Sunday, June 03, 2007
The Messenger of Magnolia Street
I can't contain myself. This morning I finished reading one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. The beauty comes from the arrangement of the words, the use of the English language in a glorious way. The book is called "The Messenger of Magnolia Street" by River Jordan (isn't her name poetic?). The novel follows three main characters, Nehemiah, Billy and Trice, childhood playmates, now adults, who are charged with saving the town of Shibboleth from a misty, mysterious wasting away spawned by pure evil. From the very opening of the book, I found myself wanting to reread paragraphs just to savor the writing. I'd reread to figure out how River did it, how she captured me and held me, not just in the thrall of the story, but in awe of her sentence construction and word usage. You could take a pile of words and hand them off to various writers, but very few would be able to accomplish what River has with this story. There's a moseying to the story, even in the build up to the scary parts. While the scary parts clip faster, there's still time for rolling over sentences in the mind, repeating them for full effect.
When I started the novel, it reminded me of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird." Upon researching River Jordan, I found that her writing has been compared to Harper Lee's.
I'm going to be taking this book to my writers group in a week and reading passages to everyone for inspiration. Fabulous book.
When I started the novel, it reminded me of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird." Upon researching River Jordan, I found that her writing has been compared to Harper Lee's.
I'm going to be taking this book to my writers group in a week and reading passages to everyone for inspiration. Fabulous book.
Labels: books, harper lee, river jordan, shibboleth, the messenger of magnolia street, writers, writing
Thursday, May 31, 2007
The Dreaded Writer's Bio
Have you ever been asked to write a short biography? Maybe an artist's bio, or a writer's bio, to go with some event or publication or presentation you're making? This drives me nuts on so many levels. First of all, who cares? Who cares who I am and what I've done in the past? Can't my work just speak for itself?
My writers' group had a public reading in May and I was asked to write the Dreaded Writer's Bio. I refused. Yes, it was snotty of me, and completely not kind to the MC. She took it well and introduced me as someone who didn't want a big introduction. Part of my squeamishness about being introduced with a bio is that I'm always introducing myself during presentations at work. I'll just say my name and my title and launch into my topic and people can judge for themselves whether I know what I'm talking about. My other problem with writing a bio is that each audience is different and I can't divine what each wants to know about me. Do they care about my education, my accomplishments, my interests, my family? It's complicated and a four to five sentence bio doesn't do anyone's life justice, so why bother?
On the other hand - and there's always another hand, isn't there? - I enjoy reading author and artist bios. Even if they are only a few sentences. The bio, along with the work itself, always lead me to more questions about the artist or writer, which I think is a good thing. It means I'm interested.
Maybe it's just that I have difficulty with self-promotion. It seems so self-serving. (Well, duh, that's what it's supposed to be!) But, as a kid I was taught not to be boastful, and writing a bio feels a hair's breadth away from boasting.
So, then, Dear Readers, have you ever been in the position of writing a bio? What do you think of the experience? How do you get through it? What do you want to know about your favorite artists and writers?
P.S. And, yes, I did write the bio for this blog, but I felt the way I've just described while doing it.
P.P.S. I suggested to the writers in my group that next year we trade names and we'll write each other's biographies, rather than do it ourselves.
My writers' group had a public reading in May and I was asked to write the Dreaded Writer's Bio. I refused. Yes, it was snotty of me, and completely not kind to the MC. She took it well and introduced me as someone who didn't want a big introduction. Part of my squeamishness about being introduced with a bio is that I'm always introducing myself during presentations at work. I'll just say my name and my title and launch into my topic and people can judge for themselves whether I know what I'm talking about. My other problem with writing a bio is that each audience is different and I can't divine what each wants to know about me. Do they care about my education, my accomplishments, my interests, my family? It's complicated and a four to five sentence bio doesn't do anyone's life justice, so why bother?
On the other hand - and there's always another hand, isn't there? - I enjoy reading author and artist bios. Even if they are only a few sentences. The bio, along with the work itself, always lead me to more questions about the artist or writer, which I think is a good thing. It means I'm interested.
Maybe it's just that I have difficulty with self-promotion. It seems so self-serving. (Well, duh, that's what it's supposed to be!) But, as a kid I was taught not to be boastful, and writing a bio feels a hair's breadth away from boasting.
So, then, Dear Readers, have you ever been in the position of writing a bio? What do you think of the experience? How do you get through it? What do you want to know about your favorite artists and writers?
P.S. And, yes, I did write the bio for this blog, but I felt the way I've just described while doing it.
P.P.S. I suggested to the writers in my group that next year we trade names and we'll write each other's biographies, rather than do it ourselves.
Labels: artist, biographies, blog, boasting, dread, promotion, writers
Saturday, April 28, 2007
About Yesterday's Post
Been thinking about yesterday's post, rolling it around in my mind, developing a theory that makes me sound not quite so mean. Here's what I've come up with . . . reading trash talk about Dave Matthews Band is humbling, especially if you're an empath. It's like this. If a hugely popular, incredibly talented band can have detractors, then so can any artist, writer, musician, creator . . . literally anyone with a viewpoint. That means that no matter what I write, someone out there is going to hate it. You could probably graph the love/hate relationship of an author on a bell curve. You'll have a small percentage of people who love your work, and a small percentage of people who really hate it. Everyone else is in the middle - those who like it a little, those who dislike it a little, and then there are all those people smack in the center who are completely indifferent to your work. They could care less. Hmm. At least those who hate it are having a reaction, right?
Labels: artist, bell curve, dave matthews band, love hate, music, trash talk, writers
Monday, April 23, 2007
Q & A
I just read a book with the most interesting plot. It's been said that there are no original stories left in the world, and while this may be true at it's root, I still think there are many original ways to tell a story. Indian author Vikas Swarup does just that in his book "Q & A." The premise of the novel, which does not give anything away, is that an orphaned Indian boy, 18 years old, goes on a quiz show called Who Will Win a Billion? and he wins a billion rupees. The day after winning, he is arrested because the show's producers claim that he cheated. This is where the novel starts. The rest of the chapters are structured so that Ram Mohammed Thomas, the main character, tells his life story based on each of the questions he is asked in the show. Of course, he is trying to show how he knew the answer to each question and prove that he didn't cheat. This was a fabulous way to tell the story and kept me guessing as to what the question would be from the story he told in each chapter. I rarely could tell. At the end, there were three twists that I didn't see coming. Now that's a story!
Here's an interview with Vikas Swarup by Channel NewsAsia.
Here's an interview with Vikas Swarup by Channel NewsAsia.
Labels: answer, books, india, novel, originality, question, vikas swarup, writers
Saturday, April 07, 2007
More on Favorite Books
My post on favorite books, based on an MPR program, had two takers. Kim at Knit Whimsies and Joanne at Poppy Seed Heart both posted about their favorite literature. Kim did it with a twist, choosing to highlight her favorite authors. Joanne gave a nice summary of why each book was her favorite. This is a difficult little exercise. While my list is pretty firm - only two are ones that I could switch out for something else (My Lord Bag of Rice and Fahrenheit 451), the rest are definite - I have many other favorite writers. (Just figure that I pretty much enjoy all the other works of the writers on the first list.) I decided that my other favorite writers should get their due as well, so here goes:
Michael Crichton - The guy really knows how to tell a story, always with a scientific bent, which I really like.
Edgar Allan Poe - The original master of horror. My absolute favorite of his is the poem "The Raven." Nothing beats reading this aloud.
J.K. Rowling - Imaginative, able to write about a gazillion characters and somehow readers manage to keep them all straight. I've only read books 1-4, so I have some catching up to do.
Amulya Malladi - I have loved both of the books I've read of hers - "The Mango Season" and "Serving Crazy with Curry." I think perhaps I've been reincarnated from India. I have always had an affinity for the country. Maybe it's just because I read and loved Frances Hodgson Burnett's books as a kid ("The Secret Garden" and "A Little Princess").
Stephen King - For as prolific as this guy is, I've only read two of his books - "On Writing" and "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon." Both are fabulous. I shy away from his horror because I'm not a horror fan, except for Poe, of course.
Margaret Atwood - She's an excellent writer, and she's here for that reason. The endings of her stories are dark and leave me very unsettled, which is why they didn't make my very best list.
Kate DiCamillo - "Because of Winn Dixie" and "The Tale of Despereaux" are simply wonderful children's stories. They hooked me.
Growing up, I was a huge mystery reader. Agatha Christie, the Nancy Drew series, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Alfred Hitchcock's compilations of short stories were the thing. I'm a big fan of Dr. Seuss, but more so as an adult than I was as a kid. My all-time favorite children's book was a Little Golden Book called "The Saggy Baggy Elephant." One-two-three, kick! One-two-three, kick! He danced through the forest, and then someone made fun of him and he hid in a cave. Eventually, he is told by other elephants that he is beautiful and he is happy again.
This list and my previous one barely scratch the surface of all the reading I've done in my life. There's nothing in here that's nonfiction, for one. My other problem is that I've read many marvelous books over the years, but they don't stick with me. In order to keep track (which helped me with today's post), I've been recording the books I read in a small notebook since 2003. It's annotated, which jogs my memory. It also shows me that I've spent a lot of time reading. Yeah!
Michael Crichton - The guy really knows how to tell a story, always with a scientific bent, which I really like.
Edgar Allan Poe - The original master of horror. My absolute favorite of his is the poem "The Raven." Nothing beats reading this aloud.
J.K. Rowling - Imaginative, able to write about a gazillion characters and somehow readers manage to keep them all straight. I've only read books 1-4, so I have some catching up to do.
Amulya Malladi - I have loved both of the books I've read of hers - "The Mango Season" and "Serving Crazy with Curry." I think perhaps I've been reincarnated from India. I have always had an affinity for the country. Maybe it's just because I read and loved Frances Hodgson Burnett's books as a kid ("The Secret Garden" and "A Little Princess").
Stephen King - For as prolific as this guy is, I've only read two of his books - "On Writing" and "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon." Both are fabulous. I shy away from his horror because I'm not a horror fan, except for Poe, of course.
Margaret Atwood - She's an excellent writer, and she's here for that reason. The endings of her stories are dark and leave me very unsettled, which is why they didn't make my very best list.
Kate DiCamillo - "Because of Winn Dixie" and "The Tale of Despereaux" are simply wonderful children's stories. They hooked me.
Growing up, I was a huge mystery reader. Agatha Christie, the Nancy Drew series, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Alfred Hitchcock's compilations of short stories were the thing. I'm a big fan of Dr. Seuss, but more so as an adult than I was as a kid. My all-time favorite children's book was a Little Golden Book called "The Saggy Baggy Elephant." One-two-three, kick! One-two-three, kick! He danced through the forest, and then someone made fun of him and he hid in a cave. Eventually, he is told by other elephants that he is beautiful and he is happy again.
This list and my previous one barely scratch the surface of all the reading I've done in my life. There's nothing in here that's nonfiction, for one. My other problem is that I've read many marvelous books over the years, but they don't stick with me. In order to keep track (which helped me with today's post), I've been recording the books I read in a small notebook since 2003. It's annotated, which jogs my memory. It also shows me that I've spent a lot of time reading. Yeah!
Labels: authors, blog, books, children, fiction, knit whimsies, memory, mpr, nonfiction, poppy seed heart, reading, writers
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Favorite Books
This morning on MPR's Midmorning program, there was a discussion about who various writers would include in their top ten greatest literary works of all time. J. Peder Zane has compiled a book called "The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books." According to the conversation, when writers were approached to pick their top ten, they were first asked to define what made a great literary work. One of the guests said that a work was great to him if it was something he himself couldn't write, but wished to. That's a pretty good definition. Someone else said that a great book was one that really struck you at exactly the right time in your life, something formative. I'd also say unforgettable, or something that makes you think in ways you hadn't before. Of course, when listening to such a discussion, the mind wanders to what you might pick for your top ten. And you know very well that I'm going to have to share my top ten. Most of these books came immediately to mind, a couple I had to really think about. These are not in any particular order.
Shop Girl by Steve Martin
My Lord Bag of Rice by Carol Bly
Anne of Green Gables (the first in the series) by L. M. Montgomery
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Lamb by Christopher Moore
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Charley by Joan Robinson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
That's my top ten, and most of them will remain on my list for a long time because I read a bunch of them when I was a kid and they've stuck with me all this time. So, what books would you include in your top ten?
Shop Girl by Steve Martin
My Lord Bag of Rice by Carol Bly
Anne of Green Gables (the first in the series) by L. M. Montgomery
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Lamb by Christopher Moore
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Charley by Joan Robinson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
That's my top ten, and most of them will remain on my list for a long time because I read a bunch of them when I was a kid and they've stuck with me all this time. So, what books would you include in your top ten?
Labels: books, christopher moore, mpr, neil gaiman, steve martin, top ten, writers
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
The Result - 10 words, 20 minutes
I took my writing exercise, 10 words, 20 minutes, to writers group last night. Each of the four of us set to work on the 10 words I posted on this blog a few days ago, only we had about 15 minutes to work, rather than 20. Strangely enough, all of us started what might amount to short stories, even though we had a couple of poets in the group. The words were thus:
cream, irony, notch, beg, scarab, taste, harmony, juvenile, leather, scribble
Upon hearing the list, one of our writers said that it sounded vaguely sexual. Hmmm.
Here's what I came up with during the exercise:
"He sat back in the chair, thumped his heels on the wooded table, and put his hands behind his head. He was pleased with himself - another notch in his leather belt, is what he was thinking. If he'd had a cowboy hat, he would've tipped it low and tasted the irony. His mother would've called his coup no more than the workings of a juvenile delinquent. Instead, he was lapping up the cream of his antics.
They were begging him to join Scarab Industries. The company's representative was sitting here before him, scribbling an offer he couldn't possibly refuse on a napkin. He'd take his sweet time giving them an answer - long enough, but not too long. Couldn't let them think he was too eager. He had to see if the figure the company rep was about to show him was harmonious with his lifestyle."
By far, the most difficult word to deal with in this list was scarab. It's an interesting word, though. One of our writers came up with a scarab ring. I thought my use of the word as a company name was a bit of a cop-out, but when I consider it further, I want to know what exactly Scarab Industries produces. Bit of a mystery there.
cream, irony, notch, beg, scarab, taste, harmony, juvenile, leather, scribble
Upon hearing the list, one of our writers said that it sounded vaguely sexual. Hmmm.
Here's what I came up with during the exercise:
"He sat back in the chair, thumped his heels on the wooded table, and put his hands behind his head. He was pleased with himself - another notch in his leather belt, is what he was thinking. If he'd had a cowboy hat, he would've tipped it low and tasted the irony. His mother would've called his coup no more than the workings of a juvenile delinquent. Instead, he was lapping up the cream of his antics.
They were begging him to join Scarab Industries. The company's representative was sitting here before him, scribbling an offer he couldn't possibly refuse on a napkin. He'd take his sweet time giving them an answer - long enough, but not too long. Couldn't let them think he was too eager. He had to see if the figure the company rep was about to show him was harmonious with his lifestyle."
By far, the most difficult word to deal with in this list was scarab. It's an interesting word, though. One of our writers came up with a scarab ring. I thought my use of the word as a company name was a bit of a cop-out, but when I consider it further, I want to know what exactly Scarab Industries produces. Bit of a mystery there.
Labels: exercise, story, words, writers, writing
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Windows
Last night, I had a writers group meeting. Great fun. We spend lots of time laughing.
During last night's meeting, we did a writing exercise that was intended to make us think more deeply about how to use props in our writing. Fiction writers often use props (everyday items) to convey deeper meaning in a piece in a way that isn't slap-your-face obvious. The exercise was to spend five minutes riffing about the prop of our choice. I chose a window as my prop and this is the first thing that came to mind:
They say windows are the eyes of the soul, but what about frosted windows?
Another sentence later, I realized my mistake & blushed inside with stupidity. I started over.
During last night's meeting, we did a writing exercise that was intended to make us think more deeply about how to use props in our writing. Fiction writers often use props (everyday items) to convey deeper meaning in a piece in a way that isn't slap-your-face obvious. The exercise was to spend five minutes riffing about the prop of our choice. I chose a window as my prop and this is the first thing that came to mind:
They say windows are the eyes of the soul, but what about frosted windows?
Another sentence later, I realized my mistake & blushed inside with stupidity. I started over.
Labels: fiction, props, soul, windows, writers, writing
Friday, January 12, 2007
Repeating Myself
It's an unusual day for me to write, on a Friday, rather than a Monday, but I had to work Monday, so I took today off in order to keep from getting too far off track on my current story. Last week, I reread what I had written and had this horrible sinking feeling that I was repeating myself, that my work was stale. I couldn't pinpoint the problem, so I asked everyone at Writers Group on Monday evening. They were so helpful. One said that a certain amount of repetition is to be expected. Another said that I should keep going and the problem leading to my feeling would become apparent over time. Everyone seconded the idea that I should just keep writing. Here it is, the dead middle of the project, story six out of ten, and this is where I'm getting bogged down.
This morning, I woke and realized that part of my repetition seems to be coming from the fact that all of my characters are undergoing a shift in awareness. They are realizing that their current issues are mired in past events & psychological wounds and I'm doing quite a bit of flashbacking to show this. Literary types will tell you that this is a death-knell for a story and that a writer must keep the action going in current time. I don't know whether this is really a story killer, or whether I'm guilty of having my characters slip into memoryland, but I do know that it's very human to compare the present to the past and gain insight from the comparison.
The one thing I don't want to do is reread all of the previous stories at this point. I'd rather forge ahead with this one and fix it later if need be. No need to be thinking all of my stuff is crap just because I'm wading through some now. That'd be frosting the frog for sure.
This morning, I woke and realized that part of my repetition seems to be coming from the fact that all of my characters are undergoing a shift in awareness. They are realizing that their current issues are mired in past events & psychological wounds and I'm doing quite a bit of flashbacking to show this. Literary types will tell you that this is a death-knell for a story and that a writer must keep the action going in current time. I don't know whether this is really a story killer, or whether I'm guilty of having my characters slip into memoryland, but I do know that it's very human to compare the present to the past and gain insight from the comparison.
The one thing I don't want to do is reread all of the previous stories at this point. I'd rather forge ahead with this one and fix it later if need be. No need to be thinking all of my stuff is crap just because I'm wading through some now. That'd be frosting the frog for sure.
Labels: flashback, frost the frog, problem, repetition, story, writers, writing
