Why does Santa Barbara have such a long literary history? What does our area offer to kick-start the brains of writers and readers?
Local book history began in 1836 when Richard Henry Dana wrote in his classic Two Years Before the Mast (1840) about his visit to our small Mexican village.
It included a three-day wedding of Bostonian Alfred Robinson to Ana Maria de la Guerra from an early ranchero family. Six years later, the groom Robinson published the second Santa Barbara-based book, Life in California.
Our town has attracted writers ever since. Listing them would fill this column. Same if I were to list only current writers. Santa Barbara has always had a slew of authors.
What is it about Santa Barbara that draws them?
One factor is our unique geographic location. Many years ago, I read an article about the setting of mountains sloping gently down to the sea that evokes a special aura or vortex of creative energy. Since most of the world’s coastlines are flat and arid or lined with steep, rugged cliffs, Santa Barbara’s geographical arrangement is unique. This aura allegedly feeds our creativity.
In addition, Santa Barbara’s coastline at 34.4 degrees north latitude lends itself to mild weather, important to me living here much of my life. Call me a “weather wuss.” Don’t put me in hot weather or in cold weather. I’ll complain and be miserable. Good news? No wonder our Mediterranean-like weather with many beautiful, sunny days attracts artists.
Weather and setting combine to play another potential for increasing brain power — exercise.
Author Travis Bradberry (Emotional Intelligence 2.0) wrote in Forbes Magazine about the importance of exercise when working long and concentrating on a project.
“Exercise forces you to have disconnected time … and this allows you to reflect on whatever it is you’re working on. In a Stanford study, 90 percent of people were more creative after they exercised.
“It’s no surprise that so many creative and successful people built exercise into their daily routines. Kurt Vonnegut took walks into the nearby town, swam laps, and did push-ups and sit-ups, Richard Branson runs every morning, and composers Beethoven and Tchaikovsky both walked daily.”
Walking fits in with Santa Barbara’s endless paths in the hills, along the beaches or around town. Getting out in nature and then back to writing equals a sharpened brain and stronger body.
Perhaps even more important are the people. With at least eight higher educational institutions, Santa Barbara can claim an educated citizenship prone to reading books, poetry, articles and writing in general. Who knows how many book or writing groups Santa Barbara harbors, or how many conversations are carried on about what is being read these days?
Active people support strong, brain-stimulating places such as bookstores (nearly all locally owned with a wide range of reading choices), libraries, art museums and performing arts theaters such as the Granada, the Bowl, the Lobero, the New Vic and more. These venues wake up our minds to new ways of thinking, popping ideas into our heads and encouraging us to put them into writing.
Local events also promote writing and awareness of the book world.
Speaking of Stories (Center Stage Theater) offers short stories monthly from January to May read by actors such as Pamela Dillman Haskell, T.C. Boyle, Meredith Baxter and Joe Spano. While listening, audiences have their own moments of creativity, visualizing their versions of scenery, characters and storyline like being producers, directors, actors, scenery and costume designers, all at the same time.
The annual Santa Barbara Writers Conference (June 18-22, 2018) at the Hyatt Hotel is a great spot for writers to gather. Workshops with more than 25 leaders, featured speakers, panels and time to connect with other writers make for a nearly around-the-clock conference. Creativity becomes highly contagious.
Now that Adult Ed has been brought back with Santa Barbara City College’s School of Extended Learning, year-round workshops are available to study literature and the craft of writing.
Throughout the year, Santa Barbara has many signings, readings and celebrity authors speaking. UCSB Arts & Lectures programs bring to town top authors. The annual CALM (Child Abuse Listening and Mediation) Celebrity Authors Luncheon (April 21, 2018) not only is a fundraising event, but a fun gathering focused on authors.
Additional cafes from Goleta to the Funk Zone to Carpinteria serve coffee, cocktails or meals, places that bring people together.
Included in our literary history is a string of publishing companies. One of the best known was Noel Young’s Capra Press started in 1969. He published works by Raymond Carver, Anais Nin, Henry Miller and many more. After Young’s death, Robert Bason continued it until 2011.
Today we have many small presses. One specialty is Gunpowder Press, co-edited by David Starkey and Chryss Yost. It publishes poetry and includes an impressive list of local poets.
For writers, Santa Barbara offers much to better their work. For readers, Santa Barbara authors offer books of all interests to keep us going. Who can ask for more?
Speaking of Capra Press, after the September column on how books make bestseller lists, publisher Robert Bason (former president of Charitable Funding Services and an antiquarian book dealer) shared his personal story of trying to make the prodigious New York Times bestsellers.
“At Capra Press, we released a new mystery by Rich Barre. He had won a prestigious award earlier for his first mystery, and we knew we would get pretty good sales, so we printed 5,000 copies. Lo and behold, about two or three weeks later it showed up on the L.A. Times Bestsellers list.
“My distributor called and said that they had just gotten an order from Barnes & Noble for 6,000 copies. We immediately did another printing — this time for 6,000 copies — and shipped them off to Barnes & Noble. Then my distributor called and said that for just $1,750 we could buy ‘front-line’ book shelves at the Barnes & Noble stores. So, I sent Barnes & Noble $1,750 — to buy the best bookshelf space.
“About six months later, we got 5,752 copies back from Barnes & Noble — we sent them all to the dump. I think I lost something like $10,000 on the book but learned my lesson. I never wanted another bestseller after that.”
So much for the guessing game of how a book gets on bestseller lists …
Here’s a new 21st century writing formula: blog + book = new column.
Author Beverlye Fead uses the formula to follow her humorous, common sense book, Aging in High Heels (2016). Her Montecito Journal column focuses on life and enjoyment for men and women after 50.
Several years ago, she survived stage-four cancer and lives by the advice, “Accept, adjust and move on!”
From there she developed the idea of high heels as a symbol of not giving in to stereotypes of aging. Fead deals with aging factors such as health, loss of loved ones, a combination of nutrition and exercise to keep energetic, open-minded and list of things to defy being “old.” She works on “getting older, not getting old” and calls herself “the new old.”
“I was brought up in California where youth is king. Did I ever think I would be interested in what happens to ‘older people’? No! I was busy getting tan. But then life happened, and in a blink I became one of those ‘older people’ myself. So not only did I become fascinated by it again, but I also wanted to write about it.”
Her book, she says, has had a wonderful life of its own.
“I receive photos of women in their heels, and wherever I go, they stop and tell me, ‘I don’t wear my heels anymore, but I still feel like I do.’ That’s the point. You don’t actually have to be wearing high heels. It’s all in your head.”
Click here to check out her TEDx talk last year called “Isn’t It About Time We Rethink Aging?”
— Noozhawk columnist Susan Miles Gulbransen — a Santa Barbara native, writer and book reviewer — teaches writing at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and through the Santa Barbara City College Continuing Education Division. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.
