Beyond Acadia: Reading, Writing, & Living Well

One hundred little words

2012-02-01T11:46:00.000-06:00

WORDS
RED PURGATORY
CHAOS EDGAR

I'm really no good with prompts, but some efforts are worse than others. Agent Janet Reid hosted one of her contests recently. She posts a good blog, if you're interested in literary agents. The prompt words from the titles of Edgar nominees for best first novel in 2011: Bent Road by Lori Roy (I loved this one), Purgatory Chasm by Steve Ulfelder (Reid's client), All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen, Last to Fold by David Duffy, and Red on Red by Edward Conlon. Followers of the Reid blog were invited to submit stories of 100 words using red, bent, chasm, chaos, and fold. (As a matter of interest--to me!--I didn't win or place.) The winner blogged about the experience HERE on January 23, and it's a great post.
The following is my effort:

A trace of red in the corner of your lip. The shade I wore every performance for the last seven years. I felt rage fold into a singularity, a chasm of clarity where I saw your ambition like a pool on whose surface our friendship stirred no chaos. I bent toward you and the light, to reflect you in my eye—the mirror in which you stood and lied: "I won't go to the theater. I won't try out for your part." The role I'm now too old, and you the right age, to play.

See Reid's Thursday, January 26, 2012--hilarious picture. I'm a sucker for cats and slightly sick humor. (Actually very sick humor, but this one is only slightly--um--Bent.)

What would Jane say?

2012-01-22T19:01:00.000-06:00

Every writer struggles with POV, but somehow I seldom struggle with which one to take in any given work, just how best to employ it.

1st person limits the story to one set of eyes and perceptions but makes the story immediate. I find it easier to add layers in 1st person and more fully develop the main character. There are pitfalls to avoid. You have to be careful how the character describes herself, for one. In my fantasy novel the 1st person main character, Elsebet, compared her looks to her father's--she looks like him. You also should avoid having the character describe a lot of her own gestures. That's not a hard-set rule, but I watch how many of Elsebet's own mannerisms she talks about. 1st person can become too self-conscious.

3rd person is supposed to broaden your view of the story, but it doesn't always do so by much. Third person limited to one character still requires all the plot, description and characterization to be channeled through that character's perspective. I don't know how many times I've been criticized for stepping out of 3rd person limited POV--and I'm annoyed to pieces every time it happens. Yet it's my default. I'm not sure it has many advantages over 1st person. It does distance the writer from the POV character and gives you some wiggle room. Nevertheless, there is always the challenge to anchor the story to the focus character without having to preface all her observations with "she thought" or "she saw."

A good way around the limitations of 3rd person limited, and 1st person, too, for that matter, is to tell the story through multiple points of view, like Anna Karinina. I've employed that technique, but never tried 3rd person omniscient. So I can't comment on its advantages or disadvantages from experience, beyond commenting I think you need to be a writer with a strong voice to pull it off--and probably a healthy ego. The omniscient POV is all-knowing, godlike. Jane Austen, Henry James and James Joyce used omniscient POV.

Reads and regrets . . . and inspirations

2012-01-16T18:05:00.000-06:00

All writers read poetry, stories, essays, and novels that make them say, "I wish I'd written that" or "I wish I could write like that." During 2011 I read many books. Some of the ones I thought rose well above the rest:

Ghost Light by Joseph O'Connor (I wish I could write like that!)
Twice Born by Margaret Mazzantini
Bent Road by Lori Roy
The Winters in Bloom by Lisa Tucker
The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill

I began the new year well with The Glass Room by Simon Mawer and anticipate more great reads in 2012.

There are many books I can't write, writers I can't match. But there's comfort in knowing what I do write, no one else can.

The long and winding road

2012-01-10T16:05:00.000-06:00

I thought I'd share some nuggets of, if not wisdom, at least observation from my recent, ongoing, and seemingly never-ending quest for the list. Of likely literary agents, that is, for my 70,000-word fantasy novel. The process isn't as much fun as it sounds. On the other hand, it has its moments.

First I composed the list, which took hours of scouring the Internet in general and Query Tracker, Chuck Sambuchino's 2012 Guide to Literary Agents (Kindle version), and his blog in particular. Jotting down names is easy. Just list everyone who takes queries in the fantasy/paranormal genres. Cinch.

Eliminate the agents who state they aren't taking queries right now. Simple.

Sharpen the focus: figure out what kind of fantasy and paranormal novels each agent wants. Is it only urban fantasy or fantasy set in current day or epic fantasy? Cross those off my list. My fantasy is set in 16th century Hungary, so it's fantasy/paranormal and historical. And it's character-driven more than plot-driven, though in my own view I don't sacrifice plot to character (or vice versa). I also look up the chosen agents' names on the Internet, trying to find interviews, blogs, and any other information that tells me more about what they're interested in. Not all the information on the agency websites is accurate or finely tuned. Interviews and blogs gave me valuable insights into whether particular agents were worth my time to query.

I also got quotes I could use in the query letters. Even though we all know writers shoot out blanket queries to 20, 30, 50 agents at a time, the individual agents don't want queries to read like generic letters. Many of them say so. They don't mind being one of 50 agents I'm querying, but they do want to know why I picked them. So, if I read in an interview in which Agent A states she loves the fantasy novels of Writer X, and I thought my novel had things in common with Writer X's work, mentioning that is good. Or if Agent B says he'd love to see steampunk novels set in Victorian-era India, and my novel just happens to fit the bill (it doesn't--just an example)--well, the advantages are self-evident. I didn't always find much information, but when I did, I jotted down anything helpful to mention in the query letter. Agents about whom I found no very specific information on any website aside from their names and the preference for "fantasy" ended up on the bottom of the list. I'll work on them later and meanwhile pursue the people I can find easily. Okay, 4 or 5 days later I got that done. No, not 4 or 5 hours. Days. Do it right the first time. I don't want to backtrack and recheck (even though I glance over everything before hitting the SEND button, just to make sure).

Side note: check the dates of the information! Sometimes websites who list agents don't keep the facts current. Use them as a guide, but keep in mind that an agent who didn't represent YA in 2009 may do so now. An agent who used to work at Agency W in 2010 may have moved to XYZ Literary Management. Check the facts and the dates.

By this time I have an Excel document open listing the agents' names, the names of their agencies, their email addresses and websites. Finished? Ha-ha! There are columns for what to send: e-mail or snail mail; query letter only; query with the first x pages/chapters; query and synopsis; query, synopsis, and x pages/chapters? Plus, some agents get specific about what they want/don't want in a cover or query letter. Follow their guidelines to the letter.

This is the point at which I got a little tickled. I once suppressed the urge to email asking, politely, of course: "Do you want a synopsis, bio, word count, statement of why I'm the right person to write the novel, statement of my ability to promote my work on the Internet and elsewhere, and statement about why I picked you to query--or do you want a one-page letter? ;)" Naturally, I sent no such email, and--DISCLAIMER!--no one really asked for all that. But at 3 in the morning, drunk on insomnia and caffeine, I get the silliest notions.

Okay, that's the compiling data part. I had no idea what I was getting into when I decided to get so organized. Organization isn't my strong suit. It just seemed a better idea to compose the Excel document with all the info in one place than to try to remember who to send what and where based on handwritten notes and tabs in books or on printouts.

Now I'm into the sending queries part. If I was looking for saved time, I didn't find it. There aren't any shortcuts. But I have a better idea now who I'm supposed to ask about representation and where to look for information.

Are there agents who help you find the right agent for your book? Maybe after all this is finished, I ought to start an agent-finding agency. What do you think? The next big thing?

Happy New Year, 2012

2012-01-01T16:19:00.000-06:00

Making resolutions is for any time of year. I prefer to make them as situations come up and show me things I need to improve or pay more attention to. Like not groaning about going to the grocery store--I have to go, so why make the chore more unpleasant? It feels good to get a few whimpers off my chest every now and then, though. Everything in moderation.

Leos Janacek

2011-12-31T12:01:00.000-06:00

Found a new composer while reading The Glass Room by Simon Mawer. See the bottom of the page or visit here and listen for the silences!
"It astonishes her how significant silence can be within the context of a piece of music." (Leisel Landauer, p. 93, Other Press edition, 2009)

The Millennium Series

2011-12-14T08:08:00.000-06:00

I just finished reading all three books in Stieg Larsson's Millennium series. There are books I can't say I enjoyed reading, though I couldn't put them down at some points. Honestly, reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, I was tempted to skip an important appointment because the book was zooming along toward its climax. Maybe that's a definition of enjoyment, maybe not. I only know there were large parts of all three novels I had trouble reading. In fact there were a couple of passages I skipped. Knowing in general what happened was enough. The details of how were unimportant. (I'm not a prude, and I'm not in denial. I do choose sometimes not to imprint certain graphic mental images. There's enough bad stuff rattling around up there already.)

The books are disturbing. Lisbeth Salander was disturbing, with a sense of herself as judge and jury. She is a strong, compelling character. All the women in Larsson's books are strong. They're survivors of sometimes horrific events. Not superhuman, very human and flawed, but they handle themselves in a world dominated by men. They kick through their fear, which is what makes Lisbeth so impressive.

Denise Mina, crime novelist, is adapting the Millennium series for DC Comics next year and was recently quoted describing Lisbeth as "a survivor of sexual abuse," and goes on to comment: "I think every so often [Larsson] doesn't realise how frightened she is most of the time." In part that may be Larsson's writing style: it's a blunt instrument, powerful and compelling most of the time, plodding in others.

I wondered that it wasn't enough to destroy Dr. Peter Teleborian's testimony, credibility, and reputation. Larsson had to see him carted out of the courtroom for child pornography, too.

Blog Tour Day! Pamela S. Thibodeaux's The Visionary

2011-12-01T07:00:00.008-06:00

Today is blog tour day with my friend Pam Thibodeaux, founding mother of the Bayou Writers Group and author of The Visionary published by Five Star.

Please comment! Everyone who posts a comment will have their name tossed in a hat to win a copy of The Visionary. Drawing is December 17, and 4 lucky winners will be notified.** Pam's upcoming blog tour stops are listed at the end of this post. You're encouraged to visit all her guest spots and post comments--leaving comments on each site adds to your chances of winning a copy of the book. Feel free to ask Pam questions if you have any.
**By posting a comment, you agree that I may forward your name and email address to Pam--and ONLY to Pam--strictly for the purpose of drawing 4 winners. Good luck!

Award-winning author, Pamela S. Thibodeaux is the Co-Founder and a lifetime member of Bayou Writers Group, Inc., in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Multi-published in romantic fiction as well as creative non-fiction, her writing has been tagged as, “Inspirational with an Edge!” ™ and reviewed as “steamier and grittier than the typical Christian novel without decreasing the message.”

Website address: http://www.pamelathibodeaux.com

Blog: http://pamswildroseblog.blogspot.com

Bayou Writers Group: http://bayouwritersgroup.com

FOLLOW THESE LINKS TO BUY THE VISIONARY (if you aren't lucky enough to win it):

Amazon: http://amzn.to/n8as1b

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/o3YrMq

What is The Visionary about?

A visionary is someone who sees into the future Taylor Forrestier sees into the past but only as it pertains to her work. Hailed by her peers as “a visionary with an instinct for beauty and an eye for the unique” Taylor is undoubtedly a brilliant architect and gifted designer. But she and twin brother Trevor, share more than a successful business. The two share a childhood wrought with lies and deceit and the kind of abuse that’s disturbingly prevalent in today’s society. Can the love of God and the awesome healing power of His grace and mercy free the twins from their past and open their hearts to the good plan and the future He has for their lives? Find out in…The Visionary ~ Where the power of God's love heals the most wounded of souls.

EXCERPT:

Taylor Forrestier awoke with a muffled scream. Her feet tangled in the bedcovers when she tried to bolt, and she landed on the floor with a thud and a whimper. She kicked free of the sheets and blankets then crawled into a corner. Eyes wide with horror, she tried to make sense of the shadows that danced around her, to separate the ones in the room from those in her mind. Her heart thundered. Breath escaped in short pants. She drew her knees to her chest, took several deep breaths to keep from hyperventilating, then closed her eyes and rested her head. Shivers overtook her slender frame. A sob escaped. Oh, God, would the nightmares ever cease, the ghosts ever rest in peace?

Resolve straightened her spine. Eyes still closed, she inched her way to the bedside table. Her hand trembled when she turned on the lamp. The light forced darkness from the room, but only one thing would push it from her mind. Agility born of fear drove her to her feet. She fumbled into a sweat suit, socks and tennis shoes, scraped her hair up into a ponytail, then fled.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS/ANSWERS:

Question: What inspired this novel? How did it come about?

Answer: When I first wrote The Visionary in a 5-subject notebook (where most of my stuff began way back when) I had in mind a sweet romance featuring m/f twins and their love interests. When I first typed the novel, I thought, “this is my light romance!” which was a great relief after some of my other work which dealt with subjects like domestic violence, grief, and betrayal. However, one day I sent off the first 3 chapters to a friend and her response was, “these twins are awful close, you need to be careful.” Of course that made me wonder Why? What happened to them or between them to make them so close (I couldn’t seem to tone down their intense feelings for one another). Then one day I walked out of my office into the living room where my husband sat watching a popular talk show. In a heart-wrenching scene the young man on the show apologized to his sisters because he couldn’t stop the abuse they suffered at the hands of their father. I swear, every drop of blood drained from my body and I began to argue with God…. No! Not that! Anything but that! I can’t write this! I have no experience in this! I’m not qualified as a minister or therapist! God….PLEASE….no. Three days of wavering, three days of arguing, three days of not being able to sit down and write a single word and God finally confronted me with…. “Who are you writing for anyway?” I capitulated and wrote the entire story in 4 months during the busiest time of year for a bookkeeper/tax preparer (Jan - April).

Question: What was the hardest part of writing your book?

Answer: The hardest part of writing The Visionary was depicting the gruesome abuse the twins suffered as children and then realistically portraying the healing available through the awesome power of God's love and their struggle for relief from a past too horrendous to live with any longer.

Question: How did you come up with the concept and the setting?

Answer: Characters came first then setting for The Visionary I wanted to do a book around a set of M/F twins, don’t know why, just thought the concept would be interesting and I hadn’t read anything similar so I thought it would be something different. My family history goes back to the early settlers of Lake Charles, and I’d visited the old ‘LeBleu’ homestead so the idea that these twins would be hired to restore/remodel this home back into its previous grandeur and was supposed to be a light-hearted story until the twins revealed to me the horrific abuse they suffered as children. This has been my most difficult—yet most rewarding—books to write.

Question: Is any part of The Visionary factual?

Answer: Yes, the research Taylor uncovers about the LeBleu estate is factual as I actually did the research into the family history myself. However, that homestead no longer exists—the family sold the property to a pipe manufacturing company.

Question: How much research did The Visionary take?

Answer: Other than the research into the LeBleu estate –which I enjoyed immensely—actually very little, after all, the book is set in the area where I grew up so the setting was very easy to incorporate.

Question: What is the message you hope to get across in this story?

Answer: That regardless of where you’ve been or what you’ve done the awesome love of God has the power to heal the most wounded of souls and to forgive the ugliest of sinners.

Question: What is the one question you wish an interviewer would ask you?

Answer: Q: To what or whom do you credit your success?

A: Many people have a love/hate relationship with their muse. My muse is the Holy Spirit and I accredit every ounce of success to the grace of God because without HIM I seriously doubt I could write a single word, much less stories that bring hope and healing to so many.

Question: What is your work schedule like when you are writing?

Answer: Unlike many writers, I'm not strictly disciplined. Sometimes I feel I need to be because I haven't written anything new in quite a while. I've completed a couple WIP's and edited existing projects, but nothing brand new—and how I long to just throw everything out and start fresh LOL! However, when I am actively writing, I write—very little editing, or working on other projects, limited time online, not much networking or blogging, sleep comes only in snatches, meals are scarce and light, and definitely no playing!

Question: When do you feel like it all began to come together for you as a writer—was there a particular moment?

Answer: After years as a closet writer, penning stories in 5-subject notebooks, I'd have to say when I purchased my first, USED word processor and started typing in all those handwritten manuscripts I really began to feel like a writer.

Question: Who has influenced you most as a writer and why?

Answer: There is really no one person to whom I can attribute this to, so many have helped me along the way. I’d have to say that my love of reading has influenced me the most. Reading opens doors to the imagination, takes you places you’d never be able to go otherwise and improves your visualization and vocabulary skills. Now, I’m able to implement all those things into my own writing.

Question: What are some of the challenges you face as an author?

Answer: The biggest challenge I face is not having my work accepted by the “Christian” publishers. As one reviewer said, “though undeniably Christian, it is never dogmatic or insular; offering faith rather than religion.” (Review of Tempered Dreams by Elizabeth Burton for Blue Iris Journal) My books deal with issues in a way that is unacceptable in the traditional CBA market. Now that is not saying that my books are better than those published through traditional CBA publishers, only different. As I’ve said many times, everything that gives God glory deserves to be praised!

Question: What are a few writing tips you could share with aspiring writers?

Answer: The bible exhorts us to “study and show yourself approved.” Keep studying, keep writing, keep learning, stay open to constructive critique and NEVER GIVE UP! Writing is both gift and talent given to you by God. Don’t hide your gift or bury your talent. Whatever you write, write well. Strive for excellence. Stay teachable, pliable, and flexible. Never believe that you know it all because knowledge is power and the more you know the more valuable you become. Above all share what you learn with others and make someone’s load lighter to bear.

Question: Any marketing tips?

Answer: Marketing is an intricate part of the publishing business and publishers today expect authors to do their fair share. However, marketing/promotion can be overwhelming as the more you learn, the more there is to learn. For every thing you accomplish, there are hundreds more you can do. My motto is: Do something every day and your best then let God do the rest and remember it takes time to build a career.

Question: What is your goal or mission as a writer?
Answer: A committed Christian, I firmly believe in God and His promises. God is very real to me. I believe that people today need and want to hear more of His truths wherever they can glean them and I do my best to encourage readers to develop a personal relationship with Him. The deepest desire of my heart is to glorify God and to get His message of faith, trust, and forgiveness to a hurting world. My hope is that all of my stories will touch the lives of everyone who reads them and - in some way - bring them a truer knowledge of God and urge them into a closer walk with Him.

VISIT THE BLOGS BELOW FOR CONTINUED STOPS ON PAM'S BLOG TOUR!

Dec 2nd: Vicki Cain http://www.victoriapitts-caine.blogspot.com/

Dec 3rd: Justin Lugbill http://christian-book-review.com;

Dec 4th: Curt Iles http://creekbank.net

Dec 5th: Dana Pratola www.danapratola.webs.com

Dec 6th: Sylvia Ney http://writinginwonderland.blogspot.com/

Dec 7th: Shonell Bacon http://chicklitgurrl.blogspot.com/

Dec 8th: Joanne Troppello http://joannetroppello.weebly.com/blog.html

Dec 9th: Nona Cross http://winonacross.blogspot.com

Dec. 10th: JoAnn Carter http://home.comcast.net/~jo.glenncarter/site/

Dec 11th: Donna Basinow http://donnabsnow.blogspot.com/

Dec 12th: Guest @ Edgy Inspirational Romance www.edgyinspirationalromance.com

Dec 13th: Michelle Sutton http://edgyinspirationalauthor.blogspot.com/

Dec 14th: Guest @ PenTalk Community http://pentalkcommunity.blogspot.com/

Dec. 15th: Judy Leger: http://judithleger.blogspot.com/

Dec 16th: Janet K Brown http://www.writingwithhope.blogspot.com

Percy, Foote, & me

2011-11-28T13:26:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure I know what it means to be meek and humble of heart. Nor am I sure meekness and humility help one write great fiction. I don't know how to write very well. It's an everyday effort from which my ego suffers many bruises. I wish I knew an authority like Walker Percy to ask for advice. Being dead, he's out of the question . . . or is he?

At the age of nearly forty Mr. Percy gave up and said he just couldn't do it--whatever writing a novel took, he did not have it. Beyond that moment, he wrote The Moviegoer. Published in 1961, the novel won the 1962 National Book Award. Mr. Percy came to a moment of humility and defeat, then did something wonderful.

Did having Shelby Foote to guide him help or hinder? Do we really need our own Shelby Footes? (Don't you just want to say Feete?) Maybe. Lacking them, do we stumble onto our own writers' grace?

If I didn't believe so, I'd be mopping my kitchen floor and dusting furniture right now.

Flux

2011-11-06T14:59:00.000-06:00

My life is changing. My schedule, my writing habits, my feelings and convictions, if not all exactly changing, are adjusting. Maybe that's a better word. This state of affairs began a few months ago. I was on a committee. Had been for a while. And I began to wonder whether I belonged there. Even more uncomfortably, I sensed others wondering the same thing. That may or may not have been the case (I tend to think it was). I contributed valuable time and effort, yet there were key areas where I didn't meet the challenges. I decided to move on and, I sincerely hope, make room for someone more able to fill the position I vacated.
I forget sometimes I'm a writer and what that means. Not writing is bad. When you give up on a novel you've worked on a long time, in part because you haven't the energy to sort out its problems, that's devastating. For me, it always comes down to that choice. Do the other, or do the writing. People who have energy for jobs, committees, families, etc., how I envy them! They're my heroes (so long as they do it all well). But that kind of energy has always eluded me.

Do I go on fighting my nature, trying to live up to others' expectations? Do I do what's right for me and those closest and dearest to me? Put it that way, and there's not much choice.

Okay, so my priorities are as straight as they're likely to get. The schedule needs work, but it's coming along. Light's growing at the end of the tunnel. Of course, knowing Life and the vicissitudes of Fortune, it's as likely to be a train headlight as a new dawn. :) On the other hand, trains are vehicles, right?

YA Author Elana Johnson: Publicity, Schlubmicity

2011-09-07T09:53:00.000-05:00

YA Author Elana Johnson: Publicity, Schlubmicity: Say that five times fast. Ha! Okay, so today I'm going to discuss publicity a little bit from an author's point of view. I hope what I say...

Decades by Ruth Harris

2011-08-18T13:54:00.000-05:00

Originally published by Simon & Schuster, Decades by Ruth Harris is available in electronic format. The novel explores the styles, customs, and mores of three decades through the women who come of age in each one. One man, Nat Baum, ties together three radically different women.

Ms. Harris wisely introduces us to Barbara Roser, the other woman, first so the reader likes and understands her before she enters into a woman's most unenviable role. Married and a mother in the 1950s, Barbara realizes her husband is more committed to his job than his family, and she doesn't care for the role of wife devoted to home, children, and hubby's career. By the dawn of the 1960s Barbara's marriage is over, and she's in pursuit of the perfect life. Harris explores the question of Barbara's generation: can women have it all – a brilliant career and a fulfilling marriage? When Barbara meets Nat Baum, she's certain the answer is yes.

Nat's wife, Evelyn, is a product of the forties. From the first moment they meet, she effaces herself to become what Nat wants: she dresses to please him, learns slang, sleeps with him before they're married, and makes their life and home as comfortable for him as she can. When she runs into trouble in her marriage and child-raising, there's no one to turn to. Women of her generation, unlike twenty-first-century women, didn't speak about certain subjects, especially the most important ones. If their marriages fell apart, it was their fault; if their children went astray, that was their fault too. What happens to such a woman when she loses everything upon which she based her life?

The Nat Baum whom Evelyn strives so hard to please is selfish and overbearing, but possesses a vulnerability that makes him as appealing to us as he is to Evelyn and Barbara – that is, until he shows his true colors. Joy, his and Evelyn's daughter, comes closest to expressing what's missing from Nat. Joy wonders whether her father is a villain or a victim of the times when he grew up, when a man was defined by and satisfied with his career and his women.

Especially in Joy's section, it becomes very easy to hate Nat, and Joy as well. The false promises and permissiveness of the 1960s, Joy's coming-of-age decade, play with her emotions and values and skew her perceptions. Evelyn has no clue how to deal with her daughter, though she does try. Drunk on the power rush of making three women dance to his tunes, Nat encourages Joy's most outrageous behavior. One must feel some sympathy for her because, between her father's manipulation and the turbulent times, Joy hasn't much chance of survival, much less happiness, unless she adjusts her course.

Everything comes to a head in the sixties, that brutal decade. The forties and fifties were repressive, a time when society boxed men and women into separate and far from equal roles. But the sixties were murder: John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy are the spectacular examples. With the top role models literally shot down, older people looked on, stunned and ineffective, while teens like Joy embraced sex, drugs, and rock and roll in their search for meaning.

How Barbara, Evelyn, and Joy fare by the end of this novel and where their turbulent orbits around Nat Baum lead them makes a highly recommended read. DECADES

Lilies and Lunatics

2011-08-13T10:25:00.000-05:00

Twelve years ago a poet friend, Leo Luke Marcello, ignited the spark that became Swamp Lily Review, An Online Journal of Louisiana Literature and Arts. Leo mentioned a desire to edit a literary review one day. I thought, Wonderful, and knew I wanted to be part of his endeavor. Leo never did start the journal, but his idea remained with me and grew from involvement in someone else's journal into creating my own. On January 16, 2011, the seed bore fruit. My co-editor, Jessica Ferguson, and I published Issue 1, Number 1 of SLR.

During the months leading up to our debut, Jess and I thought of so many issues to resolve: Name? Word count? Type of work accepted? National, regional, or Louisiana only? We studied other journals' mission statements and guidelines and the best deals on website hosting. We stressed over whether this venture would ruin us financially and creatively and/or ruin our friendship. Did we need a partnership agreement? A lawyer? A psychiatrist?

All valid questions. What we didn't stress about, of course, were the things that nearly did us in. Like building the website. It took me months – months! – just to figure out we'd have to buy a format. I couldn't bend the free ones to my will. I looked at hundreds of themes. They flashed in front of my eyes, haunted my nightmares. Getting the right look for SLR was too important, though. After picking the right name for the journal, we refused to compromise on finding the right images for it and the right theme. The search was worth the time.

I'd never have done it on my own. If you decide to publish a journal and think you can build your own website, don't do it alone, and pick the right partner. Boy, did I luck out. Jess knew less than I did about sidebars and linking posts and pages and how to change the theme logo to our logo – because the original was an image file and needed the right program to revise it. But she was there, and she remained committed. She took the weight of other problems and left me free to figure out the mechanics. Because Jess didn't give up on me, I didn't give up on the project, and somehow answers came.

Getting the work to publish was a job in itself. For some reason, we weren't immediately buried in submissions! I laugh when I think of our nerve, but, I swear, it was naiveté, not arrogance. There are a lot of print and online reviews in Louisiana alone, and not everybody was going to get excited about yet another, even after we sent out invitations to submit and press releases and got word of mouth going. We hit all the bases and were fortunate enough to get good, quality works of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and photography.

There were still days I wanted to email our contributors and say, "I'm sorry, but we made a huge mistake. Your work is wonderful. You'll have no trouble placing it elsewhere . . ." And if I had a dollar for every time I made up my mind to find a web technician to help me build the site (and didn't do it), I could've taken a course. Maybe I should have.

But no matter how many instructions you read, no matter how many advisors and well-wishers you have, your journal is your journal. You've got to put it together your way, with or without technical help. At the end of it all, I look back on what we went through and what we ended up with, and I marvel. For all my clumsiness and ignorance, we ended up with great work to publish and a beautiful site. We published Issue 1, Number 2 on August 1, 2011.

Clearly, Somebody "up there" liked SLR. That's the only explanation.

Thanks for the inspiration, Leo. Rest in God's peace.

New website -- all about books! LitStack

2011-08-01T01:00:00.004-05:00

An exciting new website launches today, to which yours truly is a contributor. Go see what Adrienne Crezo and T. S. Tate have in store!

LitStack is a new reviews site dedicated to readers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, short stories, literary magazines, ebooks, manga and graphic novels. (We'll probably even be posting some spoken-word stuff for the super-artsy types.) The site also features indie bookstores and literary landmarks across the world (one city at a time), and cool bookish finds and news we run across online.

Litack’s diverse staff comprises writers and reviewers with MFAs and various advanced degrees.

In addition to daily book reviews and regular spotlights on indie bookstores we love, LitStack also features regular segments to promote current titles and build appreciation for older works.

LitStack’s Featured Author—This month-long series of posts includes reviews of previous releases by our Featured Author, along with a current interview and review to coincide with the author’s upcoming release.

LitStaff Picks—Once a week, we feature a collection of books new and old—the favorites of our staff within a specific theme.

ShortStacks—Original short stories and essays by established authors.

Footnotes - Multiple weekly posts highlighting literary events in history, including the birthdays of famous authors, publication and award dates of classic titles, and memorial posts for beloved figures.

Author Interviews—Launch week will feature interviews with Adam Schuitema and Hannah Moskowitz. In the coming weeks, Locus winner Cherie Priest, NYT Bestseller Terry Brooks and Irish Book Awards winner Marian Keyes are scheduled to appear.

The Book Club—Every month LitStack will have a couple of featured titles; a review, open-thread discussion and author Q&A (when available) will be posted for each book so you can read along and share your thoughts.

Who you callin' pink?

2011-07-20T11:54:00.000-05:00

I knew education was under attack, but I didn't realize how long it's been suffering. This morning a friend forwarded me a political cartoon from a 1934 issue of the Chicago Tribune. Among other things, it shows a horse-drawn wagon in which some men in overalls are shoveling out bags of money. The lower left corner shows a little man writing: "Plan of Action for U.S. Spend! Spend! Spend! Under the guise of recovery -- bust the government -- blame the capitalists for the failure -- junk the Constitution and declare a dictatorship." The whole thing rang familiar.

But the bothersome part of the cartoon is the men in caps and gowns, one of whom, wearing a sign marking him as Tugwell, Head of the Brain Trust, is whipping the weary and battered horse. A sign on the side of the wagon reads: "Young Pinkies from Columbia and Harvard." You know, even if big, Ivy-League colleges and universities do teach anti-American, communist ideology, no one has to buy it. Education isn't brainwashing. On the contrary, education at its best teaches one to think and reason. Education can, if allowed, broaden one's mind.

A lot of people fear that, the mind-broadening. They fear, I suppose, they'll lose all their values. Those wonderful, churchgoing, flag-waving values that keep so many of us rooted in certainty. As far back as Dickens's time, he warned against ignorance. The two children under the robes of the Spirit of Christmas Present were Ignorance and Want. Of the two, Ignorance was the most to be feared.

What has driven us to fear the opposite, to fear Learning? I have three college degrees, and I still go to church, pray, honor the flag, etc. I think education has helped me to be better at those things. I feel like I have a better grasp of Who I'm praying to, what I'm following. When we blindly follow any ideology, we are too easily led astray by unscrupulous shepherds. It's what you do your education that determines whether you're an asset or a liability to yourself, your family, community, and nation. People without an education can misuse their talents as easily as those with. Not all Harvard grads are evil, liberal, pinko -- whatever bad term you want to apply. And not all so-called good country people are saints.

Randy Travis put out a song several years ago lauding the virtues of people who buy their coffee beans already ground and don't pay their bills on the Internet. The song made me laugh. Was he turning his nose up at my parents and grandparents, who parched and ground their own coffee in the good old days? That's the way coffee was sold once upon a time. Getting it ground was the luxury. And if folks pay their bills online, well, they're paying their bills, right? Anything wrong with that?

I'm with Dickens. Watch out for the educated scoundrel, by all means, but fear Ignorance more. Almost all the world's ills arise from it. Let's not put down education. For the lack of it nations have fallen, for the lack of it our prisons are full. It isn't a panacea, but it's one of the best weapons we've got.

Random thoughts on one subject

2011-06-18T18:00:00.000-05:00

1. Several years ago I started noticing the expressions we use to refer to death. I especially noticed when I heard someone say, "She lost her sister." I thought that made me sound awfully careless, like I had misplaced Diana in a handbag at Victoria Station. Why don't we simply say someone's sister, father, friend, husband, etc., died? Died is a harsh word, but death is a harsh reality. I guess we like to soften it as much as possible. So we way "lost" instead.

2. And it's an accurate word. When our parents and siblings die, especially, we lose them and their presence and everything we gained from it, and we lose the ability to share history. There are things we can't say "remember when" about anymore, because they were the only ones who did remember when. Then we die, and everything we haven't told another person about is lost. That's part of the sadness, that loss of shared history. The things you don't have to explain because the other or others were there.

3. God bless all who mourn this weekend, all who have lost. As long as you remember, you'll keep part of your loved one alive.

Physics or something?

2011-06-18T10:47:00.000-05:00

I'm not complaining -- I know I do sometimes. Sorry about that. But this time I'm just wondering: why is it every time I sit down at my computer Husband shows up at the door? He can be taking a nap, watching a really good movie, waaaay out in the yard working, or even out in the car on his way to the grocery store or fishing. I sit down at the computer, and here he comes.

Is there an alarm attached to this chair? Seriously.

Getting a clue

2011-06-07T18:46:00.000-05:00

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/06/06/palin_defends_paul_revere_comments/Okay, been paying attention to the latest -- neither the first, nor last -- Sarah Palin quote that has everyone going. The Paul Revere thing. He warned the British. Okay. Not the brightest thing she's ever said, but hardly the worst. Benefit of the doubt? Sure. Even the Boston Globe seems to think she got it half right.

Then she tried to explain herself. Whoever said "never complain, never explain" knew what he was talking about. Sarah, you really, really ought to take that advice. You say you meant what you said about Revere warning the British, but you couldn't let it rest, could you? You had to go on -- your statement was in response to a "shout-out, gotcha question."

Yeah. Another one.

So what was this S-OGQ? "What have you seen so far today, and what are going to take away from your visit?"

That's your definition of a gotcha question? Just like the question about what news journals you read, right? You said all of them. Considering there are about 3 bazillion in the world, in print and online, do not even you see the improbability? If your mind went blank for a sec, whose doesn't? Couldn't think of even one current events journal off the top of your head? Why not tell Katie the truth? "I'm a little nervous, and I can't offhand think of one." Laugh it off. It happens to everyone. Even Katie, I bet. And if she hadn't admitted it, shame on her.

But, no? She was out to get you? The guy asking how you liked your visit to historic Boston -- was he out to get you too?

Sweetie, if you're going to use the gotcha question excuse, remember a few things, will you?

1) If you want to play big-time, presidential level politics, accept that you're going to get those questions right and left and deal with it. Gracefully.

2) It has to be a real gotcha question. Unsure what one of those sounds like? Turn to the person nearest you and ask.

3) You only get to use that as an excuse once. Even the people who like you will get tired of hearing you whine.

D-Day

2011-06-07T00:25:00.000-05:00

When and why did D-Day drop off the calendar? Don't tell me. It's been incorporated with Memorial Day. Since they're so close together. I liked having D-Day on my calendar every year, and V-E Day and V-J Day. Did it get politically incorrect to recall we fought and defeated Germany, Italy, Japan? Nobody else forgot. Trust me.

I'm not a hawk, a war lover. Just the opposite. But I like the idea of honoring, at least privately, the soldiers who took part in D-Day and turned the tide against Hitler's and the Nazi's advances, and V-E day when the Allied efforts paid off, and V-J Day when the Japanese advances were halted. These things happened almost 70 years ago. Many people they happened to are dead. Many of the old hatreds are dead, unfortunately replaced by new ones, or old ones in new clothes. Let them all stay dead, but don't forget them.

It pays to remember brave deeds and why they were necessary, and why they're still necessary. The seeds of today's wars were sown in the past. That's always been the way. We'd know that if we stopped making 3-day weekends out of memorials that once had meaning and purpose.

Am I preaching again? Very well, I'm preaching again. Some things are important. When an important thing occurs to us, we ought to mention it.

Twice Born

2011-06-01T20:11:00.000-05:00

I reviewed Twice Born by Margaret Mazzantini for the Best Damn Creative Writing Blog, and I loved it, but it wasn't a light, easy read. The characters were gritty and real, likeable and quirky. They lived on the pages. Mazzantini gave a lot of attention to them and to the places they went, the things they did and said.

Modern-day Rome and Sarajevo in 1984, 1992, and 2008; the Winter Olympics, the prelude to war, the siege that didn't end until the city, the country, lay in ruins. Against this setting, Italians Gemma and Diego meet and fall in love. But can their love survive Gemma's infertility and her determination to have -- or buy -- a child?

The answers lie in Sarajevo.

Win a Kindle from YA Author -- Limited time only

2011-05-16T09:10:00.000-05:00

Kindle giveaway going on Monday, May 16, through Midnight, Wednesday, May 18, 2011.

Nina Perez, YA author, is giving away a brand new Kindle if you buy the e-book or paperback version of her book. Contest rules http://twinprophecies.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/rebirth-press-release-1.pdf; general info http://twinprophecies.com/2011/05/09/the-twin-prophecies-rebirth-official-release/;

and book trailer http://youtu.be/Y2xrQ7tdUM8.

"As if high school weren’t hard enough, Violet and Jack have just discovered they have the souls of an evil witch and warlock inside of them."

Review: Bent Road by Lori Roy

2011-05-08T17:28:00.000-05:00

Black boys started calling Arthur Scott's daughter Elaine on the phone; race riots left broken glass in the streets. Events in Detroit, 1967, frightened Arthur more than the memories and grief waiting on Bent Road in rural Kansas, the home he fled twenty years before. He had vowed never to return, but riots and phone calls broke his resolve. He and Celia, his wife, move with their three children to Kansas, to Bent Road – where Arthur's remaining sister, Ruth, lives with her husband, where their widowed mother lives in the family home next to a shed no one talks about or keeps in repair.

The book's title creates a surface tension the reader penetrates by maddeningly slow degrees. Bent Road is perilous on many levels , but does the greatest danger come from a nearby mental institution or from Ray, Ruth's abusive husband? Does danger arise from another source entirely? What separated Arthur from his family? What happened to a little blond girl who was kidnapped a few days after the Scotts drove in from Detroit? And what happened to Eve, Ruth and Arthur's sister who died twenty-five years before? Eve was eighteen and engaged to Ray when her death split Arthur from his family and spun their community into a dysfunctional state of suspicion for which there have been no answers.

Several characters narrate Bent Road and introduce its skillfully placed clues and foreshadowing: Ruth; Celia; Daniel, the son on the cusp of manhood; and Evie, the nine-year-old daughter and mirror-image of Eve. Evie feels a great affinity for her aunt and eagerly waits to meet her. Nobody tells Evie Eve is dead until the lies run out, and the Scotts must confront the damage stifled truths can do.

I liked this book very much for its taut narrative, flawless voices, and spot-on characterizations. The senses of place and time rang true for the most part. However, there are flaws. Catholics didn't receive Communion in their hands in 1967. Repetition often mars the writing: Celia frowns too many times; characters often cough or clear their throats into closed fists; and the sound of leather gloves slapping together gets annoying.

Fear of black men drives Bent Road. This fear wasn't used only as the impetus for the Scotts to leave Detroit. Black threats await them in rural Kansas. Jack Mayer, escapee from a nearby institution, is described more than once as blacker than night. He allegedly steals food and a car and is suspected of kidnapping the little girl. Daniel Scott may or may not have seen him the night they arrived, and the source of many rumors about Mayer is unreliable.

Another man in the story is described as having skin "as dark as any Negro except he isn't a Negro." Though the issue of race permeates Bent Road, it isn't directly addressed. I wondered what I was supposed to make of that aspect of the novel. The blackness appears to be used as one of the stifling elements that trouble the characters along with small-town mentality and the Church's attitude toward women – in particular, a woman's duty to her abusive husband. I think blackness also acted as a symbol of suspicion and the evil done to a young woman, a little girl, and their community. Yet Bent Road didn't handle the color issue in a way that left me feeling any clear point had been intended, much less made.

However, the characterizations, the nearly flawless plot, and the suspense make Lori Roy's first published novel well worth reading. I highly recommend it.

One Catholic to another

2011-05-07T22:14:00.000-05:00

In matters as delicate as faith, anger seldom teaches anything positive.

Whatever good the Second Vatican Council meant to, and actually did, do, people of all ages suffer to this day from some of its liturgical changes. Maybe the Council intended them to happen more gradually, but I'm not exaggerating much when I say one Sunday the liturgy was in Latin, the priest faced the altar, and communicants knelt at a railing, hands under a cloth, while the priest -- and only the priest -- placed the Host on our tongues. An altar boy held a platen under our chins to catch any precious crumbs that fell in the process. Next Sunday, there was an ugly new table in front of the old altar, being used as the new altar, the priest faced us, the mass was all in English, and we were standing up to take the Host in our unconsecrated hands and pop it into our own mouths.

If you weren't there, let me tell you, the reaction wasn't pretty. Forty-odd years later, it remains disturbing. The loss of reverence toward the mass and the receipt of the Holy Eucharist has been devastating.

Another consequence of the liturgical changes is a generation that defines its faith by what it does not do:

"I don't take the Host in my hand. I make them put it on my tongue."

"I don't go to the Eucharistic ministers. I only take Communion from the priest."

"I don't shake hands at the sign of peace. We never used to do that. It isn't appropriate during mass."

The Church changed the time between a communicant's last meal and the time when she or he could receive Communion several times. When an older Catholic found out we only had to fast three hours (it's now one) before receiving Communion, she looked at me, eyes ablaze, like it had been my own idea and raved, "When I was growing up we couldn't eat or drink a single thing after midnight if we wanted Communion Sunday morning. Not even a sip of water."

I was tempted to ask what she wanted -- an award? Hurrah for being so much holier than I? I'm glad I don't have to fast more than a few hours before Communion. I can say with a goodly amount of assurance that all the other people who used to faint on their knees halfway through the service are happy too.

Can we please let go of the anger? We can't maintain faith and a right conscience under its constant weight. The Church is much to blame for some things. No need to elaborate; we all know what comes to mind. We need changes. We probably needed changes in the liturgy. It's too bad those weren't carried out more sensitively so as to avoid resentment, confusion, and alienation.

I'm not advocating an attitude of resignation or repression of our feelings. I'm just saying it's waaaay past time to come to terms with the changes and how they affected us. We're free to take the Host on your tongues instead of using our hands. And if we prefer not to shake hands and say "Peace be with you" during mass, we don't have to. We have discretion in many such matters.

We nurture the Body of Christ with examples of humility, patience, reverence, and grace, not howls of defiant anger. Everyone responds well to the first. The latter? Not so much.

[Image from http://clipart.christiansunite.com/Communion_Clipart/]

An advantage of living in Louisiana

2011-04-14T16:39:00.000-05:00

A magnolia tree of your very own.

Night Road by Kristin Hannah

2011-04-08T15:15:00.000-05:00

Settling in to read Kristin Hannah's Night Road, I found myself in the hands of a master of characterization and storytelling. I don't like prologues and didn't see the point of this one, but it was brief and interesting. Even without it, I'd have seen the inevitable coming. What happens in any work of fiction is usually predictable, there having been nothing new under the sun since the first days of creation. Hannah's great talent is showing us how and why events happen and how their consequences affect character.

The main characters in Night Road are Lexi (Alexa) Baill, Zach Farraday, and his twin sister, Mia Farraday, who meet on the first day of high school. The fourth major character and pivot around which the teenagers revolve is Jude Farraday, the twins' mother. Hannah shifts point of view easily from adolescents to adult and back again to show us all facets of this richly woven story.

Up to age fourteen Lexi lived the standard-issue existence of a child with no father and an addicted mother who, until her death by overdose, didn't let Lexi settle with any foster family, even though at least one might have worked out well. Lexi enters the novel as a damaged, fearful girl, but a good girl longing for a permanent home and some love. Lexi finds these with her great-aunt, Eva, in a Pacific Northwest community. Eva works at Wal-Mart and rents a run-down doublewide. Lexi has to make do without any of the things her new classmates take for granted and find essential. All that matters to Lexi is Eva's unconditional welcome.

Zach and Mia Farraday lead a fantasy existence, privileged and doted on by their parents on Pine Island in the Sound near Seattle. They live in the island's exclusive community and have never wanted for anything, especially a loving home. Zach is the high school fair-haired boy and football star. Mia thinks she's ugly and doesn't fit in or have friends of her own. One girl she once thought of as a friend left her flat when their friendship didn't yield what she really wanted: Zach.

Lexi and Zach meet first, briefly, and there's immediate mutual attraction but no chance for it to develop before she meets Mia, and the two girls become friends. Because of the earlier betrayal, it's imperative that Lexi and Zach stay away from each other. Jude is a "helicopter mom", determined to keep her kids safe, out of harm's way. Naturally, she wants them to have the right friends, but she's no snob. Because Mia is fragile, Lexi has to prove to Jude she's a worthy friend for Mia, and Lexi does prove her worthiness in so many ways that Jude loses sight of them when she most needs to remember.

Predictability of plot doesn't mean absence of surprises. The second half of Night Road contains bigger ones than the first. Hannah ratchets up suspense in scene after scene, decision by decision, one emotion bleeding into another and another until everything built in the first half of the book blurs beyond recognition. At this point Jude's garden, which she once so carefully tended and trained, steps in as a great metaphor and symbol of hope the reader prays everyone will see before it's too late.

A novel with many hard questions, but no easy answers, Night Road explores motherhood, friendship, responsibility (moral and legal), forgiveness, love, sex, and grief on its way to a deeply satisfying resolution. It'll deliver what you do expect and what you don't, and both are great to read.

St. Martin's Press, March 2011

What a tat!

2011-03-27T18:16:00.000-05:00

I watched The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo last night on On Demand, Swedish with English subtitles, so I had to pay attention -- i.e., no playing computer games at the same time. I liked the film and now dread the American version because U.S. covers of European films tend to add saccharin and smooth essential edges. If you've ever seen the French Cousin/Cousine and the U.S. Cousins you know what I mean. (Gag.)

Anyway, some great acting in TGWTDT. The eponymous girl is mind-blowingly beautiful and strong, with her own code of justice -- which one is free to accept or reject, but must at least understand. It would be nice to forget what a sick, sick world we live in, but such memory lapses are dangerous to everyone.

NBCC Awards

2011-03-11T10:22:00.000-06:00

To learn the winners of the National Book Critics Circle Award 2011, presented last night, go here.

The winner in fiction was Jennifer Egan for A Visit From The Goon Squad -- intriguing title. Jonathan Franzen's Freedom was a finalist. Other categories include nonfiction, criticism, poetry, biography, and autobiography.

Can you stop writing?

2011-03-09T08:47:00.000-06:00

That's the question J. M. Tohline asked in a March 3, 2011, guest post (Guide to Literary Agents & Editors Blog). J. M. is only twenty-six years old and says he's asked himself whether he should just give up writing. For those of us who've been at it a lot longer, the question has come up many times. I know a couple of writers who have quit for various reasons.

I've tried to quit. I never succeeded because, whenever I tried, something inside me started to die. The stench got pretty bad, to the point where no amount of deodorant covered it. So I resurrected my writing and struggle on with it.

Whatever happened to lending your ears?

2011-03-07T18:00:00.000-06:00

Have you ever just wanted to blow off steam? Do you want to express your feelings to a friend without being judged or advised or lectured? All you really want to hear is that your listener understands how you feel and is maybe even sympathetic.

Having any luck with that?

Years ago I read an article explaining that women listen and sympathize while men try to fix the problem for you. Baloney! Women are as liable as men to try to fix your problems and find answers for you, whether you want that or not.

I wish I understood why it's so hard for friends to listen to one another without inserting themselves into the other person's problem, but I'm at a loss.

The best literary magazines lists

2011-03-02T10:38:00.000-06:00

What is the best? Everyone has her opinion on that. But if you don't have your own opinion and want someone else's, check the list at Every Writer's Resource for their Top 50. Newpages.com also has lists of magazines and also reviews literary magazines. At either site you can click on links and explore the online presences of Granta or the Bellingham Review or the New Orleans Review. Many, not all, have sample articles, poems, and stories. If you're more comfortable looking up entries in a book, that's what the Writers Market is for. A new one comes out every year. But looking online can be quicker and sometimes gets your more information.

You've heard by now it's essential to read a few issues of any magazine to which you're thinking of submitting. Everything you've heard is true. Finding lists of magazines in one place is the only shortcut you get.

Bram Stoker Award nominees announced

2011-03-01T10:32:00.000-06:00

BOO!

The Horror Writers Association has a fun and informative site. There are links to writing-related articles not specific to horror, so you don't necessarily have to write in that genre to appreciate this site or learn something from it. The site isn't even all that scary -- although maybe I shouldn't say that. Maybe they think they are, who knows? It is rather dark . . . and there's a raven . . . and a gloomy old castle . . .

Anyway, if you're interested in the Stoker awards -- if you know who Stoker was and why the awards are named after him -- or not -- check out the site here.

On Writing Horror: A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association

The 3 Rs: Reading, Riting, and Reciting

2011-02-18T22:02:00.002-06:00

I've been doing a lot of the first two, but tonight I got to witness and judge, not do, the third. Our local arts and humanities council sponsored a regional Poetry Out Loud competition whose first, second, and third place winners go on to the Louisiana state competition.

First of all, kudos to the ten high school students who had the drive and courage to stand in front of an audience of strangers and five judges, two accuracy and three performance, and recite poetry from memory. The challenge was to bring the poetry to life and interpret it appropriately without acting it out. Most of the students did well with interpretation. Most were poised and delivered their two poems in a way that showed they knew what the words meant.

We're not talking about nursery rhymes here. The simplest poem was "Richard Cory," and even it isn't easy to recite. Too easy to fall into the singsong rhythm. I gave points to the young man who recited it for avoiding the obvious trap and giving the words a fresh tilt. Several contestants tried much harder fare: "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," and "Kubla Khan." The first two are difficult to read silently, much less recite. I have a recording of Dylan Thomas reading "Do Not Go Gentle," and I don't think he did a good job. Picking that poem, all those poems, was gutsy.

The collective scores sent the strongest participants to the state level, and I wish the amazing young man and young women well. And I wish them luck. They'll be competing in a bigger pond with higher stakes.

The really hard part? Judging the recitations! That was my job as one of the performance judges. I exaggerate, of course, but the process was no walk in the park. Weak and average performances were easy enough to spot, but once a recitation rises above average, do you stop at rating it good, or go on to excellent? Can you -- do you dare -- go as far as outstanding? The decision process wore me out. And then four of the participants, the four highest scorers, asked for judges' impressions and advice on how to do better. Oh, my stars! How do you articulate something that in great part arises from subjectivity?

Finally, this competition is sponsored by the arts and humanities councils, local and national. Support the councils and support these activities! If we want to go on living in a democratic nation, education isn't only important, it's essential. The arts aren't expendable.

Squirm

2011-01-30T21:26:00.000-06:00

Bare hand grasping shard of glass,
no way you won't cut flesh.
Where will you stab first?
What must die so art can breathe?
White canvas -- calm words -- peaceful sleep --

are you seduced or seducer?

Forget what you know about gloves.

Splatter the blood on their faces --

and don't say sorry when

they pale and get pissed.

As long as you don't bleed for nothing,

they'll forgive you and never forget.

Theme Blogs

2011-01-26T20:37:00.000-06:00

Cooking and blogging your way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking was a truly cool idea. I'm glad Julie Powell had it, though, and not me. I don't like duck. Or pate. That's shameful, I know, because two-thirds of my ancestors were French, but there it is.

What's that? What if I, like Julie, ended up with a book deal by deboning and cooking a duck and murdering a lobster? Knife, please!

I wish for us all, as writers, the purpose and focus and success Julie Powell found. She worked her way toward success one recipe and one blog post at a time. With the right purpose and focus, so can we all. Assuming we have the talent, discipline, dedication, and commitment.

And hit upon the right topic. It's out there somewhere. Maybe it's over our heads (like twenty-eight blackbirds), on our bookshelves (like a cookbook), or in our yards (like garden gnomes). Eyes open, writers -- hearts open, minds alert. And keep the fingers on the keyboard, or the pen to the page. Good luck!

Heart to heart

2011-01-25T13:20:00.000-06:00

Okay, everyone, gather round, please. I'm asking politely and respectfully. Liberals, conservatives, moderates, progressives, Independents, Republicans, Democrats -- everyone. Let's try to get a couple of things, if not straight, at least clear.

1. Quit calling each other Nazis. Stop saying each others' tactics make Goebbels or Mengele or Hitler proud, and claiming each others' methods are brown-shirted. Stop that. Disagree. Please disagree. You have that constitutional right, and the United States Supreme Court has often upheld that provision of the constitution. So exercise the right. But don't be calling each other names, especially ones like that. If you really need me to explain why, you and I speak different languages . . . which is kind of what I'm afraid of.

2. If you do go on record, in front of TV cameras that broadcast your words to everyone in the universe, and call each other Nazis, etc., don't go back later with an innocent, outraged look on your face and say, "I never said a thing like that." Or "Look at those other guys, calling us Nazis -- where do they get off?" You can't deny it, folks. The cameras caught you at it. Millions heard the words come out of your mouth. You used the exact words "they" did, and you're now ranting and raving and getting your back up because someone who isn't you is saying the same things you said.

Honey, do you really think no one is going to notice? No one is going to check? No one is going to see you've so blown your credibility?

How much is too much?

2011-01-23T17:02:00.000-06:00

When it comes to government, we often ask for more laws and regulations instead of bothering to demand our rights directly. D. B. Grady posted an opinion about Open Allies for Airfare Transparency based on an article appearing in the 1/20/2011 edition of the Washington Post. Grady's take on the article in question, a dispute between online airline ticket agencies and American Airlines, got me to read the article. I found myself concentrating on the last few paragraphs, in part as follows: "The Transportation Department needs to approve a proposed new airfare and airline fee transparency rule that would require any airline or ticket agency to quote an all-inclusive price for an airline ticket right up front and allow air travelers to easily compare the true cost of travel across airlines."

The price you see when you pull up information about a flight you're trying to book isn't the complete price. Big surprise? Not to me, and, believe me, I'm way down the pole when it comes to awareness and observance. I see the flight I want, click on it, and wait for the part that tells me how much I'll pay for checked luggage. Or whether there's a meal served, and is it free, or can something be purchased? Would all this information be nice to see upfront? Sure. But I'm an adult and can generally take care of myself when it comes to booking flights.

I need the federal DOT to make sure my plane is built and maintained up to the highest possible safety standards, and there are lot of important things the public doesn't think of when boarding a plane that they need a federal agency to handle on their behalf. No doubt about that. But when it comes to demanding airfare and airline transparency, I'm not sure we need more government regulations.

Airlines and ticketing agencies have email addresses, physical addresses, and phone numbers. If we want American Airlines, Continental, et al, to let us know up front exactly how much we'll be charged for a flight, let's ask them. The Post article continued by stating fifty thousand passengers had petitioned the DOT "to mandate airfare and airline fee transparency." Well, whop me upside the head for wondering why fifty thousand people can't petition the airlines directly for the same thing.

Can I make a call (granted that takes some time and patience, even ingenuity)? Send an email or a letter? Demand from the source? Do we really need everything regulated for us? Air safely regulation's something I can't handle myself, but airfare transparency? I just don't think that's beyond the ability of fifty or a hundred thousand fliers to demand.

Addendum to previous post

2011-01-21T18:49:00.002-06:00

Almost forgot: :) Have a nice day.

A note to everyone who advises writers to . . .

2011-01-21T18:45:00.000-06:00

. . . celebrate rejections: Blow it out your nose!

I'm sure you mean well, but get a grip on that positive attitude, okay? Writers don't need positive attitudes; we need publications.

Got it?

Good.

Thank you.

Street scene

2011-01-17T15:32:00.000-06:00

She saw him on the street and spoke to him.
He responded as if they hadn't met the day before --
with a nod, a cold eye, and not a murmur of reply.
Cutting her -- just a girl in a faded cloth coat
and shoes worn down at the heel,
no one, really. What did she mean
by speaking to him?
She took no notice,
smiled -- Nice to see you again --
and walked away. Her face never
fell, neither reddened nor paled.
Steady steps carried her away,
leaving his rebuff on the sidewalk.
Maybe he felt small
or felt nothing and forgot.
Maybe he just was small without knowing it.

Ephesians 4, 29-32, from the Church's morning prayer

2011-01-14T08:49:00.000-06:00

Never let evil talk pass your lips; say only the good things men need to hear, things that will really help them. Do nothing that will sadden the Holy Spirit with whom you were sealed against the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, all passion and anger, harsh words, slander, and malice of every kind. In place of these, be kind to one another, compassionate, and mutually forgiving, just as God has forgiven you in Christ.

Oh, joy!

2011-01-09T22:07:00.000-06:00

I cannot believe it, but I did it. God helped me, and I did it. I got the title of our website up, replacing the title of the theme -- SWAMP~LILY~REVIEW instead of MAGNIFICENT. Only took about 4 days.

And it didn't happen the way I thought it would, because I went onto an old PC to try opening the file I needed to edit, a psd Photoshop file, with an old version of Adobe Photoshop. No cigar. Old program turned its nose up at the file. So, just for the fun of it, I opened PictureIt! or something like that. It not only opened the psd file, it graciously allowed me to edit the image file I needed. So far, so good.

Saved the file, opened the website, pulled up the edited file. No joy. So maybe I hadn't saved the file in the right format. Went back to the file, made sure I saved it in the right format and the right folder, tried again.

Joy! We have joy. Such joy. Oh, yeah.

The human mind and will are wonderful things. I just kept throwing myself at the problem. Trying this, that, failing, failing, failing. Until I hit on the right program and it happened. But, mostly, I think God took pity on me. Or got tired of hearing me moan and whine and rave. In fact, I'm surprised I have any friends left. I'm amazed my co-editor didn't throw her hands up and give up on me. (I love you too, Jess.)

Yeah. Wow.

Now for that next pesky problem . . . how to get those boxes unclumped from the home page.

Website blues

2011-01-07T12:18:00.000-06:00

I've spent months now setting up the website for the online literary journal I'm coediting with Jessica Ferguson, and I'm so sick of instructions that tell me how simple they are.

"Just go to this screen and click this button; accept changes. Then go to that screen and enter thus-and-such. Accept changes, and Bob's your uncle!"

Guess what? Bob isn't my uncle. Bob never was and never will be my uncle. Bob isn't interested in being my uncle. In fact, truth be told, Bob hates me.

And I hate him right back.

So take your "this is so easy" stuff and blow it out your nose.

The Old Man and the Fury

2010-12-19T11:34:00.000-06:00

Dear Mr. Faulkner,

I just read the first sentence of your novel and, six and a half pages later, I must admit it didn't hook me. If you are willing to revise and become slightly more succinct, you may one day publish this work. Toward that end, may I suggest that you consult a book doctor who might be able to help curb your long-windedness?

All the best,
))))))), Editor

Dear Mr. Hemingway,

What is this, a limerick? You claim to write novels, but until you're willing to expand your vocabulary a smidgen (see, that's what words of more than one syllable look like), I foresee a lot of rejections in your future.

You know, I rejected a fellow the other day for being too verbose and longwinded. After reading your work, I've suddenly been struck with a brilliant idea.

Are you open to collaboration?

Best,
))))))), Editor

Review: In the Shadow of the Buddha by Matteo Pistono

2010-12-13T18:53:00.000-06:00

Review: In the Shadow of the Buddha by Matteo Pistono

I loved this book. Some of it was hard to read -- the savagery of China's attempt to eradicate all the things that make Tibet Tibet. But then China is also trying to eradicate its own history and cover it with cement uniformity. (A River's Tale: A Year on the Mekong by Edward Gargan documents the same thing.) But much of ITSOTB is lovely to read, and I recommend it. People's spiritual journeys fascinate me.

Just for the fun of it

2010-12-10T21:03:00.000-06:00

Bayou Writers Group had its annual Christmas party on December 4, 2010, with nibblies, eggnog, a gift exchange, stealing encouraged, and lots of fun. We're a diverse group, but there are several things we have in common:

Writing
Food
Comradeship
Food
Humor

Here's a sample. That's me being silly and my (perhaps soon-to-be-ex) best bud, Marymarc. (Nah, she's got a sense of humor -- she puts up with me!) Pat Marcantel took the pic.

Now go do something silly yourself!

Focus!

2010-12-10T20:43:00.000-06:00

I figured out something the other day. After critiquing two short memoirs, I realized they worked because they were highly focused. They covered the most significant actions taking place on a particular day, or on a series of days, leading up to the point of the piece. Focusing on a point to be made in any kind of writing is a key to writing it successfully.

One of the memoirs was about the day the writer's father died. She avoided concentrating on the grief this caused everyone -- of course, we grieve when someone dies. But she concentrated on two extraordinary events that took place that day, one before and one after her father's passing, and even injected humor.

The other piece, also by a woman, described a stopover in London on her way to Saudi Arabia and a run-in with a vengeful black cat. I'm sure she did a great many things on her stopover, but she glossed over everything except the details that led up to what she did to the cat and how the beast got even.

It's so easy to include extraneous details and events and observations in any kind of writing. On the other hand, for the first draft, it's wise to go ahead and throw them in there. It's always better to write too much in the first draft than to write too little. You can pare back and work with too much. It's harder to plump up too little.

Jan's Rules for the Absolutely Correct Way to Write, the Sequel

2010-12-04T09:37:00.000-06:00

If you're a beginner in whatever genre, read extensively what others have done. Don't seek to imitate them so much as learn what works in books and stories you enjoy. What moves you? What turns you off? What keeps you turning pages even though your eyes are blurred and the clock is striking an ungodly hour? You might even look into how many copies particular books have sold. But, above all, read, read, read in your genre.

This works even if you're experienced, because none of us, even in the most accomplished and learned echelons (like me) must remain humble and continue to learn. So, Memoirist, Mystery Writer, Literary Novelist, Flash Fiction Writer, read in your --

What is that in your hand? I -- I absolutely -- what did I just say?

Put down that trashy bodice-ripper at once. You will learn nothing from it, I tell you, nothing at all useful.

And YOU. Get away from that stupid reality TV show. What do you think --

Oh, why do I bother with any of you? You're hopeless!!!!! Agh.

Full of Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T14:47:00.000-06:00

I achieved a goal of mine today, and it only took __ years of cooking. ( Fill in your own blank.) When my mother cooked pork roasts or ribs with a layer of fat on top, she oftentimes got the fat to cook crisp like a cracklin. Today, I finally managed to do the same thing. My pork roast looked like a cracklin on top!

Yippee.

I also found an awesome recipe for candied yams on the Internet. Hubby and I had a terrific meal and a stress-free holiday. Now he's taking a nap, and I'm off to make a cup of coffee to go with my James Bond movie. Or my book. Whichever I end up with. Yawn . . .

I wish everyone a great day/weekend.

Jan's Rules for the Absolutely Correct Way to Write

2010-11-24T21:07:00.000-06:00

Write your book all the way through.

Don't stop for anything.

Do not revise as you go.

I mean it.

Stop it!

How can you call yourself a writer?

Do not make me come over there.

Thanksgiving-fulness

2010-11-24T10:31:00.000-06:00

This will sound funny, but I didn't grow up celebrating Thanksgiving Day. My family knew about such a thing, I guess, but the celebrating of it with turkey, dressing, etc., didn't reach our middle-of-nowhere existence until televisions became commonplace items in every household. I grew up in a different America, one that allowed for differences. TV has come along and given us a homogenized culture that is frequently distasteful to one who remembers the value of unique customs.

I grin to think of my father presented with what has become the traditional American Thanksgiving table. "Where's the rice?" he'd demand in Cajun French. It was steak he loved. Smothered round steak, rice, and gravy. Turkey? Forget it. Stuffing? If it wasn't dirty rice, get it outta here.

After I got married, my Thanksgiving celebrations truly began. My husband, son, and I hosted one of his brothers and his wife, my father- and mother-in-law. Everyone -- well, every woman -- brought a dish or two, and we had great times, great meals until my brother-in-law died. My sister-in-law went to her mother's for holidays after that. Our son moved away. My father-in-law died. I wanted nothing more than to wipe Thanksgiving off the calendar. Most years, I still do.

For a long time Hubby, Son, and I went to my sister's for Thanksgiving and Christmas. In the meantime Daddy died. Four years later she, too, died. Then we had the dinner again at our house with my mother-in-law and my mother. A few years ago, Mother Newman died. And now there are three.

Thanksgiving? Okay. You win. You've lasted longer than I've been alive and longer than those I've loved best in the world. I will celebrate with those precious few who remain.

Thank you, Lord, that we are as of this year still three.
Thank you for memories of Thanksgivings that used to be.
Thank you for every day we have with one another,
those of us who remain and remember.
For Your mercy is everlasting.

Are only Christians inspired?

2010-11-20T22:14:00.001-06:00

Sitting at the Bayou Writers' Group Bridge to Publication Conference last weekend, I turned to a friend and asked: "Why don't we have Jewish or Hindu or Muslim romances?"

I had to wonder whether I was missing something. Turns out, as usual, I was. I found an informative article here, that mentioned several novels that could be considered Jewish romance. The article's author did point out that some of the best, in her opinion, didn't meet the RWA standards because they didn't end up with the hero and heroine living happily ever after. I've never been a fan of formulaic writing, so this doesn't bother me. I also came across a familiar title and author: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Terrific book. Not a romance, but a wonderful story about love, sexual politics, and the fear of women and their power that patriarchal societies give rise to.

Here are some books that sound a lot more like Jewish romances:

A nonfiction book about modern Jewish women writers in America called, oddly enough, Modern Jewish Women Writers in America, sounds like it will end up on my reading list and add insight into the faith and culture and ethnic and feminist writing in general.

There are fewer novels that can be considered Muslim romance. Ayat-Ayat Cinta (Love Verses) by Habiburrahman El Shirazy is one. A 2006 blog post at Yunita Rmadhana Blog, discusses and reviews the novel here. I found sites from which it could be downloaded, but not necessarily in English. Other books based in Islamic culture really don't fit into a traditional romance category, especially religious or inspirational romance. These stories are more complex and intriguing, in my humble opinion, and they don't employ the usual happily-ever-after endings. In addition, these novels touch upon topics such as marital infidelity and same-sex attraction, the existence of which Christian genre writers don't usually address.

I saw the movie version of Brick Lane and loved it. I'm glad to see it was based on a novel I can now obtain and read.

When I searched for Hindu or Buddhist romance novels, I strayed, not surprisingly, even further from resemblance to traditional or Christian romance. I found Buddha's Wife, which sounded wonderful, but it's not a romance. Neither is Hermitage Among the Clouds: An Historical Novel of Fourteenth Century Vietnam by Thich Nhat Hanh, although it does sound like spiritual fiction.

See where attending writers' conferences can lead you? I asked one question. I started thinking, and, as usually happens, started researching and writing. Over the course of the last few hours I've discovered novels I have and haven't heard of and some fiction and nonfiction I want to read, things I'm sure will enrich me and my own writing.

An Accidental Genre

2010-11-18T16:42:00.000-06:00

Have you ever written something and been stunned by readers' reactions? I was stunned to learn I had written a young adult novel. I didn't set out to do that. If I had, the book would've probably turned out horrible. I just wrote a novel I wanted to write about characters I cared for passionately, only to discover that almost everyone who read it or heard a synopsis of the plot referred to it as YA. Surprise, surprise.

I think that's a very good thing. Sometimes when we try to write YA or literary fiction or mysteries or thrillers, we concentrate more on the genre or the target audience than the book. And it shows. Too often I read novels in which the writers should have told a great story about some fully developed characters first, and revised the book to tweak it into a particular genre second. Overall, that's a better way to write.

On the other hand, who am I to talk? Those other books are published and on the market, so consider the source . . .

But that doesn't make me wrong.

SOOS (so out of shape)

2010-11-18T15:47:00.000-06:00

I just got off the treadmill. This makes twice this week. Not exactly setting the world on fire, health-wise.

Thoughts after a writers' conference

2010-11-14T22:48:00.000-06:00

At this year's annual Bayou Writers' Group Bridge to Publication Conference, all went smoothly. Whatever happened behind the scenes, the show went on without a hitch. All the speakers showed up, ready to deliver what they'd promised. The microphone gave only a few problems. Everybody got enough to eat. More people showed up than expected, but everyone had places to sit. Attendees interacted with speakers and each other. They asked questions, gave opinions, participated -- did, in short, what people are supposed to do at conferences.

Children's writer Harold Underdown and editor Gary Goldstein from Kensington Press were generous and amazing, as were speaker Cheré Dastugue Coen and the panel: Pam Thibodeaux, Lesa Boutin, Wendy Lanier, and Curt Iles.

The Bridge to Publication conference has grown. Every year brings more attendees, good speakers, and more recognition for a small group that started in 2001 and has thrived ever since. Putting on those suckers is hard. Kudos to those who scheduled speakers, arranged for accommodations and meals, set up schedules, and spent hours on the phone gluing down all the details, details, details. Everything can go wrong. Most of all, congratulations to those who have the vision and drive to conceive of putting on such a conference at all.

This year my applause goes to Pam Thibodeaux and Randy Dupré, cofounders of the Bayou Writers Group and conference co-chairs; Jessica Ferguson, current president; Georgia Downer, publicist/treasurer-elect; Beverly Martin, current treasurer; Chris Baldauf, current secretary; Linda Todd and Hillene Deaton, who coordinated and actually made some of the door prizes; and several other members who showed up and shouldered their share of the work:

Marymarc Armstrong, Chaney Ferguson, Jim Ferguson, Angie Dilmore, Harvey Honsinger, Pat Marcantel, Joyce Kibodeaux, and Bob Downer, who helped me carry a heavy ice chest. Oh, and me. I love being part of the BWG family. God bless us all.

Operation Awesome: Editors, Bloggers and Agents Are People Too by Cortnee Howard

2010-11-13T20:06:00.000-06:00

Operation Awesome: Editors, Bloggers and Agents Are People Too by Cortnee Howard

Fortunately, most of the people I know remember the rules of person-to-person interaction apply to email and the Internet too. When there's a machine between you and another human being, it's easier to be rude and to vent -- slam down the phone, dash off a nasty email or two or three. Take a breath. And take the high road.

Thanks for a timely reminder, Cortnee.

Thoughts after a writers' meeting

2010-11-06T21:52:00.000-05:00

At our monthly Bayou Writers' Group meeting today, we discussed business and our annual conference coming up next Saturday, and then we had member readings. For five minutes any member who wished read aloud something she or he wrote. You'd think that would fill up two hours, but it didn't. So I asked members what goals they had set for themselves and whether they had met their goals.

We gave mixed accounts of ourselves, had met some goals and were still working on others.

I always get the feeling most of our members like the chance to talk about things like that, and I wish we could have meetings where we did simply pick topics to discuss and turn each other loose on them. That might or might not work. I'd recommend having a backup plan in place. (Maybe it's fate that I'm thinking of this only at the end of my tenure as group vice president and the one responsible for the monthly programs.)

Anyway, it's important for writers to have goals, even if we don't meet them. It's too easy for us to drift. Even a modest goal is worth setting: finish a short story this month or write three poems, send out query letters or submit to a contest. We need to aim for something, especially in writing. Creativity is ephemeral, and not something easily picked up again once its set down.

P. S. on LOL

2010-11-03T20:30:00.000-05:00

Wow. Yesterday's post didn't turn out so well, did it? Big formatting problem. Hope it's fixed now. Seems to be.

LOL

2010-11-02T17:04:00.001-05:00

I wish I were a funny writer. I know writers who can make me laugh about garlic. Me? I can't make a pratfall funny. Writing funny has nothing to do with having a sense of humor. I have a good sense of humor -- a little sick sometimes. I used to fall on the floor at that vacuum cleaner commercial where the cat got sucked in. I'm starting to snicker just thinking about it.

But write a funny scene? Me? Apparently, I wasn't standing in line when that talent got handed out. On rare occasions I do think I've got something. So I show it a reader and wait. No laugh. The scene is taken seriously, or, if it's recognized as an attempt at humor, I'm told it's --ack! -- mean-spirited. Which in itself is funny, because a lot of what passes for humor in sitcoms is so mean it sets my teeth on edge.

Is writing a funny scene/story something one can learn to do? Here's an example of my attempts to be funny. Is it funny, or is it pathetic? Draw your own conclusions:

Trays of Our Wives

Tarny shook back her flowing raven hair and placed her hands on her slender hips, molded into a red silk dress that fit her like scum on a pond. The dress plunged low in front, revealing the bones of her ribs where they connected to her breast bone.

“I’m taking Rance away from you,” Tarny said with a sneer.

When Relinda tried to shake back her hair, one of her curlers came off and skidded across the black and white linoleum floor of her kitchen, the floor her maid had just mopped. “Rance is my husband, you anorexic slut. I don’t think you can take him away from me.” She swept up the curler and replaced it on her head.

“That’s what you think,” Tarny said. “We’re running away together right after the surgery tomorrow. There’s nothing you can do to stop us.”

“Oh, yes, there is.” Relinda stood up to her full five-foot-one-inch height. “I can stop you anytime I want to.”

“How?” Tarny taunted.

Relinda held up a finger. “With this, Tarny. With one little tiny fingertip.”

“And what exactly can you do with your fingertip?”

“I can pick up the phone.”

“And?”

“And punch in the number of my bank . . ..” Relinda’s eyes narrowed.

Tarny took half a step back.

“And I can talk to the bank manager,” Relinda continued, stepping closer to Tarny, smelling fear emanate from her rival’s skin like stink off road kill.

“Wait—”

“And I can tell the bank manager to stop payment—”

“No, no,” Tarny cried.

Relinda’s voice rose with every word. She advanced on Tarny. “On my check to Rance’s plastic surgeon,” she cried. “Those scars on his elbow that he got when he leaned on Vap Stupello’s bar, not knowing that Stupello had covered it with broken glass that was meant for Rance’s twin brother Trance, who was sleeping with Stupello’s wife, Esmeralda—those scars will be permanent. Rance will never afford plastic surgery without my money.”

Tarny covered her eyes with her arm and backed against the wall. “No! No!”

“Yes, Tarny. Yes. You can have Rance, but you’ll only have a half a man, a man with elbow scars. Think about sleeping with that every night for the rest of your life. Think about walking into a Broadway premier or a kid’s birthday party on that arm.”

Tarny slid down the wall and lay on the floor with her face on her arms.

“For the rest of your life, Tarny. Because if you marry Rance as he is, the whole of Bay Salem Lanview City will—”

“No,” Tarny wailed.

“Everyone will laugh at you, Tarny. And the social position you fought so hard to achieve in this town will go as flat as a whoopee cushion after Mama Cass sat on it. Because no one would care that you stole my husband and the father of my thirteen children, but no one would respect you for marrying—” Relinda raised her chin and put her hand over her heart. “—a disfigured cripple. It’s all right for me. We were already married when it happened, and people are used to me giving money to charitable causes.”

Tears streaked Tarny’s cheeks and mucus smeared under her nose. She looked up at Relinda. “Oh, please, Relinda. Why would you be so cruel? You don’t love Rance. You don’t want him for yourself. You’ve got enough money to pay nannies to raise all your children and instructors to give them tennis lessons. You could buy any man you wanted. Why won’t you let Rance go?”

“When you were making your place in society, you slept with my second-oldest daughter’s gym teacher’s wife’s brother.”

The timer on Relinda’s bread maker beeped.

"Hang on a sec."

While Relinda poured raisins onto the dough in the bread machine, Tarny sat up, wiped her nose with a Kleenex she pulled from her handbag, and combed her hair.

When Relinda returned, Tarny lay on the floor again and wailed, "I don't understand."

“My second-oldest daughter’s gym teacher’s wife’s brother happens to be my long-lost father.”

Tarny gasped.

“That’s right. You slept with my father and broke up his ninth marriage to his second wife.” Relinda sniffled. “That woman was like a mother to me. In fact, I think she was my mother.”

“I’m sorry, Relinda, but you can’t blame me for that. I didn’t know.”

“I wasn’t finished,” Relinda hissed.

“Sorry.”

“The worst thing you did, the cruelest thing of all, was when you bought the last box of Twinkies right out from under my nose. I had wait five minutes to get another box.”

Tarny held out her arms. “Relinda. What can I do to make it up to you? I’ll buy you a whole truckload of Twinkies. I’ll do anything you want.”

“It’s not that easy, Tarny. Sometimes—” Relinda sighed. “Sometimes we just have to live with our mistakes.”

Tarny screamed. "No! Anything but that." She fainted.

As Relinda poured herself another cup of coffee, Rance walked into the room, tugging self-consciously at his sleeve. “Uh, sweetheart, have you seen my—My god, what’s that?”

“That’s a mess you made. Clean it up.” Relinda swept from the room.

Rance stood over Tarny for a moment, then reached for the telephone. “Hello? Bay Salem Lanview City Zoo? May I speak to Esmeralda?” He whistled to himself, then heard a voice come on the line. “Hello, Ezzie?” Rance grinned. “We all set to run away right after my surgery? . . . No, she doesn’t suspect a thing. I’ve got her convinced it’s Tarny. . ..”

What the movies can teach us about writing and revising novels

2010-10-29T18:58:00.000-05:00

While watching TV today, I saw a clip of Hitchcock's North by Northwest, the clip most often associated with that movie: Cary Grant's character on a lonely country road, a crop duster's propellor spinning toward him, and Grant's dive into the dust. The entire scene is several minutes long, but in the several times I've watched it, I've never seen a wasted shot or felt it ran a moment too long.

Funny, the things that start neurons sparking in the brain. I've been revising the latest WIP, and wondering how to get the most out of the chapters I'm working on -- those all-important first chapters (not that the rest don't matter, but no one will read them if the first few don't hook an editor). Seeing that movie clip reminded me of how Hitchcock used a storyboard to plot out each step of the scene, from the first appearance of the plane, to its approach, to every change of expression in close-ups of Grant's face.

Other writers have told me they see their books and stories as movies in their heads. So do I. We agree that translating those vibrant visual scenes into words that best express what we saw is the tricky part. Many writers use Hitchcock's storyboarding method to outline their novels. I've tried to do that, but my efforts fell flat. So I rely on my fingertips, keyboard keys, and the monitor screen to get me into the zone, draw out the first draft, and fuel subsequent revisions.

I've never tried using a storyboard method for revision. It might be useful to try. It might be even more helpful to go back to the movies, where my scenes and characters first revealed their magic, and watch each scene again, listen to each line of dialogue, re-experience the emotions. Once the who, what, when, and where are set in motion on the page in an order that satisfies me, what else can I see on the screen of my imagination?

Whatever it is, I hope it will be better than another rerun of a 1970s sitcom.

Published at Sixteen

2010-10-23T10:59:00.000-05:00

Have you heard of Steph Bowe, the sixteen-year-old published author of Girl Saves Boy? Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown is her agent, and Text Publishing is her publisher. See an interview with Steph Bowe here.

Lots of us were writing at sixteen. Lots wrote at six or ten or twelve. How many of us were ready to be published? Not me! At sixteen I was writing drivel, delusional and self-centered drivel. Perhaps a lot of what I write today is the same, but at least most ends up being deleted. Also, reading the interview, I was struck by Ms. Bowe's poise. We always put our best feet forward in an interview, you say? Ha. Not all of us.

Best of luck, Steph.

Like I needed more to do, but what the heck?

2010-10-14T23:10:00.000-05:00

Jessica Ferguson and I have now gone public about our foray into the world of online literary journals. Several months ago we realized we'd been considering the idea separately for years and started considering it together. We researched the web and picked the brains of some people who'd been involved with literary journals and website building. And we decided to go for it. Swamp Lily Review was conceived as a celebration of Louisiana writers and artists.
It hasn't yet been born yet. We have some fiction and poetry to publish and are in the market for more for our January inaugural issue. There's a web domain and a site with a format on it -- I think the term is "under construction" -- and some information: our mission statement, submission guidelines, etc., along with a picture. Yours truly is putting up the website. Jess won't have a thing to do with that part, probably so that she can deny all liability for how it turns out. (She thinks I don't realize this.)

Check out swamplily.com, and if you have any suggestions, feel free to post them here. Seriously. Anything helpful is welcome.

With any luck, one day we'll be able to put up a picture of a swamp lily, not just a swamp. Got to find one first. They're rather elusive little buggers.

October: National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

2010-10-08T11:24:00.000-05:00

Dear sisters and brothers (sorry, guys, you're not immune),

If you are a survivor of breast cancer, I salute you. Go with God and keep surviving. If you are still in treatment, keep up the good fight. There is an end to the suffering, a good ending. You'll get through and get better. Your hair will grow back; your strength will return; you'll be okay with patience and God's grace. (If you're really lucky, you might not have to shave your legs anymore -- ;) Take all the positives you can get!)

If you don't have cancer of any kind, I pray you never do. But if you even suspect . . . if there's a little nagging fear, a little lump or anything different, please listen to me: Run, don't walk, to your nearest doctor. Please don't put it off. Please don't let fear keep you from finding cancer of any kind ASAP. I know you're scared. No one wants to hear the words I had to hear: "You have breast cancer." No one wants the inconvenience, pain, and anxiety of the diagnostic process, the surgery, the possible chemotherapy, and radiation.

And it is inconvenient. Cancer doesn't consult your social calendar. It doesn't hold back because your dad or your mom is sick and you have to take care of them, or give a hoot that you're in the middle of planning a wedding.

But, my dear sister or brother, the longer you wait, the worse your chances are for survival. Do you understand? Please understand that. If cancer is caught early, before it has spread, at what is called Stage One, the five-year survival rate is 100%. You read that correctly: 100% if you catch that cancer at Stage One. And you might not have to get chemotherapy if you catch that cancer early enough.

The odds drop dramatically from there. You're practically guaranteed chemo if you go beyond Stage One. Is that what you really, really want? What scenario would you rather deal with?

My sister couldn't deal with the thought of cancer and put off getting a check of that lump the size of a golf ball until those lovely little cancer cells had made themselves at home all over her body. Don't put yourselves or your families through what she went through, the years of agony followed by an early grave. The lump is not your friend. Its feelings can't be hurt, so it won't just go away and sulk if you ignore it. It'll say, "Oh, boy! Nothing to stop me. Where else can I go from here?"

Please inform yourselves and those you love by visiting the following web pages: The American Cancer Society, The National Breast Cancer Society, Inc., Bosom Buddies (a national organization with local chapters), and, if you live in Calcasieu or Cameron Parishes in Southwest Louisiana, The Ethel Precht HOPE Breast Cancer Foundation. There are people out there who can help you deal with breast cancer. But it's a bit like being an alcoholic -- first you have to admit you need help. You have to say, "I'm afraid. There's this lump . . ."

For yourself, for your family and friends, give yourself every chance of survival.

The danger in our own yards: who knew, and why didn't they tell the rest of us?

2010-10-05T13:44:00.000-05:00

To borrow a phrase from the subject of today's post, Chuck Sambuchino, I'm feeling saucy and very pleased to bring to your attention a book about an important subject which has not received enough attention. Indeed, it hasn't gotten any before now, and after you read this book, you'll be as furious as I am at the national media for ignoring the danger all around us.

But, thanks to Chuck Sambuchino, we can all be on the alert and save our own lives and those of our loved ones.

Garden gnomes! That's what I'm talking about -- but I'll let Chuck do most of the talking, here and in his book. (Actually, I fed him some leading questions designed to get at the most important points covered in the book, but he flatly refused and insists we buy the book. Writers! Agh!) So here's my interview with the brave soul who's risking all to bring us awareness of this mortal danger -- and having some fun in the meantime.

Q: Is it true some human beings actually want to see the gnomes take over? Why is that?

A: Some kind of mental instability, I would assume. It's madness, I tell you, madness. Garden gnomes are little murderers!

Q: Is it true there’s a gnome resistance trying to stop gnome world domination? Explain.

A: There is no organized resistance because people are lacking in education - and that's what this book is all about. It's trying to educate people on the threat that exists all around us.

Q: Tell us your personal experience with gnomes. How and when did you first become aware of the threat they posed?

A: Due to an attack in my past that I won't speak of, I have known about their danger for a long time. But it was only in early 2009 that I feel compelled to finally get something down on paper.

Q: What is the most important thing you’re doing to combat this threat?

A: The book! That -- and incinerating garden gnomes every chance I get.

Q: What is the best advice you can offer anyone faced with a gnome attack?

A: There are plenty of things you can do - such as arming yourself, wearing thick clothes, eliminating their weapon supply, pre-empting an attack, hanging battle axes on your wall within reach, having a backup power supply. I could go on forever - but that is what the book is for.

Q: What was the defining moment of your life that started you on your current career?

A: Fantastic question. I was in college for a TV/Video production course and my group had to write an original script for a video. I wrote a comedy script about mimes. I remember that after I wrote a few pages, I read it and laughed out loud. Then I showed it to a student who was an actor, and he laughed, too. He suggested I turn it into a play in consideration for the university to produce. That day -- whatever that day was in the fall of that year -- was the turning point of my life.

Q: How do you think your colleagues would describe you?

A: Always hungry. Constantly working on some writing project. Bad dresser.

Q: What is your ultimate professional goal?

A: I don't have one, because I doubt there is any one thing I could ever do or accomplish that would make me feel like I did what I came to do. Writing to me is like an itch that needs to be scratched every day. It will never go away.

Q: What is currently your biggest commitment?

A: Still all my full-time responsibilities with Guide to Literary Agents. (Speaking of which, the new, updated 2011 edition just came out in August.) The blog takes up time every day. And putting together the book takes 6 months of hard work. Plus, now I teach webinars based on it and also travel frequently to speak to writers. Don't get me wrong -- it's all fun. It's just hard work.

Q: Who is your best friend in the business and why?

A: Two editors here at the publishing house - Brian Klems and Zachary Petit - are good friends and a good sounding board for ideas. They are invaluable.

Q: What is your greatest talent? What are you hopeless at?

A: Greatest talents are picking music up by ear (I can't read music worth a darn) and reciting things from memory. I have a good knack for memorization and at one point in my life, I think I could name every movie that either won or was nominated for best picture dating back to 1960. That's about 200+ movies. In my senior year yearbook, I was voted "most likely to know pointless details about movies." I am absolutely hopeless at golf and my 401k.

Q: Careerwise, what is the most traumatic thing that has ever happened to you? What is the best thing that has ever happened to you?

A: I was laid off from my position at Writer's Digest magazine in 2005 when they cut the staff from 8 to 4. That was tough. They offered me another job in the company, which I took but didn't enjoy a ton. But ultimately it led me to the books side of things and GLA - and it all worked out.

Q: What is the driving force / motivation in your life?

A: To feel like I've done something and not wasted any gifts.

Q: What is the best advice you can give to a writer in general?

A: How much time do you have? That's what the blog is for! I have made more than 1,000 posts now. I could talk for hours, but my most important tip is for you to be patient and put in the time. At first, it's tough -- but it gets easier. It really does.

Q: What is the best advice you can give to a writer seeking an agent and publication?

A: Get your work edited by skilled peers and revise the heck out of that thing. Then use a combination of sources (such as GLA, its competitors, websites) to find good agents.

Q: What are your hobbies? Why are they important to you?

A: Hobbies include writing, playing piano and guitar, snuggling with my wife, watching movies, berating my dog for being flabby, and eating too many soft pretzels with cheese. I live a simple life. I also like to run and play sports to burn all these calories that I eat.

Q: How would you spend an unexpected day off?

A: Write and exercise. Maybe throw a few beers back at Dave & Buster's at night. Play the trivia machine there and hope it lands on TV/Movies.

Q: What makes your stomach turn?

A: Ranch dressing!

Q: What makes your blood boil?

A: Some political and religious discussions that I will not get into here. (You're welcome.)

Q: What is your favorite article of clothing, the one you wear even though your wife / children / friends / associates really wish you wouldn’t?

A: I don't really have one so I just asked my wife, and evidently she absolutely hates this old Nirvana T-shirt that I still have because the picture of Kurt Cobain on it is "...extremely creepy. Hey, are you writing this down? Why are you writing down what I'm saying?..."

Q: Who has been your life’s greatest influence and why?

A: Probably my wife. I have only known her 9 years but she guides me.

Q: What (in your opinion) would be the first impression most people get when they meet you?

A: Maybe sarcastic? At one of my first writers conferences that I was brought in to speak at, the Texas woman who picked me up looked at me in the airport and said, "You just a little baby face!"

Finish these sentences:
“I would lose interest in life if…”

They outlawed pizza.

“I like people who…”

Are intelligent but don't flaunt it or secretly enjoy criticizing you.

“My motto in life is …”

Life is short, so if you want to go somewhere, start moving now.

Chuck Sambuchino (guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog) is an editor and a writer. He works for Writers Digest Books and edits two annual resources: Guide to Literary Agents as well as Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market. He is also a humor book writer, with his first book, How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack, released in Sept. 2010. His first book was writing-related: the third edition of Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript. Besides that, he is a produced playwright, magazine freelancer, former journalist, husband, cover band guitarist, chocolate chip cookie fiend, and owner of a flabby-yet-lovable dog named Graham.

Too cute? Not for me.

2010-09-28T08:02:00.000-05:00

I have a thing for funny animal photos. If you like them, too, look at these: Spunk on a Stick.

The Cluster Effect

2010-09-28T07:46:00.000-05:00

Don't you hate it when dates cluster? One thing gets scheduled on your calendar -- weeks or months in advance -- in the middle of an otherwise unscheduled week, and before you know it, another thing needs to happen that day -- and another -- and another. Why is that?

You've got open dates on either side, but, no, events insist on crowding onto the same date. It's like parking your car in an empty section of the lot only to come back and find two or three other vehicles parked there too. Or you settle in the middle of an empty pew and along comes someone who sits in your lap.

But in those situations people can see your vehicle. People can see you. As far as I know, no one can see my calendar. No one can read my mind -- "Oh, she already has something going on October 2. Let's schedule our event October 2."

I am beginning to think the universe is after me. Big time.

Catching up

2010-09-22T20:46:00.000-05:00

Yikes. Has it been twelve days since I last blogged? What have you poor guys been reading?

So what have I been up to? Writing day and night, right? Umm, maybe not day and night. Or even day sometimes. But sometimes.

Otherwise, I've been getting used to my new
Apple Mac Mini MC270LL/A Desktop, courtesy of my husband, who loves buying me gadgets. Oh, my, what a change. Good thing I like to shake things up sometimes. I was prepared for some of the changes, having used a Macbook from time to time.

I do miss some of the PC buttons: END, BACKSPACE, PAGE DOWN/UP, HOME. I had to get used to deleting backwards with the DELETE button, and things look different on the screen. But those changes are a small price to pay. The Mac Mini is small, it's quiet, and it's fast, all things I like and never had in a desktop. The OS is easy to get the hang of. There were few hoops to jump through when connecting it to my existing wireless network. I just plugged everything in, and the Mini did the rest. It works just fine with my existing monitor and printer.

I especially like the Apple Wireless Keyboard (Retail Packaging). It's small and light and attractive, but the keys are big enough to make using the keyboard easy. Then there's the Apple Magic Mouse, also wireless. It's smooth and fits the hand nicely. (I was relieved to find I could adjust it to right click.)

Let's see, what else have I been doing? Oh, yeah. Getting estimates for adding blown-in insulation to the attic. Must try to save on cooling bills, especially when son and family visit have to sleep in the new addition, which is the hottest part of the house. I'm also setting up a website on GoDaddy. Interesting . . . more on that later. I've also been running around in the town and parish taking pictures, which I'll share in a later post.

In short, altogether, I've been having a ball.

Pass the Mr. Clean, please.

2010-09-10T21:14:00.000-05:00

If the dialogue of many highly-rated movies is any indication, I'd do well as a script writer. I have a broad vocabulary -- of profanity. While there were many interesting scenes in the movie Magnolia, several interesting characters, and some of the best actors in America, the thing I remember best about that film, aside from the rain of frogs, is the dialogue. Julianne Moore's in particular was string after string of curse words. I guess that's one way of assuring your actors don't forget their lines.

How did Gone With The Wind get by with only one? All the way at the end, at that.

I'm not squeamish. I know all the words. I've heard them all my life, English and French. It's how people talk sometimes. And dialogue has to sound the way real people talk, right?

As I've said before, the way people really talk is boring. And often disgusting. If there's some point to that, make it. But I don't think the point needs to be made in every line or even every scene of the entire movie. Or book, or story -- although I haven't read a lot of fiction that tries to get away with using obscenities in place of dialogue to the same extent as movies.

Curse words are shortcuts. If writers set them aside, we'd be forced to find more creative ways of expressing our characters' frustrations, speech quirks, anger, the way writers did when that kind of language got your movie or your book banned.

But it wouldn't be realistic, you say? Because that kind of language is mainstream, and no one would believe a movie where the street-wise main character, a real tough guy -- say, Tony Soprano -- doesn't throw an obscenity into every sentence? Everyone knows you can't be a streetwise tough guy unless you've got a potty mouth. That's the main requirement for toughness, to go around insulting the virtue of everyone's mother. And you must take God's name in vain at least once every two minutes -- totally necessary. Who knows you're serious otherwise?

Think about Casablanca, To Kill A Mockingbird, All About Eve. Now think about those movies with profanity in every scene, in every other line of dialogue. See any improvement?

I think gratuitous profanity, violence, and sexual content in entertainment is a way of expressing anger and helplessness. The emotions are legitimate, but careless use of obscenity isn't. It cheapens us and our legitimate complaints and differences. It cheapens dramatic conflict, and debases our art.

Using profanity as dialogue is lazy, and claiming to do it because it's realistic and mainstream and what people want is nonsense. Great writers make their own rules and set the tone for others. They don't consult popular opinion before deciding what words are accectable. They create new mainstreams. All writers have the power to raise the level of good writing and good taste.

Of Papa and pomposity

2010-08-30T21:41:00.000-05:00

If you run across a strange word in a book or story, do you look it up? I do. There are thousands of words in the English language, and I don't know them all. Some of the words aren't from the English: they come from Greece (philosophy), India (pyjama), Polynesia (lanai). I can't be expected to know them all, even though I have a pretty wide vocabulary, so I don't mind picking up a dictionary or clicking over to Dictionary.com when an unfamiliar term pops up in my reading material. I enjoy learning new words.

Reginald Hill is famous (sometimes infamous) with me for making me keep English and Latin dictionaries close at hand while reading his Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries. A lot of times he's just showing off, but I don't really mind. I like the play of language in anyone's work -- as long as it works. Naturally, it doesn't always. My own efforts are often disappointing.

Words are a writers tools. The more of them we know, the better. What's more important is knowing how to use the tools correctly. In a prior post I admitted misusing insalubrious. Insalubrious isn't a word I'd recommend. Here are a few others: utilize, potentiate, calumniate. Unless you know how to use the word correctly, and it's the right word for the job. That's the trick. Knowing that.

Write what you have to write; use the words you have to use. If you send someone to Dictionary.com in the process, you've enriched them. But don't expect everyone to thank you, and don't be surprised if someone mumbles something about show-offs who don't use plain English. Just grin and say, "If you want plain English, read Hemingway."

Happy writing. Happy reading.

Still like the book . . .

2010-08-26T22:25:00.000-05:00

. . . but less than impressed with some of the writing technique. Last post was my praise for Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl. I'm on page 220 and still digging the story, characters, setting, and premise. I'm still impressed by the world this writer has created and how he's revealing it and the plot.

But the constant shrugging, grimacing, and face-making by every character in every conversation is wearing me down. The book's beginning to sound like the author is tired of creating the story and building the characters and just wants to get the book written already. I'm not saying that's how he felt (how could I?), but that is how it reads to me.

I don't know what happened, but I know Bacigalupi is a much better writer than this and no beginner. This reminds me of a novel I read once, a writer's first, in which all of the characters chuckled all through the book. Chuckling, sighing, shrugging, grimacing, grinning, etc. -- once or twice, maybe three times in a long novel. More than that is too distracting -- this is elementary stuff. Establish your characters and their usual gestures and mannerisms, and then trust them, trust your skill, trust your readers.

Can you trust your writer?

2010-08-21T10:07:00.001-05:00

I'm several chapters into a novel by Paulo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl. So far I'm super entertained and super impressed. This novel is worth studying, once I've finished it, for how it grabs my attention and doesn't let go. Bacigalupi's characters and settings are so vivid I'm keeping up with them even through several shifts in point of view and setting. This is science fiction, so the author has some world-building to do. In my opinion he did it masterfully, within the context of the action and the characters, and without slowing the pace to explain what's happened in the past. Even though a great deal happened, Bacigalupi delivers enough information at a time to keep a reader up to speed but with questions -- questions I trust him to answer as we go along.

Trust is an issue with readers, as I've discovered through the dreaded critique process. It's important for a reader to trust the voice telling the story because a lot of readers are impatient for information. They want to know who's who and what's what, and they want to know now without much, if any, effort on their parts.

A writer must establish a trustworthy voice, so that if all is not revealed immediately, there's the promise of revelation at a future point. In the meantime the writer feeds his audience enough detail to keep them going . . . and going . . . and going further into the story.

One thing amuses me -- Bacigalupi's frequent reference to plants in the nightshade family. His publisher is Night Shade Books. I wonder if the references influenced The Windup Girl's acceptance. :)

A rediscovered country

2010-08-16T11:55:00.000-05:00

Westron wynde, when wyll thow blow
The smalle rayne downe can rayne
Chryst yf my love wer in my armys,
and I yn my bed agayne
Anonymous, circa 1500

Where has my poetry been all these years? Am I so shallow I ignored it till it attracted some serious attention? Obviously, I didn't ignore poetry altogether, but it's taken decades to dig it free of my obsession with novels, which I've been told are not the best use of my talents. Ouch? Maybe the observation isn't what hurt, but the truth within it.

Novels take sooo long. Poetry takes a day or two, plus time to age like, one hopes, fine wine. Return to the draft, tweak, decide if it's done, send it off. My ear is more finely tuned to poems, I think, because there's not so much of them to keep straight. Yet they're as deep as any novel and more precise -- the really good poems, that is -- and resonate like a fine piano. I'm no John Donne or Christina Rosetti, but will try to be the best Jan Rider Newman possible. (I always try.)

I'll never give up my first love, fiction in all its forms, but a love affair with poetry promises to conceive creative fruit.

Unless otherwise noted, all photos are from my private collection and may not be copied or reused. Thanks. Not that they're so great anyone else would want them, but some folks aren't particular.

People, food, and picking one's battles

2010-08-14T21:23:00.000-05:00

I'm not a soup and salad kind of girl. I am very fortunate to have a friend who is dear and precious to me. She likes nothing better than a good Olive Garden soup and salad. Yum! If it were up to her, we'd eat there every time we meet for lunch. In the years we've been friends, we've been there a lot. I mean, a lot. I can't seem to explain often enough or well enough that I've grown tired of the place. I don't dislike it. I'm just tired of it. T - I - R - E - D. I crave variety and with several other good restaurants in town, I see no reason to hit the same one time after time, year after year.

Lucky for me, I don't get tired of people. People are too varied. They go too deep. They're in different places every time I meet them. Like a river -- you never step into the same water twice. It's the same river. Its name doesn't change. You find it in the same place every day. But it's not the same water. That's what people are like. Even when they can eat the same food every week and don't get why you can't.

And friends are more important than food. That's why nine times out of ten when I hear, "Let's go to OG," I say, "Okay, let's."

Louisiana Highlights

2010-08-11T22:18:00.000-05:00

When people think of Louisiana, they may not automatically think of artistic genius.

In 1872 and 1873, Edgar Degas lived on Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans. His mother's family, the Mussons, were from New Orleans, and Degas's house and studio are now a museum and B&B.

John James Audubon found a lot of birds to paint in Louisiana.

Like Degas and Audubon, the photographer Fonville Winans (1911 - 1992) wasn't born in Louisiana, but once he arrived in 1928, he called it home. He fell in love with Louisiana, which was at that time a rather isolated place and content to be so, at least among the rural south Louisiana people. His photographs of the state's people and places remain some of the best in existence. If you don't know this wonderful photographer, make a point to get acquainted with his work. It's worth your time.

Louis Armstrong and Hank Williams were Louisiana natives, as are Wynton Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr. Van Cliburn was born in Shreveport, Jerry Lee Lewis in Ferriday. Dorothy Lamour hailed from New Orleans. Ellen DeGeneris was born and raised in Metairie. Donna Douglas still lives here. Louisiana is Tim McGraw's home state.

Some of the literary geniuses of the nineteenth and twentieth century were born in and/or resided in Louisiana for various lengths of time: Sherwood Anderson, George Washington Cable, Truman Capote, Kate Chopin, William Faulkner, Ernest Gaines, Lillian Hellman, Elmore Leonard, Walker Percy, Anne Rice, John Kennedy Toole, Robert Penn Warren, and Tennessee Williams.

The Southern Review is an old and respected literary magazine once edited by Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren.

Those are just the famous names. There are so many other musicians, artists, writers, and publications whose names are not as well known outside Louisiana, but ought to be.

So, next time you hear mention of this state, after you automatically think about Spanish moss and alligators and hurricanes and the 2009 Superbowl Champions -- Who dat! Who dat! Who dat! -- think about Edgar Degas and Louis Armstrong and Tennessee Williams. And realize there's more to this state than crooked politics (like this is the only state where that happens -- uh-huh), people with funny accents who say they're fixin' to do stuff, spicy food, and swamps.

Louisiana has brains. It has a rich artistic and literary history. It has breath-taking scenery and a culture all its own. It has class and sophistication. However, those qualities aren't as fun to report on the evening news as are the fools and the weather and the colorful crooks which all the sensible people wish would sit down and shut up.

Will using italics get my book rejected?

2010-08-11T09:40:00.000-05:00

It might. If an agent or editor is looking for an excuse to reject you. Improper punctuation is as good an excuse as any. But chances are what gets our work rejected is writing that is bad or, if not bad, not good enough. I'm very good at following rules. I format everything to a T. I address my query letters to a person, not a "Dear Agent." I defy anyone to find much fault with my form.

Form doesn't get you published. Form matters in ballet and gymnastics. If you've got a smash-bang story that anyone in her right mind would want to read, you'll find a market for it. Your new agent or editor will then work with you to correct your punctuation and formatting issues.

So don't worry so much about whether you should hit the space bar once or twice after a period, whether you should underline to indicate italics or use italics. By all means, do your best with grammar. If your work needs too much cleaning up, no one will want to take it on, no matter how good the story is. Just put the most energy into the plot, characters, and style. The rest is frosting, not cake.

Contracts and critiques

2010-08-09T14:59:00.001-05:00

We all know critiques are hard on the critiqued, but as a critiquer I hate telling anyone I'm less than thrilled with their work. However, if I am less than thrilled, don't I have to say so? Isn't it condescending to hold back and spare the writer's feelings? After all, they're supposed to be grownups.

So I grow a backbone and give my honest opinion for whatever it may be worth. I'm humble enough (yes, really) to admit I can be wrong. Often. That's why opinions aren't called laws. Agree with me. Disagree. Think to yourself, "She is so wrong -- how can she not see how wrong, wrong, wrong she is?"

If Writer One noted something on page six of Writer Two's story, and Two pointed out something on page five that explained away One's objection, great. But say One's objection remains. "In my opinion, this thing on page five doesn't fix page six. But it's your story. Do whatever you think is best." There needs to be a point where writers agree to disagree and move on. Sometimes, though, that's the point where the critiqued writer starts arguing his point, and what follows does no one credit.

Critiques are a kind of contract. If I'm not honest, or if I'm insensitive to your feelings when I state my opinions, I break the contract. If you get defensive and argue your point, you break the contract. We create hard feelings, and the process doesn't work. I hate to think I've been guilty of any of that behavior, on either end of the deal.

Disclaimer: I am not saying anything negative about my regular Thursday morning writer's group! I love y'all. You've been so patient with my fumbling remarks about your work and kind to mine.

Back in the New York groove

2010-08-03T10:12:00.000-05:00

Well, I was. Now I'm back in the Lake Charles groove, which means I'm stuck in the house most of the day because it's too flippin' HOT to go outside.

But that's okay. I've got a new story brewing, and it's about K2. Given a choice, I'd prefer Louisiana in August to K2 anytime, but thinking about all that snow helps keep my temperature down. Stay cool.

From http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:K2_2006b.jpg; Author http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Svy123&action=edit&redlink=1.

Things that make a Brooklyn heat wave bearable

2010-07-23T15:08:00.000-05:00

In no particular order:

Clara.
Rain showers.
Clara.
Sahadi's.
Rachel & Paul.
Charles.
Fresh mozzarella.
Blocks and blocks of sycamores.
Air conditioning.
Clara.
Trader Joe's.
Bakery 1 block away.
Black-eyed susans.
Cool breezes.
Clara.

Summertime

2010-07-17T21:40:00.000-05:00

Blog-break. On vacation next week with family in one of my fave places. Miss me.

Please?

Creative or die

2010-07-17T21:37:00.000-05:00

I wish I had never grown up -- as a writer.

That isn't what I mean.

I wish I had matured as a craftsman while remaining childlike (not childish) on the creative end. How do I know I was a more creative writer in my twenties? I won prizes and got published in my twenties. And a lot of what I've had published lately are revisions of stories I wrote back then.

I look back on that work and wonder at the fact that I wrote it. Some of those early stories and poems are better than stuff I'm writing now. That hurts.

What did I lose? My childlike belief that I could write anything I wanted? That I was good at it? My faith that anything was possible?

I don't know. I do know I got tired. I let a lot of things take over the energies creativity needed. I stayed on the surface of plots and characters rather than dig deep and take risks. I blinked in the face of truth. Knowing the reasons for what happened doesn't wipe out the price I paid and the time I lost before I broke free of what constrained me and reclaimed my inner writer-child.

If my writing dies, I die -- I'm not me anymore. Not an option.

So . . . hopscotch, anyone?

Some things that make summer in Louisiana worth enduring

2010-07-13T15:31:00.000-05:00

The reddish brown gleam of canned figs in a shiny jar

Ducking into a cool coffee shop for an iced mocha latte

Harvesting fresh vegetables from the garden

Smelling the four o'clocks that bloom around six p.m.

Sitting under a tree when a breeze is blowing

Watching the pears and oranges swell on the trees

Iced tea with lemon in your hand

Magnolias blooming

Stepping outside an AC-chilled house into a sun-beaten yard

Wearing fewer clothes

All photos are from private collection and may not be copied.

Words

2010-07-10T21:20:00.000-05:00

AZIMUTH        I love words. Some feel good to say: Taos opens, rounds, and closes the mouth; bread fills the mouth. We is fun and friendly, while week is breathy. Crisp is crisp, like a chip.

As a writer -- as a human being -- I use words every day in my quest to express myself and be understood. Which isn't to say I use words well, as evidenced by the mistakes I catch or have pointed out to me by those who read what I write. Language is imperfect. Our use and understanding of it is imperfect, in part because language, usage, and understanding of language is always evolving. Human language is as dynamic as human beings.          PRIM

Which makes it fun to use. Mind-boggling at times. Frustrating. And that's just the written word. The spoken word is another matter entirely, a matter that relies on tone, inflection, facial expression, mannerisms, i.e., body language.

"I love you," she said and rested her fingertips on his wrist.

"I love you," she said with a shrug.          BALLAST

NAIROBI

On mediocrity

2010-07-06T11:29:00.000-05:00

I found this post on a blog called Essential Prose: "Madness, Genius, and the Things We Dont See". It's thoughtful and thought-provoking. Mediocrity is one of those things I dread. How far am I willing to go to avoid it?