I don’t know about you, but I have to have music plying when I write. Right now The Doors are performing Light My Fire (timeless and cool.)
but i digress....
Recently I posted about the indomitable Les Edgerton.(July 21) This blog is not supposed to be a Les Edgerton fan club page, but his book HOOKED has the writing gears turning..
Writing is a lot like dieting. We KNOW we need to eat less and move more in order to lose weight. As writers, we KNOW if our beginnings suck, the rest of the story suffers, even that heartbreaking stuff in the middle, and the tear jerking ending. Why? Because readers won’t have enough patience to slug through three pages of chaff to get to where the REAL story starts. Yet many of us, myself especially, craft these dawdling, elegant beginnings where we take the reader on a sluggish raft to the beginning of the story.
If there were prisons were writing crimes, my FBI poster would read, WORDINESS. : Addicted to back story, takes three pages to three chapters to get to the point at which the story begins. (That was a wordy sentence. See what I mean? What am I going to do with me? I could have just said, uses too many words.)
During my incarceration here in writer’s prison, for which there is no parole, I read Les Edgerton’s HOOKED: write fiction that grabs the reader at page one and never lets them go . It’s a book about beginnings.
Last year, if you recall, I attended the Oregon Coast Children’s Book Writers Workshop (OCCBWW,) and the critiques only focused on the first page. Each participants’’ first page projected in the room for all to see, naked, our flaws magnified.) See August 2011 postings for more highlights of the OCCBWW)
Here is my first page shredding
http://bit.ly/LOiQoY
My drafts are always horrible. Sometimes it takes a year to look at a manuscript with fresh eyes. Even in its fine tuning and several drafts, my novel CHASING THE DRAGON, suffered by a tepid beginning. Les’s book helped me see the point of entry was wrong.( In an earlier draft, I had this three page prologue containing an incident a couple of years before the story begins, but at OCCBWW, I was advised to cut it and start with action.
In rewrite I had my protagonist, Kicker, walking into her house and get yelled at by her mother and stepfather. It was a three page scene. It was okay, but it lingered.
Les helped me ask, Where does the reader become engaged?
When Kicker has a flashback to her tattoo the night before. Duh! Put her in the tattoo parlor and start there.
The following is from my latest rewrite of the opening of CHASING THE DRAGON. Please don’t steal it.
Getting the tattoo hurt worse than she thought it would. Kicker Stevens pulled at the left sleeve of her plaid, flannel jacket to relieve the pressure on the one inch tall barbed wire tattoo around her left bicep
Kind of wordy and blah. With some tinkering, here is my rewrite:
Kicker rolled up her sleeve and studied the barbed wire on her left bicep, her skin swollen around the tattoo. Getting it turned out to be a bigger deal than she imagined, but there was no turning back. The ink etched her closer to becoming a full- fledged Flygirl.
I’m tempted to rewrite almost everything I have written, at least reexamine it. While the draft contains energy and passion, the real writing happens in rewrite.
Your assignment, besides reading Les’s book, is to reexamine the opening page(s) of a manuscript that you are having trouble selling. The flaw might be page one.
Happy Writing.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Creative Nonfiction Workshop with Jerry Dennis
At Antioch, I also sat in on Jerry Dennis’s Creative Nonfiction (CNF) talks. He is a master storyteller and a swell writer. (I am currently reading his book The Living Great Lakes.
He says our goal (and challenge)in CNF is to take a personal story and make it universal. He likens this process to fishing tales, which all have a narrative arc.
Biography, journalism, and travel writing are nonfiction, but they are not necessarily Creative nonfiction.
The key difference is CNF is told with a narrative arc. CNF writers use fiction like techniques to tell a story, yet the story is based on truth. (Jerry recommends studying legal briefs to study language.)
He cites Sue Williams Silverman "Fearless Confection: a Writer's Guide to Memoir", as a good source, as well as her suggested reading list.
www suewilliamssilverman.com
Here are several examples of CNF:
Memoir is autobiography that is not the whole story. Usually a memoir shows only a brief period of time in the author's life. A good example is This Boy's Life, by Tobias Wolff. The memoir covers a period of about five years of Wolff's boyhood.)
(Biography- is less creative form than memoir. Tells the facts, but not necessarily a story. Relies more on "telling.")
Autobiography- 1st person memoir often a public figure
Immersion Journalism, like Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. (The author lived for a year working minimum wage jobs to see how one survives doing that.)
Personal essay - where an author refelcts on an idea or experience. A personal story that has wide appeal.(I recall a fine essay a student of mine once wrote about seeing the ocean for the first time. It was his own experience, yet the details placed the reader at the scene with him.)
Meditative essay and Lyric essay share some of the qualities of personal essays. Think Diane Ackerman or .
in all cases, CNF writers pay attention to narrative, language, and reflection. Like good poetry, CNF is not just about the writer, even if the piece is a memoir. The purpose goes beyond the self. For example, Jerry's The Living Great Lakes includes stories and scenes of his adventures on the lakes, but the book is not about him; it's a living history of the lakes.
Jerry discusses the Terrible Blank Page: What to Write?. All writers suffer anxiety in front of the blank page or the blinking cursor. Jerry begins with an image, such as skating on a frozen lake. He believes images help engage and ground the reader. “[Creative Nonfiction] should give you more than expectations. It should explode.” He recommends reading Ian Frazier, who conducts immersion journalism, ‘relevant tangents just for the joy of it’, and E.B. White, who writes unexpected sentences. Jerry discusses how “surprise is crucial in nonfiction, as in any form of writing. “ I want to read a sentence and not know how it’s going to end.” Surprise can be subtle, but it keeps readers reading. “You never know where White is going with the sentence,” Jerry says. “Good sentences give off a little light, they are charged, they are alive. Start [ your manuscript] from the alive sentence, from the part that interests you.”.
Jerry also discusses the ‘two conflicting voices that coerce you or prevent you from writing.” It’s a paradox because the same voice that compels you to write , (this is great stuff, oh yeah, can’t wait to share this one) can also block you from writing, (This sucks. Nobody wants to read your work.)
His advice is to just write. And when that doesn’t work, go out and live. Then write about it.
The following are examples from Jerry Dennis’s work:
The first sentence of his book proposal of The Living Great Lakes:
“When fresh water becomes as precious as gold, the Great Lakes will be the mother lode.”
From his blog:
“Last week Glenn Wolff and I posed as poster children for an upcoming campaign by the Grand Traverse Conservation District to raise awareness about the beautiful and fragile Boardman River.”
To give you an idea of Jerry’s character, he calls his blog ‘Bountiful World’
http://www.jerrydennis.net/books.html
Me with Jerry Dennis at Antioch Writers' Workshop 2012
Happy Writing.
He says our goal (and challenge)in CNF is to take a personal story and make it universal. He likens this process to fishing tales, which all have a narrative arc.
Biography, journalism, and travel writing are nonfiction, but they are not necessarily Creative nonfiction.
The key difference is CNF is told with a narrative arc. CNF writers use fiction like techniques to tell a story, yet the story is based on truth. (Jerry recommends studying legal briefs to study language.)
He cites Sue Williams Silverman "Fearless Confection: a Writer's Guide to Memoir", as a good source, as well as her suggested reading list.
www suewilliamssilverman.com
Here are several examples of CNF:
Memoir is autobiography that is not the whole story. Usually a memoir shows only a brief period of time in the author's life. A good example is This Boy's Life, by Tobias Wolff. The memoir covers a period of about five years of Wolff's boyhood.)
(Biography- is less creative form than memoir. Tells the facts, but not necessarily a story. Relies more on "telling.")
Autobiography- 1st person memoir often a public figure
Immersion Journalism, like Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. (The author lived for a year working minimum wage jobs to see how one survives doing that.)
Personal essay - where an author refelcts on an idea or experience. A personal story that has wide appeal.(I recall a fine essay a student of mine once wrote about seeing the ocean for the first time. It was his own experience, yet the details placed the reader at the scene with him.)
Meditative essay and Lyric essay share some of the qualities of personal essays. Think Diane Ackerman or .
in all cases, CNF writers pay attention to narrative, language, and reflection. Like good poetry, CNF is not just about the writer, even if the piece is a memoir. The purpose goes beyond the self. For example, Jerry's The Living Great Lakes includes stories and scenes of his adventures on the lakes, but the book is not about him; it's a living history of the lakes.
Jerry discusses the Terrible Blank Page: What to Write?. All writers suffer anxiety in front of the blank page or the blinking cursor. Jerry begins with an image, such as skating on a frozen lake. He believes images help engage and ground the reader. “[Creative Nonfiction] should give you more than expectations. It should explode.” He recommends reading Ian Frazier, who conducts immersion journalism, ‘relevant tangents just for the joy of it’, and E.B. White, who writes unexpected sentences. Jerry discusses how “surprise is crucial in nonfiction, as in any form of writing. “ I want to read a sentence and not know how it’s going to end.” Surprise can be subtle, but it keeps readers reading. “You never know where White is going with the sentence,” Jerry says. “Good sentences give off a little light, they are charged, they are alive. Start [ your manuscript] from the alive sentence, from the part that interests you.”.
Jerry also discusses the ‘two conflicting voices that coerce you or prevent you from writing.” It’s a paradox because the same voice that compels you to write , (this is great stuff, oh yeah, can’t wait to share this one) can also block you from writing, (This sucks. Nobody wants to read your work.)
His advice is to just write. And when that doesn’t work, go out and live. Then write about it.
The following are examples from Jerry Dennis’s work:
The first sentence of his book proposal of The Living Great Lakes:
“When fresh water becomes as precious as gold, the Great Lakes will be the mother lode.”
From his blog:
“Last week Glenn Wolff and I posed as poster children for an upcoming campaign by the Grand Traverse Conservation District to raise awareness about the beautiful and fragile Boardman River.”
To give you an idea of Jerry’s character, he calls his blog ‘Bountiful World’
http://www.jerrydennis.net/books.html
Me with Jerry Dennis at Antioch Writers' Workshop 2012
Happy Writing.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Les is More
“Keep the ceiling low enough you can keep your hat on. Don't let anyone else invade your head.” Les Edgerton, AWW 2012, on writer’s block
I love this guy. Not in the madly in love-will- elope-with- him sense. He’s already married, so that would be weird. But one of the highlights of the Antioch Writer’s Workshop was each morning in the lobby of the campus building, Les Edgerton held court. Laptop open, papers and books scattered around him, Les obviously had work to do, but he never let that impede a chance to bond with any conference participant or faculty who stopped by to chat. Even people like me who were not signed up for his afternoon workshop. He is saucy and edgy, so the surname Edgerton is no accident.
Les, a mystery writer, screenwriter, essayist and blogger, makes no apologies or excuses for his background: ex-con (I'm all cleaned up now and you can invite me into your home and don't have to count the silverware when I leave.), former hairdresser (Warren Beatty in Shampoo had nothing on me), twice divorced (third time is the charm), and non-stop smoker (No, you don’t look like you carry matches.) There is no shit about Les Edgerton.
If you read his blog, http://www.lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/
you will see his generous curiosity, and how he bonds with writers of all stripes. He is a treasure, and hopefully will be invited back to AWW. Even if you are not lucky enough to get in they limit the size, you can learn a lot by reading his book Hooked and listening to him in casual conversation.
A common thread I have found among most successful authors is their generosity, and Les is generous in spirit, time, and advice. In my many years of attending writers workshops and conferences, I have only come across two bestselling (herein unnamed) writers who were self absorbed and egomaniacal. Most authors are willing to pass the torch for mastering craft. Process and marketing work. Les not only made me laugh very day, he gave me a couple of agents’ names and said I should mention him in my queries, and he is also willing to give me a book jacket blurb when I find success with my own fiction. In his inscription, he wrote “I will be standing in line for you to autograph my copy of your book.”
I love you Les.
More gems from Les’s indomitable wisdom.
... Senility isn't when you forget to zip up your pants... it's when you forget to zip them down...
Advice for writers: There is no such thing as a synonym. There's just the perfect word. The perfect word doesn't come in groups.
If life hands you lemons... make lemonade. Then... try to find someone to whom life has handed vodka...
Never argue with an idiot. They'll drag you down to their level... and then beat you with experience.
Me with Les at AWW 2012. I am holding a copy of Hooked.
Happy Writing.
I love this guy. Not in the madly in love-will- elope-with- him sense. He’s already married, so that would be weird. But one of the highlights of the Antioch Writer’s Workshop was each morning in the lobby of the campus building, Les Edgerton held court. Laptop open, papers and books scattered around him, Les obviously had work to do, but he never let that impede a chance to bond with any conference participant or faculty who stopped by to chat. Even people like me who were not signed up for his afternoon workshop. He is saucy and edgy, so the surname Edgerton is no accident.
Les, a mystery writer, screenwriter, essayist and blogger, makes no apologies or excuses for his background: ex-con (I'm all cleaned up now and you can invite me into your home and don't have to count the silverware when I leave.), former hairdresser (Warren Beatty in Shampoo had nothing on me), twice divorced (third time is the charm), and non-stop smoker (No, you don’t look like you carry matches.) There is no shit about Les Edgerton.
If you read his blog, http://www.lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/
you will see his generous curiosity, and how he bonds with writers of all stripes. He is a treasure, and hopefully will be invited back to AWW. Even if you are not lucky enough to get in they limit the size, you can learn a lot by reading his book Hooked and listening to him in casual conversation.
A common thread I have found among most successful authors is their generosity, and Les is generous in spirit, time, and advice. In my many years of attending writers workshops and conferences, I have only come across two bestselling (herein unnamed) writers who were self absorbed and egomaniacal. Most authors are willing to pass the torch for mastering craft. Process and marketing work. Les not only made me laugh very day, he gave me a couple of agents’ names and said I should mention him in my queries, and he is also willing to give me a book jacket blurb when I find success with my own fiction. In his inscription, he wrote “I will be standing in line for you to autograph my copy of your book.”
I love you Les.
More gems from Les’s indomitable wisdom.
... Senility isn't when you forget to zip up your pants... it's when you forget to zip them down...
Advice for writers: There is no such thing as a synonym. There's just the perfect word. The perfect word doesn't come in groups.
If life hands you lemons... make lemonade. Then... try to find someone to whom life has handed vodka...
Never argue with an idiot. They'll drag you down to their level... and then beat you with experience.
Me with Les at AWW 2012. I am holding a copy of Hooked.
Happy Writing.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
A Poem is a Simultaneous Act of Resistance and Praise
I recently attended the annual Antioch Writers Workshop in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Back in 1988, when I was a fledgling writer, it was my first of many writers’ conferences. I have grown immensely since 1988, but that doesn't mean I have nothing left to learn.
I came away from the first workshop feeling the molecules in my body had changed, so I was excited to return to Yellow Springs for another week. The original conference was held at Antioch College, a lovely liberal arts campus. I had known the college closed for awhile, but they had reopened with a small student body, and i believed this conference would be held at the college. (This was explicit on the web site, but I tend to skim details.) When I drove into town, the old college looked like news footage of Bosnia. I drove around the abandoned buildings until I found a groundskeeper who told me the workshop is now held at the new Antioch University Midwest campus just at the edge of town.
Enough back-story. What did I glean from this experience?
We go to conferences to make connections with other like-minded souls. My friends and family don't mind that I write, but they don't care about the process. Only other writers understand suffering over the word, fretting over using ‘mysterious’ vs. ‘esoteric’ in a sentence or line.
In the morning craft talk on day one, poet Jeff Gundy discussed Finding What Shines and how poets hurry slowly. The energy behind our work is in the quickly written draft, but the soul of it evolves slowly through multiple revisions.
He paraphrases William Stafford and Donald Hall by stating, "Write great poems but lower the standard." As poets we want to write grand messages that will solve the world's problems and carve our names in infamy. Yet as Jeff points out, we need to lower our lofty goals and write for an audience of possibly just ourselves. We can't solve the world's problems in one poem. We can only tap at them, nudge a small reaction, which creates another reaction, where poems speak to other poems (and the reader.)
A poem comes from a life, not a study. William Stafford writes in Writing the Australian Crawl, “When I write, grammar is the enemy…Swimmers know that if they are relax on the water it will prove to be miraculously buoyant….writers know that a succession of little strokes without any prejudgments about the specific gravity of a topic…will result in creative progress.”
Poems that matter also go beyond craft . In an essay The Art of Finding, Linda Gregg states, “Too often in workshops and classrooms here is a concentration on the poem’s garments instead of its life’s blood.”
. “You can produce fine poems without believing anything…” we have all seen well crafted work that possess attention to diction and syntax, but under the glossy surface is air. This type of writing becomes “manufacturing instead of giving birth.”
Do we need to know what every poem means? Lit teachers like to beat meaning to death. I don't always care about literal meaning because my accumulation of life experience does not echo yours, and we will find multiple meanings in the same combination of words. What feels blue to me renders you orange.
This is what Jeff terms as a ‘happy problem’.
Beginning poets often believe poetry relies of self expression. It's all about me! Well, no, it's not.
You kind of don't matter after all. You are only a channel. Poems that matter are about what happens around you, not just to you.
The poems we looked at in session 1 were Some Say Horsemen, Some Say Warriors, by Sappho; The River at Wolf, by Jean Valentine; The Half-Finished Heaven, by Tomas Transtromer (tr. Robin Fulton); All the Fruit, Friedrich Holderlin, (tr. Robert Bly]; and When the Neighbors Fight by Terrance Hayes.
His exercise was to let yourself be drawn to a line or two in one of the poems and let that line open your imagination to praise or lament. Essentially the line becomes a catalyst for your own poem.
Above all, read poetry
I came away from the first workshop feeling the molecules in my body had changed, so I was excited to return to Yellow Springs for another week. The original conference was held at Antioch College, a lovely liberal arts campus. I had known the college closed for awhile, but they had reopened with a small student body, and i believed this conference would be held at the college. (This was explicit on the web site, but I tend to skim details.) When I drove into town, the old college looked like news footage of Bosnia. I drove around the abandoned buildings until I found a groundskeeper who told me the workshop is now held at the new Antioch University Midwest campus just at the edge of town.
Enough back-story. What did I glean from this experience?
We go to conferences to make connections with other like-minded souls. My friends and family don't mind that I write, but they don't care about the process. Only other writers understand suffering over the word, fretting over using ‘mysterious’ vs. ‘esoteric’ in a sentence or line.
In the morning craft talk on day one, poet Jeff Gundy discussed Finding What Shines and how poets hurry slowly. The energy behind our work is in the quickly written draft, but the soul of it evolves slowly through multiple revisions.
He paraphrases William Stafford and Donald Hall by stating, "Write great poems but lower the standard." As poets we want to write grand messages that will solve the world's problems and carve our names in infamy. Yet as Jeff points out, we need to lower our lofty goals and write for an audience of possibly just ourselves. We can't solve the world's problems in one poem. We can only tap at them, nudge a small reaction, which creates another reaction, where poems speak to other poems (and the reader.)
A poem comes from a life, not a study. William Stafford writes in Writing the Australian Crawl, “When I write, grammar is the enemy…Swimmers know that if they are relax on the water it will prove to be miraculously buoyant….writers know that a succession of little strokes without any prejudgments about the specific gravity of a topic…will result in creative progress.”
Poems that matter also go beyond craft . In an essay The Art of Finding, Linda Gregg states, “Too often in workshops and classrooms here is a concentration on the poem’s garments instead of its life’s blood.”
. “You can produce fine poems without believing anything…” we have all seen well crafted work that possess attention to diction and syntax, but under the glossy surface is air. This type of writing becomes “manufacturing instead of giving birth.”
Do we need to know what every poem means? Lit teachers like to beat meaning to death. I don't always care about literal meaning because my accumulation of life experience does not echo yours, and we will find multiple meanings in the same combination of words. What feels blue to me renders you orange.
This is what Jeff terms as a ‘happy problem’.
Beginning poets often believe poetry relies of self expression. It's all about me! Well, no, it's not.
You kind of don't matter after all. You are only a channel. Poems that matter are about what happens around you, not just to you.
The poems we looked at in session 1 were Some Say Horsemen, Some Say Warriors, by Sappho; The River at Wolf, by Jean Valentine; The Half-Finished Heaven, by Tomas Transtromer (tr. Robin Fulton); All the Fruit, Friedrich Holderlin, (tr. Robert Bly]; and When the Neighbors Fight by Terrance Hayes.
His exercise was to let yourself be drawn to a line or two in one of the poems and let that line open your imagination to praise or lament. Essentially the line becomes a catalyst for your own poem.
Above all, read poetry
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
This Post Has Nothing to do with Writing
Dispatches from the Hot Zone
Aftera series of severe storms, Much of Ohio is without power. 53% of residents in my county have has no electricty for 3 or more days.
The power outage feels and smells like the summers of my childhood BAC (before air conditioning.) It even has he familiar lost sounds, of birds and distant (some not so distant) barking dogs. Instead of the constant whir of the AC and the blare of the TV set, (I don't really miss TV other than the news and Big Bang Theory.) I read every night.. That, too reminds me of childhood nights ready Nancy Drew novels, sometimes under the covers by flashlight once my parents expected me to be asleep.
In the dark I can see lightning bugs. I used to run around the yard and catch them in a jar as a kid, disappointed they were dead in the morning.
Neighbors have been going outdoors, communicating with one another. We gather up lawn chairs and chat in the shade, much the way my folks did when I was a kid.
But all that luscious reminiscence was written early in the outage. We’ve had a week of ninety plus temperatures.
He is how I really feel:
It’s Girl Scout Camp sleeping inside a stuffy spider infested cabin.
It's easy to distinguish those with and those without power. Those with have smooth, styled hair, and they looked less stressed than the mangy haired, wrinkly shirted lot of us without.
My daily habits are awry and I keep forgetting to floss. My teeth and gums feel ranky.
I buy wife beaters to sleep in. I haven’t (yet) resorted to leaving my house in a tank top. I have old lady arms, and I fear my power will return in the middle of the night and my neighbors will see me in boxers and a tank top flapping my arms and flabby white legs as I leap to close the windows and blinds.
On the third day I went to Mc Donald’s for breakfast. They have free wifi. I overhear two older women talking. “Now I know why women get married again when their husband dies. They need help. Forget love. They need help.”
There is a nice breeze coming thru the bathroom window day 4. I'd like to move my couch in there and sleep but it won't fit.
I had bought a couple of O2 cool fans. They are battery operated and provide about 4 hrs of steady breeze. Sleep is tolerable. The inventor deserves a Nobel prize.
Finding various places to hang out is a challenge.
I’ve been hanging around Starbucks, Loitering, along with the hundreds of other powerless. I find new venues in case my picture is hanging under a NO LOITERING Sign at Starbucks.
Went to Giacomos twice yesterday to charge up and use wifi .I can't go the today because it's a holiday. Who stuck a holiday in the middle of a power outage? Not great planning.
Not exercising. Too hot. I did trim some hedges at 7 am by hand. Moved about three muscles. But the rest of me is quickly devolving into a lump of mozzarella cheese. I sweep the flors while the house is still table before meeting Elizabeth for lunch.
Elizabeth and I are squatters at the mall; we plugged in our laptops and phones next to the pop machines, sitting at a table dragged in from the food court.
We talk to a woman whose campsite was vandalized, “And did you hear about the run on the ice truck the other day?”
Elizabeth and I are like teenagers, sitting across the table from one another writing funny messages to each other on Facebook.
ME: Squatters at the Mall starring Laura Moe and Elizabeth Christy. They steal power! They talk to strangers! Rated R.
Elizabeth: R for language. No one is intended to shed any clothing.
about an hour ago ·
Me: That would make it a horror film.
Myra:LOL!!!
23 minutes ago · Like.
Amy:This Almost made me get on the Shadow, drive to the mall, plop at a table near you, and then type something creepy only someone who could see you would know :-) Not ruling it out.
13 minutes ago via mobile · Like.
Me: but Amy, we know what you look like!
2 seconds ago · Like
It's become an uncomfortable comport zone of sorts, lazy heat, do nothing days. Most of my movement happens in the morning when the heat is tolerable. Today the forecast is 100 plus heat index.
There is no writing exercise today because it’s just too hot to write.
Happy Writing and may you be blessed with electricity. :).
Aftera series of severe storms, Much of Ohio is without power. 53% of residents in my county have has no electricty for 3 or more days.
The power outage feels and smells like the summers of my childhood BAC (before air conditioning.) It even has he familiar lost sounds, of birds and distant (some not so distant) barking dogs. Instead of the constant whir of the AC and the blare of the TV set, (I don't really miss TV other than the news and Big Bang Theory.) I read every night.. That, too reminds me of childhood nights ready Nancy Drew novels, sometimes under the covers by flashlight once my parents expected me to be asleep.
In the dark I can see lightning bugs. I used to run around the yard and catch them in a jar as a kid, disappointed they were dead in the morning.
Neighbors have been going outdoors, communicating with one another. We gather up lawn chairs and chat in the shade, much the way my folks did when I was a kid.
But all that luscious reminiscence was written early in the outage. We’ve had a week of ninety plus temperatures.
He is how I really feel:
It’s Girl Scout Camp sleeping inside a stuffy spider infested cabin.
It's easy to distinguish those with and those without power. Those with have smooth, styled hair, and they looked less stressed than the mangy haired, wrinkly shirted lot of us without.
My daily habits are awry and I keep forgetting to floss. My teeth and gums feel ranky.
I buy wife beaters to sleep in. I haven’t (yet) resorted to leaving my house in a tank top. I have old lady arms, and I fear my power will return in the middle of the night and my neighbors will see me in boxers and a tank top flapping my arms and flabby white legs as I leap to close the windows and blinds.
On the third day I went to Mc Donald’s for breakfast. They have free wifi. I overhear two older women talking. “Now I know why women get married again when their husband dies. They need help. Forget love. They need help.”
There is a nice breeze coming thru the bathroom window day 4. I'd like to move my couch in there and sleep but it won't fit.
I had bought a couple of O2 cool fans. They are battery operated and provide about 4 hrs of steady breeze. Sleep is tolerable. The inventor deserves a Nobel prize.
Finding various places to hang out is a challenge.
I’ve been hanging around Starbucks, Loitering, along with the hundreds of other powerless. I find new venues in case my picture is hanging under a NO LOITERING Sign at Starbucks.
Went to Giacomos twice yesterday to charge up and use wifi .I can't go the today because it's a holiday. Who stuck a holiday in the middle of a power outage? Not great planning.
Not exercising. Too hot. I did trim some hedges at 7 am by hand. Moved about three muscles. But the rest of me is quickly devolving into a lump of mozzarella cheese. I sweep the flors while the house is still table before meeting Elizabeth for lunch.
Elizabeth and I are squatters at the mall; we plugged in our laptops and phones next to the pop machines, sitting at a table dragged in from the food court.
We talk to a woman whose campsite was vandalized, “And did you hear about the run on the ice truck the other day?”
Elizabeth and I are like teenagers, sitting across the table from one another writing funny messages to each other on Facebook.
ME: Squatters at the Mall starring Laura Moe and Elizabeth Christy. They steal power! They talk to strangers! Rated R.
Elizabeth: R for language. No one is intended to shed any clothing.
about an hour ago ·
Me: That would make it a horror film.
Myra:LOL!!!
23 minutes ago · Like.
Amy:This Almost made me get on the Shadow, drive to the mall, plop at a table near you, and then type something creepy only someone who could see you would know :-) Not ruling it out.
13 minutes ago via mobile · Like.
Me: but Amy, we know what you look like!
2 seconds ago · Like
It's become an uncomfortable comport zone of sorts, lazy heat, do nothing days. Most of my movement happens in the morning when the heat is tolerable. Today the forecast is 100 plus heat index.
There is no writing exercise today because it’s just too hot to write.
Happy Writing and may you be blessed with electricity. :).
Thursday, June 21, 2012
A Grain of Sand in a Crowded Pool
In the current (July/August 2012) Poets & Writers is a good article on the daily life of an agent. Before we take each rejection too personally, it’s heartening and disheartening at the same time to learn we have a one in 11,000 chance of getting representation. Even if the agent loves your work, there is no guarantee he or she can sell it to an editor. While most agents are hungry for new clients, we have to consider reputable agents work on commission (15% of your earnings.) According to Scott Hoffman of Folio Literary Management, “if the book doesn’t sell, the agent doesn’t make a dime.”Agent Michelle Brower states, “every minute [she] spends thinking about a book that won’t sell is a minute she is, in effect, donating to an unpublished author she doesn’t know.”
So it’s not personal. Yet it is.
When Jeff Kleinman, of Folio, read a draft of the Art of Racing in the Rain, he felt a visceral reaction, On the train ride between a trip to Virginia and New York City “I remember I started crying in Pennsylvania…by the time I finished the book I was weeping,” and his hands had gone numb.”
Wouldn’t we all like to have a story like this? Where an agent or editor is emotionally moved by our work?
But even if the agent loves your work, he or she must go through the complex process of first preparing the manuscript for sale. Sometimes this requires major cuts, or revisions of scenes.
Once the mss is ready, next the agent must go through the process of “pitching” a book to an editor.
The odds are against us. I don’t know about you, but I “Don’t Stop believing” as the cast of Glee sings directly to me.
I don’t have an exercise this time. I just got back from a marathon session of scoring nearly 1500 AP essays, so my brain is empty. Instead, here is a book recommendation:
Walking on Alligators: a Book of Meditations for Writers by Susan Shaughnessy. Each page contains a quote, and some motivation to keep writing.
Happy Writing.
So it’s not personal. Yet it is.
When Jeff Kleinman, of Folio, read a draft of the Art of Racing in the Rain, he felt a visceral reaction, On the train ride between a trip to Virginia and New York City “I remember I started crying in Pennsylvania…by the time I finished the book I was weeping,” and his hands had gone numb.”
Wouldn’t we all like to have a story like this? Where an agent or editor is emotionally moved by our work?
But even if the agent loves your work, he or she must go through the complex process of first preparing the manuscript for sale. Sometimes this requires major cuts, or revisions of scenes.
Once the mss is ready, next the agent must go through the process of “pitching” a book to an editor.
The odds are against us. I don’t know about you, but I “Don’t Stop believing” as the cast of Glee sings directly to me.
I don’t have an exercise this time. I just got back from a marathon session of scoring nearly 1500 AP essays, so my brain is empty. Instead, here is a book recommendation:
Walking on Alligators: a Book of Meditations for Writers by Susan Shaughnessy. Each page contains a quote, and some motivation to keep writing.
Happy Writing.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
What Happened Last Time
I have sent so many query letters you’d think I’d get better at this. My capacity for rejection has improved, along with the rejection letters themselves, but the querying process still gives me the heebie jeebies.
What I have enjoyed is researching the hundreds of agents out there. Many of them are people I’d like to meet. The best guide for finding out an agent’s interests, besides, his/her blog (especially if the blog or web page includes video,) is Jeff Herman’s Guide Book to Publishers , Editors and Literary Agents. I have developed warm feelings for many of these literary representatives, even folks who have rejected me. (Okay, not me personally, my manuscript. But are my works and my persona separate entities ?)Some share my interest in jewelry making, a few had sketchy educations like mine (I went to three different high schools in three different states) and many agents are former librarians and booksellers (otherwise known as confirmed firm book nerds).
I picture myself at a cocktail party or in a café bantering with one of my favorites in my ever growing spreadsheet of potential agents. When I get rejected from one of my beloveds, part of my disappointment is in knowing I will never engage in clever dialogue with this person. And of course the obvious blighted hope.
So how does one find that ever elusive agent? Heck if I know. I’m still looking. But the best agent for me is not necessarily the best one for you. It’s partly based on personality, but it is mainly about the work. Does he or she believe in your work?
For more on the best literary agent, read As Mark Malatesta’s blog.
http://literaryagentny.com/best-literary-agent/
Sigh.
I have to remember that finding an agent is like dating; not every man on the planet is a suitable mate, nor is every agent.
Here is a writing exercise. My friend Cindy overheard a tidbit of dialogue between a mother and her toddler son. The boy reached down and picked up some rocks in the flower bed outside a restaurant. The mother told him, "No, no, put those down. You remember what happened last time." The boy protested, but the mother repeated,"just rememeber what happened last time." Cindy followed the pair inside the restaurant to see if she could find out what happened, but nothing more was said about it.
Wouldn't YOU like to know what happened? Write the story of What Happened Last Time....
BONUS: See Midnight in Paris on DVD. It's a writer's movie.
Happy Writing. (and marketing your work.)
What I have enjoyed is researching the hundreds of agents out there. Many of them are people I’d like to meet. The best guide for finding out an agent’s interests, besides, his/her blog (especially if the blog or web page includes video,) is Jeff Herman’s Guide Book to Publishers , Editors and Literary Agents. I have developed warm feelings for many of these literary representatives, even folks who have rejected me. (Okay, not me personally, my manuscript. But are my works and my persona separate entities ?)Some share my interest in jewelry making, a few had sketchy educations like mine (I went to three different high schools in three different states) and many agents are former librarians and booksellers (otherwise known as confirmed firm book nerds).
I picture myself at a cocktail party or in a café bantering with one of my favorites in my ever growing spreadsheet of potential agents. When I get rejected from one of my beloveds, part of my disappointment is in knowing I will never engage in clever dialogue with this person. And of course the obvious blighted hope.
So how does one find that ever elusive agent? Heck if I know. I’m still looking. But the best agent for me is not necessarily the best one for you. It’s partly based on personality, but it is mainly about the work. Does he or she believe in your work?
For more on the best literary agent, read As Mark Malatesta’s blog.
http://literaryagentny.com/best-literary-agent/
Sigh.
I have to remember that finding an agent is like dating; not every man on the planet is a suitable mate, nor is every agent.
Here is a writing exercise. My friend Cindy overheard a tidbit of dialogue between a mother and her toddler son. The boy reached down and picked up some rocks in the flower bed outside a restaurant. The mother told him, "No, no, put those down. You remember what happened last time." The boy protested, but the mother repeated,"just rememeber what happened last time." Cindy followed the pair inside the restaurant to see if she could find out what happened, but nothing more was said about it.
Wouldn't YOU like to know what happened? Write the story of What Happened Last Time....
BONUS: See Midnight in Paris on DVD. It's a writer's movie.
Happy Writing. (and marketing your work.)
Friday, May 18, 2012
I eLove my eFriends
In my search for agents to query, I have discovered gold. Many agents use twitter accounts and blogs, which enlighten readers (writers) on innumerable concerns regarding the art and business of publishing.
When I first heard of twitter I regarded it as a vapid space to promote the Kardashians and other hot mess celebrities. But an enlightened colleague (Thank you Amy Gibson) demonstrated it's all in who you follow and who follows you. Occasionally I am followed spambots trying to promote their products or arrange a good time. I don't follow them back. I adhere to (sorry, I got tired of using the word follow) poets, writers, agents, periodicals, newspapers, news sites, independent bookstores, agencies, educators,publishers, libraries, librarians, reference sites and the incidental amusing person. I love my tweetdom. Unlike facebook, where I have actually met 99% of my "friends," I have only personally encountered a handful of my followers and followees. Yet I gain so much from these intelligent strangers. Rich Kiker never sleeps, and posts fascinating posts on education and elearning. Sherman Alexie and Steve Cushing are fun to read. Buffy Hamilton and Mizgibson help make me a better librarian. Nietzschi Chu and I share a love for Haruki Murakamai, and Jonathon Gunson provides writing advice (and he's easy on the eyes.) Friday Reads reminds me of the power of weekend reading, and Scintilla forces me to write every day.
My favorite tweeter I follow is Maria Popova, self described as "Interestingness hunter-gatherer obsessed with combinatorial creativity." Through her I learned that monks scribbled comments in marginalia of the illuminated manuscripts.
After I followed Kristen Nelson, I linked to her blog. She posts specific advice and has useful links
http://pubrants.blogspot.com/
If you are not already tweeting, sign up for an account, and expand your world.
Happy Writing.
When I first heard of twitter I regarded it as a vapid space to promote the Kardashians and other hot mess celebrities. But an enlightened colleague (Thank you Amy Gibson) demonstrated it's all in who you follow and who follows you. Occasionally I am followed spambots trying to promote their products or arrange a good time. I don't follow them back. I adhere to (sorry, I got tired of using the word follow) poets, writers, agents, periodicals, newspapers, news sites, independent bookstores, agencies, educators,publishers, libraries, librarians, reference sites and the incidental amusing person. I love my tweetdom. Unlike facebook, where I have actually met 99% of my "friends," I have only personally encountered a handful of my followers and followees. Yet I gain so much from these intelligent strangers. Rich Kiker never sleeps, and posts fascinating posts on education and elearning. Sherman Alexie and Steve Cushing are fun to read. Buffy Hamilton and Mizgibson help make me a better librarian. Nietzschi Chu and I share a love for Haruki Murakamai, and Jonathon Gunson provides writing advice (and he's easy on the eyes.) Friday Reads reminds me of the power of weekend reading, and Scintilla forces me to write every day.
My favorite tweeter I follow is Maria Popova, self described as "Interestingness hunter-gatherer obsessed with combinatorial creativity." Through her I learned that monks scribbled comments in marginalia of the illuminated manuscripts.
After I followed Kristen Nelson, I linked to her blog. She posts specific advice and has useful links
http://pubrants.blogspot.com/
If you are not already tweeting, sign up for an account, and expand your world.
Happy Writing.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Anatomy For Poets
At dinner last night, my poet friend Elizabeth and I discussed cat anatomy and how cat owners have difficulty slicing open cat cadavers in anatomy class. I had a college roommate who majored in nursing. She also had two cats, and I asked if it bothered her to dissect dead cats. “No, because the ones we get come from the shelter. They’re nobody’s pet. At least this way they make a contribution to science. Their lives aren’t in vain.” For a couple of weeks she seemed to be just a touch more affectionate toward her own feline pets after her Anatomy class.
Elizabeth’s and my conversation shifted to leaving our bodies to science. “I think it would be kind of cool to donate my body,” she said.
“Are poets different inside?” I asked. “When we’re flayed open on the table, are our organs uniquely shaped? Brighter? Placed more randomly?”
She laughed, and told me I need to write a poem about it.
Suicidal poets might not be good anatomical subjects, especially those who jumped off buildings, or shot themselves.
Does a poet’s blood flow in metric patterns?
The bodies at the Bodies exhibit were rumored to be prisoners who allowed their corpses to be displayed. I wonder how intently these men and women were encouraged to become specimens.
Were any of the Bodies poets? Perhaps the ones whose nerves resembled threads for a brightly woven scarf.
This post has gotten weird. It’s Friday. It's Spring.
Happy Writing.
Elizabeth’s and my conversation shifted to leaving our bodies to science. “I think it would be kind of cool to donate my body,” she said.
“Are poets different inside?” I asked. “When we’re flayed open on the table, are our organs uniquely shaped? Brighter? Placed more randomly?”
She laughed, and told me I need to write a poem about it.
Suicidal poets might not be good anatomical subjects, especially those who jumped off buildings, or shot themselves.
Does a poet’s blood flow in metric patterns?
The bodies at the Bodies exhibit were rumored to be prisoners who allowed their corpses to be displayed. I wonder how intently these men and women were encouraged to become specimens.
Were any of the Bodies poets? Perhaps the ones whose nerves resembled threads for a brightly woven scarf.
This post has gotten weird. It’s Friday. It's Spring.
Happy Writing.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Writing a Good Query is Like Getting a Root Canal While Hanging From a Trapeze
The clouds shimmer like aluminum in the crepuscular light as I write this.
I had a one hour consult with Mark Malatesta, a former literary agent who now offers consulting services to writers. His blog, which you can access for free, is loaded with good insight.
http://literaryagentny.com/blog/
I took advantage of his limited time offer to new clients for a one hour phone call for $97. Before our one hour phone call Mark sent me a set of questions to answer, as well as information about my work. The session includes a free MP3 recording of our conversation. In addition, Mark sends a link to another MP3 on insider secrets to getting published. Before my phone call I had already gotten a lot of bang for my bucks.
Some of what we discussed was encouraging. He praised my body of writing and knowledge of the YA markets. He feels my books are marketable and I am ready to be represented. Yet he confirmed the difficulty in breaking in. For example, one needs to contact a minimum of 100 agents, and expect only 10% to respond. There are many reasons why agents do not bite, the chief being a poorly written query. The letter is the key to the castle, and I would rather write a 300 page novel than a query letter. It’s easier.
Our dialogue provided me with ideas on how to improve my horrible query letter, and the conversation reinforced something I already knew; I have a lot of work to do. Drudge work, not the creative fun stuff like crafting characters, placing them in peril and letting them talk to you. Writing is an art, but publishing is a business, and if I want to get published, I have to suck it up and put on my metaphorical three piece suit.
If I decide to use more of Mark’s consultations, we will work on producing a query that will hopefully attract a number of agents.
So my assignment to those of writing prose (Most agents don’t represent poets) is; visit his web site, download the MP3 and sign up for his newsletter. You have nothing to lose because these things are all free.
Happy Writing.
I had a one hour consult with Mark Malatesta, a former literary agent who now offers consulting services to writers. His blog, which you can access for free, is loaded with good insight.
http://literaryagentny.com/blog/
I took advantage of his limited time offer to new clients for a one hour phone call for $97. Before our one hour phone call Mark sent me a set of questions to answer, as well as information about my work. The session includes a free MP3 recording of our conversation. In addition, Mark sends a link to another MP3 on insider secrets to getting published. Before my phone call I had already gotten a lot of bang for my bucks.
Some of what we discussed was encouraging. He praised my body of writing and knowledge of the YA markets. He feels my books are marketable and I am ready to be represented. Yet he confirmed the difficulty in breaking in. For example, one needs to contact a minimum of 100 agents, and expect only 10% to respond. There are many reasons why agents do not bite, the chief being a poorly written query. The letter is the key to the castle, and I would rather write a 300 page novel than a query letter. It’s easier.
Our dialogue provided me with ideas on how to improve my horrible query letter, and the conversation reinforced something I already knew; I have a lot of work to do. Drudge work, not the creative fun stuff like crafting characters, placing them in peril and letting them talk to you. Writing is an art, but publishing is a business, and if I want to get published, I have to suck it up and put on my metaphorical three piece suit.
If I decide to use more of Mark’s consultations, we will work on producing a query that will hopefully attract a number of agents.
So my assignment to those of writing prose (Most agents don’t represent poets) is; visit his web site, download the MP3 and sign up for his newsletter. You have nothing to lose because these things are all free.
Happy Writing.
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