit Tower.

These people are my heroes, as are you.

Before you fly home, resolve to write

your own Coit Tower’s daily quota worth of words!

Identify all your distractions and then begin your campaign of targeted disregard.

Muhammad Ali said, “It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out;

it's the pebble in your shoe.”

You know the direction of your own tower,

You have the tools you need,

And you have the inspiration from the accomplished climbers who you’ve seen on this stage.

Rid yourself of all pebbles,

Strap on your shoes,

And now, with friends here as your witnesses,

Begin to ascend!

I will have some stories to tell next week, some of which might be leveraged as quiz questions, poems, or lessons for my advanced essay writers this quarter.

I hope you are looking forward to your weekend as much as I am mine!

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To enjoy my weekly Pub Quiz, please subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.

Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. We have over 60 members now! Thanks especially to new subscribers Tamara, Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, The X-Ennial Falcons, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, Still Here for the Shakesbeer, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions and bakers of marvelous and healthy treats, The Mavens, who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the dropping temperatures and the cost of avocado. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine!

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Three questions from last week:

1. Current Events – Names in the News. Born in 1955, what billionaire tech guru says in his February 2025 memoir titled Source Code that he would have been diagnosed on the autism spectrum if he were growing up today?

2. Sports. Born in Venezuela in 1981, what former Marlin and Tiger is one of three players in MLB history to have a career batting average above .300, 500 home runs, and 3,000 hits, joining Hank Aaron and Willie Mays?

3. Shakespeare. Which chilly late Shakespeare play that takes place in Sicily and Bohemia includes a statue of Hermione that comes to life?

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night is February 7. It'll be a wide-open mic!