SAMANTHA CLAIRE UPDEGRAVE
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Writing
  • Classes/Events
  • The You The Singer Sings To
  • Contact

Samantha Claire Updegrave (she/her/hers)
Writer. Teacher. Record store nerd turned
urban planner. List maker. Scorpio.
 

Notes on mamahood, music, and the writing life. 

newsletter sign up!

2018 Washington State Book Awards!

10/13/2018

0 Comments

 
The 2018 Washington State Book Awards are tonight, and I'm excited that I was a part of the Ghosts of Seattle Past: An Anthology of Lost Places, one of this year's nonfiction finalist.

My worlds of urban planning and writing rarely intersect, and I'm grateful to curator Jaimee Garbacik for asking me to write the foreword.      

Excited to be in such fine company, both the anthology and among all the finalists. Good luck to everyone tonight! And congratulations!    
Picture
Picture
http://www.washingtoncenterforthebook.org/announcing-the-2018-book-award-finalists/
0 Comments

I Made a Book

2/25/2016

0 Comments

 
Okay, I made something that's on its way to becoming a book. It's a complete first draft: twenty-two chapters and a coda, an epigraph and a table of contents.

Now, I'm working the revision toward a second draft, and I'm a little stalled at chapter 15, but it's for the best that I'm stuck because there's something it still needs to say. There's no panic, no writer's block, just a lot of walking through the city and drifting  and going to bed early and seeing what my dreams have to offer up in the morning.

Holding a first draft -- slipping its pages into a binder and seeing it whole -- transformed how I relate to the work, and to myself as a writer.    

Whatever it is you're working on, keep working it. 

​
0 Comments

MY OWN COMIC RELIEF

1/14/2016

0 Comments

 
Scrolling through the 1,739 photos that are stored on my telephone, I came across this silly three bar comic I drew for my son last year. Mind you, I cannot make straight lines and most of my circles resemble spaghetti squash and three-dimensionality doesn't stand a chance in my hands. I've always been super self-conscious about how bad I am at drawing. 

But when my sister gave me Lynda Barry's Syllabus last year, I started to play around with Ivan Brunetti's style of drawing, which she introduces as a "common starting place that is like the starting place we all share: our first drawings of people made when we were little." Even I could do it! While I haven't advanced all that much, it's still fun and feels rad to draw little people doing weird things. 

Another writer asked me last night what books inspired me, and I can't believe I didn't mention Syllabus. Seriously, through its pages I discovered ways to bring play back into my boring adult life, push myself, come up with cool and kooky projects to do with my little guy, and a myriad of sketches to embarrass myself with.

I'm even teaching a class this spring at the Hugo House called "Lynda Barry's 7-Minute Diary." (Hey -- sign up for my newsletter so I can send the link when all the details are settled!)

After my son and I took a big walk, I decided to draw a scene from our day. Here is my favorite frame from that comic -- the dragon of dark as he proclaims himself to be leader and me, the "serpent."

Now go draw something!!! 

xo
Picture
0 Comments

Sweet December Reads

1/5/2016

0 Comments

 
Freelance work. And a bourbon. Some nights, it's a good life. 

And these books are incredible. But more on that later.
 
Picture
0 Comments

    Notes on music, mamahood, and the writing life from a part-time blog keeper. 

    xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

    Categories

    All
    #amdrawing
    #amreading
    #amwriting
    Artist Statment
    Authors & Writers
    #binders
    @bobobo33sb
    Book Review
    Booksplusbourbon
    B+W Photography
    Casandra Lopez
    @casandramlopez
    @chopsueyseattle
    Comics
    Dragons
    Drawing
    Fiction
    @gooddirt
    @happygimme
    Inspiration
    James Franco Review
    @jennyha_yes
    Jenny Hayes
    @kristenmillares
    Kristen Millares Young
    Looseleaf
    Lynda Barry
    Max Delsohn
    Memoir
    Michelle Peñaloza
    Music
    Natasha Marin
    Nonfiction
    Nora Hughes
    Patty Belsick
    @pennyzola
    Play
    Poetry
    Ramona Shore
    Reading Series
    Sara Majka
    Stephanie Barbé Hammer
    Suzanne Bottelli
    The Looseleaf Reading Series
    Witchy
    Writing Life
    Yi Shun Lai
    Zoe Zolbrod

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.