Talk of the Coast

From the Coast Magazine — April 2001 Edition
By Marla Miller

On Saturday, March 24th, UC Irvine Extension's creative writing program will host a day-long seminar, Celebrate Writing: From Fiction to Film, featuring a panel of Orange County writers including Linda Voorhees, Terry Black, Loella Nelson, and Andrew Porter and moderated by yours truly. Keynote speaker will be Catherine Ryan Hyde, an extraordinarily gifted writer who offers inspiration to anyone in pursuit of a dream. Over the holidays, Pay It Forward, starring Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt, hit the theaters, the screenplay adapted from Ryan's best-selling first novel. The accolades earned by this Santa Barbara-based writer are too long to list and include a second novel, Electric God, which I couldn't put down. I'm delighted to say I knew her "when" or before mega success allowed her to give up her day job and write full time. We first met years ago at the Santa Barbara Writer's Conference. At that time she was writing short stories at night and working as an editor by day to pay the bills. Since then she has catapulted to the kind of success most writers only dream of, and no one deserve this good fortune more than Catherine Ryan Hyde. She's a great storyteller who will have the audience laughing, guaranteed. Don't miss her. To enroll, call (949) 824-5414.