Writer Wednesday: Inspirational Novelist & Teacher Phyllis Gebauer

Phyllis Gebauer (photo credit LA Times/UCLA Extension)

Welcome to WRITER WEDNESDAY. Today’s blog is a sad one. Over the weekend, I received an email from the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, where I teach a children’s writing course. It turns out one of our instructors, acclaimed novelist and teacher PHYLLIS GEBAUER, had passed away.

I was devastated to hear the news. Phyllis Gebauer was the first teacher to encourage me to pursue writing a novel. So I wanted to devote today’s blog to Phyllis and her career and how she influenced me with her teaching. (For more info, go to her website here: http://phyllisgebauer.com/)

(NOTE: From The LA Times: “The above photo, taken in 1965, is from the Southern California period: a pig piñata they named Claude, Thomas Pynchon standing behind the door, flashing a peace sign, and Phyllis Gebauer, having a ball.” From The LA Times/UCLA Extension)

(Keep reading after the jump for more on Phyllis Gebauer…)

I moved to Los Angeles in 1995. At the time, I was a full-time journalist, having written for The Seattle Times and The Detroit News. I arrived in LA to start my new job as a staff correspondent for PEOPLE Magazine.

I had always wanted to write a novel. My “real” dream was to be a published book author. But I was in my early ’20s and felt I hadn’t lived life enough to write a novel. So I chose journalism, hoping it would provide me with a solid foundation of deadline reporting and writing skills (which it did). But while I was in LA, I wondered if it was time for me to take a class in novel writing to see if I could actually handle writing a novel. I learned about UCLA Extension’s wonderful Writers’ Program and signed up for a novel-writing class taught by Phyllis Gebauer.

I learned so much in Phyllis’ class. She gave great writing advice, told funny stories, and was a warm, receptive reader whose comments and line edits gave me much insight on writing. She encouraged me to continue pursuing fiction writing. I ended up writing AND finishing my first novel in her class. Although that novel never got published, it did get the attention of a book agent from The Writers House, and he has been my book agent ever since. In addition, that book led to me writing more novels until I finally sold my first one, GOOD ENOUGH, to HarperCollins.

In addition, I also met several close life-long friends in Phyllis’ class. We were all inspired by her class and even formed a writers’ group for about a year after her class ended.

Below is an excerpt from a story about Phyllis from the Los Angeles Times book section.

The link is here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/06/phyllis-gebauer-thomas-pynchon.html

“Phyllis Gebauer, the longtime friend of reclusive author Thomas Pynchon who recently made a significant gift of signed first editions of his books to the UCLA Extension Writers Program, has died. In an email, Writers Program director Linda Venis announced that Gebauer, who was in her 80s, died June 15 at City of Hope. Venis praised the former creative writing instructor: ‘During the past two decades, Phyllis taught over 60 novel writing courses, and in recent years, memoir writing — after she published, at the age of 80, Hot Widow, which Thomas Pynchon described as “rollicking and heartbreaking evidence that little black dresses aren’t just for graveside anymore.”  The recipient of the UCLA Extension Instructor Award in Creative Writing in 1992, Phyllis garnered the highest levels of praise every time she taught. Students loved her incisiveness, gift for making the complex accessible, and of course, her wicked sense of humor. When ill health forced Phyllis to cancel her “fictional approach to creating memoirs” class this past spring, it was fully enrolled with a waiting list. Phyllis’s popularity and skill as a teacher never, ever dimmed.'”

Many grateful thanks to Phyllis for her inspirational teaching and for encouraging me to take the first steps on the road to becoming a writer. I hope everyone takes to heart the important lessons they learn from their own teachers.

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Thank you for reading today’s WRITER WEDNESDAY blog.

Sincerely,

Paula