Background
Wood, Ira was born on April 9, 1950 in New York City. Son of Marvin Jack and Lucille Ruth (Spar) Wood.
(After his dreams of playing baseball in the Majors fall s...)
After his dreams of playing baseball in the Majors fall short and his marriage ends, David Greene returns to his small hometown on Cape Cod. There he meets the eminent professor, Gordon Stone, and his beautiful wife, Judith Silver, with whom he soon falls into a passionate affair. Into this explosive mix, a young woman appears--a single mother at the end of her emotional rope. Crystal desperately needs David. Yet caught between two women, David bears witness to a heartbreaking turn of events that seems as inevitable as the push and pull of ocean waves. . . .
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0449001571/?tag=2022091-20
( For over ten years, Marge Piercy and Ira Wood have been...)
For over ten years, Marge Piercy and Ira Wood have been teaching two popular master classes in the art of writing fiction and memoirs. They attract students nationwide who have failed to improve their work in courses concentrating on process' rather than craft, and want to go beyond :journaling" and "writing as therapy" to break through and publish their work. Drawing on talks, exercises and examples proven in the classroom, So You Want to Write addresses: How to begin a piece by seducing your reader, How to create characters that embody the infinite contradictions of human behavior, How to master the elements of plotting fiction, How to create a strategy for telling the story of your life, How to learn to read critically, like a professional writer, How to realistically approach publishing. Combining over seventy years of writing experience, other chapters include: The overlooked powers of dialogue, Creating descriptions that move readers emotionally, FAQ's about agents, rejections, submitting work effectively, what writers really earn, Overcoming shame and the difficulties of writing about loved ones. Marge Piercy is the author of 35 books of fiction and poetry. She has lectured or performed at over 300 universities, and sold over 3,000,000 books worldwide. Ira Wood is the author of three novels, a publisher, and a popular writing teacher, whose classes address writers' feelings of hopelessness and despair. They live on Cape Cod. Two: BEGINNINGS Fiction is as old a habit of our species as poetry. It goes back to telling a tale, the first perceptions of pattern, and narrative is still about pattern in human life. At core, it answers the question, what then? And then and then and then. And memoir is equally old: it's telling about your life, perhaps originally to children or a prospective mate or a new acquaintance. Poetry is an art of time, as music is. Rhythms are measured against time: they are measures of time. A poem goes forward a beat at a time as a dance does, step by step, phrase by phrase. Narrative, whether fiction or memoir, is about time. First this, then that.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0967952026/?tag=2022091-20
( “This is a great book, no matter what stage of writing ...)
“This is a great book, no matter what stage of writing you’re at!”—The Writer Magazine “Here is a must-have for would-be writers. Put this on the shelf right beside Strunk and White.”—Booklist “Addresses all the elements of successful writing.”—Tampa Tribune “Advice on getting your work published is worth the cost of the book alone.”—St. Petersburg Times A featured selection of the Writer’s Digest Book Club; chosen by The Writer Magazine as a Best Book of the Year; compared by the American Library Association to Strunk and White’s classic The Elements of Style; acclaimed by critics, students and teachers and adopted by universities across the country, the unique collaboration between a major American novelist and a publisher is back in a revised second edition, bigger and better than ever. The most useful and entertaining writing book on the market, the updated second edition has new exercises and expanded essays, covering every aspect of writing and publishing fiction and memoir: How to begin a piece so that a reader can’t put it down How to create compelling characters How professional writers use dialogue How to narrow a strategy for telling the story of your life How to write about painful material without coming off as a victim Included are hundreds of insider tips, such as: The seven important things when writing about loved ones The 10 most destructive things writers do What no one will tell you about rejection letters FAQs about agents and how much writers really earn What to do if your work is continually rejected Marge Piercy is a New York Times best-selling novelist and memoirist. Ira Wood is a novelist and publisher. Their workshops, given nationally, address overcoming the inner and outer barriers to creativity.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/097289845X/?tag=2022091-20
( In this delightful, laugh-out-loud first novel, Gabe Ro...)
In this delightful, laugh-out-loud first novel, Gabe Rose, the brash Jewish waiter with a play in his pocket, is looking for his big chance. Where else to find it but at the gilded, overpriced tables of Boston's fanciest restaurant, where crooked politicians, tight Old Money, preppies, parvenus and, of course, the stars come to dine on yesterday's fish under tonight's hollandaise? Under-30 Gabe contrives to meet over-40 Cynthia Kagan, a tough, sexy playwright-director, big in feminist circles…Plot and character are pas de deux under Wood's fast-stepping, always engaging choreography, but how to explain all the sharp and colorful, emotionally honest, sometimes heart-grabbing ensemble work? Besides the fun, The Kitchen Man is about love and loyalty outside conventional categories of age, gender and body proportions, a gamey kind of You Can't Take It With You with extremely recognizable people.-Kirkus Reviews (starred review) An excerpt from The Kitchen Man Everyone else I know accepts temporary malaise, the blues, as an ordinary human infirmity like the flu and sees nothing wrong with a few lackluster days of self-pampering and doughy lying about. But my own chosen love, my Cynthia, the caramel center of my bittersweet life, views depression as indistinguishable from masturbation and weight lifting: a waste of limited male energy. I admit it. The tides of my disposition fluctuate with my luck at the mail box. Following this morning's letter of rejection I returned to the house with the glazed, magnetized eyes of the children of the damned. "Uh oh," was all Cynthia said. "Maybe it's a sign. Maybe I should give up playwriting. Finally admit it. No, I do not have any talent. It's time I grew up, accepted the fact that some people have it and some people never will." She waited for me to finish. It is no secret that in her women's group I am known as Uncle Vanya. "Maybe I should just give up and find something I'm good at." "How about pottery? Or the guitar," she said. "Definitely. The guitar. And give yourself a solid month. Then if the Rolling Stones don't ask you to join them, take up, let's see, sand painting." According to Cynthia you don't pout about rejections
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0965457834/?tag=2022091-20
Wood, Ira was born on April 9, 1950 in New York City. Son of Marvin Jack and Lucille Ruth (Spar) Wood.
Bachelor, State University of New York, Albany, 1971.
Editor-in-chief, public Leapfrog Press, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, since 1996. Teacher, writer-in-residence Esalen Institute, Omega Institute, since 1980, various Massachusetts schools. Presenter workshops for university and writing programs.
(After his dreams of playing baseball in the Majors fall s...)
( In this delightful, laugh-out-loud first novel, Gabe Ro...)
( For over ten years, Marge Piercy and Ira Wood have been...)
( “This is a great book, no matter what stage of writing ...)
(Book by Piercy, Marge, Wood, Ira)
Member artists advisory board Castle Hill Center for Arts. Selectman Town of Wellfleet, 1994—1997, 2003—2006, member zoning board appeals, 1985—1994, vice chairman finance committee, 1997—2001, chairman finance committee, since 2001, chairman board selectmen, 2004—2005. Board directors Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre.
Member Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists association, Author's League, Author's Guild, Writers Guild American, National Writer's Union.
Married Marge Piercy, June 18, 1982.