What a journey this project turned into. While SHD was in the process of being published I began writing WTGIB, so peg it at about seven years. I needed to know the circumstances of the loyal Quakers and their overland journeys to Niagara, and finally had to accept that, in the words of the UEL records, a key book that may have contained such details was likely burned in 1813. So I had to make it up, which isn't as much fun as it might sound, not when one is taking pains to keep it all historically accurate.
I pictured the story arc beginning in the 17th century, with the martyrdom of French priests, then going to 1759 and the siege of Fort Niagara, and then to the actual storyline of loyal Quakers in 1789, and finishing today, with my two Tuscarorans - my favorite characters. I took the first chapter to Vermont and Ellen Lesser patiently explained why I should keep the story 'organic', i.e. stick with the actual story line and end it then.
So I ignored her suggestion and wrote a 150K word novel that nobody, but nobody wanted to read. I went back and chopped up the siege of the fort and tucked it into the Quaker's story, which made sense then. And last year I decided to follow Ellen's advice and sacrifice my two favorite characters... so now I've got a reasonbly tidy $72K word historical novel. I'm still missing Diane Printup and Chris Green, my Tuscaroran lovers...
All I need is a publisher(!)
Monday, March 8, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Assassination of Jessse James by the Coward Robert Ford and other westerns
Ron Hansen wrote this novel, dosed with much fact, in 1991. It was put on the screen a year ago, a point worth noting for those writers dreaming of movie deals. The book has a conversation with the author, and he relates that the movie producer picked up a used copy of the novel in Australia. I'm also reminded of the poet whose book was picked up in a 2nd hand shop by Sheryl Crow, for her first hit. Anyway, Casey Affleck got an Oscar nomination for playing Robert Ford (Brad Pitt playing fellow Missourian Jesse James was ignored by Oscar - I think he's got Cruise-itis).
Original point - many times I've enjoyed a movie for which a book was previously written, and I can't recall ever going back to read the novel. Most agonizing example: Last of the Mohicans. Loved the film. Loved it. Went back to the book. Couldn't get past page three... that 18th century writing style was torture.
Hansen's book of course tells more story than the movie showed (picture=thousand words notwitstanding). I learned that Bob's brother Charley took his own life, a downer that didn't reach the big screen. By way of almost misleading the viewer, Bob Ford's killer is protrayed as a crazed looney seeking fame, which is part of how Ford explained killing Jesse, ie for the fame, expecting applause. In fact the looney was a local with whom Bob was feuding.
I previously read 'Desperadoes' by Hansen, his chronicling of the Dalton gang that met its end in Coffeyville, KS.
Does this mean I've aged just enough to be my father? Loving westerns? Perhaps. But for those who dread such a comparison, consider this: two winters ago I took my then-favorite film, The Proposition, home for my parents to watch. Set in turn of the 20th century Australia, starring Guy Pearce and Danny Huston and Ray Winstone, I found it masterful and poetic. My parents politely waited for the final credits to finish before getting up and scramming... I suspect westerns are changing.
As it happens, over Xmas I saw 'The Road', McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel, a departure from oaters. In lieu of horse, father and son push a shopping cart. Sad story, sad movie. I don't think the flick lost much moving from the book, which I'd read several months prior.
Original point - many times I've enjoyed a movie for which a book was previously written, and I can't recall ever going back to read the novel. Most agonizing example: Last of the Mohicans. Loved the film. Loved it. Went back to the book. Couldn't get past page three... that 18th century writing style was torture.
Hansen's book of course tells more story than the movie showed (picture=thousand words notwitstanding). I learned that Bob's brother Charley took his own life, a downer that didn't reach the big screen. By way of almost misleading the viewer, Bob Ford's killer is protrayed as a crazed looney seeking fame, which is part of how Ford explained killing Jesse, ie for the fame, expecting applause. In fact the looney was a local with whom Bob was feuding.
I previously read 'Desperadoes' by Hansen, his chronicling of the Dalton gang that met its end in Coffeyville, KS.
Does this mean I've aged just enough to be my father? Loving westerns? Perhaps. But for those who dread such a comparison, consider this: two winters ago I took my then-favorite film, The Proposition, home for my parents to watch. Set in turn of the 20th century Australia, starring Guy Pearce and Danny Huston and Ray Winstone, I found it masterful and poetic. My parents politely waited for the final credits to finish before getting up and scramming... I suspect westerns are changing.
As it happens, over Xmas I saw 'The Road', McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel, a departure from oaters. In lieu of horse, father and son push a shopping cart. Sad story, sad movie. I don't think the flick lost much moving from the book, which I'd read several months prior.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Writing Camp
Writing Camp is my name for writing workshops/conferences. Years ago, when I attended my first, I was unsure what the reaction of non-writing people might be to 'I'm attending a writing conference'. What reaction did I fear? The same one gets if admitting in public to being a writer. "What have you written?" And if your work isn't immediately recognizable you feel obscure, unknown, a charlatan, i.e. anyone can claim to be a writer.
So writing camp became an amusing, disarming way to say 'I'm going off for four days to eat, drink and sit in rooms with other people who write. We'll have a nominal leader who teaches for a living and is therefore qualified to lead us.'
What does one encounter at these gatherings? Other writers, of course, and they run the range of newbies, weary veterans, the published and the unpublished. I have to confess one rarely meets writers who are publickly known - the workshop leader and I walked down a street in Montpelier without a single starstruck fan asking him for an autograph. I never met at a workshop Michael Crichton, Stephen King, or other writer I knew of from my regular life. The writers who teach at these gatherings are usually teachers in writing programs in colleges and they have a few publications to their name, but you'll need to explore Amazon to find them. So you aren't being taught by a famous writer - which is for the best, as some famous writers probably can't teach.
Past writing camps: Rappahannock Fiction Writing Workshop, in Virginia, catering strictly to fictional prose - attended 3 years. No poetry, no nonfiction. Sadly, this workshop had its last gathering in August, 2001.
Colgate Writing Conference, at the college in upstate New York - attended once, left early.
Vermont PostGraduate Writing workshop in Montpelier, VT. I've attended three times and plan to return this year. They offer workshops in fiction (short story, novel), non-fiction, translations, and lots of poetry.
Are you better than me?
For writing workshops, you submit your writing and you will receive copies of the other attendees' works. So before the gathering, you've already read their work, and they yours. And as part of the workshop everyone is reviewed by everyone else (And if it's a five day workshop and you learn on the first day that you are 'up' on Day Five that can make for a long workshop). And because life is short and these workshops aren't free, you begin to rank yourself compared to others. You don't want to find yourself out front, you won't learn anything that way. I'm happiest when my work doesn't look shabby next to the other material. I feel humbled and a little dismayed when someone presents a polished story - when you say (maybe just to yourself) 'I wish I'd written that'; it's the highest compliment I think a writer can give. I've read through those photocopies and said, "this one isn't bad"... "this one has good spots but seems to be missing something" and I confess to once reading an attendee's work and suspecting the workshop was letting in some sub-par writers to pay the bills. Ironically, that writer promoted himself as published to boot... I have no doubt he was.
I've seen one attendee leave early when she was called from home to say an agent had called... that's the best way to leave a workshop, with everyone else's tongues hanging out.
I applied once to Bread Loaf and was rejected. Everyone should apply once... The reason I like Vermont is its closeness, and now I know some of the people. I just wish it was cheaper, though they have a culinary school on site and 2 out of 3 years the food has been great.
But I've left for last the best part of these workshops, why I keep returning: being exposed to other work and other writers is so revitalizing! This is something you can't get reading someone's work on craft, or in any other way. (I also get a mild charge out of leaving copies of my novel in the bookstore - though last time it was just for an airing out, none sold(!))
You may arrive utterly burned out and blocked, but by the end of the workshop you will very likely be working on something new or have a better idea how to fix a work in progress. At Vermont, each group reads in a public room to whomever feels like listening (honestly, it's usually just the groups slated to read that day, and those who feel strong about solidarity), and I don't know a better way to ruthlessly edit writing than preparing it for public reading to other writers.
So writing camp became an amusing, disarming way to say 'I'm going off for four days to eat, drink and sit in rooms with other people who write. We'll have a nominal leader who teaches for a living and is therefore qualified to lead us.'
What does one encounter at these gatherings? Other writers, of course, and they run the range of newbies, weary veterans, the published and the unpublished. I have to confess one rarely meets writers who are publickly known - the workshop leader and I walked down a street in Montpelier without a single starstruck fan asking him for an autograph. I never met at a workshop Michael Crichton, Stephen King, or other writer I knew of from my regular life. The writers who teach at these gatherings are usually teachers in writing programs in colleges and they have a few publications to their name, but you'll need to explore Amazon to find them. So you aren't being taught by a famous writer - which is for the best, as some famous writers probably can't teach.
Past writing camps: Rappahannock Fiction Writing Workshop, in Virginia, catering strictly to fictional prose - attended 3 years. No poetry, no nonfiction. Sadly, this workshop had its last gathering in August, 2001.
Colgate Writing Conference, at the college in upstate New York - attended once, left early.
Vermont PostGraduate Writing workshop in Montpelier, VT. I've attended three times and plan to return this year. They offer workshops in fiction (short story, novel), non-fiction, translations, and lots of poetry.
Are you better than me?
For writing workshops, you submit your writing and you will receive copies of the other attendees' works. So before the gathering, you've already read their work, and they yours. And as part of the workshop everyone is reviewed by everyone else (And if it's a five day workshop and you learn on the first day that you are 'up' on Day Five that can make for a long workshop). And because life is short and these workshops aren't free, you begin to rank yourself compared to others. You don't want to find yourself out front, you won't learn anything that way. I'm happiest when my work doesn't look shabby next to the other material. I feel humbled and a little dismayed when someone presents a polished story - when you say (maybe just to yourself) 'I wish I'd written that'; it's the highest compliment I think a writer can give. I've read through those photocopies and said, "this one isn't bad"... "this one has good spots but seems to be missing something" and I confess to once reading an attendee's work and suspecting the workshop was letting in some sub-par writers to pay the bills. Ironically, that writer promoted himself as published to boot... I have no doubt he was.
I've seen one attendee leave early when she was called from home to say an agent had called... that's the best way to leave a workshop, with everyone else's tongues hanging out.
I applied once to Bread Loaf and was rejected. Everyone should apply once... The reason I like Vermont is its closeness, and now I know some of the people. I just wish it was cheaper, though they have a culinary school on site and 2 out of 3 years the food has been great.
But I've left for last the best part of these workshops, why I keep returning: being exposed to other work and other writers is so revitalizing! This is something you can't get reading someone's work on craft, or in any other way. (I also get a mild charge out of leaving copies of my novel in the bookstore - though last time it was just for an airing out, none sold(!))
You may arrive utterly burned out and blocked, but by the end of the workshop you will very likely be working on something new or have a better idea how to fix a work in progress. At Vermont, each group reads in a public room to whomever feels like listening (honestly, it's usually just the groups slated to read that day, and those who feel strong about solidarity), and I don't know a better way to ruthlessly edit writing than preparing it for public reading to other writers.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Kindle...again.
As a sort of birthday gift for my wife and anniversary present for both of us, I bought the latest Kindle last June. This is the 8x11 page sucker. It looks like a full sized notebook, compared to the original Kindle which looks like a PDA on steroids.
As I say, I bought it in late June. My wife has downloaded a lot of novel excerpts and one novel. I downloaded the memoirs of U.S. Grant because it was public domain (99 cents) and I'd read it was one of the more readable presidential memoirs. I can say that Grant did not load up the narrative with dense vocabulary, and if I only had the Kindle next to me in the room where I park at night and watch TV, I might have finished the memoir. I also ordered the New Yorker via Kindle. It does an adequate job with the cover (it's a WSJ type display, no colors) and okay with the cartoons. I admit the learning curve on navigating the TOC is steeper than I'd expected (again, if I were using it more frequently this would probably be a nonissue), but the bottom line with the Kindle is that I don't pick it up as often as I'd thought.
It's not too heavy, and the display isn't bad. It's certainly portable enough - yes, I've read it on the hopper. It's not at all hard to back up a page on the Kindle, the response time is probably faster than the time it takes me to flip through print pages... why is it so hard to say this? I like books.
In part my slow adoption of the Kindle is that many of the books I want to read are not yet available electronically. I most often purchase used books by authors I've discovered (whose titles may be ten or more years old) and these titles have not been set up for Kindles. I spend more on shipping than on the books.
So in ten years, if titles are retrospectively set up for the Kindle, I may be carrying a battered electronic reader around...maybe. By comparison I was hopelessly addicted to my first Ipod within three months... and I now watch more flicks via Netflix download than DVD, so I'm not the slowest of adopters.
I wonder which is the greatest burden on the environment, print books or the energy required to run a Kindle? I haven't seen any statistics I trust either way...
As I say, I bought it in late June. My wife has downloaded a lot of novel excerpts and one novel. I downloaded the memoirs of U.S. Grant because it was public domain (99 cents) and I'd read it was one of the more readable presidential memoirs. I can say that Grant did not load up the narrative with dense vocabulary, and if I only had the Kindle next to me in the room where I park at night and watch TV, I might have finished the memoir. I also ordered the New Yorker via Kindle. It does an adequate job with the cover (it's a WSJ type display, no colors) and okay with the cartoons. I admit the learning curve on navigating the TOC is steeper than I'd expected (again, if I were using it more frequently this would probably be a nonissue), but the bottom line with the Kindle is that I don't pick it up as often as I'd thought.
It's not too heavy, and the display isn't bad. It's certainly portable enough - yes, I've read it on the hopper. It's not at all hard to back up a page on the Kindle, the response time is probably faster than the time it takes me to flip through print pages... why is it so hard to say this? I like books.
In part my slow adoption of the Kindle is that many of the books I want to read are not yet available electronically. I most often purchase used books by authors I've discovered (whose titles may be ten or more years old) and these titles have not been set up for Kindles. I spend more on shipping than on the books.
So in ten years, if titles are retrospectively set up for the Kindle, I may be carrying a battered electronic reader around...maybe. By comparison I was hopelessly addicted to my first Ipod within three months... and I now watch more flicks via Netflix download than DVD, so I'm not the slowest of adopters.
I wonder which is the greatest burden on the environment, print books or the energy required to run a Kindle? I haven't seen any statistics I trust either way...
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Friends of the editors - 1 year anniversary
You may have noticed in earlier postings I announce the web site friend Denise and I have to publish people (including ourselves); friends of the editors has been limping along for about a year now.
We haven't been deluged in submissions, and that's largely because we've been hesitant to promote it. We did get a shout-out from Grub Street, and got a few excellent submissions from that.
We do things a little differently on FOTE. We do decline material, but usually we give detailed reasons, and in one case, I reverted back to my days as a comp instructor and did a line-by-line edit. I presume others do this as well, but I've never had a rejection that wasn't a form.
So...I've finished a draft of 'Mud Season', the zombie novel, but now I'm rewriting it, going from a third person POV to first person. Periodically I remind myself that I have more fun writing than publishing. Less rejection, more creative....
So consider sending a short piece to www.friendsoftheeditors.com. We do fiction, nonfiction and poetry.
We haven't been deluged in submissions, and that's largely because we've been hesitant to promote it. We did get a shout-out from Grub Street, and got a few excellent submissions from that.
We do things a little differently on FOTE. We do decline material, but usually we give detailed reasons, and in one case, I reverted back to my days as a comp instructor and did a line-by-line edit. I presume others do this as well, but I've never had a rejection that wasn't a form.
So...I've finished a draft of 'Mud Season', the zombie novel, but now I'm rewriting it, going from a third person POV to first person. Periodically I remind myself that I have more fun writing than publishing. Less rejection, more creative....
So consider sending a short piece to www.friendsoftheeditors.com. We do fiction, nonfiction and poetry.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Janet Reid... I'm sorry
Confessions of a Query Shark follower. I've twice submitted a query to Janet Reid's skewerous Query Shark for 'Where the gold is buried', and the first time I got bounced because I was too ordinary a screwup - I had failed to absorb the wisdom to be found in the wreckage postings.
Second time I thought I had a better handle on what an agent might want, but I kept overlooking a key issue - my novel in its original length ran 150K words. See, I got spoiled because Stone House Diaries, published by a hobby publisher, was wonderfully indifferent to length. (They did say I didn't need to add any more). Back on my butt on the sidewalk, I think in terms of those craft workshops who preach 'write the story, don't worry about the length' but now I know size matters.
So I still follow Query Shark, reading others' queries and I think I'm learning to query - and the new draft is just 78K words (easy to cut, once you shoot off the first limb), but I still don't make the acknowledgement cut. Sigh.
Second time I thought I had a better handle on what an agent might want, but I kept overlooking a key issue - my novel in its original length ran 150K words. See, I got spoiled because Stone House Diaries, published by a hobby publisher, was wonderfully indifferent to length. (They did say I didn't need to add any more). Back on my butt on the sidewalk, I think in terms of those craft workshops who preach 'write the story, don't worry about the length' but now I know size matters.
So I still follow Query Shark, reading others' queries and I think I'm learning to query - and the new draft is just 78K words (easy to cut, once you shoot off the first limb), but I still don't make the acknowledgement cut. Sigh.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Blood Meridian
About a year ago I started reading Cormac MacCarthy, and starting with Blood Meridian is not unlike experimenting with drugs by starting with a mix of crack and oxycontin. The Road, All The Pretty Horses, I suspect would have been gentler introductions to MacCarthy. When I finished BM the first time I felt like I'd just run through a thrill ride, been blinded by the show and emerged into light, wondering where the hell I'd been, not unlike my first viewing of Apocalypse Now in sensurround in a Toronto theatre in 1979... (three hour version ending with the bombing of Kurtz's camp, without the interminable visit to the French plantation, they handed out pamphlets listing the screen credits. Phew.)
I have a list of books I swear I'm going to reread, but this one I did. I'm about halfway through it and it's like I only skimmed it the first time. And here's the reason I'm writing about it: I already know I'm not the best writer around, but other stories usually inspire me to work harder, or perhaps they just make me jealous because I feel I'm as good as they are but they caught the right ears, had the right contacts, etc.. Grapes of Wrath inspired me, that is it suggested a path I thought I could emulate - I'm not Steinbeck, but I thought someday I could write like him. Mind you, I've read more than a few writers who don't inspire me in the least (Dan Brown?).
Perhaps it's because this is a historical novel, which is my chosen milieu. All the Pretty Horses was less compelling, The Road was just a tour de force of sorts, but with Blood Meridian I'll never approach this level of detail and intensity, and I feel no shame admitting that.
Now, back to jealousy and loathing and all the other good writing motivations...
I have a list of books I swear I'm going to reread, but this one I did. I'm about halfway through it and it's like I only skimmed it the first time. And here's the reason I'm writing about it: I already know I'm not the best writer around, but other stories usually inspire me to work harder, or perhaps they just make me jealous because I feel I'm as good as they are but they caught the right ears, had the right contacts, etc.. Grapes of Wrath inspired me, that is it suggested a path I thought I could emulate - I'm not Steinbeck, but I thought someday I could write like him. Mind you, I've read more than a few writers who don't inspire me in the least (Dan Brown?).
Perhaps it's because this is a historical novel, which is my chosen milieu. All the Pretty Horses was less compelling, The Road was just a tour de force of sorts, but with Blood Meridian I'll never approach this level of detail and intensity, and I feel no shame admitting that.
Now, back to jealousy and loathing and all the other good writing motivations...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
