Camille Cusumano

Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of lunching with Lindy Hough, co-founder, editorial director of North Atlantic Books, Berekely, California

We talked all too briefly but urgently on books, writing, publishing, creativity . . . all the good stuff of life. North Atlantic is like my publisher—Seal Press—whom I’ve worked with for the past five years: dedicated to a certain type of book that wouldn’t get the treatment it deserves from the Big Fish.

Lindy knows a lot about shaping a manuscript and making a book coherent and easy to read. She’s worked with many authors over the many years North Atlantic has been publishing.

She’ll be ramping up her  consulting business soon—so keep checking for her website.

This is excerpted from the North Atlantic home page:

Founded in 1974, North Atlantic Books has been located in Berkeley, California since 1977. Over this period, North Atlantic has become a leading publisher of alternative health, martial arts, and spiritual titles.

“Our mission is to affect planetary consciousness, nurture spiritual and ecological disciplines, disseminate ancient wisdom, and put forth ways to transmute cultural dissonance and violence into service. We have given voice to many new modalities of living and thinking about our world since the 1960s–ways to interrogate and rediscover diet, healing, mindfulness, psychotherapy, somatic and martial practice, and creativity. Our specific strengths are martial arts, bodywork, history of medicine, homeopathy, archaeo-astronomy, transdimensional realms, Eastern religion, diet and natural foods, live food, fine literature, and quirky aspects of pop culture. We publish widely and diversely, mixing commitments to our niches with broad-based general trade books. Although not our main rubrics, we publish environmental titles; graphic novels and comics; urban literature and detective novels; cookbooks; art books; sports books; and new perspectives in dance, film, and theater.”

Trips #2, November 16  to 24, 2010 includes:

• Eight nights in Dandi Royal, an exquisite tango-themed mansion in San Telmo barrio – near to everything.

• Welcome luncheon (on Monday, November 16) at Dandi.

• Eight breakfasts.

• Three scrumptious dinners featuring typical Argentine cuisine (which, despite what you’ve heard is NOT all grass-fed beef—omnivores and vegetarians both will feast well).

• Introductory lessons to tango—with Argentine teachers, who will help you feel comfortable dancing their favorite “folk” dance. Or just watch and enjoy the most sensual dance on earth (and take notes for writing about it—see below, writing workshop).

• Admission to three popular milongas (or tango dancing salons) — with me as your host to explain all the etiquette and culture–and introductions to local dancers.

• Meetings with Porteños, Buenos Aires natives who will talk to you about tango and their  beloved city (some are “famous” characters from my book – see next).

• A signed copy of my book, TANGO, AN ARGENTINE LOVE STORY (published by Seal Press, 2008).

• Option of two afternoon writing workshops with me OR take a Swashtya (dancing) yoga class OR another tango lesson. The two afternoon intensives of writing are to help anyone who has long wondered how to shape and craft a travel story from the many inspired recordings you make in your journal as you wander the globe.

• One guided day around Buenos Aires with me and a local. I’ll show you around, including my old barrios where I lived, wrote, and danced for the better part of three and a half years.

• Lots of free time to explore on your own – with handy customized printouts with info for getting around (easy in this city) to museums, cafes, restaurants, bookstores, barrios, shopping. I’ll offer all the consultation you need—based on my extensive experience living here.

BACK TO RESERVE PAGE

Here’s what’s included:

• Five nights in Dandi Royal, an exquisite tango-themed mansion in San Telmo barrio – near to everything.

• Three nights in an elegant “posada,” a country inn, in San Antonio d’Areco (less than 2 hours’ drive from Buenos Aires through the famous pampas).

• Welcome luncheon (on Friday, November 5) at Dandi.

• Eight breakfasts.

• Three scrumptious dinners featuring typical Argentine cuisine (which, despite what you’ve heard is NOT all grass-fed beef—omnivores and vegetarians alike will feast well).

• Transportation to and from San Antonio de Areco (departing from Buenos Aires).

• A guided tour of San Antonio with a local bi-lingual guide, introductions to real-working gaucho town and gauchos (right), a visit to an old gaucho pub (pulpería) with a round of libations for all. We’ll see a spectacular event–an amazing parade of gauchos –on Sunday—for Dia de la Tradicion.

• Introductory lessons to tango—with Argentine teachers, who will help you feel comfortable dancing their favorite “folk” dance. Or just watch and enjoy the most sensual dance on earth (and take notes to write about it – see below).

• Admission to three popular milongas (or tango dancing salons) — with me as your host to explain all the etiquette and culture–and give you introductions to local dancers.

• Meetings in Buenos Aires with other natives who will tell you about tango and their beloved city (some are “famous” characters from my book – see below).

• A signed copy of my book, TANGO, AN ARGENTINE LOVE STORY (published by Seal Press, 2008).

• Option of two afternoon writing workshops with me or Swashtya (dancing) yoga class or another tango lesson. The two afternoon intensives of writing are to help those of you who have  wondered how to shape and craft a travel story from the many inspired recordings you make in your journal as you wander the globe.

• One guided day around Buenos Aires with me and a local. I’ll show my old barrios where I lived, wrote, and danced for the better part of three and a half years.

• Lots of free time to explore on your own – with handy customized printouts with info for getting around (easy in this city) to museums, cafes, restaurants, bookstores, barrios. I’ll offer all the personal consultation you need—based on my extensive experience living here.

BACK TO RESERVE PAGE

Trip the lights fantastic in Paris of South America

November is spring in Buenos Aires. The broad-canopied jacaranda trees burst into magnificent bloom, carpeting streets, parks, and plazas, in glowing lavender blossoms. The city called “Paris of South America,” for its European culture and spectacular French & Italian Renaissance architecture, never looks finer. The weather is warm and lovely then. This  nine-day trip includes a fun side trip to nearby gaucho country and plenty of time in Buenos Aires, the city that never sleeps.

WHEN: November 5 to November 13, 2010 – Price $1,775, or $1,275 for doubles (rooms have twin or double beds).

Trip #1 includes all this (click here).

Trip #2, very similar, runs November 16 to 24, 2010 and is ALL Buenos Aires.

Reserve with $500 or Pay in full. If you want to pay by check, email me for the address: ocaramia@earthlink.net or ocaramia@mac.com.

Trips #1 or #2

Reserve $500.00 In full (double) $1,275.00 In full (single) $1,775.00

OPTIONAL EXTRAS:

• I’ll arrange your airport (Ezeiza) pickup and dropoff ground transportation with a bilingual driver—$70 total.

• If you’d like to take the writing workshops and the yoga or get an extra tango lesson – we can arrange both for nominal fees.

WATCH A COOL VIDEO OF MY TANGO DAYS IN  BUENOS AIRES

ANOTHER COOL VIDEO OF BUENOS AIRES IN THE EARLY 1900S

• If you’d like to do some horse riding in San Antonia de Areco, it can be arranged for a nominal fee.

• If you’d like Spanish lessons, private classes are very affordable; I can arrange them for you with great teachers.

• My first days in Buenos Aires I hired an occasional “taxi” dancer (for a nominal fee) to accompany me to tango dance halls and dance with me only. If you’d like, we can arrange that–for either men or women.

• It’s good to arrive at least a day before the trip starts–and consider staying longer than 9 days. If you want other lodging options, I’ll give you a list, once you’re a registered participant.

• If you are interested in side trips around Argentina (or anywhere in South America) I can refer you to two reliable local travel agents (from whom I accept no commission) to put together a trip for you.

Whether you are just getting started and want to take the plunge (into the inkwell) or need encouragement and confidence, I offer workshops to suit your and your writing group’s needs. Here is a list of several workshops I teach. Contact me for details and rates – ocaramia@earthlink.net or ocaramia@mac.com:

1. A Thousand and One Words - Find your Writing Setpoint – Just as with body weight, we all have a writing setpoint—a natural length that suits our message and determines our ideal genre. 1,000 words is the mean, from which you assess your need to unpack and flesh out or shrink wrap and tighten. We’ll meet four goals in this class: embracing your personal setpoint; understanding when to unpack or shrink; preserving the narrative arc, no matter what length; and writing with full confidence. All levels writers welcome.

2. Travel Memoir Writing - With the travel-writing market evolved beyond the go-here/see-this approach, personal experience and artful story in travel is more and more in demand. As a magazine editor, I successfully moved from the traditional how-to travel writing to publishing my personal experience travel stories in books and as essays in publications. I’ll help participants understand how they can do this, too. Even if you are still writing for the traditional travel outlets you can infuse your story with sparkle – snap, crackle, and pop. We’ll look at how you can satisfy the reader’s needs and still craft a story with your personal style.  All levels welcome.

3. Tap into your Autonomic Writing System - Much can be said about the Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind approach to unlocking the writer within. Now is the time to circle back to the discipline and the practice of craft—without killing the golden goose. This class is designed to tap into the autonomic system of writing—where words begins to flow and to arrive on schedule, like breath. All the while, we consider craft. The goal of this workshop is to have participants leave inspired, enthused, excited, perturbed, riled up, having tapped into their own autonomic writing system; and ready to face the empty white page, armed with their own art and skill. All levels.

4. Writing about & from loss - Many of my students found me through my memoir, TANGO, which is my writing about my own loss (and finds) through tango and Zen practice. I’ve worked with aspiring writers who were ready to face the blank page as a place of refuge after tremendous losses and grieving. When we sit down to write about our lives, pain, grief as well as bliss and contentment rise to the surface. Putting down the words gives a sense of meaning to life in dark times.

WORK HISTORY   —  PUBLISHED WRITING CLIPS —  BOOK CREDITS, BELOW

Since late 2005: I work full-time as a freelance writer and editor; and I teach English, writing, and occasionally tango.

1988–2005

Editor, VIA Magazine (viamagazine.com) San Francisco. I was responsible for all phases of editorial production of travel and food features and columns for this bimonthly magazine, from idea development, line editing, and oversight through copy editing, fact-checking, and proofreading as well as design concept, captions, headlines, decks, and other display copy. Assisted the online editor.

1987-1988

Developmental Editor, Benjamin/Cummings (Addison Wesley), Menlo Park, Calif. – Edited and managed college science books, mainly one microbiology text (Tortora, Funk, and Case). Worked closely with authors. Evaluated and line-edited text, advised changes based on market needs, competition, and content peer reviews; coordinated art and all visuals (tables, graphs, line drawings, and photos); developed schedules and production-ready manuscripts.

1985 – 1987

Full-time freelance – see Book Credits below

1981–1985

Editor, Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA – Worked in all stages of book development for this progressive publisher of food, health, and fitness material; prepared proposals, budgets, and production-ready manuscripts; acquired material from freelance authors; researched and wrote chapters as well as books, magazine articles; promoted books on national radio (including on Fresh Air with Terry Gross) and local TV.

1977-80

Production and editorial assistant

Le Journal Français d’Amérique, San Francisco

Helped produce this national bimonthly French language newspaper. In addition to production and design duties, wrote stories (in French) on French film, restaurants, fashion, culture, and other francophile topics.

EDUCATION

1977 M.A. French language and literature, San Francisco State University

1976 graduate studies at Université d’Aix Marseilles, Aix-en-Provence, France

1973 B.A. Psychology, Kean University, Union, NJ

AWARDS/HONORS

2006 – Third place in the Kurt Vonnegut fiction competition; my short story Plot Theory has been published in the literary journal, North American Review.

2003 and 2004 Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction finalist, for short stories A dying tiger moaned for drink (’03) and Virgin Vision (’04)

2000 James Jones First Novel Fellowship finalist for novel, The Last Cannoli, Legas, New York, 2000

1999 The Pleasures of the Table, short story, received Honorable Mention in Explorations, literary magazine of University of Alaska Southeast.

1999 Second place, Society of American Travel Writers Western Chapter, Hiking the Chilkoot (travel story in VIA)

1993 Gold Award, Pacific Asia Travel Association, Getting Hold of Big Sur (travel story in VIA)

SKILLS

Computer-proficient (Quark Xpress, Microsoft, Excel, PowerPoint other software). Tech-savvy: able to manage online content, upload videos, images, and media, and generally manage a Web site, including generating interesting text, tag-weighting, studying analytics, and enhancing overall user experience. Fluent in French and Spanish; conversational in Italian. Argentine tango—certified to teach.

BOOK CREDITS

Tango, an Argentine Love Story, a personal travel memoir, Seal Press, Berkeley, Calif., 2008.

France, A Love Story, Italy, A Love Story, Mexico A Love Story, and Greece, A Love Story, edited and contributed essays to this series of books published, beginning in 2004, by Seal Press, Berkeley, Calif.

The Unsavvy Traveler, anthology, 2005, Seal Press, contributed humorous essay, A Splendid Duck.

Far From Home, ed. Wendy Knight; 2004, Seal Press, contributed essay, Of Gods and Fathers.

Women Who Eat, ed. Leslie Miller; 2003, Seal Press, contributed opening essay, The Big Night in Sicily.

America Loves Salads, GuildAmerica (Doubleday), New York, 1993, author.

Christmas, A Celebration, Annette Spence, recipes by Camille Cusumano, Michael Friedman Group, New York, 1993.

The New Foods, Henry Holt, New York, 1989, author

Microbiology, An Introduction, third edition, Tortora, Funke, and Case, Benjamin Cummings, Menlo Park, CA, 1988, developmental editor.

The Fit Body, Time-Life Books, Alexandria, VA, 1986, associate editor.

International Great Meals in Minutes, Time-Life Books, 1986: wrote introduction to new edition published by Little, Brown, & Co., Boston.

The Italian-American Catalog, ed. Joseph Giordano, Doubleday, New York, 1986; contributed two chapters: Fennel, Culinary Cure-All and In Search of My Sicilian Heritage.

Hunger and Health, Claude Aubert, Rodale Press, 1985, translated from the French by Cusumano et. al.

The Prevention Total Health System, Rodale Press, 1985: contributed sections to three books in the series, including High Energy Living, Using Medicines Wisely, and Pain Free.

Tofu, Tempeh, and Other Soy Delights, Rodale Press, 1984, author.

Rodale’s Basic Natural Foods Cookbook, ed. Charles Gerras; co-writer with Carol Munson, Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA, 1983.

Rodale’s High Health Cookbook Series, 1982, prepared text and recipes for The Good Grains, Soups Supreme, No Salt Needed, and Low-Cost Natural Foods.

Everybody’s Business, An Almanac, Moskowitz, Katz, and Levering, Harper & Row, SF, 1980. Research assistant.

California the Beautiful, Galen Rowell keepsake edition: some 85 images of Rowell’s photography is paired with the prose or poetry of some fifty California writers, including Maya Angelou, Mary Austin, Ray Bradbury, Joan Didion, Gretel Ehrlich, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, M.F.K. Fisher, Robertson Jeffers, Jack Kerouac, Clarence King, Jack London, Henry Miller, John Muir, William Saroyan, April Smith, John Steinbeck, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Nathanael West, and Walt Whitman, and Camille Cusumano (an excerpt from a story I wrote on Anza-Borrego Desert appears).

About me . . .

I bring to my workshops more than thirty years of experience in publishing as researcher, writer, editor, and instructor in a vast array of subject areas including essay, memoir, food, travel, fitness, health, mind/body/spirit, creative non-fiction, fiction, and more. My latest book, a travel memoir, TANGO, AN ARGENTINE LOVE STORY, was endorsed by bestselling authors, Sylvia Boorstein and Laura Fraser. My work has appeared in numerous publications, including Islands, Country Living, Yoga Journal, North American Review, Vegetarian Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, and the New York Times. My short story, Plot Theory, won third prize in the 2006 Kurt Vonnegut short fiction contest. I’ve just returned to my home of many years in San Francisco from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I lived and taught during the past three and a half years.

HERE ARE YOUR FOUR GOALS WE’LL ACCOMPLISH IN THIS INTENSIVE:

1. Understand and embrace your writing setpoint. Just as with body weight, we all have a writing setpoint—a natural length that suits our message and determines our ideal genre. 1,000 words is the mean, from which you assess your need to unpack and flesh out or shrink-wrap and tighten.

2. Learn to optimize your setpoint:

A. If it tends toward shortness, we’ll learn when/if/how to unpack and expand what might actually be the bones of your outline, where to put the flesh.

B. If your pieces tend to run long, we’ll look at when/if/how to deftly “shrink wrap” your piece without losing a trace of flavor.

3. Learn to preserve the narrative arc.  All pieces and genres need this little wave of intrigue, no matter what length. We’ll look at and understand how to make mini or maxi pieces arc effectively.

4. Gain full confidence with your writing setpoint, no matter where it tends. You’ll be able to move forward with finishing work, knowing how your “setpoint” allows you to do that – and never again having that Zeno’s hare feeling that the all-important end is not attainable.

All levels writers welcome.

Some writers can barely squeeze a thousand words out and they feel done—they have said it all. Others of us gush, feeling much like Zeno’s Hare—the distance to the finish is perpetually cut in half. Neither setpoint is better or worse—both are useful modes of writing that help you shape and craft your piece.

enre, so it’s good to consider the genre best suited to your writing. Understanding your own propensity for which length can help you shape and craft your words, whether you are writing an essay, feature, short or medium-size article, a vignette, chapter, novel, or even a journal entry for later use in a book or memoir, say. If you are just getting started as a writer, this workshop will provide encouragement to write freely without the usual beginner’s obstacles.

Please keep checking – Writing workshops for April TBA

This is a great workshop for aspiring memoirists—I’ll talk about Zen, tango, and the writing of my memoir.

The hands and feet are the body parts farthest from the heart, but they are as integral to mind as the brain or any other organ. Writing is as full-bodied as dancing tango.

How, then, does Zen practice inform your writing? My years of Zen meditation played a major role in my writing life—long before I wrote TANGO, helping me to untangle knots of confusion.

I will offer a writing workshop that explores how Zen—the meditation and the everyday living of it—weave with a heartfelt writing practice, just as tango dancing becomes a way to freedom in an arena of intimacy. If you have fear of writing, this is a safe haven for you. We’ll work together to help you through that constricting passage. We will  also do exercises that focus the monkey mind. While I love Natalie Goldberg’s approach in Writing Down the Bones, my teaching method involves more than removing obstacles, but working with them. As we work on the craft as well as the art of writing, each one circles to a center and finds her/his writing niche.

More on my writing/editing services, and workshops.

Please check back for dates and details.

Camille