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  • Writing Prompt #26

    In view of my glorious success in two new recipes this weekend (if you’re curious, they were Maple White Chocolate Cookies and Creamy Avocado Quinoa Salad), today’s writing prompt is all about food.

    Food can play an important cultural, emotional, or setting device, so it’s important to know how to work with it. And how not to work with it. Come on, JRR Tolkein, we don’t need pages upon pages describing second breakfast. We get it already…

    Play along in the comments!

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  • And if you still have too many books…

    If after filling your little lending library with books you still have too many, check out this fantastic site: Bookshelf Porn. Some of them are wicked amazing, others mediocre, but here’s a sampling of my favorites that they have pulled.

    And I promise, I’ll get back to the reviews shortly. I’ve been stomping my way through the Kingkiller trilogy while simultaneously trying to juggle roommates.

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  • Got too many books on hand?

    This is a rather adorable way to share your extra books:

    There is a whole organization–Little Free Library–dedicated to putting these little libraries up across the country. They have pre-built ones you can buy, plans to build your own, and maps and galleries of the ones already in place. I could certainly keep mine well stocked, but I wonder if my landlord would dislike it rooted in the front yard…

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  • Writing Prompt #25

    Here’s the next writing prompt! Anyone game to play along?

    An older man with wild white hair and beard sticks his tongue out to the camera

    Who is this old man? Why is he sticking his tongue out at you? Go!

  • How a Book Moves Through the Publishing Industry: An Infographic

    So over at weldonowen.com, they constructed a rather entertaining info-graphic on how a book travels through the publishing process. I got excited for something rather pithy and relevant, but found it really only applies to the non-fiction side of publishing (will still being pithy and relevant). Here is their construct:

    It’s pretty much accurate for my day job, and I especially loved the bubble, “Intern accidentally deletes the entire book while entering edits.” But, since this doesn’t do a fabulous job of discussing how one of my fiction books would go through the system, I decided to make my own:

     

    (Just so you know, the font is Typerwriter Hand from John Grafton)

  • She Who Must Be Obeyed

    She: A History of Adventure is a Victorian era adventure novel by Henry Rider Haggard. It’s not normally something I’d pick up except that if you remember, back in December I read a book called Supergirls wherein this book was talked about as the genesis for the She-Ra type characters, the Amazon women, the wild-woman in comic books. And it sounded interesting enough to pick up.

    I’m sure you all know by now I don’t particularly care for the Victorian style of novel-ing, but this one was an exception. The story couched as a manuscript given to a friend of the narrator’s to publish as he sees fit after their deaths. This manuscript tells the incredible story of a cross-generational/time romance and adventure in Africa of a young man and his mentor. What is boils down to is, the narrator’s adoptive son is the great-great-hellagreat descendant of an Egyptian priest who got caught up in a love triangle way back when and ended up murdered for it. His pregnant wife recorded the details and charged her children with avenging their father. Apparently, it didn’t matter how many generations this took because the woman who killed him out of jealousy would live forever.

    Now, these two brave adventurers think this sounds like a mighty fun adventure, even though they don’t believe they’ll meet this mysterious long-lived woman, and take off for Africa following the various ancestors’ directions on a shard of ancient pot. Needless to say, the woman is real, and believes the young man to be the reincarnation of her dead beloved. THEN things get tricky.

    It’s in the fairly standard Victorian style, overwrought and full of hand-fanning, but it didn’t bother me so much this time because there was none of the gossiping, fainting women, or dressed up dullary that I find pervades most of the literature of that time. The female characters are all incredibly strong, the plot is well constructed, and I’d happily follow these two men onto whatever adventures they wanted to go on next.

    So, if you like a good adventure, strong sexy women, or Victorian literature, I’d say pick this one up and give it a go!

    Title page for She: A History of Adventure

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  • Mother Flash

    Sorry for the delay today! I keep posting prompts I’m unsure how to respond to and then it takes me a while to think up something I’m happy with…
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    Doreen wandered around the small one-bedroom apartment, idly adjusting the tchotchkes to a better arrangement. A better angle on the room, pulling them out from behind each other so someone walking in the front door could see them all. She was waiting for Mrs. Lebowitz to get home from her weekly bingo night, ready to greet her at the door.

    She had always been fond of the old biddy, admired the strength the woman had for living out her life all on her own, both her husband and children having passed already. She had promised Doreen that when she finally passed on, Doreen would get her population voucher. The precious spot on the Earth, fulfilling the maximum population numbers as set down decades before Doreen was born. Her parents had been lucky enough to score two when a childless aunt and uncle passed and so she got to have a brother. But now, all she wanted was a voucher of her own.

    Because she was pregnant again.

    They never could quite figure out how they had gone about it wrong, Doreen and her husband. They followed all the contraceptive laws but somehow they kept getting pregnant. Super fertile or something like that. But she was never allowed to keep the baby. It didn’t matter if you kept the pregnancy secret for months, the state always figured it out and issued a Decrease Population order, which for all the fancy wording in the nation, only meant a state-mandated abortion. They’d even take the life right out of you a week before the due date, if you hid it that long.

    But this time she would have her baby. A little girl, she just knew it. She would have a voucher in hand by the end of the week. Doreen never really wanted it to get this…difficult, but she didn’t see how she had any other choice now. At the last abortion, the doctor had told her she couldn’t suffer through any more or she’d never be able to have children. He’d jokingly handed her the pamphlets on “If your contraceptive isn’t working” and left her bleeding on the table for the nurses to take care of.

    A key rattled in the door and Doreen took one last look around the apartment, at the disarray she had carefully instilled to make it look like a robbery. Then she stepped behind the wall dividing the entryway from the kitchen and fingered the handle of the knife she carried.

    “For my baby,” she whispered.

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  • Writing Prompt #24

    So, today is Mother’s Day, and what better way to celebrate it than with a flash fiction piece about the maternal relationship? Non-fiction, fiction, whatever you feel is…well, whatever won’t get you in trouble with your own mother, that’s for sure. And share it below in the comments!

    A picture of my mother and me...24 and 1/2 years ago.

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  • Harry’s My Man

    After watching Jay O’Callahan perform his newest piece “Main Street, Jonesborough” a couple weeks ago, I decided that I needed to read his novel (which I had not realized he had written until I saw it in his study during the practice-performance of the new oral piece).

    Harry’s Our Man is a quirky story about a history professor named Harry Hutchinson who decides that he wants to run for congress because no one is talking about the big issues: the bomb (can you tell it takes place in the 50’s?), the mental health of their young people, discrimination, etc. And he doesn’t much care if he wins because all he really wants to do is force people to look at these issues for what they really are. I won’t tell you much more except that the election actually takes place towards the middle of the book and the second half is the aftermath.

    I found the presentation of this novel to be interesting because O’Callahan is primarily an oral tradition performer and the language of this novel definitely reflects that. When I stopped expecting the form to match what is more common written conventions, it was more enjoyable to read. Devices that are more common in the oral tradition such as repetition and shorter combinations of sentences felt a bit awkward on the page at first, but only until I got used to seeing them, rather than hearing them.

    But if you like a book that digs a little into politics, but more into the culture of the cold war, then this book would be an excellent read for you. The characters are superbly constructed (as if you could expect anything less from O’Callahan) and the story line is fascinating.

    Cover of Harry's Our Man

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  • I Need to Write Better than I Normally Do

    Do a friend of mine recently posted this article to her facebook and I just had to share it with you here. I adore McSweeney’s; they are absolutely hilarious and always intelligent. That’s a rare combination these days. This particular article by Colin Nissan is about Writing Better than you Normally Do, which I so needed to read right now as I embark on a new edit of my novel, since apparently agents are currently finding my main character hard to sympathize with at the beginning of the novel.

    Anyway, enough about me, see how you can get this to make you write better…

    THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO WRITING BETTER THAN YOU NORMALLY DO.

    BY 

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    WRITE EVERY DAY

    Writing is a muscle. Smaller than a hamstring and slightly bigger than a bicep, and it needs to be exercised to get stronger. Think of your words as reps, your paragraphs as sets, your pages as daily workouts. Think of your laptop as a machine like the one at the gym where you open and close your inner thighs in front of everyone, exposing both your insecurities and your genitals. Because that is what writing is all about.

    DON’T PROCRASTINATE

    Procrastination is an alluring siren taunting you to Google the country where Balki from Perfect Strangers was from, and to arrange sticky notes on your dog in the shape of hilarious dog shorts. A wicked temptress beckoning you to watch your children, and take showers. Well, it’s time to look procrastination in the eye and tell that seafaring wench, “Sorry not today, today I write.”

    FIGHT THROUGH WRITER’S BLOCK

    The blank white page. El Diablo Blanco. El Pollo Loco. Whatever you choose to call it, staring into the abyss in search of an idea can be terrifying. But ask yourself this; was Picasso intimidated by the blank canvas? Was Mozart intimidated by the blank sheet music? Was Edison intimidated by the blank lightbulb? If you’re still blocked up, ask yourself more questions, like; Why did I quit my job at TJ Maxx to write full-time? Can/should I eat this entire box of Apple Jacks? Is The Price is Right on at 10 or 11?

    LEARN FROM THE MASTERS

    Mark Twain once said, “Show, don’t tell.” This is an incredibly important lesson for writers to remember; never get such a giant head that you feel entitled to throw around obscure phrases like “Show, don’t tell.” Thanks for nothing, Mr. Cryptic.

    FIND YOUR MUSE

    Finding a really good muse these days isn’t easy, so plan on going through quite a few before landing on a winner. Beware of muses who promise unrealistic timelines for your projects or who wear wizard clothes. When honing in on a promising new muse, also be on the lookout for other writers attempting to swoop in and muse-block you. Just be patient in your search, because the right muse/human relationship can last a lifetime.

    HONE YOUR CRAFT

    There are two things more difficult than writing. The first is editing, the second is expert level Sudoku where there’s literally two goddamned squares filled in. While editing is a grueling process, if you really work hard at it, in the end you may find that your piece has fewer words than it did before. Which, is great. Perhaps George Bernard Shaw said it best when upon sending a letter to a close friend, he wrote, “I’m sorry this letter is so long, I didn’t have time to make it shorter.” No quote better illustrates the point that writers are very busy.

    ASK FOR FEEDBACK

    It’s so easy to hide in your little bubble, typing your little words with your little fingers on your little laptop from the comfort of your tiny chair in your miniature little house. I’m taking this tone to illustrate the importance of developing a thick skin. Remember, the only kind of criticism that doesn’t make you a better writer is dishonest criticism. That, and someone telling you that you have weird shoulders.

    READ, READ, READ

    It’s no secret that great writers are great readers, and that if you can’t read, your writing will often suffer. Similarly, if you can read but have to move your lips to get through the longer words, you’ll still be a pretty bad writer. Also, if you pronounce “espresso” like “expresso.”

    STUDY THE RULES, THEN BREAK THEM

    Part of finding your own voice as a writer is finding your own grammar. Don’t spend your career lost in a sea of copycats when you can establish your own set of rules. If everyone’s putting periods at the end of their sentences, put yours in the middle of words. Will it be incredibly difficult to read? Yes it will. Will it set you on the path to becoming a literary pioneer? Tough to say, but you’re kind of out of options at this point.

    KEEP IT TOGETHER

    A writer’s brain is full of little gifts, like a piñata at a birthday party. It’s also full of demons, like a piñata at a birthday party in a mental hospital. The truth is, it’s demons that keep a tortured writer’s spirit alive, not Tootsie Rolls. Sure they’ll give you a tiny burst of energy, but they won’t do squat for your writing. So treat your demons with the respect they deserve, and with enough prescriptions to keep you wearing pants.

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