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Crime novelist and former Los Angeles Times reporter Denise Hamilton spoke to students about the writing process and read from her latest novel Damage Control last Thursday in the Creveling Lounge.

Hamilton spoke of the influence journalism had on her career as a novelist and recommended students interested in writing try it out. “Being a journalist taught me how to write fast, how to take criticism, and editing. It also taught me how to write, how to pull a story apart and put it back together,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton was here as part of PCC’s Writer in Residence program. The program, which is in its second year of existence, is funded by the Pasadena Festival of Women Authors.

As part of her weeklong residency, Hamilton also paid a visit to a couple creative writing classes and interacted with students at workshops. Hamilton’s overall experience at PCC was a positive one she said.

“This program was really well organized and the students asked really good questions,” Hamilton said.

With the majority of the audience being composed of English and creative writing students, Hamilton had advice for those interested in becoming professional writers.

“Use all of your five senses when you are writing and I recommend you join a writing group. If you write one page a day, at the end of the year what do you have?” Hamilton said.

From the lecture David Smith, undeclared, gained a different perspective on the creative writing process.

“It’s vastly different than the way we’re being taught to write fiction in a creative writing class,” Smith said.

Hamilton’s love/hate relationship with Los Angeles and its influence of her novels was also something she touched on. She described the city plays the role of “the ultimate femme fatale” in her novels.

The actual reading itself had an impact on Michelle Ordiway, English, who gained a different perspective on the text after listening to Hamilton read it in her own voice.

“I read the excerpt before but listening to the way she read it gave it a different feeling,” Ordiway said.

Manny Perea, coordinator and English instructor, feels the Writer in Residence Program is good for students because it lets them interact and learn from professional writers but it also shows them that writing can be a profession.

“A lot of young writers, rather than wanting to write great art or literature, they want to make a living,” Perea said.

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