Parallel Tales

When author and journalist Sara Davidson returned to the West Coast from the east in the mid-’70s, friends warned her that she would be writing a screenplay within a year. In fact, it took two.

Davidson, who has been co-producer of the CBS-TV hit “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” will be the featured speaker of the Ventura County Writers Club in Thousand Oaks on Tuesday. She will present a dramatic monologue based on her current book, “Cowboy,” about an unlikely love affair between a well-educated, high-powered writer/producer and an uneducated cowboy artisan.

After the monologue, Davidson will answer questions. As the author of “Loose Change” and as a reporter for the Boston Globe, she has also covered presidential campaigns and written for national magazines such as the Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Rolling Stone and Life.

In discussing “Cowboy,” she said the parallels between Dr. Quinn’s life and her own affair didn’t hit her until a year and a half into her relationship. As viewers of the series know, Dr. Quinn is a medical doctor from a well-connected Boston family who falls in love with Sully, an uneducated man raised by Cheyenne Indians.

“There was a moment when I was watching Jane Seymour and Joe Lando perform this scene that really had come out of my bedroom,” she said. “I’m thinking, ‘My God, the story I’m writing for television every week is the same story I’m living.’ ”

She asked herself whether she created this in her life in order to get more material--was life imitating art or the other way around?

“Loose Change” was published as nonfiction, but people remember it as a novel, she said. Then again, her novel “Friends of the Opposite Sex” was fictionalized, but grew out of her experience. Most works are a blend of fact and imagination, and it’s just the percentage that varies--in her case, her writing is based on 70% truth and 30% fiction, she said.

“You are creating a narrative story out of the raw materials of life,” she said. “There are no boundaries between a novel and a memoir--it’s more of a continuum. In memoir writing, you take certain liberties, partly because of the limits of memory. In a dramatic scene, people have to speak, so you invent--based on your best recollection of what happened and your knowledge of other personalities--the way they speak and the way their minds work.”

In Germany, she said, there is no distinction between memoir and novel--they are all published in the same category. When it comes to other writing forms, Davidson said she loved interviewing people the most and finds writing a screenplay a picnic compared to writing a novel.

‘When you’re writing a script you have parameters. They have to be 110 pages, with approximately three acts and a certain curve--you can’t go off on tangents. Whereas, in a novel there are thousands of choices you can make--no parameters, no rules,” she said.

Among other credits, Davidson created the ABC-TV series “Jack and Mike” and “Heartbeat,” not to mention her two teenage children. As for the improbable romance with her cowboy, it’s rolling along into its seventh year.

HAPPENINGS

* TODAY, 5 p.m. Janet Evanovich will discuss and sign “Hot Six.” Mysteries to Die For, 2940 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 374-0084.

* TODAY, 6 p.m. Poetry Night, with a discussion followed by a featured poet and open mike at 8 p.m. Borders, 125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 497-8159.

* MONDAY, 12:30 p.m. The Monday Afternoon Book Club will focus on “After Long Silence” by Helen Fremont. Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble, 160 S, Westlake Blvd., 446-2820.

* TUESDAY, 10:30 a.m. Storytime with crafts on “How Does Your Garden Grow?” for ages 2 1/2-7. Repeated at 3 p.m. Saturday. Adventures for Kids, 3457 Telegraph Road, Ventura, 650-9688.

* TUESDAY, 4:30 p.m. Magic Tree House Club. Grades 1-3 will hear about Mary Pope Osborne’s “Magic Tree House” series. Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble, 446-2820.

* TUESDAY, 7 p.m. The Contemporary Book Group will focus on “Stones From the River” by Ursula Hegi. Borders, 497-8159.

* TUESDAY, 7:30 p.m. The Ventura County Writers Club will feature Sara Davidson, author of “Cowboy” and co-producer TV’s “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.” Free to nonmembers. Contact Joanne Sehnem at 579-9419 for more information. Borders, 497-8159.

* WEDNESDAY, 9:30 a.m. Storytime about camping. Ventura Barnes & Noble, 4360 E. Main St., 339-9170.

* WEDNESDAY, 7 p.m. The Shakespearean Group will focus on “Taming of the Shrew.” Borders, 497-8159.

* WEDNESDAY, 7 p.m. The Wednesday Night Readers will discuss “Good Scent from a Strange Mountain,” short stories by Robert Olen Butler. Ventura Barnes & Noble, 339-9170.

* WEDNESDAY, 7 p.m. Mariaemma Willis and Victoria Kindle-Hodson will discuss and sign “Discover Your Child’s Learning Style.” Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble, 446-2820.

* WEDNESDAY, 8 p.m. A new Poetry Workshop meets the second and third Wednesday of each month. Ventura Barnes & Noble, 339-9170.

* THURSDAY, 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. Harry Potter Fan Club meetings. At 3:30 for kids in grades 3 and 4 and at 4:30 for fifth-graders and up. Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble (446-2820).

* THURSDAY, 7 p.m. Storytime for your inner child. Listen to a published short story read by one of the booksellers and have a snack. Ventura Barnes & Noble, 339-9170.

* THURSDAY, 8 p.m. spiritual counselor Louise Hauck leads a discussion about life and death from “Heart-Links: Inspiring Personal Stories That Explore Our Powerful Ability to Communicate With Our Lost Loved Ones.” Ventura Barnes & Noble, 339-9170.

* SATURDAY, 10:30 a.m. Storytime about butterflies, bugs and bees. Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble, 446-2820.

* SATURDAY, noon. M.C. Beaton will discuss and sign “Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam.” Mysteries to Die For, 374-0084.

* SATURDAY, 4 p.m. A new Pen Pals Plus Camp offers writing crafts and journal writing for ages 7 and up. Borders, 497-8159.

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Information about book signings, writers groups and publishing events can be e-mailed to anns40@aol.com or faxed to (805) 647-5649.