The Enduring Fairmont Hotel
October 31, 2010 by ciji · Leave a Comment
photo by Michael Forester
Last week, my great pal from my KABC/LA radio days, cookbook writer Diane Worthington, author of the classics The Cuisine of California, The California Cook, and her recent Seriously Simple series, was in San Francisco to meet with her editors at Chronicle Books, and to catch up with her good friends at the gorgeous Fairmont Hotel, atop Nob Hill.
She kindly asked me to tag along, knowing my long-standing love affair with the Fairmont, the setting for much of my forthcoming historical novel A Race to Splendor, due out from Sourcebooks Landmark in April, 2011, on the 105th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and firestorm.
Inspired by the early professional life of Julia Morgan, California’s first licensed female architect, this is the tale of a race against time to rebuild two luxury hotels (the Fairmont and a fictional hostelry) after the 1906 disaster destroyed 400 city blocks and left 250,000 homeless.
Morgan’s fictional protegee, Amelia Hunter Bradshaw and client J.D. Thayer will sacrifice anything to see the city they love rise from the ashes. In the process, they find themselves transformed from fierce rivals to unwilling partners who fight political corruption, endure back-breaking hardship, and ultimately can’t help but lose their hearts. 
As many times as I’ve visited this awe-inspiring hotel during my childhood and in the years when I was researching the historical novel, chills go down my spine whenever I walk into the magnificent lobby, seen here from the Mason Street entrance, and hear the clang of the California Street cable car that was running when Julia Morgan returned to San Francisco in 1904 from her architecture studies in Paris, just two years before the cataclysmic temblor.
Morgan was only thirty-four-years-old when she received the commission to rebuild the Fairmont’s burnt-out hulk after the 3000 degree fire raced through its beaux arts facade.
Flash forward to the year 2000. I witnessed the most recent transformation by the historic preservation architects Page & Turnbull of the gaudy (but lovable) red upholstered Fairmont of my youth to the golden confection you see in these pictures I took last week.
Like dogged detectives, these historic preservationists uncovered evidence of what the hotel looked like before fifties interior designer, Dorothy Draper, gave it her “Hollywood” treatment,as you see below–a style that endured half a century.
To celebrate the Millennium, the hotel was restored to a near-perfect replica of the work wrought by Miss Morgan between 1906-07 under impossible conditions.
It is that incredible story that forms the spine of A Race to Splendor and what a treat to be hosted in a place I know and love so well by Diane’s friend, Michelle Heston, the Fairmont’s Regional Director of Public Relations for the Western US & Hawaii.
Thanks to her and the hospitable staff, a stunning array of delectable offerings as part of their Afternoon Tea service was set before us in the Laurel Court Restaurant–one of whose domes had been unexpectedly discovered by a sleuth for Page & Turnbull when he crawled between the floors in the early days of the most recent renovation. Ms. Draper had lowered the ceiling, and over the decades, the beautiful dome had been forgotten.
Last week during our delightful afternoon, Halloween was upon us, and the staff had produced a variety of carved pumpkins for a contest that asked guests to vote for their favorite creation.
The hotel was jammed with fans in town to root for the Texas Rangers who are playing our beloved San Francisco Giants in the current World Series.
In fact, as you see here, I whipped out my iPhone as one guest was headed to the game and then booked on a private jet that would take her back for Game 3,4, and 5 in Texas
Needless to say, our group raised our porcelain teacups and saluted the Giants, as well as my heroine, Julia Morgan, the creator of such beauty that has endured….
A Second Act for a 17th c. Woman Playwright
October 19, 2010 by ciji · Leave a Comment
Twenty years ago, when I began thinking about writing Wicked Company focusing on a group of eighteenth century “Petticoat Playwrights” whose works were performed to great success at London’s Covent Garden and Drury Lane theatres, even most English majors had never heard of the playwright Aphra Behn, whose dates are thought to be 1640-1689.
Now recognized as “one of the first women to earn her living by her pen,” the woman on your right has finally come into her own with several biographies and monographs describing her life as a spy, and later as a remarkably successful and prolific playwright in the Restoration era –a time after the monarchy was restored in the person of Charles II who allowed, at long last, women to play women’s parts on stages throughout Britain.
The daughter of a barber and a nurse, Aphra somehow managed to travel to Venezuela which was the setting for one of her later plays. Later, through friends and connections, she was recruited by King Charles II himself to pose as a widow in Antwerp and spy for the Crown, prior to the outbreak of a war between Britain and the Netherlands in 1665.
Sadly, the King neglected to pay her for her services to her country, and upon her return, she landed in Debtor’s Prison. Once released, she had plenty of fodder for her plays, which she proceeded to write starting in 1670 with astonishing speed in order to keep body-and-soul together (the plight of most writers through the ages, I’m sad to report).
Aphra Behn’s best-known works–some still produced today–are The Rover, Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister, and Oroonoko.
Her body of work includes some seventeen plays, four novels, two short stories, and seven collections of poems. Her writing was often vilified by the male-dominated literary world. Alexander Pope (1688-1744), born the year before she died, continually penned slights in the years following her death. Conveniently for him, the poor woman was unable to defend herself. Even in our own time, American critic and Yale Professor of the Humanities Harold Bloom called her a “fourth-rate playwright” in comparison to Shakespeare, adding rather spitefully that the interest of her in the era of Women’s Studies was an example of the “dumbing down” of the culture.
Tell that to Liz Duffy Adams, winner of the 5th Annual Lillian Hellman Award! On November 4th, at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre –an organization that specializes in presenting new works–Adams’ play “Or,” opens. It features Aphra Behn as the central character, and I, for one, cannot wait to see it.
Described as follows on the Magic Theatre’s website, it sounds hilarious, and appears to be a wonderful vehicle for getting back at all those nasty male critics:
Aphra Behn is getting out of the spy game and into showbiz. If she can finish her play by morning, she’ll become the first professional female playwright. All that’s standing in her way are King Charles II, actress Nell Gwynne, and double agent William Scot, who may or may not be trying to murder the king. Double-crossing, cross-dressing, sex, art, and politics all come together in playwright Liz Duffy Adams’ hilarious bodice-ripper that peers into the life and times of the literal first lady of the stage.
I have a friend deeply involved in support of Magic Theatre and if I can twist her arm, I hope I’ll have a chance to meet Ms. Adams, pictured here on the right, and share with her the fact that I’ve been a booster of “our” heroine Aphra Behn for a long time. In fact, I dedicate the newly-released Sourcebooks Landmark edition of Wicked Company about the eighteenth century Petticoat Playwrights that followed in Aphra’s footsteps to the noteworthy playwright as a way of expressing my thanks to this incredible woman who did, indeed, earn her living by her pen.
Just as I do with my computer. Not much changes over the centuries, does it…?
Writers’ Conferences 101
October 11, 2010 by ciji · Leave a Comment
Fall and spring in pretty places–that’s pretty much the routine when it comes to holding writers’ conferences, and the Scribblers’ Retreat is no exception! Held quarterly, the next one is November 10-14 at the King and Prince Beach and Golf Resort –shown here–on gorgeous St. Simons Island, Georgia and will feature historical novelists like Diana Gabaldon and yours truly, along with my publisher, Dominique Riccah, CEO of Sourcebooks.
I just got the promotional material that kindly said: “Ciji Ware, veteran of all forms of print and electronic media, will talk about “New Publishing Trends–or–How I Survived as a Scribe.” Certainly a timely topic, given the revolution (and convolutions) going on in the print and publishing worlds, and when a visitor to this site merely clicks from page to page, you can certainly deduce that the main message I probably want to convey is: keep writing–no matter what!
That is how one gets to be a “veteran.” As my sainted late father, Harlan Ware, used to say about producing reams of material over his professional writing career, “Writers write. They don’t make excuses. They put the seat of their pants on the chair and their hands on the keyboard and they keep typing!”
And if you’re me, you start at about 9a.m. at least five days a week, as you can see from the image of a former (very mess) office on the right.
Maybe “Writers Write” should be inscribed within view of every would-be novelist or scribe. If you click on the “Ciji’s Covers” page on this site that displays the eight books I’ve written, you’ll see what comes from being consistent. To earn my keep, I’ve also written nonfiction, 2 screenplays (neither so far produced), a play (produced in my home town), magazines, news, television, and radio copy, online articles for the web, e-books, e-guides–you name it, I’ve typed it!
I usually mention this when I speak publicly, and offer forth other bits of wisdom from my father who wrote screenplays,novels, a biography, short stories, and for fourteen of its twenty-seven years on the air, the radio classic One Man’s Family: “The best way to be a writer who can pay the light bill is to pretend you work for the phone company. Punch the clock, day in, day out.”
Not every budding writer wants to hear this message of how to survive as a professional scribe. They want to write “when the spirit moves them….” or when their head is full of vibrant, fabulous ideas. And that’s fine, if writing is a hobby. But if it’s a living, there’s only one way to survive, and that’s to, as they say in the Nike commercial: “Just DO it!”
When I taught “Writing the First Novel” as an adjunct professor at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, I had 17 members in my class, and only one of them finished a book. The next year when I taught “Writing Women’s Fiction”–same thing. One person completed her manuscript and the rest of the class never crossed the finish line. I was worried that perhaps I wasn’t a great teacher, but the supervisor running the program looked up my student evaluations and said, “No…you got great marks from your class. It’s just they never understood how hard it can be to write a book, to say nothing of getting it published.”
Apparently, nearly every lawyer would like to be John Grisham, but few have the stamina to work as hard at the writing craft as Grisham has. Hundreds of people over the years have said to me, “Oh….I’d love to write a book, if only I had the time,” or “I know a great book that you should write!”
I haven’t spoke to a full-fledged writers conference for quite some time, lecturing mostly these days about my nonfiction work Rightsizing Your Life: Simplifying Your Surroundings While Keeping What Matters Most. But now that all my historicals are being reissued with wonderful covers from Sourcebooks Landmark–and my first new historical novel in a decade will be published next April–it’s going to be interesting to see if audiences of fledgling authors who “love to write” have changed at all, especially as it has become tougher and tougher to earn one’s living in the Digital Age.
I’ll let you know how it goes….
Booksellers, Historical Fiction, & “Hand-Selling”
October 4, 2010 by ciji · Leave a Comment
I remember walking into the (now) 83-year-old independent Tecolote Bookshop in Montecito, California–seen here hosting Thomas Steinbeck at a signing–to show them the galleys for the first edition of A Cottage by the Sea. My favorite member of the small sales force peered at the title and then suddenly clutched the Advanced Reader’s Copy to her bosom and said with a sigh, “Oooooh, a cottage by the sea…every woman’s fantasy!”
I was extremely gratified to hear this as I was in a fierce battle with the book’s original publisher about the title. “They” wanted to change it, and I loved it and wanted to keep it.
I immediately sent an emergency fax (that’s how long ago this was) to the editor, recounting exactly what I’ve told you.
I knew this anecdote would have some weight because the scuttlebutt was that Tecolote was one of the up-market independent booksellers out West that the New York Times Sunday Book Review called to measure sales for its bestsellers’ list. I have no idea if that is true, but it was an accolade from an important store and, bless the hardworking staff there, it carried enough clout with the editors and marketers in New York to retain the book’s title!
Every since that time, I have done my best to support and get to know the booksellers at both independent bookshops, like my local Habitat Books seen here, as well as the chain bookstore staffs in my area.
Historical novels, whether made of paper or downloaded onto an electronic reading device, are successful in great part due to this “hand-selling,” and I’ve been grateful for the fifteen years that A Cottage by the Sea has been in print in its various editions that booksellers have apparently given it a personal boost and created that “buzz” that can really make a difference in sales.
Just this morning I was walking with a friend down our main thoroughfare where the tourists stroll as soon as they step off the ferry from San Francisco, and lo and behold, there was the beautiful edition (and new cover) of Cottage–out since June of this year from Sourcebooks Landmark–up-front-and-center in the window of the store! I’ve met the owner, but hadn’t had a chance to go in and try to twist her arm to stock the book, to say nothing of begging her to put it in the window.
I handed my dog-walking pal my iPhone and said, “Quick! Take a snap, will you? I want to prove to the world how the independents are truly independent!” The owner chose to feature the book with no prompting from the author or publisher.
Books are sold by hand by these wonderful people who own bookstores…one book at a time. And now that the new edition of Wicked Company, about a group of women playwrights whose works were produced to great success at London’s Covent Garden and Drury Lane theaters, is about to debut this month, I guess I should get busy, go into Habitat Books to show them the new cover, and introduce myself again….
I’ve done that recently at a local gift shop, It’s Out of Hand, whose owner, Christine Butler, I know well. 
Since we live in a maritime village facing San Francisco Bay, she put Cottage near the cash register with a sign “Signed by Local Author” and sells several copies a month talking about the similarities between Cornwall, England, where Cottage is set, and the California coasts along Carmel-by-the-Sea and Big Sur.
Another lesson in “books are hand sold, one book at a time.” Words to live by, I’d say.
