Writing Fiction and Nonfiction; The History of Women in Baseball; Charlie Chan’s Creator — The Life of Earl Derr Biggers

Barbara Gregorich is the author of Waltur Buys a Pig in a Poke and Other Stories (Houghton Mifflin), an early reader featuring Waltur, a bear who learns folk wisdom as expressed in idioms and proverbs — but only after humorous results. Her adult fiction includes She's on First, a well-received mainstream novel about a woman major league baseball player, and Dirty Proof, a mystery featuring Frank Dragovic, Chicago Croatian private detective. Her nonfiction work, Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball (Harcourt Brace), won the SABR-Macmillan award for best baseball research of the year.

Gregorich gives the following workshops and speeches.

• Writing for Children — This 2-3 hour workshop provides an overview on writing for children, from board books to young adult novels. It includes numerous handouts based on real-life query letters, proposals, sample chapters and work schedules, as well as information on getting published.
  
  
• Writing the Early Reader — This 3 hour workshop looks into beginning readers, early readers, and beginning chapter books, examining the differences between them. Participants will be introduced to successful titles in the genre and learn how to analyze the qualities of an early reader. Handouts are included, as is information on getting published. If time allows, participants will write a 100-word beginning reader.
  
  
• Writing Fiction and Nonfiction — This is Gregorich’s most popular workshop, a 4-5 hour overview on writing adult fiction and nonfiction. In both the fiction portion and the nonfiction portion she provides pertinent handouts based on real-life query letters, proposals, sample chapters, and work schedules. Throughout the workshop she includes information on getting published.
  
  
• Revise, Rewrite, Remain True — This 2-hour workshop has convinced anti-rewriters to tackle rewriting with a new attitude. In it Gregorich provides steps for taking a first draft through three stages of rewriting while remaining true to the spirit of the story one wants to tell. She also provides the first draft of an article and the participants rewrite it. Handouts are included.

• Charlie Chan’s Poppa: The Life of Earl Derr Biggers — Because of her 1999 Timeline article, “Charlie Chan’s Poppa: The Life of Earl Derr Biggers,” Gregorich is often consulted by people wanting to know more about Biggers. She was interviewed by Cloverland Productions for a Biggers documentary for 20th Century Fox’s DVD release of its Charlie Chan films. During the 1910s Earl Derr Biggers was a widely known and highly loved author. Had it not been for a 1919 vacation to Hawaii, where, lying on the beach, he conceived of “the perfect murder,” Biggers might have continued as a popular writer of middlebrow fiction. Instead, he moved into the mystery field by creating the Chinese-Hawaiian detective, Charlie Chan. In Chan, Biggers created a highly sympathetic, complex character who went against the racist Asian stereotypes (such as Fu Manchu) then prevalent in American culture. From the moment Chan stepped onto the pages of The House Without a Key (1925), Biggers life changed forever. “Charlie Chan’s Poppa” focuses on Biggers life and how it led to the creation of Charlie Chan. This speech includes a slide presentation.
  
  
• When Women Played Baseball: The Story of Margaret, Nellie, and Rose — In 1934 three teenage girls played hardball on the last traveling bloomer girl baseball team. Margaret, Nellie, and Rose came from different backgrounds and had different reasons for playing baseball. When the season was over they followed different paths — but playing baseball profoundly affected their lives and even helped determine their careers. This speech touches on the Great Depression, travel, barnstorming baseball teams, and women who wanted to play hardball.