Macy recently heard that the best blog entries are short. Uh oh! Silly me. If you haven't noticed by now, I tend to be long winded but I'm going to keep it to two glittering paragraphs tonight.
The subject? Cicadas. A couple weeks ago I mentioned the cicada invasion over at my Alys on Love blog. Let me just say things have changed. We went from fascination and devotion to the cicadas, so much so that we had to carefully remove them from my tires and driveway before pulling out to avoid smooshing them to my dogs eating them up, my son riding over them with his tricycle, the neighbors complaining about the noise and the so-called "cicada pee", five-year-old, Samantha,(who has always been afraid of bugs) picking them apart with her tweezers and telling Dante to eat them without the wings. The mating still provides some interest (Mommy, why are they stuck together?) but over all, the honeymoon is over.
The tie in? My fascination with my first novel evah has followed much the same cycle. Ha! I'm now picking it apart with the tweezers. And I'm sure everyone is quite sick all the noise.
Cheers and happy writing,
Alyson
p.s. All right--that wasn't glittering, but it was short and sweet, no?
Monday, June 11, 2007
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Five Points on Voice
I’ve been mulling over Macy's challenge today as I’ve been running errands. Have you ever noticed that Saturday’s seem to fly by at supersonic speed? Mondays on the other hand crawl like my first car – a ’71 Toyota Corolla.
So on to those five points. This voice issue is tough. In considering where I’m coming from, I decided to think about the stories that suck me in. Following Macy's model, I’ll do the 1-5 thing.
1. I like to think too, but about perspectives and choices and what motivates people. I love it when a story moves me to have compassion toward someone who isn’t so loveable. Understanding is huge with me. I liked the movie “Crash” for that reason. It showed the good and bad in all of the characters. None were without virtue and none were without fault. I also like knowing how characters or people arrive at the place I meet them. This doesn’t mean I want to hear everyone’s life story, but knowing about their past helps me to understand them.
2. I don’t usually focus on the weather or time of day in my scenes, at least not when they first come to me, but I do think I like those with a good amount of sunshine. I love rain and sunsets too, which both seem like romantic sorts of settings. I tend to enjoy hopeful stories and usually choose those types for reading and writing. Good must triumph, the heroine must win the hero, love must prevail. I’m not a Pollyanna, but I guess believing that there’s good in the world and that it’s all around me helps me get through the tough stuff.
3. My imagination conjures up both historical and contemporary scenes. Some could be right out of my life, others are complete fantasy. All are more of an adventure than what my day to day life is. And I do seem to dream on epic scales. I’d love to sail the seas seeking the pirate’s treasure, or battle for good in Middle Earth (with my brains though, not the sword), or do something miraculous and wonderful, and ultimately win the love of a great guy who is willing to fight dragons to be with me.
4. If Macy’s characters face challenging decisions and if Alyson’s face death on different levels, I’d have to say mine have to face their fears. Not that theirs don’t have to face fear as well, but overcoming fear has been a huge theme in my life, so I guess it’s only natural that I would project that into my stories. My characters have had to overcome fear of failure, of rejection, of vulnerability, of loss, of trusting, and ultimately fear of fear itself. I sprinkle in other themes too, but this one seems to be the biggest. And they ALWAYS overcome it, although only after the requisite amount of internal struggle and mustering courage that was always in them, but that they didn’t know they had. And despite these fears, these characters are strong individuals. Which leads to the last point.
5. I’m drawn to and tend to write feisty heroines who are wounded in some way, but press forward toward whatever it is they’re after. I especially like reading about these sorts of characters because it motivates me to chase after those things I want in my life. If they can do it, so can I, right? At least that’s the hope. And I’m all about hope.
OK, so maybe my theme is hope too. Overcoming fear and pressing forward with hope. With that in mind, I’m going to squash the fear that I won’t finish my novel before conference and hope that I can pump out an %!&load of pages tomorrow. Hey, a couple of weeks ago I wrote 3.5K in one day, so it’s possible. Of course, it was a very good day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the scene was just there in my head to put to paper. My next scene hasn’t been so crystal in my mind, but it’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow and there are birds at the park. Wish me luck.
Katrina
So on to those five points. This voice issue is tough. In considering where I’m coming from, I decided to think about the stories that suck me in. Following Macy's model, I’ll do the 1-5 thing.
1. I like to think too, but about perspectives and choices and what motivates people. I love it when a story moves me to have compassion toward someone who isn’t so loveable. Understanding is huge with me. I liked the movie “Crash” for that reason. It showed the good and bad in all of the characters. None were without virtue and none were without fault. I also like knowing how characters or people arrive at the place I meet them. This doesn’t mean I want to hear everyone’s life story, but knowing about their past helps me to understand them.
2. I don’t usually focus on the weather or time of day in my scenes, at least not when they first come to me, but I do think I like those with a good amount of sunshine. I love rain and sunsets too, which both seem like romantic sorts of settings. I tend to enjoy hopeful stories and usually choose those types for reading and writing. Good must triumph, the heroine must win the hero, love must prevail. I’m not a Pollyanna, but I guess believing that there’s good in the world and that it’s all around me helps me get through the tough stuff.
3. My imagination conjures up both historical and contemporary scenes. Some could be right out of my life, others are complete fantasy. All are more of an adventure than what my day to day life is. And I do seem to dream on epic scales. I’d love to sail the seas seeking the pirate’s treasure, or battle for good in Middle Earth (with my brains though, not the sword), or do something miraculous and wonderful, and ultimately win the love of a great guy who is willing to fight dragons to be with me.
4. If Macy’s characters face challenging decisions and if Alyson’s face death on different levels, I’d have to say mine have to face their fears. Not that theirs don’t have to face fear as well, but overcoming fear has been a huge theme in my life, so I guess it’s only natural that I would project that into my stories. My characters have had to overcome fear of failure, of rejection, of vulnerability, of loss, of trusting, and ultimately fear of fear itself. I sprinkle in other themes too, but this one seems to be the biggest. And they ALWAYS overcome it, although only after the requisite amount of internal struggle and mustering courage that was always in them, but that they didn’t know they had. And despite these fears, these characters are strong individuals. Which leads to the last point.
5. I’m drawn to and tend to write feisty heroines who are wounded in some way, but press forward toward whatever it is they’re after. I especially like reading about these sorts of characters because it motivates me to chase after those things I want in my life. If they can do it, so can I, right? At least that’s the hope. And I’m all about hope.
OK, so maybe my theme is hope too. Overcoming fear and pressing forward with hope. With that in mind, I’m going to squash the fear that I won’t finish my novel before conference and hope that I can pump out an %!&load of pages tomorrow. Hey, a couple of weeks ago I wrote 3.5K in one day, so it’s possible. Of course, it was a very good day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the scene was just there in my head to put to paper. My next scene hasn’t been so crystal in my mind, but it’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow and there are birds at the park. Wish me luck.
Katrina
Voice revisited
We’ve been thinking about voice and themes and brands lately on our AotP loop. This seems reasonable since 2/3 of us have already signed up for Barbara Samuel’s voice class.
In thinking about my voice, I’ve been trying to embrace who I am and what I really need and want to write. I don’t really think these things are so secret, but sometimes it’s more difficult to see it in yourself than in your writer buddies.
I think back to what I’ve read that gives me the most pleasure, what I’ve been drawn to in life, the things I’ve done right and the things I’ve done very wrong, the relationships I’ve had, and the thoughts that float in my head. In doing so, I’ve made a couple of observations.
1. I like to think. I like to read a book where at some point or points I have to put it down and think about it – not to understand it, but because there’s something in it I want to roll around in my head for awhile. Usually this is something unsettling – either in a good way or a bad one. Regardless, it shifts your universe just a little in letting into your head.
2. When I see scenes in my head, they are never sunny (in a weather sense). They are darker. Cloudy. Heavy fog. Mists. Early morning or late evening. Deep gray-blues of impending storms. Um, my voice, I’ve come to accept, has a dark edge to it. I don’t know why this ever surprised me.
3. I read once in a personality profile that the worlds I create in my head are so much more interesting than the one I inhabit. I inhabit a busy, active world full of opportunity. But, yeah, the one in my head is filled with magic. Magic pervades all my day dreams. Evil is around every corner and the heroes and heroines living there must call on all their resources – good and evil – to survive. The people in my head don’t live in a black and white world. They inhabit psyches of gray – right and wrong blur in an epic battle of good vs. evil. And that may seem contradictory, but it isn’t. Have you ever had to do the wrong thing for the greater good?
4. Alyson has a death thing (I hope it’s ok to say that Alyson) in her voice, but underneath it is a celebration of life and a humor that pervades the sadness of death. My voice doesn’t really have death in it, but rather dark decisions (key word there) that alter the internal balance of people and the external balance of the world. (I really think in a statement about my voice, the word “epic” has to be in there somewhere.) The characters in my head are wounded by dark choices – either theirs or others.
5. I read once that you want your heroine to be someone with whom you’d want to be friends – a person a little bit more upstanding than most. Nope. I don’t agree at all. Yes, I think in some peoples’ books, that is who the heroine should be, but not in mine. In mine, the heroine has to have a little darkness in her – something that gives her an edge. Edgy – another word I’d like to describe my voice.
Ah, I should stop now. I have to get ready for a writing workshop. Instead of being my trademark late, I have to be on time – at least – since I’m coffee girl today at the meeting.
Tell me about your voice observations. Make 5 points. Where are you now?
Macy
In thinking about my voice, I’ve been trying to embrace who I am and what I really need and want to write. I don’t really think these things are so secret, but sometimes it’s more difficult to see it in yourself than in your writer buddies.
I think back to what I’ve read that gives me the most pleasure, what I’ve been drawn to in life, the things I’ve done right and the things I’ve done very wrong, the relationships I’ve had, and the thoughts that float in my head. In doing so, I’ve made a couple of observations.
1. I like to think. I like to read a book where at some point or points I have to put it down and think about it – not to understand it, but because there’s something in it I want to roll around in my head for awhile. Usually this is something unsettling – either in a good way or a bad one. Regardless, it shifts your universe just a little in letting into your head.
2. When I see scenes in my head, they are never sunny (in a weather sense). They are darker. Cloudy. Heavy fog. Mists. Early morning or late evening. Deep gray-blues of impending storms. Um, my voice, I’ve come to accept, has a dark edge to it. I don’t know why this ever surprised me.
3. I read once in a personality profile that the worlds I create in my head are so much more interesting than the one I inhabit. I inhabit a busy, active world full of opportunity. But, yeah, the one in my head is filled with magic. Magic pervades all my day dreams. Evil is around every corner and the heroes and heroines living there must call on all their resources – good and evil – to survive. The people in my head don’t live in a black and white world. They inhabit psyches of gray – right and wrong blur in an epic battle of good vs. evil. And that may seem contradictory, but it isn’t. Have you ever had to do the wrong thing for the greater good?
4. Alyson has a death thing (I hope it’s ok to say that Alyson) in her voice, but underneath it is a celebration of life and a humor that pervades the sadness of death. My voice doesn’t really have death in it, but rather dark decisions (key word there) that alter the internal balance of people and the external balance of the world. (I really think in a statement about my voice, the word “epic” has to be in there somewhere.) The characters in my head are wounded by dark choices – either theirs or others.
5. I read once that you want your heroine to be someone with whom you’d want to be friends – a person a little bit more upstanding than most. Nope. I don’t agree at all. Yes, I think in some peoples’ books, that is who the heroine should be, but not in mine. In mine, the heroine has to have a little darkness in her – something that gives her an edge. Edgy – another word I’d like to describe my voice.
Ah, I should stop now. I have to get ready for a writing workshop. Instead of being my trademark late, I have to be on time – at least – since I’m coffee girl today at the meeting.
Tell me about your voice observations. Make 5 points. Where are you now?
Macy
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Sunday Six - Heroes
OK, This is definitely much easier than the Heroines. I think because I like many of the heroes for superficial reasons. Romantic heroes, often alpha males, are created to entice your heart and ...uhm...senses, but not necessarily your brain. Sometimes there is the rare Hero who does both. Here is my list of those who do entice every part of me.
1. Tristan of the 12 century tale Tristan and Isolde. Tristan is torn between the agony of betraying his Uncle and most loved friend Mark, and the woman who both saved his life and tried to kill him. Isolde loves him and leaves him, and then when Tristan finally finds his own Isolde, the first Isolde returns to haunt him further. He is a true example of chivalry, honor, and integrity.
2. Mr. Knightly of Jane Austin’s Emma: He is the perfect man; patient, kind, wise, honorable,and considerate.
3. Hawk from Karen Marie Moning’s Beyond the highland Mist: This is the first Moning book I have read. Hawk was perfect, I have not come across a hero so enticing in any book I have read. She endeared him to me with the hand carved nursery he created for his future babes.
4. The Phantom of the Opera - from the 2004 film, not the book or opera: A tormented musical genius, passionately obsessive about the heroine. He is highly intelligent, erotic, and possessive. He is so fragile within his heart. The paradox between his tender nurturing and violent obsession makes him very fascinating.
5. Leif Draugr of Kat Martin’s Heart of Honor: Smart, ambitious, willing to risk everything for family, but torn between the love of his life and the love of his lost world. Who can resist a Viking caught in 19th century London?
6. Mr. Darcy, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Darcy! No need to explain, I am sure!
1. Tristan of the 12 century tale Tristan and Isolde. Tristan is torn between the agony of betraying his Uncle and most loved friend Mark, and the woman who both saved his life and tried to kill him. Isolde loves him and leaves him, and then when Tristan finally finds his own Isolde, the first Isolde returns to haunt him further. He is a true example of chivalry, honor, and integrity.
2. Mr. Knightly of Jane Austin’s Emma: He is the perfect man; patient, kind, wise, honorable,and considerate.
3. Hawk from Karen Marie Moning’s Beyond the highland Mist: This is the first Moning book I have read. Hawk was perfect, I have not come across a hero so enticing in any book I have read. She endeared him to me with the hand carved nursery he created for his future babes.
4. The Phantom of the Opera - from the 2004 film, not the book or opera: A tormented musical genius, passionately obsessive about the heroine. He is highly intelligent, erotic, and possessive. He is so fragile within his heart. The paradox between his tender nurturing and violent obsession makes him very fascinating.
5. Leif Draugr of Kat Martin’s Heart of Honor: Smart, ambitious, willing to risk everything for family, but torn between the love of his life and the love of his lost world. Who can resist a Viking caught in 19th century London?
6. Mr. Darcy, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Darcy! No need to explain, I am sure!
I love, love, love this recent blog over at A Writer Afoot, Barbara Samuel's blog. Check it out for some food for thought till Macy gets back and provides us with the details of her trip.
What did I like most about the blog? Well, for starters, I loved Weiner's comment. I had read the article by Jong but I hadn't read Weiner's response.
Jong writes--
Critics have trouble taking fiction by women seriously unless they represent some distant political struggle or chic ethnicity (Arundhati Roy, Nadine Gordimer and Kiran Desai come to mind). Of course, there are exceptions, like Annie Proulx and Andrea Barrett. But they tend to write about "male" subjects: ships, cowboys, accordions.....deep down, the same old prejudice prevails. War matters; love does not. Women are destined to be undervalued as long as we write about love. To be generous, let's say the prejudice is unconscious. If Jane Austen were writing today, she'd probably meet the same fate and wind up in the chick lit section. Charlotte Brontë would be in romance, along with her sister Emily.
Weiner replied at her blog--
Jong raises some good points, but I'm not sure she's seeing the whole picture -- or the benefits of what critical legitimacy would bring.
Sure, we could rail against the pink covers strewn with shapely body parts. We could march ourselves into Borders or Barnes & Noble, yank our paperbacks off the "Beach Read" table and park them proudly under "Literature." We could whine about the lack of reviews and respect and how it's always the boys who get taken seriously. Lord knows I've done my share of railing and whining and the rest of it (except for moving books off the beach read table...I'm indignant, not stupid).
But what good is being taken seriously when nobody's reading your stuff?
Does Jong really think that we poor ghetto girls should protest the pink and the legs, the shoes and the purses, to eschew the pretty pastels, to hide our candy and and dress in the publishing equivalent of sackcloth and ashes so that we can be just like the boys -- respected, but not read?
It's more than a little odd to see Jong hoisting this particular banner, given that it's her peers who've been the quickest to use the term chick lit as a perjorative, to put younger writers in their place, to dismiss their work as silly fluff and suggest that their readers should be engaging with more meaningful texts (said texts typically written by them, or their peers)....
Jong faults my peers' diminished expectations. I give them credit for healthy pragmatism. She sees a bunch of meek, weak sisters, too cowed to make a fuss over what our books get called and where they get shelved. I see something sly and subversive -- a genre that's going to profit in the long run by being beneath the notice of the critics, where women's work always seems to land, and where it almost always seems to flourish.
Lots of good food for thought there, no? I love Barbara's explanation--
Jong, who has written for the feminist edge for many years, exploring the life of a woman of her particular generation is an expert (and celebrated) in another world. She has traditionally written a lot about a non-domestic life and the freedom of women to explore sexual and creative choices, and because of her generation, she still aspires for recognition from the Old Boys, even as she has disdained it. Considering the context she was given to work with, an understandable position. Weiner is part of a younger generation of women writers who are less concerned--maybe not at all concerned--with the opinion of the Old Boys, but would like respect from the Old Girls. (Who have been particularly brutal about Chick Lit for reasons I never quite understand. It's a perfectly legitimate subject matter for a novel: the trials and tribulations of a young woman trying on hats until she finds the life path she is meant to follow. Some of it is flawed, of course, but so is a lot of everything else.)
I also love this quote from Barbara, who wants writers to stop bashing each other, more or less (she's a very soulful, compassionate person)---
All I ask of a fellow writer is a passion for getting his or her own truth on the page in a form that most perfectly serves the work.
I'm working on it, Barbara. I'm working on it!
Any thoughts?
Cheers and happy writing,
Alyson
What did I like most about the blog? Well, for starters, I loved Weiner's comment. I had read the article by Jong but I hadn't read Weiner's response.
Jong writes--
Critics have trouble taking fiction by women seriously unless they represent some distant political struggle or chic ethnicity (Arundhati Roy, Nadine Gordimer and Kiran Desai come to mind). Of course, there are exceptions, like Annie Proulx and Andrea Barrett. But they tend to write about "male" subjects: ships, cowboys, accordions.....deep down, the same old prejudice prevails. War matters; love does not. Women are destined to be undervalued as long as we write about love. To be generous, let's say the prejudice is unconscious. If Jane Austen were writing today, she'd probably meet the same fate and wind up in the chick lit section. Charlotte Brontë would be in romance, along with her sister Emily.
Weiner replied at her blog--
Jong raises some good points, but I'm not sure she's seeing the whole picture -- or the benefits of what critical legitimacy would bring.
Sure, we could rail against the pink covers strewn with shapely body parts. We could march ourselves into Borders or Barnes & Noble, yank our paperbacks off the "Beach Read" table and park them proudly under "Literature." We could whine about the lack of reviews and respect and how it's always the boys who get taken seriously. Lord knows I've done my share of railing and whining and the rest of it (except for moving books off the beach read table...I'm indignant, not stupid).
But what good is being taken seriously when nobody's reading your stuff?
Does Jong really think that we poor ghetto girls should protest the pink and the legs, the shoes and the purses, to eschew the pretty pastels, to hide our candy and and dress in the publishing equivalent of sackcloth and ashes so that we can be just like the boys -- respected, but not read?
It's more than a little odd to see Jong hoisting this particular banner, given that it's her peers who've been the quickest to use the term chick lit as a perjorative, to put younger writers in their place, to dismiss their work as silly fluff and suggest that their readers should be engaging with more meaningful texts (said texts typically written by them, or their peers)....
Jong faults my peers' diminished expectations. I give them credit for healthy pragmatism. She sees a bunch of meek, weak sisters, too cowed to make a fuss over what our books get called and where they get shelved. I see something sly and subversive -- a genre that's going to profit in the long run by being beneath the notice of the critics, where women's work always seems to land, and where it almost always seems to flourish.
Lots of good food for thought there, no? I love Barbara's explanation--
Jong, who has written for the feminist edge for many years, exploring the life of a woman of her particular generation is an expert (and celebrated) in another world. She has traditionally written a lot about a non-domestic life and the freedom of women to explore sexual and creative choices, and because of her generation, she still aspires for recognition from the Old Boys, even as she has disdained it. Considering the context she was given to work with, an understandable position. Weiner is part of a younger generation of women writers who are less concerned--maybe not at all concerned--with the opinion of the Old Boys, but would like respect from the Old Girls. (Who have been particularly brutal about Chick Lit for reasons I never quite understand. It's a perfectly legitimate subject matter for a novel: the trials and tribulations of a young woman trying on hats until she finds the life path she is meant to follow. Some of it is flawed, of course, but so is a lot of everything else.)
I also love this quote from Barbara, who wants writers to stop bashing each other, more or less (she's a very soulful, compassionate person)---
All I ask of a fellow writer is a passion for getting his or her own truth on the page in a form that most perfectly serves the work.
I'm working on it, Barbara. I'm working on it!
Any thoughts?
Cheers and happy writing,
Alyson
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Summer Reading
I just got back from a weekend at the cottage in Harbert, Michigan-- lake and lake house country! I love it there. My great grandparents built the lake house in a heavily wooded area a half-mile from the beach back in 1929, right before the stock market crashed. My great grandfather died shortly thereafter and my grandmother worked her butt off to hold on to a house and apartment building in Chicago and the cottage in Harbert, while also caring for her bedridden mother. Quite a feat. Thankfully, she had some help from my grandfather, a painter from Sweden. They eventually married, of course, and my mom spent every summer hanging out in Michigan. We didn't spend the entire summer there, when I was growing up, because my uncle and mom split the time between them but we spent a week in June, the week of 4th of July and the three weeks before school started there.
You 'd think we'd be boat people, but we aren't. Boats always required too much maintenance and money. I was a teacher's kid. My parents were frugal. So, we were beach people-- and I still am. Nothing beats hanging out at the beach. Beach people float on air mattresses, anchor a diving raft just past the sand bar, play frisbee, walk down to the dunes and climb them, build sand castles, collect seashells, get very tan and read, read, read.
Hanging out at the cottage this weekend got me started on my summer reading list. It's that time of the year, no? Summer Reading lists are busting out all over:) Macy actually posted on summer reading before she left for London. Check that out along with the following--
I started my summer reading list this weekend with Lost and Found by Jacqueline Sheehan. I inhaled it. If you love dogs, read it! Other books on my summer reading list include--
Life's a Beach by Claire Cook
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Julia's Chocolates by Cathy Lamb
Possession by A.S. Byatt
Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos
Evening by Susan Minot
A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Devereaux
Sea Swept, Rising Tides, Inner Harbor and Chesapeake Blue by Nora Roberts
Bewitching by Jill Barnett
The Accidental Witch Trilogy by Annette Blair
Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich
Not Quite a Lady by Loretta Chase
The Department of Lost and Found by Allison Winn Scott
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion & Daring by Richard Preston
That looks pretty good for starters. A couple are rereads. A lot are fun and light. A couple are research for the two novels I'm working on. A couple are supposed to be brilliant. A couple are non fiction. One has beach in the title. It's a good mix. And I'm sure it will change a bit as the summer progresses. In the mean time, what's on your reading list and why? AND what do you think makes a good beach or summer read? I love recs and suggestions (hint, hint.)
Cheers and happy reading,
Alyson
You 'd think we'd be boat people, but we aren't. Boats always required too much maintenance and money. I was a teacher's kid. My parents were frugal. So, we were beach people-- and I still am. Nothing beats hanging out at the beach. Beach people float on air mattresses, anchor a diving raft just past the sand bar, play frisbee, walk down to the dunes and climb them, build sand castles, collect seashells, get very tan and read, read, read.
Hanging out at the cottage this weekend got me started on my summer reading list. It's that time of the year, no? Summer Reading lists are busting out all over:) Macy actually posted on summer reading before she left for London. Check that out along with the following--
- Fave authors tell us what books they have in their beach bags at USA Today.
- The NY times claims, "Summer reading has more to do with charmed lives, blue skies and location, location, location."
- NPR's summer reading list
- A great summer reading list from a A Gaggle of Book Reviews
- Greenopia's favorite "green" reads
- Rebecca Blood's round up of summer reading lists
I started my summer reading list this weekend with Lost and Found by Jacqueline Sheehan. I inhaled it. If you love dogs, read it! Other books on my summer reading list include--
Life's a Beach by Claire Cook
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Julia's Chocolates by Cathy Lamb
Possession by A.S. Byatt
Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos
Evening by Susan Minot
A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Devereaux
Sea Swept, Rising Tides, Inner Harbor and Chesapeake Blue by Nora Roberts
Bewitching by Jill Barnett
The Accidental Witch Trilogy by Annette Blair
Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich
Not Quite a Lady by Loretta Chase
The Department of Lost and Found by Allison Winn Scott
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion & Daring by Richard Preston
That looks pretty good for starters. A couple are rereads. A lot are fun and light. A couple are research for the two novels I'm working on. A couple are supposed to be brilliant. A couple are non fiction. One has beach in the title. It's a good mix. And I'm sure it will change a bit as the summer progresses. In the mean time, what's on your reading list and why? AND what do you think makes a good beach or summer read? I love recs and suggestions (hint, hint.)
Cheers and happy reading,
Alyson
Friday, June 1, 2007
Thought for Thursday . . . on Friday
At my Alys on Love blog, I started doing a thought for Thursday a couple weeks. ago. Since Macy's out of the country, and I'll be gone all weekend, I decided to put long one up here. Here's some food for thought from the amazing Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love. You can also read it at this link--
Isn't that inspirational? I, of course, wasn't as deliberate in setting up my own training program to become a writer, but I do think that's what I did. I traveled, worked a zillion different jobs, partied, observed people, pondered life and the human predicament, explored love and limits. The only way my life will make any sense at all is if, in the end, I can say, I'm an artist, a writer. I love that she was thinking This Sucks throughout the writing of Eat, Pray, Love-- an amazing book that will be adapted into a film. I love what she says about commitment and devotion, doing it for the love of it, contradictory information, and about it never being too late. Oh, and I totally cracked up about discipline being overrated. Thank God, because I can't manage to do the daily word count thingy to save my life. I change goals and processes hourly!
This passage, in particular, spoke to me--
"It’s not the world’s fault that you want to be an artist…now get back to work.” Always, at the end of the day, the important thing is only and always that: Get back to work. This is a path for the courageous and the faithful. You must find another reason to work, other than the desire for success or recognition. It must come from another place.
I also could relate to this-- I never promised the universe that I would write brilliantly; I only promised the universe that I would write. So I put my head down and sweated through it, as per my vows.
It's definitely a calling.
Cheers and happy writing,
Alyson
Sometimes people ask me for help or suggestions about how to write, or how to get published. Keeping in mind that this is all very ephemeral and personal, I will try to explain here everything that I believe about writing. I hope it is useful. It's all I know.
I believe that – if you are serious about a life of writing, or indeed about any creative form of expression – that you should take on this work like a holy calling. I became a writer the way other people become monks or nuns. I made a vow to writing, very young. I became Bride-of-Writing. I was writing’s most devotional handmaiden. I built my entire life around writing. I didn’t know how else to do this. I didn’t know anyone who had ever become a writer. I had no, as they say, connections. I had no clues. I just began.
I took a few writing classes when I was at NYU, but, aside from an excellent workshop taught by Helen Schulman, I found that I didn’t really want to be practicing this work in a classroom. I wasn’t convinced that a workshop full of 13 other young writers trying to find their voices was the best place for me to find my voice. So I wrote on my own, as well. I showed my work to friends and family whose opinions I trusted. I was always writing, always showing. After I graduated from NYU, I decided not to pursue an MFA in creative writing. Instead, I created my own post-graduate writing program, which entailed several years spent traveling around the country and world, taking jobs at bars and restaurants and ranches, listening to how people spoke, collecting experiences and writing constantly. My life probably looked disordered to observers (not that anyone was observing it that closely) but my travels were a very deliberate effort to learn as much as I could about life, expressly so that I could write about it.
Back around the age of 19, I had started sending my short stories out for publication. My goal was to publish something (anything, anywhere) before I died. I collected only massive piles of rejection notes for years. I cannot explain exactly why I had the confidence to be sending off my short stories at the age of 19 to, say, The New Yorker, or why it did not destroy me when I was inevitably rejected. I sort of figured I’d be rejected. But I also thought: “Hey – somebody has to write all those stories: why not me?” I didn’t love being rejected, but my expectations were low and my patience was high. (Again – the goal was to get published before death. And I was young and healthy.) It has never been easy for me to understand why people work so hard to create something beautiful, but then refuse to share it with anyone, for fear of criticism. Wasn’t that the point of the creation – to communicate something to the world? So PUT IT OUT THERE. Send your work off to editors and agents as much as possible, show it to your neighbors, plaster it on the walls of the bus stops – just don’t sit on your work and suffocate it. At least try. And when the powers-that-be send you back your manuscript (and they will), take a deep breath and try again. I often hear people say, “I’m not good enough yet to be published.” That’s quite possible. Probable, even. All I’m saying is: Let someone else decide that. Magazines, editors, agents – they all employ young people making $22,000 a year whose job it is to read through piles of manuscripts and send you back letters telling you that you aren’t good enough yet: LET THEM DO IT. Don’t pre-reject yourself. That’s their job, not yours. Your job is only to write your heart out, and let destiny take care of the rest.
As for discipline – it’s important, but sort of over-rated. The more important virtue for a writer, I believe, is self-forgiveness. Because your writing will always disappoint you. Your laziness will always disappoint you. You will make vows: “I’m going to write for an hour every day,” and then you won’t do it. You will think: “I suck, I’m such a failure. I’m washed-up.” Continuing to write after that heartache of disappointment doesn’t take only discipline, but also self-forgiveness (which comes from a place of kind and encouraging and motherly love). The other thing to realize is that all writers think they suck. When I was writing “Eat, Pray, Love”, I had just as a strong a mantra of THIS SUCKS ringing through my head as anyone does when they write anything. But I had a clarion moment of truth during the process of that book. One day, when I was agonizing over how utterly bad my writing felt, I realized: “That’s actually not my problem.” The point I realized was this – I never promised the universe that I would write brilliantly; I only promised the universe that I would write. So I put my head down and sweated through it, as per my vows.
I have a friend who’s an Italian filmmaker of great artistic sensibility. After years of struggling to get his films made, he sent an anguished letter to his hero, the brilliant (and perhaps half-insane) German filmmaker Werner Herzog. My friend complained about how difficult it is these days to be an independent filmmaker, how hard it is to find government arts grants, how the audiences have all been ruined by Hollywood and how the world has lost its taste…etc, etc. Herzog wrote back a personal letter to my friend that essentially ran along these lines: “Quit your complaining. It’s not the world’s fault that you wanted to be an artist. It’s not the world’s job to enjoy the films you make, and it’s certainly not the world’s obligation to pay for your dreams. Nobody wants to hear it. Steal a camera if you have to, but stop whining and get back to work.” I repeat those words back to myself whenever I start to feel resentful, entitled, competitive or unappreciated with regard to my writing: “It’s not the world’s fault that you want to be an artist…now get back to work.” Always, at the end of the day, the important thing is only and always that: Get back to work. This is a path for the courageous and the faithful. You must find another reason to work, other than the desire for success or recognition. It must come from another place.
Here’s another thing to consider. If you always wanted to write, and now you are A Certain Age, and you never got around to it, and you think it’s too late…do please think again. I watched Julia Glass win the National Book Award for her first novel, “The Three Junes”, which she began writing in her late 30’s. I listened to her give her moving acceptance speech, in which she told how she used to lie awake at night, tormented as she worked on her book, asking herself, “Who do you think you are, trying to write a first novel at your age?” But she wrote it. And as she held up her National Book Award, she said, “This is for all the late-bloomers in the world.” Writing is not like dancing or modeling; it’s not something where – if you missed it by age 19 – you’re finished. It’s never too late. Your writing will only get better as you get older and wiser. If you write something beautiful and important, and the right person somehow discovers it, they will clear room for you on the bookshelves of the world – at any age. At least try.
There are heaps of books out there on How To Get Published. Often people find the information in these books contradictory. My feeling is -- of COURSE the information is contradictory. Because, frankly, nobody knows anything. Nobody can tell you how to succeed at writing (even if they write a book called “How To Succeed At Writing”) because there is no WAY; there are, instead, many ways. Everyone I know who managed to become a writer did it differently – sometimes radically differently. Try all the ways, I guess. Becoming a published writer is sort of like trying to find a cheap apartment in New York City: it’s impossible. And yet…every single day, somebody manages to find a cheap apartment in New York City. I can’t tell you how to do it. I’m still not even entirely sure how I did it. I can only tell you – through my own example – that it can be done. I once found a cheap apartment in Manhattan. And I also became a writer.
Isn't that inspirational? I, of course, wasn't as deliberate in setting up my own training program to become a writer, but I do think that's what I did. I traveled, worked a zillion different jobs, partied, observed people, pondered life and the human predicament, explored love and limits. The only way my life will make any sense at all is if, in the end, I can say, I'm an artist, a writer. I love that she was thinking This Sucks throughout the writing of Eat, Pray, Love-- an amazing book that will be adapted into a film. I love what she says about commitment and devotion, doing it for the love of it, contradictory information, and about it never being too late. Oh, and I totally cracked up about discipline being overrated. Thank God, because I can't manage to do the daily word count thingy to save my life. I change goals and processes hourly!
This passage, in particular, spoke to me--
"It’s not the world’s fault that you want to be an artist…now get back to work.” Always, at the end of the day, the important thing is only and always that: Get back to work. This is a path for the courageous and the faithful. You must find another reason to work, other than the desire for success or recognition. It must come from another place.
I also could relate to this-- I never promised the universe that I would write brilliantly; I only promised the universe that I would write. So I put my head down and sweated through it, as per my vows.
It's definitely a calling.
Cheers and happy writing,
Alyson
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